Mother

Neph smiled and nodded.

What did it mean to be born? Neph wondered. Perhaps her first real contact with this world, the moment she left a "trace" upon it, was what should truly be called her "birth."

And that had happened when she prayed to the True Creator.

...So, Lord, you were actually the one who delivered me. Is that it?

Her thoughts wandered off somewhere unknown, while Bernadette remained rooted in place, held fast by immense fear.

It was not as though she had never seen unusual children before-children who were Beyonders from birth. At a sufficiently high level, they could possess consciousness within the womb, communicate with the outside world, speak as soon as they were born, possess a certain degree of intelligence, and even use some Beyonder abilities.

But even they could not bypass childhood. They still had to grow up normally-Bernadette's younger brother Bornova was one such case. He had been Sequence 5 at birth, but he had still grown up from a child.

Was two months enough for a child to grow this big?

Bernadette was not sure, but if that statement was true, she could think of only one possibility.

-A Child of God!

...That would explain the gazes upon her.

But...among all those gazes, who was the one who gave birth to her? And since we've come into contact with her, have I, Cattleya, and the Future all come under their scrutiny too?

Her gaze settled on the girl. A hint of purple flickered in her eyes, struggling to rise, only to be firmly suppressed by reason.

The Eyes of Mystery Prying could not be deactivated, only enhanced. But Bernadette could confirm that looking at the girl with her ordinary Eyes of Mystery Prying caused her no harm-perhaps because she was only a