I Am The Game's Villain

Chapter 877: Inevitable Future For Celesta

"So you are planning to see Alicia immediately after spending the day with us, Honey?"

Layla smiled as she leaned back against the limousine seat.

The group was returning to Lioren’s Skyport in the same long limousine that had brought them into the city earlier that morning.

"You truly are a sinful man," Layla added teasingly.

"I am only going to see Levina and bring her with us," Edward replied.

"Right." Layla nodded with an amused expression. "Your second daughter."

"My first."

Layla raised a brow.

"Hm?"

"Vina is my first daughter," Edward said again.

For a brief moment, Layla did not answer.

Edward’s gaze moved toward the window.

In the life he had lived as Nyrel Loyster and later Amael Falkrona during the Lost Past, he had never had children.

He had never formed that kind of bond with anyone.

His life, second one especially had been consumed by survival, war, death, and responsibilities that never seemed to end. There had never been space for the thought of raising a child, much less allowing himself to hope for one.

Then Levina had entered his life.

She had been an Enigma Beast waiting to awaken.

Technically, she already existed. Her body had formed, her life had begun, and yet she had remained incomplete. For her awakening to fully take hold, her genes to settle, her body to develop properly, and her own existence to truly bloom, she had required blood.

In the end, the blood used for that awakening had been his and Alicia’s.

It had not been Edward’s original body.

But that did not matter to him.

Levina was still his daughter.

The connection between them had never depended only on blood, mana, or the body he had possessed at the time. She had become precious to him because of when she had appeared in his life.

It had been after the Behemoth incident where he had lost three women important to him.

He had been at one of the lowest points of his life then, burdened by loss and despair, unable to see anything beyond what he had failed to protect. Yet the time he spent with Levina had given him something he had not expected.

Hope.

For the first time, he had allowed himself to imagine a future beyond endless battle and grief.

A future with children.

Their time together had been short, but it had mattered more than Edward had ever admitted aloud.

Unfortunately, it had not ended well.

He had been forced to abandon her.

For Edward, who had returned to the future, it had not felt like very long since he had last seen Levina.

But Levina had waited five hundred years.

Five centuries of waiting for him to return, only to meet a version of Edward who did not yet remember her properly and who had treated her like a stranger.

"So she is our big sister, Dad?"

Tihana’s voice brought him back from his thoughts.

She was sitting near him, her eyes bright with interest.

"Yeah," Edward replied. "You should get along with her."

Levina was old in years.

But because of the long periods of slumber she had taken to preserve her sanity, she was not truly as old as those five centuries suggested. Emotionally, she had not lived through every year of that time in the same way a normal person would have.

In many ways, she was still young.

"You will," Edward added. "She is like you two."

"I will!" Tihana said immediately.

Then she turned toward Orlin with obvious excitement.

"She is like us too, did you hear that?"

"Yes," Orlin replied with a laugh. "It is actually amazing. Dad, how lucky are you? All three of us are Enigma Beasts"

Three Enigma Beasts.

Three children who were not human, yet belonged to Edward’s family more completely than many people related to him by blood ever could.

Enigma Beasts were supposed to be extremely rare. Young ones were nearly priceless, especially because they could be raised from an early age, taught, protected, and bound to the people who cared for them.

To find one was extraordinary.

To somehow have three was almost absurd.

"Not really," Edward said with a small shrug.

Orlin looked at him in disbelief.

"What do you mean, not really?"

He counted on his fingers as he spoke.

"You found Levina after beating an old vampire, right? And you chose Tihana and me from a store that sold familiar eggs. That sounds like luck to me."

"Not really."

Edward’s eyes shifted briefly toward Tihana and Orlin.

"And Aurora was the one who chose both of your eggs."

Tihana’s eyes widened.

"Princess Aurora?"

Edward nodded faintly.

At the time, he had not known how to distinguish a valuable egg from an ordinary familiar egg. Aurora had looked through the choices herself and brought him two eggs that she believed were unusually good.

In the end, Edward had chosen both.

"Is that why I feel so good around her?" Tihana asked.

Edward looked toward her.

"What?"

"I do not know, Dad," Tihana said, smiling softly. "But when I looked at Princess Aurora earlier, I felt really nice. Like... safe, maybe."

Orlin tilted his head.

"What does that mean?"

"Well, if you get close to her, maybe you will feel it too," Tihana told him. "Maybe she held our eggs a lot, or used mana on them, and some of it stayed inside us."

Her innocent expression turned thoughtful.

"Is that why it feels like she is our mom or something?"

Edward grimaced immediately.

"No, she is not," he said. "I was the one who took care of both your eggs. I kept you safe. I used my mana to make sure you were comfortable until you hatched."

Layla watched him for a few seconds.

Then she began laughing.

"Oh, Honey."

She leaned closer and gently pinched both of his cheeks.

"Look at you," she said, her eyes shining with amusement. "Sulking over parenting rights."

"How could they feel something toward Aurora?" Edward said, still unconvinced.

"She probably only used her mana to examine their eggs."

"Well, they are Enigma Beasts, Honey."

Layla spoke, though her smile suggested she found Edward’s reaction amusing.

"They are already far more developed inside their eggs than ordinary creatures.

Their senses begin forming early too. Even a small thread of mana may have left an impression on them. And Aurora certainly has unique mana."

Edward frowned.

Tihana’s eyes widened.

"Then is she our mother?"

"No," Edward said immediately.

Layla laughed before he could continue.

"I do not think so," she said gently. "Aurora was probably just the first person to interact with you after a long time. Perhaps that is why you feel familiar or comfortable around her."

"That is the better explanation," Edward said, nodding once.

Tihana puffed out her cheeks.

She clearly had preferred the possibility of having a mother.

Layla smiled at the girl’s sulking expression. Then she leaned closer to Edward, lowering her voice slightly so that only he could hear clearly over the quiet hum of the limousine engine.

"What is wrong with Aurora, Honey?"

"Nothing."

Layla raised a brow.

"Or was it Sylvia?" She asked. "Or Jeanne?"

Edward turned his eyes toward her.

"What are you asking?"

"I do not know." Layla’s expression softened. "You seemed upset about something."

Upset.

If Edward truly had to name the cause of his irritation, it was most likely Barbara.

Being accused of being a pervert in the middle of a shopping district was not exactly an experience he wanted to repeat.

The other nuisance he had encountered was hardly worth thinking about. He had literally just stepped on an insect.

As for Aurora, Sylvia, and Jeanne...

Edward’s gaze drifted toward the limousine window.

"Things will likely not end well for Celesta," he said shortly.

Layla’s expression changed.

"Is that because of the Third Game you spoke about?"

"It seems so."

Edward leaned back slightly.

"What does that mean?" Layla asked, her voice now more serious. "Is Celesta in danger?"

Her concern was understandable.

Jarett Tarmias, her father was there.

"Not in that sense," Edward replied. "The danger will likely come from the Holy Church."

Layla raised a brow.

Edward continued. "They have gained too much influence over the Crown. And now that a new Saintess has awakened, they will have even more power over political decisions."

Layla was quiet for a moment.

Then she nodded.

"I cannot argue with that. There have been far too many holy knights wandering around the capital lately."

Her expression became displeased.

"I do not like them."

The rise of the Holy Church’s power was something Edward had known would happen eventually.

It was meant to happen.

Years ago, he had even warned Geoffrey about his brother, the Pope. He had warned the old man that the Pope’s ambition was dangerous, that he should not be trusted simply because he wore religious robes and spoke of faith.

But Geoffrey had trusted his brother too much.

Or perhaps the Pope had simply been clever enough to hide his true intentions until the time was right. The old man was doing well hiding his true intentions for sure.

Either way, it was happening now.

The coming conflict would not only involve the Saintess. It would eventually drag Celesta itself into the struggle.

And when that happened, Edward wondered which side the Crown would choose.

"When the time comes," he said, "the Crown will likely accept the Church’s demands and side with them."

Layla’s brows drew together.

"I suppose the Church taking control over Celesta would not be a good thing."

"It is never a good thing when religion rules a country," Edward replied.

Layla nodded slowly.

The limousine continued moving through the streets, its wheels passing over smooth stone roads as the city gradually gave way to the wider routes leading toward Lioren Skyport.

"But would the royal family really accept that?" Layla asked after some thought.

"They might have no choice," Edward said. "It depends on how deeply religious the people of Celesta are by then."

He looked toward the distant sky beyond the window.

"No matter how proud the Crown may be, they will not want a civil war. They will try to compromise. They will try to avoid openly opposing the Church."

His expression remained cold.

"But either way, they will lose."

Layla fell silent.

Then her eyes widened slightly.

"Aurora is engaged to the Crown Prince of Arvatra..."

Edward did not answer, but Layla already understood.

Celesta’s situation would not remain limited to Celesta.

Aurora’s marriage was an alliance. If the Celesta Crown became entangled in a conflict with the Holy Church, then Arvatra could be drawn in as well. And once an empire became involved, the conflict would spread beyond a single kingdom.

It was a precarious situation.

Not only for Celesta.

For the entire continent.

And Aurora certainly wasn’t having it easy as she was literally standing in the middle of that thread.

"What does the Holy Church truly want?" Layla asked at last.

Edward considered the question.

For once, he did not have an immediate answer.

Then he slowly shook his head.

"That is a good question," he said. "I do not know the real answer."

He only knew that the Church could not be trusted.

Truthfully, he did not care whether Celesta fell into disorder or allowed itself to be controlled by the Holy Church.

Not unless it affected the people or things that mattered to him.

What concerned Edward was what would happen afterward.

The changes that might come.

The enemies who might emerge.

And the ways this conflict could interfere with the path he intended to follow and his plans.