Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 742: Sworn Fealty

Three seconds ticked by.

The pressure evaporated abruptly. Like a door slamming shut. Like a breeze fading away. One instant, Vespera’s aura saturated the gap between them, and the next moment, only a weary woman lounged on the sofa, eyeing her son’s girlfriend.

"The pleasure is mine," Vespera replied.

Her eyes drifted from Nyx across the others. Aria. Luna. Bastet. Calypso. Each in turn, unhurriedly.

"I’m grateful to you for taking care of my son throughout all these months, future daughters-in-law."

The words struck like a bomb blast in a silent library.

All the women present sensed it simultaneously. A stir deep in their chests, a surge of warmth to their faces, butterflies exploding in spots they shouldn’t, since the Shadow Monarch had dubbed them daughters without the slightest flinch.

Aria vaulted from the couch before anyone registered her movement.

She bridged the distance between the sofas and sank to one knee before Vespera, palms united over her heart, tears already trailing down. Her silver tresses shimmered in the glow as she dipped her head, the action so seamless and heartfelt it appeared staged—though it wasn’t. This was merely Aria’s natural reaction to life’s ultimate honor descending unannounced.

"Mother-in-law." Her voice quivered. "Thank you for accepting me. I swear to you, on everything I am, I will never disappoint you or your son."

Luna gawked at her.

"What the fu-" Luna halted, peeked at Vespera, and adjusted. "I mean what’s wrong with you? Also, she called you future daughter-in-law, why did you not say ’future’ as well?!"

Aria disregarded the muttering gremlin.

Kaiden eyed his Moon Valkyrie in bewilderment too, completely puzzled.

Vespera peered down at the young lady, her countenance betraying not a hint of feeling.

"Finally a human tradition I can get behind wholeheartedly!"

Calypso exploded into laughter, vivid and resounding, and ere it ended, she’d sprung from the couch. She advanced to Vespera and knelt beside Aria, sporting a grin that threatened to cleave her face.

"This is no human tradition!" Luna scoffed, swiftly dismissed as Calypso pounded her chest. "Mother-in-law, your son is the greatest man I’ve ever met, and I will protect him and fight beside him until my body turns to dust! You have my word!"

"What the hell..." Luna glanced from one kneeling woman to the other.

Bastet ascended from Kaiden’s lap with poise that lent the gesture a ritual air and descended to one knee next to them. Her tail stood rigid and unmoving behind. Her golden gaze brimmed with solemnity.

"Mother-in-law, I am grateful to be accepted into your family." Bastet’s tone held no whimsy, no affection, no purr. It was the timbre of a woman pledging her vow. "O’ Great Matriarch, I will never bring shame upon you or your son."

Kaiden glanced at Nyx. Nyx viewed the display with gleaming eyes, a hand pressed to her lips.

"Girls," Kaiden articulated deliberately. "What are you doing? My mother just spoke a bit stiffly because she’s not used to this, you don’t have to-"

Three heads whipped toward him together. Aria, Calypso, and Bastet fixed their man with stares varying from misty-eyed to beaming to intensely grave, all transmitting the selfsame implicit signal.

"You wouldn’t understand," Aria uttered, tears flowing unabated.

"Just be quiet for a moment, Darling," Calypso appended.

"This is very important, Master," Bastet concluded.

They pivoted back to Vespera.

Nyx erupted in giggles while rising, circling the table, and kneeling alongside the trio. Her beam was colossal.

"I’ll keep your son organized, fed, happy, and out of trouble... As much as possible. That I promise," Nyx vowed. "Mother-in-law."

Vespera regarded the four women arrayed before her. Then her head rotated. Methodically, till her scarlet eyes settled on Luna.

Luna stayed put on the couch. Arms folded tightly.

Vespera uttered no word. She simply stared.

Luna met her stare.

"What? Seriously?"

Vespera glanced aside.

Observing the woman advancing past her, Luna clenched her arms harder. She scanned her four prone comrades. Kaiden, who looked to have surrendered dominion over every tie in his existence all at once. Vespera, whose maternal censure of her mounted relentlessly.

Or so the Storm Gremlin sensed.

"Argh, fine!"

She leaped up, rounded the table, and thudded to one knee. Her stance was atrocious. Her visage flushed crimson.

"Thanks for saving us on the mountain..." Luna mumbled. "And for, you know. Accepting us."

Vespera eyed her, all but expectant.

Luna’s mouth curved wryly amid the quiver.

"...Mother-in-law."

Vespera’s focus shifted.

A line of five women knelt before the Shadow Monarch while she examined them intently. Her face remained unchanged. Her stance stayed perfectly still. She appeared every bit the queen accepting unbidden tribute, and that was precisely the case.

She lifted her right hand, spreading her palm wide.

From her fingertips, five shadowy tendrils slithered forth. They twisted like living creatures, inky and liquid, weaving through the air. Each tendril sought out a face. Each pressed softly to a cheek, chilling yet tenderly so, like the caress of a mother whose hands lay forgotten, channeling her essence in their stead.

The women froze in place. Then, one by one, they raised their gazes.

All five faces angled upward toward the Shadow Monarch, her shadows still lingering on their skin.

"The women of my son kneel to no one, not even to me." Vespera’s voice came soft but unyielding. "This is the only time you are permitted to do so. Is that understood?"

Five heads nodded swiftly, without a moment’s pause.

The shadows glided along each cheek once more, then withdrew into her palm and faded away.

Silence enveloped the lounge.

Vespera glanced at the five women, then at her son seated beside her, clearly stunned into stillness.

"So," she said.

The girls straightened eagerly, full of anticipation.

"When can I expect grandchildren?"

All five faces flushed crimson in unison.

Nyx’s poise shattered into a grin that lit up her whole face. Bastet’s stern demeanor softened instantly, her ears perking high as her lips curved into a toothy smile. "Little kittens from Master..."

"Motherhood..." Aria murmured under her breath, her right hand drifting instinctively to her belly, where she traced slow circles just above the womb tattoo, the mark of the Paragon of Sin.

Her eyes, now brimming with hope, locked onto Kaiden, filled with a thousand unspoken words.

Vespera’s gaze swept over all five, absorbing reactions from shy embarrassment to dreamy longing to overwhelming bliss.

Now Kaiden turned to regard a certain woman with eyes twisted in wry disbelief.

"You did that on purpose, didn’t you?" he sighed.

"No," the Shadow Monarch declared, then smiled. "Not at all."

"Mother..." Kaiden breathed wearily, shaking his head.

As the girls rose to their feet, Luna voiced the thought weighing on everyone’s mind.

"With that out of the way... How lucky are we that Natasha appeared on the stream?"

"Yeah!" Nyx nodded enthusiastically.

"I was really surprised," Kaiden said.

"I organized everything," Vespera announced.

"...Huh?" Six voices gasped together.