Vespera's drive soon pulled into their mansion's parking space, and Elizabeth, her servant, opened the door for her with a minor bow.
The Monarch of Shadows then slowly walked up the stairs, took a left, then a right turn in the luxurious hallways adorned by incalculably expensive paintings and sculptures until she was greeted by an out-of-place pink, girly door that was decorated by drawings of flowers and cute animals.
It had a giant 'DO NOT DISTURB!' sign on it.
Vespera took a deep breath to calm herself and prepare to face her.
*Knock knock knock*
She firmly tapped her knuckles on the eccentrically decorated door.
"Leave me alone!" A feminine cry welcomed her gesture with a coarse voice. She had been audibly bawling her eyes out for a long while.
"It's me," Vespera said.
The room's occupant didn't respond for a good ten minutes. The mother stood in place motionlessly as she patiently waited.
"Is it done…?" a soft, barely audible whisper that has lost all its edge asked. Its owner had moved close to the door based on the proximity of her weak voice.
"Yes."
Another silence ensued save for the girl's renewed wailing, but she finally opened the door after a while, revealing a short female that had lush black hair ending in adorable twintails. She rushed out of the door and dashed into Vespera's embrace with a force that would've easily sent a commoner straight to the afterlife upon impact, but the Shadow Monarch didn't even flinch.
The black-haired woman did her best not to show emotions as she began petting Alice's head and hugging her daughter with her other hand.
Alice nestled her head into Vespera's bosom and allowed her mother's jacket to act as her tear-storing tissue since she was crying her heart out at the moment.
"I will never abandon my big brother, no matter if he's legally my brother or not!" Alice decreed a few minutes later once she managed to calm down enough to hold a conversation.
"I know."
"You better disown me too because if any of my so-called 'family members' attempt to hurt Kai even after you went this far, I will murder them in cold blood and burn this cursed mansion down with all of us still in it." Her statement was uttered in the same cold, lifeless tone the public knew Vespera to speak, and there was not even a shred of doubt in the mother's mind that her daughter would do exactly as she promised.
Alice was the youngest of the five siblings at age 16, with Kaiden being the second oldest at 22. Despite the age gap and gender difference, he was the only one who played with the twintailed girl throughout her childhood, the one who treated her like a cherished younger sister. Nothing more, nothing less, and that meant the whole world to the girl.
In a household like this, competition was rampant even before the mana apocalypse's arrival upended human society. Her twin older brothers and elder sister acted exactly as one would expect; they were treating her as a rival, always looking to throw their youngest sibling under the bus by any means necessary, yet Kaiden did none of that. He happily played with her for hours on end as they acted out her dumb romance stories with her barbie dolls, he read her nighttime tales from her favorite books and even took her on walks to the park and other interesting places like the cinemas and the zoo. All her most cherished memories had Kaiden included in them.
What's more, her big brother had never asked for anything in return. Kaiden genuinely wanted his little sister to smile and be happy.
The young girl's heart was pained like never before when her big brother fell into a deep depression due to not awakening in a prodigious family full of awakeners, and just like her mother, Alice was also happy in a way that he moved out of this suffocating place. However, neither of them expected the man to give up on a normal non-awakened career like that of an economist to just say 'screw it' and become a pornstar.
Yes, Alice was also aware of his decision. Vespera had continuously shared the less explicit results of her spying efforts with her daughter. The black-haired girl wasn't at all happy with her brother's choice of career.
She also did her reconnaissance on social media, but Kaiden rarely posted anything at all.
When she saw him post multiple times about a certain video game, Alice tried her best at it so that she could reach his rank and snipe (play with) him without Kaiden knowing that it was her in his game supporting him to destroy the enemies, but it was far too complex of a game for a non-gamer like her, so she was in the midst of getting online coached by the top 1 ranked player of the server for six hours every day, Sundays included.
As for why she didn't contact him directly? Alice believed that he wanted to get away from anything and everything Ashborn, and she was one of them. Seeing her would likely make him remember all the negative emotions he associates with the name, even if she were to throw it all away.
Vespera's grip on her daughter's back tightened as she uttered the next few words through gritted teeth with rarely seen, deeply boiling fury in her tone. "You won't have to do any of that, for if they dare make an attempt on his life, I'll bury the remains of their desecrated corpses myself."
…
"Say cheese!" Nyx instructed while she held her phone in her hand and snapped a few selfies with all four of them in the frame.
As the member responsible for their social media presence, it was up to the pink-haired beauty to snap some good photos to be used as their profile picture. They decided to create a team page under the name 'Valhalla's Sinners.'
It took some deliberation between the four members to arrive at this name. Sadly, Kaiden's preferred handle— Kaiden's Sexy Sinners—was unanimously rejected.
The debate was between Valhalla and Sinners mostly.
Valhalla was thematically fitting for the Valkyrie Sub-System, and Nyx also insisted that he was their Odin, so it was sort of a no-brainer group name to select.
Sinners, on the other hand, was fitting due to the group being led by the Paragon of Sin and the fact that they planned to rise to stardom through unconventional, shameless methods.
Ultimately, they decided on the best of both worlds, that being Valhalla's Sinners.
He opened his status window to check his progress.