My body feels light, Lefi thought to herself.
“Hmm... Well, that is only natural, I suppose,” she muttered while touching her abdomen. Life had recently nestled there, but it was now miraculously back to normal, so it was no wonder her body felt incredibly light. Despite all the discomfort she had experienced, a sense of loneliness somehow overshadowed the feeling of relief.
She looked at her son, Sakuya. She still couldn’t believe that the babe had been inside her womb until recently. It was all so strange, so mysterious. Simply looking at him made her happy.
“You are too precious.”
He slept the sound sleep of the innocent, his face cherubic. Honestly, it surprised her how long he slept each day. She had thought babies were a lot of work, but perhaps because she had a husband who was even more troublesome—or rather, a husband who involved himself in all sorts of troublesome situations, even the fact that he cried a few times a day charmed her. She had yet to find this child-rearing business difficult at all.
A son who had inherited her traits and her beloved husband’s. Their child possessed small, adorable horns and a tail, and even though they weren’t visible now, she was almost certain that he also had wings. She could see a current of magic concentrated around his shoulder blades. They would sprout at some point, and when they did, she wanted to be the one to teach him how to fly.
“When the time comes...I would like to teach Riu as well, if possible.”
She looked at the babe sleeping next to Sakuya. His sister, Riu. That child also had Yuki’s blood, but she likely didn’t have wings. Unlike her son, there was no flow of magic visible on her back. However, intuition told her that a future would come in which Riu would be envious of Sakuya’s ability to fly. Lefi realized that those were the kinds of things parents needed to think about.
“Gah ha... Parents, eh?”
Technically, Riu wasn’t her child. Even so, the girl was precious in her own way. She might not have given birth to her, but Riu felt just as much like her own as Sakuya. The fact that she felt that way brought her great joy, as it meant that she considered Lew family from the bottom of her heart. She also knew that Lew felt the same way about Sakuya. She had seen how her fellow wife showered him with the same amount of love as she did her own daughter. Words could not describe her happiness. And surely the two of them would similarly cherish any children Nell and Leila bore someday.
Well, now that I am light on my feet again, I think I shall move around more.
Perhaps a more vigorous walk was in order. She had grown used to taking them daily since becoming pregnant. Actually... No. She hadn’t flown at all once her belly had grown too large. It had been too long since she had even spread her wings, so it would be good to move her body and fly through the sky, free as a bird.
“Lew, Leila. Would you two look after things for a bit?”
“Sure! Off on your usual walk?”
“Exercise does wonders for the body.”
“Yes, something like that. Now that all this weight is gone, I thought I would try flying around a bit.”
Lefi entrusted the children to them and left the living room.
✦ ✦ ✦
She didn’t go to the meadow area. Instead, she headed to the Demonic Forest. The meadow area was spacious enough as a garden or playground, but too small for unfettered flight. Clear as day, she recalled Yuki crashing into the boundary and suffering a nosebleed as a result.
My word, this heat.
“Ah, it is always so hot here...”
The sun dazzled. The meadow area was comfortable even during hot weather, but this area was always humid. There was no spring, winter, or autumn. Only summer.
The mountain where she’d lived before meeting Yuki wasn’t so bad because of its high altitude, but this area was sweltering, even in short sleeves. For a moment, she wanted to turn back, but she reconsidered, thinking it would be pathetic as a parent if she couldn’t endure something so trivial.
And so, she unfurled the wings on her back. She flapped them a few times to check their condition, then soared into the vast sky. The wind rushed past her.
When Lefi flew without holding back, she was even faster than Yuki. Anyone else who traveled at that speed wouldn’t even be able to open their eyes without creating a windbreak in front of them with wind magic. In Yuki’s previous life, she would have easily outpaced the latest fighter jets, as she gave herself free rein in the sky.
But Lefi sensed that something was off. Hmm. As expected, I have grown a mite weak.
She was, at her core, a homebody, and since meeting Yuki, she had spent her days holed up in the dungeon. However, as one of dragonkind, a species with one of the most powerful builds in the world, that wouldn’t be enough to dull her physically. Especially when it wasn’t out of the ordinary for her kind to spend a year or two, sometimes a decade or more, doing nothing. Just living a life of leisure. Dragons weren’t the strongest species for show, after all. Even if they idled about in the same spot for a hundred years, it would have no effect on their physical condition. Nevertheless, Lefi had now confirmed a definitive decline in her physical abilities, and it was unlike anything she had experienced before. The reason was obvious.
“It seems Sakuya absorbed a certain amount of my power. I had a feeling this would happen.”
She hovered in place for a moment and examined her body. She rarely checked her abilities, so she didn’t remember the exact values. By feel, however, she estimated a twenty percent loss, both magically and physically, compared to before her pregnancy.
That being said, those stats weren’t reflected in Sakuya himself. While his abilities were greater than Riu’s, he was still only a babe. Yet there was something there. Something she couldn’t quite put into words... The potential for growth. Perhaps that was where her power had gone.
Though the child resembled her in appearance, Lefi was convinced that his more fundamental aspects resembled her husband. In other words, she believed he had been born with the characteristics of a demon lord, possessing an extraordinary ability to adapt.
“Gah ha... Truly, the offspring of the Supreme Dragon and a demon lord, eh?”
Her son’s future would be a challenging one. Thus, she should train her weakened body so as to become a mother strong enough to help him through those challenges. She had to work hard to be powerful and dependable.
Ah, I cannot wait to see what tomorrow holds!
Lefi remained suspended in the air, gazing at the world. The sun and the blue sky. The forests and the mountains. The rivers and the sea. A world full of possibilities, stretching to the horizon. A world where she, her husband, and her family all existed, and where her children would live. She contemplated the sight before her for some time before returning to the dungeon.