The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 170 - Being In A Hurry Can Lead You To Forgetting Things

Chapter 170: Chapter 170 - Being In A Hurry Can Lead You To Forgetting Things

The door to the bedroom clicked shut behind them. Qatrand kept one arm firmly around Elua’s waist, holding the girl tight. She gripped the door handle with the other hand tightly, not yet turning to face her small wife who had *not* stopped staring at the side of her face.

Her spiritual tendrils were still wrapped around the smaller girl’s limbs. She had done it to keep her a bit more docile and prevent any prank filled squirming... but the brunette hadn’t done anything at all on the walk.

The ancient cultivator didn’t fight against the restraints. If anything, she melted into them just like before, though this time with clearer intent. That she was leaving everything to Qat.

The only time she even moved was when she first arranged herself by wrapping her legs tight, pressing a cold and smooth object into the Yecine’s chest, and crooking a hand to hold on to the muscular swordswoman’s neck.

Pigeon-blue eyes glanced down at the mirror pressed between them. The fact that she bothered bringing it was a reminder of whatever discovery she had made. Considering her wife had described to her the intent to look for the culprit of her restlessness, it seemed like it had a link.

"That..."

The blonde’s voice came out far lower pitched than intended. It made it far too clear how much she had been affected. Even if she knew her El and her spiritual sense would know the truth, it was better to keep control of herself where possible!

She took a breath and started again.

"That wasn’t a very fair statement."

She could feel Elua’s intense amusement through their connection after she spoke. There was also something deeper - a genuine uncertainty about which of the two paths Qat would choose. The reincarnator wondered if the teenager would be more interested in her safety or her happiness...

’She promised to protect and cherish. What happens if both are in a moment of conflict...?’

The heiress pressed her face against Qat’s collarbone and breathed out into her neck before speaking.

"It’s adorable that you expect me to play fair, my ’fortress’. You might see me as someone with a lot of advantages, but I always see myself as *against* great odds."

Her hand reluctantly wiggled the mirror to make her point. Elua really, really felt like her limbs shouldn’t move too much while her precious gem was ’emotionally’ squeezing onto them. The gentle, *adoring* restraints were almost as good as kissing... as it made her spirit roil in that same wonderful confliction - the ’torture’ of what could be and the ’pleasure’ of what is.

The blonde closed her eyes and snorted out an exhale as she let go of the handle. Her voice was firm and resolute, if quiet.

"I want both."

The tendrils wrapped around her limbs tightened briefly, as if Qat was unconsciously emphasizing her point through their connection. The fragments in their chest pulsed with two kinds of ’surprise’. The ancient cultivator hadn’t expected such a direct assertion of desire from her husband-wife.

’That felt better to say than I thought.’

The tall girl ignored the strangely ordered mess in the room as she brought the girl and sat down on the edge of her bed. Qatrand peeled the confused and expectant brunette off of her side and helped her lay comfortably with her head on her lap.

’This is nice in its way, but it’s less warm skin contact now!’

While the Goltbred complained inside, the Yecine held onto the obsidian mirror with a slight grimace. She waved it slightly and looked down at the girl who had let go of it so easily this time after holding it tight all the way here.

"You’ve asked me plenty this evening to make you a deal. Explain your discovery and... after that we can kiss until your father interrupts us."

The quickly babbling girl had to be stopped repeatedly with more questions for the other one to make sense of it all. Of course, she was speaking that fast on instinct so that their meeting lips would happen sooner. There was also the obvious intent to make it so that there was more time... before they were caught.

Yet there was a buried scheme underneath all of that due to the loose promise. Her Qat might not find it strange if *oops*... her father thinks he checked and saw nothing when he ’passed by’.

’At least we will kiss for a long time before she gets suspicious~’

---

Many miles away, a woman sat cross-legged in her small apartment. Her eyes were closed in concentration as she readied her Astralism. Her brother’s sudden request still rolled around in her mind - a private contract, off the official records.

Someone in the Coiled Serpent Guild wanted a strange spiritual disturbance to be investigated without drawing attention. Sevra had built enough of a reputation over the years in certain circles, but her connection to the Shadow Whisker Sorority meant that things like this couldn’t go directly to her.

That’s why she relied on Tarem to bring her interesting and well paying *discreet* work.

Her consciousness separated smoothly from her body as her Walk techniques activated. The ’invisible’ and ethereal form of the scout shot through the walls. It climbed over the height of the rooftops and raced in the direction her brother had specified.

’You owe me for this, dear brother. Especially after making me sound *that* desperate in your letter to the client.’

The long distance meant little when traveling as pure spirit separated from her body. Her avatar slowed at the edge of a dense forest section and she hovered looking down at it. Something about the area felt wrong and twisted in ways that made her spectral form shiver.

Sevra drifted closer, careful to maintain her form’s cohesion as being dispersed and having to recover was never fun! There were only a few jobs it had happened on, but it had taught her caution. Whatever had happened in that location had left traces that seemed to actively resist her spiritual investigation.

The sort of ’barrier’ in the forest wasn’t fresh or old. It also wasn’t quite like anything she’d seen before. It was like trying to peer through oil-slicked water, except the oil kept trying to both merge and tear at her searching spirit.

’Is this... spiritual contamination? So a cultivator set this up...’

The scout had seen the aftermath from Primalist breakthrough attempts. She’d also witnessed large ritual backlash in her career. Those particular spiritual disaster zones felt a little like this, but the key was in the difference she felt.

Everything seemed more deliberate... as if someone had calculated how to blend the loose energy into a more stable state. The contamination formed an almost perfect sphere when her avatar circled the affected area to map its boundaries.

Eventually she braved pushing through to its core. While she verified the location, there were still more details she wanted to gather if she wanted to make sure Tarem would be safe. At the very center was a twisted hunk of something that made her spiritual form recoil instinctively.

Sevra’s consciousness snapped back to her body in seconds. Coming back was simpler than going out. She shivered and curled into a ball.

’It was like looking at a Voidling for the first time. The feeling of something that can’t exist...’

The thought sparked an uncomfortable connection to her recent experiences. She remembered her elder’s endless stories about artifacts that could bridge realms of power. The prophecies about a cultivator who would return some day with knowledge beyond mortal understanding.

Her spirit shuddered as she recalled mint eyes that had seen through her at the wedding. The unusually idiotic need to verify those tales. She’d ruined her own chance to quietly observe by escalating that dance into a duel.

Now she could only wait for the inevitable moment when the Goltbred heiress - the likely reincarnated villain of so many myths - decided that she was too dangerous to her plans to ignore.

A quiet knock interrupted Sevra’s self-pity.

"Sister? Did you find anything?"

She took a steadying breath before answering and sitting up on the bed.

"Come in, Tarem."

Her brother quickly slipped inside and shut the door behind him. His usual bearing was somewhat diminished. Rather than lightly confident, he too seemed just a bit wary and hunched.

"Well?"

He carried the sealed letter with their contact’s mark and waved it at her as he asked. She gestured for him to sit.

"There’s definitely something there. But it’s... strange. Wrong. An object is leaking spiritual contamination. Almost like it was contained inside it somehow?"

"Can you draw what you saw?"

He produced a blank scroll and pen from a satchel at his side. As she sketched the patterns, her hand trembled slightly. She breathed out and looked him in the eyes.

"The item was twisted in ways I’ve never seen. Brother, are you sure this contract is worth the risk? The client-"

"The client is paying enough to fund our search for a year."

Tarem’s convincing voice softened.

"Maybe... maybe this will help us find some trace of him."

The woman fiddled nervously with the pen in her hand.

"Or it might draw attention from those who’d rather we stopped looking."

They both knew who she meant. His sibling had been jumpy and upset for the week she had been staying with him. Tarem reached across the table and squeezed her hand.

"You’re overthinking things. The girl clearly has better things to do than worry about us. I heard that they opened a new branch of the Coiled Serpent in her city."

Sevra pinched at her thigh and whispered.

"That’s exactly what makes her terrifying. Do you know how many people already know about her just as the Goltbred heiress? And that was when she was being so cautious before."

Her thoughts kept bringing her to one direction.

’She’s building influence. We might still be so beneath her notice now, but if we become irritating... she might swat us away without a second thought!’