novelapdf Chapter 457: Side Story 12: The Sovereign Daycare Disaster 2
Chapter 457: Side Story 12: The Sovereign Daycare Disaster 2
"Dada! Look!" Nadir chirped, completely oblivious to the chaos as he waddled up to Damar, holding up a small wooden bowl. "I made a castle out of Taruna’s dried reeds! But... Kaito said it needs water."
"No, Nadir! It needs an aqueduct!" Kaito yelled from the rafters near the ventilation shafts.
His wild purple hair was a messy halo, his golden tiger slits gleaming with absolute gremlin energy as he balanced a wooden bucket of slush over the edge.
"Drop it, Kaito!" Marina screamed from the floor, her own purple hair flying as she prepared to catch the splash. "Flood the castle! The playground belongs to the mermen!"
"Do not drop that bucket—" Thalor began, but it was too late.
SPLASH.
Day 1: 8:00 PM – The Evening Interrogation
By nightfall, the Sovereign Wing looked less like a royal sanctuary and more like a battlefield where the laws of physics had gone to die.
The floorboards were slicked with the remnants of Kaito’s rogue aqueduct water, stray wooden blocks were scattered like caltrops, and a heavy, thick exhaustion hung over the room.
Noah was the only one still standing, though his broad shoulders were visibly sagging and his dark wolf ears were drooping with fatigue.
True to his word on managing the supply lines and logistics, he was methodically walking around the wreckage, picking up the children one by one to carry them off to their beds.
He currently had the one-year-old twins tucked under each arm like two heavy sacks of grain.
Kaelen and Sora were finally out of projectile-crawling mode, their little black and white ears twitching weakly as their hyperactive batteries completely drained, letting out tiny, syncopated baby snores against Noah’s ribs.
"That’s two down," Noah rumbled in a gravelly whisper, carefully stepping over a mountain of black bear pelts. "Five to go."
Sprawled across those very pelts was Fenric, completely dead to the world. The terrifying snow tiger King, who could fight off entire enemy vanguard units single-handedly, had been utterly defeated by his own five-year-olds.
Raiden and Phina were dead asleep right next to him, their little heads resting against his ribs while Fenric’s massive, striped tail lay completely limp on the rug, thoroughly exhausted from hours of acting as a playground climbing frame.
Over in the far corner, Thalor was draped dramatically across a velvet chaise lounge, looking like a thoroughly deflated sea deity. His wild purple hair was completely tangled, stripped of its silver rings, and his expensive silks were still damp from the morning slush incident.
"If I do not submerge my lower limbs into the deep-reef pool within the next hour, Arinya is going to return to a corpse," Thalor groaned into a silk pillow, his golden tiger slits barely tracking Noah’s movements. "Kaito and Marina are not children, Noah. They are deep-sea leeches with purple hair. They clamped themselves to my ankles for three hours while demanding I sing the ritual of the high tides."
"They’re asleep in the indoor basin right now, Thalor. Quiet down," Noah grumbled, dragging his feet as he carried the twins out toward the nursery corridor.
The only corner of the room that maintained any semblance of civilization was Damar’s lounge. The silver serpent was coiled gracefully on a wide, cushioned platform, his pale, beautiful form wrapped in charcoal silk.
Sitting cross-legged on a low wooden stool just a few feet away was Lyra. Her silver hair was still in its perfect, pristine braid, and she was calmly flipping the thick parchment pages of a heavy, leather-bound trade ledger, completely unbothered by the domestic ruin around her.
Nestled securely in the center of Damar’s coiled silver tail was Nadir. Unlike his siblings, my little silver-haired sweet tooth wasn’t asleep yet.
He was sitting flat on his bottom, his thumb lightly hooking the edge of Damar’s robe as his big, emerald eyes blinked up at his father with a look of pure, innocent curiosity.
"Dada?" Nadir whispered, his baby voice small and melodic in the quiet room.
"Yes, my son," Damar murmured smoothly, his long, cool fingers gently smoothing down Nadir’s messy silver locks.
Damar was currently staring down at his boy with an embarrassingly soft, naive devotion.
"Why do you have scales but Mummy has soft skin?" Nadir asked, tilting his head so far to the side that his little tiger tail gave a curious swish against the cushions. "If I have silver hair like you, will I get shiny silver scales too? Or will I stay soft like Mummy?" His voice sounded so cute and so touching.
Damar’s emerald eyes softened even further, a low, smooth, deeply content purr vibrating in his chest as he adjusted his tail to give his son a warm, protective squeeze.
"You possess both lineages, Nadir. You carry the fierce, striking tiger blood of your mother, and the ancient, elegant grace of the serpent lines. You may choose to show your scales when you are old enough, or remain soft when you wish to beg your mother for mint pastries."
Nadir let out a bright, chubby little smile, completely satisfied with the explanation.
"I want scales. So I can look shiny like you." He chuckled and then added. "But I also want to stay soft," he pouted. "Sister Lyra is so cool even when she doesn’t have scales."
From her corner, Lyra didn’t lift her eyes from the leather-bound book, but her tail gave a sudden, rapid, ecstatic thump against the cedar floorboards.
She was absolutely gushing with older-sister pride at his words.
"A logical conclusion, little brother," Lyra stated calmly, turning a page with a crisp snap. "Scales require significantly less maintenance than tiger fur during the winter moisture cycles. But you are not in beast form, so you will have nothing to worry about in that regard right now. It’s when you grow older... that you get to make that choice."
After all, only when he got older would he be able to shift into his beast form. And whatever he would shift into, whether a tiger or a serpent, it was left for the future.
"See? Lyra agrees," Damar whispered to the toddler, a smug, elegant smirk returning to his lips as he pulled Nadir closer against his chest. "Now close your eyes, little star. Your mother’s link is silent, which means she has reached the northern clay pits. If you are not asleep when the moon hits the glass, she will know you are staying up late and give you an earful when she comes back."
"I miss mama," he mumbled. He had never had to go a whole day without his mother, but he had four fathers to make up for it, so it was fine.
"I miss her too," Damar whispered.