NOVEL NEXT Chapter 322: Family Urgency
Today is September 7th, it's been a few months since that mess with Duke Auberon. Pope Lucius has been more reserved around me, which wasted the effort I made to be friends, so I decided to take my time and go more slowly.
I teach classes at the academy and then go to the church to have conversations with the Pope while keeping the subject on what he does with people in secret, I'll only mention the fact that the church is creating monsters at an opportune moment.
It's been a few months since I was able to somehow defend my position, no one questions me much anymore, and then I did other things to ensure my safety against accusations like these.
My birthday will be coming up soon, who would have thought it's been almost two years since I was reborn, so much has happened in those almost two years.
And during these months after resolving the problem that Duke Auberon caused, I even managed to regain the trust of Pope Lucius, so very soon I'll be able to proceed with him.
Life is going smoothly while my plans are progressing, Elena sent me reports that the cow-girl farm is already operational and showing positive results.
We have an initial total of 5,000 cow-girls producing milk more or less in the estimate I made, Shogo really manages to handle this huge amount of girls alone.
In addition to apparently having increased control over her body, Shogo can spend time caring for these girls and another time playing with her two favorite pets.
The girls selected for the farm receive some very good benefits, as do their families, which has made many girls voluntarily want to participate.
Although for now we're keeping the number limited, as we don't know how much is too much for Shogo, so we'll increase it slowly.
Just 5,000 of them are already doing something impressive, so for now it's enough, plus Elena warned me that a large number of humans, elves, and beastmen arrived in my kingdom claiming to be from my religion.
While a girl holding an item with my mana said she was my faithful worshiper, basically Isabel seems to have reached the demonic territory and are now being established in the kingdom.
They received housing, food, and jobs, as well as a church to worship me being built, although there is a relatively large number of humans, which is not so pleasant for some demons.
But there's nothing to be done, even humans worshiping me is useful since I need to increase my worshipers to start obtaining levels as a goddess.
"Pandora, it's urgent!!" Someone just barges into my room, someone I didn't expect to see here in the Veritus mansion.
"...Zephyra?" Zephyra would normally not be sent here, I feel immediate anger with Lilith, I made it clear that Zephyra should never leave the castle without protection, let alone use the teleportation circle to come to the human kingdom.
"Pandora, she's giving birth!!!" Zephyra speaks with urgency, pulling my hand through the corridors.
"Giving birth?" I speak confused.
"Tsukuyomi is in labor!!!" Zephyra speaks with unexpected urgency, I immediately start running, carrying Zephyra in my arms while teleporting the two of us to the castle.
"WHERE IS SHE?!" I yell with urgency, my child is being born, I can't miss this, it's only been about 3 to 4 months since I brought Tsukuyomi with me, I never imagined it would be born already.
"I-In your room, the others are taking care of her and Lilith said I needed to call you" Zephyra speaks as we quickly arrive at my room, I want to teleport inside, but I don't want to break their concentration.
"L-Lilith, how is she?" I ask Lilith and her other 3 heads who are waiting out here, I try to enter, but the 4 of them block my way.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I yell angrily.
"Pandora, she's fine, but you can't go in until the child is born" Lilith speaks with seriousness, ready to fight me.
"What's your problem? It's my child, why the hell can't I go see his birth?" I speak irritated.
"Because you might kill the baby" When she says that, I freeze.
"...?"
"Pandora, we are both monsters, it would not be really unusual for a monster to kill children that don't meet expectations at birth, I know you would be sad if you killed your child by instinct"
"You will only be able to see your child when he is at least 5 minutes old, which ensures that you don't lose control"
"What do you mean, do you think I'm an irrational beast that would kill my own children?" I look at her with murderous intent, she lets Zephyra in, but prevents me.
Zephyra quickly runs inside while I can barely see her closing the door.
"Yes, Pandora your child will probably go through a brief state of change, he is not a child born from your body, but born from the body of a woman you do not love"
"I strongly believe that you might try to kill the baby, if you at least loved Tsukuyomi I would let you in, but you don't even care about her, and nothing prevents you from just killing the baby after seeing him, something you would regret later"
"It's part of my duties to stop you before you make a mistake you'll regret, even if I have to fight you, I'll still prevent you until the baby is fully born" She speaks seriously, the 4 of them also releasing their mana as a warning.
I clench my hand hard enough to draw blood, but decide to just accept it, sitting on the floor with hatred of her being right.
It's not uncommon for me to let instincts take over reason, like the time Zephyra escaped and I was going to do something terrible to her if Lilith hadn't told me to go easy on the punishment.
Besides, she's a more experienced monster than me, she seems to understand these things, and the last thing I want is to kill my child in a moment of uncontrol.
"So if I loved Tsukuyomi, could I go in there and see the birth?" I question.
"Yes, you could, but we both know that's not the case, just look at the way you treat Tsukuyomi and it's obvious you only care for her out of responsibility and not because you like her"
"...Haaa..." I decide to be content just with the sounds, I hear Tsukuyomi's painful moans and the maids talking, Elena, Freya, Calypso, and even Kaelith seem to be there too.
"Damn it..." I'm missing the birth of my first child just because I don't know how to control myself well enough.
"You're quite brave, Lilith, you know this makes you lose some points in the favorability I have for you, right?" I murmur.
"I imagine so, but it's better to have you angry at me than sad for accidentally killing your child, so do you want to talk?" She questions, still alert in case I try to invade.
But she's right, and I know it, if I wanted to, I could just teleport there and that's it, but I won't do that, I'll wait, I think the smell of blood wouldn't help either.
"Do you think it's a girl or a boy?" Lilith asks.
"Probably a girl...Lilith, can I bite you?" I'm hungry, and Tsukuyomi's blood scent is really exciting.
"I knew it, in the end you're only 1 year and a few months old, it's obvious you wouldn't be able to control yourself, go ahead and bite me" Lilith and the others hug me as I bite Lilith's neck.
My teeth sink deeply into her, I'm really nervous, it's my first child and Zephyra seemed so urgent that I even abandoned everything at the mansion just to come and see.
"This is Iris, she's the head that appeared after you cut mine during our fight" Lilith murmurs, explaining who the new girl is.
"...You know, I sincerely hope your next child is with someone you love, so we don't have to stop you again" Nix speaks with a hint of sarcasm as I release the bite from Lilith.
"Me too...I really wanted to see my child being born..." It seems special, even though I'm here to see it, it's still not quite what I expected, I wanted to be inside watching everything.
"Maybe next time" Lilith speaks in a mature tone.
"Next time..." I murmur, a little disappointed, the next time will probably still take a while.
"Do you think my child will like me?" I ask with doubt.
"Probably yes, but Pandora, how's the kingdom? I heard you were quite busy taking care of everything there, you were so busy that you were doing the office work there and then sending it here" She questions.
'...It's true...' I finally got close enough to Pope Lucius and I just need to reveal about the church creating monsters and say that I'll help, I don't have time to stay here taking care of a child.
"I'll...take a temporary vacation leave and spend a few days here with my child...then I'll go back, in the end I still have things to do" I speak with responsibility.
"Then let's prepare your accommodations...by the way, Tsukuyomi is in your room because Zephyra invited her for a conversation, but Tsukuyomi suddenly went into labor" Lilith explains why Tsukuyomi is in my room.
'When I return to the kingdom, everything will be ready to reveal to the Pope that I know what he's doing, if I offer to help with extra knowledge of sacred magic, I'll finally have the loopholes to ask about the unique abilities of each hero'
"...Lilith, would it be strange if I really felt like licking my child?" I look into her eyes, asking.
"Not too much, remember when you were born? I bet you ate the liquid from the egg you were in, it's similar, it's your child so think of it as you having the maternal instinct to clean him"
"Animals do that too...not that I'm calling you an animal, but you know how it is, right? Instincts are hard to deal with, I understand that well"
"...It's just that for others it might be strange, so don't do that, and anyway, when we go in, they've probably already cleaned the baby, so there won't really be any blood for you to taste" Lilith speaks seriously.
"But you can give lots of kisses and no one will think it's strange" Iris, Lilith's new head, says.
"True...but seriously, I wonder what my child looks like, I'm so anxious to see him...what will he eat? Does Tsukuyomi now produce milk? Can he eat meat and blood?" I ask myself several questions I hadn't thought of before.
"..." Lilith avoids looking, not knowing what to say.
"P-Pandora, what will be the name of y-your child?" Kaos asks timidly.
"The name...I think I'll let Tsukuyomi choose this time, although if I don't like it, I'll change it, but we'll see what she chooses"
"And Lilith, from today on, your sleep time will be cut by 25%"
"NOOOOOOO!!" Lilith collapses on me in sadness.
"No one told you to stop me, accept your punishment and if you complain, I'll increase it by 25%, quit being lazy...you did me a great favor by stopping me, but none of us know if I would really kill my child, so it's just annoying"
"Y-You're such a malicious boss" Lilith murmurs as the others just avert their gaze.
I just smile at her, it's a fact that there was a chance of this supposedly happening, but there was also a chance of it not happening, I know it's better not to take risks, that's why I accepted to stay here and not fight.
But it doesn't change the fact that she's making me miss the sight of my child being born, so she deserves to be punished.
"By the way, you're the experienced one...what are the chances of what you said happening?" I question, not really knowing.
"12%" She speaks as I look at her with an immense desire to kill her.
"You prevented me for something that has a 12% chance...Lilith...you really lost your sense of danger" There was only a 12% chance of me trying this nonsense of ending my child, a ridiculously low chance.
She could have let me in and if I showed any signs of that, then she could have stopped me.
"S-Safety first?" She speaks with a nervous smile.
"Get out of here, get out of here before I prevent you from sleeping for the next few years" I say, and she quickly retreats and goes inside, I just stay here in the hallway, since this farce started, at least I'll stay here and wait.
"Tsukuyomi's blood smells good..." It's undeniable that it's a good scent.
'Mother...I'm a mother...' It's still strange, my heart races, I feel excited and nervous, now that my child is being born, I'm officially a mother, it's a feeling I never expected to feel before.