6 Months Later
During these last six months, the only thing Mika did was eat and sleep. She didn’t have time to consult her System or try to learn the language her family spoke.
She can’t be blamed for this, though, as her body is working in overdrive to supply the necessary nutrients to sustain her abnormally strong baby body.
Mika wouldn’t be having this problem if she was a bit more grown up, but as a baby, her body constantly consumes resources to grow, and the most efficient way to do this is during one’s sleep.
Elizabeth was also stuck in a routine similar to Mika's and spent most of her time breastfeeding or sleeping.
Occasionally, she’ll take a few hours to catch up on some of the work she’s missed over the last year and a half, but she couldn’t be gone for too long as Mika would wake up hungry every few hours.
The Zoller Family had also learned some of Mika’s weird quirks over the last 6 months.
The main one is that she doesn’t cry. She’ll poke people, bang on the walls, make weird noises, or if you’re really not paying attention to her, she’ll spit on your face.
Mika will do anything to let you know she needs something, but she won’t cry. In fact, she rarely let out much emotion at all.
Most of the time, she just has this neutral look on her face.
She rarely laughs, even when someone is trying to make her laugh.
Occasionally, she would smile lightly, but nobody could ever figure out why she was smiling. The Zoller Household always joked and bet on who would be the next person to make Mika change her expression.
Surprisingly, the one who would be able to make Mika express the most emotion was Olivia.
The two have grown rather close over the last 6 months. The only person closer to Mika than Olivia was Elizabeth, for obvious reasons.
However, Olivia and Mika have been spending quite a bit of time together over the last 6 months. Mika also began forming a soft spot for her older sister.
She might not understand what her words meant exactly, but she could at least understand the meaning implied behind the words, and Mika always felt like this sister of hers was a good but lonely girl.
She might act playful and tough on the outside, but in reality, the girl just wants a trustworthy friend she can confide in.
As someone who spent most of her life alone without any true friends or people she could trust, Mika didn’t need to understand what she was saying to know that the two of them were quite similar in those aspects.
The main difference between them was that Mika didn’t care if she had friends. She only wanted to improve her swordsmanship.
Since the day she was born, that’s all she cared about, and even in this new life, that’s still her main priority. Meanwhile, Olivia didn’t seem to know what she wanted to do or what she wanted to accomplish in life.
That’s not the only reason Mika enjoyed Olivia’s company, though.
A part of Mika felt like the two of them were kindred spirits as she could see herself in Olivia. She couldn’t wait to grow up a bit and finally be able to speak with Olivia, as she knew the two of them would hit it off immediately.
As for the rest of the Family, Mika didn’t dislike them.
On the contrary, she actually quite liked her two new older brothers and her Father.
It’s just that she finds her older brothers to be boring individuals. The younger of the two is especially dull. The boy always seems to be studying something and has the aura of a scholar around him.
In her previous life, Mika hated these types of people as they were usually physically and mentally weak, but they would use all sorts of traps and wordplay to get the better of her.
She would get nothing out of fighting them except being forced to deal with one trap after another, or she would have to face an army of guards just to reach them. What she hated the most was even after dealing with all that shit, they couldn’t even put up a fight.
Other people might think differently from her, but Mika lives and dies by the blade, so every time she enters a battle, it’s for the sake of improving herself.
That being the case, Mika already had a predisposition toward people like Nathan. That’s not to say she hated him, but she was biased.
Her opinion of the older one, Adam, is a bit different.
She can tell he wants nothing more than to follow in Cain’s footsteps.
While admirable, Mika found these types of people boring, annoying, and to some extent, lazy.
These kinds of people are generally some of the first people to crumble when something doesn’t go their way.
Their beliefs, values, goals, and sometimes even strength stem from someone else. That’s all well and good until a seed of doubt creeps in. Doubt that will either consume them or give them the power to carry on. It depends on their outlook.
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Lastly, Mika’s Father.
Honestly, she’s not sure how to feel about her Father. He’s loving, caring, patient, and understanding, and he always has a gentle expression whenever he looks at her, but Mika can tell that underneath all of that, he is powerful.
The feeling she gets from him is like a bomb ready to explode at a moment's notice.
The look in his eyes, his posture, the way he walks even at home, and his rough hands.
All of these are tell-tale signs of a man who has experienced the loss of a friend or loved one. A man who has fought with his life on the line. A man who has earned everything he has in life.
Just from this, she knew her father was a powerful and disciplined man.
Other than that, she enjoys the company of her Father. Being around him makes her feel warm and protected.
All in all, Mika is more than happy with her new family and can’t wait until she can actually start interacting with them.
However, it’s days like today when Mika feels less like a person and more like an exotic animal…
It’s been 6 months since Mika was officially born in this new World, and on this particular day, Elizabeth felt like it was about time that her daughter started eating baby food to help sustain herself.
She was just eating baby food, but for some reason, the whole family was huddled around her, staring at her like she was some sort of animal!
Elizabeth soon set down a bowl in front of her that contained some sort of fruity paste-like substance.
Mika had no idea what was in it, but she knew it was food and waited for her Mother to start feeding her. She was happy that the day had finally come when she no longer needed to rely on suckling her Mother’s breasts for nutrients!
“*I know you like Mommy’s milk, Mika, but I think it’s about time for us to start adding this kind of food into your diet. My little baby girl needs tons of nutrients to grow up big and strong, after all! Okay, here comes the first bite, Mika! Open wide!*”
The only thing Mika understood from what her Mother just said was her name, but she didn’t need to understand anything else since Elizabeth picked up a spoon with the paste on it and brought it to her mouth.
Mika opened up and swallowed it all in one swift motion before her eyes sparkled as they shifted to the bowl filled with that paste-like substance she just ate.
‘Amazing! How can something that looks like that taste so amazing?! And this is just baby food for them? How good is the real stuff?!’
Mika thought to herself in wonder.
Elizabeth looked at Mika’s expression, and her eyes lit up. She started mentally taking pictures of this scene as it’s rare to see such an expression on her daughter. After capturing this moment, she refilled the spoon with the paste and continued to feed Mika.
The rest of the family chuckled, pulled out their phones, and began actually taking pictures.
Mika continued eating out of the bowl, but it was quickly finished. However, she clearly didn’t have enough and turned to look at Elizabeth with an expression that said, “I want more.”.
Elizabeth, being the doting Mother she is, didn’t refute her daughter’s silent plea for more and pulled out a few more bowls as she knew her daughter would want more.
Mika continued eating bowl after bowl until she eventually fell asleep. The whole family laughed while shaking their heads at this scene.
Elizabeth was about to pick her up and take her to her crib to sleep but thought of something and gave her husband a quick look before turning to Olivia.
“Olivia dear, can you take care of Little Mika for me while I discuss something with your Father? If I’m not done, and she wakes up, please prepare more bowls of the same Infant Nutrient Solution she just ate.”
Olivia gave her Mother a bright smile and gently picked up Mika.
“Of course, Mom! Leave it to me.”
She knew that it must be something important, so she knew not to stay any longer. Adam and Nathan weren’t fools and knew how to take a hint, so they left right after Olivia.
Once they were alone, Elizabeth and Cain both took out devices to prevent any sound from leaking before speaking.
“Cain, what are we going to do about Mika? I know she’s already in the First Realm of Body Cultivation, but she seems to grow stronger with every meal! I’ve never heard or seen something like this before. Do you think having such a strong body at such a young age could cause unforeseen circumstances either now or in the future?”
Cain was caught off-guard by that question as he hadn’t really thought about it all that much. He looked at his wife in silence for a few minutes as he formulated his answer since he’d be lying if he said that he knew everything would be fine.
Elizabeth patiently waited for an answer from her husband, as he knew more about this than she did.
Almost 5 minutes went by before Cain finally opened his mouth.
“While I can’t say for sure, I’m almost certain that Mika will be fine. Her Mana Circuit has already been formed, so there’s not really any harm in her Body Cultivation rising. It won’t stunt her growth or anything like that if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“As for Mika, the only thing I can see as an ‘unforeseen consequence’ is that her appetite will be unusually high to sustain her strong body. Now, it’s a different story if she doesn’t receive the necessary resources to grow, as that might stunt her growth. But to ensure that never happens, we just need to provide her with a steady stream of high-nutritional food until her body fully matures, and she’ll be just fine.”
Cain explained, then walked up to his wife and hugged her. The worry in Elizabeth’s eyes slowly started receding when he finished his explanation, and she felt her heart much calmer than before.
She sighed, realizing her mind had been a mess ever since she gave birth to Mika.
“I already knew all that, but I just wanted to hear it from you. I guess I’m still exhausted from the pregnancy and taking care of Mika. She’s been draining me, literally. Hahaha~”
Cain chuckled along with his wife and soon released her from the hug. Suddenly, he grabbed her by the shoulders and stared at her sternly.
“Go take a rest. The kids and I will take care of Mika in your absence. I know you want to spend as much time as you can with her, but you need a good night's sleep.”
“But…”
“No buts! Go get some sleep! Also, it’s not like Mika is like other children her age. You should be able to get a good long rest without having to worry about something happening to Mika.”
Elizabeth stared at her husband for a few seconds but could only sigh in resignation, seeing his stern expression.
“Fine! But if she does something unexpected, then you have to wake me up immediately!”
“Alright, alright. Go to bed already, sleepyhead.”
“Hmph! I will.”
…
“I love you, Cain.”
“I love you too, Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth was asleep for the next 2 days after that, and she woke up feeling better than ever. It was only after she woke up did she realize just how tired and stressed she had been over the last year.
Time passed, and soon it was Mika’s first birthday.