Chapter 354: Things for the Future

"...Hello, Little Heiress. I'm Saluvia. Evelyn sent me to look after you while she sleeps, so I believe we'll have some time to talk." I speak to Evelyn's daughter, who's sucking on her fingers.

"Bubahh." She makes a soft little sound, moving one finger to point at me. I can't deduce much just by watching such a young baby. She certainly has plenty of Hikishin, but I have no idea what abilities she might possess, or whether she holds a blessing or not.

'Considering Evelyn and Esther both have blessings from the sixth and seventh layers respectively, the odds of Kali having a blessing are high... but nothing guarantees it with a hundred percent certainty.' I don't know what Evelyn is doing.

It doesn't look like she's simply sleeping, but it's not my duty to get too involved—especially when Evelyn is largely to blame for her own situation, since she accepts it and gives no orders to the shadows to try and fight Esther's tyranny.

"You really are a curious little thing..." I say to the girl, who has already lost all focus on me and is now trying to shove a ball into her mouth, but it's far too big.

Biology is always something fascinating. When demons have children through magic, they don't adhere much to basic biology. That means a child born through a normal pregnancy resulting from sex would have a fifty percent chance of being a hybrid.

In a pregnancy born of magic, however, the odds of being a hybrid rise to seventy-five percent—but it's a hybrid that doesn't collect advantages properly. Evelyn is a good example: she collected practically nothing but the bad points of being a dragon.

Yet a magical pregnancy can also result in the child belonging to a single, exclusive race, meaning that even though Kali is the daughter of a ghoul and a dragon, she could still be only one of those.

It's obvious Kali inherited far more traits from Esther, so if she isn't a hybrid, she'll be a ghoul. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if Kali inherited heritages like the dragon blood until she's at least five years old.

Not to mention, magical pregnancies maximize a baby's magical power, granting them far more magic than they would have in a normal pregnancy.

"Kali, for now you're Evelyn's only heiress. And though I'd love it if Evelyn had at least five more children so there'd be six of you competing for the throne, at the very least your existence already creates the possibility of a future demon queen."

"So grow up strong and become the next queen. That way, when you die, I'll be able to have you too." I poke her face, certain of one thing alone: magic she will have in abundance. Even if she doesn't have a single useful ability, she'd still be an absurd Hikishin battery.

"You have a dangerous gaze." I rub my finger over her cheek. Kali is like any normal baby when it comes to behavior, but if I had to note one difference, it's that her stare is more predatory.

A clear sign of being a ghoul, since she clearly tries to bite everything in her path—Evelyn's tail, sheets, balls, toys. For a newborn, her urge to bite things isn't exactly what you'd expect.

"You're going to be practically a new Esther... I hope you won't be a tyrant like your mother. Honestly, I'd prefer it if you turned out more like Evelyn." A Demon Queen with Esther's personality would be a genuine nightmare for me.

"Gaahhh." She rolls in her crib, tumbling through the sheets. Unfortunately, since I don't know when Evelyn will wake up, I'll have to keep watching. I mean, imagine if this girl suffocates under a blanket?

Esther would kill me—not out of affection for Kali, but because Evelyn would be far too sad about it, and I'd be held responsible.

"..." I hear the sound of the door opening and see Esther. Her expression is utterly blank, but her gaze sends shivers down my spine. I never imagined that the woman from the past, against whom I once saw victory in a fight, would become someone whose mere look unsettles me.

"I see you're already here, Esther. Weren't you busy with work?" I question her as she approaches Kali's crib and stares down at her with disdain for a moment, before looking over at Evelyn lying asleep on the bed.

"In any case, Evelyn is fine. No health issues for now, and her mind seems quite stable." I say before she can ask.

"Good... I've already finished everything I had to do in the castle. It doesn't take very long... You're looking after this baby too much, don't you think?" She asks a question I'm certain has layers behind it.

"I need to look after her. She's a baby—anything could kill her. A common illness, suffocating under a sheet, even choking on her own drool. Anything at all, really."

"...Take Kali to another room for now. Evelyn will need some space when she wakes up, and I don't want Kali in here crying and drawing attention. Care for her five rooms away."

"That way, Evelyn can feel her magic without her being the focus." Esther gives a nod and heads toward the room's wardrobe. I gather Kali into my arms.

But Kali moves her little arms to push me away, clearly disliking my embrace completely. She only accepts Evelyn's arms.

"Aahahhhh!!!" Kali starts crying as I carry her out of the room. I don't even want to imagine what irritated Esther, so I simply grab a few toys from the crib and take her with me out the door.

'Evelyn, wake up soon and rein in your wife...'

...

...

...

"E-Eve, I-I'm tired..." Shizuka speaks, collapsed on the ground and bleeding. We're training her physical capabilities. She's fast, strong, and resilient, but she doesn't know how to fight properly—she can't minimize damage, doesn't know how to fall correctly, and doesn't know any combat techniques.

"It doesn't matter. You need to keep going even when you're tired." I tell her in a harsh tone.

"Y-You're just getting revenge on me!!" She says with a tearful voice, and I admit that yes, I am partly punishing her by making the training harsher. But the greater part is genuinely just to make her stronger.

"Stop crying and get up. We still have a lot to do, and you haven't even managed to land a single punch on me." She's faster than me when she runs at her maximum speed, and even so, she hasn't come close to scratching me.

Of course, part of that is because I'm experienced, and another small part is that I've avoided letting her scratch me as much as possible. I don't know if she'd try to infect me with another strange disease, like the love sickness, and I'd rather avoid the risk.

To the point where she's on the ground bleeding because when she got too close to touching me, I used martial arts—leaning completely backward, planting my hands on the ground and drawing my knees close to my face while positioning my legs toward her stomach, then using my entire body like a spring to deliver a violent kick that sent her flying.

"Urgh... t-ta..." She gets up, whimpering and muttering complaints about the beatings she's been taking, as if it were all one hundred percent personal vengeance on my part.

"Shizuka, you need to improve a great deal if you want a chance against the Queen of Angels. At this level... you're simply useless." When I say that, she looks sad.

"You have enormous potential, but we have to strengthen you so you can use that potential. Even if your other two abilities are powerful, a strong ability doesn't automatically win a fight."

"Evelyn-sama already has over one hundred forty thousand standard-pattern marionettes. All of those would be nearly wiped out in a single attack from the Queen of Angels. I don't know how Evelyn-sama knows this, but Evelyn-sama gave estimates of the Queen of Angels' power, and they're terrifying."

"I-I get it already. I'll improve. Sorry for complaining... it's just that it's so hard. I thought it'd be easier and faster, you know? Like shounen protagonists."

"Protagonists what? Shizuka, do you think life is easy? I had to train relentlessly for over two years to gain the strength I have today!! And I'm still far too weak."

"Don't think laziness or excuses will be rewarded!! Evelyn-sama can always find a way to deal with you if you're lazy!! Don't forget Evelyn-sama has become quite terrifying lately." Evelyn-sama got absurdly strong.

Capable of decimating a city in seconds—not because she became individually powerful and overwhelming, but because her range is gigantic. And despite being "weak," she's still far above average in power.

If I had to put it on a scale, Evelyn-sama sits in the middle. If there were one hundred billion people, Evelyn-sama's strength would be around the level that easily kills everyone from one hundred billion down to fifty billion, and starting at fifty billion there would begin to be people capable of confronting her.

But reality doesn't work that way. Most people in the world don't have the power to destroy a city, while Evelyn-sama does, while the people at the very top can destroy an entire country with ease.

This means that even though she's capable of decimating a city with a single movement of her finger and her threads, Evelyn-sama is still inferior to beings like the Queen of Angels. But Shizuka doesn't need to know that.

She only needs to understand that her life, her power, and the rewards she so desires depend purely on her effort—just as Evelyn-sama worked incredibly hard to go from someone so weak she could barely beat a street thug to someone who lays waste to cities with her fingers.

Evelyn-sama found her own way to become strong, through creativity and immense magic. So I too must push myself to the absolute limit, and make Shizuka reach the potential I know she has.

"Now, Shizuka, let's stop slacking off. You won't rest until you can at least land a scratch on me. Since, as a marionette, you don't need to sleep or stop, all that's left for you is to fulfill your objective."