Chapter 38: Should Not Let Down the Males Who Worked Hard All Their Lives

Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Should Not Let Down the Males Who Worked Hard All Their Lives

"Kerry, I really wasn’t feeling well, and I couldn’t hold it back. I didn’t mean to disturb your rest," Viner, an elderly male enduring his pain, said with a face full of guilt.

Looking at the furious young male before him, he felt a bit of heartache. He had dedicated his entire life to the tribe, and Kerry had thrived under the protection of the older generation when he was just a child.

But now...

A wave of sorrow washed over Viner. Perhaps he shouldn’t even be alive anymore.

"I’m old and in poor health. I’ve watched you grow up since you were a child. Can’t you be a little more understanding?" Viner asked, a hurt expression on his face.

"Understanding? How are you more important than my mate? She already has trouble sleeping at night since getting pregnant with our cub. We were exhausted from traveling all day yesterday, yet you kept making a fuss in the middle of the night. She couldn’t rest properly and woke up complaining of a stomachache this morning!" Kerry’s anger was not something a simple apology could quell.

"If anything happens to the cub in my mate’s belly, just you wait," he said coldly, stepping forward to grab Viner’s arm.

Hearing this, a ball of anger flared up in Viner’s heart as well.

The stone houses built on the mountain were close together, and the commotion they were making was quite loud. Hearing the noise growing, Ophelia, Laxus, and the others hurried over to investigate.

Just as they reached the door of the stone house—before they could even speak—they saw Kerry’s arm muscles tense, looking as if he was about to strike.

Kerry emanated an intense Dragon Beast aura, his arrogance soaring. Seeing this, the other clan members realized this was no laughing matter and stepped in.

They began to persuade him one after another. "Let it go, Kerry. Viner didn’t do it on purpose."

"Yeah, Viner took good care of us when we were little. Don’t be so petty."

Kerry, already young and hot-blooded, grew even more furious at their attempts to intervene. "I guess since she’s not your little female and it’s not your cub, you don’t care at all!"

Those trying to talk sense into him immediately fell silent.

Although Viner was old, his blood still ran hot. Faced with Kerry’s provocation, he refused to back down. Enduring his discomfort, he stretched his stiff shoulders, ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

The atmosphere grew incredibly tense until Laxus rebuked them with a cold expression, "Stop it, both of you!"

"The Clan Leader and Young Clan Leader are here!" someone in the crowd shouted.

The explosive tension between the two males gradually subsided.

Laxus frowned deeply, his sharp brows furrowing. "Why are you fighting?"

"Young Clan Leader, Viner wouldn’t sleep last night and kept making noises. He disturbed my mate so much that she couldn’t sleep all night.

"You know she’s pregnant with a cub and needs to ensure she gets plenty of rest." Kerry didn’t feel he had done anything wrong. If a male couldn’t even protect his own mate, what right did he have to be called a male?

Ophelia followed his gaze and indeed saw a young female draped in thick animal hides. Her lower abdomen was slightly swollen, and she rested a hand on her belly. Her somewhat plump face bore dark circles under her eyes.

Laxus then turned to Viner. "Viner, what do you have to say?"

"I’m old, and years of hunting have left me with many lingering ailments. Whenever it rains, my arms and legs ache and itch horribly. I was in too much pain to sleep. I didn’t mean to make a sound," Viner explained while pointing out the areas that bothered him.

As soon as he finished speaking, the other elderly males chimed in.

"Clan Leader, Young Clan Leader, it’s not just Viner. I’m the same. Hunting in my youth left me with a lot of old injuries, and now my legs and feet are stiff," a middle-aged male said, pounding his own leg.

"Me too. Whenever it’s overcast or raining, my joints ache with piercing pain. It’s truly unbearable."

"Sigh, but this is the ultimate fate of us males. It’s been this way for generations."

As they spoke, the atmosphere in the stone house gradually grew desolate, filled with a sense of resignation to fate.

Laxus, however, did not agree with their defeatist mindset. The tribe’s cubs were raised to adulthood through the collective efforts of all the males in the tribe, who would set aside a portion of their daily hunt as food for the little ones.

The old raising the young had always been the way, and it was how the Golden Dragon Clan had grown so strong. Since these males had dedicated their entire lives to the Golden Dragon Clan, their descendants should treat them well in return. They shouldn’t allow the males who had worked so hard their entire lives to feel disheartened.

Laxus’s expression grew heavy, and his tone was solemn. "Kerry, you will also grow old one day. There will come a time when you are in too much pain to sleep.

"If you were old and your cub treated you like this, how would you feel?"

Hearing this, realization dawned on Kerry, and he lowered his head in shame. His cheeks burned, and he didn’t dare look at Viner.

Memories surfaced in his mind. When Viner was younger, he had frequently brought prey to Kerry as a child and taught him many hunting skills. Even his current mate had initially been attracted to him because of those very hunting techniques. But now he was treating Viner this way, and he felt truly ashamed.

He glanced at his mate and, finding her looking back at him, quickly averted his gaze. He truly felt a bit humiliated.

"Viner, I’m sorry," Kerry said sheepishly, his voice barely above a whisper.

He had just let his anger get the better of him. Being young and hot-blooded, he was at an age where it was hard to control his temper. Now that he had calmed down and thought about it, he realized he was indeed at fault.

Looking at the male he had helped raise since childhood, Viner ultimately couldn’t bear to make things difficult for him. He sighed and waved his hand. "Forget it. You were only doing it for your mate and cub."

While Laxus resolved the conflict between the clan members, Ophelia had been pondering how to allocate their living arrangements more reasonably.

Because they were pressed for time and had a heavy workload when they built the stone houses on the mountain, they prioritized speed and size. They only constructed ten stone houses, which was enough to accommodate all the clan members.

Of course, the stone houses on the mountain weren’t as nice as the ones in their original tribe. Without enough private rooms, the clan members had been sleeping on communal beds, with males and females sharing the same space.

"Father, why don’t we make an adjustment and have the males and little females live separately?" Ophelia suggested. ℴ

"What do you have in mind?" Leon asked.

"We don’t have many stone houses, so giving each family their own room definitely isn’t feasible. We can have the unbonded little females share a room, the single males share another, and the bonded males and little females live together."

"No!" an elder was the first to reject her idea. "The reason we all lived together in the first place was to protect the safety and health of the little females. If we separate them now, we won’t be able to guarantee their safety."

"We can organize teams of middle-aged males to take turns guarding the area around the single little females’ stone house to ensure their safety," Ophelia countered.

The surroundings grew quiet as they all considered whether this method was viable. Some thought it could work, but worried that other clan members might disagree.

In the end, everyone turned their eyes to Leon. As the Clan Leader of the Golden Dragon Clan, he had the final say, and during such decisive moments, everyone followed his lead.

Leon’s brow was deeply furrowed, and the beard around his lips bunched up as he weighed the pros and cons.