Chương 121: Chapter 117 – Itty Bitty Baby Blessing

"I've been wondering," Chelsea said. They had set up a small picnic beside the duck pond. The afternoon was mild, and the ducks moved lazily across the water, leaving soft ripples behind them. A basket sat open on the blanket, though Chelsea had barely touched her heart. Freya sat behind her, close enough for Chelsea to lean against if she wanted, but not so close that she had to. Adriane had noticed that immediately and had said nothing.

Fiona sat across from them with one hand resting near her middle, looking more settled than she had a few days ago, though pregnancy had not made her any less Fiona. Chelsea picked at the edge of the blanket before asking the question that had been circling her mind since morning.

"How did Ivy's brother die?" Both Fiona and Adriane scrunched their faces and looked at each other. Fiona spoke first, slowly asking, "You, don't know?"

"No? Mom never said in her letters. Only thing I heard is that Ivy left the manor to travel home to let her dad know the details." Adriane's expression shifted from discomfort to worry.

"Wait. You really don't know?"

"No? Should I? Was it big news?" Chelsea asked. The ducks continued moving across the pond. One dipped its head beneath the water, tail bobbing upward, completely unaware of the drama unfolding meters away.

"Chels. Everyone thought you either did it or had something to do with it. Us included," Adriane explained calmly.

"Are you saying you didn't?" Chelsea stared at her.

"I absolutely hated him but unless Ivy told me to, I wasn't going to make any extra effort. You all thought so little of me?" Chelsea asked.

"No. No nothing like that," Fiona said quickly.

"It's just that they were all found without their hearts, eyes, and livers."

"Ah!" Chelsea said quietly. Her eyebrows went high, and she leaned back a fraction against Freya without seeming to realize it.

"How many people were there?"

"Her brother and his goons. Easton was among them," Fiona answered.

"Seven in total. All people you had a personal grievance against and missing your favorite parts to eat."

"But, I've been in Valhalla for five months. Why would anyone think I'd make a special trip just for them?"

"They were found decomposed," Adriane explained.

"They opened a special investigation and the time was estimated to be around the time you left. The story came out as you got your last minute revenge before flying away to Valkyr-land." Chelsea's face tightened. The accusation was absurd in a way that somehow made it more believable to other people. She could almost hear the story as people would tell it. The demon girl, already known for eating organs, taking revenge before leaving for a place no one could reach. It sounded plausible.

"Even if it was me I wouldn't have taken her brother's heart, he's an elf…" Chelsea stopped. Her eyes opened wider, and she looked back at Freya with confusion spreading across her face.

"The day I went to Valhalla. We had our celebratory feast. I pulled out a half-elf heart from my bag. I thought it was weird because I'd never seen or smelled one. It still smelled gross so I threw it out." Fiona's posture changed at once.

"Where did you get those hearts from?" Fiona asked. Chelsea looked down as if she could see the pouch's old inventory in front of her.

"It must have been one of the bounties I had placed on another job. But what job would have asked to kill seven adventurers? Was it just their organs that were missing?" she asked. Adriane and Fiona exchanged another look. This one was worse.

"Willow said that those were the only things missing, though their limbs had all been removed, they weren't missing. They were accounted for. Aside from that their faces had all but cut off and switched around."

"Faces all cut off and sw…" Chelsea went still. The pieces locked together in her mind with a cold certainty. The organs had made people think of her. The faces made her think of someone else entirely.

"I will run by the guild later to talk to Willow to see if there are any jobs that were in that area that I put bounties on."

"Ah no," Adriane said.

"Unfortunately you won't. Your membership was dissolved and you are banned from entering." Chelsea's heart sank.

"But… why?"

"They were adventurers and everyone and I mean everyone was convinced it was you. Adventurers can't hunt or kill other adventurers." Chelsea stared at the pond.

"Oh damn, Ivy thinks I killed him too doesn't she?" Chelsea said, leaning forward and rubbing her face with her hands.

"Yes," Adriane said. It came out quiet. Chelsea knew that tone. It meant there was more behind it, and Adriane did not want to add more unless prodded.

"She's mad and probably doesn't want to see me again?" Chelsea asked.

"It was a long conversation," Adriane said.

"That was pretty much the summary though." Chelsea let out a frustrated growl.

"She was with me every waking second for the last two weeks I was here! When would I have time to sneak off, trap her brother and his friends who by the way were D-ranks, kill them, butcher them, cut off their faces for some reason then back home in time for morning cuddles. It doesn't make sense!"

"She believes you contracted someone from the assassins guild. The problem with having so much money now is that we could easily do something like that." Chelsea's hands dragged down her face. The worst part was that Adriane was right. Before, accusations like that would have sounded ridiculous. Chelsea had been the strange demon girl with a dangerous appetite. Now she had enough money that almost any crime could be committed with some of her walking around money. This story originates from Royal Road.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. She had spent all of her time here building power so she could help people. Now people believed that power made her capable of murder. She breathed in slowly, then let it out.

"OK. Well. Enough about me. I will fix that all later today. My turn to blow your mind and incur the wrath of Adriane Wixx," Chelsea said. Adriane raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? You think I'm that easily roused," Adriane asked.

"I'll have you know I have been attending tea socials with Maggie. I am a sophisticated woman now." Chelsea leaned back against Freya. Freya let her.

"Oh this is going to be fun," she said. Adriane smiled back and said, "Try me." For the first time in three days, Chelsea had a genuine smile. It wasn't her usual perfect smile. Nothing was actually fixed. But it reached her eyes.

"I went to visit our good buddy Paul." Adriane's sure smile faltered slightly.

"Oh yeah? What's the King of Nordrak been up to?"

"Yup. They're currently in a war with one of their former allies over some sort of blah blah not important."

"Going to have to try harder than that," Adriane said. Chelsea's smile faltered too, but only because she knew the next part was not actually funny.

"Oh!" Chelsea said.

"Well what if I told you he played you?"

"Need more information to rouse me." Chelsea leaned back farther onto the goddess and looked up to see Freya smile down at her. The picnic blanket had shifted beneath them during the conversation, pulled slightly crooked by Chelsea's restless feet and Fiona's habit of adjusting her position every few minutes. The duck pond remained calm despite the mess Chelsea had just dropped into the afternoon. A few ducks floated near the far bank, dipping their heads under the water.

Chelsea took one more second against Freya's warmth before looking back at Adriane.

"Well, you see. Summoning a champion? Yeah, there is no second attempt. No sacrifice. He wanted the scary Wixx lady to kidnap whatever they summoned and train it. They planted the second summoning thing in your head to manipulate you. The cherry on top is they knew if the plan succeeded they'd never have to pay off the debt." The words landed exactly the way Chelsea expected them to. Adriane did not move at first. Her face went blank in a way that would have looked calm to anyone who did not know her.

Chelsea knew better. She could see the change around her mother's eyes, the small stillness in her hands. Chelsea looked over at her mother, who was staring off into space. She could smell the anger coming off of her.

"Roused yet?"

"I'll kill that motherfucker," she said. Chelsea looked over at Fiona, who seemed to be having her own existential moment.

"You're a summoned champion!?"

"Wow figured someone had told you by now. You have a Wixx in your belly so I figure that makes you Wixx enough for me," Chelsea said. She kept one eye on Adriane as she spoke. Her mother was still staring at nothing, pulling old memories apart and placing the new explanation inside them. Fiona, meanwhile, stared at Chelsea with her mouth slightly open, one hand resting against her middle.

"It… it all makes sense now. How you do everything. Why you are a nice demon. Everything," Fiona muttered. Chelsea almost smiled at that. It still felt strange to hear the truth arranged that simply. Summoned champion. Nice demon. Chelsea had spent so long living inside the chaos that she sometimes forgot how impossible she must have seemed from the outside.

"Mom," Chelsea said. Adriane did not respond.

"Hey mom!" she yelled. Adriane finally looked her way.

"Do you regret any of it?" she asked. The question stopped the anger for only a moment. Adriane looked at her daughter, then at the pond, then down at her own hands.

"If he had just asked and still paid off the debt…"

"I'd have been a little demon girl who wasn't a Wixx," Chelsea interrupted.

"We'd still be in Nordrak. We wouldn't have Fiona and her little blessed baby." Chelsea reached over and rubbed Fiona's leg. Fiona looked down at the touch, still too stunned by the revelation to react normally.

"I'd have never met Ivy." Chelsea leaned her head to the side as the sadness found her again. Ivy's absence had a way of entering every conversation once there was even the smallest opening. The anger over the accusation was still there, but beneath it sat something more fragile.

"The way he did it sucks. But if he hadn't our adventures together wouldn't have happened. Not to mention, your beloved tea socials." Adriane breathed out slowly. Some of the murder left her face. Not all of it. Chelsea was not foolish enough to think King Paul was safe forever. But Adriane could still hear reason through the fury.

"See? Not roused." They all laughed. It was not the brightest laugh Chelsea had ever had. her smile faded first.

"It makes sense now why Ivy took me off of her bank account," she said with a sigh.

"Any idea where and how far Leaf Village is?"

"I do," Adriane said.

"But you're not going there." Chelsea turned her head slowly. The warning in Adriane's voice was old and familiar, the kind that said she had already decided the matter and expected obedience because she was the mother, the head of the house, and a woman with far more experience being terrifying than Chelsea had being stubborn. Chelsea did not have room for it today.

"Stop. Don't do this tough mom act. Not right now. My girlfriend thinks I murdered her brother to eat his organs and is heading home to tell that to her father." For a second, Chelsea thought she would argue anyway. Then Adriane looked at her armor, her tired eyes, the way she still leaned back into Freya without fully realizing it, and something in her shifted.

"Fine. At least take someone with you. I'm sure Freya needs to get back to Valhalla."

"Actually, I don't need to at all. I could never go back and they'd never know. It's a self sustained city now. I only show up to help collect new Valkyr that have selected the class." Fiona stared at her. It was the first time Fiona had heard Freya speak, and the sound of it seemed to break her for a moment. Chelsea could almost see every old prayer, every story about Valhalla, and every assumption about gods colliding with the woman currently sitting at a family picnic beside a duck pond.

"Fiona, do you need to go to lie down?" Chelsea asked.

"We have been hitting you with lots of mind blowing facts."

"N-no." Fiona's face turned red.

"Why w-would… uh… Lady Freya go…"

"Because she won't admit it, but she can't get to sleep without being under the luxurious fur in my wings." Freya laughed.

"If that were the case I'd have cut one off long ago. No. It's your tail. Reminds me of a possum." Chelsea gasped and grabbed her tail.

"You take that back!" She petted it a few times, offended.

"It's more like a cat tail with an adorable heart at the end." The little burst of normal outrage helped more than Chelsea expected. It felt good to be offended about something harmless while Fiona looked as though her entire understanding of religion had been shoved off a roof. Adriane watched the exchange for a moment before looking to Freya.

"You don't mind going with her?" Adriane asked. Chelsea looked up at Freya.

"What else am I going to do? Sit alone in my room and wait for Chelsea to come back?" The small demon leaned back into her. The contact was easier now. Not easy, but easier. Freya stayed still when Chelsea shifted against her, letting Chelsea decide how much weight to settle there.

"I need to figure out who actually did kill them first."

"Any ideas?" Fiona asked. Chelsea shrugged.

"I'll figure it out. Going to head inside. You two good out here?" She started to rise, then stopped and turned to her mother. The warmth slipped from her expression, replaced by something much more serious. She pointed at Fiona with a threat in her eyes that was not playful in the slightest.

"She is off limits. No Wixx training unless you explain the process to her first. The same goes for my little cousin. Do not touch him or her." Adriane held up her hands in defeat.

"Fine. Chels I won't." Chelsea squinted at her.

"Seriously."

"Now who's getting roused? I said I won't so I won't." Chelsea held her gaze a moment longer, making sure the promise settled properly. Adriane did not look away. Only after she was satisfied did Chelsea turn toward the manor. She stopped.

"Oh, hey Freya." Chelsea smirked, planning on blowing Fiona's mind one more time.

"Did you give my blessing to her baby yet?" Fiona stopped moving completely and seemed to go white.

"Oh, thanks for reminding me. I did shoot the blessing to her but I just need Fiona to accept it." Freya reached her hand toward Fiona, though she was about eight feet away.

"All you need to… to… do…" It was Freya's turn to stop moving completely. Her eyes were wide.

"Freya? Is everything OK?" Chelsea asked, concern taking over her playfulness a moment earlier.

"Y-y-yes! I…" She let out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah! I'm…" She laughed again.

"So great. Fiona, all you have to do is say yes." Chelsea could see the change in the god. Something was going on. She was… giddy? Chelsea would figure out why later.

"Yes." Is all Fiona was able to squeak out.

"Great! All done?" Chelsea asked. Freya laughed nervously again, this time it sounded like there was a happy sob sound in her voice.

"All done." She found something. Chelsea would definitely push for answer. She and Freya departed together, leaving Adriane and Fiona by the duck pond. The grass was soft beneath Chelsea's boots, and the house ahead looked safe.

"So where are you going to start to figure out the killer?"

"Oh no, there is no starting. I know exactly who did it. First time I met her she tried to take my face off." Chelsea did not slow as she said it. The answer had been sitting in her mind since Fiona described the faces. Hearts, eyes, and livers made everyone think of Chelsea. Faces made Chelsea think of someone else. Freya followed beside her as they headed upstairs and took the corridor opposite Chelsea's room. The manor felt quieter on this side, and Chelsea's steps softened as they reached the door.

She stopped in front of it, took one breath, and knocked.

"Aunt Bea? Open up!"