Chapter 10: Eighteenth Birthday (7)

~10.7~

*****

Astarte turned to Maya and kneeled. She was taken aback. “Astarte?”

“I swear to you here and now. Wherever your fight leads you, no matter the hardships ahead, I will stand with you.” When she looked up, Maya smiled at her and faded into a mass of pink energy that was absorbed into the sphere before them. “Maya!” She looked up at the body floating in the sphere just in time to see her eyes open. Upon closer inspection, Astarte could see small pink glints within the girl’s silver irises.

The pink-haired girl gently floated down and exited the sphere. She gave Astarte a warm smile. As she spoke, a pink and white flowery kimono formed upon her body. She curtsied and said, “I am Maya of Athas, Goddess Eve’s Second. I thank you for your offer, Lady Astarte Atlantis.” Her voice was slightly different, indicative of her matured self. “I will allow you one final chance to rescind. If you remain undaunted, then take my hand and we shall begin.” Astarte nodded and took her hand without hesitation.

*****

Once they awoke, Kye and Alethea shared happy smiles and stood up. The weapons that were given to them by Astarte and Astraia had disappeared, but now they could summon them at will. They summoned them and the Atlantis sisters took their human forms. The four of them shared congratulatory grins. Kye nodded to Liliana, instructing her to inform the others that they were finished.

“So…” Alethea mumbled. “Hey, Kye…”

“Yes?”

“What do you say to us becoming parents?”

Everyone else in the room was shocked at the question, but Kye was unfazed. “I was planning to ask you the same thing. It may be a bit difficult with the academy and all… I would like to have two so that I can bring Azalea and Suzuka into this world.”

“Oh, no, I mean adopting one.”

Kye narrowed her eyes. “What are you planning?”

“Well… you see…”

Kye raised an eyebrow, “Kaede?”

“Kaede.”

And then it clicked. Alethea’s face reddened. “Wait, you mean.” She fidgeted, tapping her fingers together. “I suppose I can be part of us having biological children… but Shi-chan!”

Kye smiled and patted her head. “I know, love. It’s a difficult idea, but we don’t have to talk about it now. We can wait.”

*****

Back in the present, Astarte said, “Anyway, unhealthy willingness aside, today is the day Kaede is due to arrive, no?”

Kye and Alethea exchanged glances, then turned back and nodded. Astarte used her authority to access birth records. With a population of billions per planet, there were numerous births already logged for the day, far more than was feasible to check.

“You should only need to search the births in the past probably few hours, 1500 to now. If I know Kaede… she will have set it up so that she’d be born late in the day to make it easier to find her. If we don’t find her in that time range, we run the results from now to midnight afterward.”

Astarte nodded and sent them the results. “The closest one is a small town not too far outside New Tokyo. And I’ve set it to gather records from now until midnight as well to check after.”

“Good.” She started toward the door, but stopped short, reluctant to open it. “You know… if we do this, we’re going to be monsters taking a child away from its parents…”

“Yeah, there’s that…” Alethea said.

“Leave that thought at the door,” Astarte said adamantly. “There is no citizen that would refuse to have their child adopted by royalty. Think of it from their perspective instead. Kye, you are the heir to the throne of Nippon Sekai, and fiance to the Imperial Crown Princess. You are not only a royal, but an imperial royal, and you are personally appearing to these parents when their child is born on your own birthday to give your blessing and possibly even adopt their newborn child. To them, that is a miracle.”

Kye sighed in relief. Though her doubts weren’t quite quelled, she was ready to go, nonetheless.

But how do we explain that we knew that child was special?

*****

Kye and company arrived above the small town in seconds via teleportation. Astarte, Astraia, Liliana, and Aliana went with Kye and Alethea, while the rest remained at the palace. They located the hospital, and Kye peered down at the hospital searching for a light blue colored soul. She quickly found one and looked inside.

“She’s here.” Kye chuckled. “And she’s moving around a lot. Rowdy girl.”

Alethea immediately flew to the ground, followed closely by the others. They went inside, and the clerk at the front desk nearly had a heart attack being greeted by so many royals. One of the staff led them to the room where the parents and the newborn were.

“Catch her!” “She’s too fast!” “What do we do?”

Kye and Alethea shared amused glances and knocked on the door.

A man opened it and a newborn girl cloaked in white mana suddenly flew into Alethea’s arms. The white mana dissipated as the girl fell asleep there. “Oh, my.”

“My lady, I’m terribly sorry!” The man panicked as he held his hands out only far enough to receive the child, knowing not to reach to take her from a royal for fear of retaliation from their guards, in this case, Liliana and Aliana.

“It’s quite alright,” Alethea said with a smile. “May we come in?”

The man was confused, but he led the royal entourage into the room. His wife was holding another child, and a nurse was helping take care of it. After introductions, the new parents began explaining the circumstances.

“It’s the strangest thing,” the woman said. “We were just in the middle of naming them and the girl suddenly was covered in white mana and started flying all over the room!”

“Yes, she was so fast that I couldn’t catch her! Lady Alethea, are you certain it’s not too much to allow her to sleep in your arms?”

Alethea shook her head. “It’s quite alright.”

Kye stood up and began channeling light aether. “If it please you,” she wrapped her aether around the parents and both newborn children, “I offer my blessing to this family who has received new members on my birthday.” Her aether soon settled down, but the warmth it brought remained. The parents were unsure how to react. Both had stars in their eyes. “I wish for you a happy life in our kingdom.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!” the parents replied in unison.

Kye smiled. “I have a very advanced ability to sense mana and even disregarding what I witnessed when the door was opened, I knew that this girl here possesses white mana. I sensed it from the capital.”

That’s a bit of a stretch, but if I used Eye of Providence…

She held back the shock that would have otherwise spread across her face.

Wait, why didn’t I do that?

She also held back the need to shake her head to dismiss the thought.

Nevermind.

“Given how extraordinarily rare it is…” Kye and Alethea simultaneously released a bit of their own white mana. “We would like to adopt this girl into royalty to ensure she is given the best environment possible to grow her abilities.”

The woman was shocked into silence, and the man could barely form words. “Royals… adopt our…?”

“Yes,” Alethea said, her eyes falling to the girl in her arms.

“Please come to the royal palace immediately,” Kye said. She casted a powerful healing spell on the family of four to ensure they would be able to safely leave the hospital right away. “My parents and I will see you immediately.” She turned to Liliana. “Please stay behind and bring them to the palace via teleportation, specifically my father’s study. We shall be waiting there.”

“Yes, Princess.”

*****

Revision: 2023-1-12