Chapter 372: Eat the baby
The guard had barely drawn his sword when the door was pushed open with force, even as Aira felt her heart hammer in her chest. Her arms wrapped tightly around her belly as worry coloured her face.
She didn’t know what was going on, but she was more than fully aware of the fact that if she got injured, then she wouldn’t be able to heal from it.
Her heart only thumped more furiously than before, her gaze widening in shock as she took in the scene right outside her door. Blood coated the floor as three of the guards lay dead, while Lady Vivian herself looked seriously injured.
Her hands were covered in enough blood to show that she was the culprit—her and no one else. But still, it was clear that she hadn’t gotten away unscathed as she lowered her hands to her waist where there was a pretty big gash.
Yet even with all that, Aira’s gaze wasn’t fixed on the bleeding woman with a pale expression on her face as she barely hung onto the hinges of the door at the entrance. Her gaze was fixed on Clay, who slowly stepped into her room without an invitation.
But more importantly was the way Clay lowered his head ever so slowly as the maid behind him entered with a covered tray in her hands.
She bowed her head and looked like an ordinary maid, yet Aira couldn’t help but feel her heart pick up speed as it slowly began to thump harder and faster in her chest. She couldn’t confirm with her powers, but there was something in her gut that told her to turn around and just run!
Leap off the walls of the castle and don’t look back.
But she had barely taken a step back when the maid suddenly lifted her head up with a bright smile on her face and spoke.
"...I wouldn’t do that if I were you! You’re fast, but I can assure you that I’m faster!" she said, even as Aira felt a shiver of fear slide down her spine when she heard the maid speak.
Her gaze glanced at Clay, who simply moved towards the door and gently closed it, almost like he was making sure that there was no way they would be interrupted.
The only guard left alive scooted closer to her, whispering to Aira in a tone that Aira knew the two people in front of her could hear. Still not over the shock that Clay was a Zygon, she wondered when the real Clay died or whether he had been that way from the start.
Please let it be the latter.
"...Lady Aira, can you confirm that the two of them are Zygon beasts?" the guard asked, and although it was negligible, Aira could still make out the slight trembling in his voice as he spoke.
It sounded like he wanted to know the truth, but Aira knew that there was absolutely no way he could handle the fact that there were two Zygon beasts in front of him, and regardless of what he did, he would die.
The only solution Aira could see in sight was stalling—something she didn’t think was possible considering the fact that neither of the two beasts in front of her seemed the least bit chatty.
With no other choice left, she simply opened her mouth and began to speak.
"...I’m guessing you’re here to kill me?" Aira asked, not seeing a reason to beat around the bush. The faster she was sure of the goal, the better for her.
But instead of getting an answer to her question, she got a question instead.
"...I feel another life inside of you! You’re pregnant?" the maid asked as she stepped closer, Aira willing herself not to step back even as she watched the maid move towards the small sitting area in the room and place the tray on the table.
A deep frown etched on Aira’s face as she heard her mention the baby in her stomach, and she placed a protective arm over it. Her stomach was already bulging, and it was the huge fluffy gowns she wore that prevented that fact from being seen.
The guard and even Clay looked surprised enough, even as she wondered why Vivian continued to have a blank expression on her face when she should have been the most angry. She wondered why she would be involved at all—until it clicked when Clay beckoned her closer to his side.
Healing her wounds to the slight displeasure of the young maid, which instantly made him lower his head.
But at that point, Aira could no longer remain quiet as she opened her mouth to speak.
"...Yes, I’m pregnant!" she responded, wondering what the monster was up to, only to feel her heart miss a beat as she heard the words that followed.
The maid practically hissed out the words.
"...A smaller Zyren! Did you see what he did to my army?" she asked, and the words made Aira pale in fear and despair as she slowly came to a deadly realization that made her take a few steps back.
Her eyes fluttered in fear even as the guard in front of her fully stepped in front of her, opening his mouth to speak.
"...Don’t worry, Lady Aira, I’ll protect you with my—"
But he was still speaking when something shot out almost too fast for Aira to see it.
But she saw the aftermath.
Tentacles could be seen swimming out of the maid’s arms—black, grotesque, and long—even as one of them still hung inside the guard’s head, his mouth left hanging open in shock. Blood dripped down his face as the maid pulled back, revealing a gaping hole where his brain should have been right before the guard’s body dropped lifelessly to the ground.
It all happened in two blinks of an eye, and if before Aira had been scared, that fear slowly turned into panic as she scrambled back even as she heard the maid speak.
"...If before I considered taking you away, now I have to eat the baby," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, even as large black tentacles continued to wiggle where her right arm should be.
