The Betrothal and the Affair
Today was not a good day to be one Philip Boreas Greyrat. Though his father was the feudal lord, all the responsibilities of the position had been pushed on to him for some time now. Currently he was sitting in his office in Boreas manor situated right in the center of The Citadel of Roa, reading the latest reports about the happenings around the Fittoa region that the Boreas Greyrat family was in charge of under the Asura Kingdom and he had to say, lately the amount of reports he was getting about one specific village was getting on his nerves. He had especially warned Paul who he had granted a small piece of land as a favor to be discreet and keep it low, but that damn cousin of his had done an absolutely poor job at it in the last couple of years. But the latest news had finally done it! He was absolutely livid! This was the complete antithesis of his warnings!
For the past few years, in order to divert the attention that his cousin Paul's wife was gathering to their own family thanks to her 'selfless' achievements and merchant connections, he had to work countless hours and bribe enough people just to fabricate the lie that the famous Cleric-Innovate Zenith's husband Paul was just a low ranking knight under Boreas from a branch family of the Greyrats and had no connections with the Notos whatsoever! Thankfully 'Paul' was a name common enough to not draw the attention of the Notos yet, but if this kept on going even with all his power and influence he could not keep it hidden!
What especially brought out his ire on this beautiful snowy day was that apparently his cousin's home had become a hub for the worship of one of the Goddesses of the Pantheon! This was simply unbelievable. Unfortunately he had confirmed it by sending multiple independent spies and their reports were unfortunately in perfect alignment. Apparently in their garden there was a large white statue of his cousin's wife! Just why?! Ugh, when did things start to go so wrong?
This particular village was one of the many villages that provided the Fittoa region with it's bountiful crops as it was surrounded by fertile farmlands, far away from the capital of the Asuran Kingdom, Arusu, and should have remained out of sight… That is until a few years ago.
It had all started when that blonde Latreia bombshell, the wife of that damn Paul who didn't even deserve her in his opinion, proved to be a more capable woman than he had given her credit for. She had single handedly created many treatment formulas for many ailments! Not to mention the recent care products for women to look younger which was now incredibly popular in the Capital! What even baffled him was that she had given away the secret formulas of her products at a cost much lower than their potential worth! Not even thinking of starting a business!
This resulted in many cheap but effective products to become commonplace in the markets in just a few months, even resulting in some of their own products to become obsolete! There was simply no competing against those! The resulting dissolution of the many production lines of the Boreas after that had been a nightmare to sort out! They were now in a serious economical recession, with only their agriculture and to some extent the Aphrodisiac production keeping them afloat.
Getting loans also had become tricky lately thanks to the Asura Kingdom handing out loans left and right in the Strife Zone in order to increase their influence in the region, as well as to keep a stable government from forming there. Their end goal of course was to eventually gain full control of the World's richest iron and crystal mines that were currently in disuse due to constant war and changing of power.
To keep the economy together, they as the Boreas had also bought the formulas from Zenith but by then the initial boon was already snatched by their competitors! So apart from the Citadel of Roa where their influence was the greatest, they only had limited success in their other territories with competing with other merchants.
It would have been fine if all the other merchants and businesses that had bought the formula had invested in the Fittoa region as it would also have benefited the region and therefore the owner of the said region, his father the Feudal Lord Sauros Boreas Greyrat as well. But instead they focused building most of their production lines back in Capital Arusu and the surrounding cities despite being merchants of the Fittoa region! This was unacceptable!
He would have to hand it to the Asuran Royal family for their successful initiative, the Boreas of Fittoa were completely outmaneuvered, though he had a slight suspicion that his brother may have had something to do with it. Though what had mainly surprised him was the lack of any moves from the capital against the Greyrat couple, not even any attempts at recruitment either which was simply baffling, but later on he had learnt that Paul's wife had used her position as a former noble lady from the Holy Millis Kingdom and her sister's connections from the Church of Millis to put pressure on just the right places to keep her and her family under the radar which had certainly impressed him, though in his opinion it was an awkward attempt at best showing her own inexperience in the art of intrigue, but there was some talent there he couldn't deny it. Without his own influence in the matter though, they would have been exposed long ago.
Regardless he had been complacent and hadn't seen it necessary to spy on Paul's family until recently. What a mistake it was! Had he known of that Zenith's talents he would have recruited her long ago, but he didn't let that get to him. Someone like her would be a very great addition to their ranks even with the past lost opportunities, not to mention the potential to use her son in a future power struggle to get the Notos holdings would be the icing on the cake! So he had to come up with a plan to rope her in, and what better way to get her in his camp than by arranging a betrothal with her son to his daughter?
But he couldn't just propose the offer and expect them to easily accept it as Paul, his old friend and cousin had made it all too clear that he wanted nothing to do with politics. Though Paul didn't like politics it didn't mean that he couldn't understand the potential implications of a Notos like Rudeus being wed into the Boreas…
So he had to be tactful here. There were a few options. He could either expose their location and start rumors of them planning to start a coup against the Notos Household, which would eventually force them to easily come under his umbrella but this option would undoubtedly start a war with the Notos and would cause more losses than gains, not to mention the head of the Boreas family, his brother might act against him which would diminish any possibility of a victory even with the support of their allies.
The second option would be the same as the first one with the key difference being that he wouldn't start the rumors but let Paul believe those rumors existed. As Paul didn't have any direct connections inside nobility anymore, it would be hard for him to realize the truth in the short term. This option had a high risk of exposure the more Paul gets back in touch with nobility and it may just backfire, but if the truth could be kept from him long enough for the kids to establish a bond, then regardless of Paul's discontentment, he could both get Paul's wife to boost their economy, as well as the opportunity of using Paul's son for a future coup, with some convincing of course.
The third and the best option in his opinion was to use an excuse to bring the boy here and have him interact with his daughter and subtly manipulate him to convert to their cause. And if he was a Greyrat, he would definitely be an early bloomer, giving him the option to use his daughter to seduce him. There may be many things that could go wrong with this option but this had the least possibility to create a rift with Paul's family which he was adamant about maintaining good relations with due to his past friendship with Paul.
And with the latest reports he had just received, he had a pretty good idea on how to implement the third option, leaving the second option in the back burner for now.
According to his spies' reports, it turned out the one responsible for the religious debacle was in fact none other than Paul's own son! Apparently from what was gathered from the housewives' rumors, after learning that his mother was pregnant, the boy was so happy of the news that he secretly created a statue out of magic to surprise his mother! Talk about filial piety!
Philip already had knowledge of a particularly talented Ranoa Academy graduate who was also of the demon race currently in Paul's service to tutor his gifted son in magic. And apparently this Rudeus had already achieved advanced rank in all classes of magic which was simply unheard of at such a young age! This was also the main reason why he was so willing to wed his cherished daughter to the boy. Certainly a boy worthy of his powerful headstrong daughter! And the potential future offspring of the two would definitely be unmatched he was sure of it!
And apparently he was not just a prodigy in magic, but also in magical sculpting as well! And that brings him back to his plan. So he just had to commission the services of Paul's son in making a couple of statues for the Boreas family and keep him here as long as possible. Yes that is the most plausible option! Maybe he can convince the boy to tutor his daughter as well?
With his mind made up, he began writing a letter to his cousin Paul for a favor, thinking of sending his trusted butler Alphonse to deliver the message.
Rudeus POV/Minor Zenith POV
About a week had passed since the day I'd made up with mother, and I have to say I could now feel fulfilled once again after that one year of suffering! Though we couldn't get back to how it was before because it would be suspicious to be suddenly engaging in acts like taking a bath together again, but thanks to Master Roxy's temporary absence as she was currently in the Citadel of Roa to gather some supplies for our project and won't be back for another month or two, our sessions continued in an equally enjoyable fashion, mostly in my room.
Mother had apparently awakened to some new fetishes since that day we made up. She was now a bit too much into shame-play for my liking like we had indulged a little bit on that day much to my bemusement, as I would have much preferred dominating her instead but didn't want to hurt her like I did before, so I was planning on humoring her for now. As it was an undeniable fact that she was not physically attracted to me as of yet, she was getting off mostly by getting into certain roles and imagining my grown up form. So until I grow up enough, I had decided not to do things to her like push her head into the pillow and plow her from behind so to speak.
During our 'sessions', apart from our milkless breastfeeding time, she had come to prefer either spooning me while jerking me off or making me lick her feet while she gave me a footjob with the other one! Can you believe it? All the while talking dirty to me, with her favorite phrase being how my dick still was not qualified to impregnate her… Yeah mother has been corrupted… I guess the concept of impregnation had become an obsession for her after struggling so much for it for a long time, resulting in her developing a fetish… I don't think she means most of what she says, but crossing the forbidden line that was incest obviously loosened most of her reservations, to the degree of even climaxing to her own dirty talk…
A month had passed since then and it was now winter and snow was beginning to pile up all around, but somehow that didn't deter some random people from other villages from visiting us, or more specifically, visiting our statue back in my mother's garden. I have to say I hadn't imagined while sculpting the statue that it would one day be used as a religious icon… Or more specifically, a destination for prayer for people who for some reason couldn't have kids… When asked, they revealed that they were praying to the Goddess of Fertility Meridan… Apparently they had mistaken my mother's statue for that particular goddess because of the baby in her arms… Fuck!
At first we had just left things run it's course as it was probably just a temporary phase and there were only two or three people coming every other day. But unfortunately mom had made the mistake of being a good person and brought some of those people to her clinic to be examined and had even managed to cure a couple of them who had some minor issues that could be fixed free of charge. Unfortunately her reward for this good and selfless act was the sudden spike in the numbers of 'visitors', apparently the ones she had cured had either made it seem as if they were only healed thanks to praying for the 'Goddess', or it had been the classic case of rumors being exaggerated as time goes on… Either way, I had to erect a giant earthen wall just to put a stop to this madness which had worked to some extent. They were still coming but now their prayer grounds were quite a ways away… Master Roxy will definitely be surprised to see such a scene when she arrives back home.
Unfortunately the case of the statue wasn't the only problem our family had to face… It had been after I had erected the wall and we were enjoying a quite winter breakfast in morning when the 'shocking' news came, that yes, Lilia too was pregnant! It had been announced just like the way it had in the previous loop, where our maid Lilia painfully bowed before mom, but this time much more ashamed of what she did with her dear friend's husband behind her back. Just like last time, father confirmed his infidelity almost immediately after, proving that his preaching to me about honesty was at least genuine to some extent, of course only if we ignored the fact that he was dishonest with his promise with mother...
The only difference was that this time around, he didn't got any slaps from mother as she just contended herself to just send her husband an icy cold glare. I could see that she wanted to hit him but she also was conflicted as she had been in a similar position and didn't want to be a hypocrite. I could see that she was even feeling sympathy for her husband who she had denied any sex since she had learnt of her pregnancy, and even satisfied some of her sexual needs with her son…
But even so she was certainly disappointed… Maybe she had overestimated him, but nevertheless it was not something to belittle how someone like her husband had even managed to last this long being monogamous. Maybe she had deserved it and Saint Millis had seen it fit to punish her with something of equal measure! But strangely enough, if asked to take it back, she wouldn't change how things ended with her son one bit!
But she hated the thought of being cheated on. Her womanly pride which she had lots of now thanks to Rudy was now hurt. Just looking at her 'dear friend' who had went behind her back and fucked her husband made her want to strangle her! But at the same time, Paul was an incredible lover. Could she really fault and condemn her maid for appreciating such a fine man like her husband? When she put herself in her maid's place, she hated herself for sympathizing with her.
Now here we were sitting in the living room, father and Lilia were sitting on the couch with space between them enough for another person to sit, they were looking chastised, while mother stood right in front of them, having a conflicted expression as she bit her thumbnail, contemplating desperately what to do.
This went on for some time, the silence was even getting to me when mother finally broke it, her voice cold, "Darling, be honest with me, do you have feelings for Lilia?" "Zenith…" He struggled to answer for a while and mom waited for his answer patiently, then he gathered his courage as he bowed his head, sounding resigned, "yes".
Of course he has, he must have felt guilty for forcefully deflowering her when they were young and then abandoning her right after, and after mother healed Lilia, he even started to teach her in the sword arts which must have brought back some fond memories… I guess it was inevitable…
Mom nodded her head as she then looked at Lilia and asked, "same question goes for you", after a moment of hesitation, Lilia nodded, "y-yes m-Zenith". Mother looked between the two and after a few minutes of deliberation, she sighed, before declaring with finality, "then I shall allow you to be wedded to my husband as well, Lilia, from now on you are family" To this Paul and Lilia looked on with shocked expressions, Lilia even started crying right after. Whether it was tears of joy or shame was anybody's guess at this point.
They must have never imagined a Millis follower like her to so easily accept such a thing. Even I am impressed with her, I was even thinking of salvaging the situation like the last time but apparently there was no need.
Then mother came and knelt down besides father, caressing the now surprised man's face, with a soft voice, "Darling, I am only allowing this because I still see Lilia as a dear sister despite her betrayal" she sent a piercing gaze at the maid who flinched, then went on, "do you understand?" Her gaze was so intense that Paul couldn't even speak, so he fervently nodded, then she went on, "and also, you are forbidden from ever pulling another woman to our life or I will divorce you, do you understand?" Her words were soft but had a strange finality to them, to which Paul nodded strongly.
"Good", then Zenith looked at Lilia who was still in tears, "Lilly, we are going to have a looong girls talk, so I hope you are ready~" Although she had accepted the arrangement, that didn't mean that she would be happy with it anytime soon.