The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 271: Childbirth story is always gruesome no matter where

Chapter 271: Childbirth story is always gruesome no matter where

[Master! Good morning!]

"Good morning, Jade..."

I replied sleepily at the joyful chirping greeting me first thing in the morning. I had trouble sleeping last night because I kept thinking about Shwa, and only managed to sleep near dawn after Natha constantly patting me.

I shifted beneath the blanket and turned around to stroke the little bird who landed on the bed. Natha was nowhere to be seen, but I could sense him downstairs--probably making my drink. "Did you have a good sleep?"

Jade nuzzled against my palm while chirping energetically. [Yes! Wyvern wings so warm!]

"Oh, you slept with Vrida last night?"

The green head nodded casually. [Because wyvern sleep alone]

Aww...did my little bird feel bad for our new friend? What a good bird! I laughed and watched Jade slip beneath my blanket for a cuddle. [But Jade miss Master]

Oh, baby...

I hugged the little bird and we spent some time just cuddling, until Jade nudged the black pendant and tilted its head in surprise. [Little flower not here?]

It was funny to hear Jade calling the seed ’little’ when it was several times bigger than the little bird. "Shwa is with D’Ara," I explained.

[Vampire Mother?]

"Yes," I laughed and patted the little bird. "Should we visit Shwa together after this? Do you want to see your little sibling?"

[Yes!!]

"You sound cheery," Natha came just then, as I had expected, with two steaming cups in his hands.

Smelling the fragrant scent of my morning drink roused me immediately. I took the drink and immediately sipped it, savoring the bliss as it was rare for Natha to make my drink himself. I don’t know what, but there was just something different when it was Natha who made it.

"Good, you seem to feel better," he kissed my forehead and I grinned in embarrassment.

"Sorry..." I scratched Jade’s colorful plume on my lap, recalling my little outburst last night. "Well, I feel better now since I can meet Shwa in a bit."

[Why is Little Flower with vampire mother?]

"Hmm..." I leaned back and drank the herbal drink again while thinking of a simple answer. "We’re trying to find out how to make Shwa bloom,"

Jade made a gasping chirp and flew to my shoulder so it could touch my cheek. [Bloom? Little flower born?]

"Yeah, but we don’t know yet."

The little bird sat on my shoulder, and I could feel its disappointment. Only for a while, though. [Jade will wait! Patiently!]

"Oh, look at this brat growing up," Natha smirked and patted Jade’s green head. Funnily enough, the little bird made a distorted expression, torn between annoyance of being called ’brat’ and pride of the words ’growing up’, before deciding to turn its face away from Natha in defiance.

Well, at least Jade no longer openly acted hostile to him. Maybe because the little bird now had more friends, so even if Natha took most of my time and attention, Jade didn’t feel as lonely as before.

Hmm...it was indeed hard to divide your time and attention equally.

But at least, Jade seemed to like Shwa so far, so I hoped the little bird would be a good friend for my future child.

The future child that wasn’t even created yet, sitting on top of the Vampire Progenitor desk as her red eyes keenly observed the pattern on the dark surface. That pattern often glimmered and pulsed, especially when we fed the seed with our mana and talked to it.

Like now.

"Good morning, Shwa," I stroked the seed, and it gave out a soft buzz as if greeting me back warmly.

"Interesting," D’Ara chuckled as she leaned back on her chair, arms crossed and eyes staring at me in intrigue. "It doesn’t react at all even though I touched and talked to it before."

That...actually made me a bit happy, knowing that Shwa only reacted to me. I pressed my lips so they wouldn’t stretch out, and the vampire laughed before shifting her gaze toward Natha. "What about you? Does it react to you too?"

"Not when I did it alone," Natha said with a subtle smile. Well, it wasn’t because he didn’t care; I just had been monopolizing Shwa all the time. "But it does react when we feed it mana together."

I nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, and Shwa gave no reaction if it’s only one of our mana. It has to be ours together."

"I see..." she nodded, and once again looked at the seed.

Jade was stroking the patterned exterior too, but the seed didn’t make any reaction this time, prompting the little bird to slump in disappointment. I patted the green head while asking D’Ara carefully.

"So...umm, do you know how we could..." I paused, trying to find the right phrase. Hatch? Born? Bloom? Ugh...

"Honestly, I don’t know yet," she still replied to my incomplete inquiry, tapping on her armrest with narrowed eyes.

Ah...there was a disappointment growing in my mind, and I was almost sighing before she added. "But I have some idea."

Oh? It wasn’t just me this time. Natha too, straightened his back and perked up. He might not show it much, but I guessed he was also excited about the prospect of our child beyond the matter of duty.

"First, I’m going to explain more about the seed," she spoke, and before we knew it, Natha and I were already sitting on the chair in front of the desk like good students. She pulled the seed closer toward her so she could stroke it, like a teacher with a prop. "This seed, or rather, flower bud, is a vessel."

We nodded. That much we knew, of course.

"But it’s not just a vessel; it’s a link."

"A link?"

She patted the seed while continuing. "This is born from the last remnant of the Primordial One. But it’s nothing more than The One’s power, while the consciousness that makes up the soul drifted in the beyond."

Ah! The empty, dark space with countless specks of light! I hadn’t thought about it before, but it seemed like those specks of light were actually souls.

D’Ara smiled when she saw my reaction. "It seems like the sweetling already visited the place," she said.

Well, rather than visited, it was more like I recalled the time when I was just a wandering soul waiting for my other body to be available.

"But you see, a soul needs a tangible body to descend, and this vessel simply does not cut it," she tapped on the hard surface of the seed. "It’s just a husk, like an eggshell. It doesn’t have a physical manifestation inside other than a mana core."

"Huh? Then what about all the reaction and the voice I hear--"

"You hear a voice?" she raised her brow.

"Y...yeah?"

The red eyes shifted toward Natha again, but this time, there was no need for a question. "No, I don’t hear anything," Natha shook his head, and I felt like he was a bit upset about it.

It was cute, but I shouldn’t laugh about it.

"Then it’s just as I thought," she looked at me this time. "Didn’t An’Hyang tell you already?"

I blinked and thought back to my conversation with the Demon God. "You mean...that the soul is directly linked with mine?"

She smiled as an answer. "It explains why it’s only reacting to you," she said. "A stable connection between the soul and the vessel’s core could only be established if you make contact with the seed, sweetling."

"Ho..." Natha nodded, now sounding less upset after knowing his future child wasn’t ignoring him on purpose.

"So...what should we do now?"

"Obviously, for a soul to descend, it needs a body," she said. "And that’s the tricky part."

...ah, I couldn’t help but bite my lips in regret. I clutched Natha’s sleeve and muttered quietly. "I’m sorry..."

"What? Why are you apologizing, sweetheart?" Natha grabbed my hand and frowned as he looked at me in confusion.

"Because...if I’m someone who can give birth..."

"No, sweetheart, that’s--"

If I had a reproductive organ, if I could give birth...then we probably wouldn’t be this troubled, right? I mean...I knew dryads could reproduce without having a womb or even reproductive organ, but...it was quite different, wasn’t it? Dryad’s offspring were also spirits, so they didn’t necessarily require the same physical structure as the three races. My great-grandmother might be half-dryad, but I heard she was a special case, and was born out of an accident which we weren’t privy to.

"Oh, no--you’re misunderstanding it, sweetling," D’Ara said while shaking her head, leaning forward and giving me a sweet smile. "It has nothing to do with whether or not you can give birth."

"...huh? Really?" I blinked in surprise, half-relieved, but also confused. "I thought it took this shape because there was no way for me to give birth to it normally?"

"No," she shook her head, before continuing with a smile. "Even if you’re a woman with a womb, you wouldn’t be able to give birth to it," she said. At first, I thought she was just saying it to console me, but in the next second, she said something quite eerie.

"Because if a mortal tries to put the vessel of Primordial One inside their body," she smiled deeply as she looked at me, "they will die."

...oh.