55. Family (1)
55. Family (1)
The pregnancy that was meant to break Gwen's spirit to some extent.
However, the Creature that came out of that pregnancy was far more immense than I had anticipated.
Gwen, who possesses overwhelming talent by human standards, having risen to the position of Knight Commander of a city in a female body.
Stacey, who was born with insane amounts of mana because I endlessly healed Gwen while she inherited Gwen's memories and talent.
Gwen said she looked exactly like her when she was young.
Only her eyes, mouth, and body were different.
Her way of speaking and her actions were identical to Gwen's.
I used Gwen's body because I wanted a Creature capable of wielding mana, but I never expected a Creature that even I would consider a monster to be born.
The interesting thing is that while she sees Gwen, who gave birth to her, as food, she also recognizes her as her mother.
Rakshas generally don't have very high intelligence.
Even the Raksha that is mimicking my Saintess outfit only possesses the intelligence of a puppy.
If you just give it an order, it only executes it in a one-dimensional way.
But that Raksha inherited Gwen's memories and came to possess quite high intelligence.
Originally, Rakshas should have that kind of intelligence, but looking at the current state, I'm curious if she will grow by inheriting human traits as well.
If she can grow both mentally and physically, I don't know how strong she will become, considering she already has [Overlord]-class power.
For now, I ordered Gwen to manage and monitor Stacey.
Even if I use Heal utilizing Holy Power, I cannot restore vitality.
Healing a wounded body and restoring vitality are completely different concepts.
For example, if you have 100 HP, healing is restoring the 20 HP lost to bring it back to 100/100, whereas losing vitality means it becomes 80/80.
Vitality gradually decreases for any living organism. Ah, of course, that includes Creatures. That is what aging is.
However, because it decreases very, very slowly, it feels like immortality, but all living things age.
Therefore, it is almost impossible to increase vitality unless it's a truly special case.
This is information provided by Erina, who teaches me how to handle Holy Power.
They say that even a Saintess can only increase someone's vitality if she fulfills various conditions using a very important artifact in the Holy Kingdom.
Anyway, Gwen has lost a lot of vitality right now.
I know how difficult it is for a woman to give birth. But perhaps because she didn't just give birth to a child, but a Creature, she had a significant amount of vitality stolen by Stacey.
No matter how much I fed her Heal and my saliva, Gwen's weakened body showed no signs of recovering.
I acquired a Pet Human, but instead of a young and sturdy one, she has become a Pet Human who looks like she could die at the slightest touch.
In exchange, I did get a strong child, but it's a bit of a shame.
'Is it because she lost vitality and gave birth to Stacey? Her personality seems to have dulled quite a bit, too.'
Since Stacey is also a Creature, I can naturally share everything Stacey experiences through the Hive Mind.
From Stacey's perspective, I could see that Gwen was still agonizing over how to treat Stacey.
However, she couldn't bring herself to push Stacey away when she clung to her.
Just looking at this, it looked like a mother who had reunited with her daughter after a long time and was feeling awkward around her.
"Lea-nim. The preparations are complete."
When I heard Amber's voice, I pulled my consciousness out of Stacey's.
The preparation Amber mentioned was for the Bathhouse. No matter how good the bathhouse in the basement of the Orphanage is, it cannot compare to the bathhouse here.
"How is the Orphanage?"
After lightly washing my body and relaxing in the bath, I asked about the current situation at the Orphanage while receiving a massage from Amber.
"As you anticipated, Lea-nim, countless humans have gathered."
"How many have gathered?"
"From a group of about 30 people, it increased to 300 after the raid ended."
"3, 300 people!?"
"Yes."
No, wait. Come to think of it, the number of humans we kidnapped alone is in the tens of thousands. Considering those numbers, it's not strange for the Orphanage population to increase to 300.
It's actually a small number.
"After the raid, other orphanages and cathedrals also took in children who lost their parents, so not that many people flocked to us. Compared to that, our Orphanage is still..."
"The facilities are still inferior compared to other districts."
Medherun City consists of a total of 5 districts. The central district is where the nobles live, so I'll skip that, and it's composed of East, West, South, and North.
Among them, the East has a slum area, so there were no orphanages, and that's where I squeezed in.
That's why it was more successful.
"Even if I wanted to take in more, I judged that if I took in more here, it would be no different from a human farm rather than a healthy food source, so I limited it to 300."
"Ah, I didn't think of that. Well done."
"Recently, the children want to meet Lea-nim."
"I suppose it's time to head back to the Orphanage."
As the Orphanage grew, the number of humans running it also increased. Most of those humans operate on a volunteer basis.
Humans who specifically stay at the Orphanage to truly look after, care for, and cook for the children are paid salaries through sponsorships.
It would be difficult to operate the Orphanage properly with just those sponsorships, but now Albert is behind our Orphanage.
Albert, who has the most power and money in Medherun City.
Through a few conversations, I realized that Albert is not thinking normally.
That's why I liked him even more.
"Shall we make the Orphanage even bigger while we're at it?"
"That's also a good idea. Oh, and among the humans who came in this time, there are a few children who don't have much time left until they become adults."
"Hmm. Is that so? Are there any decent ones?"
Amber shook her head.
"They are from the slums, so their bodies are a mess and they have no mana."
"Is that so? Then, under the pretext of sending them on an errand, send them outside the Orphanage and kill them. Then throw them to the children beneath the Orphanage."
"Understood. Also, Albert is requesting to meet Lea-nim. It seems he hasn't adapted to the Hive Mind yet."
"Understood. Ah, press a little more on the bottom left."
"Here?"
"Yes. There. Haa..."
==
Gwen was eating the food Narim made, then put down her spoon.
"Uh... is it not tasty? That shouldn't be possible...?"
When she put down the spoon after only taking a few bites of food that even the Queen of Creatures, Lea, had called delicious, Narim worried if there was a problem.
"Mom, are you okay?"
"I can't taste anything."
"Yes?"
Stacey wasn't hungry because she had eaten two humans, but she took a bite of the dish Gwen had just eaten using Gwen's spoon.
"Wow... this is really delicious?"
"Hehe, it's nothing."
As soon as the food entered her mouth and she chewed a few times, Stacey covered her mouth with her hand at the deliciousness she felt and looked at Narim.
Even Stacey, who had only ever directly eaten humans, was impressed after eating Narim's cooking.
Gwen tried eating it again at Stacey's words, but she still couldn't feel anything.
No, to be precise, there was no reaction.
Gwen felt that something was wrong with the fact that even though she was her daughter, she couldn't feel anything even when eating food that a monster described as delicious.
And she realized it.
That she was currently thirsting for something.
She knows that there is food that is tastier, more fantastic, and more attractive than this.
"I need that..."
Gwen, who had lost her vitality in an instant and was on the verge of death while giving birth to Stacey, was saved by Lea's Heal and saliva.
In that process, Gwen had ingested too much of Lea's saliva.
By ingesting the terrible pain she felt while giving birth to Stacey and Lea's saliva, which had an exquisite taste, the minimum threshold of sensation that Gwen's brain was supposed to feel had increased drastically.
Like drugs on Earth.
Gwen's body's nervous system is already in a ruined state.
To the point where she can't feel anything unless it's extreme pain or Lea's saliva.
Gwen picked up the fork next to the spoon and stabbed it directly into her own hand.
"Mom!"
"Aaaah!"
Only then did Gwen start to feel something, and she realized that her body was not in a normal state.
It was strange that she didn't feel pain this intensely, no matter how resistant to pain she was.
Both her mana and her body were a mess.
Now, all that's left is nothing—
"Mom."
Stacey, who looked exactly like her, came into Gwen's view.
She is a monster.
She is a monster.
She is a Creature.
She knows.
That she eats humans as her staple food.
That she is a being that cannot be called human.
But such a being calls her Mom and thinks of her as family.
One week.
For a week, Gwen had to watch the horrific deaths of over 100 people she couldn't protect right in front of her eyes, and she even had to let go of her only friend.
Faced with the fact that she could no longer have family, friends, or even the Knights, and would have to spend her whole life here, Gwen, whose body and mind were shaken from losing so much vitality, eventually rationalized that only Stacey, who was in front of her, was her family.
"Stacey."
"Mom."
Gwen opened her arms toward Stacey, and Stacey went into Gwen's embrace.