Chapter 169 – The New Weapon (1/2)

”Mommy!””

Even before I could close the door when I got home, two pairs of feet stomped their way to me.

I squatted down and picked my my adorable daughters as they wrapped their arms around my neck, our cheeks rubbing against each other.

”I'm back. Were you good?”

””Yup!””

Both of them nodded, and while I was pretty tempted to just take their word for it, it wasn't responsible of me to do so. My eyes went to the last person to greet me.

”Welcome back Scarlet!”

The young foxkin trotted up to me, her eyes sparkling.

”How were they?”

Once I adjusted my grip on my girls, I stretched out a hand and patted the other girl. Her tail wagged so furiously I was a little worried that it would fly right off.

”They were good! They played well with the other kids!”

While from my perspective, Flix was also a child, I refrained from letting that distinction out.

”Alright. I presume dinner is ready? How about you go join Philia then?”

The scent of hot food was strong in the air, and I needed to feed Alicia and Fate while everyone else ate their own food.

We headed off to the dining room. As Flix jumped into her seat, I gave Philia a quick wave to confirm that she was fine before the three of us went back to our room.

”Now finish all your blood you two.”

Once I sat my daughters down at the little table in our room, I pulled out a jar of blood each.

Orc blood. Nice and rich, but not so strong to turn them off of blood from monster around their level.

”But mom! I want milk!”

”Milk's the best!”

”Now now. You two can drink milk after you've finished your blood. Alright?”

After consulting with Philia, we came to the conclusion that this was likely the best way to wean the two of them off of my milk. I only really understood it as a problem two years ago when I realized that even the youngest of the dhampire babies had completely been weaned off, yet there was no indication of Alicia or Fate of showing any interest in blood at all.

””But~...!””

”No buts. Now, drink your blood, both of you.”

Despite my best efforts though, it had been slow, though a lot of it was likely my own fault.

Seeing how they would tear up or complain made me cave in far too often in the beginning. It came to the point that Philia needed to enact interventions on occasion before Alicia and Fate finally accepted that they had to drink blood at least as part of their meals.

Or rather, so I could properly harden my heart for their sake.

When I thought about it, before Philia started to live with us, I almost always caved on every little thing when it came to Alicia and Fate. Sometimes

I was definitely a bad mother. Just not in a way I could recognize at the time.

Skrrt...skrrt...

After looking down at their meal, a little dejected, first Alicia, then Fate started to bounce in their seats, shifting it across. As their legs couldn't possibly reach the ground while they sat in their chairs.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to face palm their little act, chuckle, or just watch them fondly as they moved their seats until they were touching with my own.

Once they stopped moving and leaned their small bodies against my own, I levitated their cups over and into their hands. There was a bit of disappointment in their eyes, but they slowly brought their meals to their lips and consumed it without complaint.

My hands softly stroked their heads as their cups continued to rise up into the air, until they suddenly lowered them, letting out simultaneous gasps for air.

””Milk!””

Both of them demanded their dessert while showing me that their cups were empty.

”Yes, yes. Alright. You two did well.”

Finishing off one last pat, I withdrew my hands to unbutton my robes.

Alicia and Fate on the other hand excitedly jumped onto my lap, and once I exposed myself, they rested their heads on my chest and immediately latched on.

I felt their arms wrap around me while their breaths calmed down, and I in turn wrapped my own arms around my babies.

Sigh

They were too old to be getting fed milk every day, even as a dessert, but feeling their little warmth on my chest brought me bliss. Maybe I was a bit of a pervert because of this. Maybe this was all my fault. But feeling my children directly against my skin brought me happiness that I couldn't deny.

When I thought about the day that we would no longer have quite times like this together, it made me start thinking that maybe it was alright to not completely wean the two.

Then I actually picture them as adults doing this and I manage to reconvince myself that it's a terrible idea.

Even at five years old, this was really starting to push things. Maybe we could get away with it at ten, but past that, not even I could consider it acceptable.

”...”

Speaking of, Alicia and Fate weren't letting go at all. I could feel how much lighter my chest was growing, yet there was no signs of either of them having enough.

(Maybe it's time to switch to bigger cups for meal time?)

I idly considered the issue before going back to enjoying the feeling of their warm breaths against my bare skin.

Alicia and Fate told me about their day then we spent the rest of the night playing together while everyone else slept.

In the morning, they went out again with Flix after breakfast, and I went to get my new weapon.

I was quickly let in to the smithy when I showed myself, and a tired looking titan greeted me.

”Are you sure you're alright?”

”Don't worry about it. I do this all the time.”

”You're not getting younger. I think you should think more about your body.”

”I'll worry about that when I'm dead.”

I was worried that it really would come to that. But as Njordr wasn't the type to listen to this sort of advice in the first place, especially from someone like me, I didn't bother pushing the subject.

”Anyways, you didn't come here for that, but this.”

The older titan hefted himself up and walked over where his latest masterpiece stood against the wall, covered in a thick drape cloth. The shape of the drape did a good job concealing the weapon's true form, as I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to look like. It was as if Njordr was carrying a giant triangle.

Though considering that his muscles visibly bulged as he heaved the thing up, it must have been quite heavy.

”Here.”

With a strained word, the titan lowered the new weapon. The ground shook slightly from the weight, making me even more curious as to its design.

The drape was unravelled, revealing the weapon's form. I had difficulty holding back a gasp as I looked at it.

The weapon was a pole arm like my last, but the blade was significantly larger with numerous intricate fluting which seemed to be for lightening the weapon as much as possible without sacrificing its strength.

The thing which most caught my eye, though, was the fact that the blade was almost perpendicular to the shaft. Like a pick, but obviously not. The shaft was longer than I was tall by a good head or so, and the blade was half as long. It went from an extremely fine point, curving so that the a swing using most of the shaft's length would cause the blade to arc at the same rate as the perimeter of the swing.

The inside of the curved blade slowly increased in width until about three quarters of the length, where the blade quickly flared out, tripling its width in only a dozen centimetres before continuing the previous rate of expansion. The base of the blade curved inwards, merging seamlessly with the shaft.

In addition, opposite the blade, sprouted a short spike along with a pair of bladed hooks. Each was twice as long as my hand, but when compared to the massive blade, they felt more like a decoration than anything.

”You made me...a scythe?”

Strictly speaking, it wasn't exactly a scythe. The overall profile was one, but when you excluded the first half of the blade, the inner half reminded me of a type of axe from south-east Asia. The Igorot head hunting axe, I think people called it. Though the leading tip was far longer here.

”C'mon. Try it out.”

I accepted the proffered weapon. Lifting it up, I could feel its weight in my hands. It was far heavier than my previous bardiche, but not so heavy that I found it cumbersome.

Most likely, I was one of the only people in the entire world that found this weapon to be like that.

But even then, a scythe? Really?

I could understand the theory, as the blade would have massively greater penetrative power against hardened defences and was far less likely to bend as long as the tip didn't deform.

But regardless of my reservations, I did as Njordr asked.

Taking a few steps back to an open area of the smithy, I held the weapon in both hands, then lightly swung it.

There was the feeling of the air parting for the weapon almost like the red sea. It didn't feel like I cut the air, but instead the air made way in an attempt to avoid its sharpness.

Swallowing my saliva, I firmed my grip, and started to swing it again and again, spinning the weapon around me, allowing the weapon to flow like an extension of my body.

There wasn't any particular discomfort. And while you couldn't say there was any real balance, considering that the blade weighed more than the adamantium the shaft, as long as I accommodated for that fact, it felt like this weapon might be usable in a practical sense.

Somehow, it seemed like one of my weapon skills worked on the scythe, even though there wasn't exactly any skills that normally seemed to work for it. Most likely it was my [spear mastery] skill. It was the only skill I had which worked on pole arms.