Beastmen Love-Chapter 248: Hopin’s Growth

Hopin was training with his brothers when a female came to try to convince him to become her spouse, but didn’t expect him to turn her down and even laugh about the offer.

"He is lying. It is not possible for a Rabbit to have four marks." One of the female’s males snorts.

Hopin removes the top part of the kimono, then points at his back, proving he has four marks.

"I am not the delusional here." Hopin says, and then wears his kimono back.

"A Rabbit will always be a Rabbit. You live among stronger beastmen, and that’s why you haven’t died yet."

"And you think that just because you are a Lion, I can’t beat you?"

"You have more marks than I do, but I’m naturally stronger than you. Besides, Lions are predators and Rabbits are prey."

"Excuse me?" They hear.

Astri came to them so silently that it took them by surprise.

"Mom?" Hopin sighs, impressed to see her there.

"..Mom?.. The Goddess is your mother?" The Lion asks.

"Yes. He is my son. Have any problem with that?" Astri asks.

"Oh... I apologize.. Now I understand why he’s strong." The lion says, with a smirk to Hopin.

"You think you can beat my brother? Why don’t you try?" Yuki asks, with a smirk and crossing her arms.

"I could never hurt anyone from the Goddess’ family."

"Coward." Yuki snorts.

"Sis. Let him think whatever he wants." Hopin says to Yuki.

"That he’s a coward? I think he already does."

Elias and Kai giggle, and Hopin only smiles. Yuki is a handful when she wants to protect her brothers.

"Yuki, be nice." Astri smiles and walks to Hopin, then looks at the Lion beastman. "What is your name?"

"Huntz, milady." He answers.

"Huntz. Do you know what it takes to gain a mark?"

".. Fighting and experience."

"And you think that my son got his marks just for being next to stronger beastmen?"

Huntz loses his voice for a moment. He doesn’t want to disrespect a Goddess, but he knows that he’s already in a bad position.

"But as you were implying before, marks are not everything. I do agree with that." Astri keeps smiling and pats her son’s back. "Won’t you help my son to train, then? How about sparring?"

Hopin smiles and nods, understanding the task. Huntz looked at his friends, and they shrugged their shoulders as they were saying ’if the Goddess was asking so he shouldn’t worry’.

Huntz looks at Astri’s spouses, and they were only watching with poker faces, but deep inside, they know what is going to happen.

"If I can help, milady.." Huntz says to Astri.

"Great. Good luck, son." Astri says, blinking an eye at Hopin and then kissing his cheek.

Hopin could see Astri’s mischievous look and only smiled back at her. Hopin and Huntz go to the spar training area, and they are already at everyone’s attention. When King Klark was coming to talk to Claud, he saw the commotion and then rushed to Astri to learn what was happening.

"Don’t worry, King Klark. Mister Huntz is only helping Hopin to train." Astri says.

She has her arms crossed and is standing with her spouses and children behind her. They know that Astri takes her children very seriously, and wants to be on the front line if that means cheering for them.

"Is she angry?" Klark asks Tyr.

"Oh, she is. But she will let Hopin teach them a lesson." Tyr chuckles.

Hopin removes his kimono and stays only in a skin skirt. Everyone was watching the duel, curious to see how the end of this would be. Most of them think that Hopin stands no chance against a Lion.

Galion is the mediator of the duel; he explains the duel’s conditions and announces the start of the duel.

Huntz wants this madness to end fast, so he launches at Hopin right after the duel started, but he was shocked when Hopin practically disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Hopin threw himself on the ground and then pushed himself up in a breath and kicked Huntz on the chin. Huntz fell with his back on the ground, completely knocked out.

Astri and her family cheered happily, and the rest of the watchers were mouth agape and gasped when Galion announced Huntz was knocked out and Hopin was the winner.

"That’s my boy. You are amazing, son! I can’t even make fun of him now." Astri says, hugging her son, giggling.

He chuckles, loving the attention of his mother and that she’s proud of him.

"I think I should have waited a little longer before knocking him out." Hopin says, scratching his head.

"You were amazing.. You won one of my strongest males... I would love to have you as my spouse." Huntz’s female says after walking to them.

"No, thank you. A male shouldn’t be respected only by his strength or kind. My mother saw my strength even before I saw it in myself. I will only accept a female who respects me and her males as my mother does. If I don’t find a female like this, I don’t need one." Hopin answers.

The female lost her voice and didn’t know what to answer. Males rejecting a female is rare, but it happens when the male already has another female in mind. However, he literally said she’s not worthy, and that hurts her pride.

"That is our brother! Leader of the brothers!" Elias says, punching Hopin’s arm.

"That was impressive, Hopin. I would love to have you in my army, but I know that you have a more important role on your mother’s side." Klark says to Hopin.

"Thank you, King Klark." Hopin answers.

Astri goes to check Huntz, gives some gentle taps with her hand on his face to help him wake up. He wakes up, startled, and looks at Astri, shocked. She smiles and taps his face and head slowly.

"There, there. He’s back. You’re fine, buddy." She says.

".. What happened?" He asks, confused.

"My son knocked you out. You are all right. Don’t worry."

She helps him to stand up. He looks at Hopin, and after some seconds, he nods, acknowledging his defeat.

"Something you said was right, but not entirely. I was trained by a 19-marked Dragon and a 17-marked Spider daily. Not counting when I was trained by other guardians, like Caris and Carist, who have more than 30 marks, and my fathers. But just being next to them didn’t make me stronger. I had to train and think differently to use the best in me against others, and that I learned from my mother. If you start to think differently, you will also grow fast." Hopin says to Huntz.

Huntz nods again, and Astri smiles, feeling her chest get warmed with the pride of her son. Klark looks at Astri and can see the pride on her face, making him smile too.

"I would love to know what kind of training you do for your guards, Lady Astri." Klark says.

"We can mark a day for me to come here and talk to them. It’s not much different from what Galion and Claud passed you." Astri says, pulling a smell herb from her belt and smelling it to help with the nausea.

"Try to hold in.." Zin softly says to her.

"Easier said than done." She whines.

"Hold in?... Oh yes. You’re pregnant and having nausea. Please, rest, my lady." Klark says.

"Yes, you need to rest. I can pamper you while the others discuss things with King Klark." Kangki says, pulling Astri to him.

"No way, my dude. My turn next." Dieg says, pulling Astri.

"You, go warm water. You, go make medicine. You, children." Kangki says, pointing at Dieg, then Zin, and then Skalven.

"Very smart. And you are the only one capable of staying with her." Zin sarcastically assumes.

"I mean.." Kangki shrugs his shoulders.

Astri rolls her eyes and just walks away, concentrating on not throwing up. It’s better than saying anything, and they feel she’s picking up a side and starts fighting from nowhere. At least it’s a normal fight between her spouses.

"Don’t be mad." Kangki says to her, following her.

"I will if you all don’t understand each other. Come to me only when you’re decided. I want peace, and not quarreling. If you can’t find an agreement, just send the children to take care of me."

Kangki bites his tongue and stops walking, knowing that now he needs to find an agreement with the other spouses. When he looks at the others, they smile, and Kangki also smiles in response.

Their thought is the same: It is better to fight for staying with her than fighting each other for not finding her.

Kangki holds her hand, asking her to wait.

"I stay with her until lunch. You decide who stays with her next. Is that good?" Kangki asks Astri’s other spouses.

"Yes. Fair enough." They shrug their shoulders, nodding, but with a smile.

Kangki looks at Astri, and she’s impressed they fixed things that fast. She chuckles and keeps on walking, holding on Kangki’s arm.

"I’m proud of you. You changed a lot, and for the best." She says to him.

He smiles, happy with what he heard.

"They are my family, too."

"Aww.. If I weren’t so nauseous, I would do something else, if you know what I mean. But I fear putting it inside my mouth and throwing up."

He lost his voice and looked at her with his imagination going wild. Her smile made him very excited, but unfortunately, she couldn’t do anything for him because she had to run to throw up right after they got to their bedroom.