Supreme Magus novel Chapter 224

Phloria, Friya, and Quylla returned home in the early afternoon. Much to their surprise, the academy had received instructions for the trio to bring Lith along with them. After getting the news, Phloria was overjoyed.

He had yet to regain his senses and his condition was still critical. He needed to regularly be forced to drink potions to sustain his life. Solus had been constantly using Invigoration to stabilize his mana core and mend the countless internal wounds that overexerting his body had caused.

- "The worst should be over. Lith now needs to rest." Solus would perform a full check up every hour.

"What worries me is his mind. He has yet to learn about Protector’s alleged death, but I can feel his heart withering away. It’s like he has never stopped grieving, even in his unconscious state."–

- "I take back most of the bad things I’ve thought about mom over the years. Not only did she bring Lith home with us, but she also assigned the best guest room to him."–

Phloria lay him on his bed before wiping off the sweat from his face with a wet cloth. She had learned how to feed him and keep him clean from the medical staff during the third day.

Phloria wouldn’t let anyone else take care of him. She didn’t want Lith to be alone when he woke up.

***

For a regular person incapable of using magic, reaching the village of Lutia would prove to be a long and boring journey. The village was in the middle of nowhere and the nearest branch of the Mage Association with a Warp Steps was hundreds of kilometers away.

Jirni Ernas wasn’t regular and according to many, barely a person. To accomplish her goal, she contacted Captain Locrias, the leader of the Queen’s corps unit in charge of protecting Lith’s family, and had him open a Warp Steps for her.

Jirni was officially on leave, but her reputation as royal constable preceded her. Captain Locrias was aware of her amazing yet gruesome track record.

- "It’s much better to be on the good side of such a person, rather than on her black list."–

Captain Locrias knew that he was likely to be forced to pay for the long range portable Gates out of his own pocket, but if it meant Jirni Ernas owed him a favor, it was worth the price.

Even with her plainest clothes, only someone deaf, dumb, and blind could mistake Jirni for a commoner. She was aware of this so, before knocking at the door, she had already handpicked the most suitable words to introduce herself.

"Good evening, my Lady. Are you lost?" Raaz recognized the woman in front of him as a noble at first sight. He hid his left hand behind his back, alerting Elina to pick a weapon and Tista to ready a spell.

"Good evening, good sir." Jirni brought out her best smile, creeping Raaz out. Despite her small size, he had an eerie feeling just by looking her in the eyes.

"My name is Jirni Ernas. I’m the mother of Phloria, Lith’s girlfriend." In her experience, it was better to sandwich the bad news between good news, to lessen the impact.

Raaz looked at her like she was insane. Lith had no girlfriend, he was certain of that. The women of the family kept complaining that even if his thirteenth birthday was just around the corner, Lith had yet to date or even show interest in any girl.

On Mogar, the new world, teenagers’ bodies would fully develop around their thirteenth year of age, but they wouldn’t be considered adults until they turned sixteen.

The marrying age for both men and women ranged from sixteen to the twenty-five years of age. After that, it was considered a late marriage and it would be much harder to find a spouse unless of course, the betrothal gift was juicy enough to make the age gap irrelevant.

Raaz was about to rudely send her off when Tista pushed him away, inviting Jirni to come in.

"Lady Ernas, it’s such a pleasure to finally meet you. Lith always talks fondly about you." Tista lied through her teeth, just like her brother had taught her over the years.

She had never heard Jirni’s name before, but Lith had often talked with her about Phloria Ernas. She knew they were dating for a while and didn’t want Raaz to ruin things for him.

Jirni recognized the lie, but appreciated the talent and the effort behind it.

"Thanks, dear Tista. It’s better if you all sit down. We have a serious matter to discuss." The whole family turned as pale as a ghost. A mother visiting a young man’s family talking about a serious matter could only mean one thing: pregnancy.

Raaz couldn’t believe his ears, staring at Tista as though she had poisoned him.

"Wait, you knew about the two of them?"

"Yes." Tista nodded, feeling the need to sit down. Suddenly she had weak knees at the idea of having a nephew from her little brother.

"Why didn’t you tell us about it?" Elina was happy and scared at the same time. Happy because her cherished son had finally found someone to love. Scared because there was no way out of that situation but marriage.

Becoming a father would turn his life upside down , not to mention becoming part of the wife’s family to preserve their honor and avoid the scandal.

"Because he told me not to! Lith said you would make a big deal out of this and he didn’t want you to pester him about it." Tista was regretting keeping his secret for so long.

The truth was that Lith was worried about Tista. She kept idolizing him and disdaining the company of other boys. So, he had decided to help her grow out of her brother complex by telling her about his ’girlfriend’ and exaggerating things a bit.

Now his plan was backfiring. Her parents could read Tista like a book, her panic spread like wildfire during a summer day. Elina tried to prepare some tea for their guest, but her hands trembled so much that she was unable to hold the small pot.

Jirni had purposely created the misunderstanding to have them all dancing in her palm.

"Don’t worry, dear Elina. Let me take care of it." Jirni made them sit while she prepared the hot beverage. She spiked it with a powerful tranquilizer she always carried inside her dimensional ring.

- "Poor souls. After I tell them the truth, they will regret that my visit wasn’t about our grandchild."–

After they took several sips of tea, the tranquilizer kicked in soothing their nerves. Only then did she explain Balkor’s existence and what their son had gone through over the last few days. It took them a few minutes and a lot of spiked tea to recover from the shock.

"Why didn’t he tell us anything? We thought he was taking the academy’s third test." Elina broke into tears. Even knowing that her son was alive and well couldn’t stop her from fearing for his fate and feeling hurt by his lies.