Chapter 300 – Re: Growth

Day 41 (Cont)

"What in the world happened here?" Lina asked as she walked into the mana pool, a look of wonder on her face. 

"Riana happened. Rou told her she could change this place, and with a little help from yours truly, we managed to turn it from a den of hopelessness and terror into the central area for Rou's vision of making our village into a place of hope and healing." Sui replied, floating on her back, attuning herself further to the power the pool could offer her. 

She was still kicking herself for being unable to use her powers when Rou had shown up with Sei, and had spent nearly every day since then trying to attune herself further with the growing powers of the pool. She could reattach a limb now, but still didn't have the power to regenerate a missing one, but she knew it was coming. She couldn't resurrect someone yet, but it was possible to use this power to do it. 

Power was the problem. Using her new blessing, she had done what she could for Sei, but she didn't have the power to do what was needed; it was a really humbling experience for her. Not that long ago, she had an abundance of energy at her fingertips which she could use to bring people back to life. Now, she barely had the energy to close a few dozen deep spear wounds, or cure someone with tumours and other diseases. It was powerful magic for most healers, but for a former Goddess of Healing, it was like she was a one-legged woman in an ass-kicking contest.   

"And you wanted me to come here? Why? I don't think I need to tell you that I never wanted to come back to this place. Changing the decor doesn't really change what it means to me."

"Because it is now a place of healing, and I want to help you heal."

"And how is coming here going to do that?"

"Tell me, what do you think about your scars?"

"My scars? I hate them. After a bath, I try to avoid looking at my body in the mirror until I put my clothes back on. Only with the Lord do I feel okay about them, as he doesn't seem disgusted by them. Why?"

"I think I can stimulate dermal regeneration now. Err... I think I can heal your scars and make your skin perfect again."

"Hah, my skin hasn't been perfect since I was fifteen."

"Lina, please. I'm being serious." She said. If a wound was fresh, healing magic could seal most things up with at most some discolouration, but old wounds were a different matter, the body having long ago adjusted itself to its new reality. With some modification of how she used to cast regeneration magic to restore limbs, she thought she had enough control of her magic now to start restoring skin and flesh. It was a step forward in rebuilding her powers, and she hoped to one day soon restore Mi's arm like she did Rou's.

"Fine. I would love to have these marks removed from my body. What do you need me to do?"

"Strip your clothing off and float on your back in the centre of the pool. I'll do the rest." She said, shucking her own clothing and moving back to the deeper area of the pool. 

She pulled her staff out of her pocket dimension, then ran its crystal under the spout flowing from the mana well, energizing her focus further. Without her divinity, this charging was the best way she could come up with to amplify her spells. She had wracked her brains, knowing there were better ways to do this, but her memories were like Swiss cheese at best. She was doing everything by trial and error, learning how to use magic all over again.

"Is this going to hurt?" Lina asked as she lay on her back and floated near her. The mana-infused pool was more dense than normal water, allowing most people to be able to float on it with no issue.

"I don't have Rou's magic quirk, so it might."

"That's too bad. I could use a good orgasm right now. I've been feeling needy for the last couple of days, but the Lord has been a bit distracted. Would you mind if I join you at night in his bed?"

"You would have a better chance of getting laid asking him during the day. All we do at night is sleep. Well, Riana and he might have a moment in the shower, but otherwise all we do is talk for a bit and sleep." A deep blush formed on her cheeks, distracting her from her preparations for a moment.

She had noticed that Rou's lust had calmed down since Sei's death, making her believe that her death was weighing heavily on him. As far as she knew, they were only friends, and he had even told her once that he was keeping her at arm's length so as to not ruin her and Sato's relationship. He was misunderstanding how goblins view the world with that opinion, but she didn't want to correct him. Not that it mattered any longer.

"I could use some cuddles, but the Mother would flay me if I went to his bed without being invited. She has some very odd views on that, even with what we did the other night."

She sighed, remembering the night she finally gained the courage to do something for Rou, gaining some of his skills in the process. The next time she tried to do it without the table separating them, she had chickened out again. Since then, too much had happened, and they really hadn't had a moment to sit down and talk about their future.

For a little village in the middle of nowhere, a lot seems to be happening here.  

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she refocused on the task before her. "Now, hold still. It should be fairly quick, but let me know if it hurts. I can try and modify the spell further to improve it for the next person. Hopefully, by the time I'm done healing everyone, it will be perfected."

"Do what you need to do, luv. I'm ready for anything."

Holding her staff above Lina's body, she began to chant, starting a chain of spells that would diagnose problem areas, separate scar tissue from healthy flesh, then restructure everything back to its original state. The staff would start the process, then the mana in the pool would continue to feed the spell as it ran its course. She would feed it her own mana as required, but she shouldn't need to do much more than monitor it as it cycled through Lina's body.

Lina floated above the pool as the spell ignited, and a circular glyph formed around her head, slowly spinning as it moved along the length of her body. Lina tensed up when it touched her, but didn't let out a scream of pain, so Sui chalked that up to it working properly.

Bite marks, blade slashes, and other old wounds began to disappear under the power of the spell. She constantly got feedback on what it was doing and how it was repairing the underlying issues. Once it got to her breasts, it had to slow down, as the petite woman had numerous teeth marks from being bitten during her time in captivity. Sui tried very hard not to think about what she had experienced, maintaining her focus on the data the spell was sending her. 

As it made its way lower, it got to the paunch of skin she had from all the pregnancies she was forced to endure, and like clockwork, it was healing the tissues, tightening the skin up, making her belly look as good as-

"What is this?" She blurted out as further diagnostic data was sent to her.

"What is what?" Lina replied, her voice full of concern.

"Umm... well...."

"You're pregnant?" John said, dropping his fork.

"That's what Sui tells me. Surprise!" Lina replied, blushing radiantly beside him.

"Congratulations!" A chorus of voices said beside him, other women and men of the village saying that to her as the rest of the dining table had fallen silent at Lina's proclamation. 

"What is pregnant?" Kichi asked, scratching his head.

"She is going to have a baby," Kia said, patting the larger ogre on the arm. "If we keep doing what we have been doing, Aya and I might have one too someday."

Along with the normal residents of the house, Kichi, Aya, and Kia had joined them tonight, as he was presenting them with weapons and armour from Velvet's treasury. John was about to put Kia in charge of the new village guard, as she seemed to have the best head on her shoulders of all the goblins other than Sato, but she insisted that the honour went to Kichi. John had some concerns about that, but with the two women backing his buddy up, he was sure it would go fine. 

He slid his throne back from the table and knelt in front of her, enveloping her in his arms. "That's wonderful news!" He said, rubbing her back as he did, careful not to scratch her with his clawlike fingernails. 

"Well, I thought you would like to know. Sui was running a new spell to repair all my scars, and that's when we found out. So, how do I look?"

"Beautiful, of course. You look positively radiant." He replied. And she did. Her skin was radiating a healthy glow, like she had just lost ten years of hard living and was in her early twenties again. The bunny suit fit more snugly; her breasts were smaller but perkier. Her thighs and butt had slimmed down a bit, reducing her curves, but she was still a very attractive, blushing brunette, the dusting of freckles across her cheeks the only thing that could be said to marring her perfectly toned skin.

He didn't care about how she looked, but if she was happy with these changes, then he was happy for her. "Are you... okay with this?"

"For you, milord, I am." She said, a twinkle forming in her soft brown eyes, her crow's feet softer than they had been before. When her looked closer, she still appeared to be in her thirties; it's just that all the edges had softened a bit, her youth having been revitalized. 

"Please, Lina. Call me Rou. The soon-to-be mother of my children shouldn't need to use a title when talking to me." He asked, whispering into her ear.

"I will in private, Rou. It wouldn't do to show such familiarity with our Lord in front of all the others." She whispered back. "You need to respect your station more, milord. We will have new people arriving soon, and they would expect the Lord of this place to be deferred to by his people."

"That seems a bit excessive for... Wait, you're being serious, aren't ya darlin'?"

"I am. As much as I question how zealous Jean has been, she is right about needing to convince you to be a bit more formal. We aren't asking you to walk around in some stuffy robes or anything like that. Just accept it when even those you are close to call you Lord."

"Heh, it's hard to think I am some dignified Lord when I'm helping shovel out the rabbit pens."

"All noble houses started somewhere, Human, Elven, or others." She replied, stepping back from the hug and raising the volume of her voice to a normal level. "Just because their houses have been around for a long time doesn't invalidate the fact that House Wayne will arise from lowly beginnings. Besides, you have already done deeds worthy of song, and I intend to write them."

"Song? Houses? Why are we even talking about this? Shouldn't we be celebrating instead of worrying about how people address me?" He said, rubbing her shoulders. 

Wait, did I tell them my human last name? I don't remember doing that.

"Because you're a hard guy to get alone. Other than the dinner table, we have barely talked since that night, and you usually have a dozen other things on your mind. I figured that now that I have your attention, you could spare me a few minutes to let me get this out. I can't have the father of all our children be seen as anything less than the Lord or Chief of our people in their eyes. Do ogre children grow as fast as goblins? Or will I have more time with them before they are ready to take care of themselves?" 

"Umm, I have no idea." He replied, still trying to wrap his mind around what she said.

Then it hit him.

All our children.

She wasn't the only one he hadn't pulled out of that night. All those DEN skills came crashing back to the front of his mind, all designed to let him impregnate women and have a high probability of twins or more. Stack that on top of the goblin racial skills, and he was almost positive that everyone who left the village, and the four craftswomen, would probably be pregnant as well. He dropped the rest of the way to the floor, feeling like someone had just cracked him in the back of the head with a bat.

"Huh, is something wrong, Milord? You look pale. Was it the boar meat? I knew I should have been a little lighter on the seasoning." Felcia asked. The cook had just come into the dining room with another platter of food for the table, and had no idea what kind of conversation he was having with Lina.

He looked up at her and the other concerned faces around him and smiled. "No, no problem at all. Just realizing we might need more living spaces sooner than I thought."