CHAPTER 76: CHAPTER76-OKO’S ATTEMPT AT PLAYING THE FAMILY CARD

Inside the council hall—

"President, the Guardian of the Starborn Clan has entered the city," Colt reported.

Leo nodded slightly.

"Let them in."

At that moment, Walter entered as well, accompanied by Mephisto, the Glacian patriarch.

"President," Walter saluted respectfully.

Leo’s gaze shifted toward Mephisto, and his brow furrowed.

The stench of Void Zerg energy on this one was almost suffocating.

At Leo’s side, Magnar also showed a trace of puzzlement.

Sensing the weight of those gazes, Mephisto immediately bowed slightly, breaking the tense silence.

"Honorable human lord, I am Mephisto, patriarch of the Glacians. I’ve come to offer my congratulations on the founding of Dalton Town."

He paused, forcing a bitter smile.

"I imagine you have some doubts about my people’s connection to the Void Zerg..."

He quickly began to explain.

The Glacians, he said, were among many races who had cooperated with the Zerg—providing resources and intelligence.

In truth, "cooperation" was a polite term; the reality was that the Glacians were little more than oppressed servants.

After all, the word "friendship" did not exist in the Zerg’s vocabulary.

If not for the fact that Glacians were beings of frost and crystal rather than flesh and blood—unpalatable to the Zerg—they would likely have ended up as waste in the brood pits long ago.

But the Zerg needed administrators to maintain and exploit conquered territories, so races like the Glacians were allowed to survive—

caught between exploitation and dependency.

Hearing this, Magnar and the others eased their hostility somewhat, though their wariness remained.

At that moment, the Starborn Guardian, accompanied by Trisha and Oko, entered the hall.

When Leo saw Trisha, his expression softened faintly with warmth.

As for the two standing beside her—he didn’t even spare them a glance.

That made both the Guardian and Oko visibly uncomfortable.

"Trisha," Leo said, turning to her,

"would you be willing to stay in Dalton?"

"I think Lilith needs family around her. And we could also use someone who understands Starborn matters."

He was referring to the delicate work of balancing and stabilizing Lilith’s Star Bloodline.

Trisha’s eyes widened slightly. "Truly? You’d allow that?"

"I would."

She didn’t hesitate for even a heartbeat.

"Yes—I’d like that very much!"

All along her journey, she had been overwhelmed by everything Dalton Town embodied.

Such a place had once seemed like a dream.

The Starborn might consider themselves a "great race," but compared to Dalton, they were a provincial backwater.

And beyond that, the internal corruption, arrogance, and hierarchy within the Starborn Clan had long left her disillusioned.

Intrigue, oppression, hidden prejudice—it was suffocating.

If not for that, she would never have volunteered to serve in faraway Snowhawk City to begin with.

Now, the chance to leave that world behind, to be with Lilith again, to mend her past failures—

why would she refuse?

Leo nodded once to a nearby guard. "Show her to her quarters."

Trisha followed, her steps light with relief.

Meanwhile, the Guardian and Oko were left standing awkwardly to the side.

The Guardian elbowed Oko subtly and gave him a meaningful look.

Oko understood, forcing a strained smile as he looked up toward Leo seated on the dais.

"Ah... son-in-law, you see, we’ve come all this way and—"

"Who," Leo interrupted coldly, "is your son-in-law?"

The sharp edge in his voice sliced through the air like ice.

From the memories he had extracted from the Starborn elder he’d slain, Leo knew well what kind of man Oko was—

the indifference, the cowardice, the way he had turned his back while his own daughter, Hathaway, was slandered and tormented.

A father who stood idle while his child suffered... worse, one who helped bury her.

Such a man did not deserve to be called a father.

Even Hathaway herself had never truly confronted that wound, her silence only enabling his arrogance.

So Leo’s contempt for Oko was absolute.

Oko felt the weight of Leo’s gaze and shuddered.

Despite his Divine Being rank, he felt like a child before an executioner.

He tried to divert the conversation with a trembling laugh.

"Ah—f-forgive me, President, I misspoke. I only meant... Lilith! Yes, Lilith! When she came to the Starborn Clan last time, I didn’t get to see her. I wanted to make it up to her—"

He tried to play the family card, to use Lilith as a bridge to ease the tension.

Leo’s snort cut him off, the sound colder than frost.

"Make it up to her?"

"Ask yourself, Oko—do you even deserve to call yourself a father? A grandfather?"

"How did you treat Hathaway back then?"

The hall fell silent—utterly, deathly silent.

Even Mephisto, the Glacian, managed to keep a straight face outwardly, though inside he was practically delighted.

To see a proud Starborn elder publicly humiliated—now this was entertainment.

Oko’s face turned pale. Instead of arguing, he lowered his head, eyes flickering with guilt.

Leo caught the movement instantly.

"You’re hiding something."

His voice grew colder still.

"N-no! I’m not!" Oko stammered, shaking his head violently.

Boom!

A crushing pressure slammed down on him—

pure divine force, precise and merciless.

Oko screamed, forced to his knees, his bones creaking under the strain.

"Ahhh! Guardian! H-help me!"

The Starborn Guardian only shook his head quickly, not daring to interfere.

Leo’s gaze was like winter steel. "Speak."

The double weight—on body and soul—was too much. Oko broke within seconds, wailing:

"I—I’ll talk! Please, stop!"

The pressure eased slightly. Oko gasped for air, drenched in sweat, eyes wild with fear.

"H-Hathaway... she... she came back once, not long ago!"

Leo’s pupils contracted.

"Go on."

"She—she came to see me... but it was to cut ties completely!"

The hall fell into stunned silence.

Mephisto watched, fascinated.

The human drama unfolding before him was far better than any Glacian play.

Leo frowned deeply. "And?"

Oko’s face twisted with confusion and fear.

"She’s changed—completely. Her rank... I couldn’t even sense it."

"She felt like a stranger. As if she’d become someone else entirely."

Leo said nothing for a long while.

There was no doubt now—

something immense was hidden within Hathaway’s return.

Oko, meanwhile, stood trembling, the realization dawning that his chance to curry favor with Dalton had utterly vanished.

Leo’s eyes flicked toward him one last time, cold and dismissive.

"Escort them out."

A few powerful guards immediately stepped forward.

The Starborn Guardian’s face soured, but he dared not protest.

He could only bow stiffly and lead the broken Oko away.

The lavish gifts they had brought?

Leo didn’t even glance at them.

...

In the days that followed, envoys and chieftains from every major race of the Sakend Universe arrived at Dalton Town—

some to probe, some to befriend.

But all left in awe of the fortress-city of humanity,

and the unfathomable power that loomed behind it.

The existence of Dalton Town quietly reshaped the balance of Sakend itself.

And for the first time in countless ages,

the scattered, downtrodden humans of this universe felt something they had almost forgotten—

the shelter of their own,

and the dawning of hope.