Chapter 270: Revealing about her mama

Eren currently had his own extraordinarily perilous domestic crisis to manage.

Steam rose in fragrant plumes from the huge marble bath tube, the bath hot enough to loosen bone-deep fatigue. Eren leaned back, his arms resting casually along the rim, his torso submerged up to the collarbones.

The primary complication, however, was anchored squarely to his chest.

Norelia had decided that the tub lacked adequate lumbar support and had commandeered him as her personal armchair. The petite scholar sat snugly between his thighs, her back pressed against him as she lazily kicked her small feet, creating gentle ripples across the surface of the water.

Eren let out a long, warm sigh that tickled the nape of her neck. "Is it a requirement that we all have to bathe at the same time, or did the room lack sufficient water rations?"

Directly opposite them in the massive tub, Aria Reedings leaned back with aristocratic elegance, entirely naked and entirely unbothered. Her midnight-blue locks were pinned up with tortoiseshell hairpins to keep them from the steam.

"Don’t be ungrateful, darling," Aria said as she traced a lazy circle in the water with her manicured fingertip. "It’s efficient, it’s delightfully intimate, and it fosters genuine emotional solidarity. We get to deepen our connection with you."

"I feel deeply connected," Eren muttered, his hands casually resting around Norelia’s waist to keep her from sliding under the foam. "Mostly in the sense that my circulation is being cut off by high-tier academic deadweight."

Norelia didn’t even turn around; she merely elbowed him lightly in the ribs with an unbothered scoff.

Eren’s blue eyes drifted past the edge of the basin toward the tiled rinsing area where Emma stood on the stool.

The sexy tanned tomboy was completely naked, her back glowing under the mana light as she scrubbed her pink hair. Feeling his stare, she paused, foam dripping from her elbows, and shot him a sharp glare over her shoulder.

"What are you staring at?" Emma barked, though the sudden, bright flush creeping up her neck completely betrayed the fierce scowl on her face.

Eren offered an easy grin. "Nothing at all, Captain. Simply admiring the finest piece of art. A man is allowed to appreciate fine craftsmanship."

"Perverted idiot!" Emma snapped.

She cupped a handful of soapy water from her wooden bucket and hurled it straight across the room. The splash hit Eren squarely in the face with a wet smack, dripping into his bangs.

Emma puffed out her cheeks, quickly turning back to vigorously rinse her hair, muttering fiercely, "Shut your shameless mouth. Don’t think for a second you’re off the hook. I still have three more stages of disciplinary punishment scheduled before we end this vacation."

Aria let out a soft laugh that echoed in the bath chamber. She folded her slender arms over the tub’s edge, resting her chin on her knuckles as she studied Eren with amusement.

"Looking at this picturesque scene," Aria observed dryly, "your chaotic orbit seems to be expanding at an alarming rate, darling. Soon we’ll need an entire carriage train just to transport your domestic liabilities."

Emma shut off the water tap, squeezing the suds from her pink locks, and tossed the bucket aside. "Seriously. Exactly how many women has this lunatic managed to rope into his disaster radius so far?"

"Five, officially," Aria answered without missing a beat, counting on her slender fingers with practiced ease. "The three of us in this bathroom, little maid-genius Mira back at the capital, and that timid kitten Violet who still blushes whenever he walks into a room."

"Six," Eren corrected smoothly, blowing a stray soap bubble off his nose.

The grand bath chamber went dead quiet.

The sound of dripping water suddenly sounded as loud as falling boulders.

Emma froze, her hands buried in her wet pink hair, her storm-grey eyes snapping wide as she whipped her head around. In the tub, Aria’s golden gaze narrowed into two lethal, razor-sharp slits, the playful aristocratic smirk vanishing from her face like smoke in a gale.

"Six?" Aria’s voice dropped into a terrifying, melodic chill that made the bathwater feel distinctly colder. "Eren Volsver. If you so much as flirted with some tavern maid or underworld broker back in Rujgard while we were scouring the continent for you... I swear I will drown you in this very tub and bury your remains beneath the floor."

"Nobody in Rujgard, I assure you," Eren chuckled, entirely unfazed by the promise of homicide.

He leaned forward slightly, shifting Norelia so she sat up higher against his chest, and tapped her chin with a fond, knowing smirk.

"The final member of the roster is a classified state secret. Only known to me... and our brilliant little professor right here."

Emma walked over to the tub, dripping wet, planting a bare foot on the marble rim with her hands on her hips, her pink bangs falling over a lethal scowl. "Norelia? What is this suicidal idiot talking about?"

Norelia sat frozen in Eren’s lap. Her crimson eyes darted between Aria’s murderous golden glare and Emma’s imposing, naked frame. The warm water suddenly felt like a cauldron of bubbling acid.

She looked up at Eren, catching the playful, encouraging glint in his blue eyes, and realized there was no escape route this time.

With a heavy, trembling sigh that puffed her bangs up, Norelia buried her face into her small hands, her cheeks burning.

"I... suppose," Norelia squeaked out, her voice muffled behind her fingers, "I have an extremely weird family confession to make."

Norelia took a deep breath. She didn’t look at Aria or Emma. Instead, she stared straight at the ripples between her knees and laid everything bare.

She revealed the truth about the Vice Principal. Carolynn wasn’t just an elite imperial scholar. She was the legendary Demon Queen herself, the sovereign who had mysteriously vanished from the world after the United Humanity War centuries ago.

Norelia confessed her own origins: she was never Carolynn’s biological kin, but an orphan whom the Demon Queen had found abandoned as an infant. Carolynn had raised her with unconditional, tender motherly love. Norelia adored her more than life itself.

She revealed her succubus nature and how it might affect her mind, slowly eating her sanity away.

Desperate to save the only mother, Norelia asked Eren to help her with his huge vitality and it did save her.

And finally, Norelia revealed the darkest piece of the puzzle: Carolynn was connected to The Substance.

Norelia let out a long, trembling sigh, slumping back against Eren’s chest. "That... is the entire truth."

Silence.

Aria slowly blinked, her soul snapping back into her that had left her minutes ago.

She rubbed her temples, letting out an aristocratic scoff so dry it could wither crops. "Putting aside the utterly deranged reality of you bagging both the daughter and the mother..."

"Is Carolynn the reason The Substance is flooding the capital? Because that wretched poison was the reason we ended up in this situation. If your demonic girlfriend is poisoning this realm, we have a war on our hands."

"Fair question, my lady," Eren sighed quietly. "Let me explain the situation."