120. Human Garden (9)
120. Human Garden (9)
After attacking the Padix Kingdom, the Legion had time to solidify their internal affairs, and I was enjoying myself in Mederun.
The eastern district of Mederun was originally a dark underworld itself where poor people and vagrants lived.
But we swept through it all at once and reorganized.
If before it had a strong feel of a slum inhabited by homeless people, corpses, and vagrants, now the homeless and corpses have all disappeared thanks to the creatures, and with intentional heavy investment, it has taken on a strong feel of a beautiful and glamorous entertainment district.
Of course, within that entertainment district, a dark, gloomy, and evil underworld awaits.
Now I spend every day seeking entertainment in this entertainment district that houses a massive underworld.
With every step I take, I see many interesting things.
Of course, I'm not wandering around with the Saint's face as I am.
Just like when I first came here with Amber, I'm covering my face with black clothes and a black veil.
I've become quite famous around here.
Wherever I go, I can do everything without carrying money. It seems Albert has taken care of it.
I've also heard from people around me that a rumor is circulating: "You must grant any request from a person wearing a black veil here."
Then wouldn't it be too easy for someone else to impersonate me? I wonder if anyone has the guts to do that.
While I was starting with eating and then sightseeing, Evolute delivered a message to me through the Hive Mind.
It was the news that the archer, who was part of the former hero party, had finally gone into labor.
I immediately stopped what I was doing and headed straight to the colony.
==
As soon as I entered the Evolution Room, I heard the voice of the archer screaming in pain from childbirth.
Normally, a rope is provided to grip for strength during childbirth, but the archer was clutching tentacles instead of rope, straining hard.
The archer's expression was contorted in a way I had never seen before.
It can't be helped; they say that even a normal human giving birth to a child experiences considerable pain.
But here, she's not giving birth to a human—she's giving birth to a creature.
The archer's belly, swollen far more than a normal pregnancy, makes me think, "Is that thing really supposed to come out?"
The fortunate thing is that it's not the same situation as with Stacey.
Evolute also had the situation with Gwen and Stacey be the first time he had impregnated a creature and had it give birth.
As soon as he impregnated the creature, it not only drained all of Gwen's power in an instant but also sucked out her life force.
I still vividly remember using a considerable amount of my mana and life force to barely save Gwen, my toy.
Stacey, who had sucked up all that power, was not born by coming out of the uterus through the vagina; she was born by tearing through Gwen's uterus and belly.
Even now, thinking about that sight is still somewhat shocking.
Like I personally saw a scene from the Alien movie, I suppose?
Anyway, Evolute also judged that killing one human to give birth to one creature was very cost-ineffective, so this time, he proceeded differently.
It was faster than nine months, but he made it so that over the course of a month, the archer's power was drained, and he adjusted it so that her life force wouldn't be excessively drained.
Thanks to that, even without my power, the pregnant human was changed to be able to endure it.
Well, but that doesn't mean there is no effect on the pregnant host.
Even humans are significantly affected by giving birth to a human; how could a creature have no effect?
Not through a status window, but through my intuition as the Creature Queen, I could tell that the archer's life force had been greatly depleted.
If she gives birth another three or four times after this one, she probably won't have enough life force left to give birth to the next creature.
Still, one human giving birth to about four creatures stronger than herself is incredibly cost-effective.
However, that's assuming the human is very well cared for during that time; if she's roughly treated, maybe two is the limit?
Well... that's still quite satisfying.
This is only possible if Amber nurses her 24/7 for almost a month to get four creatures.
I lent Amber to Evolute because he asked, but I realized that I depend on Amber a lot more than I expected.
I can't live without Amber! That's certainly not the case. But it means I have to do annoying things myself.
I have to draw water to drink, scrub myself during baths, no massage, and I have to arrange my own hair.
Ah, there's that too.
When I was in Korea, have you ever seen videos of astronauts who, after a long time in space, come back to Earth and do interviews where they frequently drop things?
That exact situation keeps happening to me.
When I try to drink water or do something, I unthinkingly let go of whatever I'm holding.
Originally, Amber would predict all my actions through the Hive Mind and catch those things and handle all the little tasks.
But now that Amber is gone, it's incredibly inconvenient.
So from now on, I've decided never to let Amber leave my side.
Even if Amber dies, I will absolutely revive her.
Limbs cut off? I can just regenerate them.
Head crushed and brain exploded? I already have a firm hold through the Hive Mind. Amber, who has already become a creature not a human soul, can be revived forever as long as I don't die.
Ah, if her soul is destroyed by a method that can attack the soul itself, like the hero's, she can truly die.
But I'm already preparing for that after losing Gluttony.
The problem is that I don't know if that preparation will actually work.
But I'm confident.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
At the archer's scream, I snapped back to attention and focused on the birth scene.
Her swollen belly shook violently.
I could see the baby inside, unable to find an exit, trying to just tear through the belly to come out.
But that can't be helped.
Most creatures are born inside cocoons.
Even I, the Creature Queen, was born in a cocoon. Normally, when born from a cocoon, they tear the cocoon apart.
So most creatures have the instinct to tear through whatever is surrounding them when it's time to be born.
Evolute knew that, so he used his tentacles to penetrate the archer's vagina and forcibly opened her uterus.
At the moment when Evolute's tentacles, which had entered the uterus, were about to guide the creature inside to pull it out...
Wageujak.
Oh w...
The baby inside the archer's uterus simply devoured Evolute's tentacles.
With the creature seeming like it would just eat the archer and be born that way, I turned my attention to the baby inside the uterus.
'Well, look at this?'
Normally, no matter what kind of creature it is, the moment it enters my consciousness, it can do nothing but obey me, or even if it resists, it can't withstand tens of thousands of consciousnesses and gets swept into the massive consciousness and becomes one.
But this baby that is about to be born is quite fascinating.
It resists my domination.
It's not completely breaking free, but because my current action poses a danger to the archer, I ordered the baby, which is trying to tear the uterus, to stop.
But it ignored that command and just moved a finger.
Originally, if I order it to stop, I can achieve perfect domination to the point where it doesn't move even 0.1mm and even its heart stops.
But it moved a finger?
This is truly remarkable.
Until now, no creature had ever resisted my domination to this extent.
Is it because my cells have diminished? Or because it lived inside a human uterus for a month? To show even the slightest resistance to my command.
Originally, I was just curious: "Will a new creature be born?"
That curiosity was about a 5 out of 10.
But now it's different.
Now I feel a tremendous interest in that baby inside the uterus.
What kind of child is it that it can resist my command and hold out?
I stood up and walked over to the archer.
Evolute, who already knew through the Hive Mind that the baby inside had resisted my command, bowed his head and stepped back as I approached.
I thrust my hand into the archer's vagina, from which amniotic fluid and blood from Evolute's tentacles were leaking.
The vagina was already fully relaxed, so even without making my hand smaller, the archer's vagina gently swallowed my hand.
Ignoring the vagina, I pushed inside and inserted my hand into the open uterus, gently wrapping my hand around the baby's neck.
Shall I see the face of this child that resists my command?
I applied a little strength to my hand and began to pull the child out by its neck.
"Oooooohgogogogok!?"
An ordinary human would feel pain that could cause a heart attack, but the archer, who had been physically modified by Evolute for a long time, seemed to feel pleasure instead of pain, vigorously spouting love juice.
Enough to splatter all over my face.
Evolute, flustered at the sight, quickly wiped the love juice away with his tentacles.
Ignoring the situation, I pulled the child out.
Jureureureuk.
The child, exiting the archer's uterus and vagina, naturally stood proudly on the floor with two legs.
It's indeed more human-like, maybe because it spent a long time in a human uterus.
Stacey was also human-like, but as soon as she came out, she had sharp teeth in her reverse eyes and a snake-like long tongue, but this child in front of me has nothing different from a human—
Seureureuk.
Oh...
Perhaps because Gluttony's cells were used, the tentacles that symbolized Gluttony appeared along the child's body and began to wrap around it protectively.
'Cute, isn't it?'
