"Those morons! Why would anyone in the world do this?!" A woman's voice, full of sadness, woke Lee up.
He had no clue how long he was unconscious, but he was still lying in the grass, under his mother's body. Somehow he hadn't suffocated and or bled to death, at least not yet. But to his great annoyance, on top of the piercing pain in his shoulder, an overwhelming thirst eclipsed the rest of the current suffering.
"They were drunk …" A man was trying to calm the woman down, but his words only made her angrier.
"So?!" She hissed in return.
Neither she nor the man said anything for a while and Lee could only hear sighs and curses, but it was clear they came from the couple and not the villagers. He did recognize them though. These were the two who stayed behind in the village after the soldiers brought more booze. From what Lee gathered, the two elders were some kind of doctors, and all the youths, except for the haughty albino, treated them with respect.
It seemed that the two had either been put in charge or volunteered to clean the place up, and were currently gathering the bodies of the villagers. But while the man loudly pondered whether they had enough wood for the funeral pyre, the woman continuously cursed the murderers. The man pointed out that someone might overhear, but clearly, she couldn't care less. Lee's guess was that the earlier genocide was too terrifying, or maybe her exquisite language was the result of her being a daughter of a shoemaker or a sailor.
"Fuck me! It's alive!" The woman suddenly exclaimed.
As expected, at some point, they got to Lee's mother, and he could finally take a deep breath – one that was accompanied by a squeak of agony. The swift action of removing the body lying on top of Lee tore out the arrowhead that impaled his shoulder, causing it to bleed profusely. The pain was so unbearable that he didn't even notice the sky was almost dark. Turns out he had been lying there the whole day, and while the woman, besides being shocked, sounded pleasantly surprised, the man helplessly cursed under his nose.
"Tess …" He made another attempt to say something in order to calm her down, but only got barked at.
"Do you really expect me to hand the child over to them?" Lee couldn't see her face, but felt the angry glare as if it were directed at him, "Or maybe you want to kill it yourself, you old bastard?!"
"Tess, I …" The man wanted to explain himself, but was interrupted.
"It's decided! From now on its our child!" She plainly stated, "I can be a single mother if I have to, so choose your next words wisely!"
"Sigh ... you know we can't have children." The man was getting more and more helpless, "No matter what our actual age is, look at us …"
"I! DON'T! CARE!" Was the answer, but her tone instantly changed when she picked Lee up in her arms, "It's wounded …"
"I'll get our stuff." The man's attitude immediately changed, "And water … Tess, no …"
Lee knew that he should've died from the blood loss and probably will during the upcoming night. Despite that, still in pain, he curiously observed the couple while the elderly woman named Tess inspected his wound. Technically neither she nor the man could be called elderly – they were likely not even sixty, perhaps in their early fifties, and it was the presence of youths that made them seem much older. What didn't change, though, were their statures – the man was rather thin and of medium height, but she was slightly taller than him and much more … well … she was really fat.
Lee's train of thought was interrupted by a stream of warm water coming directly from her palm. Apparently, this was what the man tried to stop, but Tess ignored him and continued to generously wash Lee. It was a pleasant sensation, and even the pain in his wounded shoulder slightly subsided.
'So these guys are superhumans too?' Lee was caught by surprise and, for the first time, noticed the faint blue light coming from the middle of Tess's chest. It weakly shone through her clothing, clearly indicating that the water he was currently being washed with was by no means simple.
"Tess, please, no!" For some reason the man began to sound desperate, "You can't …"
"I can, and I fucking will!" She grinned back at him, "This is our child, and I'll take care of him!"
Realizing Lee was already washed clean, she stopped, and the man could heave a sigh of relief, "Tess, listen to me ..."
"Don't worry!" She interrupted him again, "I know …"
Seeing that it was finally possible to reason with her, the man said, "Listen, even if we take it …"
"Him." Tess interrupted, "He's our son! Alan! You finally have a fucking son!"
While Lee could only gawk at his new stepmother, the stepfather had long since gotten used to her language. What worried him was something else entirely.
"Fine, fine!" He said, "But how we'll explain us …"
"Relax! I've planned it all out!" She confidently said, "After we're done here, we'll leave, but get home in six months or a year. Then we'll tell the retards in the capital that, by a lucky chance, you got me pregnant some time ago, and I gave birth while we were on the way. The size of the child will also be easy to explain – we'll just say he takes after his mother! Hahaha!"
"Did … did you come up with all of that just now?" Alan scratched his head, but seeing Tess wasn't paying attention to him, ran off to get his bag.
After a short while Lee's wound was smeared with a stinky paste and gently bandaged up. Strangely enough, the remaining pain quickly disappeared, and his eyelids grew increasingly heavy. Apparently, it was the effect of the paste or maybe the water that Tess used earlier. Or maybe these guys had more superhuman abilities Lee didn't know of.
With some effort, Alan helped Tess strap on a large sling, and Lee was placed in it. The next moment his stepmother took out her enormous tit and to his great surprise Lee realized he could finally have his fill. His stepfather was similarly shocked, but she glared at him, and said something about it being a female matter that he wouldn't understand.
After taking care of Lee, Tess joined Alan, and the two finished gathering the bodies of the remaining villagers. They brought them to the middle of the village, where the bunch of youths had a party not so long ago. Now there stood a large pile of wood with lifeless bodies of the villagers stacked on top. Few moments later the funeral pyre was lit, but it took a while before tall flames shot into the night sky.
"At least they helped with the funeral pyre …" Alan said with a sigh.
"Helped my ass!" Tess snorted, "It's made from the poor people's homes anyway! And don't forget, we'll have to burn the damned village afterwards!"
"If only Edward was here …" Alan said and sat down next to her.
He continued to stare at the fire, but Tess couldn't take her eyes off Lee.
After the first excitement calmed down, she grew increasingly curious about the child. She carefully inspected him and was confident that he was a healthy boy, and judging from his behavior, definitely wasn't a retard. But from the first moment, he never made an unnecessary sound. He never cried despite the pain, but clearly showed when was full. He even answered when she playfully asked what his name was.
"Do you think he could do anything with that bitch present?" Tess said after a long while, when Alan almost forgot what he mused about earlier, "He's groomed to become her husband, not a king. I bet that the red-eyed fucker will drive the boy to his grave in few years after the marriage … and most likely the kingdom right after that."
"The empire." Alan corrected.
"What?" Tess was startled. She didn't expect her husband to listen and earlier expressed her thoughts out loud, as if talking to herself.
"The empire." Alan repeated, "After conquering the last continent, the king will probably announce the founding of the empire."
"Hmph!" Tess snorted, "Empire my ass! With the resistance in every corner of the world, it will inevitably fall apart. How come he didn't listen to you? Aren't you supposed to be friends? You could've suggested him to stop after a continent or two."
"Valen Sunwell always had the ambition to unite the world. My opinion never mattered." Her husband said, shaking his head, "And he's trying to educate Victoria …"
"Hahaha! But that bitch failed!" Tess laughed and her body shook so hard that Lee woke up, "I can't wait to see the expression on her face when she reports to the king!"
"Why do you think she ordered us to burn down the village?" Alan helplessly looked at her, "No one will ever know what happened here. Not if they're bored of living. Even you … even you can't say anything, after all … you … we have a son."
The first part did upset Tess, but Alan accepting their child delighted her to no end.
"Then fuck her!" She cursed, hugging him tightly and squeezing Lee between her ample chest and the bony husband, "I don't give a fuck whether the whole world thinks she was capable of conquering a continent without spilling a drop of blood! We finally have a real family!"