Otherworld Adventure

After leaving Matheus behind, Cecil and Lucia quickly met up back at the family estate. They stood frozen in front of the mansion, not knowing how they should go in.

Lucia had learned from Cecil that her mother was currently at the family's mansion and was apparently waiting for them. Lucia was feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment because it's been such a long while since she's met her mother.

Cecil was tensed and quite hesitant precisely because he was going to meet his mother-in-laws. Anna was probably okay with things because from the looks of things, she had purposefully sent Lucia with him on his journey so that they would certainly get together.

The problem was Serilla's mother, Celia. Earlier, when Cecil had brought Matheus back and called out to announce his return, he could immediately feel a slight amount of killing intent radiating from the room that Serilla was in.

It was because of that, Cecil had hastily brought Matheus away from the house. It was only him finding an excuse to quickly leave the place. But now that he had to confront his mother-in-law, he was very much not looking forward to it.

If this was him from before, he'd welcome any and all kinds of challenges. The problem now was that if he did fight, it was going to be against his mother-in-law. Cecil wanted to leave a good impression on Celia so that she would wholeheartedly accept him, but he knew that fighting should only be the last resort. After all, he didn't want to disappoint Serilla.

Fighting with her mother would certainly cause his wife to be placed in a tough spot. Let's say that he purposefully loses then his mother-in-law might make that an excuse to say he really wasn't fit to be with Serilla. And if he won...well, Cecil wasn't sure how things would pan out so he was uncertain and thus he was now feeling hesitant to even go into his own house.

"Cel, shall we go?"

"Y-Yeah, let's go..."

"Hmm, I wonder how mom will feel when she sees me after so long. I mean, we do talk a lot on our MIDs but still..."

"You have nothing to worry about, Lulu. Mother would surely love to see how her daughter had grown up after all these years being separated."

"Hehe, thanks, Cel. Also, you shouldn't worry about Lady Celia, I'm sure Seri has already talked things out with her. You should man up and show Lady Celia that you're willing to face her and take responsibility for Seri!"

Cecil smiled at her words. He gained a little bit more confidence in himself and said, "Thanks for that, Lulu."

The two walked into the house hand-in-hand. Before they could even say or do anything, a blade came flying at Cecil all of a sudden.

He immediately raised his hand, wrapped mana around it, and stopped the blade just when it was about a few centimeters away from his face. Feeling quite surprised, Cecil couldn't help but exclaim, "W-woah! What the heck?!"

"..."

Cecil saw the person who had swung the sword and he paled a little before letting it go and greeting her, "M-Mother-in-law! W-Welcome...I just got back after my t-trip! H-How are you?"

Celia eyed the young man who had his head bowed to her. Her brows immediately wrinkled in displeasure.

"... So you're the one that—"

"Mom, stop!" Serilla yelled out as she quickly made her way over to Cecil's side. "Are you for real, Mom? Earlier, didn't you just say that you've already accepted Cecil as my husband?"

Celia scoffed and said, "I did say that..."

"So what was that for?!"

"...I don't know. I just felt the instinct to just...swing my blade at his...pretty little face..."

Cecil began to sweat nervously when he heard this. He was now worried that every time they met, this would be their initial greeting between mother-in-law and son-in-law.

Celia brushed aside the earlier act of almost defacing Cecil and said, "Anyway, come with me, boy. I have a few words to say to you."

"Y-yes, Ma'am!"

"...Ma��am?"

"Uhhh, mother?" Cecil hesitantly corrected.

"...It sounds a bit odd, but I guess I'll have to get used to that," Celia said as she sheathed her sword and walked away. The other servants in the house were extremely astonished at the fact that their young master had just been attacked by his mother-in-law and said person just brushed it off like it was something insignificant.

The servant had all found out much earlier that Celia was their young master's mother-in-law so they didn't bother to call the family's guards. A few days ago, they were rather astonished that their young mistress wasn't actually a human but rather a beastkin, however, they seemed to have gotten used to it by now.

At the moment, Serilla was back in her normal form. The human transformation was dispelled by Lucia long before she had left together with Cecil to look for Matheus.

"Cel, you go with Seri and have a nice long talk with your mother-in-law, I'll go look for mom!"

"She's at the second floor's living room. She's with my mother right now."

Lucia gave Cecil a peck on the cheek before rushing off to the second floor, leaving him behind with Serilla.

Cecil finally turned his attention towards his pregnant wife and worriedly asked, "...Seri, how did your mom come down from the second floor so fast? I mean, just before I walked in, I sensed that all of you guys were on the second floor—wait a minute, the more important question is how did you get down so fast?! Shouldn't you be more careful?"

"Answering your first question, mother sensed darling's presence earlier and she quickly made her way down. I was a bit worried that something might happen so I chased after her."

"You should still be careful. What happens if you tripped or fell down the stairs?"

Serilla rolled her eyes and replied, "...Darling, I only became pregnant... I didn't become stupid, alright?"

"..."

It's been over a month since Serilla felt that she was pregnant so there still weren't any noticeable changes to her body except that she didn't experience her period this month so it was all but confirmed to everyone that she was indeed pregnant.

Since she hadn't experienced any noticeable changes to her body's condition, she would still be moving about recklessly and would sometimes be found training like usual which was something she honestly shouldn't be doing.

At least, that's what Cecil thought. He knew that his wife was pretty sturdy but that couldn't be said the same for the little life inside of her.

Seeing her husband's worried look Serilla giggled cheerfully before grabbing onto his arm and dragging him over to where her mother was at. Celia had walked out of the house and was now waiting for them at the veranda of the mansion.

"Seri, you didn't have to come," Celia said after seeing that her daughter had tagged along.

"No way, I'm still worried that you'll 'instinctively' swing your sword at my husband!"

"...tsk, I won't do that, alright? Well whatever, come Cecil, I'd like to have a word with you."

Even though this was technically his house, at the moment, he didn't feel like he was inside his own house since he was now the one being invited down to sit. After taking his seat, Celia pulled out her sword and placed it on top of the table in front of them.

"There, now that my sword isn't with me, you won't have anything to worry about, Serilla."

"..."

"Anyway, it's time that I have a long chat with your husband," Celia said before turning her attention onto Cecil.

The talk that ensued wasn't really anything too complicated or serious. All Celia asked was whether or not Cecil would be committed to her despite having another wife. Cecil answered honestly by saying that he would do everything he could to love and care for Serilla.

This earned him a genuine smile from Celia. She also asked him how he would back up his words, but this question honestly stumped him. Rather than giving her an answer, he replied that he'd simply show it through his actions.

Celia gave him a pleasant look and said, "Good answer, Cecil. If you had given me a long tirade of what you'd do, I might've just 'instinctively' cut you down. You see, I'm allergic to bullshit."

"..."

"I'd rather see you prove it with your actions! So, if you ever break my little girl's heart... my sword won't just 'instinctively' be swung at you. I'll hunt you down, you hear?"

"Y-yes, mother... Well, you won't have anything to worry about. I'll try my best to make sure that both my wives are happy."

"...That's good to know. Anyway, you two can go now. You both have my blessing as well as her father's," Celia said as she waved them away.

Cecil nodded at Celia and he took Serilla's hand and walked back into the house. Cecil turned to look back at Celia before walking in and saw that the expression on her face seemed to be joyful and yet sad at the same time.

He noticed that there were tears threatening to fall but after taking a closer look at Celia's face, he noticed that they weren't tears of sadness. It was more like she was overwhelmed by something and couldn't control her emotions which resulted in her tearing up.

Before he could continue looking for another second, Cecil immediately turned his head away after noticing Celia glaring back at him.

"By the way Seri, where is your dad?"

"My father is still back at Anglaria. He'll be teleporting over with the last batch of beastkin that'll be going through the gate."

"When was the last time the gate was activated?" Cecil asked.

"I think it's almost been a week... If I'm not wrong, this should be the sixth day."

"So they'll be coming tomorrow then?"

"Hopefully~ the banquet is tomorrow so I hope daddy will be there!"

"Hmmm... I'm just glad that your dad seems to be much more laidback than your mom... there were a few times I thought she would suddenly swing her sword at me..."

"Mom's just like that~ I remember when there was a time an upperclassman tried to court me. It didn't end quite well for him..."

"I could only imagine what it would be like if I was just a little bit weaker than your mother..."

"Oh don't say that, darling!" Serilla cheerfully said. "I'm sure she'd still accept you!"

"Well, I should get going now. I still have to go see my other mother-in-law..."

"Lady Anna came in with the second batch of people, but you were already away with Lulu by then. So she's been waiting for you two for quite some time now."

"I should get going then. Are you staying here to wait for your mom, or are you coming with me?"

"I'll stay here. You should go and reunite with your 'other' family," Serilla gently said.

Cecil nodded and made his way up to the second floor. When he got to the second floor's living room, he quickly found Lucia sitting in between Anastasia and her mother, Anna. The atmosphere between the 3 women was really comfortable and harmonious.

Cecil also noticed that there were others that came with Anna, but he didn't pay much attention to them.

"Mom, I'm back," Cecil said as he entered the room.

"Oh, Cel, you're here!" Anastasia and Anna said in unison. This caused the two women to laugh.

"Haha, well this is quite nice," Anastasia quipped up happily.

"Ufufufu~ why yes it is~" Anna added.

Cecil scratched his head and sat himself down on the couch across them.

"When did you get here, mother-in-law?"

"We arrived with the second batch of people coming over. You're father-in-law is going to be coming with the last group so we'll see him...tomorrow, I believe?"

"Yes, it's tomorrow."

"Hmhm~ just in time for the celebratory banquet~," Anastasia happily said. "Also, since the three of us mothers have agreed to it, we've decided to redo your wedding!"

"Eh?"

Seeing the questioningly look on his face, Anastasia took the liberty to clarify what they were going to do.

"Well, I heard from my daughters-in-law that your wedding ceremony was rather lackl.u.s.ter. I'm not going to go into the details of what I found unsatisfactory, but let's just say that I'm really dissatisfied with you, Cecil."

"..."

Anastasia then went on a long tirade of complaints before she finally said, "It's an important day for a woman so we decided to redo it since you didn't hold a proper ceremony. We're going to conduct it tomorrow so be prepared."

"W-what?!"

Seeing the stupid look on her son's face, Anastasia once more clarified, "You heard me. We'll be doing it tomorrow. The matrimonial ceremony won't have to take place again, but the celebration should still be done. It's perfect since tomorrow is supposed to be your homecoming banquet so we'll also officially announce that our family has taken in two daughters-in-law as well."

"Oh, it's just that then..."

"You're still going to be wearing a suit, Cel~" Lucia quipped up teasingly.

"...Tsk."

"What's with that disdainful look? We've already been planning this in the past month behind your back so there's no need for you to say anything. It's going to happen, Cecil," Anastasia declared.

Her words left no room for argument so Cecil didn't bother saying anything. Also, it wasn't like he didn't look forward to it. Even he was rather interested at the notion of seeing his two wives in their proper wedding garments.