Secrets amongst family

After the rather unexpected reunion and revelation, each of the kids parted ways with each other once they entered the mansion and followed their mothers into different rooms.

Only the emperor went alone towards his own chamber and declare that he would stay there until the dinner started.

Kurt followed behind Saibiri with Dorothy above his red hair. The owl was unusually quiet at that moment.

"Were you disappointed...?" Sabiri whispered to him, breaking the silence as they walked down the hallways.

"Me...?" Kurt reacted, "W- Why would I be?"

"I often hear that the people from your world don't seem very fond of the concept of polygamy..."

Kurt widened his eyes as he heard the empress utter the words 'your world' so casually, "Oh... You- You knew?"

"Doesn't really take a genius to figure that something is up when your baby starts walking and talking and behaving so strangely despite being barely a year old." she talked while smiling and giggling at him.

"I... I see... I always assumed I was hiding it well..." he admitted while looking away embarrassed.

"Don't worry too much! I still view you as my own son as long as you are okay viewing me as your mother."

"Of course I'm okay!" he hurried to state, worried that she could possibly believe otherwise, "You accepted me from the very first day since I came here!! I never once saw you as anything else!"

The empress stopped on her path and looked at him with a serious expression, "Even more than your previous mother?"

Kurt flinched, "I- I... Well... I..."

The empress sighed and began to giggle again, "Sorry, sorry. That was a mean question. Like I said, don't worry too much. All that matters is the here and the now!"

She then approached him and gave him a gentle hug while bringing his face closer to her body.

Kurt was reminded of the first day he arrived in this world and the moment Sabiri did something similar in order to let him hear her heartbeat.

"Everything will be okay... Don't worry."

Kurt wasn't sure why but he suddenly felt a strong urge to cry. A part of him always feared that he might end up being rejected should his parents find the truth about him, yet there his mother was, showing she knew it all along and that she still felt the same way about him.

"Thank you! Mother!" he finally cried while hugging her back.

Sabiri also began to tear up once she heard this boy still calling her 'mother'. Both of them were afraid that something could change, and both were glad that nothing did.

They were still mother and child and they still loved each other.

"Come on. You need to get dressed. Tonight's dinner is gonna be a long one..." she muttered after finally releasing him.

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Kurt finally reached his room and was now wearing a white suit over a black shirt and shoes. His mother tried to insist he put on a butterfly tie as well, or as they called, flapping dragon tie, but the boy ended up refusing in the end.

"I am not disappointed..." he finally declared while looking in the mirror and checking if his attire had any problem.

"You're not?"

"I'm not... At the end of the day, I'm still an outsider. I... I don't have the right to say how anyone should live their lives. If you are happy being in this relationship, then I can accept it."

Sabiri stared at him for a moment trying to see if he was being honest or just being polite, "So you have no problem seeing your own mother being another number in your father's collection?"

The boy clenched his fists and tried to take a deep breath.

"You don't have a problem if he claims to love me and embrace me, only so he can do the same to another woman moments later?"

"I... Well..."

"You don't have a problem if at some point you find yourself alone and longing for the love of your father, only for him to not be available because he's too busy showing his affection for the child of someone else?"

Kurt began to feel like something was wrong, "Mother? Are you... Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm not okay, Kurt..." she replied while sitting on a bed that was placed in the middle of the room, "My own son just found out that I'm part of his father's personal harem, and is telling me that he's fine with it... How do you think that makes me feel?"

"I'm not fine!!" he declared, "I'm not fine at all! But... But I don't wanna overstep my boundaries..."

"Because you are from another world and thus don't have the right to impose your mindset on us?"

"S- Something like that... yeah..." he mumbled while thinking about Gaby's crying face after he accused her of being a bully, "I'm trying not to impose my ideals on others anymore..."

"I see... That's fair, I suppose... But let me make one thing clear..." Sabiri stated while standing up and adjusting her dress, "If you declare that you are in love with someone... You should only love that someone.

Your father said many times that he loved each of his wives equally, and not once did I ever believed his words.

True love is something that can only happen between honest individuals, and I felt no honesty in him."

Kurt raised his eyebrows from hearing his mother declare that she did not feel loved by his father, "Then... Why did you-"

"Because I am not seeking love. I'm seeking something else..."

"And what's that?"

"You will find out when the time is right..." she promised.

Kurt began to glare at her, "You always say that!"

The woman looked away from him as the boy continued to let his emotions take over his body.

"Every time I asked you to tell me if I had other family members, you said I would find out when the time was right! When I asked how to access my second form, you said I would find out when the time was right! When I asked what the rest of the world outside of the empire was like and if we could go there one day, you just stood there and said I would find out when the time was right!!"

Sabiri kept aiming her gaze in a direction so she could avoid the boy's glare, but Kurt simply approached her and placed himself in front of her.

"And now! I find out that I have siblings I never knew about! Find out that one of them can even transform into his second form, something I never managed to do! And even hear about some kind of Olympic games or whatever that is happening between the dragon empire and other nations!

Mother! Why do you always dodge my questions? Why won't you just tell me these things?? Why are you not honest with me!??"

"Kurt, please..."

"You keep saying I'll find out when the time is right! Do you really think this is what is happening right now? Do you really think this was the best way to let me know about all this??"

"Kurt!!" she shouted while stomping her foot, causing the boy to tremble and calm himself down.

"I... I'm sorry..."

The lady took a deep breath in order to calm down as well and began to rub his red hair with a gentle touch.

"It's not easy for a mother to tell her son that his father is not the kind of man he thinks he is..." she commented, "I need you to know that I'm making these decisions, not because I look down on you, but because I feel its the best way to deliver them as you grow."

Kurt still didn't seem convinced, but the more he thought about it, what would he have felt in case she had told him these things before? How would he have reacted when he was just a kid that barely knew anything about anything?

"I need you to know that I love you, and that I'm doing this for your own good. So please, trust me!"

She lifted his chin with both palms and stared into his eyes.

"Can you trust me? My son?"

Kurt began to think about his moments with Sabiri.

All the times she protected him from assassination attempts, all the times she spent training him in self-defense, chatting with him about the different types of dragons, walking around on the streets, gazing at the five moons in the sky when he was just a baby, going into a picnic with her and watching the water dragons playing in the river.

For some reason, Kurt just couldn't bring himself to not feel comfortable around her. He hadn't realized it before, but he really did ended up accepting her as his mother, more than he imagined.

"I do! I trust you!"

"I'm glad!" She smiled at him in relief, "So I need you to keep trusting me... Because things will only get more difficult from now on!"

"What do you mean?"

Sabiri released him and took a small glance at Dorothy who was watching everything from a table that she had landed on.

"Tonight... The emperor will say many things to us. He will try to convince you to think one way... His way. I need you to be strong and remain true to your values, while also doing your best to make him feel that we are all on the same side."

"A- Are we not?"

Sabiri then grabbed his pulse and began to analyze his skin, as if she was looking for something that wasn't there.

"You-"

"Let me guess..." he interrupted her, "I'll find out when the time is right?"

She smirked at him, "You're learning."

"Is there anything that I should know, that I CAN know?"

"Well... There is one thing..."

The sound of someone knocking at their door suddenly echoed in the room. The lady moved to check who it was and opened up to reveal a pair of kids around Kurt's age on the other side.

One was a girl in a black suit with short hair and wearing earrings on her ear holding a blank expression on her face. The other was a slightly chubby lad also with short hair and a black suit laughing nervously.

"Trevor?? Nala??" Kurt gasped.

"Hi, Kurt!" Trevor greeted while avoiding eye contact.

"Moher... What is-"

"It's time to officially meet your bodyguards" the empress explained.

"My what??"