Ch. 87 A Hundred Year Reunion with the Witch (6)
by Afuhfuihgs
Witch – Chapter 87 – A Hundred Year Reunion with the Witch (6)
“Sniff… Ughhh.”
Estelle blew her nose loudly into the handkerchief Dorothy had handed her.
Lately, she had been crying so much that her emotions refused to settle easily. Her shoulders shook with each sniffle, and her ragged breaths made her nose run incessantly—it was driving her mad.
“…….”
“…….”
Coming back inside the house was one thing, but the heavy silence made it hard for Estelle to find the right words.
She was afraid that if she said something careless, Dorothy might lose her temper again. Honestly… she hadn’t expected to be forgiven this quickly.
She almost wished Dorothy would just yell at her—anything but this suffocating quiet.
“Maybe I should make an artificial lifeform too. As a replacement for this damn tear-jerker.”
Dorothy pinched the damp fabric of her dress where the tears had soaked through and flicked it dry.
“I’m sorry…”
With no other choice but to apologize in a voice barely above a whisper, Estelle kept her head bowed, cautiously gauging Dorothy’s reaction.
“So, what’s the kid’s name?”
“Estelle No. 2…”
“Excuse me?”
“Eeek!”
Dorothy’s sharpened gaze bore into Estelle like a blade.
A—a name!?
Her panicked mind scrambled to come up with something better. If she answered carelessly now, she might get thrown right back out.
“W-Well, it’s… S—”
“S?”
“S-S… Stella!”
Stella—a name synonymous with “star”, just like Estelle. Surely that wasn’t a bad choice…?
“Stella… Stella.”
Dorothy poked the sleeping baby’s cheek inside the basket on the table, repeating the name softly.
Her sharp eyes, which had been glaring just moments ago, softened into something almost… grandmotherly. The kind of look she might give Josie.
Wait, wasn’t she angry?
She had called Stella a lump of flesh earlier, but now she was making this doting face. Estelle couldn’t keep up.
“You… don’t hate her?”
“What’s the kid done wrong? It’s all the damn creator’s fault.”
“Urk…”
Well… she wasn’t wrong. Stella herself had done nothing wrong—it was Estelle’s intentions that had been twisted. The thought of carelessly disposing of her now sent a chill down her spine.
Come to think of it, when the gust of wind had thrown them earlier, the basket had landed safely. Maybe, just for now, Stella held a higher place in Dorothy’s heart than Estelle did.
“Mom.”
“……What.”
Estelle fidgeted with her fingers, watching Dorothy carefully. In response, Dorothy turned her head slightly, silent for a moment before sighing.
Dorothy wasn’t fully over her anger, but seeing Estelle grovel like this made it hard to stay mad.
This damn kid…
No matter how much of a failure her daughter was, a daughter was still a daughter. Even if Estelle had driven a stake through Dorothy’s heart, seeing her remorseful and repentant made it impossible to stay mad.
Dorothy had been so angry she hadn’t wanted to see Estelle’s face for years… but that single “I love you” had chipped away at her resolve, just a little.
“Just… thank you. And I’m sorry.”
“That’s it?”
“…I won’t do it again.”
Estelle vowed never to make another clone. The thought of creating another one terrified her.
More than anything, she didn’t want to hurt Dorothy again. Even if things had turned out like this… Dorothy was just as precious to Estelle as Josie.
From the day she had been reborn in the Aria Chronicle and barely reached the western paradise until now—if not for Dorothy, she might have starved to death or lived out her days as some ordinary village girl.
She never would have met Josie.
She never would have felt the emotions she did now.
It had been so long since someone had scolded her enough to make her cry. The urge to act spoiled surged uncontrollably.
“I love you. You love me too, right?”
“Wretched girl.”
Despite her words, Dorothy didn’t push Estelle away when she moved in for a hug. Instead, she shifted to make it easier.
Love. Right. That damnable thing called love.
Something Dorothy could never say so easily, yet Estelle tossed it around like it was nothing.
And yet… Dorothy didn’t entirely hate it. Unconsciously, her hand moved to stroke Estelle’s pink hair. She should have scolded her more, drilled into her never to pull such a stunt again…
But her hand wouldn’t stop. As if waiting for this, Estelle burrowed deeper into her arms, and Dorothy—starved for her warmth—couldn’t bring herself to push her away.
The moment she let Estelle back into the house, it was already too late to stay angry.
“Don’t let there be a next time. Got it?”
“Thank you, Mom. I love you.”
Maybe… Dorothy’s anger had already melted the moment she first heard those words.
She wanted to pull Estelle into a full embrace, but the finger she had been using to poke Stella’s cheek was suddenly caught in a tiny grip.
A pair of red eyes, identical to Estelle’s, locked onto Dorothy’s. The baby clutched Dorothy’s finger with all her might in her little cotton-ball hands.
“Waaah…! Waaah…!”
Her tiny mouth opened just wide enough to fit a finger as she burst into tears.
Short, repetitive cries.
Her head lolled side to side, as if uncomfortable.
“Stella’s crying! What do we do?”
“What do you mean, ‘what do we do’? You made her. Don’t you know?”
Dorothy and Estelle panicked at the sound of Stella’s wailing.
“Did we make too much noise while she was sleeping?”
“When did we scream?”
Both bore the title of “mother”, but neither had ever given birth or raised a child before.
Dorothy had met Estelle when she was ten, and Estelle had raised herself until then. Estelle, in turn, had met Josie when she was seven.
Childcare was foreign to them both, and they had momentarily forgotten what came with raising a baby.
In short—they had no idea why Stella was crying.
A baby’s needs couldn’t be deciphered from tears alone.
As Stella’s cries grew louder, sending Estelle into a panic, Dorothy finally scooped the baby up, carefully supporting her head.
“Stella, don’t cry.”
“Waaah…!”
Dorothy awkwardly tried to soothe her, mimicking half-remembered gestures from women she’d seen tending to infants long ago.
“She’s crying even harder! What do we do? Should I use magic to put her to sleep? Or maybe an elixir—”
“Are you insane?”
The louder Stella cried, the more the two women wanted to cry themselves.
Then, a thought flashed through Dorothy’s mind. She turned to stare at Estelle—or more precisely, at the monstrously large breasts swelling beneath Estelle’s clothes.
“Milk.”
“Huh?”
“Take ‘em out. Now.”
“Wha—!?”
Estelle yelped and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. If anything, the pressure only emphasized their size, and Dorothy’s eyes sharpened.
“You owe me for all those potions you raided from my storage. If not now, when else are you gonna use those useless milk bags?”
“B-But… I don’t produce milk!”
Her breasts might have been large, but they didn’t lactate.
Estelle had even wondered if her swelling chest was due to milk buildup at one point… She had tried squeezing them and massaging them, but all it did was hurt. Nothing came out.
Maybe if it were Josie…
But to nurse Stella, who was essentially herself?
“Besides, Stella only needs mana to survive. It’d be better to let her suck on a finger and transfer mana that way—”
Stella had been modified during cultivation to grow solely on mana, without needing food.
Logically, feeding her mana through a finger was far more practical than breastfeeding.
“I won’t say it again. Take. Them. Out. Breastfeeding is vital for a baby’s emotional development. If you make her suck on a finger instead, any forgiveness is off the table.”
“…Yes, ma’am.”
Dorothy’s stubbornness left no room for argument.
‘I have no choice…
I’m sorry, my chest… I couldn’t protect you.’
Swallowing her tears, Estelle sat down and carefully freed her left breast, making sure it didn’t catch on her clothes.
Freed from the influence of the enchanted fabric, her breast defied gravity, maintaining its full volume without sagging—though the weight of it pressed heavily on her shoulders.
She hadn’t shown her bare chest to anyone since bathing with Josie when she was ten. Even now, with only one exposed, shame burned her face red.
“Don’t look.”
Estelle covered her pink areola with her palm before Dorothy could see. A last, desperate line of defense.
“Move your hand. How else is she supposed to eat? You want to starve her?”
“Well… there’s another problem…”
“Sigh. What now?”
This was Estelle’s most secretive, embarrassing truth.
She gulped and spoke hesitantly.
“I’m… inverted. To get it out, I’d have to… kinda… pull it…”
“…….”
‘Should I just kill her?’
Dorothy’s earlier warmth vanished, replaced by a murderous glare.
“F-Five seconds! Just—just give me a second!!”
Estelle quickly dug her fingers into soft flesh, fishing out the hidden nipple before scooping the crying Stella from Dorothy’s arms.
She pressed her breast to Stella’s mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.
“…….”
Slurp. Slurp. Slurp.
Stella’s tongue and lips latched onto the areola, sucking with all her might.
As Estelle channeled mana through her nipple instead of milk, Stella’s cries stopped as if by magic.
The unfamiliar sensation made Estelle crack her eyes open, meeting Stella’s pure, innocent gaze.
Even if Stella was just a clone… the way she pulsed with life, defying nature’s laws, stirred something in Estelle that was different from what she felt for Josie.
So this is the strength of a nursing mother…
The blessing-like sensation that only a mother could feel—was it okay to experience it through such trickery? Guilt gnawed at her.
“How does it feel?”
“Amazing.”
There was no other word for it.
This… was something you could never understand unless you experienced it yourself.
This wasn’t just breastfeeding—it was the weight of life itself.
The meaning of creating life.
The sheer absurdity of what Estelle had done.
And she had almost thrown this child away.
As her creator, as her elder sister—shame burned through her.
It wasn’t technically breastfeeding… “Mana-nursing” was more accurate. But if she ever had a biological child and breastfed them… she didn’t think she could do it without loving them deeply.
Not that she ever planned to.
“But… how long do I have to keep feeding her?”
“Until she’s tired. Until she’s full. Until she gets bored.”
“Eeeh!?”
Lucent
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