Chapter 5: Disgustingly Delighted

'Wow.'

Solace had his face plastered up against the cushiony surface of a woman's breasts, with his toothless, gummy mouth wrapped around a taut nipple with the full force of a four-month-old baby draining it of its precious breast milk.

'I've been suckling for a few months now, and I just can't get enough of this.'

He didn't know if it was because he currently possessed the palate of a newborn baby, but breast milk tasted incomparably tasty.

'Isn't it basically sweetened milk? I'm not looking forward to being weened off of this in the future.'

Noticing her baby had emptied her left teat, Alexandria switched him over to the right since it appeared he had not yet had his fill.

"He's awfully enthusiastic, isn't he?"

Looking up from her seat on the couch, Alexandria spotted her younger sister looking intently at the breast her son was currently latched onto and covered her mouth while giggling.

"Haha, it seems so. I remember having a lot of trouble with Valentina."

Reminiscing her first time breastfeeding, without her parents to support her and a clueless sister and dopey husband trying to reassure her ignorant self, she compared it to her experience this time around. Solace would easily latch onto her breast and drink whatever came out of her breast until it was emptied like he was desperate for his fill.

"Yes, I remember like it was just the other day."

Solace disregarded the musings of his mother and aunt and took in a large mouthful of the heavy breasts in his mouth, with his lower lip rolled down and his little chin propped up against the creamy skin.

He licked the nipple thrice, before rapidly sucking, which got the fountain going and the breast milk flowing. Then, he switched over to slow the pace by sucking rhythmically instead, occasionally swallowing when his cheeks became rounded and full of the sweet concoction.

'Gulp. Ahh… this is so satisfying. It must be the pleasure hormones because something about feeding just makes me so blimmin' happy.'

Moving on from the disgustingly delighted baby with a bewitched glint in its eyes, the sisters continued to talk about the matters regarding Solace.

"Hey, Alex."

Looking up from just staring into her baby's face, Alexandria answered her sister with an attentive look. One could see the regard she held for the individuals she was speaking to by giving them her full concentration and showing it. She would turn to look at them, maintain eye contact, and listen intently.

A lot of other individuals, including those in the military, were intimidated by such rapt attention on their person, but Alessia, who grew up under the same look, really appreciated her sister's listening skills.

"Hm?"

"About having brought you back to life, do you think Sol-?" Before the teen could complete her sentence, she was left startled when the prompt interruption of her older sister cut off her train of thought.

"Let's avoid discussing it just yet. After all, these are only speculations. I wouldn't want to burden my baby with heavy expectations." Looking down at her child, Alexandria's ambivalent expression was all Alessia needed to observe to have realised she'd brought back depressing thoughts to her sister

"Ah, yes, right. I guess so." Having realised the memories of her brother-in-law were still fresh in her sister's mind causing the mood to grow slightly heavy, Alessia swiftly changed the topic of conversation to ask a question that she had been pondering over the past couple of weeks.

"Well… why don't we get a wet nurse for baby Ace, Alex? By this time you had already had one for Valentina. And if not… I'm sure Esme would be more than happy to nurse him should you ask her."

"…"

Alexandria was startled by the question and donned a blank look on her face. She did not even consider the question since it was almost a given that she would continue feeding Solace herself in her mind.

"I… Uh… I don't think I need one for Solace."

While Alessia was genuinely confused at the choice of her sister, her eyes held a hint of mirth as an understanding of the situation came to her.

"Oh really? And why wouldn't you need one for little Ace, hm?"

The mother looked around trying to come up with any reasonable excuse that could help her get out of the light interrogation. She had some thoughts on the matter but she was worried that pondering over such troubling matters would lead her down a rabbit hole she wasn't willing to dive down.

"Uh… I'm not as busy with the duties of the duchy so I decided to keep breastfeeding you know, haha."

The incredulous look in her sister's eyes evidently displayed her lack of belief in the excuse she made up on the spot.

"Not to rip the band-aid off, but with one less pair of hands on deck, and hungry sharks on every front, I don't see how your workload could possibly have decreased."

'No. On the contrary, the workload has increased by three or four times. Older sister…'

Alexandria, who was at the brunt of the increased workload, knew how far-fetched her excuse was. The Seleucus and Lysimachus ducal households were pouncing on the moment of weakness that was presented to them, like a predator that could smell the blood of its prey.

Rebutting the countless political ploys against her noble house, and maintaining the order within a deteriorating peerage system had been a taxing job for a single woman to do by herself. Especially one that was breastfeeding too.

Alexandria was glad that Alessia took charge of the matters of the house which gave the older sister a little breathing room, but with how many attempts at their lives they had incurred over the last few months, Alessia's job had not been easy either.

Forced to confront her feelings, the duchess realised that she wholeheartedly wanted to provide for her son when he so wished. She wanted to fulfil the needs of her child without external help just because she selfishly wanted to. Fuelled by the desire to be the closest to her son, she used breastfeeding as her way of forming an unmatched spiritual connection to what should have been a simple infant.

But Solace Antigonus was no simple, ignorant newborn baby. Instead, he had the consciousness of a 32-year-old male bachelor from contemporary times. Despite being born into a newborn container and constantly addled by an influx of endorphins and dopamine, he had a greater social development and experience than one could expect from a being that was only a few months old.

"You're… right, Al. I just… I want to be a reliable mother for him. He won't have a male presence to help guide him going forward so I want to be there for him. I feel like… I feel like if I hand over breastfeeding to someone else then I'll find myself destroying the relationship before it can even begin, you know."

Feeling a downhearted look settling upon her sister's visage, Alessia quickly snuggled into her side and patted her head.

"Alex, I was just messing with you. I know how attached you are to baby Ace and I wouldn't want that to be taken from you. But you mustn't overwork yourself too."

She said softly so as not to make Alexandria feel cornered. She knew how the pair of mother and child was nigh inseparable- they were literally and figuratively joined at the hip. But watching over the baby while trying to get work completed was not very efficient from what she had seen in the last week, which is why she brought up the conversation.

"Why don't you leave him with Esme when you're busy? After all, she takes care of Val when we're busy, and besides that, she doesn't have much to do. I think she would appreciate a bit more to do. And since we're in relatively peaceful times after the demons withdrew, you can get all your work done quickly and come to take back the apple of your eye."

Esme was one of the two maids employed within the inner wing. The inner wing consisted of 2 extremely strong pair of sisters, and now two very unstable but gifted children too. This meant that anyone working within the inner wing would need to be able to hold their own against the complications surrounding powerful beings.

Despite living in a large mansion, the two children would only ever be exposed to a handful of individuals growing up, as was customary for noble children of the world- especially those who were born with a higher Aura count.

There were dozens of servants and maids employed, however, as is befitting of a noble house, they would go about their duties in the outer wing without ever having caught a glimpse of the heir.

Esme and Leah were the only maids who resided within the inner wing with the family and were the house manager and head butler respectively. Granted, it meant that the duo would cultivate a relationship beyond those of normal master and servant with the Antigonus children, but that was a prospect that the duchess had accounted for when she'd allowed them their place.

"Hm… I'll consider that. But it's best I watch over him closely for a few more days to ensure he's kept fed, haha."

The half-assed reply elicited an eye-roll from the younger sister who realised the conversation had got her nowhere in relieving her sister of her current duties.

Looking back on at the infant detaching himself from her sister's breast, and letting out a satisfied baby burp, Alessia reckoned it'd be another issue altogether trying to separate the baby from his mother.

'Well… as long as they're both happy, I couldn't ask for anything more.'