Plundering in the Apocalypse

"It\'s indeed a great morning," Reina said with a meaningful smile on her face.

"Yeah, but you guys should try to keep your voice down during the night. Our neighbors were complaining." Alfred said while giggling as Reina pinched his arms and also started laughing.

Shin didn\'t know what to say to that. While last night they were busy working their bodies. He didn\'t think about other things. Of course, his parents were also home and with their inhumane hearing, they could hear it all. He facepalmed at his mistake.

\'Was I moaning so loud that even the neighbors could hear?\' Alice was shocked and turned even more embarrassed.

"Let them have breakfast first before we talk." Alfred gestured for Reina to take them to the breakfast table.

"Come and have breakfast," Reina said as she served it to them.

Alice\'s mind was still shaken with embarrassment at how their neighbors heard her shameful voice. She was having difficulty focusing on eating breakfast.

Reina chuckled seeing Alice\'s reaction and replied.

"Don\'t worry, I was just teasing you. I put up a soundproofing barrier around the house so no voice can leak out. You don\'t have to worry about anything." Reina smiled gently as caressed Alice\'s cheeks, showing how caring a mother she was.

Alice smiled and thought she got the best mother-in-law. But Shin\'s words made her think otherwise.

"Why didn\'t you put the barrier only around my room instead, mom?"

Reina\'s face froze, and she had a stiff smile on her face. Which soon turned back to normal.

"Focusing a barrier on one place is difficult. Making it around me is a lot easier." She explained calmly.

"I see. I see." Shin nodded his head in understanding. \'Bullshit, she just doesn\'t want to admit her real motive.\'

...

After breakfast, all four of them were sitting in the living room. Alfred had a serious expression on his face.

"This is about the labyrinth." As Shin and Alice heard Alfred\'s words, their expression turned serious.

"Did something big happen?" Shin asked while rubbing his fingers anxiously. He was worried their actions may have brought some unwanted troubles.

Alfred nodded his head and explained.

"After you guys cleared those floors, created that mess. Many strange theories were coming out. But there were no answers to it until this morning. I just got the news from the HQ of my company that Polaris City also had a labyrinth. But the important thing is they had also cleared the first floor of the labyrinth, just after you guys. They took 50 people with them, 3 died and 5 are heavily injured, others have light injuries." Alfred shook his head while sighing.

Shin also understands how dangerous a labyrinth can be now. He won\'t be naïve anymore. He needs to plan things ahead of time and be prepared for anything. If Alice didn\'t use that special transformation power. They would have been long dead.

"As they cleared the first floor, the engraving on the gate had lit up just like here. So I\'m sure the news is going to create an uproar."

"Now that everyone will know the reason behind those golden lights. I am sure they are going to try everything in their power to search for the party who cleared 5 floors in a few hours." Alfred said with a heavy voice, but his lips were twitching. He was barely holding himself from laughing. After all, the situation was very amusing.

Seeing Alfred\'s weird and kind of funny expression, Shin asked him. "What is it, Dad? Why are you laughing?"

"You know what, even the Wolner clan wants to invite the party who cleared those floors and let them join the clan," Alfred explained as he started laughing.

"Hehehe."

"Isn\'t this funny? The people who ordered us to disown you as they didn\'t want you. They even went as far as giving you the Abandonment seal. Now they are trying their best to search for you to recruit you. They are also going to send some senior members from some branch family so they could search for the Ghost party."

"Wait, what do you mean by Ghost party?" Shin asked as this was his first time hearing something like that.

"Well, you guys have been going around playing hide and seek, getting invisible. What kind of name do you expect the people would give you?"

\'Just what\'s going on with Dad today? He is acting very weirdly and why is he laughing like a Santa?\' Shin thought of using mind control but it failed. \'Well, I expected as much.\'

The next moment, Alfred\'s serious voice sounded. "Okay, that\'s enough about that. Let\'s get to the important matter now."

Alfred sighed and closed his hands tightly. He turned his head to the side to see Reina nodding her head and encouraging him. He took a deep breath.

The hall was extremely silent, which made Shin and Alice worry about what the topic might be. Is it something that serious?

Shin gulped and waited for Alfred to speak.

Alfred\'s eyes met with Shin\'s with a sharp gaze as he glanced at Alice too. He asked in full seriousness.

"I want a granddaughter. Well, a grandson is fine too, but I want to know what raising a girl feels like. I have been trying to come up with many grandpa jokes. I\'ll show them to you later. So, when can I expect my grandchild?"

The silence continued as it took some time to register Alfred\'s words in Shin\'s and Alice\'s minds.

Alice blushed at Alfred\'s question.

Shin stood up from his seat and shouted.

"Don\'t expect anything now and weren\'t we talking about the labyrinth? How did we end up talking about your grandchildren?" Shin rubbed his forehead while shaking his head.

Hearing his words, Alfred gasped in shock. "Are you telling no grandchild for me?"

"Yes, we are not having a baby," Shin replied calmly.

Shin\'s words turned Alfred\'s mood sour and shocked another person to the core.

Alice\'s face turned pale in shock as her mouth was wide open.

"Don\'t tell me you were thinking otherwise, Alice?" Shin asked while smiling wryly.

Alive nodded her head, even in a shocking state. She didn\'t expect Shin to outright reject the idea of having a child.

Shin sighed and came close to her as he explained. "Alice, this is not the right time for us to have a baby. The world is changing and you know it. It\'s getting dangerous as every day passes by, stronger monsters are appearing and I\'m sure more powerful ones will come soon too. We have to get a lot stronger and fast so that we can be strong enough to protect our baby and nothing can harm our child. But for that, you will need to fight a lot, which is not good while carrying a child."

"I hope you understand me," Shin said as he clasped her hands gently and was about to kiss her but stopped feeling four excited eyes looking at them.

\'Damn, why are my parents so weird? I don\'t think it\'s normal for other families.\'

Alice nodded her head, thinking Shin was right. \'I was only thinking about Shin and me. This is not good. If I want to be a good mother, I need some practice first.\'

\'Maybe I\'ll ask my Mothers (Mia and Reina) for help. It is indeed not a good idea to have a baby in these dangerous times.\'

\'I want my baby to have the best life with us. I need to be prepared. It\'s no good getting very hasty with these things. I need to slow down things a bit.\'

"You are right Shin. We need to get a lot stronger so we can protect our baby." Alice exclaimed with her eyes full of determination.

Reina and Alfred felt Alice\'s emotions and were sure she would be a great mother. They were only teasing them a little but did not expect such a serious reaction from them.

Mia, who was seeing all this from inside the Soul Grimoire and was worried that these people will surely make her little girl bear a child at such a young age, got relieved hearing Shin\'s words.

"Let\'s go and clear all the floors of the labyrinth."

Alice\'s eyes turned red as she thought about killing all the monsters inside the labyrinth.

Shin stopped her and her burning passion to go on a killing spree.

"Nope, we are not going to the labyrinth now. We are first going to check on Simon and Elena. To see if they are alright."

Alice knit her brows thinking of meeting Elena. She didn\'t like that girl. She was always eyeing Shin. If it was before she wouldn\'t have liked the idea of meeting her. But this time she had no problem with it. Why?

So that she can help the poor girl. She did feel pity for her now. \'She must be very tired. I should tend to her injuries. She must be depressed about yesterday\'s incident. I can console her somehow.\'

\'Maybe I can tell her the good news to light up the mood.\'

\'I can\'t wait to see her reaction.\'

Alice chuckled inwardly.

\'Hehehehe\'

\'This is going to be fun.\'