The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Side Chapter Metous 17: Family Scolding

Side Chapter Metous 17: Family Scolding

“I understand.”

“I really do.”

“But.” 

Tella glared at the two grown-up children who were forced to kneel on the floor. “HOW STUPID ARE YOU IDIOTS!!!”

The house shook with a violent intensity. 

Mella was off in the corner wearing an overly large pair of earmuffs. 

They were in the living room, but the furniture had been pushed to the corners, and the two individuals currently being punished were forced to kneel in the centre of this large open space. 

It had taken a few days for Lila and Tyell to reach the Stella family again. They had used the excuse of going on a small trip to buy a few days where they could go away without disruption. Which worked for a bit, but Tella was expecting photos of the trip by the second day.

In the end, Tella was always going to find out, and the news coverage of the incident was simply another nail in the coffin. Seeing it on the news didn’t mean she knew her child was involved, but due to all the disasters the family had faced, hearing that there was an incident was enough to make her panic and worry that her son was involved.

Besides that, Lila spilled the beans like she said she was going to. She did this twice by having a letter written in their home about the whole plan and immediately telling Tella everything when they got home. This, of course, incriminated her greatly in this whole plan, as she was honest about how she knew of Tyell’s plan but decided to help rather than hinder it.

Tella quickly checked her phone.

“Wait here one moment.” Said Tella, as she then walked to her front door. 

“Thank you for allowing me into your home.” Said Nina as she walked through the door Tella opened. Her blond hair was tied up in a short ponytail, and she wore a casual green dress that matched her eyes. 

“Don’t be so formal.” Tella replied, “You're always welcome in our home.” 

Tella brought Nina into the living room, where Tyell and Lila were still kneeling on the floor.

“I see everyone is here…” Said Nina as she observed the two on the floor. 

Tyell and Lila gave each other repeated glances. They had tried so hard to get into contact with Nina to no avail, but now she was here without any fanfare.

Tella added, “She has also told me what you have told her.”

No words were immediately spoken as Nina looked at the two of them. 

“Lila… why did you leave the city?” Nina asked, one of the rules Lila was supposed to follow was not to leave the city, which she broke to help Tyell with his insane plan.

“Is there any reason I can give that can justify it?” Lila asked. She thought about what she would have to say to Nina about this rule break, but nothing came to mind that sounded like it would really work.

“I see.” Nina nodded. “First, I am glad you are both alive.”

Nina raised her hand and immediately used her healing magic on the two of them. 

This only had a mild effect on Lila, as she was more exhausted than injured, but Tyell felt as if his body was supercharged. They couldn’t exactly properly heal his wounds in the last couple of days, but they were able to bring him to a healer Tyell knew to make sure he wasn’t dying, but he still had plenty of problems with his body. 

“...Thank you.” Said Tyell.

Mella was peeking at the conversation, looking over the top of the couch that was facing the wall that she was sitting on.

“Before we continue,” said Lila, “it’s good to see that you're safe and sound.”

Tella looked confused, and Nina smiled and said, “Thank you.”

The period of time when they couldn’t contact Nina at all was a worry for Lila and Tyell. Tella didn’t know the details of that part exactly; they tried to contact Nina but failed. She held faith that she was just a busy working adult, adding to her own worry that she felt Nina was wasting too much time around her family; her being gone for a while made sense for her.

Nina asked, “Tella, do you have anything else you want to say?”

“I’ve done my share of yelling.”

“Okay, now you two.” Nina looked at the two kneeling individuals. She pinched her nose and sighed, “I’ve gotten a lot of information from your messages and my people’s reports on the matter, and overall, Tyell, you are really lucky you survived that. No matter what past you think you had, going into a conflict zone unprepared can be a death sentence, and don’t ever consider the prep you did as proper preparation.”

Nina spent a few minutes speaking about the proper procedures one must take when going into what is known as a dangerous location. Everything from what a person should do for prep to what actions they should take when they are at the location. It became a very intense educational lesson for a moment. 

“Now, about the artefact you brought back with you. Can you give it to me?” Lila had sent a message to Nina about it. 

Tyell had told her after they had left the city that he actually managed to obtain the artefact, and he also told her about what the item did. Lila didn’t have a good reference for what one of these artefacts should do, but she was hoping for something similar to what the auction on Jelannax station had shown.

Tyell passed the small case to Nina. He didn’t have an immediate use for it, and he was hoping that Nina could at least pass it along to Ceella if that was feasible. 

“Now, for the second order of business, Lila will have to return with me today.”

“Pardon?” Tyell muttered, then Mella jumped up in her chair, and Tella looked away sadly.

“It’s part of the security deal; in exchange for not leaving the city, she can move around relatively freely; however, because he broke that 

“I…” Tyell didn’t know what to say; he didn’t know about it.

“Wait!” Mella jumped forward. “We can’t have that happen; she belongs here now.”

“Sorry, Mella, you don’t get a say in this. Her being here, in its own way, is a security concern.” 

Mella bit her lip. “That… last incident wasn’t her fault.”

“Perhaps, but even if that didn’t happen, the results today would still be the same.”

Lila stood up and walked towards Mella and gave her a hug. “Thanks for looking out for me, but it is alright.”

Tella walked up behind her and Lila turned around to give her a hug as well. “Thank you for everything, Mrs. Stella.”

“No need to be formal now…” Tella tightened her hug. As the main adult of the house, Tella knew about all the stipulations that Lila had to follow, and their heist broke a few of them. 

After those hugs were completed.

“I…” Tyell was still on the floor. He was feeling guilty that Lila had to give up her place in their home because of him

Lila returned some smack talk: “Get up, you idiot… you don’t have to keep kneeling.” 

“Hey…” 

Lila then yanked him up. “Come on, you haven’t even given your sister a hug yet since coming back.”

“I…” 

Lila shrugged, “Let’s just enjoy it.”

During Tyell’s indecisiveness and lamenting. Mella decided she needed to help her brother get out of the slump.

“Tyell!” Mella leapt off the couch she was standing on.

“Wh–” And crashed right into Tyell.

The two of them tumbled to the ground. 

Nina waved her hand and washed both in a light healing wave.

“What was that..?” Tyell groaned.

“You were supposed to catch me.”

“How was I supposed to do without warning?!”

“I gave you a heads-up.”

“Yelling while jumping is not a heads-up.”

The two siblings argued on the floor. 

Tella asked, just after wiping the tears from her eyes, “Lila, want to help me prepare some food? We can’t have you leave on a quiet note.”

Lila let out a small chuckle. “Sure.”

This house always had so much warmth that Lila wished she had in hers growing up.

I’ll do my best to ensure they stay protected.

Even if she had to leave, this was her new home, and she would do what was necessary to protect it.

It was as she told them, and soon Lila and Nina left the Stella house together. Lila didn’t have much to pack even after staying with the family for about a year, but going from nothing to a normal travelling bag worth of items was still something.

Still, before they left, they celebrated as much as they could. Tella made every dish she could, and everyone was stuffed till they could no longer eat. It wasn’t like she could no longer see them, but no longer living with them would still be a big difference.

Lila couldn’t say she didn’t hold some regrets; it was all too easy to say there were so many better ways to deal with the situation, but in the end, she was glad Tyell was alive and maybe they had a way to help Ceella whenever she returned.

“This will be your home for the time being; if you want to leave the facility, you will need express permission for a limited-time trip,” Nina explained as she gave Lila a quick tour of her private facility on Metous. It had a small number of accommodations, rooms to resupply, and a private area for Nina to do her work.

Lila asked, “Am I allowed to work here? Doing small jobs or other tasks.” 

“That can be discussed, but likely yes, I don’t want you to feel completely trapped. If we do, you will be paid for any work done.” Said Nina.

After walking around the facility, Lila finally asked, “So what happened? You were radio silent for a long time.”

“I do apologise for that.” Nina was apologetic. “If I were around, maybe you two wouldn’t have made such a risky decision.” 

“So what happened?”

Nina paused before replying, “Sadly, a combination of a few things. A combat zone needed emergency aid, a different facility owned by me that specialises in research and development for medicine got raided, and there was a rescue attempt…” 

“Is… Are they stored here?” Lila asked, referring to the individual she would rather not see 

“They have been moved to a different location now.” Nina gripped her own hand.

“So you did manage to save them…” Lila sighed. She didn’t know the exact state her former boss was in after the attack, but she knew that Lila tried to save everyone who was harmed.

“Unfortunately, she was the only one that day I could save,” Nina spoke with remorse.

They continued to walk down a hall and then to an elevator down to the bottom level. 

Lila asked while they were going down, “How do you do it?”

“Padron?”

“Even failing to save one life hurts you, but there have to be others you couldn’t save as well.”

“True, there have been too many.” Nina switched her gloves as they entered a secure room. “But that just means I need to keep trying.”

Entering the small, secure room, Nina pulled out the case that Tyell gave her and opened it. Pulling out the locket from it, she placed the artefact in a container in the room.

Lila asked, “Keeping it locked away?”

“Not entirely. I will have some of my team investigate it while it is temporarily in my care.” Artefacts were always a powerful item to study, as many advancements had been made while examining dungeon artefacts. While their infinite self-mana regeneration couldn’t be replicated, how they used mana could be, so an artefact that could supply mana efficiently was worth studying.

“Temporarily?’

“Truthfully speaking, I don’t wish to keep such an artefact when it's not mine.”

“Is that just the excuse to give it to someone else when the time comes?”

“Perhaps.” Said Nina.

“...” Lila looked at the artefact. It was something that caused a lot of pain in the last few days. “I wonder how long an artefact like this has been hiding away.”

“Likely from a long time.”

“Still, how did they hide it from Dominous Hood?”

“Sometimes the best place to hide is right under the nose. I had my people investigate, and the criminal activity in Merpole was likely sponsored, and the people who held this artefact were the main recipients of those long deals.” 

“But why?” Based on what Lila knew of the artefact, it wasn’t anything so special that selling it to your boss wasn’t the more profitable choice. Not to mention selling it to a buyer with so little care that the information got leaked. She didn’t see anyone from Dominous Hood there; she guessed that was because they genuinely didn’t believe the rumours, but the moment those rumours were found to be true, they would have that man’s head.

“Maybe I could find out, and I have people investigating, but he likely had a reason that was more important than his business or safety, but based on Tyell’s accounts of the man, he seemed tired; whatever that reason was, it is now lost.”

“Hmmm…” Lila pondered Nina’s statement. She had felt that, giving up after losing something. She had regained it now, but she didn’t want to lose something important to her again. A feeling shared by the rest of the Stella family.

Ceella… Please come home safe and sound.

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