At the edge of a forest and a grassy plain, a woman in a maid’s outfit was carrying a brown-haired baby. That baby's eyes were wide-eyed, staring down at the cloth-wrapped blonde baby wailing on the ground.

“Lady Nicky, you really had a second baby, and the baby is a boy.”

On the ground before the maid laid a breathtaking blonde woman sitting herself up while panting.

“Bring him here.” Nicky gestured her hands out.

“But Lady Nicky, the scans only showed you would have a baby girl.”

“Just bring him here.” The sweet pitch of her voice remained harmonious despite the maid’s concerned protest.

The maid handed the boy, who at this point had a surprised look on his face.

“Ah-gah?” The boy asked his mother. Although, to the mother, it seemed like a random, cute noise, the boy was attempting to say the word “English'', but his underdeveloped vocal cords and new anatomy did not allow him.

Nicky cast an affectionate gaze to her babe and said, “Let’s get you cleaned off.”

She removed her hands from him, and a look of panic spread across the baby's face. However, despite removing both hands from him, he didn’t fall. Before he could fully take in the situation, streaks of water began circling him, and soon he was submerged in a sphere of water.

Next, the sphere of water lost its shape and fell, followed by a gentle gust of wind blowing dry the suspended baby. After being dried, the baby floated back into his mother's arms. Once landing, a cloth suddenly wrapped around his body.

“There you go. Much better.” She let off a warm smile that caused the awestruck baby to blush, and she gently cradled him. She continued, “Now, let’s check in on you.”

The mother switched to cradling him with one arm and placed her other hand’s index finger on his head. A light formed at her fingertip and formed a disc that ran down his body.

“Ella, check this out,” she called to the maid in an excited tone.

“What is it?” She asked with the concerned look never leaving her face.

“He lacks a spirit core.”

“No spirit core?” Through the maid’s concerned expression showed a hint of curiosity.

“None.” She playfully nodded.

“So, he’s the opposite of his sister,” Ella remarked, glancing at the baby laying wrapped up on the ground.

The sister began floating in the air into the mother’s unoccupied open arm. A scowl that was too cute to be taken seriously formed on the sister’s face. Ignoring all of this, the mother wore a contemplative look.

“Hmm… Because you’re attuned to the magic that we call soul energy, your name will be Sol.” Her gaze sparkled while meeting Sol’s eyes.

“And this,” the mom propped both of her babies up in her arms so they could see each other, “is your adorable sister Lucy.”

Lucy cast a menacing glance at her new brother, causing a cold shiver to run down his spine.

“Gah-goo?”

“Lady Nicky, we should really get moving again.”

Two intricately woven wooden baskets with padding laying at the bottom popped into existence in front of Nicky, and soon after, each of her babies floated into one.

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“It feels good to use magic again.” Nicky smiled.

Just as Sol and Lucy were brought into their baskets, a fireball came flying through the trees of the forest. Nicky jumped left, with the baskets following her, as the fireball landed directly where she once stood.

“They’re here! Take the children.” Both baskets went flying over to Ella, who handily caught them.

Coming from through the woods arrived five men in plated armor with the crest of a tiger and one wearing brown robes with a staff in his hand. The knight leading pulled his reins upon exiting the forest, and the remainders followed suit.

“We’ve finally caught up with you, harlot.” The knight stared arrogantly down at Nicky, unsheathing his sword.

“So you did,” replied Nicky, positioning herself in front of Ella.

“Um. Sir,” the knight to the captain’s right stuttered.

“What is it?”

“She doesn’t look pregnant anymore.”

The leading knight focused his gaze closer onto Nicky, and then, his eyes widened. He instantly tugged his reins to the side.

“Men! Retreat!” he shouted.

But before the horses had a chance to move, six nearly invisible blades of wind formed in the air around Nicky. The captain quickly jumped off his horse, while the mage created a barrier in front of him.

Each blade of wind flew from its position and cut the four knights not fast enough to react cleanly in half. The mage was sent to the ground with a deep gash across his chest, while the knight captain remained unharmed on the ground.

“Wait, don’t kill me!” The knight captain, sprawled across the ground, raised both hands in front of him, with his sword dropped and looking up at Nicky, who already had prepared another blade of wind.

He continued, “I can report that the assassination was successful so that no more men are sent.”

“That does sound reasonable…”

The captain’s eyes began to light up with hope as he looked up at Nicky, but the next moment he noticed his vision was turning upside down.

“It’s too bad I’m not reasonable,” said Nicky as the captain’s head landed beside his body.

Nicky prepared to form another blade of wind to tie up the loose end of the immobile mage but sensed movement behind her. She snapped around to see a man covered in a black robe, with a dagger in hand, yank Sol’s carrier from Ella.

“Don’t cast any spells,” the man quickly said as he brought his dagger to Sol’s neck.

“A stealth mage,” Nicky hissed.

“And don’t bring your mana domain any closer.” Barely visible golden halos surrounded the man’s dark eyes.

Nicky let out an annoyed click and halted all of her actions.

“Good. Now conjure a sword.”

Nicky shot him a pissed expression, and he only responded by pushing the dagger slightly onto Sol’s skin, causing blood to draw. Sol began to shift in the cocoon of the blanket that had him wrapped up.

Watching all of this, Nicky conjured a sword into her hand.

“Great! Now I want you to slit your throat,” the assassin said gleefully.

Nicky flinched and looked down at the sword in her hands. She looked back up to the assassin with the dagger at Sol’s neck and her baby shifting around. She stared at the blade again and reluctantly turned it around to her neck.

“I will do what you say, but first I want you to use oath magic saying you will not prevent Ella nor my babies from returning to my village.”

The assassin let out an annoyed scoff. ‘I can always report that she died while pregnant and deal with them all later,’ he thought to himself.

“Fine,” said the assassin before becoming surrounded by a translucent layer of light.

“I vow I will not prevent Ella nor your babies from returning to your village if you end your own life.” The golden light dimmed, and he growled, “Happy?”

A smile spread across Nicky’s face. First, she looked over to Lucy who had an angry but cute expression. Then, she looked to Sol whose shifting finally led to his hands being free and raised in front of himself. Despite the circumstances, he also just looked like a cute baby.

“Sorry sweety, mommy has to go now.”

A pained expression formed on Nicky’s face as she tightened her grip on the sword. She watched Sol as Sol looked even further up to the assassin above him. His arms outstretched innocently to the man still watching down Nicky, despite that man being the assassin that held the dagger to his throat.

“Wah-bah?”

A blade of wind formed at the base of Sol’s hand and shot upwards. A moment after, the cradle began to fall, and falling right with it was the man’s head.