"Come here."
Ariane approached. She was lifted and placed on the person's lap.
"I'm not a child."
"I know."
Even if she didn't want to admit it, the time spent alongside this person was precious to her. No matter how she was treated, she couldn't bring herself to disappoint them. And when that person was there, she could feel all sorts of emotions.
Ariane calmed down, then looked up to observe the face of the person who had lifted her.
"If it hatches, will it call me 'mom'?"
Ariane felt embarrassed after saying that. She herself didn't know what had come over her to say such a thing. All sorts of confused thoughts swirled in her little head as she flailed her arms. Then she covered her face with her arms to hide her embarrassment.
There was that thing where the first person a baby sees is treated in a special way, the person thought.
After struggling to stifle the mocking laugh that was about to escape her mouth, the person responded to Ariane.
"I don't know. What should we do about the Scarlet Lineage? Should we use magic to seal it... Hah."
She stopped after realizing that magic would be useless here.
"You've just realized that? We can't use magic to stop the process, but I plan to perform an additional operation on it. It will have access to part of its memories, and I'll equip it with a device similar to mine to store and manage the surplus information."
"And how do we make it hatch?"
"Is that all you care about? And what about its lifespan? Anyway, I've taken precautions. It's going to hatch now."
"Wow."
In the incubator, the egg started to crack. The atmosphere in the room changed, and both of them felt it.
Driven by a researcher's curiosity in one and a morbid curiosity in the other, she stood up and approached the incubator.
She placed her hand on the glass of the incubator while Ariane watched the phenomenon with stars in her eyes.
"You mentioned its lifespan? Aren't human lives supposed to be ephemeral?"
Of course, these words came from the same person who, years later, would move heaven and earth to find a solution to this problem.
"You need to understand that I haven't conducted enough tests. You'll have to let me keep it for a while."
"If only I had a similar model for comparison, I could dissect one and examine it thoroughly."
This fleeting thought came and went, and for a time, news spread about dungeons being destroyed en masse. It gave Chreíos fits of rage for a while. It was the dungeon fever, lasting three months.
Of course, she hadn't found a similar specimen. It was Ariane they were talking about here.
The shell crumbled, revealing a human child—a baby. It didn't emit the characteristic cry of a newborn, yet it was clearly alive.
Neither the person nor Ariane was well-versed in such things. They were just amazed that it hatched and was alive. After all, the incubator had an array of monitoring options—temperature, heart rate, various energy levels, and more.
"Is it me, or is the temperature on the screen rising? And isn't it too red?"
In fact, this was normal. The child had been in a dormant phase inside the shell, and now that it had hatched, all its brain functions were starting to activate.
"Ah, I forgot about the Scarlet Lineage! Where did I put that custom device?" Ariane began rummaging through her clutter. "If only a certain someone hadn't knocked over my things," she muttered to herself.
"I've got it!" She finally found a device. It was circular, with a cut in the front, resembling a semi-circle. It wasn't very thick, barely two fingers wide. It was retractable, allowing it to adjust to the shape of a head.
The device had a name inscribed on it: Eva 1. It was the first prototype of her equipment.
She approached the incubator with it, opened a panel on the control surface, and placed the device, which fell onto the cushion where the baby lay.
Surgical tools were already prepared on the cushion.
Ariane's eyes lit up, a sign that she was using her power. The scalpel began to move on its own, slowly and steadily, making an incision at the back of the baby's skull.
"It's not crying," the person noted.
"Did you use a sedative? Since magic doesn't work?"
"No, I was just in a rush because of the Scarlet Lineage memories..."
"Huh? The scalpel is stuck! This thing is regenerating!?"
"Oh? What kind of regeneration is it? And if it regenerates, maybe we don't need to take measures for the Scarlet Lineage memories?"
"It's not that simple. I don't have enough data to determine the type of regeneration, but if we leave it like this, it'll be stuck in a perpetual state of regeneration, which could shorten its lifespan."
"It regenerates quickly. After my scalpel got stuck, it was rejected. So, foreign objects are expelled?"
"I'll just need to increase the speed of my work. If it can't keep up, everything will be fine. In the meantime, I need to calibrate the device, or it will be rejected as well."
"She's pulling out all the stops," the person thought.
The tools began moving at high speed. The regeneration seemed slow by comparison. A piece of skin was removed and placed in the device. Then, thanks to Ariane's powers, the device fused with the child's body. When the device floated toward the operated area, it fit perfectly, and the wound closed instantly.
"Phew," Ariane sighed.
The person approached her with a cloth to wipe her forehead.
"Don't mock me. That wasn't even an effort."
Indeed, it was a trivial task for Ariane.
The tools stopped levitating and fell onto the cushion.
Ariane approached and opened the incubator.
The person stepped forward and picked up the child inside.
She held it in her arms.
"It looks like a human baby."
"It is a human baby," Ariane confirmed, "even though it came from an egg."
"Let me see, let me see!"
Ariane was bouncing around the person holding the child in a truly odd manner.
Mothers in the world would surely be outraged to see such behavior.