Journey to Somewhere New (Sun Wukong x reader)

Chap. 8 - Protecting those we care for

"I-I'm sorry but..." she stuttered in her confusion. "There must be a misunderstanding, this is my first time here in this city."
"Oh, of course." the lord shook his head. "You were just a few days old when you were kidnapped-"
"Kidnapped?!"
"Well, not exactly. Why don't you and your..." he trailed off when he finally noticed Monkey. "friend, join us for lunch? I have a lot to tell you."

(Y/n) and Monkey sat beside the lord as the other people at the table quickly made space for them. The servants placed their plates in front of them and offered them a dish made of chicken.
"No thank you." she raised a hand and shook her head. "We're vegetarian."
"Do you have some peach soup?" Monkey asked.
"Why of course, we'd never run out of our family recipe."
"Then bring me your entire stock at once!" he hit the table with a large smile.
As soon as the dozen of pots were within his reach, he grabbed one and started sipping as if his stomach was bottomless. (Y/n) however was not in the mood for eating.

"Dear (Y/n), what happened to your beautiful cyan eyes?" the lord asked. "What did they do to you out there?"
She didn't respond and just looked at him.
"Well it doesn't matter. What matters is that you are here and you are okay."
"...Are you my biological father?"
He laughed.
"I am your uncle."
She blinked twice, just as surprise with this turn of event than she would be with any other. She opened her mouth but no words came out. The lord continued as he and everyone else ate.
"For you see (Y/n), long before you were born, your father, my dear older brother, was best friend with a commoner. But this commoner was special," he paused. "he was the previous reincarnation of Golden Cicada."
Monkey raised his eyebrows, but didn't react further and kept enjoying his third pot of soup with delight.
"And because he was the chosen one, we let him get access to a life of luxury and protection from the demons that would try and capture him. But despite everything my family's done for him, he wished to avoid his responsibilities and left the city, to look for a way to pass on his powers to someone else. He left for a few days, during which your mother gave birth to you." he smiled at her. "I was only able to see you once, but you were *adorable*!" his smile became fainter. "But, that scum, he passed his powers onto you. And-" he covered his mouth with his sleeve as he closed his eyes and turned away.
Some family members looked at him with the same pained expression. (Y/n) patiently waited while Monkey was unfazed by what was happening and reached for his seventh pot of soup. Finally, the lord looked back at her.
"As it turned out, we had some under-covered traitors within our servants. Only a day following your birth, demons attacked your parents' house. Thankfully you were saved just in time but..." he sighed. "Once you were escorted outside, we had no choice but to burn down the house to kill the demons, with your parents' bodies inside."

She let out a sigh, feeling empathy for the lord and his family. Some of them stopped eating and quietly comforted each-other.
"I'm so sorry." she looked down.
"They were very beloved by the people." he nodded. "And having you alive was truly a blessing. Sadly, it didn't last very long." his eyebrows twitched into a frown. "As soon as this coward came back, he left again and just because he was your god-father he took you with him. I of course did everything I could to try to find you, to find this vermin and punish him. I sent my men to the four cardinal points, but I couldn't find neither of you. Although I did caught wind of the fact that he became a monk in a little village in the middle of nowhere."
(Y/n) felt her heart sink like a stone in the water, her expression fell and she became unaware of the world around her.
"He was...? He knew...?" she inaudibly whispered. "All along...?"

"Tell me (Y/n), where were you all those years? How did you managed to escape him? I must know what happened to him."
"He's dead."
The room became silent, everyone except Monkey fixed her as she stared at nothing in particular. Then, a collective sigh of relief snapped her back to reality and she saw that now everyone was smiling and eating at their heart's content. The now more cheery mood contradicting her feelings made her feel uneasy.
"Well thank the gods above!" the lord raised his hands with a large smile. "The world is now rid of that wretch!"
"What." her fists clenched.
"It's been twenty years has it not? How I feel sorry for you to have to deal with such a horrible man for such a long time." he reached and lightly tapped her shoulder. "It is curious how he decided to become a monk, since he's always been so keen on avoiding and rejecting any responsibility. He probably became one of those corrupted ones, I was afraid he'd turn you into one of his kind. Running away like this after killing his best friend, he really is a coward-."
"My father was not a coward!!!" she yelled and smashed her fists on the table, making everyone jump in surprise, even Monkey.
For a long moment, nobody talked nor moved, all eyes were on her.
"(Y/n)..." the lord broke the silence. "He wasn't your father."