Next Life – Chapter 166

This is a temporary jump forward several years.

Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Marius couldn’t help but recall those words.

“Die, hag!”

“Who are you calling a hag, you punk?!”

Two women were engaged in a fierce battle. The roar that tore through heaven and earth was incessant. If the battle were taking place in this world, rather than the alternate dimension Marius had created, it would have required a significant redrawing of the Taliant Continent’s maps.

One of the combatants, whose fighting style made virtually every observer believe such, was named Auraniess. Most people would likely be both convinced and stunned if they knew the truth. This is because the one Auraniess was fiercely fighting wasn’t Marius. Nor was it Iris, Sophia, or Zofi. It was, by all appearances, a young girl of only five or six years old.

Her name was Nergal. Nergal von Tuban. Her father’s name was Marius, and her mother’s name was Auraniess. In other words, they were in the midst of a mother-daughter quarrel.

“How did it come to this…”

Marius couldn’t help but think it. However, the cause was clear. It was because Marius and Auraniess had a child. More accurately, it was because their child strongly inherited traits from both of them. Perhaps it was a stroke of bad luck that Marius, looking at Sieg and Fried, had felt reassured that his own power wouldn’t be easily inherited.

Nergal was born inheriting Auraniess’s unreasonableness, sturdiness, combat sense, and skills, along with Marius’s Magic Power and magic sense. Marius still remembered the silence that fell over the royal palace when that fact was revealed.

“Enough, Juggernaut!”

Auraniess finally unleashed one of her signature moves, “Juggernaut.” Its power was such that if it hit directly, it would be devastating not just to a town, but perhaps even a country. Despite her young daughter taking such an attack, Marius felt no worry.

“Weak!”

To his surprise, Nergal unleashed a Juggernaut of her own, completely nullifying Auraniess’s attack. Of course, she likely couldn’t counter it if Auraniess returned to her true form and unleashed it with full power.

“Wrecking can be countered by Wrecking, you know~”

Nergal said with a proud look. Yes, she had already mastered Auraniess’s skill “Wrecking.” The fact that she was a young girl and already possessed such abilities was mind-boggling. It was likely that no one would believe it unless they saw it for themselves.

“This isn’t about genius or cheats; it’s something far more terrifying.”

Marius shuddered. If she continued to develop along this path, she seemed destined to become a monster surpassing even him and Auraniess. If that were the only problem, there might still be hope. The biggest issue was that Nergal’s disposition was exactly like her mother’s. There had been an instance where her tutor turned pale, wept, and begged, “I can’t take responsibility!” Marius understood her feelings perfectly and absolved her of blame. However, he still felt his daughter was pure and well-behaved for now and hoped to rectify her personality before she grew any older.

“She didn’t have to inherit the unreasonableness, though…”

As far as Marius knew, Nergal was the only one of their children who had so perfectly inherited their parents’ traits. It almost made him suspect it was Nergal’s revenge against Nyarla, though he quickly dismissed the thought. If that were the case, wouldn’t it be the ultimate revenge? He sighed at the thought.

The battle between the two gradually became one-sided. Auraniess gained the upper hand. The reason was simple and clear: Nergal’s stamina had run out. Even without parental bias, the young girl, who was nothing short of a monster, still had the stamina of a child. Otherwise, Marius might not have felt paternal affection.

“That’s enough!”

Marius shouted as he intervened. There was no one else who could step into this fight between the two of them, so he had no choice. Iris and Sophia might have been able to, but neither Demon Lord would cooperate on matters like these. When he hesitantly asked once, Sophia tilted her head and said, “Isn’t this a parent-child issue?” Her attitude, implying that if it was something impossible to do, they could cooperate, but if it was something they could do themselves, they should do it, made Marius back down in silence. He couldn’t think of any counterargument. Therefore, he resolved not to slack off when it came to arbitration. He wanted to be able to proudly call himself a parent.

“Ah, Papa~”

Upon seeing Marius, Nergal’s face lit up with a broad smile, and she ran to him.

“Yeah, Nergal. Reflect on making Mommy angry.”

“Okay~…”

The scolded daughter replied dejectedly. Marius wanted to consider the matter settled, but there was someone who wasn’t satisfied.

“Hey, wait a minute. Why do you listen so obediently to Marius?”

It was Mom Auraniess. Having had her forceful scolding completely ignored, it was only natural for veins to bulge on her forehead as she protested. Before Marius could say anything, Nergal, clinging to him, stuck out her tongue and said,

“Because I love Papa! I don’t know any hag!”

“…You’ve got guts. Just like my daughter.”

A dangerous glint appeared in Auraniess’s eyes.

“That’s bad.”

A chill ran down Marius’s spine. He decided to act preemptively before she got truly angry. He set Nergal down and bonked her on the head with his fist.

“Oww!”

His daughter clutched her head with both hands and looked up at her father with sad eyes. The key point was that she didn’t seem to be in much pain; in reality, Marius’s standard attacks didn’t even tickle Nergal.

“Dah-daddy~?”

However, the impact seemed to be immense for Nergal. She quickly started crying.

“Nergal, you were in the wrong. And don’t call your mother a hag.”

“So-sorry~!”

It was an instant defeat. However, Marius wasn’t done.

“Apologize properly to your mother too.”

Nergal reluctantly apologized.

“Seriously, why do you dislike your mother so much?”

Marius asked, and his daughter puffed out her cheeks before replying.

“Because, well… Mommy is Papa’s wife.”

“……”

Marius and Auraniess fell silent simultaneously. It was an unexpected, incredibly intense confession of extreme father complex.

“Just to be clear, Father and Nergal can’t get married.”

“No! Nergal wants to marry Papa!”

Nergal rolled on the ground, throwing a tantrum. Marius looked at Auraniess in distress. She, on the other hand, wore a bored expression, shrugged her shoulders, and disappeared with a Teleport. All that remained were Marius and Nergal, rolling on the ground and insisting, “I want to marry Papa.”

“No, how did it come to this? Seriously.”

A grumble of utter bewilderment vanished into the alternate space. Years later, the throne would be passed down to this very Nergal. The title “Guardian Goddess Auraniess” would come into being even further in the future, named in contrast to “Tyrant Nergal.”