'ugh, where am I, my head hurts like crazy, did someone squeeze my head through a windpipe or something, and why the hell do my lungs hurt, shit!'
While the voice inside was complaining, the one outside was crying. A newly born baby was in the hands of a woman on a bed, who lovingly was stroking the baby's face. "Your name will be Ryle, named after Empress Rayle, for I hope that you achieve greatness." A smile formed on her lips as she saw the baby quiet down a bit and fall asleep.
Inside the baby, a soul was complaining, before everything blurry went dark as it fell asleep.
The woman was gorgeous, to say the least, her eyes showing a deep red circle one the outside while the rest silver with. silver hair with crimson at the end of it slowed down her shoulders, she was not wearing much as she just gave birth, but her figure had no other word but perfection, the flaws on it just made her look better.
"Miss, if they know ab-"
"Don't tell anyone about it, Rafaela. Take the baby to a different place, a small city or village and put him in an orphanage, it saddens me but he can't stay with me, not right now." the woman said as her smile left her face.
"But miss, you need to understand, your husband had many enemies, and many more are watching this place. Even insects are getting killed as long the get out of this mansion." Rafaela said as she looked like she was about to cry, they had no way to get out, they were utterly stuck.
"Don't worry about it, I have a method to get you and the baby out of here." The woman said as she slowly got up
"What about you miss, you need to come with us, If Luca- Master Lucas was here, he would never let you do this." Rafaela tried to persuade her, this was her closest friend, like a sister, but she felt very guilty every time she mentioned Lucas. The woman saw her guilt written face and could not help but sigh.
"Rafaela, I know about your relationship with Lucas, I always did, but I never minded, if you had told me we would have held a marriage for you. This is why I trust you so much because this is Lucas's son and I know you will give your life for him." The woman once more spoke as she smiled at Rafaela, who in turn went stiff but slowly nodded her head, as tears streamed down her face.
"I am sorry miss, I could not hold back my feelings, I will accept every punishment"
"The take this child and leave this house, the defense array won't hold them back for long, the least we can do is for the child to survive. Here, use this teleport stone, think of a place and break it." The woman said as she gave her a translucent stone that had many lines on it.
"What about you miss? why don't you leave with Ryle" Rafaela was stunned, the cost of this stone is equal to all of the possessions in this mansion, themselves included.
"Listen, Rafaela, if I leave, they will search for me, also remember, once you give the baby up, make sure no ones sees you and immediately leave that place and walk around as many cities, villages and different places, both of us will most likely die, but no one knows of his birth except for us two, because of the illusion magic and excuse of seclusion no one saw me being pregnant. so the won't even think of me giving birth. But it is better to be as safe as possible." the woman once more smiled as slowly got up and got dressed in her battle armor. She took out a necklace and damaged the front of it to make it unrecognizable, wrote his name on the back and then she hung it around the baby's neck.
"Miss, please, reconsider, let me stall them and you go!" Rafaela kept trying to persuade her, her efforts, however, were in vain. If the woman herself did not show herself she will be hunted down by all the higher-ups, but one maid were to be missing, even if she was the head maid, she will only be hunted by normal experts and not the strongest, one choice was her chance of dying above 90% and her friend only at 40% and the others were her chance at 70% with her friend at a 100%.
"Will you not call my name anymore now that Lucas is no longer here Rafaela? we've known each other since we were kids." The woman changed the topic as she turned around and gave the baby to Rafaela. beaming a gorgeous smile as she stroked Rafaela's face.
"This... Miss I can't poss-" Rafaela tried to defend her self just to be cut off mid-sentence.
"Rafaela, you are my dearest friend, and the person I consider family." The woman's smile turned sad as she took back her hand and stroked the baby's face, her face beaming sadness. "My dear Ryle, if fate permits, we will see each other again."
"Mis- Rena, please be careful, I already lost Lucas, I don't want to lose you too." Rafaela cried as she hugged Rena from behind.
"Go, not much time is left, the array will break shortly, put your energy into the stone and imagine a place far from here then break it," Rena explained as she returned the hug, just to quickly separate as Rafaela closed her eyes and imagined the place she once visited with her father as a child, a small village near the Great Lyster Forest, she opened her eyes and once more looked at Rena before crushing the stone.
'Whoosh'
"Dear Rafaela, you need to focus on yourself, I may die fast here but if they catch you, you will face torture unimaginable," Rena said as she turned around, her face showed her determination. She took up her sword and slowly walked out of the room, afterward burning it to the ground with a simple fire spell, as to not leave any traces.
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As Rafaela and Ray teleported away, Rafaela realized this was a bit farther away than she originally imagined it to be, but she did not put it to mind, instead, she hurriedly moved towards it. What she did not know however was that the Soul inside the baby was slowly vanishing as a white light came out of it, and the baby who was hidden in cloth was shining in a dim light and changing.
This slight change saved the original soul that was on the verge of being devoured and instead used the foreign soul to strengthen its soul and body. Being reborn is something that comes with a heavy price, and this one had his soul weakened by a lot, so much so to directly fall into a deep sleep. the energy unconsciously taken from the teleportation stone was used to kill off the foreign soul, which then was slowly dissipated, but because it was in a foreign body, it was assimilated into it instead, the original Soul was much stronger than any other soul of his age, but the most important part is, the potential was much, much higher than before.
Unaware of the changes the baby had, Rafaela arrived at the village, she left the baby near the entrance and went away, she did not dare to keep contact with it for too long, there were many ways to find about it. after she left for a nearby village, the next thing she did was take out another stone, closed her eyes as she poured her energy into it and crushed it. unlike before however, this time the crushing of the stone did not teleport her. it instead changed her memories, now, even if she wanted to betray Rena and give the baby's location to those that will follow her, the won't be able to, because she made she forget all memories of the baby, pregnancy, and anything that could be related to it. The only memories she left were of Rena before being sent away
While Rafaela visited many different towns and cities, and Rena was fighting her own battles, Ryle was found by a few children, who in turn told their parents and he was later adopted by a couple, Ter Lest and Lily Lest, Lily, who was unable to get pregnant, was very happy to adopt him, although she wanted to name him herself, she decided to honor the wishes of whoever brought him here and name him Ryle.
After setting the baby in a small bed and making sure he was asleep and well-fed, the couple went to the plain. There the village head was waiting for them, seeing them arrive he finally spoke. Everyone was there, even children.
"Everyone, this matter is very serious, although the child is now with us, we can't out rule that his original parents are in trouble, so from now on, whenever anyone asks about him, remember, he was born here to Lily and Ter Lest, Lady Milan was witness to it, never forget, he is now part of our family and we always protect our family to the best of our ability." As the Village head spoke, everyone nodded there head, even the children focused on it, the village was very small, less than 100 people. so everyone here considered themselves as a big family, after the establishment of the Utimum Empire, humans began to strife once more and due to their high lifespans, Humans now were bordering 100 billion in just the empire, and this empire was just in a small continent, with the size of earth right now, it could easily have many more such continents and if not greater ones. no one was aware of the true scale of the planet, just that it was gigantic. As for these villagers, even the cities were forbidden grounds, who knew when a random arrogant young master walked by and decided to punish if not kill if you just looked at him.
When everyone left, the village head called Ter and Lily over to his house, Lady Milan also followed behind. Once inside, he decided to speak.
"Lily, we were originally planning to gift you this for your birthday, but now would be a better time" Lady Milan spoke as she took out a small green translucent stone.
"A healing stone!?" Ter stood up as star shined in his eyes
"Sit down Ter, this is indeed a healing stone, but healing stone is a broad term, this is an Optimize Stone of the healing branch, this stones can bring the body of someone to its best state, it is useless on those that practice magic because their bodies contain too much energy and this stone is too low class to even sway that energy, but for us normal humans, this stone is enough." The Village head spoke as he smiled. With this stone, Lily. who did not practice magic, will be able to have her body optimized and her being sterile will be a thing of the past.
"This, village head, I can't possibly accept this, this costs too much," Lily said, although she wanted it, this stone costs about 400 Credit, and credit is something they don't even use, they use specially made coins, which of 100 are worth 1 credit, known as RE, her working a year will have about 1 credit to spare, she had spared 10 credits, but to get 400, not possible any time soon.
"Listen, Lily, this is not our gift, It is the whole village's gift, you are already thirty now, everyone chipped in a few credits for the last few years to buy it. See it as in investment, if you want to repay us, go and make some babies" Lady Milan said as she laughed, which in turn made Lily go beet red, while Ter averted his gaze but his thoughts were easy to read from his slightly red cheeks.
'Cough' the village head coughed a bit and put a smile on his face.
"Listen, Lily, this is our gift, your father did a lot for this village before, most of our lives were affected by his actions in the last beast horde. see it as us repaying him for his sacrifice. We are family here, if anyone needs help, we will try our best to lend it."
"This... Thank you, village head, Lady Milan. This gratitude, I will never forget" Lily said as she prepared to bow.
"Foolish child, one does not bow their head to their family if they did nothing wrong, go and make some babies now." Lady Milan stopped her bow and smiled as she led the beet red pair now out of the house.
Once the duo was out of the house they went and thanked everyone there. who then returned home and came out only to do their work.