Opportunity in the Game Becomes Reality Chapter 288
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Opportunity in the Game Becomes Reality Chapter 288
61. My Goal (4)
When I entered the room, I saw Arcia receiving treatment from the midwife.
The identity of the spirited midwife who had even kicked me out of the room was the bishop of the Duchy of Lawrence's Sepia Order branch, and there was no doubt about her healing abilities.
However, with a light snap of my fingers, I returned Arcia's body to its best condition before pregnancy.
In Rondel, the world of magic, postpartum care was a story from a faraway land.
"Ahem, ahem, congratulations. It's a beautiful princess."
The midwife offered her congratulations, clearing her throat as if embarrassed.
And I approached Arcia, who was holding the child.
The priest and lady-in-waiting who had been assisting the midwife bowed their heads and cautiously withdrew.
"You worked hard."
I held Arcia's hand.
Compared to ordinary mothers, the delivery was very quick, but that didn't mean there was no pain.
So I offered warm words to her who had accomplished a great task, and examined the child.
But I was left speechless.
"Hmm, this child is a newborn, right?"
"Haha, even Bishop Perlin was flustered."
It wasn't that I hesitated because there was something wrong with the child.
It was because the child was so beautiful.
As if proving that the daughter was the child of Arcia and me, she followed our physical characteristics.
Her hair was silver, and her faintly visible eyes held the color of sapphire.
She inherited her hair and eye color from me, and everything else was a carbon copy of Arcia.
But isn't it strange?
That the child's appearance could be described in such detail.
Weren't ordinary newborns supposed to be red and wrinkly?
'This isn't what a newborn looks like?'
Yet my daughter had smooth skin, and though she seemed to struggle to open her eyes wide, she occasionally rolled her eyes as if observing her surroundings.
Thanks to that, the child was indeed pretty, but from an ordinary person's perspective, she couldn't help but seem strange.
"The energy she carries is no joke either."
What was even more surprising was that the newborn child carried 7th Circle-level Mana.
It wasn't hard to realize the reason.
'It's because she's the child of a god race, so she's different from ordinary humans.'
A child of the god race is also a god race.
Perhaps it was only natural.
Just as a dragon's young is.
Just as the children of the Heavenly Tribe and demon race are.
In the end, this child too was the offspring of a transcendent being.
At that, I smiled and stroked my daughter's head.
"Have you given the blessing?"
At my question, Perlin, both the midwife and the duchy's bishop, shrugged her shoulders.
"There's no need for that. That child already carries the blessing of a god."
"What do you mean? Ah…."
Thinking about it, I recalled that when Arcia absorbed the Authority of Kaeos, the creator of Earth, a portion of it had flowed into the fetus.
That energy was probably one of the reasons she had 7th Circle-level Mana despite being a newborn.
"She's a child born with the best golden spoon among golden spoons."
When I said that with a proud expression, nodding my head, Arcia let out a small laugh.
I'm curious what will happen if this lovely child grows up smoothly between Arcia and me.
Unlike us, who started from nothing, she has a blessed environment, so might she far exceed my expectations?
So I resolved once again.
"I'll do my best in raising her! I'll show you what gifted education is!"
"Let's do our best!"
Arcia and I grabbed each other's hands as if cheering, showing our enthusiasm.
"That's all fine, but please don't force excessive education on the child. Looking at nobles and royal families, they all push their children so hard it's pitiful."
The advice of Bishop Perlin, who was old enough to be a grandmother.
Thanks to that, Arcia and I, who had been showing our enthusiasm, scratched our cheeks.
"That's true."
I could understand her words without difficulty.
After all, I was from South Korea, which could be called the world's best when it came to fervor for education.
At that, Arcia and I resolved once again.
"The child's happiness comes first!"
"Let's do our best!"
The same pose and the same reply from Arcia.
But the goal had changed slightly.
Toward happiness rather than improving the child's abilities.
'But to maintain happiness, some degree of power is necessary.'
* * *
Along with the Inca, the civilizations counted as the representative civilizations of the American continent are the Maya and the Aztec.
The Inca operated centered on the Peruvian Andes Mountains.
The Maya held the tropical rainforests from southeastern Mexico to Guatemala and Honduras as their territory.
The Aztec were located on the central-western Mexican highlands.
The civilization boasting the oldest history is the Maya, and the Inca and Aztec are empires founded around a similar period.
Perhaps people might not know the capitals of Peru, Mexico, Guatemala and such, but there is no one who does not know the Maya, Inca, and Aztec.
That means the mythology of this region is as firmly established as Europe's.
And this fact also influenced the measures of the Sepia Goddess.
"We won!"
"Mexico secured!"
Because Maya mythology and Aztec mythology have different eras of origin and overlapping regions of activity, there are cases where their characters overlap.
The representative being among them is the serpent god called 'Quetzalcoatl.'
But perhaps because the Maya civilization appeared before the Aztec?
The serpent god 'Quetzalcoatl' came to appear as a god of the Maya civilization.
Because of that, in the Aztec, Huitzilopochtli a sun god whose name is even hard to pronounce came to appear as the being representing their mythology.
The problem, however, is that Huitzilopochtli is not only the god of the sun but also the god of human sacrifice, the culture that represented the Aztec.
Because of this, in central-western Mexico, human blood flowed without cease.
This was something Bug's party self-proclaimed apostles of justice treated as guardian deities in South America could not pretend not to see.
Thus Bug, Maryang, and Miel set out on a Mexican expedition together with Viracocha, and succeeded in defeating the god of human sacrifice.
A situation that, had Adrian seen it, would have left him aghast asking what manner of deed this was.
That's right.
Bug's party had become the first to hunt a god from mythology that appeared on Earth.
And that, by using another god to do it.
"Quetzal, are you really coming with us?"
[Well, I was bored anyway, so the timing's perfect. If I'm going to see the world, following around kids as funny as you lot will be more fun.]
The three who defeated Huitzilopochtli next visited the ruins of Chichen Itza, which could be called Mexico's pyramid.
The Maya serpent god Quetzalcoatl, who was established at Chichen Itza, was friendly toward humans unlike the Aztec god, so the visit was made as a greeting to say let's be friendly from now on.
Thereupon Quetzalcoatl, who had taken an interest in Bug's party, declared that he would accompany them.
"With Viracocha and Quetzalcoatl together, we're invincible."
"As we are now, couldn't we even defeat our old enemy Adrian?"
"Oh? Want to give it a try?"
"Let's not mention that Arcia is at Adrian's side."
"Ah, right."
"And there are the Four Heavenly Kings and the dragon too."
"Peace is the best. Let's just live like this."
Thus the three women adventured through Mexico.
There they discovered hidden ruins and found treasure, casually committing deeds that would shock Earth's history.
Meanwhile, the three came across news of Arcia's childbirth through the local press.
"Arcia had a baby shouldn't we go?"
"Mmm, if we go, it seems like it'll be hard to adventure again. We'll definitely get scolded by Adrian."
"No way! I'm a Heavenly Tribe member, so I'll be caught!"
Bug's party had to deliberate.
Though Miel was practically a stranger, Bug and Maryang could be called fairly close with Arcia.
"Then let's write a letter and just send a gift. I hear Argentina has been chosen as a neutral point for Rondel's stronghold. If we go through there, we can send it."
"That's better. If possible, let's send a gift grand enough that Arcia won't feel slighted."
Bug and Maryang carefully wrote their letters.
But they agonized a great deal over what to give as a gift.
Because Adrian and Arcia already had just about everything.
So the women, deep in thought....
"How about sending the trophy we got from hunting Huitzilopochtli?"
"True, there's no way to process it on Earth anyway."
And so they boldly sent as a gift an item that announced the atrocity of having hunted a being from mythology.
"Good, the wrapping came out pretty."
Moreover, there was yet another problem.
It was that the trophy obtained from hunting Huitzilopochtli was an object that, depending on who saw it, could not help but cause misunderstanding.
* * *
"What is this?"
I voiced my question as I looked at the gift prettily wrapped in a box full of hearts.
At that, Gregory spoke while breaking out in a cold sweat.
"It is an item that arrived via Argentina, the neutral zone. The sender appears to be Bug and Maryang."
"Ah, those runaway girls."
If I set my mind to it, I could go catch Bug and Maryang and bring them back.
I already knew they were imitating Indy and Jones in South America.
And I had also confirmed that somehow they'd charmed a mythological being and were dragging it around like a mascot.
I didn't particularly need Bug and Maryang right away, and their actions in South America were interesting, so I'd just been watching....
[Congratulations on the birth!]
[Congrats on your daughter!]
And in the midst of all that, they sent a gift with messages like these, which was rather commendable.
"It appears impossible to verify the contents. It seems they've set it up so that no one can open it."
It seemed Viracocha had worked some trick to prevent just anyone from opening the gift.
But it wasn't a problem for me.
"Won't it be dangerous?"
Perhaps because the contents still hadn't been verified, Gregory voiced his concern.
It seemed to be because of the terrorism incident last time.
The situation now is different from then.
As long as I prepare in advance, I can handle any problem that arises.
I lightly removed the wrapping of the gift that no one else could open, as if peeling off tape, and soon checked the contents.
"...."
"...."
Inside the box, along with two carefully written letters.
There was a 'skull.'
A skull with two red jewels prominently attached to its eye sockets.
The skull's eye sockets glinting red in the sunlight looked as though the skull were shedding tears of blood.
Thanks to that, I couldn't help but think this.
"Declaration of war?"
A challenge directed at me.
"Sending a skull as a birth gift how am I supposed to understand this?"
Gregory had no answer to my question.
It was an object that anyone would inevitably misunderstand.
Moreover....
"Huh, now that I look at it, this seems to be the skull of a mythological figure? The energy I feel from the jewels in the eye sockets is beyond that of a Dragon Heart, isn't it?"
"Hek!"
That meant they had killed a mythological being that the goddess Sepia had placed to balance the two worlds, made it into a trophy, and sent it to me.
"You crazy bastards."
Naturally, for someone like me who didn't know the full circumstances, this whole situation was nothing but bewildering.
"Whew."
For now, I decided to calm down with a deep breath.
After all, I was the person who knew better than anyone that they sometimes did thoughtless things without any malice.
So I exercised patience, opened the enclosed letter, and read its contents.
[So the brat has finally become a dad, huh? Are you going to grow up now?]
[May your daughter take after her mom's personality and not her dad's!]
[If she takes after your personality, later your daughter's gonna say stuff like, 'Mom! I told you not to wash Dad's underwear with my clothes!?' ㅋㅋ]
[As a congratulatory gift, I'm sending you a byproduct of the Huitzilopochtli we hunted yesterday! It's our treasure!]
I can feel there's no malice.
Of course, the teasing directed at me is a separate matter.
But this is an even bigger problem.
Bug and Maryang had no idea what the problem was.
"Bring them here."
I'd been just watching because their antics were cute, but it seemed they needed some education.
I ordered Arc Scarlet and Dark Square.
"Hurry up and bring them here."
"O-okay, got it."
At my command, the two Demon Kings hurriedly flew to Earth.
It's not that I was angry about being teased by Maryang and Bug. Not at all.