Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 741: Impossible Distance

Vespera selected the chair creating maximum separation from the others, positioned a touch aside from the group, nearer the room's remote edge than its core. Her legs folded neatly aside. Hands placed calmly in her lap. Her bearing remained flawless, back perfectly straight, chin held even. Precisely how her parents drilled her to position herself in any space she ever stepped into.

Laughter never quite touched her. It drifted across the gap separating sofas from the armchair, reaching her as a faint echo, like sounds from a gathering she lingered outside.

She observed her son stroking behind his lover’s ears as another sulked nearby and three others chuckled across the table. The sight felt so cozy yet utterly alien, as if viewed through a pane of glass.

This world wasn’t hers. Raised amid hush, strict etiquette, chambers where chuckles signaled breaches in control and fondness stayed hidden, controlled privately, never shown. Wed to a man embracing the same creed, they crafted a home where love, if present, flowed via rigid paths and hit precisely on time.

Her son crafted this scene.

A demoness who nipped tails without remorse. A felinid feigning hurts for ear rubs. A girl lacking any mouth restraint or polish, yet radiating clear devotion and allegiance to her companions. A girl observing all, overlooking nothing, grinning while mentally jotting future insights. A girl whose allure halted crowds and whose tears dropped quietly, though she could shift to savage protectiveness in an instant.

Boisterous, chaotic, rough-edged, passionately loyal, brimming with adoration for her son that warmed the very air.

He stepped from the chilly home she nurtured him in, and discovered this. No, not merely discovered...

He forged it himself.

Each woman picked him. He selected them. Their bond embodied all Ashborn Manor lacked.

Four meters stretched from Vespera’s armchair to her son’s couch.

But it yawned like a vast chasm.

Suddenly, a voice spoke.

"Mother."

Kaiden gazed her way. His fingers lingered in Bastet’s fur. Calypso stayed close, arms crossed. Chuckles faded, all five women pivoting to match his stare.

"There’s enough space for all of us." He patted the cushion to his right. "Why don’t you come sit with us?"

Vespera’s chin rose slightly.

"I am fine here."

"I know you are." His tone stayed gentle, undemanding. "But why don’t you come over here?"

Her eyes met his.

"It’d make me really happy."

He sought no act from her. No pretense. Simply the closing of that gap. Four meters. Nothing more.

The five on the couches eyed her. Nyx radiated welcome. Aria’s gaze softened. Luna feigned indifference unsuccessfully, fingers absently rubbing above her elbow. Bastet’s ears flicked her direction. Calypso flashed a grin.

Vespera glanced at the open spot, then her son. His arm draped the waiting place, face carrying the same tenderness from when he dubbed her "wonderful" on stream, melting the Shadow Monarch’s shadows.

Her chest constricted.

She rose gracefully, form unaltered. Traversed those four meters with boardroom poise and battlefield stride, settling beside him with exact control—no casual slump onto seats.

Kaiden’s arm draped her shoulders.

Warmth struck instantly. His frame solid against hers, heat seeping through fabric into her arm. Observed from afar, it seemed encased in glass. Now it enveloped her, raw and intense beyond anticipation.

Bastet’s purr restarted from his lap. The rumble passed via cushions into Vespera’s leg, a homey buzz so strange she scarcely knew how to process it. Opposite, Aria and rest beamed, savoring the effortless mother-son display.

Laughter, once an echo at her chair, now enveloped her directly. Glass vanished. The chasm bridging her to son’s circle crumbled beneath one arm’s weight.

Vespera Ashborn, lifelong observer from afar, now nestled amid her son’s kin, embraced and included truly for the first time.

...

Silence held for a beat, no words exchanged.

Warmth filled the space. Smiles brightened every face. All the women in the room truly rejoiced at what they had just seen, their expressions revealing it openly—perhaps except for one stormy gremlin.

Yet for all that, the woman next to Kaiden remained Vespera Ashborn.

The Shadow Monarch. The figure whose appearance in a foreign land triggered a diplomatic meltdown. The one who crushed hazardous S-tier awakened fighters whenever she chose to bend others to her desires. The one whose shadows could engulf a room and all within it, her face betraying no emotion.

She lounged on the couch. Allowing her son to embrace her.

Not one of them knew what words to offer her.

Aria's lips parted. Then sealed shut. She shot a look at Nyx. Luna squirmed on the couch before clamping her arms even tighter. Bastet's ears swiveled once toward Vespera and pressed down midway, the felinid way of hesitantly signaling without fully speaking. Calypso beamed, but she too held her tongue.

Nyx took in the whole scene.

She caught Aria's failed effort. Luna's rigid arms. Bastet's ears and Calypso's rare quiet. Four warriors who had clashed with beasts far beyond their power, yet none could spark a chat with their boyfriend's mother.

Nyx uncrossed and recrossed her legs, then fixed her gaze on Vespera.

"Well." Her tone flowed smooth and patient, as though she'd bided her time for this exact juncture. "I think I speak for everyone when I say that tonight was extraordinary."

Silence hung briefly. Her eyes lingered on the Shadow Monarch.

"We’ve met before, but it’s a pleasure to sit down with you in a calm setting for once, Miss Vespera."

Vespera's gaze drifted to Nyx. Deliberately unhurried. Crimson orbs, unyielding, pinned the pink-haired woman with the raw menace of the Shadow Monarch unveiled.

Nyx's flesh crawled. Bumps erupted on her arms and nape, chills stemming not from chill but from the timeless, hunter's scrutiny of a perambulating apocalypse. She held her form steady, locking eyes and enduring.

Three seconds elapsed.