Vol 2. Chapter 8: Meet the Argentos! (2)

“So many pretty figures…” Said Ilya as we walked in the hallway leading to the family room, which had even more display cases filled with more stuff from my collection. But then she suddenly stopped, her gaze fixed on one of the many, many figures on display. It was a figure of my fully armored waifu but based on a design found in a special edition print drawn by a certain—and very final—fantasy JRPG artist. “Father, you made this one, right…?”

“Yeah, I did! I’m impressed!” So much so that I’ve raised both of my eyebrows! “How did you figure it out, Ilya?”

To that, Ilya smugly smiled again and went, “hihihi… Ilya learned Father’s hand when Father gave Ilya the pretty figure you made. Now Ilya can… recognize it anywhere…!”

“Ohhhh!” Such a perfect answer! I can’t help but clap in awe of my awesome—and very proudly posing—smiling volcano daughter! Still, to think that she only needed to inspect one of my garage kits to recognize my ‘signature’, or my ‘hand’ as she calls it—probably because of Roxxy—and I don’t mean the literal signature written under the base, but the set of details, decisions, and sculpting tics that make my ‘artistic fingerprint’ as a sculptor and so on. That’s nuts. AS EXPECTED OF MY DAUGHTER. SASUGA ILYA-TAN!

“Big Sis! Big Sis! Look! A bathroom! And Papa’s bra!” WHEN DID SHE?! I mean, said Celesia—the little gremlin—out of frigging nowhere, peeking out of the bathroom while wearing my bra on her head for no frigging reason whatsoever, making both me and Ilya chortle like—hahahaha! Sorry, it’s just too funny! Hahahahahaha! You know what? I ain’t even mad about the bra because…

“…I live for this, hahahahaha!”

“Hihihi, nooo little sis… That is not for your head… hihihihihi!” Poor Ilya, she tried to act like the responsible older sister but failed, hehehe.

“Hahaha… haha… oh you two… ahaha… I love you my bundles of joy. Never change.” Seriously, sharing these moments with them make it all worth it.

“Hihihi! We love you too, Papa!”

“Unn! We love you, Father…”

So went both Celesia and Ilya, which only made me smile even more.

“That said, put that bra back where you found it, Celesia. Heh.” Dammit, failed to hold back that chuckle.

“Aww… but my horns are comfy, Papa! Comfy!” So argued my bra-stealing daughter and while I can see her point, as her horns do in fact fit perfectly inside its cups, I’m afraid I’ll have to reject it.

“Even then, dearie. Put it back, please.” Just in case, I put my hand over my mouth to stop any more rogue chuckles from escaping as I spoke. That said, I’m still grinning like crazy.

“Fiiiiine… hihihihihi!” Laughing like the little imp that she is, Celesia went back into the bathroom and did as I asked. Now, she’d totally get mad if I were to tell her, but she resembled Nerinne a lot when she laughed like that.

Anyways, after Celesia came back to us, it didn’t take long for us to arrive at our destination since it was literally a few steps away. Thus, we were now in front of the white door leading to the family room.

“Before we enter, I want to tell you both a couple of things about this room, ok?”

“Mhm!” They both nodded.

“You see, this room is very, very special to me. If this whole place is already special, this room is special special. It’s a place where you will find lots of mementos of the people I cherish the most, our family. From photos to mementos and portraits of them, and many other things. It’s all very important to me. And it represents a tradition your great grandpa Ferrus started when he made a place like this in his house.” I said as memories of that room came back to me clear as day, down to the smell those old bookshelves and photobooks gave off. There gramps would tell me the craziest of stories about our family over some hot choco and cookies. I loved those days.

“Is great grandpapa Ferrus’ house far faaaar away?” Asked Celesia as she tried to sneakily open the door, thinking I wouldn’t notice.

“Yeah, it is.” I answered with a nostalgic smile as I caught said sneaky daughter in the act and put my hand on her head, stopping her. But rather than feeling any shame, the little, adorable imp stuck out her turquoise tongue at me before giggling devilishly once again. Heh, Gramps would’ve loved her. Still, she needed to pay for her crimes, so I booped her nose.

However, the consequences didn’t end there, for her elder sister, Ilya, further immobilized Celesia by hugging her from behind and putting her head on top of hers, all while never breaking eye contact with me with those beautifully observant eyes of hers as she gave me a thumbs up and a smile. Heh, gramps would’ve loved her too. After doing all of that, Ilya asked, “is great grandpa Ferrus far faaaar away too?

“He is. So much so that he’s somewhere we can’t reach. But don’t let that get you down, I’m sure he’s having the time of his life right now.” Nostalgia. Melancholy. Hope. These emotions painted over my words as I patted Ilya’s head. They were both an answer and a wish. For them. For me. “Going back to the topic of this Argento tradition, my father, your grandfather, Kalios, also continued it in the house I grew up in, even if his reasoning was a bit different. He’d say ‘world history is important. All the events, names, locations, all matters to our present as people. A family’s history is important too, but unless that family leaves their mark in the greater history of the world, only they will be the ones to truly remember it, honor it, or heed it as a warning. No one else.’”

“Grandpa Kalios sounds… very different from Father.”

“Pfft…! Ahahaha, you have no idea, Ilya! Hahahaha!” Oh boy, while I did try to do my best imitation of his stoic, somewhat detached expression and his overly serious, obsessive tone, I sure wasn’t expecting her to react like THAT after hearing it, hahaha! Just look at her face! Oh goddess girlfriend of mine, her face! I’m so taking a mental picture of this! Hahahaha! I’ve never seen her make such an offput expression!

“Grandpapa Kalios seems to like history a lot too! A lot!”

“Oh yes, Celesia, you sweetheart. You could even say that it’s his thing altogether. If you told him a date, and he’d not only tell you most, if not all the known historic events tied to it, but also the sources where he learned it, all by memory. He’s that into it.” To the point that I rarely saw him in the house because he was always busy researching this or that, not even after my sister was born. But there’s no way I’m gonna sour things by telling them that. Instead, I put my hand on the doorknob and went, “anyways, are you ready to see this room and meet the rest of the family, Ilya? Celesia?”

“Unn…!”

“Yes!”

“Then, welcome to my family room. Our family room.” With that, I opened the door and let them in.

Once inside, my dearies were greeted by walls adorned with photos of themselves, of Nerinne, Ere, Gabby, and the rest, as well as photos of the great time we had at the feast after Celesia came into our lives, the time we camped both outside, on our journey towards the capital of the Kingdom, and in the forest area of the castle with the girls, and many other moments. All extracted from my memories.

Of course, that’s not all. Not at all. There’s also photos of my time on earth and my family there, from the ones I shared blood with, to the ones who I’m proud to call family even without that. And in the center of it all, hanging tall on the wall, was a certain framed leather jacket with a big photo at the very top and lots of smaller photos around it, a jacket that immediately grabbed my daughters’ attention and made them go agape.

Before it, only one word escaped Ilya’s lips. “Woah…”

Meanwhile, Celesia went with two. “So cool…”

Both were in awe. Why wouldn’t they? It’s an awesome jacket on its own. Yet it’s also hers.

“Nana…” Taking but a few steps filled with memories of me following behind her, I approached the jacket and put the tip of my fingers on the glass frame before turning to my daughters, smiling, and lifting them in my arms so they too could get close to it. To Nana’s leather jacket. The one that she used in her days as a biker and all the other days that followed, with those beautiful metallic angel wings and the oath she followed written under them. The very same jacket she left me, left us, when she… passed away.

“Father…”

“Papa…”

Sumanai… I guess I got too emotional again and my daughters sensed it. Still, having them here with me makes the grief I’m feeling become something else, something better, as rather than shutting down in sadness and pain, I want to introduce my daughters to her, I want them to know her, so that’s what I’m going to do. “Sorry, dearies. I’m just so happy that I’m able to do this. See that photo above the jacket, Celesia? Ilya? The one with the woman with dark brown curly, fluffy hair surrounded by a black bandana with fiery flowers?”

“Mhm! I see her, Papa!”

“Unn! Ilya can see her too, Father… Who is she?” She asked as both her and her sister turned to me for answers.

“That’s the woman who raised both me and your aunty Nata with Gramps Ferrus.” I paused, pushing down a sob that threatened to rob me of my already trembling voice with the pride I had for being her grandkid. “The owner of this jacket and the coolest woman in all worlds. Your great grandma, Nana.”

“…!!”

Hearing that, their eyes went wide, and they turned their heads back to the photo before they melted my heart just like…

“Great grandma Nana…”

“Great grandmama Nana…!”

…that. Once again, the instant love in their voices. The wonder. The curiosity. The connection. It’s all there, Nana. Just like with Gramps, Father, and Nat. They already love you. By my darling, just look at them, they’re both reaching out to your jacket, to you. And I let them. Of course I do. Because I want them to feel the same warmth that I feel in my heart whenever I do the same, be it back on Earth or now in Arte, the warmth of the unconditional love you showed us time and time again. And seeing their smiles, I can say that they feel it too.

“Father… is great grandma Nana far faaar away too…?” Asked Ilya, her eyes fixed on Nana’s photo.

“Yeah, she’s totally having the time of her life with your great grandpa Ferrus in a place we can’t reach…” Once again an equal mix of nostalgia, melancholy, and hope found themselves entwined in my voice. Once again I answered, I wished. “But I can tell you that both Nana and Gramps Ferrus love you two very, very much even if we can’t meet them. Nana would always tell me, ‘be sure to tell my great grandchildren that their Nana loves them, ok? That I’m always watching over them, and that if they ever have a nightmare, they just need to call me, and I’ll be there to kick its ass. Same if your father misbehaves. Got it?’”

“Hihihi… got it! Nana will… kick our nightmares!” My volcano daughter after giggled, her hair turning into joyful, bright yellow.

“And papa too! Papa!”

“Hey! That’s only if I misbehave, Celesia!”

“Hihihihihi!” They both laughed… these imps of mine...

“Haa… seriously, heh.” Are you seeing this, Nana? I know that you probably aren’t, you probably are already in your next life in some other world, as it should be after a normal, non-divinely accidental death. But if you are, doesn’t this make you smile? I actually got to deliver the words that I thought you told me just to mess with me… And here we are, having a laugh because of them. Because of you. Most importantly—“to think that even back then she knew that I’d get to know you one day. Ilya. Celesia.” In that moment, my daughters hugged me, filling me with even more joy. “Same goes for Gramps Ferrus.”

“And what was his message, Papa? What was it?” asked Celesia after rubbing her cheeks with mine.

“Hmm, it’s not a concrete message like Nana’s”—he left us before I reached the age of being teased about that—“but there were times when he was teaching me something where he’d phrase things in a certain way. Like, he’d go, ‘be sure to get this, Auros. You have to be able to teach this to someone as little as you, ok?’ Or, ‘good, good, be sure to pass this on when the time comes’. And stuff like that. He never said it outright, but now that I’m your dad it’s quite obvious.”

“And what did he teach you, Father…?”

“Oh Ilya, what didn’t he teach me.” I made a big, proud, nostalgic smile. “From reading and writing to swimming and fishing, he taught me so many things that it’d take me hours to list. But of all those things there’s one that you two have enjoyed the most. Cooking. He’s the one who taught me how to cook most of the stuff I’ve made for you. The rest I mostly learned from the recipe books he collected over the years. One could even say that you’ve been eating Gramps Ferrus cooking all this time. Heck, whenever it’s my turn to teach you how to cook something, I teach it the same way as he taught me.”

And yes, I have to wait for my turn to teach them cooking because Louise, Bertia, Jules, Gail, Allegra, and even Kris love to teach them too.

“So, what do you think, my little lights? Was he a good teacher?”

“The best! The best! Thanks to him Papa makes the yummiest brownies!” Replied Celesia before conjuring her spatial coloring book once again and teleporting a brownie from the kitchen, which she devoured right then and there before nodding, pleased. “Mmm! The yummiest! Yes!”

“The best… cookies too! And pancakes…! And lumpias…!” Answered Ilya with not just the most recent thing she ate, but also some dishes she really, really loves too. Still, you hear that, Gramps? It’s not just me; your great grandchildren also think that you’re awesome.

“Ah! Is that great grandpapa Ferrus, Papa? The one in the photo carrying Nana like a princess?” Celesia pointed at a photo to the right of the main Nana one, a photo of them in a parking lot doing exactly what my dearie said.

Of course, there’s more to it. Nana was in her full-on biker outfit, grinning like someone hyped to hell and back, and making a horn sign with her hands, all while being carried by a man you could call her polar opposite. He was a plain, unassuming, glasses-wearing light-skinned man with short, black straight hair wearing a simple polo shirt and jeans. I wouldn’t blame you if you thought that he was cosplaying a person whose name rhymes with Lark Ment, because yeah that’s how he looked, down to his very build. Behind them were Nana’s bike and Gramps muscle car. You can bet they were called an odd couple a lot of times back then, but for me they’re the best.

“Papaaaaaaa! Nuuu! Don’t get lost in your thoughts again! Answer my question! Answer it! Pleeeeeeeeaaaaase!”

“AH! SORRY! SORRY! I’M BACK! I’M BACK! You can stop shaking my head now, Celesia! I don’t want to get dizzy while carrying you two…!” I said… and phew… she stopped… Still… “Sorry for getting lost in thought again, dearie. As for your question, yeah. That’s indeed Gramps Ferrus when he and Nana were younger. Actually, I think they were around my age at the time that photo was taken, so 24 or 25. Something like that. If memory serves me right, they were at a music show in one of Nana’s favorite bars. It ended up turning into quite the story, but I think it’s too early for you to hear it.”

“Wha…?!” Shocked Ilya is shocked.

“Nuuuuu! Tell us! Tell us!” Tantrum-throwing Celesia threw a tantrum.

And I, spoiling father Auros, folded instantly and spoiled my daughters as if I hadn’t planned to from the start and I was just messing with them. “Alright, alright, I’ll tell you. It’s the story about their first bar fight together.”

Hm? I shouldn’t be telling children about bar fights, you say? I mean, this one is tame compared to some of the tavern fights they’ve read about in some of Arte’s legends and fiction. Remember, iseakai + fantasy tavern + combat ready peeps= crazy fantasy tavern fights. Or the sparring fights between Ere, Kris, and Gabrielle ahahaha… Seriously, when they get too into it, they REALLY get into it… Anyways, let’s start. “It all begins with someone who didn’t like Nana very much.”

“Why…?” Asked Ilya, ever the curious one.

“Because your great grandmama was someone who, along with her gang—I mean, her team, would help kids, sometimes as little as you, to get out from dangerous situations involving very, very mean people. The kind that would hurt them, make them steal or hurt others, among other evil things. In other words, villains. And to help those kids she’d have to deal with those villains most of the time. Be it by cooperating with the local… err… guards, or by using other, more direct approaches. One way or another a villain would be dealt with, and a kid would be rescued.”

Hearing this, my daughters gasped. Not because they were unaware of people’s capacity for evil and now they were shocked—as they’re very aware of that, especially after seeing what Xol did—but because of something else. Something much more positive. Something exciting for them.

“That means…! Great grandmama Nana is a hero like Mama and you, Papa! Right, big sis?! Right?!”

“Unn…! A hero…! Like Aunty Euphie and our big sisters too…!”

“Hehe, yeah, that’s it. That’s what she was. For many, many a kid. But that also meant that her job was very, very dangerous, as she made a ton of enemies for it. After all, villains don’t like it when you mess with what they think is theirs to exploit, or their people, or them. When that happens, they can, and will, lash out until the threat is gone. Especially if you hurt their pride. And the person that didn’t like her was the brother of one of those villains, one she had already dealt with, so he had quite the grudge.”

I’d later come to know just what kind of things that person did, suffice to say… it wasn’t just petty stuff. And he deserved every single bit of what happened to him after he was dealt with by Nana and her gang. Of course, this lil extra lore will stay between us. No need to tell the girls. Moving on.

“At first, everything was alright. Everyone was enjoying the show, the drinks, and even the food, which was surprisingly good according to Gramps Ferrus. But then, as the show went on, and this person had more and more drinks, he became…” I paused and looked at my daughters, waiting for them to finish my sentence.

“…drunk!” Said Ilya, nailing it.

“Dumb!” Said Celesia, nailing it as well.

“Correct on both fronts! Well done! Your prize… moaaar kisses!” I declared as I immediately delivered unto them said reward, making them giggle. “Now very drunk, and thus very, very dumb, he tried to start a fight by yelling all sorts of bad things at your great grandmama Nana, prompting everyone else in the venue to ask him not ruin things in an equally impolite. And that’s putting it mildly, as there were lots of super bad words being thrown on both sides, with some having been unheard of by Gramps Ferrus up until then.”

“Like which?”

“You know, like fuuuuuuuooooaahhh! Celesia! You little sneak! I almost said it!” The audacity of this lil gremlin! I may be smiling, but holy crap is my heart beating like crazy!

“Hihihihihihihi!” Look at that teethy, devilish grin of hers again! She knew full well what she was doing!!

“Bad Celesia… Bad… No tricking Father… No.” And here comes Ilya with the big sister admonishment! Finger waggle included! She’s such a good girl!

“But what if… cookie?” Celesia countered by pulling out a cookie from her spatial coloring book and showing it to Ilya while making a face worthy of a shady negotiator—wait, is she trying to bribe her sister?!

“…” AND SHE’S THINKING ABOUT IT! NO ILYA! DON’T WAVER!! DON’T FALL TO TEMPTATION!! YOU HAVE TO HOLD FAST! ALSO…!

“Celesia Argento! Where did you learn to bribe people with food? I can’t imagine your Mama OR your Mother teaching you that. Nor me for that matter.” Yep, I’m very confident about that. After all, I’d always check twice to make sure that neither of them were nearby whenever I did it.

“I learned it from big sis Sophie! Big sis Sophie! She used food to stop big sis Jules from telling Mama that she was sneaking off to the lake for a fishing break!”

“…” If I wasn’t carrying Ilya and Celesia, I’d be facepalming right now… Of course it was the most likely suspects to bribe and be bribed with food… Also, this whole scene? Nana would be laughing her ass off, I assure you. Gramps too. Anyways, after letting out a somewhat heavy sigh and shaking my head, I said, “I’ll have a talk with those two later. As for you, young lady, two things. Food bribes only work with friends, and you shouldn’t be doing stuff where you end up needing to use them, including trying to trick your Papa into saying bad words, ok?”

“Ok!” Said Celesia with a sincere face that she looked like an angel that has taken my words to heart. Still, I’ll be watching you, my lovable mini-dragon.

“As for you, Ilya. You need to work on your bribing resistance. I saw you waver a little there…”

“…unn.” That was quite the guilty ‘unn’ from her… She’s even hanging her head in shame…

“But you didn’t fall for it in the end, so lift your head with pride and claim your reward! As in, you can eat the cookie now, Ilya.” I motioned at Celesia to give her the cookie with a head tilt, and she happily gave it to her.

“Yay…!” And there she goes, eating the cookie like an adorable hamster!

“Good girl, heh. Now, what do you think happened next in the story?”

“The meanie… kept being a meanie?” Said Ilya after she stopped biting on her cookie and tilted her head slightly, adorably so.

“That’s right. Despite everyone’s warnings, that guy kept yelling things at Nana, but she just kept ignoring him, and when he saw that that wasn’t working, he went for Gramps Ferrus. Among the many insults he threw at him, the one that Gramps remembered the most was him being called a ‘wet parchment office guy who meant nothing in a fight’, with lots of bad words sprinkled in, which I won’t say, Celesia.” I turned my gaze at Celesia, who just smiled while avoiding eye contact with me, acting all innocent, which made me chuckle. “Heh, that’s when Uncle Larry, the redheaded, prince charming guy with the black leather jacket in the third picture to the left—”

“That one…?”

“Yep, that’s the one, Ilya. He’s a con”—I can’t say that—"ahem, he’s a convincing specialist.” Yep. Much better. “That means that he’s someone who’s, well, good at convincing others. He even taught me how to read and persuade people. So it should’ve been easy for him to defuse the situation by talking the guy down, just as I’ve seen him do with others many times. But when he tried to do that here it didn’t work. Maybe he wasn’t that experienced back then, maybe that meanie was just that angry and drunk, who knows? Either way, Uncle Larry got punched in the face instead. And well… things went crazy after that.”

“Fight! Fight! Like in the books!” Celesia shook her arms in excitement, eager to listen to what equated to the crazy tavern fight of this story. Showing she was a worthy granddaughter of a certain Saintess who wanted to fight me the second she saw me… and Nana.

“Mhm, a big one! It even had background music since the band didn’t stop playing either. Gramps Ferrus described the whole thing as something surreal since everything went down so fast. One second everything was alright; the next people were fighting everywhere, and things were being thrown from all sides. And Nana… Nana was no longer beside him. Instead, she was aaaaall the way down where that drunk guy was, and she was beating him to a pulp without missing a single punch. However, she did miss something. That guy had brought friends with him, and one was gunning for Gramps Ferrus… with a heavy steel chair.”

Hearing this, both Ilya and Celesia gasped, their gazes fixed on me. “…!!”

“Luckily for her, and Gramps Ferrus, she too had brought friends with her. Besides, Uncle Larry who was sprawled out on the floor. And one of those friends was Uncle Pedro, the big tough-looking guy beside Uncle Larry in the photo. He was the Kris of Nana’s team, the muscle, the toughest of the bunch and someone who wouldn’t say no to a good fight. He was also very friendly and a master at making the thickest, most mouthwatering diner pancakes you’ve ever tasted.” Man, I’m drooling by just speaking about them. They’re that good!

“Even better than yours, Father…?” Asked Ilya in complete disbelief. She can’t believe someone can beat her dad’s cooking, huh? Aww, what a way to keep melting my heart.

“Heh, I may act like it, sweetie, but I’m not arrogant enough to say that my pancakes are better than his or Gramps’ Ferrus for that matter. Just like you two, I still got lots to learn about lots of things, and that includes pancakes. Although, Uncle Pedro’s are of a somewhat different kind. I’ll teach you all about them when it’s my turn to teach you two to cook again, alright?”

“Unn… Alright… But Ilya still thinks that Father’s pancakes are the best…! They are fluffy-fluffy and yummy-yummy!”

“I think so too, Papa! I think so too!”

“Aww thank you, sweeties…”  I sounded very calm there, but here, inside my head, it’s more like: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I KNEW THIS WAS COMING AND YET, THOSE WORDS ARE SO EFFECTIVE! IF ME MELTING WAS LITERAL, I’D BE A PUDDLE RIGHT NOW! “Now, where was I? Ah, right! So when that guy’s friend was about to hit your great grandpapa Ferrus with a steel chair, Uncle Pedro, who was fighting multiple of that guy’s friends at the time, yelled at him to look out with everything he had. He was so loud in fact that Gramps said his voice cut right through the music and made everyone turn around.”

“Uwaa… Uncle Pedro roared…” Said Ilya in awe as—

“GAOOOOO!” … … …Auros.exe has encountered an error and stopped working. Please wait. Rebooting. Rebooting. Ilya and Celesia roared together and it was too cute. So cute that this feels like an isekai cheat. Still, I must continue before my mind crashes. What? It already crashed? Oh dear… even more reason to move on then!

“I-Indeed! Just like that! So you’d think that after such a mighty roar Gramps Ferrus would’ve had enough time to at least barely dodge out of the way, but nope! Rather, he only managed to turn around a bit and raise his arm to block it. Now dearies, I must emphasize that the chair that was going to hit him was really, really heavy. Nana even told me that it was one that you absolutely needed to dodge if you wanted to get out of that place walking. And that just the thought of blocking it was pretty dumb, to say it in the prettiest of ways.”

Celesia piped up, her interest piqued, “did Nana use bad words when she told you that, Papa? Did she?!”

“Oh not just then, she always had quite the potty mouth. That said, you shouldn’t follow her example, you hear me? She’d tell you something like, ‘I talk like this ‘cause I’m big enough to deal with whatever comes from it. You, on the other hand, aren’t, so no bad words for you until yer older and can’t get grounded!’ So, wanna get grounded?” I asked with an evil smile.

“Nununununu!” Heh, look at her shake her head like crazy. That’s as clear a no as any. Hopefully that should be enough to nip things in the bud regarding her interest in bad words. Though, just in case, I also turned my gaze to Ilya, and she too shook her head like crazy too. Heck, if this was an anime, her mouth would’ve been an ‘x’.

“Good. Now, despite what Nana said, and as Gramps Ferrus said, he only had time to barely turn around and raise his arm, nothing more. So he did the best with what he had and made sure to protect his head at the very least, just like Miss Gabby tells you to do in her self-defense classes.” They both nodded at that and did their basic martial high guard while giggling. Adorable. “That’s when he heard the person attacking him say, ‘here, have a seat!’, and, at the same time, Nana screamed his name, obviously distressed. Then SLAM! The venue went deadly silent and Gramps Ferrus… Gramps Ferrus had been hit.”

Hearing that, their eyes went wide, and this time there were no interruptions or questions. No, they clearly wanted to know what happened next and they wanted it now. And I obliged them, of course.

“When it happened, everyone thought that Gramps Ferrus was done. Both Nana and Gramps sure did. But, weirdly enough, everyone ended up incredibly shocked as Gramps Ferrus was not only still standing, but he had effectively tanked the whole thing, and then, almost instinctively, used his other hand to give his shocked assailer one rock solid punch right in the face, knocking him out cold. And if that wasn’t enough, he then caught that dude by the shirt AND the falling chair he had let go off, sat him on it, and said, ‘no thanks, you can have it’.”

“So cool…!!” Ilya immediately exclaimed, ears wiggling and both her eyes and hair shining with an incredible combination of shades of red, yellow, and green as her amazement, excitement, and admiration for Gramps Ferrus’ badassery all reached new highs.

And Celesia wasn’t that far behind, because her wings and tail just kept flapping and waggling as she went, “Gramps Gramps Ferrus is so awesome! Awesome!!”

“Right?!” As for me, I had a big grin plastered all over my face, as it feels so nice to see my daughters be as amazed as I was when Gramps told me that story. “And the crowd from back then agreed wholeheartedly. Most of them went nuts when that happened. Even the band dedicated a song to him because of how cool that was. Now, was Gramps Ferrus exaggerating to look even cooler in my eyes? Maybe. Maybe not. Nana never called him out on it. And I for one will never doubt him as I can totally see him do all that.”

“But wasn’t he hurt, Father…?” Asked Ilya worried, having remembered that Gramps still took the hit, and in turn, reminding Celesia of that, making her look at me while clearly wondering the same thing.

“He was, but nowhere near as hurt as everyone had thought he’d be and that’s including himself. He told me that when he got hit he readied himself for a world of pain, but when it happened, he only felt as if he had been hit by one of his peers in his college boxing club. He then—”

“What’s boxing, Papa?” Celesia’s hunger for knowledge attacked again and so she interjected after raising her hand. Some might get angry at all these interruptions. Me? Nah. I’ll never grow tired of them wanting to learn stuff and me trying to give them as best an answer as I can. Case in point.

“A combat sport where you use just your fists to fight against another person under a series of rules until a winner is decided. You could call it a martial art… maybe. I’m not entirely sure. We can ask Gabby and the rest for their thoughts on that later though. I’m sure we’d learn quite a bit. What do you think?”

“Yes! Let’s! Let’s!” Celesia answered immediately, never missing a chance to learn more about something she’s curious about, heh.

“Alright, we’ll do that later. Be sure to remind me.”

“I will! I will!”

“You too, Ilya.”

“Unn…!”

“Now, continuing with what Gramps was telling me about how getting hit by that chair felt like being hit by one of his peers in his college boxing club. He then laughed and said, ‘back then I was always being told that I had a sturdy body, but who could have guessed that it was that sturdy? Good thing it was because otherwise I would have embarrassed your grandmother.’

“Heh, that was typical of Gramps, putting Nana above everything else because of how much he loved her. But yeah, there’s nothing to worry about, we Argentos are strong and sturdy!” I said proudly. And yes, I’m totally ignoring the shady fox-cosplaying otaku all the way in the back row shouting about how I got splatted by a divine pawn piece. Because that’s in a whole different category dammit!

“Strong!” Ilya adorably raised her tiny arms to show off her strength.

“Sturdy!” Celesia cutely made a cross with her tiny arms to show off her sturdiness.

“Hahaha, that’s the spirit!”

“Oh…! Was that the end of the story, Father…?” Ilya asked.

“Nah! The fight continued after that, both Nana’s and her friends’ morale was through the roof after all. Even more so her friends’ since they still had some healthy worries about my grandfather being able to handle the baggage that came by associating with them, but those doubts vanished after what happened, and there they were, all fighting side by side as the music kept playing. Gramps even said that, at one point, it felt like he was dancing with Nana as they dispatched more of that guy’s friends together. One grabbing some poor sod so the other could punch it or trading opponents in the blink of an eye. They were in the zone. The world was theirs and they were each other’s everything.

“And the guys? They tried everything to hurt them. Including using the weapons they had with them. But were they able to use them? Nope. Nana, Gramps, Uncle Pedro, and the two ladies beside him in the photo, Aunty Karin—the black-haired one with sunglasses—and Aunty Jess—the redheaded one with that big jacket and bag—all took care of them before they had a chance to pull them out. Almost like when Gabby caught Kris unaware and stopped her from using her sword in that one sparring match, remember?”

“Unn…! Ilya remembers…! Miss Gabby sent… big sis Kris flying that time…!”

“It was funny! Funny! She went fwooooosh!” Added Celesia as she reenacted the ‘fight’ with her hands and quickly sent flying one of them.

“Well, maybe not to that extent, hehehe. That said, the fight ended once the guards arrived and arrested just the meanie and his friends, as everyone testified that they were the ones to blame. Meanwhile, the show continued even after all of that, and both Nana and Gramps told me it was a night to remember. Gramps told me that by the end of it, Nana scolded him for not evading the chair, but she was also very happy because he was ok and he had shown everyone that her man was no slouch. She was so happy in fact that she gave him a big kiss. Both told me it was then that they knew. They wanted to marry each other. They proposed to each other two weeks after that.”

“Aww… Happy ending…” Ilya smiled and clapped softly, so pleased even her hair turned pastel in tone. “Great Grandma Nana and Great Grandpa Ferrus… their love is like Father’s and Mother’s… Warm and shiny. Like fire…!”

“Ah! Ah! It’s also like Papa’s and Mama’s too! A hero Knight and her very strong Partner! They’re the best team! The best!” Celesia grinned while her tail and wings flapped and wiggled like crazy.

“So you liked the story, I take it?”

“Unn…! Ilya liked it very much…!”

“Me too! Lots and lots!”

“Hehe, that makes me so, so happy, my little lights. And you can bet that both Nana and Gramps would’ve been overjoyed to hear the way you think about them and their love. Now, I bet you two want to stretch your legs after all of this, so here you go.” Thus, after giving them a quick hug, I crouched and put my daughters back down. “Explore this place to your heart’s content. If something else catches your eye, just ask me and I’ll tell you everything about it.”

“Unn…!”

“Ok, Papa!”

With that, both of my daughters resumed their exploration of the family room, only for one of them to find something that grabbed her attention in mere seconds, seeing how her hair lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Little sis! Little sis! Look…! Cat!” Said Ilya as she enthusiastically pointed at the photo of a very, very familiar white cat with black stripes and icy blue eyes.

“Aw! It looks so fluffy! Fluffy!! What’s its name, Papa?!”

“Oh, her? That’s Lyra. That’s how she looked like when she lived with me far far away.” Oh yes, I just said that. Why? Because…

“…?!”

“Hahahahahaha!”

…shocked daughterus going agape in shock will never not be funny! Still, I gotta stop laughing and come clean.

“Hehehe… ok, I’m joking, I’m joking, hehehe!”

“Father…”

“Papa…”

Oh dear, they’re staring daggers at me, heh.

“Stop looking at Papa like that, heh. I’ll tell you. Her actual name is Char, short for Charlotte. She was the most refined lady in the house. Your grandparents adopted her a few years before I was born, and she was a very, very loving fixed presence in the house for quite a while after that. When I was a kid, she looked after me in her own ways. And then she helped me deal with your aunty Nata when I was taking care of her on my own. Well, when she wasn’t getting her fur painted on by her, heh. Like in that pic over there.” I pointed at a picture to the right from where they were. It showed a very unamused Char with lots of scribbles all over her fur, making my daughters giggle and blowing away their annoyance at me.

“Tell us more, Father…” Ilya tugged at my shirt softly. Once. Twice. It was subtle, but that was her way of saying that she REALLY wanted to know more.

Meanwhile, Celesia was not that subtle about it. She was jumping up and down. “Yes! Tell us more, Papa! More!”

“Alright, alright. You got it. No need to insist that hard you two, heh.” I chuckled as I ruffled their hair. “Oh the memories… She was always the first to greet me when I came back from school and she’d always see me off in the morning before getting back into the house on her own. She also loved to snuggle with me while I read, asking for pets or just spending time with me. Gramps would carry her everywhere like a baby and she acted like one with him. And later on, her and Nana became inseparable. ‘Two fine ladies against the world’, she’d say. As for your Aunty Nata, well, she was the victim of Char’s prankish side. Probably her revenge for Nat’s toddler antics. All in all, she was more than a pet; she was part of the family.”

“Is she far, faaaaar away too…?” Ilya looked up at me, and her eyes tell that she… probably knows what ‘far away’ means in this case.

“Yeah. She’s with Nana and Gramps.” When she passed away in her sleep that one day of summer… we were all devastated. Even my father, as detached and stoic as he is, teared up. And my mo—hm?

“Papa, but the people in the picture with Char don’t look like Great Grandmama Nana and Great Grandpapa Ferrus. Who are they?” Asked Celesia suddenly while both tugging at my shirt and pointing at the couple that were with Char in the first picture.

“You don’t recognize them?”

“Nu.” She shook her head.

“Ilya?”

“M-m.” She too shook her head.

“Heh, well, you already heard about one of them. The man is your grandfather, Kalios. And the woman there is your grandmother, my mother, Dahlia.” The one I saw less than my father, and that’s saying something.

To be continued… (cue adorable mini comic of Celesia’s antics and the reactions of Auros and Ilya)