Chapter 28: The Village Finds Out About the Pregnancy

Eren woke up to Emily sitting on the edge of the bed, already dressed in her hunting gear. She was checking her bow, running her fingers along the string like she always did before heading out.

“Isn’t it too early?” Eren muttered. He could talk but was still half asleep.

“It’ll be better if we finish our work earlier today and make time for the dungeon. So get ready..” Emily didn’t look bad in that leather cloth.

It looked more like something a human hunter would wear than the traditional elf clothes she normally wore, the ones that were open and showed every part of her body. Still, Eren was sure the outfit was way more revealing than normal.

Elves and their hostility toward clothes was probably something about nature, but Eren still hadn’t found anyone he could discuss that with. Everyone in the village thought fully covering their bodies was ridiculous and wore slippers, shorts, or leaf-made crop tops without a bra.

If elves were given a choice, they’d probably accept living without clothes, and it would take them five minutes to get used to it.

Eren sat up and stretched. His body didn’t ache as much as it used to even after last night’s spicy bed time and pregnancy reveal. Higher stats really did make a difference, even if he still felt like he was faking his way through this whole fighter thing.

“I went from office worker to forest hunter in two weeks. I can’t keep up with my life anymore.” He didn’t look convincing with his big smile and hugging his lovely partner.

“So what’s different about a dungeon and forest hunting?” he asked.

Emily looked at him, and there was something almost excited in her expression. “Everything. The monsters are tougher, smarter. The loot is actually worth keeping. And dungeons have cores.”

“Cores?”

“Dungeon cores. They’re like… hearts of the dungeon. Kill enough monsters, reach the core room, and you can claim rewards. Sometimes it’s equipment, sometimes it’s skills, sometimes it’s just a pile of gold. But cores only are at the end, when you fully finish a dungeon so don’t be too excited for now.” She stood up and tossed him his clothes. “Get dressed. We need to start morning jobs fast.”

Eren caught his shirt and pants, both still smelling faintly of blood from yesterday’s bat hunt. He really needed to figure out laundry in this world. Washing them with cheap soap didn’t do the trick.

“Note to myself. I need to ask about washing clothes to other villagers. Or maybe there’s magic or some trick for that.”

…

An hour later, they were at the village square. It wasn’t much of a square, really. Just an open area with a few wooden benches, heart of the village-system totem and a well in the center. A handful of elves were going about their morning routines but most of them gave Eren easygoing looks.

They were hearing about night voices coming from his house. And people talked about this kind of things a lot in a small village.

He was still the weird human who showed up out of nowhere and started living with Emily. The gossip probably never stopped about how capable he was at night times.

Emily was talking to an older elf woman who ran something like a general store. The woman’s shop was just a wooden stall with various items laid out on a cloth but Emily seemed to know exactly what she was looking for.

“We’ll need more bandages,” Emily said, picking up a roll of clean white fabric. “And at least two healing creams.” Seeing Eren looking at her, she nodded toward the small pouch full of cream in her hand.

“We combine the Ezin Flower, that Kelion rubbed on your hand and chest, remember. We upgrade it’s potency with a few other things and this is what comes out.”

“Why it’s so tiny?” Eren knew bigger sample lotions they give you free in perfume shops. It was really too tiny.

“The reason is this is basically impossible to produce a lot with how scarce and rare it’s materials are. But trust me, healing cream is extremely useful in important moments.”

The shopkeeper nodded with approval of her words and started gathering the cream tubes from a back storage.

Eren watched them as feeling a bit useless. “Don’t I need anything specific? Like a bow?” he asked.

Emily glanced at him. “You have your knife, and if you believe the stories from your world, everyone in our village is supposed to be amazing archers. Sadly no. There are maybe one or two people here who can use a bow decently. And I’m one of them.”

“So you mean finding me a bow is going to take time?”

“Let’s call it making a bow. I should ask some old generation crafters about if they can make one.” Emily held out the bow she’d been carrying with her ever since the day she first met Eren.

“For now, you can use mine. But it’s a bit of a delicate bow. Hard to use for beginners but you will get used to it. I hope…”

She handed him the bow with healing cream filled small vial. “Don’t try to use it for small cuts. Only when you feel like dying.” She was making a joke actually. She would panic and use all of it on Eren after the first scar he got.

Eren turned the vial over in his hands. It looked like cherry jelly.

“You remember you are pregnant with our child right? Please don’t force yourself and be careful, my beautiful pregnant mate.” He loved using the word mate. Elves had a word for that and it wasn’t weird or animalistic in Elvish.

Emily couldn’t speak for a while, but when the girl working at the general store heard Eren, she congratulated both of them with excitement.

Within a few minutes, the whole village had learned Emily was pregnant. With even joyful screams echoing, an incredible happiness filled the village that hadn’t seen a single child born in twelve years.

Eren “accidentally” let that information slip on purpose. He looked at Emily like he was apologizing, then watched the celebration start in the village center with music and dancing, smiling like a devil.

If the whole village knew Emily was pregnant, he’d have an entire village of elf helpers working to keep her calm and stop her from doing anything dangerous. Now, the girl would have to move even more carefully than usual.

Eren smiled as he sat at the breakfast table and poured syrup over the extra-large portion of pancakes placed in front of him today. Beside them were a few pieces of meat, something that looked like peas, and a special tea whose leaves were collected from a plant called Pao.

It was a good, filling breakfast for the morning. He fell in love with the elves’ palate all over again and, as he headed out to hunt slimes, he saw Emily still couldn’t escape the celebrations and waved at her.

“Sometimes I scare myself. Hahaha…”

…

All morning and through noon, Eren managed to hunt a few Level 2 slimes, a couple rabbits, and one Level 3 slime. When evening came, he saw Emily stepping out of the forest, glaring at him.

“Hey, beautiful. How are you doing?” If he hadn’t looked at her with that irritating grin, maybe Emily would’ve forgotten what he did this morning.

“You’re awful. I waited at least two hours for everyone in the village to come congratulate me. It’s an old elf tradition. That’s why I was thinking of telling them another day.” Even if the blonde elf pouted and said she was angry, she still hugged Eren and kissed his cheek.

After a few minutes of hot and steamy kissing, they barely managed to pull apart and remembered they were supposed to find the wolf cubs.

“Let’s go get the cubs. They’re probably thinking of tearing up someone’s garden by now.” Eren knew the two cubs wouldn’t do something like that, but the moment Emily said it, all his desire to keep kissing vanished.

They found the wolf cubs exactly where Emily predicted. Behind a giant tree’s inside, digging enthusiastically in what used to be a tree root.

The talkative one, the female, looked up first. Her tail started wagging immediately when she saw Eren.

[Dwarf! You’re here!]

Eren still wasn’t sure how he felt about being called a dwarf by a wolf, but he’d not correcting her. It was better to be known as a beast dwarf than human. Probably.

“Yeah, we’re going to the dungeon today. Are you two ready?”

The quiet male cub stopped digging and shook dirt off his fur. He didn’t say anything, just stared at Emily with those intense amber eyes.

Eren didn’t know how to describe girlfriend concept to the wolves. “She is my mate. An Elf.”

Cubs smelled her as the female one was pretty excited about working with an Elf. Their herd didn’t specifically hate or like Elves from this area. And they would only attack the village in winter time in cases of food shortage.

They were also kids, so they didn’t care about their parents warnings after kicked out of the pack.

As Eren realized the wolf cubs were intentionally understanding Emily’s words, Emily, being the one with the most experience about dungeons, decided to make them acknowledge her leadership.

But she’d forgotten these little cubs weren’t adults. She crossed her arms. “If you two come with us, you will follow my lead! No running off, no chasing random monsters and absolutely no trying to eat dungeon cores! Do you understand!”

The female cub’s ears drooped. [We are good wolves. Don’t yell us…]

A second after cub’s sad face appeared, Emily regretfully played with her head. When Eren told her what the female cub said, she panicked even more and hugged the cub. “Sorry. You are a good girl. I won’t yell at you.”

While his sister’s head and neck were being petted, her brother watched with a blank expression, then lifted his head after a few seconds and looked at Eren.

As the two males watched the girls bonding, Eren smiled. “Would you like a head pat too?”

Even if Eren wasn’t sure, he saw the wolf cub move like he was about to agree for a second. But then the shy cub turned his back and headed toward the forest.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the flower-filled garden that didn’t look like the the dungeon’s entrance at all.

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