Reaper of the Martial World

Book 7: Chapter 301: Return (3)

Dyon’s mind was free and unfettered on his and Madeleine’s journey back to Soul Rending Peak. In truth, he felt odd treating a child that was essentially himself as his son, but after seeing Madeleine’s enthusiasm, he couldn’t bring himself to speak these thoughts aloud.

Dyon could only sigh as he watched his wife so enthusiastically take on her motherly role. Despite her not being able to breast feed Junior, she cared for him in every other way possible. She doted on him so much that Dyon was often forgotten in the background, much to his feigned depression. Still, he found himself enjoying these scenes for hours on end. He felt like he could watch Madeleine be a mother for days without any boredom.

These things made Dyon sigh, though. He and Madeleine had never sat down to speak about it, but he knew how much the truth behind her family’s matters hurt her.

At first, Madeleine felt despair due to them, thinking that her mother and father were eager to sell her off to the highest bidder. In the beginning, it seemed that they only tried to tie her to Akihiko just to save her life, but if that was the case, what was their reasoning for backing her marriage with Lionel? What was their reason for ignoring her wishes and bowing to Connery Sapientia’s wishes?

Then, she found out that all of these things were a lie. The group of people she thought were her family, actually weren’t her relatives at all. It felt like in an instant, years of emotional trauma and pain was wasted, only to form a new enmity.

Madeleine had never once spoken to Amell and Nora. These matters hung in the air like a tacit secret shared by dozens of individuals. But, this only made things hurt more. Even when they came back and saw her, they still didn’t dare to face her? What kind of parents were they?

Seeing Madeleine so invested in what Junior symbolized in her life, how could Dyon not understand? He knew his wife better than anyone else in existence. She craved for family just as much if not more than he did.

Soon, Madeleine and Dyon had made it back to Soul Rend Universe. In order to not attract attention and quietly observe the changes, Dyon once again remained lowkey.

By now, development had taken a huge leap forward once again. During the first three years, Meiying had spent much of her time planning for the opening of Celestial Corner. But, now that that goal had been accomplished, she spent much more time organizing Soul Rend Universe itself.

In the end, Dyon and Meiying decided that it was best if they kept the same six planets for now with plans to increase this total to about twenty within fifty years. It was simply much easier to rely on already created infrastructure, especially since Dyon’s budget was lacking. Unfortunately, Dyon knew that this might lead to some conflicts.

There was good news, however. The Clans under Dyon’s control were relatively small, with core members not totaling more than a few thousand. They were nothing like the juggernaut clans like the Goldeen or Crow families that had millions of individuals with their bloodlines. As a result, they needed far less space.

Still, there would always be intensive competition between Clans. This competition was fiercest when it came to earning Sect disciple positions. From Dyon’s cursory glance, he even noticed that some families were trying to monopolize the resources of the Academies so they could control that path of entrance to the six Peaks.

Of course, Dyon had already expected this to happen. It was for this reason that he employed the Teacher Grading system, allowing students to send anonymous reviews of their mentors. But, it seemed that this measure wasn’t enough – maybe he was too naïve.

Firstly, the up and coming families – the Novrel, Mogy, Acor, and Coudry Clans – had grown substantially and had banded together to suppress the Donari’s Caedes family.

One might wonder how this happened considering Donari was the key wielder, but the truth was that the moment those of Dyon’s home universe moved over, he no longer had the right to keep his title. He lost it to Stella just days after the Belmont family established themselves. This caused a major blow to the morale of the Caedes family and emboldened the up and coming families to suppress them.

According to what Dyon could see, the key had become a hot potato. Switching between Stella and Aoife what seemed like every other day. Apparently, the two had an agreement that they wouldn’t be allowed to take their trials and become the official key wielder until one of them won three times in a row. Not only had that delayed their trial, but it caused a minor headache for those who had to clean up after their battles.

Still, Dyon didn’t care much about this. Although he didn’t believe the two Princesses should neglect their trials, they were actually training in their own way by placing pressure on each other. Instead, what gave Dyon a headache were the countless other squabbles between Clans.

What remained of the Aumens, Gebs and Horus’s was essentially being treated like a slave class. The Niveus Sect had risen up again in the form of a Guild/Faction despite the fact Dyon made it clear that they would only have Six Sects for now. The Patia-Neva Clan was relatively stable, mostly due to Delia’s backing, but this caused dissatisfaction among many. At the same time, the Pakal Clan had become far too isolated, they were practically forming an eco-system of their own.

Countless problems piled together to form Dyon’s second headache of the past day. But who knew that the moment he stepped into Soul Palace for a breather, planning to figure out a course of action the next day, he would be hit with news that made his world flip upside down?

“What did you say?” Dyon stood, staring at Delia’s beautiful crying features while holding a small baby that couldn’t have been more than 9 months old in his arms.

He had been so happy just moments ago. All his worries had vanished when he saw his best friend’s child waddling about. But, when he saw Delia’s devastated appearance, a woman he saw as his own little sister, he felt that the world had come crashing down.