Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 227: Episode 226: A Way to Meet Home

The next morning, the filtered, greenish light that passed for morning in the Deep crawled across the floor of the Pearl Wing.

Roxy didn’t move, even if she had already woken up.

She was still in the Dry Lounge, curled up on the chaise under the blanket Caspian had tucked around her. She was awake, but barely.

Her eyes were open, fixed on the translucent membrane that separated her air pocket from the millions of tons of ocean outside.

A school of small fish swam past the window. One of them, curious about the strange creature behind the barrier, tapped its nose against the glass.

Roxy lifted a hand, pressing her palm against the cold surface. The fish mimicked the movement, hovering near her fingers.

Usually, she would have smiled. She would have named it something silly like "Sparky" and called Caspian over to look.

Today, she was not in the mood. She traced the path of the fish with her finger, her eyes dull and lifeless.

Caspian didn’t come.

The morning stretched into the afternoon, and the heavy pearl doors remained shut. No breakfast tray. No "Good morning, my Pearl." No golden eyes checking to see if she had slept well.

The silence was deafening. It was the loudest thing in the room. It confirmed everything she had feared and everything she had engineered: He was staying away. He respected her hatred.

Around midday, the doors creaked open.

Roxy didn’t turn. She didn’t hope. She knew his tread, the heavy displacement of water his tail created. This intruder was lighter, fluttery.

"Roxy!" Nimue’s voice chirped, echoing slightly as she poked her head through the membrane. "Oh, thank the Tides, you’re awake! I brought the catalog from the Weaver’s Guild! They have new swaddling cloths made of sea-silk that are to die for."

Nimue pulled herself awkwardly onto the dry stone floor, flopping a bit like a seal until she was seated near the chaise. "Kaia sent a list of... well, tiny weapons, but we can ignore those. I was thinking if we could go to the Plaza? Get some fresh air? Or fresh water?"

Roxy stared at the fish.

"Roxy?" Nimue asked, her smile faltering. "Are you... Are you okay? You look like you’ve been crying."

Roxy didn’t blink. She didn’t speak. She just watched the neon fish dart away, chasing a piece of food.

Nimue sat there for a long time, the silence stretching between them like a taut wire. The Princess’s chatter died down, replaced by a confused, hurt expression.

"Is it... is it because of the fight?" Nimue whispered. "The servants are whispering. They say the King slept in the War Room last night."

Roxy’s finger stopped moving on the glass.

The War Room. He hadn’t even slept in a bed. He had slept in the cold, hard tactical chamber.

"Okay," Nimue said quietly, standing up. "If you want to go later... just send a bubble."

She waited for a response. When none came, she sighed and slipped back into the water.

The doors clicked shut again. Roxy was alone.

For a moment, she just lay there, the solitude pressing down on her chest. But as the sound of the latch clicking into place echoed in her mind, something snapped.

The numbness vanished, replaced by a frantic, clawing desperation.

She sat up, clutching her stomach. She needed her family. She needed to see their faces. She needed to see the children. She needed to remind herself why she was doing this.

The blue window snapped into existence.

[System Active. Host stress levels critical. Recommendation: Rest.]

"I don’t need rest!" Roxy rasped, her voice hoarse from disuse. "I need my family! I need to see them! Now!"

[Request Denied. Inter-dimensional communication requires significant mana stability. Your current physiological state (Pregnancy: Month 8 - Accelerated) makes your mana core volatile. Connecting now would only increase your distress.]

"Distress?!" Roxy laughed, a manic, broken sound. "I am already in distress! I am drowning in distress!"

[Viewing the targets will increase the desire for proximity. This will result in elevated cortisol, which is harmful to the Heir. It is illogical to tease the psyche with what it cannot touch.]

Roxy felt a surge of rage so hot it made her vision blur.

"Just shut the fuck up!" she screamed at the floating blue text. "Don’t you dare talk to me about logic! I am a mother who hasn’t seen her children in months! I am a wife who just destroyed her husband!"

She scrambled off the chaise, pacing the small, dry room like a caged tiger.

"Give me something to reach them!" she demanded. "We did it for Mara! Remember? With Drax! We bridged the connection then! We can do it again! Just fucking do something! Use magic! Use points! I don’t care!"

[Host, please calm down—]

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!" Roxy shrieked.

A sharp cramp seized her abdomen.

"Ah!" She doubled over, clutching her belly. The pain was sudden and sharp, a physical manifestation of her mental state.

[WARNING: Abdominal cramping detected. Fetal distress imminent. BREATHE, Host. You must breathe.]

Roxy gasped, forcing air into her lungs. "Then... give... me... the link."

The System paused. It seemed to calculate the risk: The danger of the stress vs. the danger of denying a hysterical pregnant woman.

[Generating Shop Options for "Long-Range Visual Communication".]

A list appeared.

Option 1: The Whisper Shell. (Audio only. Grainy. 500,000 LP).

Option 2: The Dream-Mirror. (One-way visual. You can see them; they cannot see you. 2,000,000 LP).

Option 3: The Aether-Cast Projector (Bound).

Description: A high-fidelity, two-way holographic projection interface. Creates a life-sized construct of the user in a designated location. Real-time audio/visual.

Cost: 15,000,000 LP.

Fifteen million. It was a fortune. It was the price of a small kingdom.

Roxy didn’t even blink.

"Option Three," she gasped, leaning against the glass wall for support. "The Projector. Send it to the Iron-Wood Manor. Now."

[Confirming purchase. This will drain your current liquid LP reserves significantly.]

"DO IT!"

[Purchase Complete. Deploying construct anchor to: Iron-Wood Manor, Main Hall.]

***

Iron-Wood Manor, Surface World.

It was evening in the forest. The fire in the great hearth was crackling, casting long shadows across the wooden floorboards.

The mood in the manor was somber. It had been months since Roxy vanished.

Zarek sat in the large armchair by the fire, his eyes were distant. He looked thinner. The light in his eyes had dimmed.

On the rug, the Onyx and Axel were playing quietly with wooden blocks. They didn’t laugh much anymore. They just built towers and knocked them down.

Kaelen was pacing by the window, staring out at the dark forest. Ren was in the kitchen, aggressively chopping vegetables, trying to channel his frustration into something productive.

Suddenly, the air in the center of the room shimmered. A low hum filled the space, vibrating the floorboards.

Zarek stood up instantly. "What is that?"

Kaelen spun around, his hand going to his daggers. "Ren! Get the kids!"

Ren rushed in from the kitchen, scooping Onyx and Axel up into his arms and backing away.

Drax rushed in with Syris in tow, carrying baby Tanith.

The shimmer intensified. It was blue. Soft, radiant blue light. The light coalesced. It swirled and hardened, taking form.

First, the outline of a chaise lounge. Then, the figure of a woman.

She was sitting, her legs curled under her. She was wearing a shimmering silk dress that looked like water. Her hair was longer, darker. Her skin was pale.

The hologram sharpened into perfect, high-definition clarity.

Little Iris, who had been sitting by her daddy Zarek’s legs, rubbed her eyes with a chubby fist. She looked at the blue lady floating in the middle of the room.

Her eyes went wide. She wiggled, pointing a tiny finger at the projection.

A squeal of pure, unadulterated joy shattered the silence.

"MAMA!"