God Of Crafting

"I finally got to meet you!"

If I dared to harbor any hope that after this entire mess had blown over, things would improve… I would be in for one heck of a disappointment. Because as soon as I was led away from the table for the servants, I was placed right by the side of the woman who was first to speak up for my sake.

And as it came with little to no surprise, she was no one else but Claire's legendary mother.

"It is my honor and pleasure to meet you, ma'am," I made sure to stick to the local etiquette even with something as simple as greeting my mother-in-law-to-be.

"Oh, how court," the woman grinned, only to wipe the small smirk from her face and replace it with an extremely serious expression as she brought her hand out and offered its outer palm to me.

"Ma'am," I lowered my head, only to then accept Claire's mom's hand and lean my face over it, stopping just shy of the skin of her palm in this pretend hand-kiss.

"Since you insist on keeping things formal, I'm Leila Corian, fifth in line to the Corian clan, seventh-rank cultivator of the enlightened realm," she introduced herself, only to pull her hand away and cross her arms over her chest. "How about you, young man?"

"I'm Tim. I am a cultivator of the ninth mortal rank, although I can only reliably wield my spirituality up to seventh, maybe eighth rank. And by some mix of luck, mere coincidence, and fate, I've ended up swearing my future to your daughter. And with that said," I lowered my head again, "I will be in your care, Ma'am."

Claire's mom revealing her name directly to me was just an act of courtesy, not an invitation for me to start calling her by it.

What was even more worrying, however, was how she described her cultivation prowess.

'Not a spiritual rank? Did she go beyond the limits of spiritualists already?'

My knowledge of the higher cultivation ranks was severely lacking, given how there were practically no treaties about it back in the mortal world. And how could there be any, when pretty much all of those who reached the limit of the mortal rank would be taken away by the spiritual world?

"It's nice to meet you, Tim," the woman smiled again, quickly dropping her official and perfectly dignified mask in favor of just acting as she wished. "But I couldn't help but notice, don't you have a surname? Or is it something you would rather…"

"My apologies, it's just a habit I've developed when I stepped from the world of safe ignorance to the world of dangerous opportunities," I quickly explained myself. "Since my parents are but mere mortals, they cannot bear the consequences of getting mixed up in the things I routinely deal with. As such…"

I didn't even bother to finish.

Leila not only looked like just an older version of Claire, but she also gave pretty much the same vibe, making herself appear as someone cheerful and open to others on the outside, while extremely introspective and thoughtful on the inside.

In other words, while it was but a guess and assumption of mine, I somehow had the feeling she would understand what I implied even without me spelling it out loud.

The fact that by becoming a cultivator, I was inevitably inviting enemies to my life that my parents simply had no means to defend against. The one and only way I found to keep them somewhat safe was to fully disassociate myself from them, keeping things pretty much the same as they were ever since my entanglement with my uncle, opting to leave them thinking I became the rotten apple under my uncle's watch, as opposed to clarifying the situation and putting them in danger by doing so.

"I understand," the smile on the woman's lips faded a little, only to then grow slightly forced. "I'm sorry, never mind that. I don't think I have the proper qualification to make the claim to understand how it feels, but…" Leila bit down on her lower lip, surprisingly taking a moment to figure out her next words. "For what it's worth, while not exactly normal…" she quickly glanced over at the faces gathered by the massive table, implying what exactly she had in mind, "… you can consider this Clan to be your family too."

"Mom!"

Finally, Claire spoke.

Judging from the awkward sense of confusion in her eyes… she didn't really know how she was supposed to start a conversation with her own mom, despite sitting right next to her.

"Ah, I'm sorry sweetie. Because of that necklace of yours, I never really felt as if I was apart from you, so you must forgive me for paying attention to your man first," Leila said, quickly turning around and opening her arms, only to disregard all the rules of the feast's etiquette and wrapping her hands around her daughter, bringing her into a deep, tight hug.

"Wait, what necklace?" Claire suddenly perched her head up from between her mother's boobs, looking up with a startled look of confusion in her eyes. Then, her eyes twitched as some idea sparked in her head, only for the girl to pull away, reach towards her neck, and then pull out a beautiful piece of jade shaped into a swallow, held up by a tiny golden chain. "This one?"

Leila smiled.

"You didn't think I would leave my daughter all alone for all those years, did you?" she asked, only for her lips to form yet another grin… while her eyes…

I squinted my eyes, not sure if I saw properly despite sitting right next to the two.

But no matter how much I strained my eyes, the look in Leila's eyes was pretty much the same as when Claire was extremely upset with something!

"Then those dreams…" Claire moaned in mental pain, leaning back as if to escape from the scrutiny of her mother's eyes.

"Yes, that's how I tried to stay in your life, even if I couldn't do so in the waking world."

'This is starting to seem more and more like a massive plot twist that affects the lore so deeply, no one outside of those directly involved is going to get a single clue about what's actually going on…' I thought, recognizing this sort of a weird pattern.

A pattern that authors rarely used in their writing, knowing full well hardly anyone would remember such a fine detail by the time they would be ready to actually bring it up. Yet, as counter-intuitive as it might sound, this was exactly the type of thing to happen in real life, as opposed to its written reflection.

'Is it because the plot of reality is infinitely more complex than any, even long-winded story could ever hope to be?'

I took a moment to ponder, only to shake my head and turn my attention right back to the situation before my eyes.

By now, however, all that was left was for the parties involved to work through their emotions.

For Claire, whatever this short exchange signified now caused her to blush all over and turn her eyes down, too embarrassed to look up with her burning cheeks.

Her mom, on the other hand, only appeared to be amused, although I could spot some hints of sadness deep at the bottom of her affectionate gaze.

Your journey continues at empire

"Leila…"

As if things weren't already complicated enough, Chihiro's voice reaching my ears announced yet another complication to the moment.

"Hiro!" Leila rapidly turned in her seat, all of her expressions vanishing as her face exploded with boundless joy, replacing all that stood in its way. She jumped up, only to then stop as she turned her face first to Claire and then to me. "I'm sorry, kids, but you know…" she looked away…

"It's perfectly fine," I smiled, recognizing the same happy-go-lucky vibe I could sometimes observe in Claire, especially when we happened not to see each other for some time. "Kids aside, he's your husband, isn't he, Ma'am?"

Smiling back at me, Leila finally jumped up from her seat. And before anyone could stop her, she charged Chihiro down, only to press her face right into the man's chest while wrapping her hands around his back.

"Lei-Lei," Chihiro muttered, closing his eyes to hide the tears that came up as he closed his hug over his wife's relatively feeble body.

It didn't matter that her cultivation made her leagues stronger than Chihiro, likely to the point where a single snap of her fingers would be enough to erase his entire existence.

Right now, judging by the look on Chihiro's face, his wife became the very same, feeble and delicate bundle of cuteness that he married, so delicate, he wasn't sure how to properly adjust the strength of his hug.

"It's been too long…" Chihiro silently cried out, caring not for all the disapproving stares of the people around as he dedicated himself fully just to the task of hugging his wife.

"Damn, just watching this is making me emotional," I muttered, reaching up with my hand to my eyes, only for Claire to prove to be just a bit quicker, reaching my eyes with her fingers before I could and then wiping the lone tear off my face herself.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"It is, isn't it," she muttered, only to then smile lightly as I changed the direction of my hand to clear the tears of happiness from her face instead. "I wasn't sure how to feel about it before, but seeing them like that…?"

Claire's lips trembled, only for her to then turn away from the wholesome sight and pretty much replicate her parent's hug by burying her face in my chest, hiding her wild smile from all the fuckers around who could only wish to see her as cute as she was right now.

"Now, I'm just happy they could finally reunite."