A few minutes passed after that, and her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother took her aside for a serious talk. In fact, Hans had misled her a bit it was much easier to deal with the men in the family than with the women. Lilith had simply naively assumed that the men would be the ones most opposed to it.
"What was that…?" his father asked again, finally breaking the silence, no longer looking at his son as his son. He himself didn't know how to look at him now or what to do at all this situation certainly didn't fit any standard scenario where he could resolve everything using his usual skills.
"I just kissed my fiancée. I thought it was obvious," Hans replied with a slight smile and a touch of slyness, as if he saw absolutely nothing unusual in it.
"She's your sister!" Grandpa stood up abruptly and loomed over Hans, who sat looking up at him as if being interrogated.
"Okay… I think you two need to go your separate ways. This is strange… it is strange, isn't it, Dad?" said the father, turning to his own father as if seeking confirmation.
"Yes… a brother and sister shouldn't be doing things like that!" he added sharply, tension and obvious irritation creeping into his voice.
Hans said nothing, only slowly shifted his gaze to his great-grandfather, as if clinging to a last hope. His expression changed instantly as pitiful as possible, almost defenseless… his eyes literally begged: "save me… help me."
His great-grandfather froze for a moment, as if he didn't immediately understand what was expected of him. Then he paused for a few seconds… and slowly stood up. Approaching his great-grandson, who was now completely surrounded, he stopped beside him, and a flash of playfulness and cheerfulness flickered in his eyes for a moment.
"And why did you suddenly start having this kind of relationship with Lilith?" he asked calmly, looking intently at Hans.
"You must understand yourself how wrong this is," his father added, his tone now more tense.
"Of course. It's because I love her… and I don't want her to ever marry anyone but me," Hans replied calmly, with a faint smile. "I'm saving the family time and nerves… they won't have to look for a son-in-law," he chuckled quietly, looking far too pleased with himself, as if he'd said something truly funny.
The fact that he was surrounded didn't scare him one bit there was neither fear nor tension in his eyes. He remained completely relaxed.
"And you're showing off too?!" his father shouted, now completely consumed by rage; his voice cracked, and his fist clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white, as if he were barely restraining himself from striking out.
"You can't have that kind of relationship with your sister, period!" the father and grandfather shouted in unison, their voices merging into a single sharp, tense cry.
"Why not?" Hans replied calmly.
"Actually… why not?" Surprisingly, his great-grandfather agreed, giving a faint smile.
Father and grandfather froze for a moment, as if they didn't immediately believe what they'd heard. They abruptly turned their gaze to their great-grandfather; their eyes betrayed genuine surprise and confusion—they clearly hadn't expected such a response.
"What do you mean, Dad?" his grandfather asked, looking at his great-grandfather.
"Grandpa… are you serious?" his father immediately turned to his great-grandfather, casting a bewildered glance, as if he himself didn't believe what he'd heard.
"We can't stop young people from living their own lives." If that's what they want let them do it," the great-grandfather said calmly.
"Besides, in our family, you could say it's already a tradition… once every three or four generations, someone is bound to marry their sister," the great-grandfather added calmly, as if talking about something ordinary.
"But times have changed! This is abnormal… and dangerous. What if they have children?" my father snapped, clearly tense, as if trying to steer the conversation back onto "solid ground" somehow.
"Not to mention that my father was married to his sister… are you saying that I'm somehow 'wrong'?" he asked calmly. "I'm ninety-nine years old, and I've outlived all the elders of my generation."
He slowly sat down on the sofa, as if the conversation didn't bother him at all.
"Besides… haven't you read the story about one of our ancestors, Reno?" he added just as calmly.
"No, but that's…"
"Dad, that's…"
"QUIET!!!" their great-grandfather cut them off sharply; his voice boomed through the room, forcing everyone to fall silent instantly. "You haven't even studied our family history… and you're already trying to influence Hans's decision!" he added with obvious irritation, as if he'd truly been riled up.
He yelled at the two men and they fell silent instantly, as if they'd been nailed to the spot. They exchanged glances, bewildered and clearly taken aback.
Why were they being scolded right now? For what? Why were they suddenly being blamed, as if they'd done something wrong? It's Hans who's seeing Lilith… he's the one who should be under pressure right now, not them!
How the hell did everything turn out this way?..
"Hans, tell them the story of your ancestor Reno," said the great-grandfather calmly, but with palpable insistence.
"Well, our ancestor, Reno Nightmare, was a talented swordsman, born in 1345 back when our family was still living in France; that was the first generation after we moved from England. He fell in love with his sister, Rebecca…" Hans began calmly.
"Of course, his father was against it. As a man of science, he was convinced that it led to defects, and although there had already been similar cases in our family, he strictly forbade it," Hans continued.
"But how could a ban stop love? Especially in our family… When we love, it's until death," a dangerous glint flashed in his eyes at the last words, sending a chill down the spines of both his grandfather and father.
"Am I not right…?" he added more quietly, without looking away, and that calm sounded far more tense than any shout.
"Well, in the end, they kept in touch secretly… but their father found out about it and separated them, sending them to different parts of France. René fought him several times and eventually held a knife to his throat. The father said he could kill him… but he wouldn't give his blessing," Hans fell silent for a moment, and a barely contained tension crept into his voice, as if this part of the story touched him personally.
"In the end, Reno couldn't bring himself to kill his father… he just walked away, in tears. A few months later, he managed to reach his beloved sister. Upon learning that their father would rather die than give his consent, she suggested ending her life by drinking poison. She said… if they couldn't be together in this life, they would be in the next, Hans finished quietly.
"Because Reno had disappeared, their father began to worry and came to see his daughter himself. He was on the brink exhausted, broken, but still wanted to explain why this was wrong… and help find his son."
"When he walked into the room… at the last moment he saw them about to drink the poison," his voice darkened slightly. "He literally knocked it out of their hands."
"Then they were forced to sit down at the table… to talk," he added, grimacing slightly. "They resisted, but they were forced."
"And then… he saw it," Hans said more quietly. "The hatred in his son's eyes… and the empty, distant gaze of his daughter, who looked anywhere but at him…"
"At that moment… his heart was finally broken."
"He gave in…" Hans continued more quietly. "Even realizing that their relationship could lead to degeneration… he realized something else: if he forbade it, it would surely lead to death."
Hans sighed softly, looking off to the side.
"He decided it was better to risk the future… than to lose his children right now," he added, his voice calmer now. "And he allowed them to marry… preventing a potential tragedy."
"That's a very nice story… but it sounds a bit unrealistic," the old man squinted skeptically, clearly not taking it at face value. He couldn't help but think that this sounded less like a family story and more like a hint—at how Hans himself would act if they continued to oppose him.
"What? No, I got that information from Robert's diary the father of Reno and Rebecca." "Have you ever even been down to our library? By the way, there's a whole memoir about our family spanning 1,400 years," Hans looked at his father and grandfather in surprise, as if he'd just learned something obvious to everyone except them.
"Well, even if not, there's a world-famous play called *Born to Love, Doomed to Die*. It's about the two of them," he looked at the two of them as if they were uncouth natives, clearly surprised that they hadn't even heard of it.
The father froze for a moment, trying to recall something similar, but apparently to no avail. His eyebrows knitted together, and his gaze grew slightly bewildered.
"...I'm hearing about this for the first time," he finally admitted, clearly not thrilled by the fact.
Grandpa snorted quietly, grimacing.
"Come on, it sounds like some kind of pretentious nonsense…" he muttered, but without his former confidence, glancing briefly at Great-Grandpa as if seeking confirmation.
Great-Grandpa merely rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked at them calmly.
"That's true. Many of our ancestors liked to keep diaries, and we've preserved quite a bit of information about their lives… if you'd taken even the slightest interest in our family history and gone down to the library, you'd know that," he added with a slight hint of reproach.
"But that's not the reason…"
"QUIET!!! Since Hans has finished speaking and you still haven't grasped the point, I'll say this: as the patriarch of the family, I approve of their relationship. If you stand in their way, it won't end well it's better to let the young people do as they please."
The father looked first at Hans, then at his great-grandfather… and, sighing, gave in. He slowly sat back, trying to calm down.
"If that's the case… so be it. But I hope this isn't some kind of game," he shot Hans a heavy, fierce look.
"Of course not. I truly love her… and 'In love we'll burn forever,' heh," Hans smiled cheerfully. "It's not for nothing that this is our family motto."
Left alone, Grandfather exhaled heavily and sat down as well.
"And what about Aurora, then?.. Breaking off the engagement with her family will have rather bad consequences," he added tensely.
"Who told you, Grandpa, to break off the engagement with my beloved fiancée Aurora?" Hans looked at his grandfather with open surprise, as if the old man had just said something completely absurd.
"But…"
"Indeed, polygamy, though not widespread… if you can convince her, Hans, the family will support you," the great-grandfather added calmly, as if they were discussing a routine agreement.
Both his father and grandfather were extremely annoyed. The two of them seemed to have conspired—they kept interrupting them and even blamed them for not knowing the family history. Indignation was boiling inside them, but they no longer dared to say anything.
"In the future, I plan to have 50… no, 100… though maybe 200… or even 500 wives," Hans said completely calmly, as if discussing something mundane. Hans kept increasing the number until it finally reached downright absurd proportions, and he, pleased with himself, finally fell silent.
"Are you out of your mind?!" his great-grandfather couldn't take it anymore, raising his voice sharply and staring at his great-grandson in utter shock, as if for the first time ever he had truly lost control of the situation.
"What? I'm just expanding the family… in width," Hans chuckled with a sly smile.
"Well, okay… to be honest, there's a more plausible reason for this," Hans sighed quietly. He wasn't going to explain the system they wouldn't understand it anyway so he decided to approach the matter more tactfully.
Oh, really? And what is it? his great-grandfather raised an eyebrow and chuckled. A desire to set a new family record for the number of wives?
Don't make me laugh… the most in our family was three wives and five mistresses, Hans chuckled, looking at his great-grandfather with a sly smile.
"Has anyone in our family really ever had more than one wife?" Grandpa asked in surprise.
Hans and his great-grandfather simultaneously shot him meaningful glances that literally screamed,
"Don't embarrass yourself… and keep quiet."
Seeing this scene, my father, being a sensible man, didn't feel the need to weigh in and just sat there silently. He had already decided in his mind that he had to read those diaries otherwise Hans would definitely hold it against him… and what would become of his honor as a father then?
"Well, that's not the point." "Did you see the news about that imbecile Luka?" he asked rhetorically, not even waiting for an answer, since he'd been right there when everyone was watching it.
"Yeah, so he's some kind of 'son of destiny.' Blessed for great deeds, like a hero in some book… and I, in a way, am his natural enemy…"
"And how does this have anything to do with women?" his father interrupted, already visibly irritated.
"Wait, let me finish—and everything will become clear. After that, I'll even be able to prove it," Hans replied calmly. "As I said, I'm his natural enemy. Which means he'll become your enemy in the future, too."
"No matter what we do… we'll still run into him and become enemies. It's just the way things are," Hans said calmly. "The only question is… how far will he get before we cross paths?"
"Then can we just kill him?" my great-grandfather asked uncertainly.
"No! If you try to kill him, he'll either survive and become stronger, or worse yet you'll kill him, but there will be consequences in the form of fate's revenge, which could be even worse, since I myself don't know what they'll entail." "And stop interrupting!" Hans snapped; it was starting to annoy him a bit: he was trying to explain, and they wouldn't let him get a word in.
"Well, here's the thing: by disrupting his fate, I can become more powerful. And this brings us to the role of women here: some of them are an important part of his fate, and by capturing them, I severely disrupt his fate and, more importantly, I gain a passive boost in power from the women."
Continuing his explanation, Hans laid out all the details, and judging by the way he spoke, they were certain: even if this was nonsense, he believed in it.
No one jumped on him, arguing that he'd made it up or that he'd lost his mind; they just looked at him calmly.
"You said you can prove it? Show us how," his father asked, not sure himself what to expect, but honestly, he hoped his son would show at least something that could prove it; otherwise, he really had lost his mind. The others were thinking the same thing.
"Well…" Hans sighed deeply.
He didn't continue speaking, but used his ability and summoned a large bucket of popcorn: it wasn't there—and suddenly it just appeared.
Three ancestors stared at him with puzzled looks. Popcorn? What kind of trick is this?
"Seriously, popcorn? Don't you have a better explanation than a trick?" Grandpa was skeptical: he'd learned the trick and thought we'd believe it.
Hans said nothing and set down a bucket, summoning another, and another, and another, until there were ten buckets of popcorn on the table.
"Do you believe me now?" Hans said weakly; he really felt awkward displaying his power like that, even though the popcorn was indeed delicious.
"How do you do that?" the grandfather was baffled: at first he might have thought it was some clever trick his grandson had learned, but by the fifth bucket he had walked around the entire bed, checked every nook and cranny, and then five more buckets appeared they weren't small, and Hans certainly couldn't have hidden them in his underwear.
"Calm down, Heinrich," the great-grandfather said to his son. This clearly convinced him, as it did, in fact, Hans's father: they thought it was some kind of magic, because the popcorn really had appeared out of nowhere. They had no choice but to believe this nonsense, which, it seemed, wasn't all that unrealistic.
"All right, if this is all true, what should we do?" asked Grandpa, having calmed down, as he looked around at the family, who were also deep in thought.
"Nothing, I'll figure it out myself. All I need from you is your trust." I hold all the trump cards…" Hans barely smiled, but a flicker of tension crossed his eyes. "And if I lose… I'll be the biggest loser of all."
"Nothing at all?" They felt a certain helplessness: were they really so useless that they couldn't do anything or help in any way?
"Well, actually, I need people—not just a couple hundred bodyguards, but an army. And we have one, don't we, Great-Grandpa?"
He looked at him: under their command were many groups of mercenaries who answered to them and specifically to his great-grandfather and they could easily muster close to ten thousand armed professionals. Of course, they were scattered across the world, doing various dirty jobs, but gathering them and even increasing their numbers would be no problem for his great-grandfather.
He used to be that butcher, and despite his age, he could return to that role for another two or three years; unfortunately, he'd likely not last much longer.
"I'll take care of it: if an army is needed, then it will be there," my great-grandfather replied confidently. A look of confidence and his usual cold, ruthless expression appeared on his face, as if this role had never left him.
"All right. Next, I need your influence, Grandpa. You've always been a master of diplomacy, so if necessary, if I have to marry someone to once again thwart some little hero's fate do it, whatever the cost. These heroines definitely won't ruin the situation in our family; on the contrary they'll be very useful," Hans added confidently.
"Well, Dad, it's simple with you: do what you know how to do, only more and better. We need more money so we can crush any company, so we can buy any woman from any family," said Hans, looking at his father with a certain anticipation.
"Of course I can do that. After all, what in this world can't be bought with money? If not for one price, then for another…" A cold confidence crept into his voice, and a smug smile slowly spread across his lips.
Meanwhile, upstairs, among the women of the family, the atmosphere was completely different.
"YOU CAN'T, FOR GOD'S SAKE, MARRY YOUR OWN BROTHER!!!" the mother shouted at her daughter.
"Your mother's a bit harsh, but she's right: you'll never be with him!" the grandmother added confidently. This is just nonsense—why are they even discussing this? It's simply strange and disgusting.
"FUCK OFF, YOU TWO STUPID OLD HAGS!!!" "He's my husband, and you can't stop me!" Lilith, of course, didn't stand idly by either, but fiercely stood up to them. How dare they even try to tear them apart?
And only the great-grandmother sat on the sidelines, watching as everything escalated into such a scandal. The time when everything could be settled with a few words had already passed, and she decided not to intervene, even passively supporting Lilith. At first she thought it was a joke, but seeing how serious her great-granddaughter was, she gave up trying to stop it. The only hope remained with the men.
To be honest, the old woman didn't even notice how the argument had escalated into a catfight that left the room in shambles: poor Lilith had to physically fend off those two bitches who didn't understand love.
It took only a few minutes for them to calm down. Lilith's nose and lips were broken and bleeding, but she didn't spare her mother or grandmother a single drop she bit, hit, and scratched them like a madwoman, and so there were far more marks on them.
"ENOUGH!!! We can't figure this out on our own!" she shouted sharply, breathing heavily. "So let's go downstairs and discuss everything together, not separately! Maybe they've already managed to convince Hans… and he's given up on this nonsense!"
"My brother would never give up on me—he promised!" she snapped, sticking out her tongue defiantly at all her ancestors, then turned and ran out of the room, slamming the door so hard it cracked, echoing with a dull thud throughout the house.
"All right, let's go downstairs. Hans has surely come to his senses by now."
They quickly caught up with their daughter, who had run to her brother seeking affection and comfort, and saw that the men in their family were sitting there, watching a movie and eating popcorn.
Lilith ignored this and jumped into Hans's arms, wanting him to stroke her head and kiss her wounds so they would heal faster.
The women froze in the doorway, as if they had stumbled upon something their minds simply refused to accept. The mother was the first to widen her eyes; her face twisted with shock and outrage.
"WHAT… IS… GOING… ON… HERE?" Her voice trembled, but not from fear, but from the rage that was beginning to boil up again.
Grandma just stared silently at the scene before her: her gaze swept over the popcorn, the relaxed men… and settled on Lilith, who, as if nothing had happened, was snuggling up to Hans.
"Why is everyone so relaxed? Did you manage to convince Hans… peacefully?" She raised an eyebrow: she hadn't expected such a peaceful resolution at all and was even a little envious her whole face ached, as did the shoulder her granddaughter had bitten.
The great-grandmother just looked at her husband with interest, waiting for an explanation.
"Did you two fight? Oh, my poor… did your mom and grandmothers hurt you?" "Let your brother help you," he quickly began to soothe and pamper her like a little princess, and soon brought a smile back to her face, though the wounds would take a few more days to heal. He fetched the first-aid kit and began applying healing ointment to help the wounds heal faster.
"So, what have you decided?" the three women asked almost in unison, completely ignoring Hans and Lilith's behavior, who were practically kissing right in front of them. Two of the women felt a lump in their throats, and the oldest experienced a strange sense of déjà vu.
"Well, you see, we talked it over and agreed that…" Father didn't go on: seeing his wife's battered and furious expression, he realized that he might be the next one to get beaten.
"Well, we agreed that their marriage could be allowed under certain conditions, and there's no reason to try to force them apart," Grandpa continued, looking kindly at his charming wife: a couple of bruises and a broken nose didn't diminish her attractiveness in his eyes one bit quite the opposite. He remembered how they first met: her face was all swollen, but she demonstrated her skills to him and beat an entire squad of their professional fighters, even though she was a woman.
Her strength had strongly attracted him back then, and as a result, they got married.
"I see… is that really how it is?" asked the eldest, now turning to her husband.
"I see… is that really how it is?" asked the great-grandmother, turning to her husband.
"Yes, why interfere in the affairs of the young if that's what they want? I gave my consent as head of the family," the old man replied calmly, munching on popcorn. He was truly impartial: he didn't know what kind of magic it was, but even his wife couldn't make popcorn like that.
"All right, if that's the case, I have no objections," said the grandmother and sat down next to her husband, who was as tall as a rock. She always agreed with the elders' opinions, and even after all these years, unless it was something serious, she didn't dare to object. And since everyone had given their consent, she didn't worry about it anymore and gave her blessing.
"YOU-YOU-YOU'VE ALL FUCKING LOST YOUR MINDS!!! WHAT THE FUCK DOES 'GIVEN YOUR CONSENT' MEAN?!" Her voice broke into a scream, her eyes filled with blood, and her hands trembled with rage, as if she were about to rush into battle again.
Realizing the problem, the father quickly stood up, grabbed his wife, sat her on his lap, and tried to calm her down. As a result, he ended up with a scratched face and a sulking wife who wouldn't speak to him. Well, at least she had calmed down—to him, this was her usual behavior, though today she was a bit angrier, but bearable: he would explain everything to her properly later.