Side Story 3.3

The royal physician, who had examined Edelis, declared to everyone in the Emperor’s bedroom, “The child will be born today or tomorrow!”

“Today or tomorrow? She’ll be in pain for that long?”

“This is Her Majesty’s first birth, so we don’t know how long it will take. If it’s a long labor, it could take more than two days.”

“T-two days, when she’s in so much pain!”

Lehan anxiously pressed the royal physician, but he couldn’t speed up the process. Edelis was the one in pain from the contractions, but Lehan was the one whose face had gone deathly pale.

“…It’s okay.”

“What do you mean, it’s okay? You’re sweating like this.”

“I prepared myself for this.”

“Edelis…”

It was true. Before, she thought pregnancy was just about waiting for the baby to grow and then giving birth. She had no idea about the hellish morning sickness, the pain of her belly cramping after walking for a while, or the discomfort that made it impossible to sleep on her back. But after experiencing these things and reading the books on pregnancy that Lehan had read, she had prepared herself mentally. The books all said the same thing: ‘Childbirth is a pain that cannot be compared to any other.’ Because of this, she had both wished for this day to come quickly so she could be at peace and also dreaded it because she was scared of the pain. But since having the baby was inevitable, she had steeled herself.

“But I’m still scared…”

A whimpering confession, born of fear, escaped her lips, and Lehan hugged the lying Edelis and patted her back. Even in his arms, the contractions grew stronger. The royal physician had calmly predicted the next day, but things were progressing faster than expected.

“Your Majesty, the baby will be coming soon, so you must leave.”

“Me? Why?”

“W-well…”

“My wife is in so much pain, and you’re telling me to leave? Do you think that makes any sense?”

“Ugh…”

“B-but… it’s customary during childbirth…”

“Customary? Who decided that?”

“…”

The Emperor refused to leave, and they couldn’t force him to. If they tried to separate the Emperor from his Empress, they felt their heads would be separated from their necks. But it became a problem every time Edelis had a contraction.

“Ugh!”

“Edelis, are you alright? What are you all doing? Can’t you see the Empress is in pain!”

“It’s part of the process of the baby being born, so it’s natural…”

“I don’t want to hear it. What’s ‘natural’ about this? Aren’t you royal physicians? Shouldn’t you be able to make the pain go away!”

In his long career as a physician, he had never seen anyone give birth without pain. He had heard rumors of such a person, but it was a story passed down like a legend. However, as much as he was a royal physician, he couldn’t bet his life, so he shut his mouth.

“L-Lehan…”

“Edelis! Yes, I’m here.”

“…Go.”

“Pardon?”

The faint mumble was so quiet that Lehan thought he had misheard. He leaned his ear close to her mouth and asked her to repeat it. So Edelis spoke very clearly into his ear.

“Get out and shut up.”

Lehan was taken aback by Edelis’s harsh words. Then he remembered when he had visited Marquis Brill, who was a Count back then, after he had become a Grand Duke. He had heard such harsh words back then… He didn’t expect to hear them from Edelis, but it was a perfectly plausible situation. She was even glaring at him! It was a look he had never seen before, and he wondered if he was crazy to find even that attractive.

“Aren’t you leaving?!”

But he couldn’t withstand Edelis’s fury and had to leave the room. Lehan paced anxiously outside. With him unable to even eat, everyone at the Emerald Palace was on edge. Lehan worried about what would happen if something went wrong, as he had heard many things could go wrong during childbirth. He tried to shake off these negative thoughts. When he heard Edelis’s scream again, he tried to open the door, but the knights blocked him.

“Do you know who I am that you dare block me? Do you want to lose your head?”

“Y-your Majesty. But…”

“Move.”

As the knights were internally debating whether to move, a physician with her mouth covered with a white cloth and wearing white gloves came out. Lehan pushed the knights aside and stood in front of her.

“Your Majesty.”

“T-tell me. Is Edelis okay? Is she asking for me?”

“I am sorry to report this, but…”

“There is nothing to be sorry about. Just tell me.”

“…She says if you try to come in one more time before she calls for you, she will move her residence.”

“What…?”

“To the Marquis Brill’s territory.”

The unexpected threat left Lehan speechless. The physician bowed to the Emperor as Edelis’s scream echoed again. Lehan reached out to grab her, to argue that she wouldn’t do that, but he froze in place. The physician had said something that was the final nail in the coffin.

“Ah, and… she said to do something about… your mouth.”

Edelis had actually said to “shut it,” but the physician couldn’t possibly say that. The physician scurried back into the room, and Lehan stood there for a long time, unable to process what had happened.

“Agh!!!!”

A long time, which felt like an eternity to Lehan, passed, and he heard Edelis’s scream. Just as he was about to open the door and go in no matter what she said, a baby’s cry was heard.

“Y-your Majesty!”

The physician came out and told Lehan that he could enter. Lehan almost ran to Edelis’s side.

“It’s a strong and healthy Prince, Your Majesty.”

“His cries are so powerful! He is very healthy!”

The physicians said many things to Lehan, but he couldn’t hear them. He stroked Edelis’s face, which was deathly pale, and checked if she was okay. Why were they only talking about the baby and not Edelis?

“Are you alright, Edelis?”

Edelis, completely exhausted, barely opened her eyes and nodded.

“The Empress is also fine, so you don’t have to worry, Your Majesty.”

“Good… good.”

Lehan brushed Edelis’s sweat-soaked hair behind her ear. It broke his heart that she had suffered so much.

“…Are you crying?”

“Who’s crying?”

There was no convincing him when his eyes were red. Edelis held his hand with her weak hand and smiled faintly. When Lehan smiled back, a tear that had been trapped in the corners of his crescent-shaped eyes rolled down his cheek. Edelis told him it was okay and not to worry, but his tears wouldn’t stop. But it was okay. They weren’t tears of sadness, but of happiness.

***

“Moth… er.”

A boy with fiery red hair and a mischievous face burst through the door, about to call out to his mother, but he stopped. He had run straight from his class to brag to his mother about the compliments he had received. But the person who greeted him was not his mother, but his stern father.

“…Father.”

“Edelis is sleeping, so be quiet and leave.”

“I’ll wait.”

His father’s expression wasn’t very pleasant, but he wouldn’t back down. The child’s desire to receive praise from his mother was something he couldn’t easily give up.

“Why have you come?”

“…My social studies professor told me something about my class.”

“I heard your progress is faster than other children your age and that you’re interested in the latest theories.”

“Yes.”

He knew it. If it were his mother, she would have said, ‘My son is a genius, you really are a genius, who do you get your smarts from?’ But when he told his father, the reaction was more like, ‘So what?’ This was still better. When he told him about his performance in swordsmanship class, his father said, ‘When I was your age…’ When he was younger, he didn’t understand, but when he grew up, he heard that his father had been a gladiator in the arena. He felt that in his father’s eyes, he must look like a flower in a greenhouse, so he stopped talking about it, to his father, at least. His mother would have said, ‘Of course, you’re good at swordsmanship, too, because you’re like Lehan.’

“You’ve told me, so leave.”

“…I came to tell Mother.”

“Tsk.”

He openly clicked his tongue. He was still his son. He knew that while children of other noble families received an average of 30 affection from their parents, he received 50. The problem was, it was 99% from his mother and 1% from his father. His mother would go crazy with how cute she found his face. Of course, the condition for that cuteness was that he resembled his father’s childhood.

‘Father’s childhood.’

He couldn’t imagine it. So he asked his godfather, Duke Frache. He asked if his father’s childhood was really that cute.

– Pardon? Who said that, oh, no. It must have been Her Majesty the Empress…

– So what was it like?

– …According to Her Majesty, he was like a baby kitten.

A baby kitten. Just remembering it made him shiver. He shivered involuntarily, and his father’s cold eyes became even colder. They were chillingly clear golden eyes that felt completely devoid of warmth.

“…Ain?”

His mother’s voice made the golden eyes fill with warmth. He was already twelve years old, but his mother still called him by his pet name. Thankfully, since he was the only Crown Prince, no one said anything about him being called a pet name at his age.

“Ain? How old are you? It’ll hurt his pride. Won’t it, Ainhard?”

Everyone but his father.

“But I like calling him Ain.”

“It’s good if you call me whatever you want, Mother.”

He saw his mother giggle and his father try to suppress his tongue click.

“When did you all get here? You should have woken me up.”

“You were in a deep sleep.”

“In that case, get into the habit of knocking in the future, Ainhard. You can’t just open the door without knocking when your mother is resting.”

“…I apologize.”

He didn’t understand why the topic of knocking had come up. He was sure his father wouldn’t have answered the door even if he had knocked. He just didn’t want his time with his mother to be interrupted. He knew his mother was a lovely and unique person, but was his father really that smitten?

“Are you that smitten with Mother?”

Oops. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. His mother’s face turned red, and his father looked smug. Why was he so smug about something like this?

“Yes. Now that you know, you may leave.”

“Pardon?”

His father abruptly pulled his mother’s hand and kissed it. What was he doing when his son was watching!

“Do you want to see more?”

“What are you doing, Lehan?!”

“Go.”

“I’ll, I’ll come back later.”

“Ainhard!”

He quickly closed the door, his face flushed. His father always showed off his affection for his mother in front of him. He didn’t understand why he did it, and his face felt hot.

“Lehan! How embarrassing!”

“Embarrassing?”

Inside the room, Lehan kissed Edelis before she could answer. She wanted to tell him that she was embarrassed and to stop doing this in front of their son, but she couldn’t say anything because of his deep kiss.

“You’re mine.”

“Are you jealous of your son?”

“I’m even jealous of the clothes you’re wearing.”

“You don’t have to be jealous, I’m yours.”

Lehan had heard her say this many times, but every time he heard it, he was happy. Seeing his expression soften, Edelis kissed him.

“Forever.”

Looking into her eyes that held the green of a forest, Lehan whispered softly.

“Eternity.”

“Yes, I love you forever.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth.”

Lehan laughed softly and kissed her on the lips, as if sealing his own words with a promise. And as always, he would keep that promise. Just as he had said, for all of eternity.