The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 570: Isn’t it normal for parents to wish their child stay as their child?

Chapter 570: Isn’t it normal for parents to wish their child stay as their child?

"P-p-papa..."

While we had done crying in the bedroom, Jade was still sobbing when Lesta brought him up. His chest heaved up and down pitifully, but he paused and hiccuped when he saw me--as well as the bundle in my arms.

"Come, baby," I waved my hand as Lesta put him down. "See your little brother."

The green eyes widened as Jade wobbled to the bed. Gripping the sheet with his small hands, the little boy climbed up with Natha’s head, carefully peeking at the small bundle. With a small voice, he called out.

"Shwa?"

As if listening, the baby wriggled slightly inside the blanket, moving his cute little head. Arta and Mara had cleaned him up--even though he wasn’t covered in anything but a bit of pollen--and wrapped him in a soft baby blanket instead of the one Natha used, which was taken from the bed inside the garden.

Perhaps because of that, the baby looked more comfortable and yawned adorably. Natha said Shwa had cried when he ’bloomed’, and some with sharp ears in the Castle had heard it; but the baby was calm and did not even whine ever since. Such a good kid.

Jade gasped at every movement and looked at me with sparkling eyes. "Can Jade touch?"

"Be careful," Natha said while taking Jade’s hand, leading it gently to the pink cheek. "Softly, like you’re holding a crystal glass."

Jade, who had once dropped a crystal glass and received scolding from us, pressed his lips and nodded seriously. His small fingers gently poked the baby’s chubby cheek and held an even smaller fist with another hand in fascination.

"Wow..."

Wow, indeed. All of the jumbled feelings in my heart could be summed into that one simple word. Just wow. The things I never thought would come true; the miracle that felt like a dream. Everything was safely stored inside the blanket in my arms. I kept staring at his face and refused to let him go except for the time Arta and Mara cleaned him.

Rather than possessiveness, however, it was like...I wanted to make sure it was real, that Shwa was really in my arms, that our baby really had come out into this world. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a dream or hallucination, and what better way to make sure of it than feeling the warmth and weight in my arms and listening to the little heart beating all the time?

"But..." Jade tilted his head, suddenly jutted out his lower lip in disappointment.

"What’s wrong?"

As we all looked at Jade in confusion, the little boy pursed his lips. "Baby don’t look like Jade or Papa."

I pressed my lips and held my laughter because I didn’t want to shake the baby, but...looking down, I stroked the pink cheeks that shuddered adorably at my touch. Except for the faint blue markings that were definitely Natha’s, the baby had my skin and hair. Also...

The baby’s long eyelashes fluttered, perhaps because of the sound of giggling, and the green eyes blinking in a daze. "Look, he has green eyes like us," I said, which made Jade brighten up.

"But Jade is right," D’Ara chuckled. "Your baby looked like baby Natha."

I perked up and blinked my widened eyes. "Really?"

Not to disappoint Jade, but I really wanted our child to look more like Natha. Not that I was disappointed about him not having blue skin, but...I guessed I just wanted him to have both of our features.

"I’m sure," she tapped her chin in contemplation. "You should ask Nezja about it; she probably still keeps some portraits."

"Oh!"

"Huh...I don’t even have my own child portraits," Natha chuckled and joined me in stroking our baby’s cheeks.

Excitedly, I turned to the side. "Arta!"

"I’ll inform the Lord of Lust of this good news," she smiled widely and skipped out of the room with Lesta.

Right--we also needed to inform Zia about this, and Zarfa too! Amarein appeared in the corner of my vision and--oh, wouldn’t I need to inform the druid too?

I turned to look at Natha, but he stroked the back of my head gently. "Patience," he said. "I’ll arrange to inform who needs to know, but there’s no need to crowd the baby with a lot of people at once."

Oh, that was true. I nodded bashfully, embarrassed for my own hastiness. There were still a lot of things we needed to do regarding Shwa, including setting up security measures and bringing in the nannies. It would be better to only let other people meet Shwa once everything was settled a bit more.

"Papa, this look like Natha too," Jade ran his finger through the baby’s arm; at the blue markings that looked just like the patterns on Natha’s skin.

"Ah, right!" I looked at Natha in confusion. The euphoria made me look away from the problem, but since Jade brought it up, might as well ask about it. "I wanted to ask about this; this couldn’t be alpha seed, right? I mean...Shwa is not a pure-blood."

Surprisingly, D’Ara replied with a nonchalant tone. "Why not?"

"Huh?"

She tilted her head and smirked. "In the first place, this ’seed’ comes from An’Hyang, and where did his power come from?"

"The...Primordial God?"

She snapped her fingers and winked. Sitting on the bed beside Jade, she stroked the baby’s hair. "Rather than as a qualification, however, this is just a seal of his power."

"Oh?" I looked at Natha and we both raised our brows.

"The reason why no mortal can contain the soul and vessel inside their body is because of the enormous power it carries," the vampire explained. "To bring that enormous power into a mortal vessel, it had to be in a sealed state."

The power...of Primordial God? I frowned unconsciously. I was under the impression that my child would be born as a regular child. As a mortal. As our child that carried our genes. A child that would play around and learn about this world normally. A child that would study and work hard to get his power in the future.

D’Ara chuckled at my expression and patted my head instead. "Well, it’s not something that could be helped. Compared to the Primordial One’s original power, it wouldn’t even feel like anything," she said. "That being said, whether or not that power will awaken or kept being sealed for eternity will be up to this child."

"Umm...what about...memories?"

"Most of it is gone, but what remains is also sealed somewhere."

My frown went deeper. Not that I wouldn’t stop treating him as my child if he got his original memory, but...what was the point of regressing into a mortal vessel if the memory stayed? Wasn’t it ’memories’ that were burdening the Primordial One in the first place?

D’Ara smiled and gently laid her hand over the baby’s midriff. "The seal is in his soul, and it will be even harder to unlock than the power," she explained more. "I don’t think it will get unlocked unless something shocking happens and it is needed."

"I see..."

"Well, let’s not think about that now," Natha rubbed my shoulder and kissed my temple softly. "Not today--today should be the day of nothing but happiness."

Ah...I looked up and smiled against his jaw. "You’re right."

"Oh!"

I flinched and looked down as Jade, who was still stroking the baby in fascination all this time, suddenly exclaimed. "What’s wrong, Jade?"

Jade rubbed the baby’s head and blinked with wide eyes. "Papa, there’s something here!"

"Huh?"

The little boy moved his hand all over the baby’s head and stopped on the other side. "Oh, here too!"

Curiously, I rubbed the place that Jade touched, a little bit above the baby’s temples and hidden near the hairline. There, easily missed, were two little pointy ’bumps’. I blinked and turned to look at Natha, before coming back to the baby’s ’bumps’.

"This is...horns?"

My baby had horns? Like Natha?

"Oh, my..."

I giggled and held the baby a little bit tighter. Oh, I can’t wait to see what he would look like once he grew up!

* * *

There was only one phrase that could be used to describe the atmosphere around the Castle after all the flowers in the whole realm suddenly bloomed.

Happiness.

The tension that had enveloped them since the last week of the second month had completely shifted, as if spring had come early. But indeed; looking at all those flowers in the garden made them feel like basking in the spring breeze--even if the breeze was colder than usual.

But who cared about the cold breeze when everyone was showered with happiness? The Lord was definitely happy when he gave away bonuses to all of the Castle staff, distributed gifts to the citizens, and donated a lot of funds to the orphanages and shelters.

So, was there any reason for the Castle and the citizens not to feel happy?

There was no official announcement yet from the Lord’s Castle, but rumors had already spread about the anticipated new addition to the Lord’s family. The bards connected the rumors with the sudden mass bloom all over the realm, and made legends out of it. Poems and songs about the early spring filled the taverns and plazas, as the housewives spun romance stories worthy of plays.

Amidst all kinds of happy and fun speculations, several guests arrived at the Castle, both through the front gates and the back gates.