A winged baby is crying.
It has a distinct kyururu way of crying, but it looks like a human baby.
But surely this is a monster. People don’t have wings.
And they don’t exude this much magic energy.
The magic energy bursting from the baby smarts on my skin.
If it had direction, it could change into a spell and explode.
There’s no way a baby with no sense of self can control it, and this is not an amount of magic energy a human baby should have.
So it’s not a person. I should end it here.
I take the longsword and put strength into it to finish it in one blow.
I move to draw it, move, move… Don’t move.
I can’t.
It’s a baby. Even if it’s a monster, I can’t kill a baby.
I could get the resolve to do it if I felt a will to harm me coming from it, but I can’t expect that from a baby with a blank consciousness.
I relax my posture and turn around to leave.
If I can’t kill it, it should at least meet an end where I can’t see it, I think as I go.
I think this world is still monochrome because of that baby. Another monster should attack it eventually.
Then the world will go back to how it was.
So let’s leave.
Come, Fuuma.
Fuuma isn’t leaving the baby. In fact, it’s looking at me like it’s asking if I’m sure about this.
It’s fine, let’s go return to the surface.
I say that, and Fuuma reluctantly walks towards me.
I complain, saying it’s about time, move, and draw my longsword.
It’s a monkey monster. The monkey boss I let go is going after the baby monster.
It all happens in a second. I infuse the longsword with magic energy, draw it, and send out a projectile slash.
The boss monkey reacts and dodges.
It has the baby in its hands and looks smug.
So I instantly close the distance and end its head flying.
Ah, dammit, this isn’t good.
I’m baffled by how my choices went into a stupid direction.
Now that I’ve saved it, it’s over. I can’t abandon it.
The baby is still crying in my arms.
The monochrome world regains its color.
At the same time, I feel a shift. It’s like something felt off, but it’s back to normal.
Yes, something isn’t right. I look around, and rack my brain because I can’t figure out why.
The baby’s cries make me stop thinking about that, and I turn to the baby.
It’s still weakly crying, and it looks weak in general. Also, both its body and wings are dirty, probably from rolling on the ground.
I cast Healing Magic just to be sure, but it’s still weak. I use Trace to figure out why, and see it’s just malnourished. So it’s crying because it’s hungry.
I look left and right wondering what to do, because I don’t have milk to give it.
I don’t even know if I should give it milk. Maybe it also eats monsters despite being a baby.
I know. It has wings, so should I feed it bugs like a bird?
I take the stag beetle monster from my Storage Space, peel off its shell, and scoop out the meat.
I put it in the baby’s mouth, and it spits it out.
Of course, it doesn’t have teeth, so it can’t eat this. Then I crush it and give it the meat, and the result is the same.
I look around looking for milk, and my eyes meet Fuuma’s.
I ask it if it has any, and I get a very matter-of-fact of course not.
I look around again, and find a cow.
My eyes meet the cow’s.
There’s a divine air to it.
Its body is beautiful, and there’s an all embracing motherly feeling to it.
Our eyes meet, but it keeps eating grass like it’s not interested, and leaves.
I’ll catch it and milk it.
Moo!! It yells, but I keep milking it. I throw water out of a plastic container, and keep doing it, but it doesn’t feel like it will run out of milk.
Nice going cow! I think as it feels like it will cast a spell, but I disturb its magic energy and cancel it.
Lately I’ve been able to do that by touching something. Of course, it doesn’t work on things with better magic energy control than me, but it’s one more thing I can do.
By the way, Fuuma is holding the cow by the neck with its teeth and not letting go.
It’s pressing it down so it won’t run, but also so it can snap its neck if it gets dangerous.
Come on, be still! I say as I milk it with the attitude of a ruffian, and after filling all the plastic containers, I pour light water into a barrel and release it.
The cow trembles like something terrible has happened, drinks water, and leaves.
I can’t take it down after taking its milk.
We say thanks to the cow, and I give milk to the baby right away. I don’t have a baby bottle or anything, so I make a sort of udder with cloth and bring it to its mouth. And it slowly starts sucking.
I pour it slowly, and it soon stops like it’s full.
I don’t know if I should do it to this baby, but I hold it up straight and tap its back. Human babies burp, but what about this one?
I tap it lightly and instead of burping, it lets out a shrill keeh sound, using magic energy to fire a sonic projectile.
It carves the ground, breaks trees, and blows away all monsters in its path until it dissipates.
Ou, that was a pretty dangerous burp. This is no time for jokes, this baby’s magic energy is getting out of control. It might explode at this rate.
I guide the rampaging magic energy, and turn it into wind magic fired at the sky.
There’s a gust of wind that violently shakes trees. It goes on for a while until the baby’s magic energy settles.
With its belly full and its magic energy spent, the baby falls asleep.
…Is it going to do this every time it has milk?
No no, let’s rethink this.
If this baby’s mother comes, that will be the end of that.
If it’s a monster with wings, it should be able to find it if I leave it where it can be seen from above.
I hold the baby, ready to go up to the sky, but then I look at its face and notice something.
…Is this the silver-haired guy’s baby?
The baby has blond hair and white wings, not black like that guy’s. But their faces seem similar.
If it took after the mother when it comes to the hair and wings, it could have taken after the father when it comes to the face.
No, but the ones that guy had with him all had an almost black shade of purple. There must be something else, right?
I’m so jealous.
I decide in my heart to have a rematch the next time we meet.
◇ ◇ ◇
I control clothes made of wool to wrap the baby and secure it to my stomach before I go up.
I figured the parents would come looking for it if I was above the trees, but there are too many bird monsters flying around for me to wait here.
It would be one thing if it was just me and Fuuma, but it’s dangerous to move around too much with the baby, so I want to avoid fighting when I can.
Two bird monsters with red wings spotted us. They’re clearly after us, but their heads fly off after a projectile slash.
I return to the ground and look at the baby’s still sleeping face. It looks like that much isn’t a problem.
So what now? Waiting here is a waste of time.
Wouldn’t it be better to go looking for the parents, since I don’t even know if they’ll come here?
Even if we miss each other, I just have to leave some sort of mark.
And so, I use my sword to draw something close to the baby’s face on a tree near where I found it. I draw an ◯, then a ♨︎ on its head, facial features, and marks that look like wings. They should understand this.
Now all that’s left is to add an arrow in the direction where I’m going.
All right, with that done, I get on Fuuma feeling very satisfied.
Let’s go, I say, and the baby trembles before Fuuma can take a step.
It feels warm around my stomach, and I let out a huge sigh.
Auðumbla (cow)
Creates the most nutritious milk in this wide Abyss world. Its fighting power is considerable, but it specializes in running away. Between a hundred and two hundred liters of milk can be extracted in a single sitting. There is no bull. It wanders the land looking for its ideal prince (cow).
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