The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 160 - Waking Up Early To Tangled Limbs And Plots

Chapter 160: Chapter 160 - Waking Up Early To Tangled Limbs And Plots

The first rays of dawn filtered through gaps in a set of window shutters. It painted a certain room in a soft, blue glow that spoke of a clear-skied sunrise. Elua stirred awake in the bed of her husband-wife and she almost wanted to cry in joy again.

At some point through the night, they had shifted their positioning. The swordswoman now lay on her back, her chest rising and falling with the ease of restful sleep. The heiress... was all but laying completely on top of her!

One of her arms was clutching at the far side of Qat’s exposed waistline. The thin nightshirt the tall teenager wore climbed up in that area as the illusionist hugged herself to the muscular form.

A slim leg was flung impolitely over her beloved’s pant covered thigh. Her head was buried into the girl’s rib cage - and she seemed to have been drooling on it. The reincarnator’s other arm curled north and hooked around the shoulder of her ’fortress’ as if to not be shaken off.

But beyond and above all that ’childish’ behavior was the calloused hand hugging onto El’s hip, even in the Yecine’s relaxed state.

After smacking her lips, she mentally shrugged away any embarrassment about her undignified sleeping position. In her past life, she had employed and refined techniques to need barely any rest at all. All Defiers viewed the last minutes requirement of *sleep* as just another weakness to overcome.

Tangled against her precious gem’s inner warmth, she couldn’t imagine wanting that kind of control again. The small girl’s body instinctively curled even closer and caused a soft sound of their clothes rubbing together. Her chin raised and pulled her neck back to an uncomfortable position, just so her eyes could trace the peaceful lines of Qat’s sleeping face.

She allowed herself to completely bask in the serenity rippling from the spirit of the ’heir’. The tendrils of her spiritual sense were lazily floating in all directions with much less... pointy ends. Usually they were curled and rigid with determination and loyalty.

Elua had never seen her beloved looking so tranquil and she wanted nothing more than to drink in the sight for hours more.

’Just a few more minutes?’

She pleaded with herself... but a *greater* desire convinced her ’good’ reason to win out over that desire. With a soft sigh, Elua untangled herself and carefully moved the hand off of her waist.

She crawled carefully over top of her spouse. She leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her Qat’s forehead. Then her nose... and the blonde’s spirit shifted slightly but she didn’t wake. A small smile twitched at her lips as if she was having a good dream.

’How can she make a face like that when I’m fighting to not keep kissing her until she wakes up? It’s not fair!’

She realized that her own urges were trying to trick herself, thinking that she could just give one soft kiss before leaving! Reluctantly, she began to extricate herself from the bed. She wrapped herself in illusions to fool anyone out in the halls as her bare feet touched the cold stone tile.

With one last lingering look at her husband-wife, that wonderful comfort and acceptance that had been offered to her... she turned to sneak out of the room she had made such a big deal out of sneaking into.

The corridors of the Yecine estate were quiet and chilly. The servants that had stirred for their morning duties were housed away from this family housing section. Elua navigated the now familiar enough paths to her designated room with her mind focusing on plans for the day and days ahead - mostly.

’Stop thinking about going back. Stop thinking that the chill you are feeling is a lack of Qat. Stop-’

---

As she approached ’her’ door, something caught the Goltbred’s eye that had not been there when she had left the night before. A piece of paper was folded crudely and shoved only halfway under the door. She knelt to retrieve it with curiosity easily eclipsing her caution.

Her senses didn’t consider it to be a trap, though it could have been placed by an attendant to the elders as a way to see if she had exited the room in the night. The heiress smiled at that possibility. If that *had* been their game, then they had waited longer for her to be asleep than she did for Qat!

It also meant they were being doubly cautious, as the same attendant hiding at a distance with eyes on her window was still at their long vigil.

Once inside the room, she unfolded what ended up being a note. Clearly childish writing covered the page. The letters were just that sort of uneven, emotionally hurried writing that she couldn’t see it as something an adult would do. Like the scrawl she’d seen before, in her last life, from getting too close to orphans.

Despite the crude penmanship, the message was clear:

/ GO AWAY UGLY WITCH. YOU DON’T BELONG HERE. /

Elua’s eyebrows rose happily in amusement. She turned the paper over and examined it closely for any more sources of intrigue. A smudge of ink on one corner caught her attention. It was a tiny partial fingerprint - small enough to belong to a child and possibly proving that it was done on their own.

’I don’t expect they would be so tricky as to think of details like this. Well, well... it seems I have a little admirer that wants to pull my hair and run away.’

She mused it over while considering the implications. While it was not as if she knew the entire family registry, she could makes some guesses already. A child in the Yecine household that was old enough to write but young enough for such poor penmanship.

She wouldn’t take the ugly part to heart, but it was a kid that could already have *something* against her personally. Whose father, perhaps, had let slip a description that painted her as a ’witch’. The pieces of the puzzle almost didn’t even need to fall into place to make out the picture.

Elua’s lips curved into a smile that held no warmth. This was a slightly unexpected development. But it was a thread she could pull at to unravel more of the Yecine family’s secrets. She had not cared so many years ago... why the deception of her Qat had even been called for.

’But they wanted to glare at us during the wedding - like the warhawks when two enemy clans joined their young rulers for an armistice. Now, why would the ones who made the marriage happen be so unhappy about it?’

A soft call from the cage she left her Skydancer in alerted her that it was hungry. She tucked the note into a hidden pocket of her satchel as her gaze swept the room. Nothing else was out of place.

It was still sparse. Clearly unused since her initial visit for them to show it off. Nothing more had been added to make it more comfortable or welcoming. Which was perfectly fine with her.

She pulled off her simple night dress and began to formulate reactions to what she might discover in the future. The heiress donned her silver wedding dress, modified so much with her ancient knowledge of miniaturized sigils.

She couldn’t help but feel a thrill of excitement. The ’nasty’ little note might just be a helpful key to understanding more about her beloved’s position in this duplicitous family. Perhaps it would even open the first door to securing Qat’s future in it.

’Thank you, little one. You might need to work more on your penmanship so you don’t get scolded, but you’ve just made things much more interesting.’

---

In a hidden room of the Yecine estate, a small group of elders had gathered in the early morning hours. Each had handled their first set of usual routine tasks and disciple training. One held a report from an attendant that had been tasked with monitoring their ’guest’ through the night.

"No movements were detected. Her sleeping form remained visible in the bed."

"And you’re certain?"

"The night guards passed by the area twelve times. Each time, they also took note of the same view."

The elder who had spoken handed the paper to Anper. His weathered fingers traced the neat columns of recorded times and observations. The number of security rounds had been increased by half for nothing.

"So she actually stayed in her assigned room. Interesting."

His voice held suspicion rather than satisfaction. The elders had also expected... something else - some sign of the girl’s true nature emerging when left alone within their domain.

"Perhaps we were too hasty in our assumptions about-"

Anper er Yecine cut off the younger elder with a chillingly sharp tone.

"No. This simply proves she’s cautious. More than you anticipated. More controlled."

Being complacent just because the wild animal inside your residence did not *maul* you on the first evening did not change it into a pet. He idly thought of his own two sons. Despite their strict upbringing and careful discipline, they still lacked that calculating edge he saw in the Goltbred girl.

Even his ’heir’ had never shown such natural manipulation of appearances and expectations - his daughter’s deception was entirely contrived by the elders in the room. Which is why the man had to respect Elua, in a twisted way, despite how he simply *knew* she was an enemy to his house and its values.

Because how could the offspring of Ondua be anything else?

"Continue the surveillance. For now, we should still increase security when she enters the estate. And make sure the night guard understands the importance of absolute accuracy in their reports."

The others filed out to get back to their days, but Anper remained. He stared at the neatly written times and descriptions like they would morph into a solution. Something about it all didn’t feel right to him - but then, nothing about that girl ever did.

’What game are you playing now, little witch?’