She looked at Ars and commented calmly.
"One more thing, of the boys, only Baby 9 remains, since he is still young, the other ones left the island a while ago, and do you have more information about my little sister Baby 5. "
Ars nodded, he could give the information she wanted fairly easily, so he started straight away.
"I guess we can start with her current identity, she is being trained as an assassin by the Donquixote family, and that family takes care of her, especially since that disorder I spoke about before can easily turn her into an enemy…"
Ars stopped thinking about the best way to describe the problem, then he continued.
"You see, your mother, when she abandoned Baby 5, before leaving, she called her useless, so Baby 5 got this disorder where she needs to feel useful for others, she needs to feel needed and she will do absolutely anything to feel needed, you just need to go to her and say you need her…"
Ars hesitated but then kept going.
"And no matter how horrible or absurd the request is, she will do her best to do it. Even going as far as to kill herself if she was asked like that."
Blinkie was horrified by that info, the fact that her little sister was that broken in her head would never, ever have crossed her mind, she looked at Ars and asked.
"If it's that bad how is she alive and safe?"
Ars explained calmly.
"The Donquixote family… While they are pretty evil in most departments, they actually care for their own members… Well, most of them do… So Baby 5 is almost always accompanied by someone else, to make sure she doesn't do anything absurd."
He stopped talking for a few seconds before commenting.
"Even then some guys still approach her with intentions to ask her to marry them or for money, but they are quickly dispatched by the rest of the family members."
When she heard Ars information on her sister, she felt somewhat relieved, at least her little sister was being cared for, at least some of the members of that family, looked like they cared.
She then looked at Ars with a disapproving look, she finally realized why he was here.
Like he said, if any other of her siblings had similar disorders they would make almost perfect subordinates, as long as the enemy did not know of their weakness.
After she left, for a while she kept herself away from her birth family and any news related to them, she was too young to help her siblings, at that point she was having difficulties surviving herself.
It was only after she had stabilized her life, that she started paying attention again, and by then Baby 4, Baby 5 and Baby 7 were gone already. Blinkie was now 26, around 10 years older than baby 5.
She knew Baby 4 had taken Baby 7 away to be a merchant on a different island, since they were close and got along, she would write letters to them, so she knew they were doing alright.
Until now Baby 5 was the biggest mystery, and now she unveiled it.
She looked at Ars and thought 'Anything is better than that mother…'.
She conceded.
"I will call them, all my remaining siblings on the island, but you can't force them, okay?"
Ars didn't intend to force anyone so he quickly accepted.
After 2 hours of waiting, all the members of that family were here, including the mother, who had come trying to get something from the situation.
When the siblings saw her, most of their eyes burned with hatred with the exception of the two youngest who still hoped she was here to be a mother to them for once.
A hope that quickly vanished from their eyes the moment she tried to negotiate with Ars.
"I heard that you might want to take my children away from me, I could help you convince them… For a price…"
Ars was speechless, for a few seconds he stood there completely shocked to his core by the shameless behavior of this woman.
The youngest, Baby 9 and Baby 10 broke into tears. The others were already preparing to attack her, especially Baby 3. If Blinkie hadn't stopped her she would already be on top of her mother trying to kill her.
Ars looked at Baby 3 shocked by how disfigured her face was. When she arrived, she was wearing a cloak and a mask, only when she got agitated causing her mask to fall, enabling everyone to see her disfigured face.
Ars actually helped Blinkie stop Baby 3, approaching Baby 3 and forcing her to calm down.
While keeping Baby 3 on the ground, Ars forcefully looked at their mother and sarcastically asked.
"Where is your husband? Can't see the lovely gentlemen…"
The sarcasm was lost on the mother, and she actually answered.
"One horrible person killed him, that's why we are so poor and need help from people."
Ars didn't like her, no… to be precise he despised her to the extreme, so when she didn't get the sarcasm, he felt dumb for even trying to be sarcastic… He wanted to beat the crap out of her too.
The only reason he didn't kill her by that point were the 2 children here, that still had some hope until now. Killing her might cause them to refuse to come along with him, and he wanted to recruit them, so anything that lowered his chances of doing so was unacceptable, so he had no choice other than holding back.
But he wasn't the only one that didn't like her, she seemed oblivious to that fact. Everyone here wanted her to disappear.
Ars, doing his best to hold himself back from killing her, asked.
"I didn't come here to buy slaves… So considering you kicked out ALL of your children, how do you intend to convince them?"
With a very rightful face, she answered confusedly.
"I'm still their mother!"
Ars was speechless, and completely shocked by how wrapped her personality was, she didn't even realize that no one here thought of her as mother, maybe the 2 youngest until a few minutes ago, but now, even them didn't accept her as their mother.
There was definitely something wrong with her brain.
Ars was going to respond, but this time he got interrupted by Blinkie, he was surprised, he thought Blinkie was the last person who was going to blow up, she started screaming at her biological mother.
"You're a mother? No… you are a monster, a parasite, a worthless existence, that shouldn't even be breathing anymore, the dirt on the ground is more motherly than you…"
She stooped for a few seconds, trying to find words, before continuing.
"You were never our mother… You were just a monster that happened to pop us out into the world, and since that day, not once did you behave like a mother, not one single day that you were a mother, we were only tools for you, never your children, even now, you think of us as tools, so get the #$%* out of here, you are not welcome and will never be welcome here, LEAVE!"
It wasn't just Ars shocked, everyone there was shocked. Their mother then turned at Ars indignant and commented.
"See this is what I got as a child… A disobedient brat…"
Ars had enough and interrupted her.
"While I might not know your family circumstances, I know that parents are supposed to protect their children… Not being the ones harming them, so i will give you one piece of advice…"
Ars got his good hand into a large pocket.
"GET LOST BEFORE I REUNITE YOU WITH YOUR HUSBAND, BY GIVING YOU A IRON TICKET TO THE HEAD… UNLIKE YOUR CHILDREN THAT MIGHT NEVER HAD THE EXPERIENCE OF KILLING SOMEONE, I DID AND I WILL NOT HESITATE TO KILL YOU THE MOMENT I DECIDE THAT I'M SICK OF YOUR BULLSHIT, AND I'M ALREADY ONE HAIR AWAY FROM BEING COMPLETELY SICK OF IT!"
She was going to talk back, but when she saw Ars taking out a flintlock to shoot her, she broke out running as fast as she could. Ars intended to shoot but Blinkie stopped him.
Once she was gone, things calmed down, Blinkie looked at everyone and apologized to all of her siblings.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been the one screaming at her, but I have quite a few unresolved issues with her…"
Then they looked at Ars expecting some sort of justification, but Ars just stood there with an annoyed face and replied rudely.
"What?! I'm not apologizing, if not for you guys being here and having bigger problems with her than me, I would have insisted on killing her. Even now I'm still considering chasing her and removing her from the gene pool. And Blinkie, some day you're gonna regret not removing that hidden danger from your life."
Most of the adults smiled awkwardly, because they understood his stance, the children were confused but said nothing.
Ars then took a deep breath calming himself and explained his purpose to them.
"Now that… That thing left, let's get back to business…I will be very direct, I want loyal subordinates that will follow my orders perfectly most of the time… And before anything else I will try something…"
Blinkie looked at him full of disapproval, but Ars ignored her looks and continued.
"I need you to take one step closer to me."
Most of them looked confused, was this it, the thing he wanted to try? Baby 6 and Baby 8 did what he requested instantly with a happy expression with no hesitation. While the others were still confused.
They wanted to be needed, the trauma that woman caused was pretty extensive. Ars still didn't know if their disorder was just as bad as Baby 5, but there was a bit of a disorder there.
Blinkie looked sad when they responded. She knew this was the influence of years of physical abuse, and insults by their mother, then she got pissed at Ars.
Ars had actually tried this. She dropped a fist on his head, and while he was rubbing his head on the bump, she commented angrily.
"That was dirty!"
He just smiled awkwardly, he knew she was right, then he explained to the others.
"I was just testing if any of you had a certain disorder. One of your siblings has it, and behold, both of them also have it."
They nodded, but didn't ask which sibling had it. Ars then questioned them.
"Would you prefer to come with me? Or would you prefer to stay?"
Baby 6 and Baby 8 instantly decided to go, so they went to stand besides Ars. He smiled at them appreciatively, Baby 3 wanted to go too, but because of her appearance she did not dare to approach Ars.
Ars noticed that, got in front of her and hugged her, and said.
"You can come, and your appearance can be fixed."
Sometimes a hug was all that was needed, she suddenly started sobbing behind her mask, and violently nodded her head, not even thinking about the second part of the sentence, at least for now.
Then the 2 youngest were undecided, but then Blinkie came to the rescue, she hugged them and said.
"You should go, that woman will definitely try to hurt you if you stay…"
They both got to where Ars was, and with that he got those 5 to come with him. Blinkie then looked at them sadly, she thought she might never see them again.
She looked at Ars and could only hope he would be good to them. Ars noticed and lightly commented.
"While we are not on the same island, if they want they can board the ship and come here sometimes to visit, and when the kingdom is a little bit more developed you also can visit. Or even go live there."
She smiled, hugged Ars and thanked him.
"Thank you, I will wait for them to visit me in the future, or for it to be possible for me to visit them."
Ars and the 6 of them went towards the ship, where Blinkie said goodbyes before they departed towards home.