◈ 476. [Auto Play]
A few days ago.
Southern Continental Crossroad Shrine.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Lily’s screams echoed through the temple.
Lily, who had been lying on the bed gritting her teeth and holding back the pain, let out another scream.
“It hurts so badly!”
To relieve Lily’s pain, Zenith, the head priest who was injecting divine power into Lily’s stomach, said a word.
“Oh how many times! Swearing is bad for prenatal education!”
“You seem to care about prenatal education right now?! I’m going to die!”
Lily’s delivery was near.
Lily’s private room was already in chaos. Midwives and priests busily came in and out alternately, making a fuss and wiping off amniotic fluid and blood.
And that wasn’t all.
“Lily! cheer up!”
“We are here! Let’s go! Fighting!”
“Breathe! You inhale! after! after! under!”
Outside the hospital room, acquaintances gathered like clouds.
Sorcerers, alchemists, elves, and all sorts of other acquaintances… … All the people Lily had been friends with since she came down here on the southern front line were waiting to cheer her on for her birth.
“We will sponsor the child from our alchemy association!”
“What! Our mercenary guild, the Wizard League, made a wish first!”
“A child is an object. Do you want to keep it? And he’s half an elf! Our Elf Autonomous District has already collected the donations-”
“Uh-huh! Get in line, get in line! Our Cross Road Female Hero and Mercenary Rights Committee, for short, has already finished raising money!”
“Why is the name of the ACRC the way it is… ?”
It started with a fight to occupy the first place on the list of supporters who do not know when it was created, and
“Did you think of the child’s name?”
“By the way, should I be named human or elf?”
“If you build it in human style, is it imperial style? Or is it Lily’s hometown meal?”
“My name when I was a boy and my name when I was a girl are different… .”
“I heard that mixed races sometimes have neutrals too?”
“Then how many cases are there?”
Even the question of what to name the child.
After arguing with each other, they even grabbed each other by the neck, and eventually pushed their heads into the hospital room and asked if they thought they needed a referee.
“Have you thought about what to do, Lily?!”
Touched by the warm hearts of everyone who thought of her and her child, Lily answered with tears in her eyes.
“Get out of here, you kids!”
In the end, Zenith, the priest who was worse off, came out of the hospital room and dispersed the crowd.
“Come on, everyone knows how I feel, but the mother is having a hard time, so please do this and go.”
“But I want to see the baby’s face… .”
“I have to remember my aunts and uncles. There is such a thing as the imprinting effect, right?”
“You have to look good from now on so he won’t follow us well later!”
In front of those who were full of dark hearts (?), Janice let out a sigh.
“Lily-sama can’t use her legs, which is a challenge, and the baby is difficult to deliver because I’m afraid someone might be of mixed blood… If the situation is bad, it will take a few more days.”
The amniotic fluid broke much earlier than expected, and it had already been several hours since Lily, who had been transported to the temple, suffered full-fledged labor pains.
However, the child has yet to show any signs of being born.
Janice, who had helped deliver mixed-race children a few times, realized it intuitively.
This delivery will be a very long and hard battle.
Even if we had to gather here like this from an early age, by the time the child was born, everyone would be having a hard time, so it was obvious that we would not be able to celebrate properly.
“I will notify you as soon as the baby is born, so please come and congratulate me then… now! Please go back quickly.”
In the end, at Janice’s euphemistic request, Lily’s acquaintances scattered in groups of threes and threes, begging them to call her when the baby was born.
All that was left was a burnout and a body bag.
These two elves had been taking care of Lily, who was sick. That’s why I couldn’t leave my seat because I was more worried.
“Priestess, Lily-nim, isn’t in danger, right?”
Instead of the speechless Burnout, Bodybag stepped forward and asked.
“I’m worried because you’ve been working hard these past few months… .”
“How many priests are there? Don’t worry. It just makes you suffer a little.”
Janice tried to take out a cigarette out of habit, but when she realized that she was taking care of a pregnant woman, she hurriedly put it back in her arms.
“Originally, children who were fed by their mothers when they were born grew up strong and well. He too will grow up very jingly, strong and well.”
“Is there anything we can do to help… ?”
The two elves earnestly asked. Janice chuckled.
“Then pray for me!”
“Ah, that’s why we don’t believe in the Goddess Church… .”
Zenith winked at the two embarrassed elves.
“Then even to the god of the elves! Because the world tree or whatever is fine! You also need the grace of that god right now, right?”
Janice nodded and entered the hospital room.
Burnout and Bodybag looked at each other and put their hands together in front of their chests at the same time as if they had promised.
If humans are looked after by a human god and elves by an elven god. Who will take care of the mixed blood born between them?
It was a question to think about after wishing to both sides.
***
Crossroads.
above the southern wall.
Whoo-!
Two knights were standing on top of the castle wall where the dry winter wind blew.
It was Lucas and Evangeline who checked the repair status of the castle walls with serious faces and tested the status of various weapons and defense weapons.
“Uncle Lucas.”
Evangeline, who swept the artifact with her hand, spat out. Lucas, who was aligning the cannon’s aiming line, asked again without looking back.
“Tell me.”
“If Lily has a baby.”
Evangeline muttered with a serious expression between her brows.
“It must be cute.”
“… .”
What did you say?
Lucas turned around in disbelief and fired at him.
“Don’t say things for granted. That must be very cute.”
“That cute baby will be born soon, so have you decided on a present?”
“… .”
Lucas, who was silent, looked at the next cannon with embarrassment.
“… yet.”
“Because I’m indifferent anyway. So, can you say that you are acting commander? If you don’t know, you have to take care of these things when you become a frontline commander.”
“noisy. To begin with, I’m only good at wielding a sword, but I’m weak at things like that… … .”
Wouldn’t it be okay to present a mobile, diaper, or such parenting items? Or just congratulations… … .
Thinking about the items made me dizzy. Lucas groaned and looked at Evangeline.
“Are you ready?”
“sure? Who am I? Aren’t you the chairman of the Great Yuyeongyong Committee and the next lord of Crossroads?”
indeed. Come to think of it.
The little girl in front of me—who was too tall to be called—the girl knight was the heir to the Cross family. Realizing it again, Lucas groaned.
Evangeline shrugged.
“I have one more year left before I get my lordship rights back in this city. One year. Of course I take care of the welfare of the people belonging to my territory! It’s something I have to do in the future.”
Right after that, Evangeline arrogantly laughed.
“You’re inheriting the Margrave Count in one year? Then you won’t be able to talk to me like you are now, right?”
“… I guess I’ll have to ask my lord to give me an earldom too. I’ll put a half word on you.”
“Oh, where is that! kill me! It’s a foul, it’s a foul! I also want to receive some respect from you!”
Lucas shook his head in front of Evangeline, who was whining.
“… So what did you prepare?”
“Oh, I’m speechless. Voila! This one!”
As if Evangeline had been waiting, what she took out from the space between the armor… … It was a paper box in which clothes were wrapped.
It was a fancy children’s dress decorated with all sorts of frills and lace. Evangeline laughed.
“A dress to wear at the first birthday party! I bought it in advance with my own money!”
Here again, it was Evangeline who revealed her love for frills and lace. Lucas, who had clicked his tongue inwardly, was puzzled.
“rock… party? What is it?”
“Eh? Don’t you know the first birthday party? The first year after a child is born is called the first birthday. It’s always a celebration in this town.”
“Aha, indeed.”
Although it was a custom he had never heard of, Lucas, who was from the zodiac, understood right away that it was a place to celebrate the first birthday of a child.
“Is there any special reason for celebrating your first birthday?”
“of course. Crossroads here is the southernmost fortress city in the world.”
Evangeline, who packed a clothes box in the space between the armor again, looked at the southern field.
“Basically, people die here. It is a place where people flocking to maintain the front line build a wall of death to stop the monster.”
“… .”
“Crossroads has grown in size enough to be called a ‘city’ now, but it was a smaller village decades ago. How many children are born in a place like this? And what is the probability that the child will survive the first year?”
Lucas closed his mouth and looked at Evangeline.
Evangeline continued to explain with a much more mature face than when she first saw her.
“It is something to celebrate both the birth of a new life and the survival of a new life in this place where monsters and people are entangled and dying.”
“… .”
“So me too… As the next lord and heir to the Margrave, I must bless all the lives that will be born in this city.”
until one year from now.
Until the day Ash takes office and fills up three years.
I will protect this city and the new born child. Evangeline was declaring.
Hearing the promise of this young and fresh prospective lord, Lucas laughed and tackled.
“But why the dress? What if it’s a boy?”
“This uncle is too. Kids these days don’t make that distinction! Even if it’s a boy, would he wear it well if I gave him this? It will be so cute!”
“Don’t project your desires onto other people’s children… .”
The two people who had been bickering had just finished inspecting the southern wall.
“Hey heck! Sir Lucas! Sir Evangeline! It’s a big deal!”
A knight dressed in armor came running in a hurry. The two knights looked back puzzled.
He was one of the heroes belonging to Lucas’ knight party. The knight who came running sweating profusely reported, panting.
“That’s the three parties that went on an autonomous exploration of the Lake Kingdom dungeon… … !”
“Three parties? How did it go?”
“I and other party members entered the dungeon to confirm that they did not return even after the expected return time… … .”
At the next words, Lucas and Evangeline’s faces hardened in embarrassment.
“I found that annihilated!”
“what… ?!”
“annihilation… What?”
The knight took the lead, leading the bewildered Lucas and Evangeline.
“Please check for yourself! This way!”
***
Lake Kingdom. inside the dungeon.
Entering the dungeon covered in darkness through the teleport gate, Lucas pulled out the [sword given to him].
A blade of light was created and pushed the black darkness in all directions.
Similarly, Evangeline also put forward her own sabers imbued with fire spirits.
The light from the weapons of the two knights dispelled the surrounding darkness like a wave.
It wasn’t too far from the safe point where the teleport gate was.
“This… !”
Lucas’ face hardened in embarrassment.
It was there.
At the entrance to the narrow alley leading to the safe base.
Fifteen mercenaries who went on an autonomous exploration. Just as everyone was running away miserably-
“… hardened?”
had been petrified.
Someone collapses, someone runs, and someone else kneels and prays.
hardened like a stone
“Everyone turned to stone alive… ?”
Seeing this for the first time, Evangeline muttered in a trembling voice.
“What is this… who did this… … .”
“… .”
Lucas didn’t answer.
Instead, he picked up something that fell around the petrified heroes.
“This… .”
Lucas murmured as he glared at the glittering jewel.
“… Are the scales?”
Picking up the scales of something, Lucas clenched his fists tightly.
And I stared into the darkness.
Inside the ominous darkness that spreads like waves and makes a sound like an insect gnawing.
“… .”
something… .
Something absurdly sinister lurked there, preparing to attack.
To invade the royalties and kill the living.
