Ch.255Side Story: Love and War (Part 1 Complete)

A cocoon filling the vast space.

I’m already familiar with seeing the big baby enter a cocoon to grow rapidly.

She pulled out one tendril and placed it against the cocoon.

Familiar sensations: warmth felt above the surface, rough pulsations like waves. The dizzying mix of sensations and elements were things she had experienced long ago.

She senses objects and movements with her mysterious “power” and her entire body. Unlike other animals, her perception isn’t compartmentalized into smelling, seeing, or hearing.

That doesn’t mean her detection abilities are inferior. If she concentrates, she can sense not only this huge, foul-smelling rock but also a much wider area beyond it.

But what she was feeling now was quite different from before.

Right now, she was sensing the thoughts of a completely different creature. The being inside the cocoon connected to her tendril—the big baby’s thoughts.

She didn’t originally possess this ability.

Gaining the ability to read other creatures’ thoughts using her innate “power” and transmit those thoughts to other creatures was a relatively recent development.

Her friend knew how to extract thoughts from “bad friends” and make them her own. The big baby was delighted to see this.

If there’s something she doesn’t know, it’s good to learn from friends. If her friend can do it, she can too.

Through this extremely simple reasoning process, she learned how her friend handled power right on the spot. She’s not as skilled as her friend yet, but as she grows, she’ll get better.

In fact, her skills had greatly improved since helping the little baby and its mother share thoughts with each other. Now she was sensing the big baby’s thoughts much more smoothly than before.

Inside the cocoon, the big baby is walking somewhere.

It’s a wide place similar to her homeland, but with a very strange smell. The unpleasant smell, piercing like something stabbing her body, reminded her of when she was imprisoned in the past.

Though it made her feel bad, she endured it. How frightening must it be for the big baby to be alone in such a strange place? She thought staying by its side would ease the big baby’s mind.

Fortunately, her feelings seemed to get through, and the big baby gradually regained composure. Upon reaching a dead end, it raised its elongated appendage and pushed hard against the wall.

The moment the wall gave way and a space she had never seen before appeared.

“Little adult?”

A familiar thought wave woke her.

She startled and pulled her tendril away from the cocoon. Her consciousness returned to the inside of the foul-smelling rock.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“?”

The little baby tilted its protruding sensory organ at her strange answer. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but somehow felt reluctant to talk about it. So she had unconsciously evaded the question.

Fortunately, the little baby showed no interest in her suspicious behavior. It was interested in something else.

“Big adult” “again” “will change?”

“Yes. It will grow big.”

The little baby shook its protruding sensory organ back and forth.

“More” “bigger” “troublesome”

“Why? Being bigger means being stronger, which is good.”

“Bigger” “eggs” “difficult”

Hearing that made her feel very bad.

“Little baby can’t lay eggs yet.”

“Why?” “I” “white” “growth” “success” “little adult” “promised” “I” “growth” “eggs” “possible”

“You can’t because you’re not an adult yet!”

“Big adult” “me” “adult” “acknowledged”

She had no response to the little baby’s logical argument.

“Big adult” “growth” “complete” “I” “eggs” “will ask”

“Both little baby and big baby are babies! Babies can’t make babies!”

“Don’t” “know yet” “need to check”

Seeing how it wouldn’t back down at all, it seemed the little baby was firmly resolved this time.

As the little baby said, she had no legitimate reason to prevent their mating. She had said she wouldn’t stop them once the little baby grew up.

Moreover, the little baby had fulfilled its duty as head of the family by protecting those who followed it. Though small in body, the little baby was already a proper adult.

But she didn’t want to acknowledge this.

If the big baby and little baby mated, she felt it would make her feel very, very seriously bad. Bad enough to destroy this entire smelly giant rock.

“Big baby is busy. So it can’t make babies.”

“Reproduction” “important” “species” “prosperity” “eggs” “absolutely” “necessary”

“……”

Perhaps growing also made it smarter. Every time she spoke, the little baby immediately countered. She searched for something that could stop this precocious child, but nothing came to mind.

So her final choice was the middle baby.

“Middle baby, the big baby can’t have babies now, right?”

“Huh? Uh?”

“Friend” “doesn’t know” “said so” “friend’s” “words” “help” “won’t”

“…That’s not wrong, but somehow it feels bad.”

She thought the middle baby would probably take her side.

But contrary to her expectations, the middle baby’s behavior was different.

“It probably could, but…”

“I” “friend’s” “words” “heard”

“Really? Can the big baby really have babies?”

“Listen to the end. A-ahem, the big baby can’t make eggs right now.”

“See? I’m right. Big baby can’t have babies.”

“Deny” “friend” “said ‘now'” “later” “egg” “production” “possible”

“…You both have good comprehension. No, should I consider this growth too?”

The middle baby scratched its protruding sensory organ with an appendage. From what she’d seen so far, the middle baby was uncomfortable with her and the little baby’s questions.

“What does that mean?”

“Well, it’s complicated to explain. Should I say the big baby can’t make eggs because it’s not fully grown?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Ask the big baby for details.”

“Agree” “directly” “will confirm”

In the end, even the middle baby couldn’t stop the little baby. There was no way left to stop it.

The only option remaining was to stop the little baby by force.

But it wasn’t good to punish it forcefully without justification. If the little baby were a bad child, that would be different, but otherwise, she couldn’t just hit it without reason.

As she thought this, she suddenly recalled a previous memory.

When she connected the thoughts of the little baby and its mother, she saw it. How the little baby’s mother had mated.

“Wait.”

“Still” “words” “remain?”

“Yes. To mate with the big baby, you have to compete with me.”

“?”

Both the little baby and middle baby tilted their protruding sensory organs at her words.

“Why?” “little adult” “me” “compete?”

“I’m going to mate with the big baby too.”

The little baby’s family mated differently from her family. The pattern of one head mating with multiple family members was the same, but there was a difference in the order. The strongest or longest-serving family member mated first.

The little baby fell silent at her declaration. It understood what she was saying.

“Little adult” “big adult” “like?”

“Yes.”

“I” “mating” “first” “said” “little adult” “me” “after”

“No. I’m stronger than the little baby and have been with the big baby longer.”

“Deny” “I” “grew up”

She felt a familiar power flowing from the little baby.

A power similar to yet different from the “power” she possessed. The little baby used that power when catching prey or punishing bad children.

The little baby intended to fight her.

She was about to draw out her power too, when the middle baby jumped between them.

“Wait! It’s not my place to say, but if you’re going to test your strength, do it outside! If you do it here, the big baby won’t like it.”

“Agree”

Hearing this, she immediately withdrew her power. The little baby did the same.

Then they went outside the smelly rock together.

–

Adhigh Orr was more tense than ever before.

She never imagined she would compete with one of her own kind for mating rights. She knew she had the most attractive tail of all, but her body was too small.

That’s why she thought only the big adult would truly cherish someone like her.

Anyway, it was hard to find a male as magnificent as the big adult with its robust and wild horns. For a male, its tail was a bit too thick, but she could easily overlook such a flaw.

Because she was an adult.

Her kind also understood her feelings and none targeted the big adult.

So Adhigh never thought she would compete with anyone else for the big adult.

Much less that her competitor would be the little adult.

She glared at the being far away on the white snow.

It looked like a small, fragile creature unlike anything else on this planet. Of course, Adhigh knew well that was only its appearance.

That small creature, whom Adhigh called the little adult, possessed very powerful strength. As strong as her mother.

Although facing such a formidable opponent alone was quite burdensome, Adhigh was confident.

With the power of the stars, she had become incomparably stronger than before. In her opinion, the only ones definitely stronger than her were the big adult and the liar Odd Grad. The rest were opponents she could fight.

As this thought occurred to her, Adhigh felt herself heating up. The dormant blood of a fierce predator within her began to stir.

She knew that strong males mate with multiple females. The big adult would eventually do the same.

But she couldn’t lose the position of first mate. While the little adult was worthy of respect, not enough to give up being first mate.

“This isn’t hunting. Both of you control your strength.”

“Understood.”

“Confirm”

While responding to the middle baby, Adhigh drew upon the power of the stars. At that moment, the little adult initiated the attack first.

A long tendril shot out from the little adult’s body and struck her head. It was the same action the little adult took when scolding her, but the force was on a different level.

If she hadn’t protected her head with the power of the stars, she would have lost consciousness from this attack.

Having blocked the first attack with the power of the stars, Adhigh counterattacked. Compressed power shot from her mouth toward the little adult.

The little adult casually waved its tendril to nullify Adhigh’s attack.

But Adhigh had anticipated this. She leaped immediately after firing her power. Like the big adult would do, she moved one step ahead of her opponent.

The distance between her and the little adult closed instantly. She intended to ram into it, but the little adult blocked her attack.

An invisible object restrained her tightly.

But her wings, infused with the power of the stars, were still intact. She swung her wings forcefully as a weapon, just as the big adult would. The little adult, seemingly not expecting this, hurriedly raised its tendrils to block the wings.

And the sharp membrane of her wing cut the little adult’s tendril. For the first time ever, she had wounded the little adult’s body, having never even rebelled against it before.

Exhilaration and guilt, these two emotions swirled within her. But that was a mistake.

The little adult, disregarding its severed tendril, swung another one. Adhigh quickly wrapped her head with the power of the stars to block the tendril.

When the tendril collided, the air vibrated greatly and her neck vertebrae screamed. The blow was so strong that she couldn’t absorb all of the little adult’s power.

Still, she was fine. There wasn’t a single wound on her head.

As she thought this, the little adult’s wavelength reached her tendril.

“Little baby has grown a lot. I won’t go easy on you anymore.”

“?”

Before understanding the meaning of those words, Adhigh felt her body rising high into the sky against her will. The little adult was controlling the force that had been restraining her.

And she saw it.

All the ice around the little adult cracking and floating into the air.

“Hey! I said take it easy!”

“You said the little baby has grown up, so this much is fine.”

“The ship will get caught up in this!”

The little adult’s body had already grown several times larger than Adhigh’s. Numerous tendrils protruded from everywhere, and a powerful force similar to what she felt from the big adult emanated from its body.

What happened next wasn’t clear in her memory.

An enormous number of ice chunks flew at Adhigh, keeping her too busy defending to think of anything else. The latent power of the stars within her was by no means small, but it wasn’t enough to continuously block the endless barrage of attacks.

Eventually, Adhigh, drained of strength, was struck by the little adult’s tendril and collapsed.

“Since I won, no more talk about babies! And no asking the big baby for eggs!”

That was the last thing she heard before losing consciousness. Adhigh could only nod in response.

But inwardly, Adhigh thought.

She was born with disadvantageous conditions compared to others, yet became the queen of the pack.

The word “giving up” doesn’t exist for her.

She lost consciousness while vowing that someday she would definitely mate with the big adult.