RD 7 Ch 3 (Patreon)

"I must say your cooking only gets better," my father slapped the table as he ate, Simone's cooking by the spoonful and by spoonful, by that I mean a serving spoon. The man was an even greater glutton than myself, though I at least had some manners.

My mother sat not far away, watching him with a pleasant smile on her face. "You never compliment my cooking like that?"

Thorin froze mid-scoop to his mouth, hesitating with what to say next, and I decided to bail him out.

"Well, then you should cook next time, Mother. I haven't seen you cook much for our family dinners." I tried to smooth things over.

Elle smiled around the table at the eight women who joined us for the family dinners. "Well, there are others who seem more interested in trying to impress us," she said.

Winnie was all smiles, still wearing her apron as if trying to remind everyone she had cooked tonight's meal. "Well, it's only right that we cook, given you guys have gone through the effort of training Bran today." Winnie was all smiles, but it didn't quite reach her eyes, no doubt she would have loved to have participated in said training, or at the very least been consulted.

"His style is crude, but perhaps it works for him," my mother begrudgingly admitted.

"One can have a crude, reckless style with powerful regeneration. In fact it’s even more fitting because he can sustain the shallow wounds and either win through attrition or score a finishing blow early," Thorin bobbed along, unaware of his wife's disappointment as he spoke. 

Simone, however, caught it and cleared her throat before the two of them had a marital spat. "How about instead we talk about what's up next?" Simone narrowed her eyes at me.

"Yes," I sighed and put down my silverware. "I think we need to go to South America next."

There were those who already knew my next destination, but still most of them seemed surprised that it was coming so soon.

"Why South America?" Thorin asked, putting down his spoon as his brows furrowed. "Should you not make for the Heavenly Fist Sect? After all, your stats have grown explosively since the Monkey King."

I chuckled and shook my head. "If only it were that easy. The Demon King has had plenty of time to grow his strength, and even if I were to go to the Heavenly Fist Sect and try to fight him head on, no doubt one of his soul fragments would escape, only to stir things up more." I shook my head, and there were several frowns around the table. "The Demon King's greatest weapon is the fact that he can split his soul, and therefore his body, to accomplish farming for experience and stats, as if he were a dozen individuals. Combine that with his army seeking the best opportunities, and his own knowledge of the future, I suspect he's grown even faster than he did in my prior life. My concern at present is not with confronting him. Instead, I wish to seek out several of the fragments and crush them to slow his growth and thereby his greater plans."

"And there's one in South America," Thorin said, wagging his serving spoon at me.

I smiled and leaned back, thoughtfully gazing into the horizon. I gave it some thought. "If I were to try and find these fragments, what signs could I look for? Of course, I know where several of the high-ranking or high-level instances will appear. However—" I paused, meeting the eyes of everyone in the room. "The Demon King's past life had far more information to work with. In fact, he had an entire army giving him information. So the end result is he probably knows vastly more opportunities than even I am aware of. The best way for me to find those fragments is to look where the greatest deviations between my last life and this one are occurring."

"And that's South America," Simone said, nodding along. "You mentioned we wouldn't have to worry about it, but now we do?"

"Yes," I said, putting the tip of my spoon down and twirling it on the table in thought. "Eve of the First Garden was weaker than she should have been at the tournament, and she was far more concerned about demons, like they're a significantly larger problem there than they should be."

"Demons are a problem everywhere," Gloria pointed out.

"Yes, but there was something that happened in South America very different than the rest," I said, waiting to see if anyone would bite.

"Why?" Nyx didn't hesitate, chomping on it like a fish on a well-wormed hook.

"Because while so much of the world was ill-prepared for the Rapture, South America had people who should have not only survived it easily, but thrived beyond any other area's population." I explained.

Now most of the group were frowning in thought.

"Are there gangs that much better than ours?" Gloria asked, leaning back and crossing her arms underneath her chest. She wore her hair down for dinner and I liked the look, though the only time it normally came out of her bun otherwise was when she’d been… worked over.

"No, Gloria. Your gang is wonderful. It was the indigenous Amazonian tribes that became a significant source of trouble for the demons."

My words only caused half the group's eyebrows to pop up, while the other half were still thoughtful. Almeria seemed the most confused as she wasn't as familiar with the surface world as the rest.

"I would have thought some contingent of clans would fare better than indigenous, normal humans." Circe tilted her head. 

I waggled a finger at her. "You forget even the clans have modernized to a significant degree. Instead, you take something like the Amazon rainforest, where people are surviving off the land and already cluster into large, community-focused groups, and then you give them an endless bounty of things to hunt that not only give them sustenance but also help them grow more powerful? They have long felt weak compared to those who'd rob their lands of resources. Not only did they have the means, they had the passion."

"These people have been pushed around for so long, and you offer them an opportunity to not only be self-sufficient but to correct their standing when it comes to power," Gloria said with sudden understanding. The smile on Gloria's face told me she understood well enough. Then some of the others began nodding.

"I see," my mother said, "amongst these tribes, there should be those powerful enough to take care of any demon incursions and in fact cleanse them?"

I nodded. "They should have several individuals that rival the strength of clan leaders. And the demons shouldn't be a problem for Eve and the First Garden. Instead, those tribes should be her greatest concern. My suspicion is that the Demon King has seeped his influence into the area and robbed them of the opportunities that might otherwise have caused the tribe's explosive growth. On one hand, strengthening himself; on the other, weakening his enemy."

"Camden is a sly tactician. I would expect nothing less than such efficiency from him. Besides," I said, returning to my meal, "we should go help the First Garden, if nothing else than to tend to the relationships between clans and sects."

Circe grumbled at that.

"Excuse me?" I asked, lifting an eyebrow at her words.

She waved a hand. "Nothing I can't handle. And I'm afraid I'm out for this particular mission. The Heros Clan is going to be diving into some of their own strengthening. Zeus demanded that myself and Hercules take a more active role in training." She waggled her head. "He also somewhat demanded that you take an active role in training the clansmen, but I told him that you're now likely outside his reach." She chuckled.

"How badly did that bother him?" Simone leaned forward eagerly.

Circe glanced at me out of the side of her eyes, a sly smirk spreading across her face. "Oh, he was apoplectic." She chuckled. "You should have seen his face."

"It's not good to speak of the clan leader like that," my mother attempted to scold Circe, who waved her off. "We're amongst family or would you betray my words to him?"

Elle cracked a smile. "No. I thought I could threaten to as a way to keep my own son in check."

"Good luck with that," Simone said. "I think if you try and keep your son in check, you're going to find yourself out of resources in the citadel,” Simone playfully said while her eyes held a dangerous glint towards my mother.

I shook my head and grabbed Simone's soft thigh and squeezed it between my fingers, and she turned to me. "Of course, Lord Bran," she half-bowed while sitting, in the way many of them all did, and I rolled my eyes — but she was at least successful at disarming me.

“None of that.” I swatted her rear and chuckled,

Simone licked her lips and bit those plump pink pillows, her eyes practically glazing over with lust. “More?”

"Careful, before you bite off more than you can chew." I grinned, only for her to grin back. 

"Well then, consider me ready for a feast. After all, I have a feeling that I am not going on this particular trip." She smiled.

"Traveling through the Amazon will require a little more agility," I said, avoiding her gaze, only for Simone to nod sagely.

"Of course, take Merlin, Nyx, Almeria, and Venthra."

Winnie flashed her glare from the other side of the table, when Simone's face grew soft as she pouted at the icy woman. "But I need someone as strong as you to remain here if Bran's going to be absent."

Winnie struggled with the compliment that also tied her down. I saw her war with it for a moment before deciding to give up. Most of them knew fighting Simone was futile. Besides, I’m sure Winnie would use the opportunity to grow closer with Simone.

"Fine," Winnie ground out, "but I demand to go with Bran wherever he's going next." It almost seemed like there was something left unsaid at the end of her sentence, as she and Simone communicated with subtle expressions and glints of their eyes.

"Of course," Simone said to whatever silent conversation they were having, and sat back with a smug smile of satisfaction. "I assume that group works for you?" she asked.

"Merlin's absolutely needed if we're going to get around quickly, and Nyx would be incredibly helpful with her serpents and danger perception." I shrugged.

The woman looked up from where she'd been devouring her plate, her hair transformed into snakes now that she was a Medusa, mostly focused on me, with a few eyeing the remaining scraps of her dinner. "I'd love to go," Nyx said. "My snake hair would be fantastic and ensure we weren't ambushed."

"And of course, Almeria would be extraordinarily welcome, especially if we'd have to deal with anything in the Amazon River itself," Simone continued.

The woman who was part sea dragon grinned. "River or sea makes no difference to me. You may count on my blade. How large is this river?" She paused, asking Simone.

Who held her arms wide apart. "Absolutely gigantic."

“Then I will be a great help.” Almeria nodded to herself at that.

And then my eyes fell on Venthra, who was already looking dissatisfied at being left for last. Perhaps she thought she was tossed in as an afterthought. I was coming to understand that she just lacked self-esteem and hid it behind her brash nature.

"And as for Venthra, she's the best scout we could ask for." Simone finished with a flourish of her hands.

The messy redhead squinted at me. She had been Vidar's adoptive daughter while he used her as an assassin; her class and skill primarily revolved around poison and assassinations. "Merlin should be better at that than me," she said, crossing her arms.

"Perhaps in the dark," Merlin offered, "however, I assume we'll be doing just as much in the day, and for that you could use your talents far more than mine."

Unknown to any of them, she had another value. The Amazon Rainforest seemed to spawn a large number of poison users, for that she’d be very valuable.

It seemed Venthra was unsure how to take it and simply crossed her arms. "I suppose, then, if you all want me so much, then I have no choice." Her eyes slid back to me. "When do we go?"

I swallowed the bite I had just been working through. "Tomorrow."

And at that, they all seemed flabbergasted.

Simone slapped me on the thigh. "You're supposed to give ladies some time to pack."

"Why?" I asked, my mouth half full with my next bite.

My mother sighed and covered her face with her hand. "I'm sorry, ladies, I seem to have a few failings when I raised him."

"It couldn't have been easy," Gloria said, moving over and patting my mother on the shoulder with a sympathetic shake of her head. “Simone, if you’d like to keep him busy then, tonight is your shot.”

The Saintess next to me practically vibrated with excitement. “I owe you one Gloria.”