The room that Zadiris had prepared for Bilde’s childbirth was one of the countless rooms in the ruins of Talosheim.

The room had been cleaned and a rug made of the soft fur from a Needle Wolf’s belly had been laid out on the floor, and Bilde was lying on top of it.

「First,【Sterilization.】Bilde, are you alright?」(Vandalieu)

There were three other Ghoul women in the room other than Bilde. They were likely women who had experienced childbirth before, acting as midwives.

「V-Van.」(Bilde)

Probably due to the pains of labor, Bilde’s breathing was rough and there was sweat on her forehead as she realized that Vandalieu was there and reached a hand out towards him. Vandalieu took that small hand… that was still bigger than his own, and she gave his hand a squeeze.

「I-I’m going to do my best and give birth to a healthy baby, okay?」(Bilde)

What was a man supposed to say in response to this? This was a difficult question to answer in Vandalieu’s position. He was aware of his own expressionlessness and flat tone of voice, so he thought he might come off as cold if he just said,「Do your best」, so he hesitated. Trying to sound as reassuring as possible, he said…

「It’s alright, I’m here with you, so just relax.」(Vandalieu)

Vandalieu didn’t have a doctor’s license, nor had he ever witnessed childbirth before, so he didn’t know what exactly was alright or on what grounds Bilde could relax, but encouraging her was the top priority right now.

In fact, his expressionlessness was convenient in situations like this. His lack of confidence didn’t show on his face.

「Okay!」(Bilde)

It seemed that Vandalieu had succeeded in encouraging her. She definitely seemed to be in pain, but she still smiled.

When Vandalieu thought about the fact that had made her smile, the pain of her claws digging into his right hand seemed to be a trivial matter. Ah, they pierced his skin.

… But he could see a faint shadow of death on her face.

「Control your breathing, short breaths in, long breaths out.」(Midwife)

「Check your Status if you can; has your Vitality dropped?」(Midwife)

「I will make sure to deliver your baby. Rest assured.」(Zadiris)

Looking at everyone else, Vandalieu realized that Bilde wasn’t showing any strangeness or visible signs of her condition worsening. She showed no signs of being ill, and there shouldn’t have been anything abnormal with the baby, either.

「I’m going to examine you a little, okay?」(Vandalieu)

But Vandalieu could definitely see the shadow of death, so he used【Spirit Form Transformation】to transform his unoccupied left arm into spirit form and placed it inside Bilde’s abdomen.

And then he found that the umbilical cord had wrapped itself around the baby’s neck. At this rate, the baby would be strangled.

『I’m glad Zadiris called me over here.』(Vandalieu)

Thinking this, he loosened the umbilical cord from around the baby’s neck… though it would have been easier to do it with his right hand.

「How is everything, boy?」(Zadiris)

「It’s fine, I’ve resolved it.」(Vandalieu)

The bones of Vandalieu’s right hand were creaking and Bilde’s claws had dug into it so that her paralyzing venom was entering, but there was now no problem with the mother or the child.

「Alright! The rest is up to your effort, Bilde!」(Zadiris)

After that, just as Zadiris said, the childbirth continued with Bilde’s efforts while Vandalieu offered her encouragement while having his right hand squeezed.

It took six hours for the child to be born, and Vandalieu learned just how great the mothers of the world were.

A gray-brown baby with a wrinkled face. She was the first new Ghoul born into the Ghoul community in a long time.

「Look, it’s a girl. I can’t give your whole name to her, Vandalieu, but is it alright if I borrow half of it?」(Bilde)

Bilde was holding her child, looking visibly exhausted but incredibly happy.

Vandalieu was fine with it, but would the child’s real father not mind? Bilde looked so happy that Vandalieu was hesitant to ask.

「I don’t mind.」(Vandalieu)

And so this was the reply he gave.

Vandalieu would ask about this later to learn that newborn Ghouls were generally named by their mothers, or their names would be decided after consulting with the chief of the tribe. Since Bilde was the mother, nobody would say anything about her decision to give her child half of Vandalieu’s name.

「Will you hold her?」(Bilde)

「With pleasure.」(Vandalieu)

Now he took the peacefully-sleeping baby with both arms… The bone fractures of his right hand still hadn’t healed and it still didn’t move very well after having paralyzing-venom-secreting claws piercing it for hours on end. So he took the baby with his left arm and placed her on top of his knees.

「She’s light and very warm.」(Vandalieu)

The baby’s body felt very light to Vandalieu. But this baby would grow up and live for three hundred years. As this thought occurred to him, he got a sense of how mysterious life was.

The birth of a new life was an emotionally moving e