Chapter 770: Chapter 771: If anyone tells me I am doing well again, I will bite.
Isabella had been the one who ordered people to help. She had stood there with her pregnant stomach and bossy mouth, scolding everyone until they moved. She had fed the beast, cleaned its wound, and made sure it had a safe closed space to recover.
Since then, it had stayed near the village.
Peacefully.
Calmly.
Almost like a quiet old mountain that breathed.
But tonight, the air was wrong.
The snow carried blood scent.
The ground shook from running feet.
The roars outside struck against its ears again and again.
The beast lifted its huge head, nostrils flaring.
Another scream came from the battlefield.
Then, faintly from inside the palace, Isabella screamed too.
The mountain ridge beast froze.
It knew that sound.
It knew her.
The heavy chain around the gate of its enclosure tightened as it moved forward. The thick wooden bars creaked. One of the guards assigned to that area turned pale.
"Calm," the guard whispered, lifting both hands. "Easy. No one is hurting you."
The beast did not even look at him.
Its huge eyes were fixed toward the palace.
Isabella screamed again.
The beast’s body tensed.
A deep sound rolled from its chest.
The ground under the enclosure shook.
The guard stepped back. "Call someone."
Another guard ran.
The mountain ridge beast struck the gate once with its head.
The whole wooden frame groaned.
It was about to break out.
Back inside the birth room, Isabella had no idea that the beast she once saved was reacting because of her.
She only knew pain.
The second baby was harder.
Much harder.
The first baby had finally come after she drank Cyrus’s blood. For one short moment, Isabella had thought that maybe the worst part had passed. Maybe now that her body understood what to do, the rest would be easier.
She was wrong.
The second baby felt as if it refused to move.
Her body pushed. The women guided her. Cyrus supported her. The safe delivery package kept her from dying. But the pain was still there, full and deep and relentless. It had been too long. Over a day had passed since the first signs. Almost two days of fear, waiting, pushing, crying, sweating, and being told she was doing well when she felt like her body had been dragged through fire.
Another contraction came.
Isabella screamed until her throat hurt.
Cyrus held her against his chest, his face tight with helpless pain. His bitten arm was still bleeding lightly because he had opened the wound again whenever she needed more of his blood. He did not care about the wound. He cared only about the way Isabella’s body shook and the way her voice broke each time she cried.
The older woman checked again and tried to keep her voice calm. "Again. Push with the pain."
"I am pushing," Isabella sobbed. "I have been pushing forever."
"You are doing well," the younger woman said, though her own face was pale now.
Isabella almost laughed and cried at once. "If anyone tells me I am doing well again, I will bite."
Cyrus lowered his arm closer. "Bite me."
She did.
Not even because she wanted blood this time, but because the pain had taken over her body again. Her teeth sank into his arm, and Cyrus clenched his jaw without pulling away. Blood touched her tongue. The heat inside her shifted again, and the second baby moved a little lower.
Not enough.
But lower.
Bubu chimed inside her mind.
{Progress detected.}
Isabella wanted to scream at the system. "Your safe delivery thing better not be fake."
{When have I ever sold anything fake to user?}
"You sold me pain with no discount."
{User purchased safety. Pain was not removed from the product description.}
"I hate you."
{User is alive enough to hate me, so the package is working.}
Isabella nearly lost whatever sanity she had left.
She could see Bubu floating only in her mind now, looking annoyingly bright while she was lying there sweating like her body had been placed inside a boiling pot. If this system had a neck, she would have strangled it between contractions.
Cyrus felt her body tense for a different reason and bent close. "What is wrong?"
"My system is annoying me," she gasped before she could stop herself.
The two women did not understand, but they had long stopped asking about strange things. The glowing bottle had appeared earlier. Isabella had spoken to the air more than once. Cyrus seemed to accept it. So the women decided that whatever strange blessing followed Lady Isabella was not something they needed to understand during birth.
The older woman focused between Isabella’s legs again. Her eyes narrowed.
"Wait," she said.
Cyrus’s head lifted at once.
The younger woman moved closer with a clean cloth ready.
Isabella could barely open her eyes. "What? What is it?"
The older woman leaned forward, then her face changed completely.
She looked up at Isabella with sudden hope.
"I see another head."
The moment the older woman said that, Isabella’s whole body seemed to hear it before her mind did.
Her fingers tightened around Cyrus’s arm at once. The pain that had been sitting low in her stomach suddenly changed into something heavier, something sharper, something that pushed down so strongly that she almost could not think. It was as if her own body had finally decided that it was tired of waiting and now wanted this child out, even if it had to tear her apart to do it.
"I need to push," Isabella gasped.
The older woman moved closer at once. "Then push with the pain. Do not fight it now. Your body knows."
Isabella almost wanted to curse at her.
Her body knew?
Her body had been doing nonsense for almost two days.
Her body had tortured her, sweated her out, made her scream until her throat felt raw, made her bite Cyrus until his blood filled her mouth, and now everyone was saying her body knew what it was doing?
