Chapter 96 - A Sudden Horror Show

Gren was feeling happy as he woke up. Almost a week had gone by since the casino incident and things were peaceful. His children were all sleeping next to him along with his wives; the only exception being little Clarissa that was sleeping in a crib because she was too small to be sleeping on a bed. Ruby fell asleep hugging Jasmine. Sasha was cuddled up with Gren's fur coat along with Tahlia, the little girl that was a beast tamer.

The four goblin kids preferred to sleep next to Estella and Jessica but goblin toddlers had a problem which caused them to chew on things in their sleep. His dark green daughter, Esmeralda, was currently trying to eat Jessica's arm. His light green daughter, Chloe, preferred to chew on Jessica's hair. The pitch black daughter was named Cinderella while the pure white son was named Solaire; the two of them both had the same fixation which made Gren wonder if it might be hereditary to like breasts.

Gren was the only person not covered in kids so he got up to check on Clarissa. She was awake but didn't cry out. "There's my adorable little girl." Gren left the usual note in the crib under a magic light so that Jessica didn't panic when she woke up. Gren didn't want her thinking that Clarissa escaped or got abducted.

Clarissa liked to be taken on walks when it was still dark out but only when Gren carried her. She was a daddy's girl already at a young age so Gren was happy. His other children preferred his wives over him or--in the case of Ruby--considered him and Jasmine to be equally as important.

Gren made sure that Clarissa was nice and warm before taking her outside. He had her strapped to his chest staring in front of him so that she could watch him play with magic as they walked around. There were a few shops open at this time of night so Gren liked to browse with Clarissa. If there was something that she hugged then Gren would almost always buy it for her; the only exception being anything that would be too dangerous for her. There were a few things that she seemed fixated on like flowers, herbs, and gems so Gren usually took her to those stalls first but he wanted to check something out first.

Gren didn't think that Clarissa would like the bookstore but it had been a while since he checked to see if they had anything new. "Long time no see." Gren greeted the old lady at the counter but she didn't seem to recognize him. "I was the short kid that came here to buy books from you." Gren mimicked pulling the book from the shelf and placing it on the wall.

She seemed to recognize him since she had a shocked look on her face. "Is that your kid?" That wasn't the part that he expected her to focus on. "That can't be right. You were only a shrimpy kid back then. You really grew up. It must have been because of that Toughen Up book."

"I haven't read that one yet." Was that book supposed to help make him taller? "I was only so short because I didn't have a proper diet back then. I just shot up over the last ten months." It was ten months since he first arrived, right? It was becoming hard to tell. Gren took Clarissa's hand and helped her wave to the old lady. "This is my daughter, Clarissa. We're out on a walk together."

"She looks nothing like you." The old lady looked between Gren and Clarissa to compare the two of them. It was true that she looked mostly like Jessica but she had his eyes. "Probably for the best." He wasn't sure what that comment was supposed to mean.

"You wouldn't happen to have any..." Gren mimicked the sound of wind with his mouth and drew a rectangle with his hands. "... would you?" He still didn't have any basic wind spells to practice with. The old lady shook her head to Gren's disappointment. "I'll just take a look around and see if I can find something I like, in that case."

Gren found a sequel to the Journey of Rumba the Sloth. He still hadn't read the original but was gripped by the title of this new one. "The Death of Rumba the Sloth." Just how did he die? Gren noticed that it had a three written on the side. Visualizing the previous one, Gren saw that it had a one on its spine. "Do you have the second Rumba the Sloth book?" She shook her head but Gren planned on buying the third one just in case he saw the second one in a different bookstore.

Clarissa started to make a noise and reached towards one of the shelves. Gren brought her closer so that she could poke the one that she liked. There was a book with an adorable animal on the front cover called Bear Bear Bear Kuma that Gren expected her to touch but she reached out and grabbed at the book next to it. "The Tragic Tale of the Dark Lord Drogann." The cover drawing was of a sinister-looking man in dark armor that had horns on his helmet. Behind him was an army of skeletons. "You want this one?" She poked at it again with a happy sound so Gren brought it with him.

Gren now had two books that he planned on buying. He wasn't sure of his daughter's taste but if she wanted it then he'd buy it. There was nothing else that Clarissa wanted and he couldn't find anything good so Gren bought the two books. Looking at the cover of the book once more before storing it away, Gren was worried; if Clarissa brought home a man like this in the future then it'd probably be his fault. Jessica would probably kill him if that happened.

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After going around and buying a few gems that interested Clarissa, Gren decided that their little walk should be over for the night. It was a bit windy and it looked like there was a storm brewing. Gren rushed back home while making sure that he didn't move too quickly and hurt his little girl. As Gren got near their home, he realized that it wasn't just a storm brewing.

Surrounding the FMC was a violent mob. Gren had installed a metal shutter in front that was closed at night so nobody could get in but people were banging on it. There were angry shouts coming from the side entrance but he couldn't get close enough to see what was going on.

Gren didn't want to hurt Clarissa's hearing so he put ear muffs on her head. After placing a metal tube on the ground, Gren lit the fuse from a distance using his magic. The bottom of the tube was thick iron that was as wide as the tube was tall so it wouldn't fall over. This was the first time that Gren used it but the loud blast made by the tube caused the mob to get startled.

It was just a giant noisemaker that Gren wanted to try out but the people didn't run away like he hoped they would. It would probably work better on animals. When Gren went to retrieve it, a few of the angry members of the mob came up to him. Gren recognized one of them as the guard that was at the front of the Golden Summer casino.

"You're one of the bastards that killed our boss, aren't you?" The guard saw Gren's face when he checked him for weapons so it made sense that this guy recognized him. Why were they here without weapons or armor if they wanted revenge?

"Just leave my property. If you want to get revenge for what I did to your criminal boss then take it up with the city's guards. They'll agree with me that it was justified." The guards already knew what happened since he reported Susan's death the same day that it happened.

"We don't care about the boss. Just give us the keys to the vault that you took." A bit heartless but at least it was something easy to deal with.

"I turned over the keys to the captain of the guards when I turned in Susan's head. You're coming to the wrong person about this." Technically true; he just bent them so they couldn't be used after making replicas. Gren hoped that they would be able to see reason. "I've even got the paperwork inside to prove it." It was in his pocket dimension but he wanted to get Clarissa out of harm's way.

Gren forgot that an angry mob could not see reason. One of the men threw a stone at him that he managed to catch with his left hand. The bastards threw a stone at him... while he was carrying his child? Clarissa still had her ear muffs on so Gren pulled out his revolver. "I will kill the next person that tries to harm me while I am carrying my child. If I don't know who did it then I'll kill all of you bastards just to make sure I got the right person."

Gren's aggression didn't help to deescalate the situation but he didn't care since these assholes went over the line. Other people from the mob picked up rocks so Gren got ready to shoot them. Just as one of them were about to throw the second stone, a bony hand appeared in midair and grabbed on to the guy's wrist. Countless skeletal hands began to appear from dark masses that looked similar to the ones that appeared when Gren used the system and they began to tear the men apart.

Their corpses were pulled in through the black masses and Gren didn't know what happened. He could feel the magic energy from his body draining but he didn't activate any spell. He didn't know of any spell like that and he never had anything like this happen before. The rain began to fall and woke Gren up from his daze. He would have time to figure out what happened later but his daughter would get sick if he continued to let her get wet.