The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 511: Is my child a greedy one, or a glutton?

Chapter 511: Is my child a greedy one, or a glutton?

[...rry...’m sorry...]

I heard a sorrowful sobbing sound before I opened my eyes, and I heard another sobbing sound when I opened them. Were they coming from the same source? I had no idea; I had no time to discern it, to be exact, because I had to face the stream of tears dripping into my face.

[Papa! Papaaa!]

I didn’t know so much water could come out of such a small bird.

"Ja...de?"

Contrary to my thought, calling out its name made the little bird cry even louder. [Papaaa! Papa is awake! Papa is awake!]

Ah...so I wasn’t just sleeping? Gradually, my memory came back and I recalled seeing Shwa bloom in the garden. I was about to take my journal and then...nothing.

Was I...fainted?

"Sweetheart?" a comparably calmer voice came to my ears--and it was a generous judgment since even a scream could be called calmer than Jade’s wail. "Sweetheart, can you hear me?"

And he was definitely trembling. If not his voice, then his hands on my face. Ugh--seemed like I was still out of it.

I blinked my eyes so I could see better, and I finally saw his face; his pale face and reddened eyes. Oh, gosh--was he crying? I reached out to stroke his cheek and smiled, just so he would stop worrying. "Nat?"

"Oh--" he grasped my hand and pressed it against his forehead. This time, I could see his shoulder shaking.

This, and Jade who was still wailing on my chest...I started to get scared.

Turning my head around, I saw Panne near the door, as well as Mara who was just running out of the door--I heard her calling out someone, maybe the physician? And then--oh!

"Aunty..."

Wordlessly, Aunt Nezja shifted from her chair to the bed so she could hold my hand. But she didn’t say anything, so I had to be the proactive one.

"Umm...how long was I..."

"It’s night," she said. "You’ve been out for seven hours."

Oh, geez--with how they were acting, you would think I had been unconscious for seven days. Seven hours was like...a nap! A long one, I know, but...

"Oh, it’s just that long--"

"Just?!" Natha snapped and I blinked in surprise--more because Jade was flinching and hiccuping on my chest. "Do you even know what kind of condition you are in right now?"

Umm...actually, I didn’t.

Now that he said it--I looked down, and I found that it wasn’t only Jade in my chest, but Ignis was also perched on my stomach. A flow of heat kept circulating between me and the Salamander, keeping my body warm.

Huh...was my temperature drop?

As I looked at Natha cluelessly, he let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes tightly for a few seconds--perhaps pushing down his frustration.

"Your mana level dropped so much," Natha finally explained after regaining his calm, still holding my hand tightly. "You almost lost every mana circulating in your body, including your mana core; only the one inside your heart is remaining--thankfully, because you’re a human too."

Oh, look at that. Good thing I was a human, huh--the thing that kept me alive for a bit more when my mana gate was blocked.

"Is it because of the third bloom...?" I muttered. Hmm...was the crying voice I heard when I was still unconscious...Shwa?

Oh, my sweet child...

"What else could it be?" Natha’s reply came with a bit of a groaning sound; a bit of a snarl and a hiss of frustration. He bit his lips and oh...he looked as messy as when I slept for three days for merging with Valmeier.

So it seemed like the third bloom came with an increase in mana intake. It made sense though, since that meant the baby was growing well.

Hmm...alright, let’s see it from his perspective. He must have worried because of my condition, but he couldn’t get angry because the one making me like this was our child. Well, if that crying sound wasn’t just my hallucination, then that child was also feeling very guilty. Even if Shwa couldn’t feel guilty because...well, Shwa was just a fetus, I would never get angry at that child.

Still, for the bystander...

Yeah, it must be frustrating for you, huh?

[Jade...Jade will give all of Jade’s mana!] The little bird cried again, and I had to calm two people now.

"Thank you, Jade," I patted the bird that got drenched in its own tears. "But you can’t do that, or you’ll perish too."

After all, unlike me, Jade was purely made of mana.

The little bird gasped and sobbed again; quieter than before, but somehow sounded more sorrowful. Ah...what should I do with this one...

Thankfully, the bedroom door opened again and Mara came with another servant, bringing a trolley full of...not my dinner, but elemental mana stones. Or could I say that my dinner was these elemental mana stones? Each was high in purity and big--enough to power a carriage.

Natha hurriedly took some and pushed them into my hand--hands. "Come, sweetheart. Have this while they’re cooking your meal."

Right--it was an appetizer.

I wanted to laugh but I held back looking at all of their worried faces. Huff--it was good that I wasn’t out for days like before, or else their reaction would be even worse. For now, let’s just get up so I can eat proper--

Ugh?

I propped my hands against the mattress to push my upper body up, but...I couldn’t move? I gritted my teeth and tried again. I managed to raise my body a little bit before my hands lost all strength and I slumped back to the mattress.

"Sweetheart!" Natha held my head, and I blinked in shock.

What?

"Be careful, don’t get up now," Natha lowered my head to the pillow again, but all I could do was part my lips dumbfoundedly.

Only then did I feel how heavy my body was, reminded me of that time I was feeling lethargic at the start. Uhh...damn it--all I thought about at that moment was that Natha would ban me from seeing Shwa again.

Immediately, I gripped the elemental stones in my hands and absorbed them as much as I could. This couldn’t be--I couldn’t let myself be this weak! I couldn’t be apart from Shwa again! The child was feeling so guilty! What would Shwa think if I didn’t visit the garden? My child might think I hate--

No...no--I couldn’t let it happen.

"M-more--" I threw the empty elemental stones and held up my hands, which Natha filled without hesitation.

But, damn it! Why was this so slow? So miniscule? I closed my eyes to peek into my mana core as I kept absorbing the elemental mana inside the stones, but it was like...like filling a bathtub with a pipette, drip by little drip.

It was...frustrating!

"M-more!"

"I...I shall go to the warehouse, my Lord," Mara bowed deep before retreating, and I realized that I had emptied all of the stones. The empty, dull-colored stones littered the blanket like aquarium decorations.

Panne immediately cleaned them up and in dread, I realized that only one-tenth of my mana core was filled--and that was with the help of Jade’s mana sustaining me while I was asleep.

Oh, no...oh, Mother...

"I’m sorry, sweetheart...more will come, okay?" Natha stroked my cheek; his voice was as shaken as my heart. "Your dinner will be here, I promise they will give you more mana."

I looked down at my trembling hands, and then bit my lips as my eyes started to sting. No--I shouldn’t! I shouldn’t show him that I was weak! No!

I tried to get up again, and this time--with a bit of help from Natha--I could sit on the bed, leaning against the stack of pillows Aunt Nezja put behind me.

"You don’t have to get up, Valen," she said. "You should rest more--"

"No!" I snapped--perhaps too hard. But I was getting panicked then. "I’m...I’m fine! I’ll be all right after I absorbed more mana, I promised!"

I turned toward Natha and seeing his furrowed brow, my damn broke. "I’m...I’m f-fine..." My eyes blurred, and I realized I was crying again. "Please...please don’t say I have to stay away again...please?"

"Oh, sweetheart..." Natha held me and I hugged him tight, still begging incoherently. I had no idea if it was because he just wanted to pacify me or if he really meant it, but promised me in the end. "Alright, alright--I won’t. I’ll let you visit the garden as long as you’re healthy again, okay? So please be well first, yeah?" he cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead, voice hoarse as if he was holding back his tears. "Be well, for you and Shwa, okay?"

"..’k--’kay..." I nodded, hiccuping, drinking some herbal tea to calm myself and then had my dinner. It wasn’t very tasty, because it used all of those healthy ingredients rich in mana--so it kind of smelled like medicine and retained a bitter aftertaste.

But I didn’t care--I shoved everything down my throat and absorbed the mana. Once I finished my late dinner, Mara came back with more elemental mana stones, and I quickly absorbed them all, devouring another trolley.

Still, at the end of it, my mana only doubled--a bit less than a quarter. I had to bite my lips to prevent myself from crying again.

"Don’t be hasty," Aunt Nezja caressed my hair. "You can absorb more tomorrow, from the outside too. You’ll gain more gradually, yeah?"

Yeah--yeah, I would, right? I nodded, and perhaps feeling exhausted from absorbing mana and crying, I fell asleep.

Too bad--because even the next day, my mana did not seem to climb.