It was clear that the Elves had abandoned their usual method of reproduction this time.
The Life Fruit took root within the “Mother Body,” absorbing power until it matured. The moment it burst from its shell and the little ones entered the world was the most crucial of all.
With powerful adaptability, they would naturally be drawn to the aura of the “Mother Body,” regarding her as their closest kin.
This was known as the Origin of Life Effect.
“Wait, you mean gestating inside my body?”
“Your body is that of an immortal Vampire, with an unimaginable source of magic power. It is the perfect vessel for the Life Fruit. My daughter will inherit some of your traits and become even stronger… I’m sorry, but I have no choice…”
So, it wasn’t a matter of sending her daughter, it was creating a daughter on the spot!
Not adoption…
But actually giving birth (in the literal sense)!!!
But then… what was this faint aversion she felt toward the idea of “becoming a mother”?
Was it the desire for freedom? Laziness? A fear of trouble?
It was only at this moment that Tulia realized she had misunderstood the meaning of “Mother” from the very start.
“To raise them?”
“Exactly! All you need to do is raise them to adulthood and see them married off.”
“Of course, it would be even better if you could take them to study at the Elven Sanctuary.”
“Preferably at the Royal Academy of Magic in Silverglow City.”
The Elf Mother started her endless chatter again. From her, Tulia learned much about the Life Fruit, the current situation of the Elves, and all sorts of information. As for why she agreed… well, she hadn’t agreed at all, it was a forced transaction!
The Elf Mother even promised… well, actually she promised nothing at all. All she did was paint a picture of how noble it was to be a mother.
On top of that, Tulia’s body had also been tampered with. The Life Fruit had already taken root, and it was said that forcibly removing it would cause irreversible harm to the “Mother Body,” possibly resulting in both of their deaths (counting her as well).
So, in other words, she either accepted her fate as a mother, or risked going down together with the little troublemaker inside her belly.
“My life is like a candle flickering in the wind. My obsession, my hope, my sin, my soul… I leave them all to you…”
“Hey, hey, hey, stop monologuing over there, you bastard.”
In the quiet woodland, the Elf Mother burned her last reserves of strength to forge a binding Contract with Tulia. Any violator would be devoured by the power of life.
The Elf Mother’s body dissolved entirely into points of light, and the vines that had bound Tulia lost their strength.
She crashed awkwardly to the ground. Clutching her now clearly rounded belly, where she could distinctly feel an extra heartbeat, her mind was a chaotic storm.
She, Tulia, shut-in Vampire, who had planned to outlive her enemies, now found that plan utterly ruined. Congratulations, she’d been promoted to “prospective mother,” and she was to do the job herself!
Cold moonlight shone down on the clearing, illuminating Tulia’s stunned face and slightly protruding belly.
She could clearly sense that so-called “Life Fruit” rooting inside her like an alien heart, pulsating. Each subtle throb brought a warm current that clashed with the chilling magic of her Vampire nature, even giving her a bizarre… feeling of fullness?
“What is this? Forced surrogacy? Or cross-species parasitism?”
Tulia wanted to cry but had no tears. She rubbed that lump of soft flesh, the faint yet steadfast heartbeat from within silently mocking her “sleep-until-your-enemies-die” flawless plan.
Freedom! Her freedom! Her dream of a shut-in, immortal life! All gone!
Just imagine, from now on she would no longer be the mysterious noble of the night, but a… nanny dragging along a group of little Elves?
When the little ones cried for food, should she give them blood, or dew?
Would Elf babies fear sunlight?
If not, did that mean their Vampire mother, who feared sunlight, would have to carry an umbrella and brave the holy light to attend parent-teacher meetings for them?
The image was so surreal Tulia couldn’t bear to imagine it.
“The Royal Academy of Magic in Silverglow City? The Elven Sanctuary?”
She recalled the Elf Mother’s endless chatter before her death and felt her head spin.
“I’d rather find a coffin lid and lie down forever, yet now you want me to take children to school? What a joke!”
And there was that forced Contract… Any violator would be devoured by the power of life.
Tulia tried to summon her dark magic, only to feel a gentle but unyielding resistance from her belly, as if warning her not to harm the “seedling” inside.
Well, now even the “accidental miscarriage” route was blocked. That Elf woman was basically a kidnapper turned robber!
“Sigh…”
Tulia let out a long sigh and resignedly picked herself up from the ground.
She patted the mud and grass from her skirt (luckily, the one she’d worn for her long slumber was of good quality), feeling the surge of new life within her, her emotions more complicated than ever.
Disgust? A little, since she’d been forced into this.
Fear? She certainly felt uncertain about the future.
But beyond that, there seemed to be a faint… nearly imperceptible, and even to herself unacknowledged, sense of strange connection.
Was it the influence of the Life Fruit? Or the effects of the Contract?
“Forget it, what’s done is done…”
Tulia rubbed her still faintly aching belly (she wasn’t sure if it was lingering cramps or if the “child” had kicked her), and looked around the unfamiliar woods. “First, I need to figure out where I am, and then… find a place to ‘protect the pregnancy’?”
Saying that out loud even sent a chill down her own spine.
Her top priority was to leave this troublesome place.
Who knew if the Elf Mother had any enemies, or if the magic disturbance from earlier would draw trouble like the minions of that “Bad Woman” Sophia she least wanted to meet.
She had to find a safe, dark, quiet place to properly study the “trouble” in her belly, and figure out how to accomplish this utterly absurd, epic quest, raising an Elf child to adulthood.