Arriving home, Shurry quickly ran right up to Hathor, and hugged her, not caring about anything else, and started to nod off, falling asleep. Seeing this, Lyca smiled, and then left for her own familia, this time with a weight on her conscience…
Lyca walked, thinking to herself as she passed by all the shops… It would have been great if he didn't get struck with something so hard so soon after Lady Idunn left the city… He's been through a lot, but learning that those he did something bad happened to people he did something good for… Perhaps it's best this way? Who knows? But for now, I think I'll take a page out of his book and take a nap. She eventually reached her home, stretching as she walked in, and yawned.
"Hey Lyca! Get this! The captain, Empress, leveled up!" A member came running over. "Oh, and… She's kinda pregnant too…"
"She leveled up… Wow… Wait, what!!!??? She's pregnant too!?"
Sure enough, In the familia's home, both captains were kneeling on the floor, with a rather upset Hera glaring down at them. Zeus was sitting in the corner, drawing circles on the wall with his finger, muttering under his breath.
"How could you! You know this means you risk someone else now? How could you be so irresponsible!!!!" She scolded, and then swiped at something to eat, not realizing it was actually a certain someone's favorite special breakfast tart… "I let it go before because nothing came from it. But now… Do you know how bad this is!?"
The looks the two captains had, grew fearful by the second. Not from the scolding, but rather from the look of the young girl growing progressively more frustrated at the loss of not only her food, but her favorite breakfast food. The two captains tried pointing towards Meteria, to warn Hera about it…
It was too late, Meteria had set her little plate down as a quiet fury bubbled to the surface. Erupting as she grabbed Hera by the shoulders and started shaking her, crying… "Why'd you have to steal my food again!!!!??? That was my favorite!!!!" She complained until Hera became dizzy, and someone intervened by bringing a plate full of the tarts. Meteria, seeing the plate she instantly switched right back to being satisfied.
Hera, eyes spinning… Finally corrected on the plate. "Oh, those things were good, I think I'll have anot- … … Never mind." No words were said, but the look Meteria had given her was basically saying, "try it and get shaken up like a smoothie".
Zeus, deciding this was the perfect time to step in… It wasn't… "Alright, how about we just let everything play out? They were in the heat of the moment, and we even forgave their action. Let the child come to be…"
"Don't you think I know that already! I'm worried about how we're going to continue the missions that lazy bones are going to keep handing out. Empress, and Maxim are the only ones who can handle going down that far with any decent amount of safety."
"Just hire the boy? His healing magic is something else entirely. Surely that would be enough to-"
This time Maxim interrupted. "That, uh, won't work out yet. We need to find a way to properly take care of his appetite, without having him eat all of the monsters that spawn down there…"
"Is it truly that frightful?"
"Invite him over for a meal, and you'll see just how ridiculous it is for yourselves." Zald scoffed. "I don't compare."
Lyca had finally come to her senses, the scene had initially shocked her to the core. However, hearing talk about the boy… "If you mean Shurry, I can confidently say we don't have the means to properly feed him as we go further into the dungeon. That hunt we just finished…" Her eyes bulged and widened… "It was a lot of food…"
"I see, that's a problem… How is he going to train like that?"
"Oh don't worry too much, even though he's an Alpha, his appetite should soon calm down a bit. Usually around 5 years old there's a huge increase in appetite, and then it falls off rather quickly. And from what I heard about Shurry from Leon, it seems this phase has been going on for a little while now. It shouldn't be much longer than a month or two at the most… Not that he won't continue to try and eat more."
"A month, or two… We can manage that. But let's prepare something in advance in the event it doesn't subside. I'll go and ask Fels to see if magic items can solve the problem." Zeus said, tapping on Zald to be his guard.
"Before you leave… Evilus made a move today. They killed a bunch of orphans, and an old woman. They also tried to kidnap a young werewolf by the name of Neze. We hunted with her last night, which is how we knew her howling cry. She's now in the care of another goddess. And Shurry is taking a nap." Lyca explained all the details, yawning again, and then went to her room to sleep.
"I see… Zald, be on the look out, and the five of you, scour the city, but don't get seen." Zeus said, then glanced at Maximum and Empress. "Keep the child. We can work around the issues this causes, so be cheerful, it's a happy thing." He waited, thinking about how he should break the other side of this conversation… "However, you should also start planning on how the child will grow up, both in the event the 3 quests are cleared, and the other outcome…"
"Don't worry, I've already got a good idea on how things will go." Empress smiled… "I hope it's a girl though."
"Huh?" Maxim grunted almost in shock, but opted not to start the argument that would soon begin if he continued talking.
With the two captains having worked around their gods' issues with it, the two of them let out a deep sigh, and relaxed about it. There was a boy in the corner who'd just seen hope for himself, play out right before his eyes.
…