Chapter 237 - Rosella
Chapter 237 – Rosella
The circ.u.mstances surrounding the birth of Draco's first child were certainly eye-opening. Not only had the child been able to drain his bloodline energy in huge amounts, it was even greedily taking in not Worldly, but Aetheric Energy.
'What a greedy little beast!'
Draco's heart thumped as he thought this, but he was feeling only endless curiosity and excitement right now. Nothing he had ever made or encountered would absorb Aetheric Energy directly.
It would either take torrents of Worldly Energy or a certain amount of Aether Crystals, but the quantity of both was nothing compared to this sucking in torrents of Aetheric Energy right from the atmosphere.
The process lasted for more than a minute before everything came to a stop. Draco, Riveting Night and Hikari were on the edge of their seats as they waited for a verdict from the midwives.
As for Vitae, the poor fellow was looking very thin and ethereal at the moment. With so much Aetheric Energy gone, he was even lucky to still exist, and this was thanks to Draco's overpowered bloodline that formed him.
Without making them wait too long, the Grandmaster Midwife came out with a neutral expression. Their hearts thumped at the sight of the coldness on her aloof face, and their worries only increased as she eyed each of them carefully.
She then shook her head with lament, and one could hear three hearts sinking.
"Sigh, for the first born of the household to be a girl, it is truly an omen. Who shall carry the lineage forward?" She asked with a sadness that touched the soul.
When Draco, Riveting Night and Hikari heard her words, their pained expressions froze like someone had stuffed an egg down their throats.
"Ah, right. The birth has been a smooth success and we've encountered no problems whatsoever! You can come in to see your child, Young Lad." The Grandmaster Midwife said with a playful glint in her eyes.
Draco's face became blacker than charcoal as he felt the urge to beat this woman up. How dare she play with his emotions like that?
However, he soon forgot about it as he rushed into the room with Riveting Night and Hikari in tow. The room looked like someone had let a hurricane through, but it was otherwise pristine.
What caught Draco's eye were two things. One was Roma lying on the bed with a happy expression. She showed no signs of tiredness or pain, which was quite surprising giving the event that had just occurred.
The second thing was the scarily silent baby lying in the arms of one of the Grandmaster Midwife's wet nurse assistants. The child was wrapped in a light blue blanket, and she was adorable.
With a round and chubby face, as well as a deep reddish-orange color for her eyes made her extremely bizarre but cute. Her skin tone was a slightly dark, taking on more of Roma's ancestry.
What was surprising though, was that her eyes moved around the room with purpose, showing that she wasn't as hapless as most babies fresh from the w.o.m.b.
Draco could even see into her mind and discovered that there were many rational thoughts in there. Her mind was quite like King's back when he had achieved enough intelligence to question his existence.
This was definitely due to her Ultima Sunt bloodline and the Pinnacle Intelligence passive skill. Then again, such a development was obvious from the start given how the genetic makeup of this child was structured.
When the baby's eyes fell on Draco, they stopped there and seemed to gleam. With outstretched arms, she let out murmurs of desire towards Draco.
Draco saw that her mind had tossed away all rational thought and replaced it with a single-minded desire to be with her parent.
Chuckling, Draco went over to the wet nurse and took his child into his arms and rubbed his nose on hers. She giggled happily, which was a more natural child-like behavior.
Draco took the child over to Roma's side and sat beside her mother. When the baby saw Roma, she cried out even louder and almost jumped onto her.
Draco laughed even more joyously as he passed the child to her mother, who smiled lovingly at the little tot. Roma gently brought her baby to her face and marveled at her cuteness.
Truthfully, the child resembled Roma a lot more than Draco. Apart from her skin tone that was not as dark due to her pale Ultima Sunt skin, the baby was almost a carbon copy.
However, the child's lips and eyes were shaped just like Draco. There was a sharp quality to them that made one feel like they were carved by an expert sculptor.
Draco beckoned to Hikari and Riveting Night to come over. Hikari seemed shy but Riveting Night walked over confidently and observed the child.
The baby turned to Riveting Night and gazed into her hood with a look of incomprehension. Draco was surprised that she felt no fear, but probably the child's Pinnacle Intelligence told her that she had nothing to fear from Riveting Night.
Suddenly, Riveting Night threw back her hood and showed her face, which wore a gentle smile. When the baby saw this level of beauty, her eyes almost bulged out of her sockets, which was an extremely comical reaction for a child.
Draco was sure that if she knew the word, the little baby would cry out 'Holy Shit!' while pointing at Eva. It was an understandable reaction as Eva did represent the closest thing to 'beauty' that the human race could think up.
Roma giggled and passed the baby over to Eva. "Eldest sis, say hi to her."
Eva took the baby in her arms and channeled her Celestial Maiden Inheritance to give the child pleasant and calm feelings. She then spoke in a very tender tone, yet her words contrasted it greatly.
"You are the very first child of my soulmate Draco and my little sister Roma. If anyone on this earth or in the heavens dares to cross you, I will expend my soul to destroy them."
The Grandmaster Midwife and her wet nurses froze due to the chilling aura coming from Eva, but the baby laughed happily while Draco and Roma smiled.
Hikari just shuffled about shyly, not sure what to do in this situation. Eva chuckled and gently passed the child to a fl.u.s.tered Hikari, who seemed to be at a loss.
Eva noticed her plight and carefully caressed Hikari's hair as she reassured her. "Although your children have yet to hatch, nobody can refute you being a mother too, Hikari. This child is of Draco and Roma, and therefore she is our kin. She is family, so there's no need to be shy."
Hikari's confusion and panic seemed to abate gradually as she listened to Eva. She then faced the child and whispered lightly.
"Hello…"
In response, the newborn reached out to Hikari's face…
… and grabbed her light blue horn on her forehead.
Right after that, Draco's firstborn began pulling it around, left, right, up, down, sending Hikari's head thrashing about like a bob-head toy. By the time the baby had had her fill, Hikari's eyes were spinning.
The whole room burst into laughter, the mood had turned extremely light. Hikari gave the troublesome child back to Roma, and the baby instantly became docile again.
Roma kissed the newborn and faced Draco. "What shall we name her?"
Draco then pondered deeply. He stared hard at his firstborn child, who also stared back. She seemed interested to her what she would be called by her parents.
"Rosella. Henceforth, her name shall be Rosella." Draco announced after thinking deeply for a second or two.
Everyone seemed to agree that this was a fine name, really befitting a cute baby girl like this. Roma also shed a tear as this was a very special name in her heritage, which had been her grandmother's name, Vadoma's mother.
The baby also seemed happy with the name and laughed contently. She then relaxed into her mother's embrace and swiftly fell asleep.
Seeing as it would be best to leave the new parents alone, the midwife and her wet nurses exited the room, giving Draco and his three women privacy.
Once outside the room, Draco and Eva's smiles disappeared and were replaced by solemnity. After all, they had both just received the same system message.
｢System to Player Announcement
Your first child, Rosella has been born. The system sends its blessings to the successful expansion of your lineage and encourages you to continue to expand!｣
Of course, this wasn't the issue. Only Draco had gotten that message, and it was the normal system response to any player after Update 5. It was what came next that made Draco and Eva solemn.
｢Boundless System-wide Announcement
An envoy of the Gods is entering the realm! Pay heed and tread carefully, lest one find themselves at fault!｣
An Envoy visiting the world on its own was a problematic event because such a thing had never occurred in the previous timeline. The players of back then never did anything outstanding enough to warrant such a response.
On any normal day, a development like this would only make Draco and Eva frown though, not look like they were about to fight their final battle.
As stated, nothing the previous timeline's players had done had warranted the gods to so much as fart towards their direction, much less send an envoy down.
The Gods were also unlikely to descend on behalf of the NPCs, as they should be unable to trigger any such events at this stage of the game. As such, it definitely had to be players.
If the players of the world couldn't be the cause – yet it had to be players – and NPCs were not the cause, then that left only one thing, and judging by the timing…
It was Rosella's birth!
Come to think of it, this was something Draco had expected ever since he had i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.ed Roma back then. The reason he prevented his Ultima Sunt genes from entering all of his children in high quantities was precisely because he feared the backlash of the Gods.
Of course, he had an agreement with them that basically made both him and Roma exempt from any punishments or penalties, but the same didn't hold for Rosella.
In fact, giving birth to a child that was more Ultima Sunt than either of them could be regarded as Draco trying to play smart and weasel out on their agreement, so he himself might be in tight spot.
But all this was mere speculation. All they could do was wait for the envoy to arrive and hear what the Gods had to say about this matter.
Roma and Hikari saw the hard expressions of Draco and Eva, making them realize that there was trouble afoot. Draco also decided that it would be unwise not to warn them about what might happen so he shared his speculation and both were stunned.
Hikari seemed worried because she had no good feelings towards Gods due to Sigurd and Roma had a ferocious glint in her eyes.
While she was definitely scared deep down, there was even more ferocity burning in the new mother when she thought that someone wanted to pass judgment on her innocent child.
Her reaction was definitely normal. No one would take kindly to such a matter, and even Draco felt indignant. However, he had no other choice but to wait and see what would happen next.
For now though, Draco spent the night in the room with Rosella and Roma. Hikari chose to head to the Anomaly Realm and work with the Aether Conversion Orb.
Rosella had swallowed a lot of Aetheric Energy. Since the concentration of it had always been maintained by the Aether Hall, there was no problem or true backlash except a slightly weakened effect of the City's boons for a short while.
This made Hikari aim to expand the borders a bit more. After all, this was also her home, where her own children would grow. As such, she definitely wanted it to be in its best state when that time came.
Riveting Night went to manage the City-State. Sublime Notion and her group had not yet returned, not that Draco and Riveting Night expected them back anytime soon.
If Legendary Class Change quests were so short as to take less than a month, they would doubt the quality of the classes they would receive. Even a basic class rank up procedure for going to Rank 2 might take slightly more than a week.
4 days passed peacefully. In this time, Draco had been with Rosella, Rila and Roma only. The two children had taken to each other, with Rila solemnly swearing to protect her little sister no matter what.
Draco even felt a little envy. After all, just how many could boast about having an Origin Goddess for an elder sister who had promised to protect their younger sibling no matter what?
Little Rosella didn't seem to need b.r.e.a.s.tmilk, and she seemed to be perfectly fine without any food. This was either due to her Ultima Sunt heritage or Draco's bloodline which had created a body that needed no food.
Draco called over Loving Aunt to test Rosella's bloodline purity since he naturally had no idea how to. Loving Aunt seemed to have fallen in love with Rosella on first sight, and Rosella had looked shocked to meet another person who had made her blood resonate aside from her father.
Loving Aunt then drew some blood from the child painlessly and took some of hers and Draco's well. She then placed them in a petri dish and drew some symbols with her own blood.
After that, Rosella's blood began to glow, and so did Loving Aunt's and Draco's. Loving Aunt was a stable glow while Rosella's was far brighter. As for Draco's, it was like a mini-sun, which was quite a startling concentration.
Loving Aunt's eyes glowed. "The child's purity is at 45%! That is a number we haven't seen since the first five generations of our Lineage!"
Draco was also greatly pleased. While 45% might not sound much compared to his 99%, one should know that he had only implanted 10% of his bloodline source.
Procreation in the Lineages was pretty straightforward. Most people did not have the luxury or even the ability to part with 'bloodline source' when impregnating/being i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.ed.
What usually went on was that they would channel as much bloodline energy into their s.e.m.e.n/w.o.m.b as they could muster in the hopes that it would strengthen the conceived child.
This meant that the child's bloodline purity would be totally up to RNG. One could input a lot of energy and it would fail to take hold, while one could input a little and it would take root fastidiously.
As such, the bloodline purities of the Lineage members were usually in the single digits. Those that formed the elders and co were in the range of 10-19 while rare talents were like Loving Aunt, between 20-29.
This was why Juno – Kiran's deceased mother – had been treated as a prodigy by the Buddha Lineage since she had a whopping 30% purity. It was likely his father had a similar concentration, which was why his birth had been catastrophic.
With 45%, it made Rosella into a prodigy. The entire clan would have pumped all kinds of resources to allow for her growth, grooming her into a future clan head if Draco weren't in existence!
"Ah, ah! How horrible it is that this beloved child is limited to this digital game… had she been born in the real world…" Loving Aunt said with lament.
She sighed. "Then again, there's no use in making such noise. Since this beautiful baby is here now, this Aunt shall pamper her for all eternity!"
Draco laughed and left his Aunt with Roma, Rosella and Rila. He was sure that with Loving Aunt around, Rosella's days would be filled with happiness, allowing the Lucifer Lineage member to live up to her in-game name.
Draco walked through the Aether Hall and came upon Zaine's room, which was relatively close to Roma's. Upon entry, he noted that the design was almost the same.
He saw the dark-skinned succubus lying on the bed comfortably, lazily chewing gr.a.p.es while her wet nurses fanned her with pained expressions.
Zaine looked absolutely fascinating with her heavily exposed body in order to maximize her comfort. Though, her s.e.x appeal was a bit marred by her bulging stomach.
When the wet nurses noticed Draco enter, they seemed to see a lifeline and instantly bowed while leaving in a flurry. One could only wonder how this lazy succubus had abused their kindness to fuel her lethargy…
Zaine smiled when she saw Draco and tried to sit up, but the fellow waved his hands and came over to sit near her. Unlike his lovey dovey nature with Roma, Zaine needed a bit more intimacy if she wanted a similar reaction from Draco.
Not to mention, his purpose here wasn't exactly 100% pleasant.
"Tell me the details of the Divine Auction, and leave nothing out." Draco asked with a light smile.
Zaine nodded and began reiterating what had happened back then in detail. Draco listened silently, although he marveled at the intensity of the auction.
It seemed like he had missed one heck of an event this time, but he had been in the midst of training. He still wouldn't have gone even if he knew everything that occurred.
When Zaine was done, Draco smiled and nodded with approval. "From beginning to end, you were splendid. Your decision to accompany Eva was clever and insightful, and let's not forget your marvelous suggestion to use Aether Crystals."
Draco tapped his chin and pointed at Zaine. "For that alone, I honestly feel that your presence here is a godsend."
Draco slapped his thighs and spoke in a deep voice. "Henceforth, you will be the tactician of my lineage, your authority in matters relating to administration will be second to Eva only. A brain like yours cannot be put to waste!"
Zaine's eyes glowed and she also smiled. "I will make sure not to disappoint you, Draco."
Draco sighed and then his expression became a bit stiff. "However, the matter concerning that strange girl who is an aide to Madam Carrie… what do you have to say about this?"