Chapter 50: Her Future In-Laws

Wren's mom suddenly murmured a couple of words to herself, reached out and grabbed twice at the air—and a stream of golden sparks came flying out of the window of Nathan's home.

Nathan's eyesight these days was far beyond any ordinary person's, and he saw it crystal clear: that stream of golden sparks was a swarm of strange insects—golden all over, faintly translucent, silkworm-like, but winged.

Wren's mother smiled, tucked the swarm of strange insects into her sleeve, and said: "I've already collected the Ironweave Grub. It's too late to be knocking on your family's door, so I'll head back first. Wrennie, if you'd like to go play at Nathan's place, go play with him for a while—just remember to come home early."

Nathan stood slack-jawed as Wren's mother sauntered off, his heart surging like a tide, ten thousand wild what-the-hells stampeding and roaring through his head: "It was THAT easy? Then what the hell have I been worrying about all this time? And why did Wren never tell me her mother was a great Blood Lord—one who collects Ironweave Grubs like she's catching grasshoppers?"

"And also... Mrs. Shaw went home by herself and left Wren with me—what's that supposed to mean, me taking her home to play? It's this late, and me bringing a female classmate home... damn, that's not exactly easy to explain to my mom either..."

Her mother had just helped him, so Nathan couldn't exactly say, "Maybe you should head home, our place isn't convenient for visitors"... All he could do was grit his teeth and invite Wren up to sit for a bit—and Wren agreed with total cheer.

Nathan was a little nervous—and honestly, a little expectant too. Awkward as he found the whole thing, a female classmate had genuinely never set foot in his home before. His relationship with Isolde wasn't close; forget her coming over—they'd barely ever spoken alone. The feeling was fresh and thrilling.

Nathan's mom happened to be home today. Seeing her son bring home an extremely pretty girl, she froze for a beat too, before turning on the warm hospitality.

Ignoring his mother's stream of not-so-subtle hints, Nathan walked Wren to his room and shut the door behind them.

Wren wasn't the least bit formal about it. Grinning, she plopped down on Nathan's bed, kicked off her shoes—white socks showing—leaned against the wall, casually pulled a novel off the bookshelf by the bed, and started reading to herself.

It was Nathan, ironically, who felt slightly awkward. Fishing for small talk, he asked: "Are you planning to live in human society from now on?"

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Wren snorted a laugh: "That depends on what my husband's family is like."

"Husband's family?"

It took Nathan a good moment to parse that very old-fashioned word, and the faint weirdness of it had him asking, puzzled: "Don't girls these days all want independence? You'll definitely have the ability to live the life you want—why does it have to hinge on your future husband?"

Wren seemed absorbed in the novel already. The book she had was called Spellpeak—an MMO novel—and it was Nathan's absolute favorite series.

Drawn in by some scene in the book, Wren tittered a few times before drawling: "I'm not human—only humans get that precious about things! The days of lone, cold solitude. The days when everything rests on your own two shoulders. Facing powerful enemies alone, never knowing if you'll live to see tomorrow, every single second on edge... I've had more than my fill of those already!"

Wren wasn't worked up at all—she hadn't even lifted her eyes from the page—but the words landed with a jolt, especially for Nathan, dredging up this stretch of his own days he could barely stand to look back on.

Nathan nodded along, heartsick with fellow feeling—then suddenly sensed something off and burst out: "Isn't that the kind of line that's supposed to come from some old bloodborn who's lived a few hundred years? You're not a self-practiced spirit—you awakened a bloodborn bloodline same as me, you've got a family, parents—how are you talking like this?"

Wren lifted her head, eyes brimming with mischief, stuck out her tongue, and said: "I was just messing with you!"

That little detour had killed the original topic, and with nothing else coming to mind, Nathan strained for a good while before squeezing out one question: "Which school are you applying to for high school?"

Wren giggled: "Same as your dream-girl crush—Greyhaven Preparatory Academy."

Nathan was briefly rendered speechless, with no idea how to keep the conversation going.

Wren's eyes curved into crescents, as if she'd hit some fun bit in the book, and she said, offhand: "You'd better work hard too! Get the school basketball team into the national top ten, and you can go to the same high school as us."

Nathan blushed a little. His liking Isolde was practically public knowledge, but he still thought of it as a secret, and having it brought up always left him embarrassed.

Nathan asked, awkward: "How do you know about that?"

Wren snorted a laugh: "It was our class rep Primrose who came to me wanting to talk about you—basically to verify whether we really are half-siblings. She really loves basketball and knows everything about it, so I just coaxed it out of her."

Class rep Primrose was a genuinely pretty-and-sharp kind of girl. She trusted Nathan, but she wasn't the type to take any claim on faith just because someone said it—she'd still verify the facts, no swallowing one side of the story.

Girls like that don't get conned easily. But put Primrose next to Wren, and it was white rabbit versus little fox—she'd probably get played and still come away thinking what a nice person the fox was.

Nathan shook his head. With that opening topic established, the earlier awkward silence was finally gone; they chatted about school stuff, then spent a while on bloodborn-world gossip and news.

Wren only chimed in a line or two now and then; most of the time she just listened, smiling, while Nathan talked. Nathan's gift of gab was honestly pretty bad, but in front of Wren, somehow, the words poured out nonstop, and he quickly got comfortable being alone with her.

Two or three hours went by just like that, until Nathan's mom finally couldn't take it anymore and knocked: "Nathan! It's very late—shouldn't you walk your classmate home?"

Wren answered cheerfully: "Thank you—but I don't live far; I can get home on my own."

Nathan's mom pushed the door open and said, gravely serious: "Better to let Nathan walk you! You're a girl, after all—otherwise I wouldn't rest easy."

Wren went along with it, gave an "mm-hm," and accepted Nathan's mom's arrangement by default.

Nathan's mom had taken a real liking to this extremely pretty, well-mannered girl too—but she still felt that Nathan having a girlfriend this early was bound to wreck his studies, and she quietly planned, once he'd walked Wren home, to have a proper talk with her son.