NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 202 Tears
Nova nuzzled Zero’s leg and said, “I’m fine papa I’m just watching Avy for Mama. Did you just get back papa?”
Zero picked up Nova and nodded to her question. He then turned to the 3 other children in the room, smiled, and said, “Would you mind waiting in the lobby I need to have a private chat with my daughter.”
The 2 girls nodded and walked toward the door but the boy stood there and looked at Zero. A few moments later the 2 girls rushed back into the room grabbed the boy, bowed in apology to Zero, and grabbed the boy away forcefully.
‘You’ve got good friends little boy a second later and I was going to teleport you away.’
“What do you want to talk to Nova about papa?” asked Nova who was oblivious to Zero’s thoughts of harming her friend
Zero was about to place Nova down on the couch but remembered who sat there previously and sat her down on the bed instead. Zero didn’t really know how to begin as the little girl stared at him waiting to hear what he wanted to say.
“Ah… Nova, we need to leave.” said Zero
“Leave? Are we going on another family trip together with Mama?” asked Nova innocently
Zero sighed and continued, “No I mean we need to leave here for a long time and we won’t be able to see your friends or Hikaru.”
“I don’t want to I want to stay here. I want to stay with my friends, Aunty Hikaru, Uncle Soma, and the others” yelled Nova who had begun to show some distress
Zero sat next to her and started to comfort her by hugging her. As he hugged her he continued saying, “Yes I know you want to stay but we can’t. Some bad people are coming here soon and if they find us here they’ll hurt everybody. That includes your friends, Yoko, and even Avarus sleeping on the bed behind us. You don’t want that to happen do you?”
Nova shook her head but retorted, “Why can’t you beat up the bad people? You never lose and you always beat up the bad people so why can’t you now?”
Zero patted her head and said, “Your papa would like to do that too but unfortunately I can’t win this time. All I can do is try to keep everyone safe and to do that we have to leave.”
Nova started to cry and shake her head as she kept repeating, “I don’t want to go” while Zero comforted her. This was the second time he’d dealt with somebody in emotional distress so like before he still had no idea what to do.
“Nova sweetie I’m sorry I know this hurts but we’ll still have to leave. I promise you that we’ll come back here in the future though so don’t cry.” said Zero doing his best to placate the child
Nova’s crying eventually awoke Avarus who also started bawling. Zero sighed as he released Nova, stood up, and picked up the crying baby. While he was distracted by the baby Nova ran out of the room. Zero could have given chase or simply teleported in front of her but felt like maybe she might need some time to herself.
‘System how do you coax a crying baby?’
[This child is simply crying because of your presence. Once you move a certain distance away from the child they will most likely stop crying.]
When Zero heard the system’s answer, he looked down at Avarus and could see even during all the crying, he had a look of disdain aimed at Zero. Zero barely held in a chuckle when he saw this look on his son’s face.
Zero with a smile said, “Now now, I know you don’t like me but we’re stuck together so we might as well get along for now.” and to his surprise, Avarus stopped crying.
Avarus then opened his mouth and managed to squeeze out, “Hate… you.” to which Zero looked at the child’s face with a calm look. Normally such a thing would be shocking but Zero had a faint suspicion that this child might be smarter than what everybody thought. Avarus despite being an infant was a demigod with a status comparable to his own so seeing the child talk was not surprising in the least.
“I know but I’m your father so you’ll just have to deal with me for a while. Can we call a truce for the sake of Yoko and Nova? I’m sure they would be very sad to learn that you hate me.” said Zero
Avarus looked as if he pondered Zero’s words for a moment before closing his eyes to go back to sleep. Zero took this gesture as Avarus accepting his offer. Now that Avarus had stopped crying Zero carried him and headed down to the lobby. Zero didn’t see Nova or the other 3 kids when he arrived so he assumed that they chased after Nova.
Zero showed no concern for Nova’s disappearance and activated his divine sight and searched for souls. There were hundreds of thousands of mortal souls flickering in his sight but he found a beautiful green soul blazing at the corner of his sight. Zero noticed that there were 3 mortal souls next to Nova’s soul and that they were about 3 minutes away from the hotel.
‘Well looks like she’s fine hopefully her friends can cheer her up. I’ll just keep track of their location for now so that she doesn’t try to run away. Note to self make sure to get a few parenting books before I leave this world I really need them. Oh, and I’ll need a few books on different subjects.’
Zero then let go of Avarus and the child started to float in the air. Zero used his telekinesis to hold the sleeping child, opened a dimensional opening, and pulled out an old-looking book. This was the book he had taken from Dracula’s castle on the subject of devil forging. As the child rocked back and forward in front of Zero he started to read the book.
‘Hmm, I understand it all unlike before. Looks like my passive chthoniscience and vitaliscience are really pulling their weight here. I’m even getting multiple ideas on how to improve this spell. If I mix this with a familiar spell and add a newborn soul I’ll probably get the effect I want. I’ll ask Hel about what she knows about Odin’s ravens.’