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It's been 15 years since the end of the war against the White Star, and everything has been quiet since then, without a megalomaniac wanting to take over the world, the two continents have plunged into a state of peace, of course, there are some wars between countries here and there but nothing too big. In that peace everyone who had been fighting settled down, Rosalyn became the ruler of the magic tower, Alberu was crowned emperor, Basen became Duke Henituse with Lily as captain of the knight's brigade, On and Hong became successors to the Molan family, etc.
And in this peaceful time, children grew up, worked and now a more recent development fell in love. Recently On fell in love with a boy, actually, recently might not be the best word as she has been dating this boy for 7 months. However, she hadn't told anyone in her family about this boy... Okay, Rosalyn knows because the boy is a high-ranking tower mage, Hong is somehow suspicious, and she has a feeling that Ron knows, which is no surprise Ron always knows everything.
It's not like On is purposely hiding her relationship from her family (she is), she just knows how everyone will react and fears for her poor boyfriend's life, he's a good boy, his name is Austin Windson and he is the second child of a ducal family from the Paerum kingdom, one of the most talented high-grade mages, with a gentle personality and who really love On and she loves him back.
On met the Windson family a few weeks ago and everyone was so nice, and now she's thinking it's time for Austin to meet her family. And that's why the next time she sees the boy she brings up the topic.
"Me? Meet your family?"
Austin exclaims in surprise.
"...You do not want?" The fog cat in her human form asked.
"No! No, wait, I want to! It's just wow you know your family. You invited me to spend Christmas with your family. And they're like the most powerful people in the world! You call the emperor your uncle, your grandfather is the leader of the Molan family, and your other grandfather is a dragon, not to mention his father, oh my gods! Will I meet Cale Henituse? Like THE Cale Henituse, the silver shield hero??? I don't have an outfit for this occasion!"
In the face of her boyfriend's panic, On just laughed.
"Are you worried about what you're going to wear? Are you dating me or my dad?"
"Honey, I love you, but your dad is my idol, there's not one person in the world who's never heard of him, even babies know him."
"Yeah... When we're there, you shouldn't do that."
"This what?
"Praise him, he hates it."
"But..."
Realizing where this would lead, On sighed, this will be harder than she imagined.
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Once Austin had agreed to spend Christmas at Villa Super Rock, the next step was to notify Cale of the new guest he would have for Christmas. So she decided to talk about it over dinner with Cale, Raon, and Hong. Even after the kids grew up and were occupied with various circumstances they kept the tradition of always having a meal together every day, with magic it wasn't difficult, so unless there was an emergency they would always have dinner together.
And the topic came up when On elegantly ate a steak, which unfortunately had not been prepared by Beacrox, as he and Ron had business to take care of on the eastern continent.
"I'm bringing a guest for Christmas." On says
"Right, who?" Cale asks.
"My boyfriend."
And at that point, there were three different reactions from everyone in the dining room:
Raon, in his humanoid form, spat out the juice he was drinking, questioning "Nonna, do you have a boyfriend!?"
Hong tapped his paws on the table and let out an audible "Nya I knew it!"
And Cale… His face was apparently emotionless, but if you looked at him closely, you'd notice that his eyes were trembling, and unlike his stoic expression. His mind was working faster than ever. Reviewing her records and trying to find out who could be the person On was dating, in fact, who was the guy who was taking advantage of her, she was so young... She was only 27! And then he realized that 27 years was a pretty normal age to have a boyfriend and that he should be a supportive father to his kids. And when he finally came to, he saw the average 24-year-olds kids having a heated argument.
"Nonna, why didn't you tell this great and powerful Raon Miru you were dating? I'm really good at keeping secrets!"
"Wait, have you been dating for 7 months? I thought you two had been dating since the summer of last year!" yelled Hong.
"Hong, you talk like you know who he is nya. And don't worry Raon, I didn't deliberately hide from you, I didn't tell anyone." On tried to calm her dongsaengs.
Nya, Of course, I know wh..."
Before Hong could finish speaking, Cale who had just snapped out of his thoughts interrupted trying to sound as friendly as possible with a big smile (which just made it look like when he's scamming someone).
"Who is it?"
"Huh?" The three children with an average of 24 years old exclaimed together.
"Who is your boyfriend?" Cale said with a smile brighter than ever and heard Raon's voice in his mind, "Human, why are you smiling like that? Who are you scamming?"
To anyone who didn't know Cale would think he was being friendly, On who knew his father very well wasn't fooled by the bright smile. (What she didn't know was that he was really trying to be friendly.) Hong, who also thought the older redhead was just wearing his usual scammer smile, tried to answer his father's question to provoke his sister.
"She's dating with..."
Before Hong could finish speaking he was interrupted again by his older sister covering his mouth with her front paws.
"You'll meet him at Christmas." On said firmly trying to postpone the inevitable.
Cale watching the scene, realized how the cat forms of On and Hong had grown so much not looking at all like little kittens but like the adults they were, Raon couldn't even use his dragon form indoors anymore because he had become too big after going through the growth stages. And then he sighed and muttered in a tone that would have been inaudible if everyone else present hadn't had superhuman hearing:
"Hah, when did they grow so much?"
⊱ ──────ஓ ๑ ♡ ๑ ஓ ───────
And Christmas arrived, On and her boyfriend were standing at the entrance to the black castle, and Austin seemed in awe of the grand castle in the middle of one of the forbidden areas on the western continent. Normally, On wouldn't bring strangers into her house, but if she didn't trust Austin she wouldn't even date him in the first place (and she personally investigated him to have sure he wasn't involved in anything suspicious).
Once inside they were greeted by the sight of Bud, Taylor, and Cage all already drunk, Mary and Saint Jack eating some candy and Hannah hovering around her twin brother, Clopeh installing some cameras, Lily trying to hide that she'd dropped a cake made by Beacrox, wait, Clopeh? Who invited this lunatic?
It didn't take long for someone to come talk to the couple, and that someone was...
Was...
Ron
He had his usual benign smile (The same one he wears when he's about to kill someone).
"Long time without seeing you, On."
"Grandpa, we saw each other last week."
"Long time, anyway, I think this is the first time we've met, young master Austin Windson."
It sounded like a normal greeting, but there was one thing: On had never told Ron her boyfriend's identity, she hadn't even mentioned that she had a boyfriend. Maybe other people would have been scared, but On thought: Well, if Grandpa Ron did research on him, and Austin is still alive, that means Grandpa Ron approves of him.
With that thought On smiled slightly
"Grandpa, you might have noticed but this is my boyfriend Austin Windson. Austin, this is my grandpa Ron Molan."
Austin stiffened at the mention of the Molan name, and stiffly hissed:
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Patriarch Molan-nim!"
"A pleasure indeed young Master Windson, I hear that your sister has recently inherited the duchy, you must be very proud of it, no?" Ron questioned
"Yes, I am certainly very proud of my sister. It is an honor that you know about my family affairs." Austin, who had already realized that the assassin had investigated him, responded.
"The young master must have a great relationship with his family, I wonder if they would miss you if the young master were to disappear," Ron commented like he was talking about the climate.
Hearing this, the mage froze still with a plastic smile on his face, but the older one didn't seem to care for him and continued talking.
"But don't worry, as On seems to be happy nothing should happen, it just has to stay that way."
After finishing his threat conversation, Ron just smiled and walked away from the couple. After making sure the assassin couldn't hear Austin whispered to On:
"...I think your grandfather wants to kill me."
To which On responded with a smile as he said:
"If he wanted to kill you, you were already dead."
Before Austin could process those words, Hong and Raon in their human forms appeared.
"See, I said it was him!" The cat said to the dragon "Hi Austin." He greeted the redhead as he waved his arms and approached.
"Are you nonna's boyfriend? I'm the great and mighty Raon Miru!"
There was silence between them for a few seconds when the average 24-year-olds kids noticed that the mage had frozen in shock. And On realized what had happened, she may have forgotten to mention that her younger brother is a dragon. But it didn't take more than a minute for Austin to recover from the shock.
"Oooon, why didn't you tell me your brother was a great and mighty dragon???"
"Nonna, didn't you talk about me?" Raon asked sadly.
"Nya so mean!"
On frowned at the exaggerated reactions of the three boys.
"I told you about Raon, it just forgets to say he's a dragon."
Austin for a moment doubted they would believe On's excuse, but the reactions the cat's explanation received were:
"Nya makes sense."
"If that's, it's fine!"
The two boys totally believed in On's excuse, not least because she was always the more looked like to Cale in these things, and Cale had also forgotten to tell the Henituse family that Raon was a dragon.
They were having a good time before Rex, the king of the Mogoru kingdom and On's subordinate¹, interrupted them.
"On-nim, something happened."
"Rex, it's Christmas, I'm busy right now." She replied in a calm voice.
"I wouldn't call you if it wasn't urgent, excuse me, it won't be long." The king said, and with that, he convinced On to go with him leaving the three boys alone.
Austin was thinking about how On was so informal with a king while he was so formal with her, almost as if the king of the Mogoru realm was On's subordinate.
While the mage was lost in thought, the red-haired cat and the black dragon exchanged a look, communicating wordlessly, and Raon must have said something telepathically to Hong because then they nodded and the atmosphere grew heavy. Raon was using the dragon fear to target Austin, which immediately startled him. And Hong started to say:
"If Nonna shed a single tear because of you I will kill you and hide the body in a place no one will find."
"If you break Nonna's heart I will kill you, your entire family, and I will destroy your entire kingdom." The dragon said next.
The pressure was such that it was impressive that the mage could still stay on his feet, but even so, Austin mustered up enough strength to respond to threats from his girlfriend's brothers.
"I promise to do my best to make On happy as long as she allows me to remain by her side."
Upon saying these words the aura calmed down and they continued their conversation as if nothing had happened.
Meanwhile...
A pair of sworn brothers watched the entire scene.
"Pfft, they are tormenting the poor boy."
The Dark Elf laughed at his nephews. Now he no longer needed to hide behind a disguise and walked proudly in his true form, a few years ago he had revealed his race to the world, and even though some made it a problem none of them lasted long and all were properly discarded.
With his Hyung's laugh, Cale took another sip of his drink in the futile hope of getting drunk and replied:
"You say that because you're not your daughter."
Surprisingly after becoming emperor, Alberu fell in love with an elf who accepted him for who he was, they got married and had a lovely daughter who is 5 years old, and now his wife is pregnant with a second child.
"Don't deviate from the subject dongsaeng, you shouldn't be so surprised, On is 27 years old and a smart girl, she is good at judging people's character so don't worry, she must have chosen a good boy."
"I'm not worried about it. She's strong." The redhead replied calmly as he faced On who smiled genuinely and walked towards his boyfriend.
A sudden realization crossed the emperor's mind.
"Dongsaeng, are you jealous?"
The hero of both continents was silent with the question. But after a few moments, he muttered in an almost inaudible tone.
"...she didn't tell me..."
"Hm?" Even with his improved hearing, the dark elf could not fully hear the phrase.
"She's been dating for seven months and hasn't told me," Cale repeated in a louder tone this time and Alberu laughed.
"So that's what you're worried about?"
The redhead looked at the brunette as if he didn't understand what he meant.
"What else would I worry about? She's an adult she can take care of herself." He said it as if it were obvious, but Alberu who knew him well realized there was sadness hidden behind his calm tone.
Cale looked at the average 24-year-olds kids and sighed:
"Haah I'm getting old."