New Life, New Task: I'll Be A Mom Then!!!

All of these things were oblivious to Eli who was busy taking care of Little Han's belongings.

Before the guardians leave, Celeste gave a few words for Eli, "Take care of Little Han, make sure to guide him properly. He is an extraordinary child after all."

"I will, Great Guardians." Eli answered respectfully while looking at the five guardians disappear in sparkles of light.

The lively room had now become quiet and serene. Eli even felt that the atmosphere became quite sad. She took a deep breath and moved towards the sleeping Little Han.

Checking if he was comfortable, Eli couldn't help but mumble words as if talking with him, "My baby, we still have a few months ahead of us. Let's do our best until your daddy comes home."

Then she kissed him good night.

--

Five months later.

Tak! Boom! Whoosh!

Outside the little cottage in the Forgeworn forest, there was quite a lively and exciting scene.

There was an intense sparring between a woman with dark midnight hair and a man who was stall and bulky as a knight.

Cheering and observing around them were another four men, a cute dwarf maid, an owl, and a panda carrying in its arms a lively little baby.

The woman engaged with the sparing was Eli and her sparring partner was actually Neal.

Rosea, the rest of the blades, Wisey and Baobao, who was expertly carrying Little Han in his furry arms, watched excitedly at the scene.

Eli was holding a wooden short sword, while Neal was only using his barehanded left arm. Even to a passerby, the match up would still be unfair to Eli, no matter if she was holding a short sword, Neal really had a mighty and imposing figure that one would never underestimate.

"Go Madame! Hit Neal nice and clean!" Chad shouted excitedly.

"Yeah! Madame, hit his head and make him bald!" Ron seconded.

The blades kept cheering the Madame while mocking their comrade and team leader. Yet it doesn't look like Neal was affected by the mockery, in fact he had a proud look on his face.

In only five months, their future Madame had already conditioned her body to engage in a light sparring session. She could execute a decent attack and even deliver it with intent.

Although this was still far from holding it up against a trained knight, her progress would still be considered fast considering her age and physique.

Boom!

Eli tried to land a heavy blow on Neal's shoulder, to which the latter easily evaded. Although Neal was a summoner, his fighting skills are comparable to a D class Devourer. After evading Eli's blow, he nimbly took a sidestep and completely shifted to Eli's side covering her blind spot.

In Eli's vision, it looked like Neal disappeared in front of her and immediately teleported to her left side.

But she didn't get disappointed at all, rather, she had a determined expression. She knew that Neal was way beyond her in terms of fighting skills, however,  in the future the enemies they had to face would be way more scary.

As Eli was right handed, her left side was actually weaker in defense. She increased her rhythm and breathing, and immediately retreated on a safe distance, evading Neal's hand attack.

"Wooohooo! Look at that! That's our Madame!"

Genos had a proud expression on his face. As a devourer, he couldn't help but be amazed by Eli's improvement. "Look how she applied the footwork I taught her!!! She's a genius!"

"Madame's hardwork really paid off." Blanc who was silent also had a glow in his eyes as he saw Eli's footwork.

Not letting the time waste, Eli stabilized her footing and quickly charged towards Neal in a frontal attack.

The focus of the training during these five months was actually developing her body to withstand exhaustion and improve her agility. Thus, the purpose of this sparring session was to test Eli's endurance and movement speed.

Genos was incharge of teaching her the footwork for the movement speed since he was a devourer specializing on agility.

Neal was in charge of her body condition and endurance training, as a fellow summoner, he had a clear understanding of a summoner's weaknesses in the battlefield.

He also started to teach her the basics of sword combat a week ago. However, Eli could only learn slowly as she would be hurt if she tried to take many training classes at once. Thus, she could only execute a frontal attack.

Armed with the footwork and frontal attack, Eli tried to hold against the handicapped Neal for a few more minutes. The rules of the sparring was simple, it would end if Neal was able to land a feint blow on her body or if Eli felt like she was already at her limit.

"Whew!! Neal, I think this should be enough for today." Eli, drenched in sweat and dust, exhaustedly sat on the ground.

She looked at her hands which were red and shaking from doing her best not to lose the grip of her wooden short sword.

"Madame, You did well today, you lasted for five minutes!" Neal had a happy look on his face. Madame's improvement was really beyond his expectations.

"But I still have a long way to go.." Eli replied with a defeated smile. She thought that she could hold more than five minutes, but her body had limits.

'If I open my devourer's path, would it make me last longer in a fight?' She thought to herself.

"Madame, let me check your condition!" Rosea dutifully walked in the sparring ground with a clean towel and followed Eli as she was carefully guided by Neal to sit in the log chair on a tree shade.

"Sigh.. Milady, your palms are wounded…" Rosea worriedly uttered.

These days, her madam tends to push herself so hard that she would forget to take care of her own condition. That's why it became Rosea's priority to look after Madame's well being while Baobao and Wisey assist on looking after Little Han.

"Ehehehe, I have sweaty hands so.. I held the sword too hard to stabilize my grip." Eli replied guiltily.

"Oh no! This won't do Madame! Tell us if you are in pain. We will not allow you to be hurt needlessly during training!!" The blades surround Eli immediately upon hearing her injury.

"Not good! Madame, these next two weeks, we must hold your sword combat training until your injury is healed!" Neal decisively declared with a straightface.

"No.. I'm actually fine. This small wound should not affect my training." Eli protested with a serious expression.

Blanc immediately knelt and shook his head, while saying the longest sentence the other blades heard from him in one breath,

"Madame, please take your rest. Your hands are not even meant to hold a sword, nothing will come if you train in haste. Besides, if you destroy your hands, how will you hold Little Master? How will you play good music from the piano and the violin? How will you hold your pen to write your research? Madame, we plead with you to consider these things."

The rest of the bunch also nodded and looked at Eli with a worried expression.

Eli gave a sigh after realizing that everybody was thinking the same for her. "Alright then. I'll rest for the next few days."

Although Azayn gave her an ointment to instantly heal light wounds, she couldn't deny the fact that the strenuous training she had been taking would take a toll on her hands. This would be dangerous to Eli, who was also a musician. Infact, these kinds of activities could even be considered as prohibited for her.

But she had already decided. She had to at least increase her fighting skills to ease the burden of the people around her.

After cleaning herself and tending her wounds, Eli proceeded to the living room where Little Han, Baobao and Wisey were playing.

"Kyaaa!!!" Little Han could already recognize Eli's face. He excitedly squealed upon seeing her enter the room. He wiggled vigorously in Baobao's arms.

"Awwww, are you happy to see mommy? Come, come let's play!" Eli took Little Han in her arms and carefully placed him to sit with Baobao as his support.

Little Han has grown bigger and heavier, he has also developed his motor skills more. His blood red hair had grown thicker and his crystal blue eyes could already see and recognize objects.

Now, he could sit with Baobao's support and hold light toys in his little chubby hands. During this time Eli also introduced solid food for him. She slowly introduced new food for him starting from pureed squash and other vegetables.

But the thing that made Eli be fascinated the most was Little Han's obvious interest in music.

Whenever she played a tune on the piano or the violin, Little Han would look at her silently with sparkling blue eyes and then after finishing the piece, Little Han would squeal and wiggle his limbs in happiness!

This time of the day was actually Eli's commitment to bond with Little Han during the morning. She did this to ensure that Little Han would have a good environment in growing and developing. Of course, she would also have a session with him in the afternoon and evening.

While it was lively and heartwarming on Eli's little cottage, Leon's side was grave and serious.

He had just finished the third wave of raiding the Spectre hideouts and he could definitely confirm that,

The enemy lies not on the far away territories… but was actually residing in the capital!!!