Chapter 197 – Sincerely (2)
25. Sincerely (2)
‘A little bit… Little bit more… !’
Cestia gritted her teeth. The pain, like my body being split and my flesh ripping, was unbearable. Her childhood should be more tolerable than when she gave birth to her first child, but her psychological factor made her impatient.
Dungeon.
And Hendrick’s corps of warriors.
Even though I was worried about whether the baby would come out well, and even though my lower body was tearing up, I felt like I was going crazy because I was worried about Hendrick. Moreover, he couldn’t even use the divine power that he carefully used when camouflaging himself in the monastery with a pressure bandage or when soothing a baby overboard, fearing that he would make a mistake.
“Ah, ah, ah…”
The pain, which had subsided for a while, intensified again. It was like a baby crying out to focus on him.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.”
Her breath caught. Cestia squeezed her eyes shut to focus on her baby.
‘Hendrick… Ah.’
But it backfired. It was because when she closed her eyes, Hendrick’s figure came to mind more clearly. Hendrick worried about her while taking a walk, Hendrick seriously discussed her dungeon raid, Hendrick shone with fighting spirit in her crisis situation, and whispered her love through fostering… It wasn’t, but Hendrick’s image, which made her feel more full of love than ever before, passed by.
‘I miss you.’
Even if she tried to erase it, she couldn’t erase it. To Cestia, Hendrick was such an existence. At first, he was just a colleague of her sisters of the same order, but after a while he became an inseparable part of her. The more I look at it, the more I talk about it, some of it gets stronger and bigger. A clear reason has not been pinpointed to this day. It was driven, it was destiny. Especially the baby now struggling in her belly was proof of that.
“Ah…”
Cestia, who instinctively poured divine power into her lower abdomen, was startled and withdrew her divine power. She could see her swollen stomach and weakly splayed legs. For a moment, she felt lonely and depressed. I felt left alone in this harsh world.
“Ouch!”
A baby inside her body, and an unknown aura from the dungeon entrance outside her body knocked on her body. At this moment, she longed for Hendrick to be by her side. Instead of the handle she held for support, she wanted to hold his hand. Saying it’s okay, saying it’s going well, saying cheer up a little bit, thank you… I wanted to hear his sweet voice.
‘Let’s endure.’
Cestia decided to persevere once again, as she had always done. Instead, she didn’t even bother erasing Hendrick’s figure. She was not here, and in her imagination she wanted to be with him. In her imagination, she wanted his support.
Then, wouldn’t Cordia be able to do her best?
Cestia received the unusual aura that was still occurring into her body and gave strength to her stomach.
**
“Ah…”
8 hours.
It was the time it took for a new life to come out of the world.
She was exhausted from the labor pain, but she had no one to help her, so Cestia had to take care of her after herself.
How could he possibly be when he saw this little creature howling and wriggling in her arms.
“Cordia. My daughter.”
Cordia’s cries were loud. She seemed to be grumbling that she had been very frustrated all this while, and it seemed like she was asking where her father was.
How are you?
It was so lovely.
Since he was a newborn, his face was red and wrinkled, and he didn’t have much hair, but Cestia was already looking for Hendrick’s resemblance in the baby’s face. She had a spirit she hadn’t had.
“Baby. Cordia.”
Even the fact that Cordia was born today felt like fate. She wondered if she had noticed her father’s return and was just about to meet him. Now, the energy emitted from the dungeon entrance has subsided, but Cordia was still crying.
“… Lady Laella.”
She wanted to run to the dungeon entrance even now. Although she was transformed, she was still able to handle her divine power, and then if she healed somehow, she would be able to roll this body, so it wasn’t an impossible story.
But Cordia was just a baby.
She was born healthy, but she was the weakest being in the world. She felt that even moving a considerable distance, even breathing outside, would harm Cordia.
‘Even if she returned safely, she would be mentally exhausted, but if she took the baby born today and told her it was your daughter…’
Hendrick, who loves and cares for his lover, would be very embarrassed, and his lovers could be very displeased. I didn’t want to upset the hearts of Salem’s best, no, the world’s best heroes, who had accomplished a historic feat and returned home.
Her happiness, set by Cestia, had been her priority ever since she was pregnant with her first daughter.
‘Are you okay.’
She was very patient, and her mental strength was strong.
Although, that hardness was not something she was born with, but it had turned into calluses as a result of her repeated wounds and healing.
‘This time… I don’t regret it.’
This patience that suppresses this heartbreaking heart will be the last patience she will experience in her life.
As much as she endured this time, instead of rotting and stomping her feet like her, she would finally eat her sweet fruit.
Soothing Cordia, who couldn’t even hold her tightly for fear of being crushed, Sestia closed her eyes and prayed.
**
Fortnight has passed since Cordia’s birthday. In the meantime, Cestia has almost regained her condition. Not only that, she showered Cordia with all the blessings she could. Cestia focused on Cordia to such an extent that anyone else would say she is polar.
“Ab!”
“Do you miss my daughter, daddy?”
“Flattery!”
Cordia, who was born otherwise healthy, became a full-blooded baby after her 15 days soaked in her divine powers, and unlike most of her babies, who don’t speak until after about six months, she can’t hear her already. From then on, she began to show signs of babbling.
“Abbub!”
Sestia gave her breast to Cordia, who was gagging in the air with a hearty smile. She was so lively that her nipples hurt, but seeing the baby’s more defined features made me smile.
‘… Her holy power has decreased.’
But she couldn’t help but laugh.
Even after La Ella descended on her sister Kaya, her divine power of Cestia, which was not so obvious, began to noticeably decrease after her Cordia birth, and her speed increased as the days passed. It got faster. Because of that, Cestia’s heart became more urgent, and she poured more of her divine power into Cordia, and the more she did, the faster her decline.
‘This is a bit higher than almost half…’
Although she did not renounce her faith in her Goddess, she renounced her nunship. She actually thought that she was lucky that her holy power was maintained until now. But now it was very sad. She wanted to do something better for the baby for a long time, and when she met Hendrick, she didn’t want to be pushed aside by his amazing lovers.
‘If not now.’
The sudden disappearance of the dungeon caused great confusion in Salem, and in the midst of it, there was no rumor about Hendrick and the warriors, so I couldn’t stay here.
No matter how healthy Cordia is, a baby is a baby. It was premature to go outside, but I thought it was right to find Hendrick while I still had divine power. Without divine power, she is just an ordinary mother of a baby.
‘La Ella. Forgive her foolish daughter.’
Sestia pulled out her nun’s uniform, which she had stored away on one side of her. She thought that if she pretended to be a nun of the order, she would be a little safe.
“Cordia. I am going to visit her father from now on.”
끅-
Cestia patted Cordia on the back to induce belching. Cordia pursed her lips a few times before closing her eyes.
“Right. She is sleeping well I trust my mother.”
Cestia left her house, tying the laces of her wrapping cloth tight.
‘If she returned safely, I don’t think she’ll stay in Salem any longer.’
Cestia did not move her steps recklessly. Now that she had a baby, she couldn’t waste time. She couldn’t be sure that she fully understood Hendrick, but she put herself in his shoes and tried imagining his thoughts.
‘Hendrick-sama wasn’t particularly interested in fame or wealth.’
She was the one who remembered almost exactly what Hendrick said and did. She had some confidence. Her mother and daughter walked out of Salem. Although she was subjected to fairly strict checks at the Salem border, she was able to get out relatively easily thanks to her nun’s uniform.
The problem started now.
He was certain that Hendrick’s party had made it out of Salem, but he had no idea where they were headed.
‘Sister Kaya’s hometown? No. Shay Crusader’s hometown… Neither. It’s not even Illumina-sama’s hometown.’
As far as Sestia knew, their hometown was either out of reach or had already disappeared. The darkness came upon me. Sadness soon set in. She thought she was nothing to him. It would have been nice if she had told me at least one word about where she had gone, not directly but indirectly.
Officially, she wasn’t Hendrick’s lover, and it was Cestia who seduced him, so she wasn’t technically qualified to argue with him… It was not something that even she could control that her emotions soared.
Just as she was staring at the sky in an attempt to calm her heart, Cordia, who had been asleep, tossed over her body.
“Baby?”
“Yeah!”
Cordia suddenly burst into tears. Cestia’s eyes widened as she patted her baby’s back and tried to put her back to sleep.
Cordia only cried when she looked south of her.
