Chapter 151: Chapter 143 – Reunion

"I believe it is time for us to move now."

"Really? I'd rather wait a bit more."

I did my best to answer Eli, but the pain of my latest contractions made it difficult to avoid speaking through grit teeth.

"It is. This is your sixth set of contractions already, and they are growing more painful, are they not?"

For a moment, I froze at the implication of her words.

(Now that I think about it.)

I nodded slowly. Eli was the expert when it came to this sort of thing.

Hell, I've only been a woman for a few scant years. I could hardly be considered an expert even on that front. It was better to follow her guidance instead.

"Alright. Let me...get changed then."

"Nonsense. I will not allow you to push yourself more than you have to. It is time for you to conserve energy, not expend it."

It felt like if I tried to ignore her at this point, Elli would simply pick me up and carry me over instead, so I didn't bother to argue. She could be quite forceful when she wanted to.

(Or rather, she was quite forceful a lot of the time.)

She certainly liked getting her way, even when others around her didn't. Maybe it was because she was one of the oldest in this city, but she always seemed to thinks she knew what was best for everyone, and was determined to see it done.

Though it was hard to refute, since it was quite common to realize she was right afterwards.

(Even these outfits. To think I'd end up enjoying putting them on.)

Though showing them off to so many people definitely wasn't something I enjoyed.

With Elli's arm around my shoulder to help me keep my balance, we headed out.

"Claret, can you keep the sun off of me?"

"Yes, Master."

With those words, my favourite familiar floated up over me and made her shadow corporeal and spread it over me like an umbrella.

Without my usual robes on, I wasn't protected from the harshness of the day's sun.

"Oh, that dress was enchanted to protect you."

I stared at Elli in response to those words.

(Did she...really intend me to wear this all day and show it off?)

"Not just that one. All of the outfits you were supposed to try on were enchanted to protect you from the sun."

"..."

I could only sigh inside of my heart at how casually she stated that.

It wasn't like I was some expert at enchanting, but I did know enough that even enchanting a single outfit was a decent amount of work. Doing so for who knows how many outfits, I had difficulty trying to imagine how much work that took.

(Or rather, this dress...isn't this made of hunter spider silk too?)

Not just this one, but thinking back, the other outfits had the same texture as well.

I had grown so used to wearing this silk since all the clothes I owned was made from it, so I didn't notice, but the quality of all the outfits all the way down to the base materials was first class.

(Just how much work did they put into these outfits they weren't even sure I'd wear more than once?)

For that matter, there was probably quite a few outfits I hadn't even tried since the fashion show ended up ending early.

I tried to discern what Elli had in mind when these outfits were made, but she just ignored my glare as if it was nothing but a warm spring breeze.

In the end I gave up. This woman generally went all out when it came to her interests, even if it meant bulldozing others to accomplish them. It was something which I had known first hand more than once already.

While the going was slow, we did end up at the closest healer's house.

These buildings were basically miniature hospitals scattered throughout the city. They were also used for birthing, though from what I knew, they weren't used for that purpose that many times yet.

I was taken in to one of the inner rooms and laid down on the soft bed inside while the attendant apothecary went to fetch one of the experienced midwives to examine me.

Since I didn't have a bed in my own room for obvious reasons, we had no choice but to come here on the off chance that this was the real deal.

The room itself was surprisingly clean.

It wasn't like I was expecting something dirty, the people of this country tended to take decent care of the place. But this healing house, and especially this healing room, it was virtually spotless, marred only by the dirt that we ourselves had tracked in when we arrived.

In the air, there was a lingering scent. It was...

(Lavender?)

To think that the soap I've been making on the side was used here.

It was unfortunate, but we've been so busy with everything that starting up proper professional soap making hadn't happened here yet. Basic soap was being made by some people, but nothing properly organized to a high standard.

I was making extra and selling it off since it barely took any extra time over making some for myself, but I didn't think that they were being used at the healing houses.

"How are you feeling dear?"

"Umm, alright, I think?"

I've had the birthing experienced explained to me quite a few times over the last few months in preparation, but that did little to really prepare me for the feeling itself. Even giving Elli a reassuring smile was difficult through the pain.

I had thought myself quite used to dealing with pain, but this was quite a different sort of pain than one you'd experience in combat. I couldn't help but wonder, right now it was pretty bearable, but the fact that it was supposed to get much worse during the actual labour, would I really be able to bear it?

"Is it time? Is your baby going to be born now?"

Orphne lay on my belly sprawled out with an ear pressed down as she slowly rubbed me with her hands. Claret on the other hand was floating off to the side, standing by in case I needed anything. Though the glint in her eye betrayed the excitement she felt. If she had a tail, I bet it would have been wagging quite furiously.

Soon enough, the oldest and most experienced of the midwives who had been helping me these months arrived and gave me an examination after peeling the little fairy off of me.

"It looks like this is it. If you need anything, now's the time to ask."

I thought for a moment, but shook my head. I tended to carry most of the things I figured I would need. I even had many of the baby products I had received during the baby shower in anticipation of this day.

Though, carrying around baby clothes with me more than four months before Alicia was going to be born might have been overdoing it.

"Is that so? Know that you won't be released until after you've regained most of your strength after your birth."

I nodded nervously. Despite the elderly demon midwife's thin and wrinkly features, I couldn't help but find her stern face a bit intimidating.

She helped me remove all my clothes in preparation for the birth, then covered me with a blanket to keep me warm before heading off to another part of the building to give me some privacy, instructing me and Elli to call for her if anything happened. I didn't really need to be kept warm as I well resisted the cold in the first place, but it was soft and it was nice to not be completely naked so I accepted it without complaint.

Elli sat to the side as she gently stroked my head while holding my hand.

The hours went by as the contractions came and went regularly, slowing increasing in intensity.

All sorts of people visited, from the other elders and chieftains to other people I've come to know over this last year. They gave me their good wishes before being chased out by one of the midwives who checked on me on a regular basis.

I could only smile wryly as I such important people of this nation were being treated as annoyances by the midwives, only to be interrupted by a wave of pain from another contraction.

"You should prepare yourself. It has been a long time since I have seen such a difficult birth."

"Seriously?"

I stared at the head midwife as she used her fingers to hold me open while looking inside.

The feeling of it was strange and foreign, and I had trouble adjusting to it.

Thinking back, she was also the first time anything had ever gone up there. I've been so busy with all the new experiences of this world since I first arrived that I never actually explored myself there before.

And now, it was likely I wouldn't be able to do so for a while, as it would set a bad example for Alicia.

It was unfortunate, but I had my priorities.

"Yes. You should have fully dilated by now, but you're not quite there yet. I think it might be a good idea to consider having your belly cut instead of a vaginal birth."

"No! I don't want...that!"

I had to grit my teeth as another wave of pain flooded me in the middle of my answer.

"There is no shame in having a cesarean section done. In fact, it may be safer."

"But...but still!"

While it was true that lately a lot of women gave birth by c-section lately, I still wanted to go through it the natural way. After suffering those terrible pregnancy symptoms for so long, it was my right to be able to experience a natural birth, even if it was more painful and difficult.

Of course, it was a different story if it put Alicia to risk though.

"Will...will it be safe for my baby though?"

The elderly midwife looked me in the eye for a few moments. I wanted to shrink away at the intensity, but held the stare the best I could.

"I'll make sure of it."

That nod she gave me with those words did wonders to improve my confidence.

However, that confidence waned after another two hours of contractions and no sign of moving on to the next phase. Even worse, the head midwife had continued to examine me and poke my insides, looking more and more frustrated.

Finally, she switched with a younger person who poked around inside of me, only to give up after a minute of it.

"Is...something going wrong?"

"...It's hard to say it's entirely wrong, but it certainly isn't helpful."

After a bit of hesitation, the head midwife answered me, and I didn't like the answer at all.

"The amniotic sac still hasn't ruptured, and we haven't been able to break it open from the outside either."

"The...amniotic sac? Isn't it bad that it hasn't broken?"

(Wasn't that the thing that's referred to when your water breaks?!)

"It's certainly better if it has broken, but they don't always break before the baby's birth."

"Really?"

I looked to Elli for confirmation.

"It is actually more rare for the water to break before labour starts, and I have heard that sometimes mothers do give birth to the baby still inside the sac. But I have not seen it for myself."

Her words, along with the squeeze she gave my hand was a bit reassuring.

"What Elder Elli says is true. However I don't recommend allowing that to happen. Even if we have to take some risks, it is far preferable to breach the amniotic sac before you go into full labour."

"Then...?"

I didn't understand what the problem was, or even what was going on in its entirety. I was quite proud of my knowledge of all sorts of topics, but with how things were going over my head, I was forced to realize once again that I had very little knowledge when it came to babies.

"Unfortunately I am unable to breach your amniotic sac on my own. I've never seen it before, but perhaps your greater level is what is making it so difficult."

"Seriously?!"

That was the first time I had ever found a downside to having such a high level. To think that someone wasn't able to perform an important medical procedure because of it. It was certainly concerning if I would ever have to have an operation done, but hopefully healing myself with magic and blood would cover any such problems.

"Elder Elli. Your stats are far greater than my own. Can I have your assistance?"

"That is fine. Allow me."

Letting go of my hand, Elli took the midwife's place and tried poking around. Only this time, I realized that the midwife was holding some sort of rod with a needle point, which Elli had now forced inside of me.

"You are right. This is more difficult than normal."

"Elli?"

The dokkalfar elder withdrawing her hands made me nervous.

"Do not worry, my dear Scarlet. Your baby will not come to harm on my watch."

While her words were reassuring, the fact that she pulled out one of her knives out of nowhere was making me far from calm.

But with a quick movement so fast that it was difficult for even me to clearly catch. Just as my mind registered that she had done something, I felt another strange and foreign sensation, along with a wetness between my legs and the sound of water splashing.

"Elder Elli, you never fail to impress."

"Please, it was nothing. With this, will our dear Scarlet's labour be eased?"

"It will."

The news was like music to my ears.

However, I wasn't able to smile as the pains of another contraction came before I could give my opinion.

 

It was another few hours before the head midwife came back from resting in another room.

At this point, I had estimated it was sometime in the middle of the night. Quite a few people around me looked tired, but surprisingly Elli hadn't left the room once. Even Orphne made a little nest in the corner of the ceiling and went to sleep due to all the nothing which had happened.

"It looks like it is time. Now, when you feel the next contraction, I want you to push with it. Do you understand?"

"Yea. Push with the next contraction."

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I nodded. It was finally time.

It had taken quite a while to get to this point, but I was ready. Soon, I would be able to hold Alicia in my arms.

In the beginning, I had gone with Elli to put on the little fashion show in the morning, which got interrupted around noon. No, after hours of bearing with regular contractions, the end was in sight.

I was thankful for everyone helping me this whole time. Especially Elli for staying with me despite it being closer to early morning than midnight despite her definitely needing the sleep.

But...

"I just realized..."

"What is it dear? What do you need?"

Elli squeezed my hand, that feeling of reliable assurance flowed over me from just that. Claret was holding my right hand, in case I needed so squeeze something through the pains of labour. If I did it with Elli's hand, I would have seriously hurt her, and I didn't want that. It wasn't like I wanted to hurt Claret, but she could take me crushing her hand better than the dokkalfar elder. She was more like me in that sense than Elli could ever be.

"Ummm...what do I do when I push?"

"Wh...what do you mean?"

Elli's smile grew a little awkward as she asked me. From the corner of my eye, the midwives also tilted their heads. Claret on the other hand didn't really react to my question though.

"I mean, what do I push?"

"You push? Your baby, of course."

"Yea, I got that, but how? With my hands?"

My hands were quite occupied at the moment, so I wasn't sure how I was supposed to push Alicia as I was. For that matter, I was worried if I pushed her like that, I might hurt her.

"No silly. You push with your muscles around your womb, of course."

"Really? Huh."

I thought that was automatic, but apparently I was wrong.

"Ummm...how do I do that?"

"How? I mean, you push."

"Yea, but how?"

I turned to the midwives hanging out around my legs, but it was clear that they were at least as confused as I was.

"Umm...Elder Scarlet. You push. Like you are relieving yourself."

"Oh. I see."

That sounded weird, but if that was how it was done, then maybe it made sense. At least it seemed pretty intuitive.

Thinking back, it did correspond with the birthing scenes that showed up on various shows on occasion.

But a problem reared its ugly head once I figured things out that far.

"How...do I do that?"

"What do you mean, dear?"

I turned to Elli. At this point, I had to confess something a bit embarrassing.

"I'm a vampire."

"Yes, we know."

"We're built a lot like spirits."

"Yes, we know that as well."

"Spirits eat mana."

"You have shown that to us before."

"Umm...spirits don't excrete any waste products as far as I know."

"..."

The flash of realization flickered on Elli's expression.

"Oh."

 

"Aaaah! Aa...aaaahhh!"

"You can do it. Deep breaths! You can do it!"

It took some doing, but eventually Elli and the midwives managed to explain things well enough that I was able to adequately engage the necessary muscles.

Despite having been a human in my previous life, without having the need to relieve myself for so many years now, not even muscle memory had remained. It wasn't like people said. Your body doesn't remember.

Then again, it might have had something to do with the fact that this was a new body, so the neural pathways involved were never reestablished.

That said, the pain was real.

It felt like my inner pelvis was on fire.

And each time I pushed, I squeezed Claret's hand while trying to remember to avoid putting strength into Elli's.

I tried to avoid looking at the hand I was squeezing, but the wet feeling which flowed down my arm wasn't encouraging in the slightest.

"Sorry Claret. It must hurt."

"No Master. It's fine. But...is there anything more I can do?"

I shook my head. Just being there and holding my hand was more than enough.

"Please. If there's anything, tell me. Anything I can help with."

"You're already doing plenty, Claret. Thank you."

Looking at my favourite familiar in the eye, I gave her the best smile I could, but even I knew that it was a weak one. So in exchange, I channelled some mana from myself into Claret. Hopefully it would heal the damage I did to her hand.

"No! Master! You need to conserve your mana!"

"It's fine. I have plenty of mana. And your hand..."

"Scarlet, my dear. I do not know what your familiar had said, but I recommend against using your mana right now. You must conserve your energies and dedicate yourself to your birth for now."

As Claret like usual wasn't using [materialize] so wasn't visible to anyone who didn't have [spirit perception], Orphne and I were the only ones who could hear or see Claret.

"Alright. I understand."

There was no way for me to win when Elli was being so firm about it from my left, and Claret had tears running down her cheeks on my right.

As to whether those tears were because I had accidentally crushed her hand, or because she was that worried about me...I didn't even have to give it a thought.

Really, this familiar of mine...

"Are you done now? It's time for you to push again."

But it seemed like there were someone who didn't care about any of that and had different priorities.

"Scarlet dear, you should focus on giving birth over the rest of us."

"That's right Master! Please, do your best!"

It seemed like I was completely outnumbered on that front.

But thinking about calmly, they were right. I shouldn't be getting distracted like that at a time like this. Alicia needed to come first.

 

"Waaah! Waaah!"

"There you go! Good job, Elder Scarlet!"

The head midwife pulled down my blanket and placed Alicia onto my chest.

After so many long hours, I had finally given birth to Alicia. The sight of her small body and the warmth of her skin against my own brought so much comfort to me.

I wasn't done as I needed to still push out the placenta, but none of that really mattered. Alicia had been safely born.

My hands went straight to her little body to support her as her limbs weakly flailed around.

Tears streamed down my face as I gently stroked her head.

(I've finally done it.)

All those years of work. All the pain and difficulty of the pregnancy and birth. Finally, Alicia was in my arms.

The greatest of my life's work was finally done.

I still had to raise her, along with some other minor goals, but this, this was the best day in my life.

"We finally meet again Alicia."

My cheeks hurt from how huge my smile was as I whispered those words to my little daughter.

Though the pain in my cheeks were replaced by the pain in my belly once again as I had another contraction.

The others had said that the contractions will continue for a day or two after the birth, so I wasn't really worried about it.

"Elder Scarlet, I know you want to spend all your time with your newborn, but I need you to work for a little longer."

"Oh right. The placenta, right?"

But the head midwife shaking her head confused me.

"No, I mean you need to push out your second baby."

"Huh?"

"I mean, you are still in labour. Please don't get distracted and work with me."

"Still? But...Alicia's...she's in my hands."

"Yes, and you have another inside of you. I would prefer that you finish giving birth before the sun rises if possible."

"Scarlet dear. She means you have twins."

"Twins? Huh?"

I sounded like some sort of broken record or something, but my mind had trouble processing what they were saying.

"Why didn't anyone tell me that?!"

I was exasperated. I was being helped by so many people experienced personally with childbirth as well as helping others, yet not a single person ever mentioned that I had twins.

"Wasn't it obvious when your belly grew so big?"

"You never asked, so we presumed you wanted it to be a surprise."

Elli and the head midwife's answers baffled me.

I certainly didn't want that to be a surprise.

For that matter, I hadn't even considered the possibility. I wasn't even remotely ready for this outcome.

"Now, that's enough dilly dallying. I need you to push, Elder Scarlet."

"Aaaah!"

Just when I thought it was over, I had to go through all the pain a second time.

But fortunately, it wasn't nearly as bad as the first, and to make things better, the second birth was also much faster.

"Waaah! Waaah!"

Soon enough, I had two babies indistinguishable from each other on my chest as they enjoyed their first meals of their new lives.

"Good job Elder Scarlet."

"You're not going to tell me I'm actually having triplets, are you?"

I couldn't dismiss that possibility as my belly was still inflated. But at this point, I was so exhausted that I might actually give up if that was the case.

"Well...the truth is..."

I looked at the woman slack jawed as she looked away awkwardly.

"You're all done pushing out babies for today."

That evil grin she gave me as I got my answer made her look more like the devil than a demon as I furrowed my brows in annoyance.

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