"...Grimm, are you alright? It’s been over 4 months, don’t you think it’s growing a bit too fast? There’s still time to get rid of that little thing," one of my clones says to me.
"Haha, get rid of it? Why would I do that when it’s getting better and better?" I say in a playful tone while caressing my belly. My plan to get pregnant with Pandora’s seed worked.
However, the pace at which the baby has grown in my womb has been too fast compared to the usual time, and the drain of magic from my body is relatively high. I think it will be born in 1 week.
"...You know you’re really creating a monster, right? Pandora is racially a monster, and all the hybrids born from her can be problematic, even worse if it ends up as an irrational beast on purpose."
"You really aren’t fit to try and raise a child as ’unique’ as the one in your belly," my clone continues, trying to make me kill the baby. The reason why none of my clones want her to be born is quite simple.
I can’t see the future of my child. If I try, the future is simply blank, which automatically makes this child an anomaly, just like Pandora, and that piques my interest.
But for my clones, something we can’t even see the future of is not trustworthy. Pandora at least still has a visible future, even if it’s always her demise.
And my clones always try to protect my life, even though they are all individually different.
"Honestly, Grimm, you’re so crazy," this clone of mine is one of the more responsible ones I’ve created.
"For the last time, I won’t kill this intriguing child. Besides, she’ll be uniquely entertaining and will create an obligatory bridge between me and Pandora... If you keep talking, I’ll kill you," I look at her seriously.
It’s already becoming annoying. I know my clones are just trying to help, but it’s annoying how they want to limit me. I’ll still do whatever I want. If the child really becomes a problem, I’ll just kill it.
Even if it’s a hybrid between me and Pandora, it will never have a growth rate fast enough to surpass me. So it will never defeat me, as they are limited in the speed at which they can evolve.
Just because they can become infinitely stronger doesn’t mean they’ll have the opportunity, as they’re still limited by the speed at which they can evolve.
"...Sorry, I won’t talk about it anymore... Your request to change the castle has been completed, but as you said, we won’t help take care of this child. She’s your responsibility," my clone says, jumping out of any option to help me.
"Yes, yes, I know. Anyway, I’ll take care of her alone for a few years before revealing her to Pandora. After all, the child is more of an interest to me, and if I decide to kill her, Pandora doesn’t need to know."
’Although I’m unlikely to kill this child, I want to see how far this little thing can go... It will undoubtedly be a great pastime, and maybe even help with my plans. It would be great to have an assistant who isn’t a clone.’
"Haaa... I really can’t understand you, Grimm. Even coming from you, it’s hard to understand what’s going on in your head. But if you want this child so much, what will her name be?" When the clone asks, I go blank.
"Name... Ah, yes, they need a name, don’t they?... Well, judging by the anatomy of the being in my womb, it should be a girl, so maybe it would be good to call her Pandora?"
"...Are you serious? You can’t name this child after Pandora! You’re so thoughtless," the clone says, somewhat irritated by the name that seems good to me.
"And why can’t I? Pandora is a beautiful name."
"...Please choose a name properly! At least have some real interest in the child instead of just in what she can do."
’Interest... in the child?... What a strange thing to say... Why would I have an interest in the child itself?... It would be great if my clones were more like me.’ I made them to be different from me, so they could individually perform tasks that others couldn’t.
"I can try, but I don’t see why it would be interesting to have an interest in the child itself," I say to my clone. I can at least try, but I don’t think it will be as interesting as just watching what this child can become.
"Then how about I call my daughter Grimm?" I ask the clone if this name is good. I don’t have much interest in naming my daughter.
"...Don’t call her Grimm, it’s one of your duties as a mother to choose a good name," the clone disapproves, and that just makes it more difficult. I’ve never named anything living before, I just call my clones "clones" instead of giving them names.
"Tsk..."
"Azazel... How about Azazel? Remember Azazel? It can be a small honor for Azazel. I’ve always said I’d do something for her in the future, I think it’s a great honor to name my daughter with her name," I ask the clone if it’s a good name.
"Oh... That’s nice, and it fulfills your promise," the clone agrees.
"Perfect! Then my daughter’s name will be Azazel Aliart Oblivion," I say, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction.
Azazel was a mortal I knew before becoming Grimm, when I was just a puppet in search of peace. Azazel was of some race that I don’t quite remember now, as I didn’t have much interest in her.
However, I still remember her because Azazel was the one who showed me an interesting and entirely theoretical principle that she had developed, and it was thanks to this principle that I created a forgery of the primordial goddess’s letters and gained the ability to see the future.
Since this mortal gave me this help, even if unintentionally, I promised that I would do something to honor her name, so now I’m fulfilling my promise by naming my daughter after her.
I caress my large belly with a smile. Things have really been getting very entertaining since Pandora was born. She is truly the perfect soulmate who pulled me out of boredom.
"Grimm... you’re... genuinely smiling gently? That’s unsettling," my clone looks at me in shock.
"...Am I... genuinely smiling? Hahaha!" I burst out laughing at this. How many millions of years has it been since I’ve given a genuine gentle smile? It’s always been false, sadistic, lustful, or disdainful smiles.
But a genuine gentle smile is something I haven’t experienced since I became Grimm.
"Grimm, don’t let your emotions dominate you. You know bad things happen when you get emotional. You tend to get even stranger than usual," my clone warns, taking the opportunity to insult me.
"...You’re right... I’ve reached my quota of feelings with Pandora. I must be careful," I don’t want the result of me being too expressive.
"Then I’ll create a family registry for you and add your daughter as your heir," my clone says, almost mockingly.
"Ha, ha, ha, very funny. As if I’m going to die. But you can add her as my heir, and just as a joke, add the primordial goddess as her grandmother. Our family tree is incredible, don’t you think?"
"My daughter has the primordial goddess as her grandmother, the demon king who is a goddess as her mother, and the queen of vampires as her father," I say in an amused tone. A truly unique child.
"Father? I don’t think you qualify as a father when the child is in your belly. But Pandora is the mother, so I guess the child will have two mothers and no father. But you’re right, this child is quite unique," the clone agrees.
"Okay, changing the subject, how’s the progress of Pandora and the human kingdom?" I stopped seeing the future or using magic just to focus 100% on the child in my body. In fact, I haven’t even left my room during these months when I was pregnant.
"The progress of both is happening progressively, but Pandora’s work is so efficient that her kingdom is developing very quickly, especially since the demons are blindly loyal."
"So they work a lot without complaining, without laziness in general, and without caring about the precarious conditions like death by accident, as long as the kingdom can be incredible. But apparently, some people died during the construction."
"Nothing unusual, considering the territory is dangerous for them. As for the human kingdom, well, it’s hard to say, but they’re practically stagnant, although the heroes are getting stronger."
"And they’ll soon reach their maximum power... You know the unique abilities of everyone. Why don’t you sell the information to Pandora?"
"I don’t want to. I want her to discover it on her own. It’s more fun that way. If I just tell her, she’ll stop doing certain entertaining things," I don’t want to tell Pandora this.
I even gave a little help by providing information about Akari, just to encourage her to go to the kingdom. I know for some reason she hates the heroes, and that’s fun to observe, although I probably won’t have time for that when the child is born.
"Okay, then I’ll go back to my position. I need to finish preparing things in the castle for the arrival of the great demon alchemist."
"You can go, and have them bring me my meal. I think this time I want... a mixture of elf blood, mermaid blood, dwarf blood, and cat woman blood, in similar concentrations."
"...Pregnancy craving?" the clone murmurs about the confusing mixture of flavors that would normally not be a choice, but ignoring the strange request, she leaves the room as I go to lie down on my bed.
I look at my body. Right now, it’s in a large form with very prominent breasts, and I’m incredibly producing milk, which is a bit strange. I didn��t know my body could do that.
But in the end, it’s a flesh body like mortals, so maybe it’s 100% normal for me to produce milk for my daughter.
"I wonder if Pandora will have a good or explosive reaction, hihihi," I murmur with a chuckle. I can’t wait for the next few years.