Chapter 124

Chapter 124: A Baby Born as an Awakened I lowered myself so Rin could see the face of the sibling I was holding.

"Rin, this is your little sibling."

"My wittle sibwing......"

Rin rose on her tiptoes, mouth agape, peering at the baby's face.

"The baby is so smaww......"

"Hehe! Right?"

Then her eyes reddened.

"I am so happy to have a sibwing......!"

She was so overjoyed that tears came.

Watching Rin's reaction, Ria and I exchanged glances and smiled.

"Congratulations on becoming a big sister, Rin."

"Congratulations."

In response to our congratulations, Rin wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, smiled, and nodded.

I then handed the baby back to Ria.

Rin and I sat on the edge of the bed, looking at Ria and the baby.

"I am so glad both you and the baby are healthy."

At my words, Ria nodded.

"Yes. According to Ruina, my delivery only took an hour."

"Really? It felt like a whole day to me."

That was how agonizingly difficult the wait had been.

"Hehe! That is not possible. In any case, the average delivery for a pregnant woman apparently takes about nine hours. If that had been the case for me, it would have been incredibly painful and exhausting, but since mine was so quick, it was manageable."

Being a Superhuman meant even her delivery time was short.

I was relieved that Ria had not endured the agony of a prolonged labor.

'My mother told me it took over eleven hours to give birth to me.'

To endure that tremendous pain for so long.

My mother truly was a great being. I felt it once again.

In any case, Ria looked very healthy and in good condition.

Ria continued.

"I could pick up a sword again starting tomorrow."

Good heavens.

What did I just hear?

"A sword? Absolutely not. You need to rest properly for a while."

"I am fine, though."

"No."

"......Fine, I will rest for a few days."

Ria looked at the baby again.

Affection overflowed from her gaze.

"It is so amazing to finally meet this little one after carrying her in my belly for ten months."

"I know. I have been wanting to see her so badly since she was still inside you, and we finally get to meet."

Before long, Ruina, having finished cleaning up, came back into the room.

She watched us warmly for a moment before asking.

"Have you decided on a name for the second little miss?"

I answered her question.

"We have not settled on one yet."

Ria and I had been putting our heads together for months trying to come up with a name.

Despite our efforts, we could not decide, so we had even consulted the Sword Saint elder and Director Jeong Jae-yong.

But it still had not been easy to settle on one.

Now it truly needed to be decided.

'Should I pick one from the candidates we discussed?'

While I was deliberating.

Rin, sitting beside Ria, looked at the baby and said.

"Isn't my sibwing's name Yeo-na?"

The baby's prenatal name had been So-yeon.

A prenatal name given by my mother.

She had chosen it with the wish that the child would grow into a happy person full of laughter.

During Ria's pregnancy, we would occasionally call the baby in her belly by the prenatal name, saying "So-yeon-ah" or "Yeon-ah."

Rin, too, had called the baby "Yeo-na" from time to time.

"Do you like the name Yeo-na, Rin?"

"Yesh! I wove it!"

Ria and I looked at each other.

The name "Yeo-na" did not seem bad at all.

'An Yeo-na.'

If I were to construct the name in hanja, combining "Yeo" meaning "lovely" and "Na" meaning "graceful" would form a name meaning "a beautiful and elegant person."

"Ria, what do you think of the name Yeo-na?"

"It is cute to say, so I think it would be lovely."

I also asked the Sword Saint elder, who had come to offer his congratulations, what he thought of the name "Yeo-na."

"It is a fine name, carrying the wish that she will grow with a lovely face and a beautiful heart."

The response was positive not just from the Sword Saint elder, but from everyone else as well.

"I do not know about the hanja meanings, but it is easy to say and a cute name."

Everyone agreed with Eriksson's assessment.

All the Knight Order senior members also said it rolled off the tongue nicely.

And so, Ria and I confirmed "An Yeo-na" as our second daughter's name.

"Little one, your name is Yeo-na now."

When I called her Yeo-na, the baby moved her head slightly.

As if she were responding to the name.

***

For three days after Yeo-na's birth, we stayed at the Rift house.

Ria had made a complete recovery in a mere three days.

Just three days ago, her belly had been fully swollen with her pregnancy, yet now the swelling was entirely gone and her stomach was flat.

'She returned to her pre-pregnancy body in just three days.'

It was nothing short of an extraordinary recovery rate.

However, according to Ria, only her outward appearance had returned to its pre-pregnancy state; her stamina was still considerably depleted.

In order to recover that lost stamina, she was currently training with a sword.

"She is my wife, but there is truly no stopping her. Rest a little more."

Ruina then brought over snacks, set them on the outdoor table, and spoke.

"Hehe! Lady Ria must have been very frustrated not being able to hold a sword all this time."

"She certainly was. Still, I wish she would rest more."

"Do not worry. Lady Ria recovers quickly."

"True."

I spoke to the baby I was holding.

"Yeo-na, that is what your mommy is like. Is she not cool?"

Yeo-na watched Ria's sword dance with her blue eyes -- the same blue as Ria's -- with fascination.

Yeo-na had opened her eyes two days after birth.

Once we confirmed her eyes were blue, we knew she had inherited more of Ria's genes than mine.

Her hair, which had grown about two centimeters, was silver like Ria's as well.

"She is only three days old, and you can already see she takes after Ria in her features."

Yeo-na seemed to have been listening to what I said even while she was still in her mother's womb.

The request that she resemble her mommy more than her daddy.

Ruina agreed that Yeo-na looked like Ria.

"I know, right? Looking at the second little miss's face, I think I can see Lady Ria's childhood."

Before long, Rin returned from a trip to the Dungeon Wild Grape dungeon with Bell and the Sword Saint elder.

She came running straight over.

"Yeo-na!"

Rin came sprinting with a bright smile, calling her sibling's name.

She came up and spoke to the baby.

"Yeo-na, your big sistew is hewe!"

When Rin spoke, Yeo-na turned her eyes toward her.

Then she smiled at Rin.

Newborns typically could not smile from positive feelings until about a week old, yet Yeo-na had managed it in just three days.

"Papa, Yeo-na is so cute."

A cute little miss calling an even smaller baby cute.

Double the cuteness.

"Right? Yeo-na is very cute, but so is our Rin."

"Heh......!"

Ruina then said.

"Well then, I will go prepare for our move outside the Rift."

"Sure, thanks."

Our family would be living at the house outside the Rift for a while.

The house outside the Rift was more modern and better suited for caring for a baby, and we also needed to visit the hospital frequently for various checkups.

'Ria also needs to be examined to make sure there are no post-delivery issues.'

We also needed to file the birth registration.

Two hours later, we opened a portal to the house outside the Rift.

Ria held Yeo-na snugly against her chest so the baby would not be startled.

We then passed through the portal and exited the Rift.

Yeo-na did not cry even after going through the portal.

That evening, my mother came to the house outside the Rift.

And when she saw her newborn granddaughter.

"Oh my goodness......!"

She covered her mouth with both hands upon seeing Yeo-na.

Tears came to her eyes.

"So this is my granddaughter...... Oh my goodness......!"

Ria spoke to her.

"Would you like to hold her, Mother?"

"Would that really be all right......?"

"Of course. She is your granddaughter, after all."

My mother nodded and carefully took Yeo-na into her arms.

She looked down at her granddaughter, her brows lifting with tender affection.

"She really is a beautiful baby. Yeo-na, I am your grandmother."

Yeo-na looked up at her grandmother with those blue eyes.

Watching from the side, Rin spoke to her grandmother.

"Gwandma, isn't my wittle sistew Yeo-na weally cute?"

"She really is, so cute. How can anyone be this adorable? Both Yeo-na and our Rin."

"Hehe!"

My mother then looked at Ria with eyes full of affection.

"Our daughter-in-law, you truly went through so much. From the pregnancy all the way to the delivery, it must have been very difficult."

"It was not entirely without hardship, but even so, every part of the process was meaningful and joyful. Seon-u was always by my side, so I was never lonely."

"How is our daughter-in-law such a positive person with such a beautiful character?"

Indeed.

My mother then had Ria rest while she took over caring for Yeo-na.

And Rin refused to leave her little sister's side.

***

The next day, we visited the university hospital's obstetrics department and underwent various examinations.

We also had a comprehensive newborn screening done.

Since it was recommended to do this between three and seven days after birth, we had the test done on Yeo-na's fourth day.

Apparently, it was best to test as early as possible to detect and treat any potential conditions early.

When blood was drawn from her heel, Yeo-na cried.

"It is okay, Yeo-na."

"Daddy is right here, be brave."

Yeo-na looked at us and immediately stopped crying.

The nurse was very surprised.

"She stopped crying the moment she saw Mommy and Daddy. How fascinating. She must recognize her parents."

"Can babies not normally recognize them?"

The nurse considered my question before answering.

"No, typically a baby under one month old has less than 0.03 vision, which means they can barely distinguish people or objects through the blur."

"I see."

That was the first I had heard of it.

The nurse continued.

"So usually, a baby needs to be at least two months old before their vision is good enough to make eye contact with their mother."

"......"

That was strange. Our Yeo-na had been making eye contact with Ria and me from the very moment she first opened her eyes.

Could it be that being born as an Awakened had accelerated her visual development?

And it was not just her eyesight.

During the OAE hearing test, the examining doctor was astonished.

"The baby is catching even the faintest, most subtle sounds with pinpoint accuracy. I have never seen a newborn with hearing this developed. Would you be interested in having an ABR test done as well? It measures the baby's brain waves to assess hearing more precisely. We would be happy to do it free of charge from the hospital."

So Yeo-na's hearing was superior to that of a normal baby.

In that case, I did not particularly want the additional test.

A more precise examination might reveal that her hearing was at the level of an Awakened, and that information could leak.

'I do not want people to know that Yeo-na was born as an Awakened.'

I politely declined the doctor's offer.

After completing all the tests, we returned home.

At home, my mother, who had taken a day off from work, was looking after Rin.

When I laid Yeo-na on a blanket, Rin looked at her and said.

"Yeo-na, your big sistew missed you so much."

Yeo-na looked at Rin and beamed a bright smile.

Then Rin showed her a small purple rosebud and spoke to her.

"Yeo-na, your big sistew wiww show you something coow."

With that, Rin began to slowly make the rosebud bloom.

Yeo-na watched with fascination.

In that moment.

RUSTLE!

The bud, which had been opening slowly, suddenly burst into full bloom all at once.

At the same time, emerald mana surged powerfully across Rin's entire body.

Had Rin been using her ability weakly and then accidentally unleashed it at full force?

"Huh......? Why did that happen......?"

Judging from Rin's reaction, it had not been intentional.

If that was the case, then could Yeo-na have......?

Ria seemed to be thinking the same thing as me. She looked at Yeo-na and said.

"Could it be that Yeo-na temporarily amplified Rin's ability?"

"No way......"

"But the mana presence I sense from Yeo-na has decreased slightly."

If that was true, then it was entirely plausible.

Ria, Rin, my mother, and I all stared at Yeo-na in bewilderment.

Yeo-na simply looked back at us and smiled.