[Bitter Maja, Bog Forest]
"ooeekk.. oeekk… oeekkk"
The sound of a baby's cry reverberated through the noise inside Monster Castle. A goblin midwife cleaned the newborn and swaddled it before handing it over to its eagerly awaiting mother.
The baby had green skin like its parents, with tightly closed eyes supporting beautiful eyebrows. Its loud cry opened its mouth, revealing small tusks among its neatly arranged teeth. Thick champagne hair adorned its head like a crown.
The little baby looked adorable with a face resembling its mother's.
Most babies born to a Valkyrie would resemble their mother more than their father. Nonetheless, the strong genetic bond, even akin to cloning from the father, meant this family need not worry if it wasn't their offspring.
Nezena cradled her newborn and let it breastfeed. The baby's instincts immediately kicked in, and it knew what to do when its lips touched its mother's nipple.
This was their third child, and Moku named him Hage. Within a mere one and a half years, their first child had grown up and had to part ways with his mother to live in The One's church dormitory. Hence, Nezena always felt lonely, so she always asked for the baby from Moku.
Among her three other sisters, Nezena held the record for having the most babies, followed by Nevare, Nerphyl, and Tam, who now went by the name Nedira. Actually, she could have given birth to more babies since an orc's body had a rapid regeneration ability, enabling her to become pregnant immediately after giving birth.
However, Wilwatikta Kingdom's rapid growth made Moku have to manage his schedule tightly. Sometimes they could only meet once a month, and even then, she had to split his time with her other sisters.
Nonetheless, Nezena didn't complain because she had a lot of work as the head of the Wilwatikta kingdom's education and The One church's head. She only felt sorry for Nedira, who recently got married to Moku but didn't get a chance to have a honeymoon alone with her husband.
But Nedira wasn't alone in this. The other asuras who recently married new wives also suffered the same fate. War not only provided the opportunity for monsters to kidnap human women but also made them very busy.
The goblin race is fortunate to have the highest population growth, which helps to fill the gaps caused by the lack of workers. Currently, the Wilwatikta Kingdom has over 10,000 inhabitants, with more than half of them being goblins.
Sylphs hold the second-highest population. They could actually compete with goblins in terms of population, but the family system that Moku established makes sylphs more focused on evolving into druids rather than seeking partners. After hearing gossip about the pleasures of mammalian reproduction from Nerphyl's mouth, many sylphs abandoned their plans to continue their vegetative reproduction.
As a result, the number of sylphs participating in Vithaen Possession Art training increased drastically. Fortunately, the number of asuras able to perform the test also increased, so they did not have to worry about training. However, the war between humans and demons caused many mutated animals to transmigrate out of the Bog forest.
Especially copper and iron tier danger mutated animals, they were very weak so even the wind caused by Level 3 Constellation Mage's spell could kill them. Realizing the impending shortage of mutated animals, Lesnen took the initiative to capture copper and iron tier danger mutated animals on a large scale.
He wanted to create a mutated animal farm built inside a bunker in Bitter Maja. Moku agreed to Lesnen's plan and made the already busy Wilwatikta Kingdom even busier.
"Nezena, what are you daydreaming about?" Nedira, who was sitting next to her, asked.
"I'm not daydreaming about anything. I'm just thinking about how far our monster kingdom has come,"
"hahaha… you sound like an old person," Nedira teased.
"I am a parent," Nezena replied.
In the monster language, "old people" and "parent" have the same pronunciation and even the same spelling.
"Well… I'm going to be a parent soon too," said Nedira, rubbing her increasingly bulging belly.
"Congratulations, your first experience having a child will be thrilling."
"Hehehe… it's all thanks to all of you, thank you, Nezena," said Nedira.
Nezena simply nodded, accepting Nedira's gratitude without hesitation. She and her other sisters deserve it because, without them, Nedira and Moku would not have had enough time together.
"Where is our husband now? He didn't even visit me when I was giving birth to his child," Nezena said, slightly grumbling.
Despite understanding that her husband Moku was busy with his duties as a king, Nezena couldn't help feeling sad when he wasn't by her side during the difficult birth of their children. Besides their first two children, Moku was never present during Nezena's deliveries, so it was understandable that she wanted to know where her husband was.
"Swa received news that a convoy of humans carrying food supplies will pass near Bitter Maja. Moku and the other asuras want to divert the convoy's route so that our presence won't be suspected by humans," Nedira answered while stroking Nezena's back.
"Ugh...the war between humans and demons seems to be escalating. The number of convoys entering the Bog forest is increasing every month. So what are Nevare and Nerphyl doing now?"
When Moku wasn't in Wilwatikta Kingdom leading his army, Nevare would usually take over the leadership role. However, if Moku's goal was only to divert the convoy's route and not launch an ambush, then he wouldn't be gone for long.
"Nevare is training the new women who have joined us. Some of them are stubborn and don't want to become asuras' wives, but I don't think their determination will last long. Nerphyl is busy overseeing the construction of tunnels around Bitter Maja. We have already connected to Glittering Meadow, but it will take some time for the tunnel to reach the outskirts of the Bog forest."
At this point, all of the remaining adult orcs have evolved into asuras, meaning that each of them already has a partner. However, Nevare has made it clear to Moku to not prohibit asuras from having more than one wife. She even encourages every asura to have at least two wives or more.
Nevare even asked for Nezena's help in creating a religious doctrine that encourages asuras to emulate Moku and his family. In that doctrine, the ideal family for asuras should have more than two wives from different races or species.
With that, sylphs who have evolved into druids and goblins who have evolved into hobgoblins also have a chance to marry an asura husband. Moku agreed with his beloved wife's suggestion and created the new monster family policy.
One thing that Nezena admires about Nevare and willingly admits to her as the main queen is her attitude of completely forgetting her human past and always thinking about the future of monsters. She truly is the most deserving person to bear the title of progenitor queen.
Due to this policy, the number of orcs in the Wilwatikta Kingdom has grown rapidly and surpassed the number of alraune. Although these orc children are not yet ready to join their fathers on the battlefield, considering the rapid growth of the orc race, it only needs to wait for a few years.
That is why the construction of The One's church dormitory under the Religion Administration is very important. Besides being a place for indoctrinating monster children, this place will also be a place for their mental and physical training.
Nezena has prepared a learning curriculum during her pregnancy. Every monster child who is one year old or older must stay at The One's church dormitory until they are five years old.
During these five years, the monster children will be taught about history, ideology, religion, and culture so that they will never forget the values of the Wilwatikta Kingdom when they grow up. Nezena has prepared a teaching team consisting of goblins who have followed her since the day she became Moku's wife.
They are monsters who have the strongest belief in The One and understand the religion brought by Moku inside out. Nezena even believes that some of them understand The One's teachings better than she does.
Moreover, Nezena used to be an elf. Although she was kidnapped and enslaved since childhood, the thinking of her species is still embedded in her mind. That is why sometimes she feels jealous of those who were born monsters.
knock! * knock! * knock!
Nezena and Nedira's conversation was interrupted by the sound of knocking followed by the sound of the door opening. Moku's face appeared, and his clothes were still dirty with soil stains.
"Forgive me for being late, Nezena," he said.
Due to this policy, the number of orcs in the Wilwatikta Kingdom has grown rapidly and surpassed the number of alraune. Although these orc children are not yet ready to join their fathers on the battlefield, considering the rapid growth of the orc race, it only needs to wait for a few years.
That is why the construction of The One's church dormitory under the Religion Administration is very important. Besides being a place for indoctrinating monster children, this place will also be a place for their mental and physical training.
Nezena has prepared a learning curriculum during her pregnancy. Every monster child who is one year old or older must stay at The One's church dormitory until they are five years old.
During these five years, the monster children will be taught about history, ideology, religion, and culture so that they will never forget the values of Wilwatikta Kingdom when they grow up. Nezena has prepared a teaching team consisting of goblins who have followed her since the day she became Moku's wife.
They are monsters who have the strongest belief in The One and understand the religion brought by Moku inside out. Nezena even believes that some of them understand The One's teachings better than she does.
Moreover, Nezena used to be an elf. Although she was kidnapped and enslaved since childhood, the thinking of her species is still embedded in her mind. That is why sometimes she feels jealous of those who were born as monsters.
knock! * knock! * knock!
Nezena and Nedira's conversation was interrupted by the sound of knocking followed by the sound of the door opening. Moku's face appeared, and his clothes were still dirty with soil stains.
"It's okay, I'm not angry. Why don't you clean up first before coming here?" Nevare said in a relaxed tone but with a pouty mouth.
"Ah... hahahaha," Moku just scratched his head, looking for a way to appease his angry wife.
Nevertheless, this was his fault. Although he now has many children, not being present when his wife gave birth is still a bad thing for a husband to do. He couldn't even use the excuse of Wilwatikta Kingdom because besides him, Boku, Goku, and Mige were capable of leading the troops. Moreover, they only changed the human convoy route so that it did not approach Bitter Maja, so any asura could do it.
Moku then realized that Nedira was also in the room. A smile appeared on his face, but his eyes were filled with regret because he forgot to greet her and only saw Nezena. Now he began to understand why in his previous life he didn't want to deal with more than one woman.
"Nezena, Nedira, I brought you a gift. I hope you like it," Moku used the fastest way to get out of that awkward situation.
"A gift?" Nezena and Nedira said together.
Moku brought two bamboo cages from behind his back. Inside the bamboo cages were two white and gray mutated wolves.
"From now on, my wives will have mutated wolves as their mounts!"