I was in raptures when I heard the chief's story. Soleil is still crying, tears streaming down her face. Next to her, Alyria is clinging to her arm with a worried expression on her face.
To my surprise, the child Soleil gave birth to was a boy.
It was my knowledge that Siljus, who is descended from Succubus, basically only give birth to females. However, there have been exceptions in their long history.
Nearly a thousand years ago, a Siljus gave birth to a boy. The Siljus, who had believed that only women could be born, were very upset by the birth, but at the same time, they were very happy to have their first boy.
However, it is said that the baby's crying was so bad that they wanted to cover their ears, not to mention its volume. Because of this, the spirits with whom the Siljus had contracted fled, and their village was temporarily in a critical situation.
The Siljus, who had originally sustained their lives by taking in the life energy of the spirits, collapsed one after another as soon as they could no longer obtain the blessings of the spirits. This is a matter of conjecture, but it is likely that the spirits that were taken into their bodies played the role of neutralizing poisons taken into their bodies and providing resistance to kill germs. In the village of Silures, the number of people who fell ill of unknown causes and went to bed increased dramatically.
The chief of the time, who took a serious look at the situation, was torn between two options. He could either expel the babies along with their mothers from the village, or he could take the children's lives. In the end, the chief chose the latter. She took the life of the baby in front of the crying mother.
"Why did you do such a terrible ...... thing?"
I mutter in a small voice as I slowly exhale. You don't have to kill him in front of his mother. Couldn't they have isolated the mother and the child somewhere? I continue to stare at her, thinking about this.
"The baby's mother was the daughter of the chief."
"......"
Siljus, who, we are told, does not have the blessings of the spirits, dies shortly afterwards. The daughter who gave birth to a boy, like Soleil, spent her pregnancy protected by the spirits with whom her mother had contracted. This is because the pregnant Siljus is not able to use the spirits, and thus spends the gestation period until the birth protected by the spirits contracted by the chieftain. For this reason, the chief must have a contract with a spirit of high rank, and the spirits who are chosen are not fire or other offensive spirits, but rather forest or water spirits, which have a healing role.
"So, Soleil, who has a contract with the Lord Shenlong, is ...... the chief of the tribe."
"No. Rather, Soleil is the next chief of the tribe.
Kaminryu-sama is an outstanding spirit. If he could be used at will, it would be a guarantee of prosperity for the Siljus, and above all, it would be almost impossible for the Siljus carrying him to die of illness.
"So ....... Therefore, we cannot remove Soleil from the village with the child. Then, the only thing left to do is to ......."
The chief bit his lip. At that moment, the baby Soleil was carrying cried out.
......It was the cry of a normal baby. It sounds more like a weak cry.
"Ugh......tstststststststststststs ......"
The chief, hearing the baby's cries, crouches down, holding his head. Soleil's eyes are squeezed shut and she is trying hard to hold something back.
"Wow, what an interesting cry! Unyaaakiiinnn, unyaaakiiinnn..." she said.
Next to Soleil, Alilia is making crazy noises. She says she hears a squeaking sound. I try to listen, but I don't hear any such sound at all.
"Uhhhhh ...... ......"
Soleil moaned and without any hesitation, she held out her breast with one hand and started to breastfeed the baby. The child is sucking hard on its mother's breast, its chin wagging.
"Wow, he's so cute. ......"
Alyria looks at the baby and screams. I walk up to her and take a look.
"Wow, ......, he's so cute. Does she look like me in some way?"
I could only see about half of her face, hidden by Soleil's chest, but her face somehow resembled the look of my father in my previous life. I suddenly remembered my father, and I almost cried.
"You look just like Rinos-sama. ......"
Soleil spoke to me with a faint sweat on her forehead, but still smiling. I wiped away my tears and hugged her back gently.
I looked over and saw the chief looking at us with an indescribable expression on his face. I take my eyes off of her and look at Alyria, who is happily looking into the baby's face.
"Hey, Alyria. Hey, Alyria, does this baby make a squeaking sound when it cries?
"What? I do? It's a keening sound."
"When I hear her cry, my head hurts. ......"
Soleil opens her mouth apologetically.
"Well, ...... I don't hear it at all, though. ......"
"The sound is confusing the spirits. It is the sound that spirits hate the most.
What?
The chief says that Siljus have a unique sense of sound and can hear the smallest of sounds. They can hear the high-pitched cries of babies, which causes headaches. Apparently, the unpleasant "squeak" sound made when they scratch the blackboard with their fingernails can be heard as if it were an explosion ....... Because of this sound, the spirit with whom the chief has a contract has already asked to terminate the contract if he can continue to hear this sound.
I think for a moment and hold out my right hand toward the child Soleil is holding.
"...... Mr. Linos?"
"I warded this child."
"What?"
"I don't know how far we can go, but we should be able to keep them from hearing high pitched sounds, right? I put up a ward that blocks sound above a certain height."
"Mr. Linos, ......"
"Don't cry, Soleil. You brought a child into this world, a boy. You did good. You did good. We'll have to let you rest soon.
With these words I turn to Vival, the chief.
"I don't know what happened in the past, but now I have my wards. I will make sure that the Siljus and the others will not be disturbed, so please do not tell me to take his life or the life of his son.
Tears welled up again in the Chief's eyes when he heard my words.
◆ ◆ ◆
But even with my warding, when the child began to cry, Vivar and Soleil both had a headache. So, with the permission of the chief, I called Riko and my wives from my house in the capital to this village and we discussed the measures to be taken.
Alyria played a major role in this discussion. She and Sadie found the cause of the headache that Siljus was getting. She gave Sidhi an image of the sound she was hearing, which he interpreted for her so that we could understand.
Sidie's insight was nothing short of brilliant. Her vocabulary was still limited and her descriptions were almost onomatopoeic, so she carefully listened to them and made similar sounds by clanging metal objects to convey the images to me. Thanks to this, I was able to set up the warding that would save Siljus and the others a lot of headaches.
"By the way, what a complex sound this child's cry makes! Alyria, you are amazing! Good, good."
Alyria is clinging to Soleil with a happy smile on her face. Riko and Mei put ice cubes on her head and change the baby's clothes.
"Soleil, you have married into a good family!
"Yes. Yes, mother."
Vivar speaks to Soleil with a calm expression on his face, a complete change from a few hours ago. Soleil smiles back at her. There was a happy mother and daughter .......
The child Soleil gave birth to was named "Seisam" and a few days later, together with the child Matkal gave birth to, was announced to the world as a member of the Linos family. Neither Rinos, Matocal, nor Soleil had any way of knowing the strange fates that awaited these two princes. .......