Side Story 19. [After Story] Meeting of Racial Representatives (3)
“It’s a joke, just a joke. No need to get so serious…”
Kellibey grumbled under everyone’s stunned gazes, hastily explaining himself.
“It’s not my second generation being born. It’s my third. My grandchildren, to be precise.”
“Oh…!”
“Congratulations, Kellibey!”
“So, you’re officially a grandpa now, huh, Grandpa!”
Kuilan teased, and Kellibey didn’t even bother denying it. He just laughed heartily and nodded.
“I’m planning to spend a lot of time with my grandchildren… so I won’t have any regrets later.”
For a moment, his gaze grew distant, as if he were reminiscing about Kellison.
Then, snapping out of it, Kellibey pointed his finger at the group with a playful grin.
“And don’t forget, all your second generations are like my third generation too! So, bring them over, and I’ll make sure they have fun!”
“Will you give them allowances too?!”
“A-Allowances…? Yeah, sure, I’ll give them allowances…”
The mention of allowances made Kellibey visibly deflate.
It turned out that his wife, the kingdom’s treasurer, had a firm grip on the family finances.
As Kellibey muttered something about how “things were better back in my adventuring days,” Hannibal stepped forward hesitantly, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Um… actually…”
Everyone turned to him, waiting for his words. Hannibal scratched his head nervously before finally confessing.
“I’m… about to have a second generation too. Hehe…”
“…?”
“…?”
“What?”
A different kind of shock rippled through the group.
Hannibal, who had joined the war as the youngest hero fighting for the fate of the world, was still remembered by those in the World Guardian Front as the wide-eyed boy in his early teens.
With his face still holding traces of baby fat, he had always seemed so innocent—someone who likely hadn’t even held hands with a romantic partner.
And now… somehow…!
“Wow, they really weren’t kidding when they said the quiet ones strike first!”
“Well… Hannibal is now a proper adult. He’s also the leader of an organization. It’s not impossible for him to have a second generation…”
But the surprises didn’t end there.
“Um, the thing is… I, uh, I’m a bit of a… free-love advocate.”
“Free-love advocate?”
“So… I’ve had… multiple partners…”
“Multiple? And?”
“Well… uh… ahem. Somehow, it just sort of… turned out that…”
Hannibal fidgeted, twiddling his fingers nervously, before blurting out:
“I think three babies are going to be born around the same time…”
“‘Three’?! How many exactly?”
“Th-three…”
Everyone’s jaws dropped.
While the Half-Blood community’s culture of polyamorous relationships was well-known and widely accepted, the kings present in the room were staunch believers in traditional monogamous, pure-love relationships.
In short, none of them had the mental fortitude for this sort of advanced societal norm.
“I… I…”
Ash finally couldn’t hold it in and jumped to his feet, pointing an accusing finger at Hannibal.
“You shameless philanderer!”
“W-Wait, it’s kind of weird for you to say that, Ash…”
Kuilan broke out in a nervous sweat.
After all, wasn’t Ash once the Empire’s most notorious playboy? While he might now be the leader of the pure-love camp, hearing him call someone else out for being promiscuous still felt odd.
“M-Mikhail, his sister, and now Hannibal! Why are the younger generation these days so scandalous?!”
Verdandi, the epitome of pure and devoted love, hastily opened her fan and fanned her flushed face in a flustered attempt to cool down.
“Hannibal, that rascal… I taught him how to craft equipment, and he went ahead and crafted… kids instead…”
Kellibey muttered in a daze.
Ash, snapping out of his shock, suddenly remembered something and turned to Hannibal with urgency.
“Wait a second. Does your father know about this?”
At the mention of Zenis, Hannibal scratched his head even harder, looking guilty.
“As you know, my father’s been wandering across the continent, so I haven’t been able to contact him in time…”
Ash’s face turned red with anger as he pointed at Hannibal again.
“You brat! Your father has lived his whole life as a solitary bachelor, and here you are acting so shamelessly!”
“H-Hey, I tried to set him up with people! I even arranged dates for him and introduced him to great potential partners! He’s the one who refused, okay?! What am I supposed to do about that?!”
Regardless of his defense, the news that the youngest hero of the World Guardian Front was about to welcome not one, but three children, left everyone reeling. It took some time for the commotion to settle.
When the room finally calmed down, Verdandi, who had yet to share her updates, cleared her throat with a soft ahem and began to speak.
“Ever since magic disappeared… we elves… can no longer live for thousands of years as we once did.”
The natural death rate among elderly elves had drastically increased.
The elves were no longer an immortal race.
“We may still have long lives… but I’ve come to realize that mine isn’t infinite anymore. And so…”
Verdandi’s face suddenly turned bright red.
“…?”
“…?”
“…?”
Somehow, everyone had a sense of where this was going.
Smiling gently, they all turned their eyes toward Verdandi, who was now trembling slightly. Finally, she reached into her coat and pulled out a small stack of papers, thrusting them forward.
“Well, I’ve… decided to take a spouse… Here are the wedding invitations…”
The group erupted in cheers, eagerly snatching the invitations from her hands.
Blushing furiously all the way to the tips of her long ears, Verdandi stood frozen, trembling slightly, as she clutched the remaining stack of invitations.
“Everyone’s getting married, having second generations, third generations—just popping out good news left and right! Congratulations, Verdandi!”
“Who’s the lucky one?!”
“It says here it’s her royal advisor! So, you fell for him while working together, huh? But wait, isn’t he way younger than you?!”
“You didn’t seem like the type, but Verdandi, you’re quite the charmer! Congratulations!”
Amid the teasing, Verdandi chuckled awkwardly. She had come prepared to be ridiculed, so she could endure it.
“I must ensure the continuation of the royal elven lineage. It’s less about personal feelings and more for the sake of my kingdom and the greater cause…”
“So, who proposed first?”
Ash grinned slyly as he asked. Verdandi trembled slightly and lowered her head.
“I… I was the one who proposed first…”
“What did you say when you proposed?”
Kuilan asked curiously, prompting Verdandi to mumble nervously.
“I said, ‘I’m certain that spending the rest of my life with you would be worthwhile…’ Wait, why am I even reciting this?!”
Perhaps because she had practiced her proposal hundreds of times beforehand, Verdandi ended up confessing the exact words in detail in response to Kuilan’s casual question.
The group burst into laughter.
Ash, holding his stomach, immediately stood up, struck a romantic pose, and extended his hand toward Kuilan with a mock expression of longing.
“‘I’m certain that spending the rest of my life with you would be worthwhile.’”
“Y-Your Majesty…!”
Kuilan, playing along, clasped his hands over his mouth and pretended to be moved to tears.
Watching this impromptu reenactment, Kellibey and Hannibal rolled on the floor, howling with laughter.
“…!”
Still smiling, Verdandi pulled something new out of her coat.
It wasn’t another invitation—it was a dagger.
Shortly after Verdandi used her dagger diplomacy to force everyone to offer profuse apologies…
Thud!
The drawing room doors burst open, and the siblings of the Merfolk race, the Rompeller twins, swept in, their light blue hair flowing dramatically behind them.
“Yoo-hoo! How’s everyone been?!”
“We dropped everything and rushed over since you said there’d be a reunion~!”
“Rompellers!”
“Long time no see! How’ve you been?”
The group warmly welcomed the merfolk siblings.
The news of second generations, third generations, and wedding invitations was passed on once again.
This time, however, the Rompeller twins handed out thin booklets—pamphlets—to the other kings. Everyone received them with a puzzled expression.
“What’s this?”
“Oh, it’s a new business venture inspired by none other than Crown Prince Ash himself.”
Ash grinned as if he’d been waiting for this moment, while the Rompeller siblings shrugged and began their explanation.
“We’ve retired from piracy and started a passenger ship business!”
“Passenger ships?”
“There’s been a massive boom in tourism to the southern parts of the continent recently. But traveling by land is tiring and time-consuming. So we’re transporting tourists on our ships instead!”
In truth, this was another brainchild of Ash and Serenade.
When discussing ways to rehabilitate the pirate crews, various proposals had been considered. Initially, the most likely option was to recruit them into the Imperial Navy. However, the Rompeller pirates had ultimately declined, citing their desire to live freely.
Thus, the second proposal emerged: the passenger ship business.
With the burgeoning tourism of Crossroad, which was transforming into a rising tourist hub, and the reestablishment of the Lake Kingdom, there was plenty of demand. Several sailing ships owned by the Rompeller pirates were retrofitted into passenger vessels by the Silver Winter Merchant Guild, and the business had been running successfully for several years now.
“But isn’t Crossroad inland? It’s pretty far from the ocean.”
Kellibey pointed out.
The Rompeller siblings nodded knowingly.
“Well, you see, during the last battle, the world map kind of got… rearranged.”
Back during the final battle—the monstrous invasion during the Great Beast War—titans like Ziz, Behemoth, and Leviathan had surged out from the Black Lake. Their sheer power had caused literal tectonic shifts, permanently altering the continent’s geography.
“As a result, a massive canyon split open near Crossroad.”
“Now, you can sail inland from the eastern sea right up to a small port we built near Crossroad.”
“It’s still a few days’ travel from Crossroad itself, but at least the ships can dock much closer now.”
This new port had only been operational for less than a year, so it was no wonder that the other kings were unfamiliar with it.
The pamphlet the Rompeller twins distributed was an advertisement for passenger routes between this port and the New Terra Harbor.
“This entire port idea and the initial business investment were all thanks to Crown Prince Ash and the Silver Winter Guild.”
“Major shareholder, thank you so much! Loyalty, loyalty!”
The Rompeller twins snapped a playful salute toward Ash, causing everyone to look at him in surprise.
“When did you set this up, you little brat?”
Ash rubbed his forehead smugly, letting out a pompous laugh.
“Well… from the very beginning, of course.”
This wasn’t an exaggeration.
Even back when Ash was merely the lord of Crossroad, he had been planning its transformation into a tourism-based city. The passenger ship business had been part of those early brainstorming sessions.
Of course, back then, it had been more of a “wouldn’t it be nice if…” kind of idea rather than something he ever thought would come to fruition.
“Alright, so for your honeymoons, make sure to book with Rompeller Cruises!”
“We’ve got luxury suites ready just for you!”
After successfully squeezing in a PR moment for their new business, the room eventually calmed down again.
But Ash’s smile faded as he glanced outside with a puzzled look.
“Wait… where’s Evangeline? She hasn’t shown up yet, and there are things we need to discuss with the Lord of Crossroad.”
All the guests had arrived, yet the host herself had been absent for some time.
Curious, Ash opened the drawing room doors and stepped out, glancing toward the manor’s entrance.
“Evangeline, where are you? We need to talk about…”
“…?”
“…?”
Ash froze mid-sentence.
There, in a corner of the hallway, were Evangeline and Lucas.
And they were locked in a heated kiss.
More accurately, Evangeline had Lucas pinned against the wall, aggressively pulling him closer as she practically devoured his lips.
“…”
“…”
Their eyes awkwardly met.
As Evangeline opened her mouth slightly, the lower lip she had been biting on finally popped back into place with a soft smack.
Ash, now breaking out into a cold sweat, slowly took a step back, retreating.
“…Uh, carry on. You haven’t seen each other in a while, so take your time catching up…”
“N-No, my lord! We were just about to head back in!”
“Ahem! I’ll handle the guests, so you go and spend some time with the kids. And make sure to thank Sid for me…”
Evangeline and Lucas quickly separated, their faces flushed red. They both cleared their throats, fidgeted, and helped straighten each other’s clothes before parting ways.
Evangeline followed Ash back toward the drawing room, while Lucas went to the small room where the children were playing.
Walking side by side, Ash chuckled quietly.
“You two are still as close as ever.”
“S-Shut up! We don’t fight because we barely see each other, that’s all!”
Evangeline growled defensively but soon furrowed her brows in confusion.
“Wait. Why am I attending the meeting too?”
“Because you need to.”
“This is the Racial Representatives Meeting, isn’t it? The representative for the human race is you, not me. What role do I have in this?”
“You have one.”
Ash smiled slyly.
“In fact, you might end up having the most important role of all.”
“…?”
Evangeline tilted her head, puzzled, not understanding what he meant.
In the drawing room.
Ash surveyed the people seated around the room.
There was Kellibey, the King of the Dwarves; Verdandi, the Queen of the Elves; Kuilan, the Beast King; the Rompeller siblings, representing the Merfolk; Hannibal, representing the Half-Blood community; and finally, Evangeline, the Lord of Crossroad.
Taking a deep breath, Ash began to explain the purpose behind this gathering.
“We’re now going to officially activate the Jupiter Foundation.”
The kings and representatives looked surprised, their expressions ranging from curiosity to shock.
Ash nodded, confirming their reactions.
“And to make that happen, I need help from all of you.”
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won’t get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt