Family system-Chapter 159: Shame

When Freya was out of the room, Valentina and Isabella walked over to me with a concerned look. "Are you okay? Do you feel any different?" Valentina looked over my body as if scanning every nook and cranny. While Isabella didn’t say anything, she still looked at me, needing answers.

"I’m fine. I even feel stronger now because of the runes on my body." They both sighed in relief, but I felt I had to defend Freya. "I know you guys mean well, but we can’t just doubt every sister we have. What if husbands discover how cautious we are about the rest of their wives."

While I didn’t want to scare them, mentioning our husband stopped them thinking about other things. Valentina began to get tears in her eyes as she sprang and hugged me. "S.. sister. What if my husband ignores me because of it? What should I do? I won’t accept that." Her voice was trembling, so I stroked her back.

"Don’t worry so much about something that hasn’t even happened. You are only going to create more problems. And do you think that husband would abandon us because of such a small issue?" I spoke calmly to calm her down, and looking at her, I could see that she had calmed down.

She slowly let go of me and took some distance, but she didn’t let me out of her hands. While I don’t care about my physical contact with my sister, I still want to clarify: "If you are calm, you can let me go now. This body is only for my husband, so please behave yourself as such."

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I spoke mockingly, teasingly. Valentina, who was looking at me, was embarrassed and jumped back like a cat getting caught. "Who... Who wants your stinky body?" She was flustered, and while I knew that she was madly in love with her husband when she acted like this, I was always questioning if that was all.

"Haven’t you teased her enough, Elena?" Isabella’s cool voice sounded. She was looking at me while laughing at Valentina’s actions. "I was just cheering her up that she wasn’t too depressed." I also laughed while looking at Valentina. Valentina, who was being laughed at by the two of us, was even more embarrassed now and began to pout.

"You guys are so mean!" Valentina screamed out. She had tears in her eyes again, but this time not because she was scared or because of something. She was just so mad and frustrated that there were tears. She ran out of the room and didn’t even look back at us.

We looked at each other and shrugged. Nothing bad could happen while she was in this house, so we weren’t worried. I stood up from the chair, and Isabella took my place. "I will wait here with you. It can take a while for her to get back in top condition, so I don’t want you to feel lonely."

Isabella had an appreciative smile on her face. "Thanks for staying with me. Now and then as well." For the first time in a while, I could see a genuine smile on Isabella’s face. "Of course, we are sisters, after all."

…

"They are always so mean to me." I know they were joking, but the frustration I felt in my body wouldn’t go away with just knowing that. "Mphm, they are lucky that Apollivex isn’t here to punish them." I regrated sending my lovely pet on a mission alone, but he said that it was an opportunity to get stronger.

I wasn’t focusing on where I was going, but soon, I was at a place I didn’t recognize. While I normally wouldn’t find this weird because this is the first time that I am in this mansion, the whole vibe of this place was different than the mansion I was just at.

I looked around, and the whole luxurious and magically advanced place was gone. I stood in the middle of a hallway of what looked like an abandoned mansion. Everything was different, and I soon began to hear some strange sounds. To protect myself, I wanted to summon Apollivex, but I couldn’t. Our connection was severed, and I couldn’t reach him.

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I began to panic a bit more but tried to calm myself down. Panicking and losing focus aren’t going to help me while I am in unknown territory. I regretted running out of that room but soon focused on what to do to survive. I began walking around again and was soon met with a cross-shaped corridor. I could choose three ways to go.

I don’t know the differences, but I felt like the safest way was the hallway to the right. The problem was that I felt a unique connection from the hallway to the left. It was the same feeling I got from Apollivex but fainter. I was entertaining going that way because it felt like it would be important to her.

I gritted my teeth as I was considering which way to go. Then I thought about something. ’What would Apollivex do if he got the same chance.’ When I thought about that, I knew which way I should go. I looked at the right hallway for one last time before walking into the left one.

My steps were soft, and I grew more anxious as I felt like the hallway was stretching forever until I finally saw a door at the end of it. It was a grand door that looked like it would have kept treasures safe back in its prime, but now it looked like a big door that would fall at any moment.

I walked closer and got my mind ready to open the door and see what was behind it, but before I knew it, the door began to open by itself. I froze as I wasn’t ready yet, but the door didn’t wait for me to open. As soon as the door fully opened, a suction force came from the opening, and I was sucked inside.

I lost my balance and was sucked forward. Soon, I was inside the room, but it was different than what I had expected. I thought that maybe it would also be something that was once beautiful but lost due to time. What came into view was the same tower I had just run out of, but now it was wholly abandoned.

I looked around and saw flames on the ground and on the walls. There were also some claw marks on every surface, and as I kept looking, the dread I had felt this whole time became worse. I saw something I didn’t think I would ever see. "Apollivex!" I yelled out. She was lying on the ground, bleeding profusely, with another crow on top of her.

I ran towards her, channeled my mana, and shot a fireball as hot as 1000° at the bird. "So, you came after all." The crow said. It flapped its wings once, and such a strong wind force came from it that it swatted away my fireball. ’I can’t win against it.’ I knew that it was futile, but I wanted to know what it wanted. "What do you want? Why did you do that to Apollivex?"

The crow looked at me with an indifferent expression. "I needed to punish my own kind for breaking the family tradition. Do you know how much shame this would bring our name if another divine race came to know that one of our own submitted to a human? Let alone a normal human and not even a demigod."

The crow began to grow mad. And you could see literal steam coming from its head. Before I could answer the crow, Apollivex answered I could. "What do you mean ’our own kind’? You were the one that banished me and let me fend for myself, and now that I have found someone who could take care of me, you take it as an insult?"

She yelled out her frustrations while still bleeding from her wounds. The nerves on the head of the other grow visible now, and it slashed a wave made out of the fire to Apollivex. I knew that I couldn’t get in the way of the attack, but I could do something else.

I called out to Apollivex, and she appeared right next to me in her battered state. I began to channel some healing magic to heal all the wounds on her body and while it was slow I could see that she was getting better. "How come you didn’t say anything to me?" I began to grow anxious again. It was a bad habit that I had since childhood and didn’t have since I met husband.

My anxiety began to get to me again, but as I looked down and saw what state the crow left my dear Apollivex was in, I knew that I couldn’t run away like I did when I was young.