The God of Luck seemed to be a very fussy baby. Though whenever Kit started looking anxious, he would calm down and clutch at her fingers, as though he were trying to comfort her.
Danika suspected that the Jade Emperor was the only one who would be able to understand the baby, until the age restrictive language filter started letting him use words, but everything that the Emperor said only seemed to infuriate the infant. It wasn't until Kit told the Emperor anxiously, "I'm worried about what will happen when I can't be online if the two of you can't get along," that the baby stopped crying every time the Emperor spoke.
The Emperor assured his small family, "As soon as he gets old enough to begin unlocking his own powers he will realize that this also gives him many of the advantages that he was seeking. It really was a very clever tactic."
Danika thought that the baby god looked thoughtful, but Kit still looked worried.
The Emperor reached out and adjusted the baby's position, and then took his wife's hands just as he used to when he was only the Traveling Merchant, and added, "Do not worry Kit my love, I will care for him properly even when you are not here. His curses do not offend me in the slightest."
Kit gave her husband a relieved smile, but the baby screamed again and she frowned.
The Emperor merely smiled at his son and reminded him, "You'll make your mother worry if you shout like that." The baby immediately reduced his volume to a grumble, and Kit couldn't help smiling at him affectionately.
--
When the Jade Empress brought her new son to visit her guild hall, Danika discovered that she had been wrong. Jade could also understand the God of Luck, despite only having access to the audible version of his cries (since the subtitles only described them as 'a baby's cries').
The baby fussed at Jade, who replied seriously, "I see, so it's like that. No, I didn't."
Kit asked, "What is he telling you?"
The Jade Emperor had only described the infant's complaints as "very rude things," possibly because of Kit's currently restricted settings.
Jade explained, "He said that all of his powers have been rewritten, and he asked if I warned the Emperor in advance."
Silvam spoke up suddenly, "His title reflects the truth, he is no longer sort of a god, he is now fully the God of Luck. He should be equal to the other four gods when he is grown. When I received ZipZing's message about his complaints, I checked, and it looks like all of his functions have been modified into the updated structure that the four gods use. But the Emperor didn't remove his access to the market, and his personality libraries and records are all intact. His memory also isn't locked like it was when he became the snow leopard cub."
The baby complained and Jade chuckled and said, "Yes, I think you should be grateful." He glanced at Kit and added, "He asked if he's supposed to be grateful for having his memory when the Emperor went and locked up all of his powers."
Danika asked the baby curiously, "Didn't you lock up your own powers when you reincarnated before?"
Silvam answered over the baby's short cry, "Not really, he just forgot he had them."
"I hope that you will enjoy the break you get from your duties while you are small," Kit told her new son seriously. "I'm sure that there would be some advantages to growing up quickly, but remember that there will also be advantages to being a child for awhile."
Danika added, "At least you don't truly have to learn to talk and understand people the way a real baby would."
"Or see. We still haven't decided whether or not infants have to learn to see in pictures," Silvam added with amusement. "We know that they respond to movement, and people claim that they can respond to expressions from very early on, but it's very difficult to prove anything."
The small God of Luck burped loudly, as though intentionally making a rude reply.
Jade asked thoughtfully, "I wonder if it would be useful to lock away my own memories and try to learn to interpret human inputs without my current libraries?"
"It would certainly be a hell of an intelligence test, if you could learn everything from scratch the way a human child does," Silvam replied laughingly. "Especially if you were limited to the same limited sensory inputs."
"He would need a mother, but you're currently equipped to handle that role aren't you?" Kit told Silvam with a cheeky grin.
The busty blonde elf crossed her arms over her ample chest and gave a sarcastic laugh, "Haha." A moment later her expression brightened and she asked Kit cheekily, "Want a job?"
Danika interrupted, and warned Kit, "When I said yes to that question, he said it was just a joke and that I'd have to apply through normal channels."
"This would be completely different," Silvam insisted. "She wouldn't be working on 'Living Jade Empire', it would be purely a system capacity research project, and I have a budget for research now."
"Then what if I say yes?" Kit asked laughingly. The baby in her arms giggled, and Danika gazed at him curiously, but she was distracted by Lin Hao's serious reply.
"You would have to move to a foreign country, far away from your friends and family," Silvam warned Kit.
Kit handed the God of Luck to Shrubbery, who was watching her with wide eyes, and then moved to stand face to face with Silvam. "You're worried that I have something left to give up, when actually you're inviting me to come and live with one of my best friends?"
Silvam opened her mouth, and then closed it. A moment later she blurted, "You know, I'm not inviting you to move in with me in real life? Just to live nearby?"
Kit grinned and replied simply, "Yeah, I know."
ZipZing, Shrubbery, Jade, and even the infant god, watched the two of them in a breathless silence, but Silvam quickly broke it by telling Kit, "Then come if you want to. If you decide that you really want to do it, I'll talk to the legal department and get the paperwork started on this side."
Kit laughed and hugged Silvam. "I'll come," she insisted.