Veronica looked at her child with bright red eyes, enjoying the sight of his babbling and smiles that made her heart melt. He crawled around on her bed, gnawing at the sheets with his toothless gums, laughing happily with one of her old dolls. She'd tried to find the head of it, but it had been popped off long ago.

Didn't mean she didn't check under her bed, behind bookshelves and nightstands, and in every nook and cranny in the castle.

Taking her eyes off of him for a second, she looked at the letter sent with the Askrian seal on it, trying to decipher the mess of ink that was on it. She could see the words 'Return,' 'baby,' and 'FUCKING BITCH' on it before it became doodles, but judging by how much more ink there was, the letter should've been much longer.

She threw it onto the pile of other ones that covered the side of the room: Mount Complaints. The baby was blowing another raspberry, and she'd be damned if anyone caused her to miss it.

They'd captured an Askrian messenger, and Veronica herself had taken the job of extracting information from him. It was kind of hard to do when he was screaming and sobbing by the time she cut off his forefingers, but it didn't stop her from trying further.

"Why do you show on my doorstep with another accursed Askrian letter?"

"AAUGH! AAAAAAHHHHH! EUGH-UH-UH-UHHHH…"

"Ptbbb!"

The foreign sound caught her attention. The baby had somehow gotten into the closed and locked room, and was also somehow covered in blood. She would've been horrified at the prospect that something had happened to cover the poor child in blood if he wasn't clutching a sheet of parchment in his tiny hands.

On it was a number of bloodied handprints and lines, but to her it was as if the most respected artist on Zenith had made something for herself alone.

"Oh my lord, did you draw this? Look at this!"

She held up the mess of bloody handprints to show the Askrian captive, who just kept crying. It didn't matter too much before, but they were crying because of the picture now, as she judged when they whipped their head away from it and sobbed.

Veronica picked up the baby, red eyes devoid of all mercy for thou who wrought her ire.

"It's amazing," she told the bright eyed child, jamming the picture into the prisoner's face, seething. "Look at it. Look at it, you fuck. Say it's amazing. I swear to god, say this is amazing or I obliterate you."

The man sobbed louder.

"Oh, waaa waaaaa. Shut up. He loves it, see? SEE?!"

He didn't stop crying. She'd kill him later.

Veronica looked at the page again, eyes resting on something vaguely… human-like. A small stick figure, but it had something on its head that reminded her of…

She groped behind her head, feeling the crown that rested there, and looked in astoundment at the child.

"Is… is that me?"

The baby stuck out its tongue and drooled.

"HEAR ME WORLD! I'M A PROUD SINGLE MOTHER!"

She carried the child from the room, clutching him in her arms, totally oblivious to the dozens of dead bodies that littered the path to the dungeons or the baby's tiredness.

Bruno looked up and down at the babbling creature in his hands, the eyes hidden behind his mask narrowed at the mere babe. The white and gold blanket he was wrapped in, as well as the kingdom's seal made into a miniature pillow, told him with ease that this child originated from Askr. As in the kingdom Embla was currently in the midst of war with.

So why had his sister been doting over the child of the enemy? Where did she even get it?

The baby blew a small raspberry at him. Bruno looked silently back at it, wondering what in the world he was supposed to do with it.

He couldn't kill the child. Sure, he was helping wage war and commit atrocities and magical genocide, but killing this tiny, innocent child was too far. Besides, those brownish-bluish-greenish eyes made him think almost of Alfonse.

How the baby had managed to clamber out of his crib, out of Veronica's room where she'd placed said crib, down numerous hallways and stairwells, unlocked and entered the dungeons, and managed to carve a large smiley face on the ground with a knife was unnecessary information and could be easily overlooked.

He watched out for the kid. He laid him in the crib that Veronica had made top priority to build, smiling. He read to it the words from his tome, just as fascinated by it's reaction as it was by the lights from the spells.

And if anyone said anything about him carrying the child as much as possible… eh, he'd kill them.

Away from the baby. He was responsible enough to not traumatize the poor thing.

Loki pursed her lips and looked at the baby, judging just how to spin this.

Through some intense reconnaissance, Loki found out that the kid originated from another world, but was brought to Askr and subsequently doted on by the Order of Heroes, especially their Commander and Princess. Prince Alfonse apparently was less of a fan.

When Veronica escaped after stealing the baby, Sharena had chased her. For ten miles. Obliterating everything in her way.

When she started sending demands and death threats to return the child, she'd send messengers that would return without the kid, and Sharena would rip their throats out with her teeth.

Doing anything to the kid would incur her wrath.

Then again… Veronica would be pissed if this kid just suddenly… vanished.

She held up Thokk and was ready to blast him to oblivion. Then those infernal little hands came up and a smile that parted the clouds graced her.

Oooh, he's precious.

Sure, she was evil. But damn, this kid was adorable. It'd probably piss off Veronica much more if he wasn't killed, but abducted, and if she did things right, it'd lead Askr and Embla to kill one another.

So, she'd take the kid to Surtr and Múspell. Now came the problem of her lack of pockets…

"It's time for breaky-wekky!"

Veronica opened the door with a smile on her face. She looked into the crib and that smile was torn off, thrown into hell, tortured, reincarnated, hit by a truck, got sent into an isekai world.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY FUCKING CHILD ŸØŪ ŠÔÑ ÓF Å BĮTČH?!"

Surtr blinked astoundedly at Loki.

"IS THAT A CHILD BETWEEN YOUR BREASTS?"

"Yes. Yes it is."

The child babbled happily and blew a raspberry at him.