Although the baby was light for her, after holding him for a while Elara strangely started to feel soreness in her arms. One of the accompanying attendants smiled and reminded her not to use so much strength, just to relax while holding the baby. But even after a few days of learning, Elara still hadn't mastered it.
The baby was so small, so delicate that it seemed he could be hurt at the slightest mishap. Elara would unconsciously tense the muscles in her arms every time she held him.
When her arms began to feel sore again, and she heard the attendant chuckle softly, Elara passed the baby over to Uno behind her. She watched as Uno clumsily caught the baby in a pose even stiffer than hers.
"Your Majesty...?"
Elara looked at him quietly. "You hold."
The attendant nearby covered her mouth and laughed again. Seeing Uno's even more awkward movements than Elara's, she quickly walked over to teach him how to hold the baby.
That afternoon, while leading the army forward, Elara occasionally looked back to see the attendant teaching Uno how to hold the baby.
Although Uno's posture was even stiffer than hers at first, he actually seemed quite gifted at this. After just half a day of learning, he could already hold the baby in a very proper way.
The baby also seemed happy in his arms, not afraid at all. He reached out to pull on Uno's collar and played with the loose strands of hair on his chest, giggling cheerfully.
When they arrived in Dahlia Kingdom, Prince Yu and the two men behind him, Gareth and Giles, were surprised when they saw the baby in Uno's arms. Prince Yu stared at her with a slightly odd expression and said,
"You... it's only been a few months, and you already had a baby?"
Elara rarely felt the urge to roll her eyes, but she really didn't feel like answering him. Still, seeing the three men staring at the baby in Uno's arms with all kinds of expressions, she suddenly reached out, took the baby from Uno, and stuffed him directly into Prince Yu's arms.
"Huh? Ah?! Miss Bai, you!... I don't know how to hold a baby!"
Caught off guard, Prince Yu was suddenly holding a whole baby to his chest. His fan, which he had been holding for show, almost fell out of his hand. He scrambled to hold the baby, even more stiffly than Uno had in the beginning.
Elara laughed out loud without holding back.
Once Prince Yu barely managed to hold the baby, he clearly wanted to get rid of this hot potato immediately. He turned around and shoved the baby into Giles's arms.
"You hold him! You hold him! He's so tiny, what if I break him?"
Giles: "..."
Giles had been on battlefields since he was young. The palms of his hands were full of thick calluses. He had no idea how to hold a baby and didn't even dare to let his fingers touch the baby's skin for fear of hurting him. His way of holding the baby was even more exaggerated and stiff.
After holding the baby awkwardly for a bit, Gareth came to the rescue.
"Let me do it."
Gareth took the baby with practiced ease, gently supporting the baby's bottom and giving him a small bounce upwards.
Everyone's eyes instantly turned to him. "You actually know how to hold a baby?"
Gareth smiled gently. "I learned. After all, if I ever start a family, I'll need to take care of children."
Such awareness.
Elara and Prince Yu looked at the smiling Gareth holding the baby and had the same thought at the same time.
After holding the baby for a while, Gareth slowly walked over to Uno and handed the baby back. He looked at Elara. "So this baby, Your Majesty found him on the way?"
Very accurate. Elara raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "Why do you think that?"
"Because there was never any word of anyone in your harem being pregnant. And even if you did have a child, it would be impossible to bring such a small baby on a long military expedition. The only possibility is that you rescued him along the way."
Elara nodded. Uno had already taken the baby back, holding him with one arm and feeding him goat milk with the other.
A few steps away, Prince Yu cleared his throat softly when he heard this. He picked up his fan again and started fanning slowly while walking over to watch Uno feed the baby.
"Oh, I was just saying, um..." He smiled at Elara, his handsome face unusually showing a hint of an apologetic smile. "Just now it was also because Giles got anxious and guessed wildly out of worry. Miss Bai, don't take it to heart."
After successfully meeting up with Prince Yu, they didn't stay in Dahlia Kingdom. They just restocked some supplies and bought a few things for the baby, then the two nations' armies continued heading east toward Prince Leland.
In the following days, the baby was mostly held by Uno. Elara would occasionally hold the child to learn. Prince Yu seemed to find her learning process interesting and sometimes came over to learn how to hold a baby too.
The leaders of the two armies spent most of their time either discussing the latest frontline news from Prince Leland or taking turns holding the baby and practicing how to hold a baby.
When the troops were about to reach the eastern border of Prince Leland, one evening, Elara suddenly frowned while watching Uno feed the baby and ordered the entire army to stop moving immediately.
Hearing the commotion, Prince Yu and Giles Gareth quickly walked over. "What is it, Miss Bai?"
Elara looked toward the end of her line of sight at the wide and fast-moving river, her brows gradually knitting together. "There's something wrong ahead."
She felt that faint but sharp sensation of being watched again.
And this time, it was different from before.
This one was full of obvious malice and there were a lot of them, countless and densely packed, giving off an intense evil feeling.
Elara had only felt something like this before in the southern region, from those Puppet Soldiers and people about to mutate.
Now that same feeling had returned.
In the area up ahead, there are Puppet Soldiers, or egg worms.