Family Business 36

Family Business
Chapte 36

-VB-

“I am happy that you two are safe and sound,” I spoke honestly while looking at auntie and brother.

Garen didn’t look as tired as aunt Tianna, but I could see that the recent crisis had troubled him.

“Thank you for your concern,” auntie replied with her usual cold stare, though I could see some specks of warmth in her eyes that she always had when she greeted the family. “But you know as well as I do not that neither of us are weak nor susceptible to normal problems.”

I chuckled. “I suppose so. Normal people don’t become the king’s personal guard.”

“Just so.”

“Speaking of the king and the prince, they looked tired. I assume it is because of what happened?”

“Yes,” Garen finally sighed. “At least three hundred denizens are dead, and the majority of them were Demacian.”

I too sighed.

The attack on Demacia City had left it scar not just in the damages wrought by Ruined Shyvanna’s rampage but also from the ghouls that attacked and killed civilians. The heaviest hit district was also the Old District of the city, which was right next to the new Magic District.

(That was a polite fiction; Magic District was merely the parts of the Old District that I bought out to form my new district that served as both mercantile and magical center of the city. Like many old districts in the past and in different worlds, it was the poorest part of the city, and I have done my best to improve the situation. Alas, there was only so much I could do when the population density of the combined old district was one hundred times that of the rest of the city.)

“Auntie!”

And, of course, Lux interrupted the conversation by rushing into the room and bear hugging the armor wearing woman of steel.

This was one of the main differences that I noted between the Lux I grew up with and the canon Lux. Canon Lux was … secretive, skittish, heroic, and insecure, all of which stemmed from her innate magic that was at odds with Demacia. My Lux was none of the above. She was proud, loud, affectionate, and deeply not heroic. She valued family first and foremost, starting with me and Darren, involving our parents, other harem members, and my other children, and ending with aunt Tianna. Garen was also not the closest person; he was a far away older brother married to his job. In his place, I had become both her literal and metaphorical closest person.

It’s kind of hard not to be when we wantonly fucked, happily married, and joyfully brought a baby to this world.

The culmination of the differences she’s lived in this timeline led to some changes to her personality. Like hugging. She liked hugging a lot.

Aunt Tianna, whose normally frosty glare made fresh recruits piss their pants, smiled and hugged the no-longer-littlest Crownguard.

“Hi, Luxanna. You really should be more formal,” she lightly chided my sister-wife even as she kept up the embrace.

Lux happily ignored her as she broke the embrace and then hugged Garen as well. Garen returned the hug with a smile of his own before Lux broke that embrace and came to stand by my side.

“So,” I spoke up. “The situation in the city?”

“Aside from the Old District and where currently mind-controlled Shyvana bust and burned down a few buildings, the rest of the city is fine,” Garen replied. “It helps that the doctors and magical healers you’ve trained kept more people from dying.”

“Good,” I huffed. “That’s their job. I would be upset if the time I invested in them amounted to nothing.”

Aunt Tianna nodded in agreement. “Nothing like wasted time on a recruit that causes me anger,” she agreed.

“But what’s the sentiment of the people like?” I asked, expecting something bad.

And it was bad. Kind of.

“Most of the commoners are happy to see magicians as patrolmen, if only because they believe that magicians might be better able to fight back.”

“And …?”

“The nobles are angry.”

“What now?” Lux groaned. “They’re always angry!”

I chuckled. “We’re nobles, too.”

“And I’m angry because someone’s angry at me for no reason!”

Aunt Tianna snorted. “They hate feeling exposed. They know that petricite works at fighting magic; they have seen that in the most recent crisis to hit our nation. What concerns them is the fact that there is a limited number of both petricite and magicians they could hope to hire. They are upset that they feel so weak in the face of this new threat.”

“Is that the excuse or the real reason?”

“The real reason. The excuse is that the crown has not been able to protect them against this new threat.”

“Well, it’s not like I can just hand out my magicians are private guards,” I grumbled. I already had the magician platoon I brought in from Jorasmang City patrolling the streets of Demacia City. There was just barely enough magicians to supplement the regular patrol guards.

“I suspect that in the coming weeks, some of them will nevertheless try to convince you to let them hire some of your magicians.”

“Ha! Good luck with that,” I sneered, and then I calmed myself. “Any news from Vayne?”

“None,” she replied. “I don’t know what you did to that magic hating girl, but she’s completely different. I hope it is not mind control?”

“Nothing so crude,” I dismissed her concern. “So she hasn’t even met the Sentinels?”

“She has,” Garen replied. “And even took up one of their sacred weapons. However, she and the Sentinels she joined are currently in the middle of a voyage, heading towards Bilgewater of all places. Due to the distance and lack of communication network in those areas, we have not heard from her.”

I hummed.

“We just have to wait for her and the Sentinels to successfully fight off the Harrowing at its source, huh?”

After that, we talked about the littlest Crownguards to join the family, Darren and Emma. Aunt Tianna was very into that conversation, especially when I started bringing out crude photography showing my babies.

From how quickly she schooled her features between each picture presented to her, I had a feeling that she will forever deny that she coo’ed over Darren and Emma.