Chapter 170 Happy birthday!
Again, I will provide a summary of the additional chapters.
1st additional chapter: Plot chapter
2nd additional chapter: Extra.
Enjoy your reading!
===
Placing her tea cup on a saucer, Anna took a cake in her hand and, while eating it with a sweet expression on her face, said, "You should have come earlier. Nyx was here."
"Oh? It\'s unusual to see you together, considering she likes to lock herself in her cave and study something," mumbled Adam, yawning. "Let\'s visit Aurora, Gaia, and Nyx after this little tea party. I also need to find my mother-in-law."
Anna casually took a bite of the cake and washed it down with tea. Meanwhile, Seraphina was hiding her face with her hands, and her ears were red with embarrassment. The thing is, Adam and Anna teased her until they got tired of it. Right now, she was in "I\'m offended, don\'t bother me" mode.
After their tea party was over, Adam and the girls cleaned up and left the cave, heading for Aurora\'s cave. However, all they saw there were floating particles of light. Adam was somewhat surprised by this because she usually meditated in her cave at this time.
"Where could she have gone? Strange," Anna mumbled, tilting her head to the side. She glanced at Adam out of the corner of her eye and smiled, "A-ha... I see."
"What do you see?" Adam responded to her words, raising an eyebrow. He looked at her suspiciously and only saw a sly grin. The woman refused to answer his question, so he just sighed and shrugged, "As you wish. Let\'s go to Gaia then."
But the scene of an empty cave was here as well. Adam was already a bit puzzled by this, which showed on his slightly grim face. He had a strange feeling as if he were being avoided, but without evidence, he decided not to jump to conclusions and simply tried to find them.
In most cases, the nymphs spent their main time, especially during such a cold season when snow was falling. Nymphs of fire, particularly sensitive to the cold during this time of year, preferred to stay in their caves and not leave them unless necessary. Seraphina, on the other hand, found it too boring to sit in one place, so she went outside and ran around.
The silence was somewhat unusual for Adam, who had become accustomed to the bustling atmosphere of the city. It seemed that in this world, there was peace and tranquility, which pleased him on one hand, but on the other, the cave entrances covered in snow brought a touch of melancholy to his soul.
"Alright, let\'s go to Nyx," Adam mumbled with a clear discomfort on his face.
Anna merely smiled, saying nothing. Her pure and beautiful blue eyes looked directly at his face with such warmth that it made Adam feel slightly warm. He quickly regained his usual expression and smiled at her, to which the woman only smirked and walked ahead, her hands crossed behind her back. Her gait was carefree, and an aura of happiness radiated from her.
Seraphina and Adam exchanged glances but only saw confusion in each other\'s eyes.
Anna walked on the green meadow and headed towards her friend Nyx\'s cave. Every step she took was accompanied by the characteristic crunch of the snow, and the slight cold brought her satisfaction rather than discomfort. Despite wearing a light summer dress, she didn\'t feel the cold. It was one of the features of water nymphs, their resistance to cold.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
The footsteps of the trio made the new snow produce a crackling sound. There was no dialogue between them. Using a small water spell trick, Anna created something resembling a mirror and looked at Adam\'s expression. It was somewhat funny to her.
His eyebrows were furrowed, and his lips were pursed, while his eyes were gazing ahead, losing their focus. It was evident that he had sunk into his thoughts and completely forgotten about the external world, and his steps were sluggish and uncertain.
"You never notice this, Adam. But your emotions are easy to predict," she thought, smiling. Her blue eyes continuously looked at his face, particularly his black eyes, which revealed his concern. "You always portray yourself as a cool and unerring guy, but you\'re undoubtedly very emotional, and that attracts me a lot."
In relationships, one of the most important criteria should be the presence of comfort for both partners. Anna understood this well since she had long read books about love. Everything was perfect there, from the characters\' personalities to their surroundings, and it slightly upset her. However, when she met Adam...
"Then I realized that I found the perfect man for myself," she thought, softly humming Silvana\'s folk song: "Understanding, kind, and most importantly, someone who will take care of me. Even if I die tomorrow..."
Anna stopped as if frozen in place. Suddenly, thoughts of death, which she easily bore, became torturous for her. Her mind was screaming, "What the hell are you thinking?" Her heart, trying to reach her mind, said, "Don\'t you want to be with him?"
"..."
Anna stopped, frozen in her tracks. Suddenly, her heart grew cold, and her once feeble body filled with fatigue.
"Anna?" Adam called her.
However, she quickly returned a carefree smile to her face and looked at Adam before bursting into laughter.
"Hahaha!"
"What\'s going on? Why are you laughing?" Adam wondered until a water mirror appeared in front of him. "What the... Hey, Seraphina!"
Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Adam noticed a knitted hat with a funny flower pattern on his head. The hat was too small for him, which created a comical sight. Seraphina chuckled and began to run away when Adam started forming a snowball out of the snow.
"Hey! Wait, I can\'t stand the cold... Ouch!"
"I don\'t care. What\'s with this silly hat, darn it?" Adam complained as he started making a new snowball.
Seraphina ran back to Anna and grabbed her, lifting her into the air. Together, they ran towards Nyx\'s cave while Adam, chasing them, threw snowballs at them.
"Stop throwing, Adam! I\'ve taken your wife hostage! Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Seraphina said with a mischievous smile, laughing with a mock villainous laugh.
"Hahaha," Anna laughed playfully and decided to play along, "Oh no! Adam, save me!"
The noise from their cheerful game made the other nymphs crawl out of their caves, curious about who was making so much noise on such a cold day. And their surprise was boundless when they noticed happy adult nymphs in the company of a man. I think their amazement knew no bounds.
"Wow... Lady Anna and Lady Seraphina look so happy. Is this the man who became their husband?" observed a nymph with red hair and red eyes in astonishment. "Especially Lady Seraphina... she hates the snow."
"Yes... it\'s surprising that despite her weakened state, Lady Anna can laugh so loudly and cheerfully," another water nymph said, turning to her earth nymph friend. "Hey... hasn\'t Lady Anna destroyed her source? Moreover, they say she\'s pouring all her magical energy into the child\'s embryo."
Laughter rang out. The earth nymph they addressed sighed sadly and picked up some snow. Initially, it maintained its shape, but as it touched the temperature of her skin, it began to melt.
"At this rate, in five months, when the child is born, Lady Anna will die," she said.
The water nymph who had been watching their cheerful game let out a melancholic sigh and clenched her fists.
"That\'s the price for destroying your source, huh? Damn, that\'s too cruel."
The day promised to be a long one.
***
Approaching the entrance to Nyx\'s cave, Adam wearily entered it. The emptiness here was disheartening, which led to strange thoughts. He began to worry that something had happened to them. However, his thoughts were interrupted by Anna, who was carefully brushing the snow off his long hair.
"Thank you," he said to her and sighed, leaning down to hug her. In a very soft voice, he murmured, "Where could they have gone? Maybe something happened to them?"
Despite his quiet tone, Anna, who was gently stroking his hair, heard it. However, she didn\'t respond and just looked at Seraphina, who raised her thumb and smiled cunningly.
Adam\'s right ear twitched when he heard a suspicious rustling sound. He raised his head and noticed that the surroundings had suddenly changed. It was no longer an ordinary cave; it had transformed into a luxurious room furnished with furniture and chairs. In the center of the room was a large table with a celebratory cake, and around the table were three women - Sierra, Nyx, and Aurora.
"Huh? I sensed a faint magical energy fluctuation. What is this place?" he asked in surprise when suddenly...
Boom! Boom! A loud pop sounded, and confetti burst into the air, some of which landed right on Adam\'s bewildered hair. Then, in unison, their voices rang out.
"Happy birthday!"
"E-e-eh..."
With bewilderment on his face, Adam looked at Anna and Seraphina, who were grinning mischievously, so proudly that he was momentarily captivated by their cuteness. However, he soon snapped out of it.
"Birthday? Is today my birthday?" Adam asked in surprise, pointing to himself. "Seriously?"
"You didn\'t even know? Hahaha," Sierra laughed and, suddenly appearing next to him, poked his cheek with a teasing expression. "Your mommy, Veronica, knows it very well. Even your age, you know?"