Chapter 20: Family reunions

“Um, Aunt Ellen, I’m not my mother.”~Sophia

“Aunt...Mother? You, your my niece? Since when has little Camille had a man in her life?”~Ellen

“Before you start spilling your soul to her, ask her for a drop of blood.”~me

“What in the world do you want that for?”~Sophia

“To confirm her identity. My sense for blood as quarter blood demon will allow me to compare it to your own blood. If she is truly your aunt, the blood will tell.”~me

“Aunt Ellen, could I ask you to please give Lilia here a drop of your blood. Her senses are good enough that she would be able to confirm your identity from the similarity to my own.”~Sophia

“Why are you so cautious, even after knowing I’m your blood relative? Just what sort of life have you lived till now? Could that human father of yours be some bastard like some of the nobles that were recently brought to light? Just a drop of blood to earn some trust, fine here you go.”~Ellen

She takes out a small knife, cut her finger and then presents it in front of me. I don’t bother to sniff it, just taking her finger into my mouth and running my tongue over it.

“Hot! Kind of sexy in a way. I think I can use this later.”~Sophia

“Quarter relation. Same grandmother, different grandfathers.”~me

I make a few hand signs that look like I’m communicating the results. Ellen who was still focused on her finger until now, finally snaps out of it.

“What is she doing?”~Ellen

“She can’t speak so she makes gestures as best she can to communicate. If it still isn’t understood, she will write it out. In this case, I believe she is trying to tell us that there is only a quarter relation between the two of us.”~Sophia

“Wow, she can tell that much with just a drop of blood? I’m impressed with her...technique. My sister and I have the same mother, but had different fathers. Now let’s talk about your mother, where is she?”~Ellen

Sophia explains who she is and that I was actually one of the summoned heroes. At my request, she leaves out some details about me for now. We cover the basics of the curse and that I’m actually just wearing a disguise set, conveniently provided by the curse when we entered demi territory. The discussion about my special equipment elicits her interest in it, which quickly devolved into Sophia demonstrating all of its sensitive spots and the best techniques to use. Ellen taught her a few extra things she didn’t know and I ended up as a hot mess on the sofa. They chat for a bit longer and we ended up staying in one of her spare rooms for the night. The next morning, we come out of our room to find Ellen humming to herself while cooking breakfast.

“As soon as things calm down around here, I’ll send a team to extract your mother from that man’s harem. Likely, he didn’t choose to keep her under contract over some of his more valuable people. If he did, I’ll make the trip and kill him myself.”~Ellen

“My mentor, grand mage Sven, is the only fourth stage cultivator that I know of in Parnam. That doesn’t really mean there isn’t more, my father definitely did not trust me, but I would appreciate it if your rescue of my mother didn’t result in any harm to Sven. He has been my magic teacher since I was a little girl and treats me like his granddaughter.”~Sophia

We enjoy breakfast together and it is ultimately decided that we will check out of our inn to move in with Ellen. She basically decided it herself. We found that she had had our bags brought over while we were still sleeping.

“Sofy tells me that you have been taking good care of her and that you plan to clear the dungeon here in Wynfel. The last people who succeeded in clearing it reported that it was forty-two floors deep. That was nearly ten years ago. Stage three to stage four is a gulf, the quality of energy is too different. To clear the dungeon, at least one of you needs to break through. The two of you can follow me to city hall today, I’ll make arrangements for both of you to train with some experts.”~Ellen

Some time later, we all return to her house. I’m sore from my workout with my assigned trainer and Sophia is so mentally worn out that she is nearly asleep on her feet. With such a good opportunity presenting herself, I heal my soreness a little bit by taking ‘good care’ of Sophia in the bath and put her to bed, snuggling up next to her.

We resume our usual cultivation practice, mixed with training with Ellen’s experts and some much less vigorous night time activities. I’m pretty sure Ellen suspects our relationship is a bit more than master and servant, but we keep things toned down since we are currently staying with her. Two weeks after the change, the city gates reopened and Ellen sent a covert team to Parnam to rescue Camille. Every person in the team was stage three except the leader, who was a stage four mage. They left with an outline of the castle and the harem drawn by me and Sophia.

After about three months, we had received word about the surrounding kingdoms. Although some nobles within the Magic Forest region were killed or arrested, there were no major damages. The kingdom of Belgra was thrown into utter chaos. The enormous number of freed slaves grabbed whatever goods they could and fled, mostly to the west. They left murdered masters and burned properties in their wake. The royal family was usurped by a lower noble and eliminated. Parnam wasn’t much better except the royal family kept their power after some reorganization. 

Our daily cultivation grind keeps up for four months before we finally received word about her mom. Sophia is especially excited today because we received word that her mother had been successfully rescued and would be arriving later in the evening. We’ve both made some great progress in the last four months especially in techniques...

<Status> +[disguised stats], -[hidden stats]
Name: Lilia | Age: 20 | Sex: Female
+Race: {Vampire(50%)}{Blood demon(25%)}{Dragon(20%)}{Dryad(5%)}
Cultivation Stages: {Body: 3(0%)}{Mind: 4(0%)}{Spirit: 2(5%)}{Divine: 2(58%)}{Law: 0}
Energy Reserves: {Qi: 10000/10000}{Mana: 20000/20000}{Spirit: 1000/1000}{Divine: 700/1000}
Attributes: Str: 10000(50%) | Vit: 10000(50%) | Agi: 10000(50%) | Int: 20000(50%)
Soul Potential: 196
<Skills>
{passive}
[Sense Mana 3], [Sense Presence 3], [Sense Intent 2], [Sense Danger 2]
-[Soul Devourer 1]
{active}
[Mana Control 2], [Mana Shaping 2]
-[Inventory 2], [Shadowmeld 2], [Contract(activate: 19sp)]

<Status>
Name: Sophia | Age: 23 | Sex: Female
Race: {Wood Elf(50%)}{Human(50%)}
Cultivation Stages: {Body: 2}{Mind: 3}{Spirit: 2}{Divine: 0}{Law: 0}
Energy Reserves: {Qi: 1000/1000}{Mana: 10000/10000}{Spirit: 1000/1000}{Divine: 0/0}
Attributes: Str: 1000 | Vit: 1000 | Agi: 1000 | Int: 10000
Soul Potential: 120
<Skills>
{passive}
[Sense Mana 5], [Sense Presence 4], [Sense Danger 4]
{active}
[Mana Control 4], [Mana Shaping 3], [Tamer 1], [Assess 4]

I managed to break through to stage four, but I insisted on waiting for Sophia to also break through until we make our second attempt on the dungeon. I’ve noticed the large difference between our skill increases. Spirit is only able to be cultivated about twenty percent per session before it would slow my speed to inefficient levels. Spirit only regenerates after a night's rest making it impossible to do multiple sessions per day. Sophia had increased her spirit cultivation as well, which resulted in a noticeable increase of her cultivation speed. She told me that she still has a ways to go until she hits stage four. Late into the evening, there’s a knock on the door. Ellen excitedly opened the door and stepped through it.

“Elder sister, how did you ever find me? Thank you for rescuing me.”~Camille

“You have your daughter to thank for that.”~Ellen

“Sophia? Wasn’t she killed by bandits when that bastard sent her off to marry in Belgra. How could she have anything to do with this?”~Camille

“She has a very dedicated servant.”~Ellen

“Has? Not had? She’s alive?! Where is she, where is my daughter?”~Camille

“From what I was told, her servant was too important to give away with her to another kingdom. Her father tried to kill the both of them when separating them proved too difficult. Well, let’s continue things inside with everyone.”~Ellen

With that said, Camille rushes in the door and hugs Sophia. They talk through the night and I busy myself serving food and drinks for them to enjoy. We ended up with an extra in bed with the two of us. The mother and daughter were unable to be separated when time for bed came around. Sophia and I were treated like little girls by her mother. A week was spent with everyone getting reacquainted, by which time Sophia had become fed up waiting to break through to stage four and spent one more week to familiarize herself with her current power from training before insisting that we clear the dungeon now. Her mother was very much against it and had to be reassured by Ellen that we had adequately prepared.