Chapter 139: Consequences

"Why are you always naked!"

Walking into the room, the first thing they saw was the matured lady that sat across from them in the nude as she read a piece of parchment in her hand while sipping on a glass of wine by the side.

The matured looking lady had long blonde hair with streaks of grey running down it as her silky hair went down to the lower parts of her back. Her eyes were the same colors as Nina's, which was emerald green. Her face was almost flawless as it would dazzle anyone but her cold and sharp gaze would make people lower their heads before her, unable to appreciate her beauty.

"I work better like this but never mind that. I see you're finally up. I was beginning to think you were never going to wake up again. I'm glad."

The matured lady replied bluntly in a semi monotonous tone, without even looking up at the pair that had entered the room. Her naked figure sat leisurely on the black leather sofa as she crossed her legs. Her large but firm bosons pointing straight at Nina who immediately felt self-conscious and her gaze strayed down to hers for just a moment.

The matured lady's skin was almost as smooth as the ones of new bone babies, her long legs and curves that complemented her features were obviously superior to Nina's, making her feel inferior and uncomfortable.

Sensing her daughter's nerves begin to rise, the matured lady finally looked up from her parchment and sighed. "So you're still this childish huh. I left you with those monkeys because I thought it would help you grow out of your inferiority complex but it seems I was wrong."

She then got up from her seat and walked over to the rack by the side of the room putting on a robe by herself, her personal maids nowhere to be seen.

"I-I I'll help you with that ma'am."

The lady nodded and Vella quickly ran over to her and helped her secure her robe's and tied the belt around her slender waist.

"What happened to your maids, didn't there use to be more than four of them. If I recall, you even had one of your boy toys dress up as one." Nina asked the question with little interest but as though she was hoping to avoid something.

"Hmm... I tasked them in returning something, they should be back soon."

Nina could think of several reasons why her mother would do something like that and judge from the fact that she was naked and a liquid had dripped down from in between her legs the moment she stood up. It was probably something she didn't care to imagine much less talk about.

"How's your chest? I just received a report that the healer for that will be here before the end of the day so do bear with the pain."

Nina's expression sank even though this was supposed to be good news and seeing this, her mother chuckled. "On that note, is it's about time you explain what happened to you and tell me who dared to lay a hand on one of the direct defendants of the Zorak family?"

During their entire conversation, even when she had chuckled, her mother's sharp and cold expression had not changed even a little. Nina didn't know how to explain herself. However, she had known that she would have to do this when she had resigned herself to using the family's escape tool.

Amongst her four siblings, she was not only the least talented but was the only girl. Although gender generally didn't matter in the Demon continent as long as one had enough strength, it would become an issue for someone like her that had been deemed unfit.

While she had a Basic Tier 5 potential herself, her brothers all had a Peak Tier 5 potential at the very least and her eldest brother was even the current demon lord of the Zorak family, even though her mother still held most of the authority within her grasp.

However, this was not even the issue as the most important thing in a noble family was their inheritance, their innate ability. While it wasn't compulsory for every member of a noble family to inherit the same innate ability, all high-ranking noble families pride themselves on this fact.

They would allow the other family members and other non-pure-bloods to develop their innate ability or leave without one. However, every direct descendant of the family must have inherited the family's innate ability and be proficient in using it, or else they would lose their standing in the family and the worst case be quickly and quietly eliminated to save the family from humiliation.

Therefore, one would be able to live well in a noble family with only a peak Tier 3 or Tier 4 potential as long as they could use the innate ability proficiently. As for someone like her that even though she had the innate ability, she could not fully utilize it as she had almost zero talent or affinity for magic, she would be looked down upon in disdain by those that envied her position.

"Nina, you haven't answered my question. You know I don't appreciate repeating myself."

Nina's thoughts froze as her mother's cold and penetrating gaze settled on her for a moment. She gulped and forced herself to speak else face the consequences of her silence.

"I'm not sure who he is myself."

"Meaning?"

"I only met his ones. He was a man I was hired to kill but I wasn't interested so I didn't pay any attention to the details."

"If you weren't interested how did you lose to him?"

"I got curious later on when I was done with my original job so I went to see if something was interesting there and found the pair had already killed more than twenty of the men that tried to hire me so I thought it would interesting."

"And you proceeded to lose to a pair of commoners?"

"They wore masks so I couldn't tell if they were commoners."

"Masked demons huh... So you lost to them both?"

"Huh... Y-Yes, they had teamed up against me, that's why I lost and had to retreat."

"I see."

Nina's mother nodded gently as though pondering something before speaking again in a questioning tone.

"This organization you're a part of, what was their name again?"

"..." Nina's face went pale as she instinctively took a step back and her mother nodded again.

"Can't speak huh? No matter, I remember it soon enough. Still, they've surely proven to be quite tenacious and it seems some nobles have secretly joined their ranks, getting rid of them might pose a problem. However, we'll need to find out more information from the section that had wanted to hire you so perhaps it's time we do something about them."

"What no! Don't interfere, I can handle these people myself."

Glancing at Nina for only a moment, her mother ignored her and spike again. "That's not up to you anymore. They damaged the pureblood of the Great Zorak family so they have decided to change the entire family and therefore will have to pay in blood. As for your precious organization, it will take a while to prepare for them so do have as much fun as you want till then. After that, you'll need to return to the family and fulfill your duties. A family is more than just your happiness."

Saying that without giving Nina an opportunity to refute or challenge her, Marline Cialora Zorak, the current Grand elder of the Zorak family and the one with the most authority in the family got up and walked away as she proceeded to enter her indoor bathroom with Vella rushing in to assist her. Leaving the dumbfounded and angry Nina speechless.

••••••••••

Nina stormed back to her chambers inside the Zorak main family's castle. Her strides were wild and forceful, her brows were furrowed, and her mouth was twisted. Her pretty features were distorted into something which could only have been described with the word "ugly."

That said, almost every male who saw her in this state would still find her beautiful. The reason for her current mood was the last words her mother had spoken to her about her so-called duty as a member of the Zorak family.

This was one of those cases where being a female was the most troublesome thing in the world and the main reason she had left home in the first place. As though being considered a weak female wasn't bad enough, she was considered one in a noble's household and therefore would have to be subjected to being used as a political tool for the family's sake.

As someone that could barely use any spells and could not maintain or even control her innate ability but was still a direct defendant of the Zorak's, she was the perfect candidate to be married off in an attempt to either extend the family's reach in the demon continent or strengthen the family.

In the worst case, she would have to become the concubine of one of her brothers or cousins to keep the innate ability of the Zorak family within the family, or become the wife of a much smaller noble family's master be they young or old in order to create a new branch family and strengthen the family's control over their section of the demon continent. 

While incest was not a strange thing in noble society. Her problem with the first issue which was becoming one of her brothers' concubines besides being used by her family was simply because she hated every single one of them and they shared similar malice towards her so she would end up in a terrible situation if that were to happen.

Perhaps even being treated worst than their maids and what's worst, they could simply magical seal her womb and sell her off to be someone's sex slave. There was a lot of nobles out there that would love to get their hands on the high and mighty purebloods of the Great Five even though her mother would not generally allow that. They could simply just do it behind her back.

This was why she had decided to put on a mask when she was leaving the castle. It was simply because she no longer wanted to be constrained to the limitations of being a female demon or demoness. She wanted to live and survive by her skills and strength only, wanting to prove to herself that she did not need her innate ability to be great.

And yet—

Everything had gone down the drain simply because of one man. One annoying pest that just wouldn't die. If she had known things would unfold in this way at that time, she would've ignored him and went on her merry way.

That way she would've retained her freedom even if it was a freedom that would be considered something like a fool's gold, but perhaps she would've been able to slowly gather the resources needed to completely severe herself from the binds of her family and attain true freedom. 

She surely would've been able to live quite well on one of the regions that belonged to those seven behemoths in the far end of the Demon continent where the family's wide tentacles couldn't teach.

Now, however, it was too late. Her chance seems to have escaped her as she no longer had the time to pull off something like that with the family paying closer attention to her.

'Damn it! I'll kill you! That damn ugly bastard, even if I have to suffer for the rest of my life after this, I'll make sure you die a terrible death for this.'

Her warped face flashed with determination as she stormed into her room and towards her closet. Forcing the door off its hinges with a hard pull even though it was unlocked. 

Inside were several sets of long black coats and magically reinforced tightly fitted jackets, with several white metallic masks laid neatly by the side.