Free and Unfettered 62 I Was The Gardener

"So, this can make a male pregnant?" Deltan enquired hesitantly. He wasn't quite sure what to feel about this. It wasn't like he'd ever entertained the thought of getting pregnant before. Honestly, what male would ever have that thought in their life? In fact, he was rather glad he hadn't been born a female!

Emperor Destan looked at his oldest son somewhat dryly at the simplification. "No. They're not exactly getting pregnant? Or rather, it doesn't show when the baby is being nurtured. I based it off the interspatial bracelet, so although the baby is hidden within the 'mother's' body, nothing about their body physically changes. It's something akin to…growing a plant. You nurture it with nutrients from the body, just like how you water a plant daily for it to bloom. In this case, I was the gardener and Nine was the plant that I grew from a seed."

Nine nodded at the simple explanation. Although it was grossly simplified, it could be broken down into facts like that. What her father did was essentially use part of his genes, as well as magic itself to conceive her.

Simply put, it was something like how turned Vampires went through a transformation. Her father's genes had been perfected, creating a baby that was essentially half of himself and half of magic. It was why her appearance had been so remarkable even before Vampiric transformation.

In essence, this was probably why she had withstood the Vampiric transformation so well that she could intake the drop of blood that was so highly concentrated with magic. It was because her body was already made to withstand the vast amount of magic flowing through her veins. It was why she was able to rise ranks so quickly as a magician. She was practically a child of magic itself. If another person had tried what she did, their bodies would most likely have exploded due to the excessive amounts of magic.

She hadn't realized that fact at the time, which made her sweat at the danger she could have been in, but now she knew why her magic seemed to flow differently through her veins as compared to the original person. It was like the magic inside her didn't have any impurities at all. Luckily, the people around her just assumed she had been hiding her true strength and accumulated it over the years.

There were things she didn't disclose to both her father and Deltan. What was never spoken would most likely remain as a secret.

By the time she sent both of them away, it was already late into the night. She called out for Shade, wondering where Nocturne was. It was around the time for his feeding. He seemed to get weirdly antsy if he didn't drink her blood once a day. Almost the entire day had gone by, but she hadn't seen a trace of him since bringing Deltan back with her.

"Shade, where is Nocturne?" she asked.

Shade appeared before her in the way she imagined ninjas appeared back on Earth.

"Master, Nocturne split with us after the morning court and said he had something to do. I haven't seen him after that."

A frown tugged at Nine's lips. She had the faint premonition that something had happened to Nocturne. It wasn't a danger sort of feeling, but more like something had deeply unsettled him? She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but her Truth skill was ringing in her head, telling her that it was true.

Strange.

Morning court. Deltan was told by their father to get married. Did it have something to do with that? She felt like Nocturne got along with Deltan in the strangest of ways. Sometimes it felt more like he was teasing him than arguing.

Maybe he had suddenly discovered he had feelings for Deltan instead of herself? There was a twang of discord. Not that, then. But what else could it be?

Where exactly did he go to? Was he still in Cosmos City? She got the feeling that he wasn't.

'Nocturne, what are you doing?' Nine wondered, staring into space.

She fumbled at the part of her soul that was connected to Nocturne through their link, only feeling emotions such as frustration, sadness and determination.

Really strange. Did something else she wasn't aware of trigger him?

She couldn't help but feeling slightly displeased at the thought that he had just left without another word. Did he seriously just come and go as he pleased? The thought of it made her more irritated. Although she already considered him one of hers, and he had the freedom to go wherever he chose, she thought that he would at least leave a word first before leaving.

She had counted on that when he finally got over his little crush on her, but him doing something like this really didn't endear himself to her. The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she felt.

Nine entered her room with a barely noticeable wrinkle between her brows. She felt strangely jilted. Like she had been…taken advantage of? She felt like she judged him wrongly, and that fed into her annoyance even more. She, who prided herself on her observation skills, had been bested by another?

Nine let out a chilling laugh. Childe or not, she would teach him a lesson when he finally returned back to them. She firmly suppressed her Magic Sight, feeling that she had been relying on it too much. She would never have made such a mistake back on Earth.

This world was really making her softer because she had good subordinates and pupils that always ended up looking at her with starry eyes.

No longer.

She had to whip herself back into shape. It looked like she had been subconsciously slacking off in her training and studies. She would have to rectify this immediately. She was being to lenient on those under her.

In an irrational bout of anger that she couldn't quite explain, she took out the present that Nocturne gave her out of her ear. She had half a mind to throw it away, but instead chucked it into her interspatial bracelet.

She looked around her room and felt for the first time that it wasn't enough. She didn't have enough materials, enough space.

Like this, she left for the Mage Tower in the middle of their city. It was located on the upper side of their city, above ground. Lower Cosmos City was the flipside of where they located their library, the experimental labs and grounds. Though they had those on the top as well, the ones underground was more extensive and better equipped.

On a warpath, Nine headed to the Mage Tower without anyone's by your leave, her expression was so cold it could have frozen the entire ocean over.

Shade, who watched the way his Master's expression gradually frosted over once she heard that Nocturne had left, felt cold sweat on his back. Why did he feel like this was the start of something ominous to come?

Regardless of anyone's opinion, Nine entered the Mage Tower even though it was already late at night.

A guard on duty tried to stop Nine. "Halt! The opening hours for the Mage Tower are over. Come back again tomorrow!"

Nine stopped in her footsteps, her head slowly turning to the guard. Her frown gradually melted off her face as a sweet smile replaced it instead.

Chapter end