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Maria’s childbirth had started.

Hearing that… I was at a loss for what to do.

I stood at Cortina’s door and looked around while flapping my arms. Naturally, there was no one for me to find there.

Finia went in to assist with the role of a midwife, while Michelle went to her own house to bring her mother.

Actually, no… There were two more people inside the house. One large and one small.

“G-G-G-Gadius, everything will be fine, right? Right!?”
“H-H-H-How should I know!?”

There was Lyell, acting just as confused as I, and Gadius, who seemed to have been petrified in place, but his legs alone were trembling violently.

Men were practically useless in situations like this. Lyell’s remark about Gadius being useless during our departure was unexpectedly on point this time.

“Lye—Dad!”
“Ohh, Nicole! You’re back, my honey!”
“Ew.”
“Thank you for your prompt love-filled words of abuse. That aside, Maria is…!”
“Ah, so it really was that. Finia went in, and Michelle’s gonna bring her mom too.”
“That’s reassuring!”

He muttered in gratitude and approached me, trying to go for the hug, but I managed to slip by. At that timing, someone appeared at the entrance.

“Hey! Stop standing there like sore thumbs. Quite pathetic for people calling themselves Six Heroes. You’re a bother here, so go wait outside.”

Entering with such assertive words was none other than Michelle’s mom. Michelle was also following behind her.

She used to treat Lyell with respect before, having a debt of gratitude towards him, but this was an emergency. Her current rough attitude felt quite reliable.

She drove Lyell and Gaidus away to the living room using the same kind of words she used towards Michelle.

“Lady Nicole, could you boil water for me? And bring me clean clothes. We need a lot of it!”
“O-Okay!”
“Michelle, come help too.”
“Okay!”

Receiving instructions, I was finally able to act. Standing still in confusion during a serious matter like childbirth was quite a man-like behavior for me, wasn’t it?

While coming to that conclusion inside my head, I rushed to the kitchen to boil water.

The next morning, after several hours of hard struggle, Maria was able to safely deliver the baby. It was a girl, just like the God of Destruction prophesied. In other words, it was my little sister.

She raised her first cry, one loud enough to make us wonder whether it’d bother the neighbors. I apparently didn’t cry almost at all when I was born, so this made Maria feel relieved, if anything.

Seeing Maria raised slightly from the bed to feed the baby, Lyell and I heaved relieved sighs.

“Oh, welcome back, Nicole. Did you enjoy the training camp?”
“Ah, yeah. Oh, right, here’s a gift from me.”

I pulled out the baby shampoo and talisman and put them on the side table.

“The shampoo can apparently be used to wash the body too. And it can be used by anyone, not just the baby.”
“Oho. Now that I think about it, your hair was always sparkly so I didn’t notice it, but Michelle and Finia’s hairs are looking quite glossy too now.”
“Right?”

After we finished the shampoo production, we used it as a test. It didn’t have much of an effect on me, but Finia and Michelle’s hair turned visibly glossy.

Maria, who had identically beautiful hair to mine, pointed that fact out, which made Finia turn around shyly, while Michelle started laughing loosely.

“That aside, come look, you too Lyell. She is the newest member of our family.”

Saying so, she shifted the baby’s position and showed me her face. She was small, round, and…

“Kinda wrinkly?”
“Pfft… Ahahaha!”

Maria burst into a laugh from my honest impressions. The shaking from it seemed to discomfort the babe, she started twisting and turning. Realizing that, Maria held her laugh down… But her body still trembled.

“You were the same at first, you know?”
“No waay.”

Of course, it wasn’t like I was cute right from birth, though it feels weird to say that about myself. But seriously, I don’t think I had this kind of pickled plum-like face.

“Infants are all like this, you know? But when you realize they are your family, they start looking lovely.”
“Really now.”
“You’re just too practical, Nicole. She looks just adorable to me, Maria.”
“You’re a smooth-talker so I can’t really trust your words there.”
“Hey, isn’t that harsh!?”

Lyell grabbed his head in an exaggerated manner, but quickly moved on from it and started bragging about his daughter.

“Look, Cortina. It’s Nicole’s sister, isn’t she just precious?”

He addressed Cortina who was sitting down in a somewhat unladylike posture. Kabby was also stretched out next to her.

They were both attending to Maria all night, and used Heal on her whenever the need arose, so they were completely drained.

“Ahh, yeah, yeah. She’s cute.”
“That was quite half-hearted. Aren’t you gonna give us your blessing?”
“Let me rest for a bit first. I’m exhausted. There was so much blood, I thought she was gonna die…”
“Squee~”
“Ahah, sorry about that. I thought it would be easier since it was my second time.”
“So, what are you going to name her? I assume you’ve already decided on it.”
“Yeah, this girl… Nicole’s sister’s name will be…”

She took a little pause and looked at Lyell. And then she faced me and declared with a bright smile.

“Fina. It is the combination of the names of our two dear friends, Cortina and Finia.”

Like this, my precious family had grown by one.