Witnessing this scene, the women, who had all been stunned by the revelations, eased up their expressions as they slowly walked towards Gina, gathering around to take a look and properly examine the firstborn of their family.
Grace's head turned slowly from side to side as she looked at the various new faces surrounding her, each adorned with a small, warm smile.
They began to play with her until a wave of tiredness suddenly hit her.
"Haa," Grace suddenly yawned out loud.
Seeing this, Gina and the other women wore worried expressions as they examined her to see if anything was wrong.
Gina turned her head to look at Anara.
"Umh! Is there anything wrong with her?" she asked worriedly.
Anara heard Gina's words and noticed Grace's tired form before she walked through the rest of the women, sighing deeply.
"She's tired and needs to rest," she said, gently taking Grace back.
Gina nodded in understanding as she handed Grace back to Anara.
She and the rest of the women didn't see Anara's words as something serious, thinking it was merely Grace being tired as a newborn. They momentarily forgot that tree nymphs didn't need to sleep before recovering their energy.
However, Aunt Greta and Ayla both frowned when they saw this scene.
Though they could already guess that something was wrong with Grace, as they were the ones who helped Anara give birth to her, they didn't know any way to cure her condition. Therefore, they kept their lips sealed to avoid ruining the current atmosphere.
Anara soon returned to her tree, gently placing Grace back into it before turning around and rejoining Orion. She leaned in and whispered into his ears.
Orion's eyes widened before he glanced at Malaia and Dariya, who were behind Saria, then quickly shifted his attention back to Saria.
They spoke softly, as though engaged in an argument about something.
Witnessing this scene, the women experienced a wave of jealousy, tempting them to walk up and eavesdrop on the conversation, eager to offer their input on the matter. However, understanding that it must be something serious, they managed to restrain themselves from doing anything rash.
After a while, as though Orion and Anara had come to a decision, Orion turned his head toward the rest of his women and cleared his throat audibly.
"There's one more person I would also like to introduce you all to," he said.
The remaining women looked at Orion with furrowed brows.
"Oh please, if it's another baby, you can be sure that I'll also faint this time around," Lyra said, with a firm resolution as she directed an annoyed glare at Orion.
Orion cleared his throat again and shook his head. "It's not another baby. And she will be the one to introduce herself to you all," he said, gesturing for Saria to come forward.
At that instant, Gina, Aunt Greta, Grandma Vivian, Lyra, Sura, Ursa, Grandma Derry, Fiona, and Ayla all shifted their eyes away from Orion and narrowed them on Saria.
Saria instantly felt uncomfortable under the weight of the gazes suddenly pressed against her shoulders.
Truthfully, after witnessing all the drama that had previously happened, Saria wasn't as confident as before about introducing herself to Orion's family.
In fact, she was too nervous to speak and internally prayed to Naka, hoping that none of her words would be enough to cause the woman to fall unconscious and create another unfortunate chain of reactions, as that would be a bad way to start her introduction to her new family.
"Since it seems like you are not yet ready, how about we push this forward to another day? How about after a week or two?" Gina suggested before she redirected her gaze towards the sky, as though she were trying to tell the current time through the signs.
"Gina," Orion called out to his sister, narrowing his eyes at her for being rude.
It was clear to everyone that Saria seemed extremely shy and hesitant about introducing herself.
"Humph!" Gina snorted in response, turning her head to the other side.
It was already obvious that the tree nymph who was about to introduce herself to them was Orion's partner. Her brother had just introduced his child and her mother, Anara, the Tree Nymphs' Overseer, as his partner. So why should Gina be willing to let such a thing happen?
If anything, Gina could solemnly agree that she was the one who should be introducing herself, not the other way around.
'This is getting annoying,' Gina thought, understanding that she needed to hasten her plans, or else she might risk not even having a space for her to sleep at their home.
Saria witnessed this scene and immediately decided to comport herself. Her appearance underwent a 360-degree turn as she faced the women before her with a warm smile and introduced herself seriously, "I am Saria, Orion's partner. I'm sure you've heard of me. However, I might not be aware of a lot of things that partners are meant to do, so please, take care of me."
When Saria introduced herself, the surroundings fell silent at first, before a collective sigh broke out.
"At least he shattered our minds by bringing a tree nymph back home this time around," Ayla said, shaking her head and walking forward to welcome Saria to the family.
"Yes. Honestly, I'm more impressed than anything," Lyra said, nodding in response.
She walked with Ursa and Sura, who both agreed with her words, as they also moved forward to welcome Saria into the family.
The other women exhaled deeply in response before nodding in agreement as well, then walking towards Saria to do the same thing.
"Welcome to the family, Saria."
"Welcome to the family, Saria."
….….
Celeste slowly regained consciousness. Her eyes flickered open as she proceeded to look around, but she immediately paused upon seeing Orion, who stared at her with a worried expression.
Celeste deeply exhaled as she stretched her hand to massage her head, "Ah! I had the strangest dream, Orion," she said.
"Oh, what kind of dream did you have?" Orion asked.
