I Tamed the Monstrous Prince - Chapter 84

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Chapter 84

A certain smugness played on Cesar’s lips. The egg vibrated again in my hand. I could have sworn I heard a faint, high-pitched cry.

“This…this can’t be happening…”

I blinked several times. A persistent tapping sound followed, the distinct sound of a cracking eggshell. A small fissure appeared on the egg’s surface, and a blinding light suddenly shone through.

“Huh?”

Before I could shield my eyes, a sharp crack echoed. Slowly, I opened them.

“Peep?”

Dumbfounded, I stared at the sight before me, unable to believe what I was seeing. Emerging from the eggshell, bathed in brilliant light, was a tiny, yellow chick, perched right there on my hand.

At first, I was utterly bewildered, my mouth agape. What in the world…? I thought, frozen in place. What was that light? Am I hallucinating?

Just then, the minuscule creature opened its beak and cheeped. “Peep.” The plaintive sound pierced the stunned silence. I blinked again, still struggling to process the scene. Am I still asleep? Or is this…

The weight of the damp chick and the broken eggshell fragments in my palm brought me back to reality. This wasn’t a dream, or a hallucination. This was a living, breathing creature. And it cheeped again.

“Peep-peep! Cheep!”

Staring at the chick that had just hatched in my hand, a sudden wave of panic washed over me.

“Oh! What do I do?!”

I had never imagined an actual chick would emerge. Who could have imagined such a thing? Could Delphina have brought me an egg that was already on the verge of hatching? How could it possibly hatch in a single day? More importantly, what was I supposed to do with it now?

The tiny creature in my hand seemed so fragile, so small. The weight of its life, the fear that I might inadvertently harm it, left me floundering.

I looked at Cesar, my eyes wide with uncertainty. He returned my gaze with a charming smile. “The fruit of our love.”

“Ha… ha… yes, the fruit of our love.” His words only amplified my desire to cry. “…Fruit, indeed.”

With Cesar simply smiling and the chick incessantly peeping, everything felt utterly chaotic. It was understandable, given that I’d never expected it to actually hatch. No one could have predicted this. All I could do was stand there, frozen in indecision.

The chick weakly rubbed its beak against my palm. Small, damp, and struggling to hold its head up, the fragile creature wobbled, filling me with a fresh wave of anxiety.

“It… it looks cold. What should I do?”

Cesar’s reply was a masterpiece of unhelpful suggestions. “Dunk it in water?”

“No, no, no! Not water!”

That idiot! Didn’t he understand the urgency of the situation? Ducklings might swim, but chicks couldn’t… could they? Probably not…

A sudden thought struck me, a shocking realization. What did chicks need?

“What do I do? I don’t know anything about chicks!”

I’d never raised a chick before. This wasn’t covered in any of my lessons, or in any of the books I’d read.

Cesar reached out to the chick. The little bird, after a quick shake of its head, toddled towards him.

“Oh… uh…” Still flustered, I continued to wring my hands, unsure what to do, while Cesar, surprisingly, gently scooped up the chick.

“Peep.”

In his hands, the small, yellow creature seemed much more at ease, spreading its tiny wings. Cesar’s naturally warm body temperature seemed to soothe the chick, which snuggled into his palm, closed its eyes, and began to doze. Its damp, matted down feathers, now dry, fluffed up like a ball of cotton.