The Evolution Of A Goblin To The Peak Chapter 1243: Information and Return II

Freida gazed at the pile of documents scattered over her table, but the letters all ran together. Despite her best efforts, she found it impossible to concentrate.

Her eyes kept straying to the window, her mind drifting back to that one individual it had fixated on for days.

Her son.

Several days earlier, he had vanished completely. The protectors assigned to him were gone too. No updates. No remains. No hints.

Zero.

She had no idea whether he even lived.

The doubt tore at her soul more viciously than any certain disaster could.

Knock. Knock.

The abrupt noise broke the thick quiet in the chamber.

"Enter," Freida ordered, even as anxiety twisted hard in her torso.

The entrance swung wide, and a household protector rushed in. He knelt on one knee, his tone quivering with haste.

"Matriarch... the young master is back!"

For a fleeting moment, Freida just looked at him, as though her brain wouldn't accept what he'd said.

Then, her eyes grew wide.

"What did you say?" Her words cut sharp, nearly out of breath.

"The young master has returned, Matriarch. He's at the main entrance."

The seat dragged harshly over the ground.

Before the protector could raise his face, the door flew open with a fierce slam. A fierce blast of air rushed through the space as Freida dashed by him like a bolt of azure thunder.

He scarcely glimpsed her vanishing form before she was gone.

Whoosh!!

In under a second, Freida materialized at the property's primary entrance.

The abrupt wave of her aura shocked the posted protectors, though they swiftly composed themselves once they identified her.

"Matriarch!!"

"Greetings, Matriarch!!"

Their calls echoed together, but Freida hardly noticed. She nodded absently before her sight fixed on the pair of shapes right outside the entrance.

Her breathing hitched.

There he stood.

Her son.

A flood of relief slammed into her like an ocean surge, so intense that her legs almost buckled. The knot in her torso finally unraveled as she released a deep, shaky breath.

He lived.

Fadu spotted her.

"Mom!"

The shout burst from him, loaded with feelings.

Freida pivoted right as he barreled into her embrace. She enveloped him right away, gripping him with a force that quivered underneath.

Her mana flowed out without intent.

It flooded his frame like a surging current, probing skeleton, muscle, and vital fluid.

No breaks. No inner wounds. No hex. No residual toxin.

He remained unscathed.

The vise on her lungs eased.

Then, Fadu uttered.

"Mom..." His hands clutched at her garments. His form quaked fiercely. "Uncle... Uncle Wiptar... he's gone..."

The final term faded into cries.

Freida's air halted.

Fadu pressed his head against her bosom, his words fracturing amid heaves.

"They murdered everyone... the protectors... they butchered them... We fled... but they pursued us nonstop... Uncle..."

His frame twitched like he was experiencing it again.

"He said to keep going. He faced them. He held them off... I couldn't— I couldn't aid him..."

Freida sensed a chill creep into her bloodstream.

"Wiptar... is dead?" she murmured.

The surroundings grew still as her mana exploded. A savage wave of power surged from her core, warping the atmosphere and shattering the rock under her soles. The earth fractured in rough patterns. The close protectors stumbled as unseen force struck them, compelling some down to their knees. The gale roared out from her spot.

Wiptar.

Her sibling.

The youth who had shielded her when she was young.

The one who battled any who caused her tears.

When Fadu arrived, Wiptar had rested a palm on her arm and chuckled.

"Leave him to me. I'll guard him like I guarded you."

Her digits pressed a bit into Fadu's spine.

Her sight shook not from frailty, but from rage too immense to hold. For an instant, sorrow nearly broke her control.

Yet she stamped it down.

The furious mana condensed rather than scattering, becoming thicker, weightier like the sea prior to a ruinous wave.

She dipped her head and rested her face softly on her son's locks. Her palm glided gradually down his spine, calming.

Her tone, as she voiced it, rang eerily steady.

"Don't cry."

The earth kept shaking.

"I will track down whoever slew Wiptar."

The atmosphere grew oppressive.

"And I will force them to regret ever crossing my path."

Whoosh!!

Several forms appeared behind her in sudden rips of twisted void.

The top members of the Rulman Household had come.

Each exuded vast might. Their mana seeped out on reflex to the Matriarch's wrath, building on hers until the property itself creaked under the strain.

Rock split.

Grime drifted from adjacent barriers.

The regular protectors endured the heavy force bearing down on their frames.

Freida at last observed the individual who had come with Fadu. Her attention had been solely on her boy, overlooking the other presence next to him.

Her look moved to Souta.

"And who might you be?" she inquired evenly.

Souta gave a courteous grin. "Greetings, Matriarch. I am known as Atos. For the rest, you can question Fadu."

Freida nodded faintly while her awareness quietly examined him. She soon concluded he was a beast but not one from this region.

"Mom," Fadu stated, brushing away the moisture from his eyes, "Atos rescued me. I vowed him a prize if he brought me home secure."

Freida's face eased as she regarded her boy. "Rest easy, my dear. I won't wrong your rescuer. I'll suitably compensate him for preserving your life."

She then tilted her head and eyed one of the shapes positioned behind her. Her stare landed on a mature male with dense locks and a bushy beard.

He was her spouse.

Wresho Rulman.

"Look after our son," Freida directed as she tenderly handed Fadu to her spouse's hold.

She then viewed the other leaders who had assembled. "Go back to your tasks. No reason for everyone to stay."

The massive force around them slowly faded.

Freida directed a underling to ready a chamber for Souta and make sure he received fitting hospitality.

After all was set, she threw one last look at her boy and then rapidly departed the area.

Souta peered toward where Freida had gone before turning his focus to the leaders.

'Powerful... The Rulman Household exceeds what I pictured,' he pondered, his eyes dwelling on Wresho, who held Fadu.

Even without probing straight, Souta could vaguely assess their fighting prowess from the intense aura seeping from their forms. The weight alone revealed much.

If he attempted battle now, they'd crush him utterly.

This vessel fell short.

For a head-on clash, his true form would be needed.

"Sir, please come with me."

A soft tone arose next to him.

Souta rotated and beheld a servant positioned deferentially beside him. He nodded lightly, and she guided him further into the property. After showing him to a broad visitor's space, she told him to summon her for any needs, then slipped away quietly.

The entrance shut gently after her.

Souta stood solitary. He settled on the bed's side and looked out the pane, his reflections wandering.

The might of the Rulman Household was no trivial matter. Witnessing the leaders firsthand let him gauge their strength more accurately.

They operated on a whole other plane.

Souta breathed out and extended his arm idly.

"I've got no tasks at the moment..."

Muttering to himself, he reclined a touch and shut his lids, reviewing the prior occurrences in his head.

...

In some part of the Rulman Household, a male strode anxiously in a sealed space. Perspiration coated his brow, and his face loomed grim, nearly savage.

He went by Dihra Rulman, Wresho's kin.

One of the leaders who had shown up at the primary entrance shortly before, he had witnessed it all. Fadu's comeback, safe and whole.

'That kid... he survived and returned?! What were they doing?! How did they allow him back here?'

Terror gripped Dihra. The idea that Fadu could endure had never entered his thoughts. He had ordered his followers to seize the youth and eliminate all around him.

How did they botch it?! How?!

Even if seizing Fadu proved unfeasible, he ought to have been slain no matter what. Their blunder spelled ruin now.

'I'll be uncovered. I must move... or face death.'

Dihra's thoughts whirled. The Matriarch would uncover his plot soon, and then he'd be mere prey for the kill. He understood her strength intimately and wanted no clash with her.

'No option... I'll proceed.'

He ceased striding, his mandible clenching. Choice settled, he readied to execute.