He responded to me while asleep?! This kid… he might be a big deal when he grows up. While I was thinking that, Liscia peered closely at my face.
“Wh-What?” I asked.
“Other people’s babies are nice and all, but having our own baby would be so much cuter, right?” she asked, shooting meaningful glances in my direction.
Ahh, yeah… That probably meant exactly what I thought it did. Hakuya and Marx were telling her we needed to produce an heir already. Now that the country had stabilized, they were probably pressuring her even more.
“Yeah… You’re right,” I said shyly. “We have the method for births by Cesarean section established, and there are more and more obstetrics and gynecology specialists. It’d be safe for you to give birth any time now.”
Liscia’s eyes went wide. “I thought you were going to wimp out again.”
“Now, listen… Okay, yeah, that’s part of it,” I said. “Because I’m prepared to be your husband, but I’m not ready to be a father yet, y’know.”
“Oh! R-Right… I see…”
I wanted to get all lovey-dovey with Liscia and the others. But, in order to increase the number of royals which had declined precipitously in the succession struggle after the death of the king before the last one, the chamberlain, Marx, had insisted, “I won’t stand for you using birth control until you produce at least one child!” You can see why I would be cautious.
“Well, aside from that, this high rate of death during childbirth in this world had been concerning me, too,” I said.
When I looked into the population of this country, I was surprised how high the death rate was for newborns and pregnant women. In modern Japan, while we might worry about whether the baby would be born safely, we hardly ever thought about the mother potentially dying in childbirth. However, it seemed that, in this country, pregnant women died sometimes. If there were a thousand women pregnant, a handful of them were going to die. In this country which lacked a formal study of obstetrics and gynecology, pregnant women were literally putting their lives on the line to give birth.
As the king, I was being told to produce many children with multiple women. If a child were born to Liscia, Aisha, Juna, or Roroa, and I were to lose one of them during the birth… I couldn’t stand that.
“In order to make sure that doesn’t happen, to keep the risk of losing any of my family to an absolute minimum, I’ve pushed forward with medical reforms,” I said. “It might be abusing my authority a bit, though.”
“It’s fine, isn’t it? The result was that you ended up helping everyone.” Liscia wrapped her arm around mine. “H-Hey, Souma. If making babies is okay now, do you want to try working on that tonight?”
When Liscia said that, fidgeting shyly, I couldn’t help but love it. But, as I’d said earlier, I wasn’t able to convince myself I should be a father yet, so I had to turn my head and look away.
“Oh! Um… do you think you could wait a little longer, after all?”
“Geez! You still wimp out in the end!” Liscia shouted.
When Liscia raised her voice, it startled Fuku, and he started making a fuss. “Wah… Wahhhhhhhh!”
We handed him back to his mother and tried to amuse him with funny faces. Owen tried to join in and do the same, but his face startled Fuku again, causing him to cry loudly and make a big scene.
Someday, we’ll make a big, noisy scene like this in the royal castle, too.
In the midst of that noisy happiness, that was what I thought.
Final Chapter: In the Snow
— 31st Day, 12th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar — Royal Capital Parnam
There were eight days in this world’s week. With four weeks in a month, that meant each month had 32 days. There were twelve months in a year, so the year ended on the 384th day.
The third through fifth months were spring, the sixth through eighth were summer, the ninth through eleventh were fall, and the twelfth through the second of the next year were winter, the same as Japan.
Today was the 31st day of the twelfth month. In Earth’s calendar, this would be New Year’s Eve, but in this world’s calendar, it was just another day at the end of the year.
In this country, New Year’s Eve and Day were generally celebrated quietly with one’s friends and family. Normally, the castle wasn’t all that busy (the political year began on the first day of the fourth month), aside from priests who carried out the New Year’s ceremony, but right now the great hall in Parnam Castle was in a state of pandemonium.
“Aisha, carry that set over to the right,” Liscia ordered.
“Understood, prin… Lady Liscia.”
Following Liscia’s directions, Aisha picked up a stage set that would normally have taken multiple adults to lift and easily slung it over her shoulder. Aisha could always be counted on to do the heavy lifting… Oh!
“Carla, Hal,” I directed. “Line up those two pillar props over here.”
“Understood, master.”
“Right, right,” Hal said. “…Sigh.”
With my directions, Carla and Halbert, a vanguard commander from the National Defense Force, were affixing (fake) marble pillar-like objects that looked like they belonged in the Parthenon to the floor. From there, Liscia and I kept giving orders to my vassals (and betrothed), following the plans in my hands.
“Still, to think you’d not only use the National Defense Force, but also a future queen to do hard labor for you…” Ludwin said with a wry smile.
Behind us, Ludwin, the Captain of the Royal Guard, and his second in command, Kaede, were finalizing the details of their plan for on-site security.
“It would be unthinkable in any other country, you know,” said Kaede. “Also, Hal, work faster. Chop chop.”
“I am, Kaede!”
I waved my hand dismissively at Ludwin. “Now, now, Aisha said she wanted to help herself. Besides, it’s just a fact that there’s no one in this castle stronger than Aisha.”
If we’d had earth mages (for gravitational control), this would have been easy, but they had all been sent out to lay roads in the newly absorbed Principality of Amidonia. We didn’t have cranes for indoor use, meaning we had to rely on human labor for all of this, and I couldn’t see a reason to let Aisha’s muscles go to waste.
Liscia let out an exasperated sigh. “Honestly… If you had just said something sooner, we wouldn’t be dealing with this tight schedule…”
“It’s not like I could have,” I said. “I mean, I only came up with this idea a week ago.”
“It’s pretty incredible that everyone said, ‘Let’s do it!’ to something you came up with on the spur of the moment, though.”
W-Well, lately, it did feel like my brakes were starting to break down.
With Roroa and Colbert joining us, there was more funding at my disposal, and Genia the Overscientist was merrily giving birth to new inventions. Also, because of the many new policies we had instituted, the people of Friedonia themselves had developed a fondness for the strange and were overflowing with curiosity. It was like the Japanese craftsman spirit, or something like, “No matter how meaningless, when you master a thing, it becomes an art.” That was how an idle thought that had come out of my mouth one week ago…
“Oh, hey, it’s almost the end of the year. If it’s the end of the year, its time for the Kouhaku Year-end Song Festival.”
…had ended up being implemented like this.
The first one to hear me, Roroa, had said, “What, what?! Tell me more about that wonderful name that sounds like profit!”
So I ended up having to explain Kouhaku, the Red and White Song Battle, to her.