Elaina bawled at how awful the Devil Fruit tasted, and even Sephiroth holding and soothing her did little good.
After all, ever since she had been weaned, this little princess had eaten the finest food the combined systems of Babylon and Titans could provide.
She had never eaten anything unpleasant and did not even have a concept of "bad-tasting."
And now, at three years old, she had jumped straight to the highest difficulty. It had utterly blindsided her.
"There, there~ Don't cry, don't cry~"
Sephiroth held his daughter and gently rocked her.
"...Sob, sob."
Baby 5 was not actually very good with children. Ordinary supervision was fine, but she genuinely had no idea how to handle this situation.
"...Why are you crying too?"
Nojiko gave Baby 5 a pat on the shoulder.
She was a little better than Baby 5, with some experience looking after Nami, but Bellemere had done most of the work. Her childcare skills barely qualified as childcare.
"Nana~ Glug, glug~ Wah~ Nana~"
Nojiko made faces at Elaina in Sephiroth's arms.
"The honey's here-"
Melise came pattering over with a large bowl of honey dissolved in warm water.
Despite her little-girl appearance, she was thirty this year, one of Big Mom's relatively older daughters. She really had looked after children back in Totto Land.
The little deer girl took a small spoon and fed Elaina honey a little at a time.
Elaina stopped crying, smacked down a mouthful of honey, then cried a little more. Looking at Nojiko's funny faces, she wanted to laugh, but she also wanted to cry. Another smack of honey, another couple of sobs. Seeing Baby 5 crying actually made her choke back some of her own tears, and she patted Baby 5. Just as she was about to start crying again, another