Chapter 396 - The Answer Is No

Cecil spent a few more days training but he didn't gain much. He was already at the threshold of the Perfection and Transformation stage for both his Mana and Ki cultivations.

He felt that training monotonously wasn't going to be enough and he was now at a bottleneck. It was a first for him since his cultivation had been smooth sailing all the way up to the Mana Core and Ki Crystallization Stages.

He could feel as if there was a barrier that he had to break down but no matter how much he struck out, Cecil always felt his cultivation rebound downwards, sometimes to the point where he caused some minor damage to himself. It was a slight dilemma but he had a feeling that he could find the solution within the ruins.

From the reports he received from the New World Republic regarding those ruins attested to the fact that they were left behind by Alterna's Ancient Races. Since it was left behind by such a superior race, Cecil felt that there was something in there that would help him advance into the next level of his cultivation stage.

Of course, he wasn't confident that there was a solution there but there was still a chance. If he could find that chance then it'll all be worth it. There wasn't a guarantee that there'd be such an opportunity for him there, but it was better than just sitting around.

Cecil didn't just want to leave his wife alone so he wanted her consent but after what she last said to him, it was going to be a little hard to convince her into letting him go. He could only try and sweet talk her into it, but he knew it was going to be difficult.

******

"So...Seri, I wanted to ask you if—"

"No~"

"Huh? But I didn't even say anything!"

"I dunno, but I just have a feeling that I should say no!"

"...That's unreasonable."

"I bet the question you were going to ask was going to be unreasonable as well..."

"Uhh, no it's not?"

"That didn't sound so convincing, Darling..."

"Ok fine, I'll just say it."

"The answer's still gonna be no, just so you know, darling~" Serilla replied with a wide smile.

"...I wanna go explore the ruins near the NWR's territory. It might take a long time so I just wanted to—"

"NO! Definitely NO! You know that I'm pregnant right now, yet you want to go out exploring?!"

"Urk..."

"Darling, you don't know what's inside those ruins! I've already read the report from the deal and I've seen the details! If those ruins are from the ancients, then the danger of exploring the place rises exponentially!"

"Huh? When did you—never mind, you don't need to answer that..."

Serilla huffed and continued, "Anyways, you're NOT going. I won't let you!"

"But, Seri...I've been stuck in this bottleneck and I feel like—"

"Then go after I've given birth!"

"How long is that—okay, Ma��am, I will, I'm sorry..." Cecil immediately changed his tune when he saw Serilla raise a fist at him.

"Don't do anything that'll make me upset, darling...or else," Serilla said menacingly with her eyes narrowed.

Cecil gulped nervously and could only nod repeatedly at her threat. He didn't want to find out what that 'or else' meant.

After the discussion, for the next following days, Serilla would constantly be by his side throughout the entire day. She was monitoring Cecil to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid like sneak out and go despite what she said.

"Seri...is this really necessary?"

"For my husband, IT IS!"

"I'm not going anywhere, okay?"

"Well, how would I know if you just left behind a clone and left?"

"Am I that untrustworthy?!" Cecil dejectedly asked in shock.

"No, I trust you, darling, but whenever the matter comes to something regarding your cultivation, I can't trust you. Knowing you, darling, you'll do anything just to get stronger!"

"...I wouldn't do just anything—"

"Yes, you would!"

"I wouldn't kill others..."

"But if you have to, then you would, right? I've seen you do it before!"

"...Don't tell my parents..."

"I won't, but still, I'm keeping my eye on you, Cecil Silvaria..."

"...I really want to spank you right now, Seri..."

"Oh? Then come on, bring it~" Serilla said while she coquettishly waved her plump bottom at Cecil.

Seeing his wife's actions, he felt a slight reaction downstairs and he quickly pinched his brows in frustration. On one hand, he wanted to do just as Serilla had said, to quietly go out and explore the ruins slowly, but on the other hand, he wanted to stay home so that he could spank his wife.

"Seri, please don't tempt me..."

"But I want to~"

"..." Cecil could only remain silent and stare blankly at his wife.

"Hehehe~ I bet you're thinking about 'that' huh? I'll let you do it if you promise to stay~"

"But I really want to raise my cultivation level...I've been stuck for a few months in this stage..."

"Darling...Let me hit you right now..."

"Huh? Why?"

"You've only been stuck for months! But I've seen others stuck on one level for years! You can wait a few months until I've delivered the baby before you set out!"

Cecil thought about it for a moment. It was true what his wife had said. People had been stuck for years on one cultivation level while he's only been stuck for a few months. He didn't have to be so impatient, but he just felt that he should quickly gain as much power as he could right now. There was this prickling feeling like there was some kind of impending danger that was about to befall him so he should do all he can to quickly advance.

"Hmmm... It looks like I'll have to look for another way..."

"What's that, darling?"

"It's nothing, Seri. Anyway, since I can't go, I'll have some people scout out the place first. Apparently, those people from the NWR are planning to try and investigate the place soon. Well, they'll try to at least. The forest is crawling with monsters and they most likely presented us this info so that after we cleared a path for them, they'd try to follow after us."

"Then why send a team over to investigate? Sheesh, you're so impatient, all you need to do is wait a couple of more months..."

"Ahaha, I guess I just want to get things done quickly. Don't worry, I won't be going anywhere."

In the following weeks, Cecil had picked out a few people from his family's reserve forces and began training them personally. He also had his brother, Gabriel, and his little sister, Angelia, participate in the training. He had picked out exactly 4 people to train, 6 including his two siblings.

These 6 people would be the expeditionary force that would be sent over to the NWR to scout out the area near the ruins and if possible, the ruins itself. Cecil thought that it was better to send a small elite team to explore the ruins rather than a large force.

If he was correct with his hunch and the ruins were indeed left behind by the ancient races of Alterna then there was no telling what was inside the ruins. If he sent too many people and the ruins proved to be more fatal than their original expectations, then there might be some unwanted casualties that could have been avoided if they had only acted more carefully.

*****

Another 2 months passed by, and today was the last day that Cecil would be training his small expeditionary team. He already felt that they were ready so he had them all go on break.

It was one of his rare breaks so Cecil went to go find Serilla whom he had been sort of neglecting ever since he had begun training the expeditionary team.

"Seri, are you in?" Cecil softly called out before he slowly opened the door to his room. When he went inside, he found Serilla slowly getting up from bed while rubbing her eyes.

"Nnh? Darling, what's wrong?" Serilla called out with a yawn. Ever since she had forbidden Cecil from going out to explore the ruins, her husband had been busy training up the people that would be going in his stead.

After seeing that her husband had no notions of sneaking off, Serilla had begun letting him be and no longer stuck to him like glue. It had been a few months since she was first found pregnant so there was now a visible bump on her belly.

Ever since her body began changing and Cecil began feeling the small and feeble life form growing inside of her, he had begun changing his attitude and how he viewed his wife's restriction on him from going out exploring.

Cecil did feel a little disgruntled at first, but as his child began growing inside of his wife, he no longer regretted not being able to go out to explore the ruins, and instead he only felt blessed being able to stay beside his lovely young wife.

Cecil smiled seeing his wife. He kissed her before picking her up and heading out to the garden. Today, he was going to spend some quality time with Serilla.

Lately, due to his frustration from not being able to advance his cultivation, he had been adamantly trying to attack the barrier that was blocking his advancement and neglecting everyone around him.

This was because after his spar with Lucia, he had been growing eager to advance. Of course, his eagerness was met with him only harming himself due to his impatience but he wasn't stupid and realized that he shouldn't continue down that path since it was a bad one.

He could only resign himself and wait for the right opportunity and since he couldn't go and seize that opportunity, for the time being, Cecil decided to just spend time with his family and help out around the kingdom whenever his brother or father requested him of it.

Lucia had been busy with her training so he hasn't seen her as much lately and since Serilla stopped sticking to him like glue after a few weeks he had been seeing his wives less and less. He didn't like that so he decided to start spending more time with his wives.

During their journey, they were always stuck close to him so he never really felt the need to go looking for them since they were always there, but now that everyone was so busy attending to their own businesses, Cecil started feeling a little bit lonely now that his two closest people weren't always there to accompany him.

"D-darling? W-where are you taking me?" Lucia asked in a fl.u.s.ter after having her lips suddenly kissed and being swept off the ground into her husband's embrace.

Cecil chuckled and said, "We're going on a date today~"

Serilla widened her eyes in surprise to his words and began giggling delightedly.

When the couple arrived in the garden, Cecil looked around and saw that no one was around and quickly went over to a large tree near the corner of the place and set down his wife. He pulled out a large cloth from his spatial ring and set it down. He then scooped up his wife and carefully laid her down on top of it.

"Hehehe~ what's this? Why are you acting so sweet all of a sudden?" Serilla asked.

"There's no reason, I just wanted to spend some time with my beautiful wife today," Cecil nonchalantly replied as he began pulling out a few things from his spatial ring.

It was already midday and the weather was rather pleasant for a picnic. He had spent the entire morning preparing a basket full of food just for this occasion.

After he set everything, Cecil went over to his wife and gently hugged her from behind. He placed a hand over the bump on her belly and caressed it gently.

"Hehe~ what's gotten into you darling~? You're usually never this sweet~" Serilla asked. She couldn't help but smile brightly when she saw the love and affection in her husband's eyes as he gently caressed her belly.

After pausing momentarily, Cecil spoke up and said, "...I felt horrible neglecting you and Lulu...I've only been focused on training everyone for the upcoming exploration but when I saw this little fella growing inside you, and how fragile you looked sometimes, I couldn't help but think that I was being too selfish..."

"You figured that out just now?"

"Ugh...I-I'm sorry..."

"And I forgive you~"

"Thanks."

"It can't be helped if you're too busy. Just pay more attention to us while in between your activities, alright?"

"I'll definitely keep that in mind," Cecil replied solemnly.

Seeing his solemn expression, Serilla laughed and started pinching his cheeks.

"You didn't forget to invite Lulu, did you?"

"Of course I invited her. I told her to come to the garden yesterday after her morning training with her mother."

"That's good~ It's about time the three of us spent some quality family time together, now if you don't mind, I'd like a berry please~"

"Okay, let me get some then—"

"I want you to feed me~"

"A-alright..."