Chapter 137: Pregnancy
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 137: Pregnancy
My face must have turned pale. In the case of humans, morning sickness usually begins between the fifth and sixth week. The first time I was with Mev was before we even started practicing for the raid. We practiced for quite a long time, and it had been about a month since we hunted the beast of the East, so the timing was about right, or perhaps a little early.
Amidst the silence that had fallen over the camp, the sound of retching echoed once more.
“Ugh…”
Mev looked around with an incredibly anxious expression.
It seemed she didn't quite understand the inexplicable symptoms that were happening to her.
“Ch… Chieftain… I… I… I think I’m sick… Ugh…”
“Am I… going to die… Ugh…”
Mev’s face, drained of all color, looked utterly terrified. She seemed to think she had caught some disease. As she continued to gag at the sight of the meat, Hakajin was the first to react, followed by the mother Green Skins, who quickly rushed to Mev’s side and began to examine her.
Mev’s expression was one of boundless anxiety. But I couldn't help but predict that she would soon be letting out a cry of joy.
“She’s… she’s pregnant.”
“……?”
“M-Mev is pregnant! She carries the Chieftain’s heir!”
The one who shouted was an old mother Green Skin. After another moment of silence, a tremendous roar erupted.
“Mev! She carries the Chieftain’s child!”
“Uwoooooooh!”
“The Blood Dagger Clan has an heir!”
The cheers that burst forth were even louder than the roars at the start of a battle. The women of the tribe, as if they had been waiting for this moment, stood up and began to shout in celebration. It seemed they had been thinking that the women of the tribe weren't fulfilling their roles, and all that stress had just vanished in an instant. Their voices were so loud it was as if they wanted the nearby Goff Clan and Black Spear Clan to hear. Among them, the most excited were none other than the Goblin Three Sisters.
“It’s Mev! Mev has soared!”
“It’s the promised pregnancy of victory!”
“It’s definitely the promised pregnancy of victory! It clearly worked!”
I had no idea what a “promised pregnancy of victory” was, but watching them run around, hyping up the atmosphere, you could believe they were professional agitators. And it wasn't just the women who were excited.
“Congratulations, Chieftain!”
Minotaur Orbo patted me on the shoulder, perhaps feeling a sense of camaraderie as a fellow father.
“Blood Dagger’s heir will be a strong Green Skin!”
“I, Mirror Blade, will protect the child of the Blood Dagger Clan to the very end!”
Gark and Hark were running around with the Goblin Three Sisters, as if to prove they were all siblings.
“Con… Congratulations, Chieftain.”
Hakajin, who adored children, was also looking at me with sparkling eyes. The area was a cauldron of chaos. For some reason, Jung Hayeon and Baek Ahyeon’s shoulders were slumped as if they were disheartened.
Even Kim Yoora and Nicole looked quite down. Since I treated them like my own children, they were probably worried that my attention would shift away once a real child was born. It was a slightly bewildering situation for me as well, especially since I had just started thinking about raising Kim Yoora as a potential successor.
If we were going by order, it should have been Jung Hayeon first. I never imagined Mev would succeed in one go like this.
The greater the difference between species, the harder it is to conceive. For me, a Demon, the probability of impregnating Mev, a Fairy, or Jung Hayeon, an Alraune, was likely similar. I was genuinely curious if that strange drawing, which was like some folk belief, and the act of constantly keeping her legs raised had actually been effective.
I stared at Mev with a dumbfounded look. To be honest, “stunned” was a more fitting expression than “happy.” But when I saw Mev’s face begin to crumple as she started to cry, a laugh escaped my lips before I knew it.
Heh…
I had become a father at the most unexpected time.
“Ch-Chieftain!”
Mev finally burst into tears and charged toward me. She was flying so fast that I tensed up a bit as I caught her. The impact hit my chest. As I looked at Mev, who was sobbing her heart out, burying her face in my chest with tears and snot streaming down, the feeling of bewilderment slowly began to fade.
It was then.
Another pair of wings began to sprout from Mev’s back. The crown on her head grew slightly more ornate. Her body hadn't changed, but she was gradually transforming.
Why?
The first thing that came to mind was a question. As I wondered why she was suddenly evolving, the Goblin Three Sisters started making a fuss again.
“Mev, who heard the voice of the God of the Battlefield, is evolving!”
“The God of the Battlefield has granted her a child!”
What…
It was absurd, but it seemed there had been a quest involved. It looked like she had evolved immediately as a reward. Mev’s current race was Fairy Queen. I had never seen or heard of a race superior to a Fairy Queen, but if I had to name it, I supposed it would be High Fairy Queen.
Even as I held Mev and stroked her head, the magic I could feel was extraordinary. It was contained, but Mev’s emotions must have been running high, as her magic was flaring up slightly. It was difficult to calm even with my own magic. The issue wasn't just that she had evolved; she had become truly powerful.
To put it simply, she was almost too much for even me to handle. The presence of the spirits that always flew around Mev also felt much larger. Mev’s racial value must have soared to its absolute limit. A Fairy Queen was already a high-tier species. A High Fairy Queen, then, had to be a special class.
I slowly looked down at Mev again. An heir was certainly necessary for the stability of the tribe. For those who formed a chieftain-centric tribal society, a successor was clearly important.
The question was, was I happy?
It hadn't been in my plans, but something full and warm was definitely beginning to well up in my chest. The feelings of bewilderment and shock were fleeting. A sense of fulfillment, its origin unknown, was rising within me.
I’m happy.
I was definitely happy. An inexplicable joy was truly filling my heart. With a somewhat dazed expression, I held Mev tightly.
The others around us, also happy, began to bless Mev. As Mev and I separated slightly, the mother goblins rushed to her again to check her condition.
“You must be careful with your body from now on.”
“You shouldn't fly around carelessly.”
“O-Okay!”
Whether human or Green Skin, protecting a pregnant woman seemed to be the same. Mev nodded her head emphatically, taking in every piece of advice from the mother goblins.
Due to the nature of Green Skins, if an interspecies breeding is successful, the child follows the mother's race. The child to be born would almost certainly be a Fairy Queen. As could be seen in Nicole's case, what could be inherited from the father was a kind of talent, personality, or ability. I didn't think I was all that great, so I didn't know what my child might inherit from me, but it would be a lie to say I wasn't looking forward to it. To have my first child in this life and the last combined was a bit overwhelming.
“We must build a separate tent for Mev!”
“It would be a disaster if anything happened to the baby! We must protect Mev right now.”
In the midst of this chaos, the meal began to wind down. Of course, the young children who needed to eat well still had meat in one hand, but most of the Orcs had shot up from their seats.
“It must be built strong and safe. It is the home where the heir will live.”
“Cut the beast’s bones right now!”
Although they didn't have direct command authority, a Green Skin pregnant with the chieftain's child naturally gained power. Just by looking at their actions, Mev's current status was above Ragia's. I thought it might be a slightly bitter situation for Ragia, who had worked so hard as a sub-chieftain.
All her efforts had been overshadowed by a single pregnancy. Most Green Skins probably respected and admired Ragia, but this and that were completely different matters. They were even building a tent for Mev and the baby in her womb before they had built one for me.
“Bring the bones over here. It will be a warm and cozy tent.”
The one leading the charge was Hakajin. Neatly cutting the bones were Gark and Hark. Moving the pillars was Orbo. As if they couldn't be left out of this glorious task, every member of the tribe was pitching in.
Mev was smiling as she watched this scene. Even then, she was gently stroking her own belly. It was only natural, but it seemed the little one in her womb was truly precious to her.
In truth, building a tent didn't take much time, but the newly constructed tent was more similar to the yurts used by nomadic peoples on Earth than any tent we'd had before.
It was a relatively simple process of creating pillars from the eastern beast's bones, raising a base and roof with wood, and then covering it with leather and scales. But because they were building it with the utmost care, or perhaps because they were unfamiliar with it, it was taking quite a while.
The structure, completed under Hakajin's direction, looked quite impressive. Since the beast's ribs were used as pillars, the bones piercing through the roof had a magnificent appearance.
A new home was complete.
Soon, they began to shout again.
“We… we must also build one for the Chieftain.”
“We… we should have built the Chieftain’s tent first.”
They started working again. Hakajin personally chose the site, and once again, a frame was erected. Since Mev's tent becoming this large hadn't been part of the plan, my tent also became much larger than I had originally thought.
Even after my tent was finished, their reaction was the same. They shouted about needing to create a space for the tribe's children and the chieftain's heir to live and play.
The foundational work began to mount the beast's head in the center for the children who had missed the legendary scene of it being severed.
With the Blood Dagger Clan so busy, the other clans couldn't just stand by. The Ogres of the Goff Clan and the Trolls of the Black Spear Clan also rose and began to work.
Goff and Black Spear, who came to see what all the commotion was about, congratulated me upon hearing the news of Mev's pregnancy. Like a miracle, the settlement that had only existed in my mind began to take shape. As these beings with an entirely different level of labor power began to move, the settlement was being built as if watching a construction site on fast-forward.
“We must build a palisade to keep the humans from crossing over!”
“We need huge trees! Huge trees infused with magic!”
Thump!
Thump!
Sounds began to echo. The Ogres were building a palisade with enormous trees. I was so dumbfounded I was at a loss for words. I wasn't sure if I should call this the Miracle on the Han River, the Memory of the Brother's Land, or perhaps, the Miracle of Pregnancy.
Nevertheless, I reached out my hand toward Mev's belly beside me. I had one more thing to protect, but it wasn't a bad feeling. It was only natural that I would have to be even busier from now on. Organizing my thoughts about the future, I nodded to myself.