Chapter 11: Grandfather
“Jade-sama, may I step out for a bit?” Ruri asked as soon as she entered Jade’s office.
Jade was in the middle of a break from work, relaxing with a drink in his hand. He put his cup down and waved for Ruri to come over. She approached without any forethought, and once she was in front of him, he pulled her hand and cradled her in his lap.
“Wha? Huh?!” Ruri screamed. Jade’s abrupt behavior threw her into a panic. She wouldn’t have minded if she had been in cat form, but as a human she was far too self-conscious. She could feel her face flush immediately.
She tried to get off of him, but Jade firmly held her in place, preventing her escape. Their faces were much closer than when she was a cat. Jade’s face, smiling softly, was so close that she felt both happy and embarrassed to look directly at it. She could tell he was enjoying her reaction.
“Where are you going this time?” Jade asked.
“C-Chelsie-san’s house. I want her to experience the hot spring for herself, so I was going to invite her to the royal capital.”
“Chelsie’s, you say? That’s all well and good, but one thing, Ruri.”
“Yes?”
Jade suspiciously stroked her cheek, startling her. What on earth was wrong with him today? He normally would never do something like this.
“You’ve been leaving me behind too much lately, haven’t you? Do what you must with your hot spring, but if you abandon me for much longer, I’m going to want to lock you up.”
Ruri jumped in an almost exaggerated manner.
Jade fiddled with the dragonheart around her neck, saying, “I assume you already know the meaning behind this, right?”
“Erm, well...”
“I don’t care how long I have to wait, but don’t leave me waiting too long.”
Although she’d complained Quartz’s ear off about it, Ruri had never expected Jade to be the first to address the matter. He wanted an answer soon. But at least he wasn’t asking for it right away. Knowing that she had some time to think it over brought Ruri a tiny bit of relief.
Ruri decided to take the opportunity to ask Jade a few questions. “So, Jade-sama? The, um, person who becomes your mate will be your de facto queen, yes?”
“Yes.”
“What is the queen supposed to do?”
“Nothing.”
“What? Nothing? But isn’t the queen supposed to have a lot of responsibilities? I’m practically clueless, but things like...helping you in your work or entertaining other nations?”
“Well, a normal queen of a normal nation would be involved in diplomacy and national politics, but you’re a Beloved. Allowing a Beloved to get involved is out of the question. Your words are seen as the spirits’ words, meaning people would comply with whatever you say. If that were to happen, the political landscape would be utter chaos.”
Even if a political amateur were to propose an unnecessary policy, someone would normally shoot it down. But if said amateur was a Beloved, then no one could simply refute their suggestion. It would usher in a wave of political chaos. Barring Beloveds from politics ensured stability. No other country with a Beloved allowed them a say.
“Dragonkin are kings in the relationship anyway. They wouldn’t let their mates out without permission. There have even been kings who never let their mates out in public.”
“Are you talking about Quartz-sama, by any chance?”
“That’s right. Master Quartz kept his mate extremely sheltered. I believe Agate had met her before, but few ever saw what she looked like. I’ve never even seen her. But that’s not an uncommon occurrence for dragonkin.”
“Does that mean that you also operate the same way, Jade-sama...?” Ruri asked, even more frightened of possibly being confined to the castle.
“What, will you let me shelter you like that?” Jade asked, his lips turning up into a grin.
Ruri felt like a cat staring a carnivorous beast in the face, but she shook her head as hard as she could. “I’m not trying to deny the affection that dragonkin have toward their mates, but I think everything should be done in moderation.” She wanted to avoid total confinement if possible. She knew she’d try to escape no matter how fond of Jade she was.
“I see. Well, I’m always open to the idea if you’d like.”
“I-I’ll pass on that.”
Jade was only half-joking, but his comment had flustered Ruri. He chuckled and said, “I didn’t think that you’d stay still, Ruri. You can do whatever you want, however you want. Just don’t do anything too dangerous. And make sure not to forget me too much, of course.”
Jade didn’t seem to be as possessive as Quartz despite being from the same race. In fact, he knew Ruri well and always put her first. His request not to forget about him was somewhat sweet in its own way.
“O-Okay,” Ruri simply uttered, hot under the collar.
Jade’s face then moved closer and closer until his lips met her forehead.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
Ruri panicked at Jade’s abrupt gesture, her cheeks blushing. She really had no idea what was going on with him today. He was being extremely forward.
“What has gotten into you, Jade-sama? You’re acting strange today.”
“Master Quartz told me that I’m not getting my feelings across clearly. So I’ve decided to take a more proactive approach.”
“Quartz-sama, how could you?!” Ruri cursed. She wished she’d never talked to him about her love life the other day.
“I thought I should take it slow, which is what I’ve done so far. But if you want, I don’t have to limit myself like that.”
“No, please, take it slow!” Ruri said, her poor heart almost giving out. Even as she spoke, it was beating like a wild drum.
How did things end up like this? She had just come to ask for permission to go to Chelsie’s, but now she felt herself in mortal peril.
“I’ll be leaving for Chelsie’s now!” Ruri exclaimed, hopping off of Jade’s lap. He let her go without any resistance.
Once she left the room, she found Agate standing in front of her with a broad, suggestive smile. “What is it, Agate-san?” she asked.
“Dragonkin are very jealous beings, you know. You should be very, very careful. Still, I’m glad you two are on good terms.”
Ruri didn’t know what he’d heard from listening in, but she contained her urge to yell in embarrassment and instead rushed off without responding.
Ruri hopped aboard Kotaro and took to the skies. Once they were airborne, she remembered Jade’s kiss earlier and clutched her head in anguish.
“Is something the matter, Ruri?” Kotaro asked. Her strange behavior worried him.
“O-Oh, nothing,” Ruri said, choosing to fudge the truth rather than dare utter what had just happened moments ago.
Since Jade hadn’t said anything about the dragonheart until then, he’d caught her completely off guard. He wasn’t playing fair with his surprise display of proactive behavior, especially with that forehead kiss.
Ruri gently touched the spot his lips met and blushed. She was embarrassed to admit that part of her didn’t mind it in the slightest.
“He said that I could do whatever I want...”
Jade would surely accept Ruri no matter how she conducted herself. A tiny part of her thought it might be okay to be sheltered as long as it was Jade doing it—but she kept that secret.
She slapped her blushing cheeks to get herself together as Rin watched her in bewilderment.
Chi was back at the castle, but since Kotaro and Rin were with her, Ruri was going out without a dragonkin escort. She wouldn’t go to Chelsie’s with anyone other than the spirits in the first place, but she had been going into town so much lately that a dragonkin security detail had become the norm. She felt free for the first time in a long while.
Ruri had thought that a guard escort was over the top, but there was no arguing against it. She’d felt cramped, but seeing as how she had been assaulted once before, it did give her a vague sense of relief. However, her views remained the same as before, and she didn’t want to bring a host of soldiers on a casual trip to Chelsie’s house. She was glad that Jade hadn’t told her to bring guards along.
Kotaro was delighted by this. Ruri had been so busy with the hot spring lately that she hadn’t been able to spend quality time with him and the other spirits. Chelsie’s place would be free of disturbances. Ruri would talk to Chelsie, of course, but she could spend the rest of her time with him and the others.
After a few hours, they finally reached the forest where Chelsie dwelled.
Nowadays, Ruri had become so busy that she hadn’t been able to visit, so it was her first time in a long time seeing the scenery around her. Not a single thing had changed from when she’d called this forest her home. The scenery reminded her of her peaceful life in those days, instantly flooding her with nostalgia.
“Oh, Chelsie-saaan!”
Since only acquaintances would drop by a place this remote, Chelsie usually left the front door unlocked. Ruri ran right into the house without a moment’s delay. However, she saw something she didn’t expect—there were a lot of spirits around. She went into the back of the house looking for Chelsie, but instead she met an unfamiliar older man. She stopped dead in her tracks.
“Huh?” The surprisingly well-built older man looked at Ruri and furrowed his brow. “Who the hell are you?”
“Um, I might ask you the same question...”
Ruri first thought that she’d entered into the wrong house, but Chelsie’s house was the only house around, so that definitely wasn’t it. In that case, who was this old man?
“Me? I’m Andal. You could say I’m Chelsie’s husband of sorts.”
“Husband...” Chelsie had never been never married, meaning she was a single mother with three sons, including Claus. However, since she had children, she had to have had a partner. The partner in question was the former king of the Nation of the Beast King and Arman’s father.
“Are you the former Beast King?” Ruri asked.
“Aye, I am, but who are you? My kids and grandkids are all guys, so you aren’t any grandkid of mine.”
“I’m Ruri, sir.”
The old man placed his hand on his chin as if the name rang a bell. “So, you’re the ‘Ruri’ that Beryl spoke of, eh?”
“Huh?”
“Someone here?” asked another voice. It wasn’t Chelsie’s voice either, but another male voice.
Surprised that there were even more people here, Ruri turned around and her eyes opened wide in surprise. There stood an elderly man with blond hair, blue eyes, and a sculpted physique.
“Huh? Wha? What?” Ruri stammered in shock. “Grandpa?!”
“Ooh, my lovely granddaughter! How have you been doing all this time?”
Ruri’s grandfather, Beryl, came toward her with his beefy, muscular arms spread wide and embraced her firmly.
“Grk... Can’t...breathe...”
It was less a firm embrace and more a muscular stranglehold—one that was cutting off Ruri’s oxygen supply.
“I give, give,” Ruri said. She was starting to fear that her guts would pop out if the hug went on any longer. He let go of her and she breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought I was a goner...”
“Sorry, sorry. I was so darned happy that I squeezed a little too tight,” Beryl said.
Although it was more than just a little, now wasn’t the time to nitpick over that.
“Why are you here, Grandpa?!”
“‘Why’? Didn’t I tell you that I’d be coming to this world?”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant when did you come?! Why are you at Chelsie-san’s house?! Are mom and dad with you?!” Ruri questions came out in rapid succession.
“Shut up! What’s with all the damn commotion?!” Chelsie shouted, entering the room. “Oh, Ruri. You’re here?”
“Chelsie-saaan! Please explain what’s going on!”
Chelsie was about to ask what Ruri was talking about, but once she spotted Beryl, she figured it out immediately. “Okay, just settle down, child.”
Chelsie urged Ruri to take a seat and went to prepare a cup of tea for her. In the meantime, Beryl greeted the spirits.
“So, you two are Kotaro and Rin, are you? Neither of you had physical forms in the other world, so I had no idea.”
“Yes, it’s been quite some time,” Rin replied.
“Glad to see you’re doing well,” Kotaro added.
Rin and Kotaro had taken a trip to Ruri’s world to deliver a message before, so they were on familiar terms. But seeing as how they’d both left their bodies in this world before they’d left, Beryl didn’t pick up on who they were right away.
After drinking her tea and regaining her composure, Ruri turned to face Beryl once more. “Grandpa, exactly when did you get to this world?”
“Aah, when was it? Half a year ago, I believe?”
“Half a year ago?! What’ve you been doing all this time?!”
“I was wandering around, trying to get to the nation you were in, and that’s when I ran into Andal here. The two of us hit it off and went journeying together. Then he suggested I meet his missus before we set off to meet you. When we arrived, we learned that you had crashed here for a spell. So we accepted her hospitality and stayed here for a few days, hearing stories of your life here in this world.”
Ruri’s jaw was practically on the floor. “Why did you never tell me? You could’ve let me know right away if you’d used the spirits as messengers.”
Beryl had just as many spirits hanging around him as Ruri. She’d never seen any of them before, so she suspected they were her grandfather’s entourage.
“Well, I wanted to show up and surprise you, y’see,” Beryl said with a hearty laugh.
Ruri could feel herself crumbling on the inside. He was far too reckless, trying to reach her on his own in a different world without even relying on her. Even she would have keeled over dead in the middle of nowhere if it weren’t for Chelsie. She simply had to admire her grandfather’s tenacity for coming here with only the clothes on his back. It was unreal that he had been able to travel for half a year like that. Then again, perhaps his luck in meeting Andal along the way also played a part.
“Wait, why didn’t you just have them bring you to the Nation of the Dragon King when you came over here from the other side?” Ruri asked. It would have saved him half a year’s worth of trekking.
“They told me it’s because no one knows where the paths lead to. There was no guarantee I’d conveniently fall into the same place you were. I ended up close to a place called the Nation of the Spirit King.”
“Oh, right. Well, I’m glad you managed to make it this long safely.”
“There are people here who can see spirits, unlike in our world, y’know. They called me a ‘Beloved’ or whatever and set me up with food and shelter. Never had anybody worship me before, so you can guess my surprise. But I managed to get by thanks to it.”
“Spirit-based religion is big here in this world, yeah,” Ruri commented.
Beryl had conveniently landed in a place where the people could see spirits and worshiped them. If he had been transported to a nation with a population that couldn’t see spirits, like Ruri had when she wound up in Nadasha, then things would have ended up ugly.
“I’m glad you’re safe and sound, Grandpa, but what about mom and dad? Didn’t they come with you? Where are they?”
“Oh, we got separated when we came to this world,” he said, like it was no big deal.
Ruri leaned in, raising her voice. “What do you mean?! You don’t know where they are?!”
“I’m not sure why myself, but according to the spirits, as they were coming here, some kind of outside power shone, space distorted, and Riccia and Kohaku got dragged off. They’re somewhere here in this world, so relax.”
“How do you expect me to relax?! And why are you so nonchalant?! Those two are practically missing!”
Though his daughter and her husband had gone missing, you couldn’t tell from his calm demeanor. It almost seemed as if Ruri was the odd one here for yelling.
“Kotaro, can you search for them right away?”
“Mm-hmm. It’ll take a little longer since I don’t know where in the world they are, but I can do it.”
“That’s fine by me, so please, if you could.”
“Right away.” Not even Kotaro could search the entire world instantly, but she had no other choice but to rely on him.
“I hope they’re safe...” Ruri said, worried about her parent’s safety.
Anger started to set in. She was angry at her grandfather for not telling her something so important, especially since he could have easily done so if he’d wanted to.
“I can’t believe you, Grandpa! If you knew that’s what happened to them, why didn’t you tell me sooner? It’s been half a year! You don’t know what could’ve happened to them in that time!”
“Calm down, Ruri,” Beryl urged.
“As if I could!” Ruri snapped back, her tone getting edgier.
“Riccia is my daughter. A little something like this wouldn’t do her in. I didn’t raise her to be that soft.”
Ruri saw his point. Considering her mother’s personality, Ruri could imagine she was enjoying the situation.
“The real problem is Kohaku,” Beryl said, mentioning Ruri’s father. He was a straitlaced, high-strung man who was always being tossed and turned by Riccia’s off-the-wall antics.
“Well, I think he’ll be fine since Riccia is with him, but I worry if she’s putting him through the wringer.”
“Dad’s stomach must be killing him by now,” Ruri stated.
Not only were they in unfamiliar territory, but her father was much more delicate than her mother. Ruri worried about whether he could survive—survive her mother, that is.
“In any case, come to the castle, Grandpa. I want to introduce you to the Dragon King.”
“Ooh, your hubby, huh? Been achin’ to meet him.”
“He’s not my ‘hubby’!” Ruri exclaimed. “Who even told you that?!”
Ruri had no idea where he’d learned that or how he could have picked it up. Chelsie was the only person she could think of, but Ruri hadn’t even told her that she’d received Jade’s dragonheart. She had planned on having a nice long discussion with her about that today.
“The old-timers there sent over a letter.”
“Agate-san...!”
Ruri had almost forgotten about him. Had he really been going around telling people indiscriminately like that? She could understand that he was happy that Jade was finally in the mood for romance, but Ruri still hadn’t accepted his feelings, so she wished he wouldn’t report her every little move. Fortunately, the news hadn’t spread to the capital, but it was only a matter of time. She wanted to tell them to have some self-control. Gradually being forced into marriage seemed like a real possibility at this rate—a possibility that was giving her a headache.
“Just so you know, that’s not certain yet. Jade-sama and I aren’t in that sort of relationship.”
“Darn, really?” Beryl said, sounding disappointed.
“At any rate, I want you to meet Jade-sama. I’d like for mom and dad to meet him as well, but they’re missing. I need to report that to Jade-sama too.”
“Yes, you should report that to His Majesty,” said Chelsie.
Ruri nodded. “Indeed. So, Chelsie-san, would you come with me to the capital?”
“You want me to come too?” Chelsie asked.
“I built a hot spring in the capital and I want you to take a dip in it.”
“Hot spring, eh?” Chelsie said, not seeming very interested. There was the bathhouse that Ruri had built in the yard, but it was unlikely that Chelsie had used it at all. “Well, hot spring aside, I suppose I’ll take a trip to the capital. Master Quartz has returned, right?”
“Yes, he has.”
“I’d love to say my hellos to the man. Plus, the tournament to decide the king is around the corner, so I suppose I’ll stay for a bit.”
Ruri practically jumped for joy. She was happy to hear Chelsie could stay for an extended period of time, no doubt feeling similar to how Jade felt when Quartz came back to the kingdom.
Beryl added, “Oho, a hot spring?”
“Oh? There’s a hot spring in the Nation of the Dragon King too, is there?” Andal asked.
Both old men were more interested in the hot spring than Chelsie. Andal was also interested in meeting Quartz and seeing the tournament, so he decided to accompany her.
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