Chapter 183: Growing Children
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“Waaaoooh! Bwig bwug!”
“Wait! Orion, don’t wun!”
I saw my children running across the grasslands of the northwest, called the Great Verdant Plains. A large area that once belonged to the Great Plains Continent of Murim.
...Which I stole half of it, mostly because I had fought against their Sect Alliance, and after defeating their two Venerables, I simply took what I wanted.
Now, it had become a beautiful place to have a picnic!
My adorable, beautiful babies, Orion and Athena, ran across the grasslands, enjoying the wind and the beautiful view.
Orion would constantly chase large bugs that would show up sometimes, eating them after catching them.
They were Martial Bugs of various types, abundant in these areas. They’re edible and were a big part of the diet of the Tribes of people that lived here in the past.
I remember that they even had methods of cultivation that were about taming and cultivating their own Martial Bugs.
It wasn’t as widespread as in the rest of Murim because only in the Great Plains Continent were Martial Bugs so abundant and endlessly varied.
It produced very powerful Cultivators, often called Gu Masters.
I remember stealing their knowledge when I defeated many of their hostile factions and ended up refining hundreds of these bugs to become strong.
However, it was rather disgusting when I realized I had to let them live inside my body…
Thankfully, I ended up mostly keeping them inside my Inner Realm anyway.
Anyway, most of these things are in the past now.
Martial Bugs are now just food for other Martial Beasts, although they were now Orion’s favorite snack.
I can’t say I’m proud that my boy likes eating whatever he finds around…
But maybe it’s just part of the nature of his second bloodline.
“Orion reminds me of Hekita when she was younger; she used to do the exact same thing as him, hahaha!”
Urbosa giggled while walking by my side; she was wearing a long white dress decorated with trips of blue squares and red triangles, feeling rather carefree today as well.
“W-What? I don’t remember chasing bugs and eating them…!” Hekita grew embarrassed.
“Oh? But you did all the time! I guess you forgot, little Hekita?” giggled Merkite, teasing her a bit.
She was also wearing a dress, although hers was green, decorated with trips of red triangles and yellow squares.
“I didn’t forget, I-I never did that!” Hekita felt embarrassed, running away chasing her little siblings instead. She was wearing more modern girl clothes, blue jean shorts, a white blouse, and a pink jacket.
“Isn’t she cute?” I giggled. “Well, I’m glad she got new siblings to enjoy!”
“Maaaamaaa!”
Suddenly, I heard Orion screaming. I looked at him from afar, noticing he was suddenly grabbed by a giant dragonfly and dragged away!
“Orion?!”
Urbosa panicked, rushing towards him. I followed, but as we drew closer.
“Bwad bwug!”
In between tears, the boy hit the bug with his tiny hand, and a huge claw-shaped aura of Ki, Mana, Spirit Energy, and Divinity materialized, tearing the dragonfly into pieces!
CRAAASH!
“Uwaaahhh!”
Orion fell from the skies, still unable to fly. Urbosa released a wave of winds, making him float in midair, and I caught him in my arms.
He was a bit bigger now, but still so very baby.
“Orion! What were you doing now?” I sighed. “You shouldn’t let a bug take you away!”
“B-But it was bwig…” He said, looking like he was about to cry. “I was scawed!”
“Aw, don’t be scared,” Urbosa sighed, kissing his little forehead. “Orion is a very strong boy! You shouldn’t be scared of creatures like that.”
“I don’t?” he wondered innocently.
“Nuh-huh, you could handle a million of those!” I said.
“Miwion… what’s that?” he wondered.
“Hahah, we’ll teach you about numbers soon,” I nodded. “But you do know the basics, right?”
“Like one, two, three…” Urbosa said.
“One, two, three, four, six, eight! Erm… ten and twenty!” Orion said, trying to remember well.
“Well, almost there!” laughed Urbosa. “You’ll get there.”
“Yeah, let’s go down now,” I said. “We’ve been training a bit lately, so you were able to defend yourself though. How did that feel?”
“Hm… I don’t know,” he said. “Weird… Sad?”
“That’s the correct feeling,” I nodded. “That bug is now dead; you killed it.”
“Eeeh! Dead…” Orion gasped.
“Life is very fragile,” said Urbosa. “Especially for us, or well, you and your mama.”
“Why?” Orion wondered.
We reached the floor as I placed my boy over my shoulders, piggybacking him.
“Well, I took a lot of time to get as strong as I am, but you, you are different,” I said. “You and your sister, over here. Cute little Athena… You’re two strong from the start!”
I patted my little girl, who just came running to us, worried about her brother.
“Orion bwe mowe caweful!” sighed Athena. “I was a bwit scawed too! Dummy!”
“Uwah… Sowy…” Orion apologized for worrying his cute sister. “Athena forgives me?”
“Okay,” nodded Athena. “Mama, what were you saying?”
She was the one that talked the most between the two and the one learning the best pronunciations too. Athena was a naturally very smart girl.
But her brother was smart too; in other fields, he had a much easier time learning things regarding Auras, Ki, Mana, and Spirit Energy than Athena.
It came more naturally from him.
Both had their own talents and also their weaknesses; nobody was better than the other; they had their own little quirks, and we love them both equally.
“I was just saying that the two of you were born with incredible strength, and the world around you may seem very frail sometimes,” I said. “Although there will be eventually exceptions, you will need to learn how to control your explosive strength, or you may risk harming those you don’t want to harm.”
“O-Oh…” Athena nodded. “Okay… Um, am I that strong?”
"Yeah, you are, Athena,” nodded Merkite, patting her head as Athena’s big ears twitched cutely. “We’ll have to work on that, dear.”
“Oway,” nodded Athena. “And Orion too?”
“I will too!” he nodded. “Um, but I’m hungy…”
“You’re hungry after eating all those bugs?” I laughed. “Well! Looks like your aunties are preparing something yummy over there, so shall we go pay them a visit?”
“Aunties! Aunties!” Orion called them from afar, wagging his cute fluffy tail around.
“Haha, looks like you stopped crying now, Orion!” said Hekita. “Don’t be a crybaby all the time; you were fine at the end, see?”
“Yeah!” Orion nodded. “I’m stwong! The stwongest!”
It has been roughly another month in here since the beach visit, so we’ve been three out of five months in here.
The kids have grown quite considerably; they can now talk, have well-defined personalities, and are learning a lot.
They’re learning quickly, have learned the beginnings of math, are beginning to learn how to read, and more.
They are developing ultra-fast, as expected!
By the end of these five months, my babies should be ready to face the world.
But there was a tiny little problem at hand right now.
“Hey, welcome back! Food’s almost ready,” said Mursha, greeting us back.
She was wearing a comfortable dress made of leather with lots of fluffy fur to keep her warm, which was “rare for her” when she began wearing them due to how big her belly had become because of her pregnancy.
“Bing Bing! Cute babies! Welcome back!”
Fiery Hair left behind what she was making and ran to greet us; she was wearing the same clothes as always, often times refusing to wear anything else. I can’t really force her anyway. She greeted my babies happily, letting Orion and Athena climb her big arms and her body.
“Auntieee!”
“Aunt Fiery Hair!”
They loved their aunts, but Fiery Hair in particular because she was so playful sometimes and played anything they wanted with them, sometimes even pretending to be a big dinosaur that hunted them down, only to catch them and kiss their bellies while tickling them.
“Raarr! I’m a bwig wofl! Nam, nam!”
Orion playfully bit Fiery Hair's neck with his tiny teeth; she was also durable enough to not even feel his bites, even though they could… probably be very hurtful to most people.
“Ow, ow! Little Orion! You got me! Hahah!”
“I also bite! Nom!”
Athena also attacked!
“Ouch! Orion and Athena, very strong babies already! Will be able to hunt hundreds of prey!”
Fiery Hair had a surprising knack for babies and children; she got along with them so easily it was surprising! And well, like Mursha, her belly was huge.
I think more babies are on the way, so I had thought about staying at least a bit more… I think they should be born in maybe a month and some more.
I had discussed this with Mursha and Fiery Hair, and after they saw how Orion and Athena developed quickly and nicely, they agreed quite quickly.
“Aah! Aren’t you two so cuteee!”
Yanisse was also there, fascinated by my babies. She had become an aunt that liked spoiling the kids and would bring them sweets and other gifts all the time.
“Auntie Yanisse! Do you have cwandy?”
“Mama doesn’t let us eat cwandy… She says too much suwar makes us go cwazy!”
Orion and Athena quickly started asking for the good stuff, these little brats…
They act all cutesy, but they’re smart when it matters!
“Heheh! Of course! Here, there you go! I got some chocolate and candies here,” Yanisse gave away from her huge stash of sweets.
She had all of these stored inside her Inventory Space, which she could access as a Spatial and Void Magician.
She had perhaps… thousands of sweets and all kinds of sugary and salty snacks inside of this space where time was stopped, so things would remain untouched.
Her reasoning behind this was that overusing Mana takes away her body’s calories and energies, and she needs to eat a lot of sugary snacks and so on to keep up.
Though I think she just has a sweet tooth…
“No sweets or snacks before lunch!”
"Yeah, Athena, don’t.”
Urbosa and Merkite stepped in to stop them, stealing the sweets from the children’s hands.
I was too weak against my babies to do it myself though, so I’m glad they did it for me, phew.
“Nooo! Chowateeeee!” Orion cried, making a little tantrum, making puppy eyes.
“Candyyyyy!” Athena also cried like her brother.
As much as she tried to act smarter than him, she was still a child like him at the end! Haha.
“No is no; we’ll give them to you later,” said Urbosa.
“Perhaps after lunch, for dessert or something,” said Merkite.
“But mamaaaa!”
“Mamaaaa, say something!”
Orion and Athena started grabbing my dress and asking me to say something.
“I’m so sorry, but I can’t really go against your mommies,” I sighed. “They’re not wrong! If you eat sweets and snacks now, you’ll feel full and might not have appetite! And look, your aunties prepared such a huge feast! With all your favorite meals, so let’s eat!”
The children quickly ended accepting their fate, as they enjoyed the delicious meals that they prepared for us. It was a wonderful combination of Orcish cuisine, some Russian recipes, and also the amazing roasted meat that Fiery Hair prepared. Peperina wasn’t here though, as she was still cultivating.
They were quite fond of meat the moment we fed them some of it, and now they love eating red meat, in particular the meat of huge cow-like martial beasts, who have the tastiest meat for them. The proteins help them grow up quickly, and they also develop much faster as well.
And seeing my cute babies eating is so nice too!
Orion eating the meat I cut for him into little cubes, making adorable little sounds, then my baby Athena eating mashed potatoes and then grabbing a chicken leg and eating it on her own.
Her hair was getting in between her food though, so I helped her by tying it up into a ponytail for her. As for Orion, his hair had also been growing fast, but he said that he wanted to cut it; apparently he didn’t like long hair.
However, Athena liked it, so we kept it; it was very long now, and she didn’t know how to tie it up yet, so we had to do it for her until she learned better.
“There you go, my princess; much better, right?” I patted her little head.
“Thank you, mama,” she said, while munching on the chicken leg… and then eating the bones too, without problems. “Gulp, can I have a sausage?”
“Sure, here!” Yanisse nodded, giving her one.
“Thank you!” She smiled, eating more.
Even when my babies are just eating, they’re so cute I’m melting!
Ah! Right! How could I forget?
And their clothes? Well, I’ve cut down more of the same fabric used for my own dress and made them some adorable Murim-styled clothes for them.
It’s a bit sad they have to grow quickly, but… It’s for their best.
I’ll love them regardless, always.
…
Though I wonder, where could the future Orion have gone to now?
I wonder if he would be happy to see his younger self or his little sister?
I wish we could talk some more, my son.
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