A Single Mother's Farm of the Gods
Chapter 222: Baby Steps

Chapter 222: Baby Steps

A week passed by after Elaina discovered all of the stuff back in the mines. It was one of the things that she will never forget as the situation was quite wild even for her.

After she went outside after her little exploration inside the mine, Elaina frowned when the sun remained bright up in the sky like it wasn’t noon just yet. She was sure she spent the whole morning inside the mines as she had wasted most of it destroying most of the slimes currently causing the overrun situation on one of the mine floors.

They don’t have any clock that can tell the time but Elaina can check the time on the Almanac to see whether it is already noon or not.

"I am quite sure it should be noon by now," Elaina mumbled to herself as she checked the time in the Almanac and was shocked to see that the time hadn’t reached noon just yet. It is still early morning, precisely 7 in the morning, the same time that she entered the mines. Not a single second passed by when she was inside the mine.

She rubbed her eyes a few times to ensure she wasn’t just mistaken and the numbers remain the same.

"That can’t be right. How come it is still 7 in the morning?! It should be noon by now!"

Elaina looked at the mines and scratched her head. She is not sure what is happening anymore and why it seems that the time has not moved at all. Then, before she racks her brains for whatever is happening, the God of Farming decides to answer her questions.

"[Don’t stress it, Elaina. It seems that this mine is a unique place. Not only does it generate quite a hefty amount of resources and has multiple floors, but it seems that place is also currently running at a different time.]"

"Running in a different time?"

"[Yes. Entering that place will allow you to experience a new timeline shift. Let’s say that a whole day inside the mine should be around 1 hour or maybe 1 minute outside. Or perhaps time has stopped completely outside and that is why barely anything happened when you exited the place.]"

"Doesn’t that violate the balance of the world?" Elaina asked.

"[It only violates the balance of time if the time is reversed and turned back as that will cause a problem. Slowing or having a space that runs at a different speed of time is a different thing. It is one of the allowed things by the God of Time. Even some magicians do some things like this to train. Due to how long it will take them to train, training inside a place with slow time or stopped time is beneficial to them.]"

Elaina is unsure about this matter now but knowing a place that has a different flow of time compared to the outside, Elaina got some ideas on what to do there in the future. After resolving her problem about the time, Elaina returned home.

Back to the present.

Elaina allowed Julia to do the process of creating new sprinklers for use and also the defense mechanism for the farm plots. Because she harvested a lot of resources, Elaina managed to let Julia create lots of them, allowing her to have a good way to use them to keep the farm plots in the dungeon protected and watered even if she doesn’t visit often. She wanted to do this as she couldn’t afford to keep going there again and again. She also wanted some breaks as well especially since she has some kids she has to take care too.

So the other day, Elaina set it all up and made all of the plots fully functional without her intervention. She also made sure the barrier works as well. She also made sure they worked properly and she is happy that they do work properly.

She also made sure those defense mechanisms were hidden under the soil so that no one would expect anything from it and no one would suspect it was present in the first place.

Today is what Elaina considered a day off. Despite being busy, she doesn’t want to keep on using those days to stop her from taking care of the kids herself. She can’t just keep on letting Julia and Princess Margaux do all the work.

"You plan on staying here, Sis?" Julia asked as she sipped coffee in her mug.

"Yeah. Even a single day of the week where I don’t do any work aside from taking care of both my son and daughter should suffice. I can’t just keep on shoving the work and responsibility to you, you know?" Elaina said as she observed the two babies currently doing their best to move around the crib.

"Indeed, Sis. Although you are busy, you should also have time to spend with your babies. That way, they will understand in the future that even in your busy schedule, you still have time for them."

As the two continued to talk, Adelaide who doesn’t move much, slowly got up from her crib and sat upright, shocking Princess Margaux who is currently watching over them.

"Miss Elaina! Miss Julia! Look! Adelaide just sat upright all by herself!"

The two were surprised and quickly looked at Adelaide who was still trying to balance herself properly. She is still wobbly but she is sitting without anyone helping her balance out.

"Oh my, my precious Adelaide!" Elaina exclaimed in surprise and glee as she looked at her doing her best.

"I can’t believe these kids grow so fast, Sis. I still remember when they were still so helpless..." Julia nodded, reminiscing.

"Oy, they are still babies Julia! Don’t be so overdramatic you know?"

"Haha, I just wanted to make that kind of impression you know. But still, they are growing so fast. Even some baby steps will become a huge stride in the future, Sis. Sooner or later, Adelaide will be standing on her own, and then...she will walk."

Seemingly listening to their words, Arthur didn’t want to be left behind and also did his best to sit upright as well. But compared to Adelaide’s almost balanced way of sitting, Arthur is still very wobbly and he is still not properly sitting.

"Would you look at that? Even Arthur doesn’t want to be left behind by her twin. Go, my baby, you can do it!"

But compared to Adelaide who is already balancing out, Arthur didn’t manage to do it properly and before he could even last for a while, he fell back again Elaina quickly caught his head before he fully fell over.

"Aww, it’s okay baby Arthur...you can try again."

Julia smiled looking at the two babies doing their best.

"Looking at Adelaide and Arthur made me remember my siblings. I can’t help but feel a bit of melancholy remembering those times," Julia said while smiling bitterly.

"Do you miss them?" Elaina asked.

"Of course. I miss them every day. But I can’t dwell in the past."

Elaina went silent. She didn’t say anything about it. After all, there is no way she can forget the disaster that claimed the lives of her family. Julia carries the survivor’s guilt and there is no way that she will be forgetting it anytime soon.

Princess Margaux seems like she wanted to ask, but seeing Julia’s reaction, she decided to not do it instead.

"It’s alright, Princess. Do you want to know what happened? Well, there’s nothing much to explain aside from the fact that during my childhood days, a monster ravaged the whole village to the point that no one from my village was spared by the monster as they were all killed one by one. I saw the death of my parents defending us from the monster."

"We tried to flee from the monster after the monster killed both of my mother and father but the monster noticed us. I tried to defend my siblings but I wasn’t able to do so as got shoved hard by the monster and flew into the nearby buildings. I can’t move at that time but I still can see what is happening. And there, I saw the monster devour my siblings one by one. No one survived."

"But how did you survive?" Princess Margaux asked.

"Heh, when I thought it was my time to die, Sister Elaina appeared and slain the monster before it could deal the final blow to my body. In the end, the monster was slain, and I became the only survivor of my village."

Elaina shook her head. It was one of the things that she had a hard time accepting. If she had not been held by one of the officials back then, perhaps she might have saved the siblings of Julia because when she arrived, only a few seconds had passed when she arrived after the monster devoured all of them.

"You know Sis? I hated you back then. I hated you because you didn’t arrive sooner. If you had arrived a tad bit sooner...you might have saved more people back then..."

Elaina didn’t say anything.

"But I was wrong. I didn’t hate you, but I am thankful for what you did. I hate myself. I hate myself for being too weak for not being able to save all of them. I know that you are still blaming yourself, Sis. But don’t worry. You should be proud, that you managed to save me back then."