Chapter 173: Whose The Father

Ace looked from one person to another.

"Why are you all laughing?"

Sora frowned.

"What?"

"That’s not what we meant."

Lukan spoke gently.

"Besides grinding wheat, is there anything else you wanted to tell us?"

"Anything else?"

Sora shook her head.

"If there was, I would tell you."

Ace became visibly anxious.

He finally couldn’t endure it anymore.

"Why are you taking so long?"

Sora looked at him.

"Taking so long to do what?"

Ace stared at her belly.

Then he blurted out,

"Are you pregnant?"

The room became silent.

Sora’s eyes widened.

Ah.

So that’s what this was about.

She finally understood why six grown beastmen had followed her home like suspicious investigators.

They had overheard the conversation at the bonfire.

Sora narrowed her eyes.

"You six came all the way here in the middle of the night just to ask me that?"

Nobody answered.

Damien was the first to recover.

"So whose cub is it?"

Lucas’s eyes also brightened.

"I wish I had been involved at the right time."

Damien glanced at him.

"Why?"

"Because then I would have a chance."

Damien clicked his tongue.

"If you’re trying to compete, at least compete properly."

Sora covered her forehead.

These men...

Were they seriously arguing over an unborn child?

Damien suddenly leaned closer.

"Actually, Sora, we should establish a bond first."

"Absolutely not."

"Then at least give me a chance to make an adorable little cub."

Sora stared at him.

"This bear..."

Damien was always the one who managed to make her want to throw something at him.

She took a deep breath.

"Who told you I was pregnant?"

The six men exchanged looks.

"The female at the bonfire said you might be."

Sora snorted.

"Might be."

She crossed her arms.

"That’s not the same as being pregnant."

The six men went silent.

"I’m simply feeling nauseous because I’ve eaten too much greasy food recently."

She pointed toward the empty plates.

"Yesterday I ate roasted suckling pig. Today I’ve eaten barbecue. Anyone would feel sick after eating that much."

Her explanation was reasonable.

At least...

She hoped it was.

The six men looked at her uncertainly.

Sora opened the door wider.

"I’m tired. I’m going to sleep."

She stepped inside.

Then she turned around.

"And don’t follow me."

The door slammed shut.

The six men stood outside.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Ace stared at the closed wooden door.

"No way."

Damien frowned.

"Did we misunderstand?"

"She said she isn’t pregnant," Lucas replied.

Ace still looked unconvinced.

"But what if she doesn’t know?"

Lukan’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"Then we need to find out."

Ryan looked toward the darkened house.

"Perhaps we should ask the shaman tomorrow."

Lucas nodded.

"That would be safer."

Damien sighed.

"And here I thought I was about to become a father."

Ace glared at him.

"You weren’t even involved."

"That doesn’t mean I can’t hope."

"You always hope."

"Because I’m optimistic."

The argument continued in low voices.

Meanwhile, inside the wooden house, Sora leaned against the closed door.

She could still hear them outside.

Her lips twitched.

Idiots.

All of them.

But as the voices slowly faded, her expression changed.

She lowered her gaze toward her stomach.

Her hand unconsciously settled over her abdomen.

Was she really pregnant?

Her heart began beating faster.

"No..."

She whispered.

There was no way one bout of nausea could prove that.

Yet the possibility refused to disappear.

And if she really was carrying a child...

Sora swallowed.

She didn’t know whose it would be.

A wolf’s?

A snake’s?

A tiger’s?

A merman’s?

Or perhaps...

Something entirely unexpected?

After sending away a few eager onlookers, Sora lay down on the animal-skin blanket. She began to calculate her accounts.

System, is there anything you haven’t given me?

Sora shouted at the system in her mind.

After finishing her words, there was silence on the other end for a long time.

Sora narrowed her eyes, looking at the blue control panel that had already appeared before her.

You’re not saying anything. Don’t tell me the system has upgraded again.

Host, there is nothing missing. I just had a bad signal, and it took a bit longer to respond.

Bad signal?

Sora couldn’t be bothered to expose this unreliable system’s lies.

If the signal were really bad, would the control panel have appeared so quickly?

It was probably just avoiding her out of embarrassment.

Sora lazily said, "System, you’re going to give me my rewards now, right? It’s taking so long for a little reward that I’m starting to doubt the system’s credibility."

Host, our system is absolutely honest and trustworthy. Don’t worry. I’m distributing the rewards for you right now.

"That is more like it."

Hearing the system’s efficient attitude, Sora felt much better.

The blue control panel paused for a moment and then slowly unfolded in front of her.

Beep.

Congratulations to the host for successfully capturing Ryan. Ryan has successfully upgraded to a love value. The host is rewarded with fire-type abilities upgraded to level two. A farming guidebook is also rewarded.

As expected, this broken system still gave her some trivial rewards.

It didn’t upgrade her proficient water-type abilities, instead only giving her some small things for upgrades.

However, thinking about how the previously upgraded gold-type ability had helped her a lot, Sora could accept these miscellaneous ability upgrades now.

Fire-type abilities, besides being able to start fires for cooking, were something she really couldn’t think of much use for.

After all, she didn’t have anything that required fire to attack.

For this unfamiliar ability, every time Sora received a reward, she would ask about it.

"Is there a user manual for this fire-type ability?"

Yes, host. The user manual has been placed in your system backpack, and you can check it at any time. With the fire-type ability upgraded to level two, the host can control fire at any time.

"Sounds good."

But unfortunately, she couldn’t use it now.

Then she raised the corners of her mouth and looked at the system.

"Since you’ve distributed the reward for capturing Ryan, what about the reward for winning the title of the most beautiful female?"

That day, she had heard the broken system generously tell her in advance that as long as she won the title of the most beautiful female, there would be a surprise reward for her.

And this reward was related to Damien.

So much time had passed, and it still hadn’t been fulfilled.

Sora felt that there was something fishy about this system.

But since it was the system that had brought it up, she didn’t force it.

No matter what, Sora had to pry some useful information out of it.

She had been watching Damien all along, and as long as the matter wasn’t resolved, there would be a big problem looming over her.

The system started to hesitate when talking about this.

Seeing that it wasn’t as straightforward as before, Sora glared at it with eyes like knives.

"What? You told me yourself. Do you want to go back on your word?"

That is not it, host. This reward is still there. It’s just that the system suddenly encrypted the previous information, and I can only see a small part.