Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Father's Record
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Crunch.
A strawberry burst in her mouth.
Kara devoured the strawberries on the plate with a blissful expression.
One, two, three...
The plate emptied in an instant.
I let out a sigh of relief as I watched her.
'Good.'
Seeing my wife, who had shed tears from her first experience with morning sickness, eating so deliciously tugged at my heartstrings.
The Eisen Baron smiled warmly through his glasses, and Alina clapped her hands excitedly in response.
"Sis, is it tasty? Our baby loves it too?"
"Yeah, it loves it so much. Daddy and sis Alina are the best."
Kara grabbed my hand and flashed a beaming smile.
"Thank you, Barg. Really, thank you."
Her warm touch and happy face.
All the hard work I'd put in with the Eisen Baron and the servants to recreate frost strawberries felt like a blessing rewarded by that single smile.
Yeah, this was enough.
I felt like I owned the world as I reached out to stroke Kara's hair.
But.
Happiness was cruelly short-lived.
"Urk...!"
Suddenly, Kara's face turned pale, and she clamped her hand over her mouth.
"Kara?"
Her shoulders heaved violently.
I instinctively sensed what was happening and hurriedly grabbed the basin.
Thankfully, the head maid, experienced in such matters, had brought it just in case.
"Bleurgh!"
Kara vomited up every bit of the "frost strawberries" she'd just eaten.
Red strawberry pulp mixed with stomach acid poured out.
"Cough! Cough! Urgh..."
She clawed at her chest in agony, dry-heaving continuously.
The joyful smile from moments ago was gone, replaced by a wretched face streaked with tears and snot.
"......"
I was at a loss for words.
Never mind.
Finding what she craved might have been a blessing, but this morning sickness was no blessing.
This was torture.
My wife's back as she wretched up everything she'd eaten with such effort.
The redness around her eyes from the heaving.
Watching Kara suffer through her first pregnancy at an age when others attended the academy tore at me as her husband.
'Damn it.'
I gritted my teeth.
The hands that crushed frost bear bones and shattered other tribes' barbarians felt utterly powerless now.
My beloved wife was in pain, and I couldn't hurt in her place or solve it with strength.
Just rubbing her back and watching—this felt harder and longer than any battle for Barg.
"It's okay... it's okay..."
I stroked Kara's back with trembling hands.
All I could do was this pathetic comfort.
After the vomiting war ended.
Kara lifted her pale face.
She rinsed her mouth and spoke in a weak voice.
"...Sorry. You went to all that trouble to make it... such a waste."
"What do you have to be sorry for? It's not your fault, Kara."
My voice rose a bit from frustration.
She'd been like a spoiled girl whining for strawberries earlier, but now she was worrying about me.
Kara saw my stiff expression and weakly lifted her hand to caress my cheek.
"Relax your face, husband. I'm not dying."
"......"
"Our baby's just protesting that it's alive and kicking. Proof it's healthy... so don't worry too much."
And even in her pain, she managed a faint smile.
The one hurting was comforting me.
Kara was becoming a far stronger mother than I'd imagined.
I scooped her up in my arms.
"Let's go to the bedroom. You need rest."
Kara didn't resist, wrapping her arms around my neck.
Her weary eyes closed, but a smudge still lingered uncleaned at the corner of her mouth.
In the bedroom.
I laid Kara on the bed and gently wiped her mouth with a warm cloth.
The red stain faded, revealing her pale lips.
On impulse, I pressed a short, deep kiss to them.
Mwah.
Kara's eyes snapped open in surprise.
"Barg? My lips must taste sour... I threw everything up..."
"Nah?"
I cut her off with a grin.
"Tastes like frost strawberries. Sour ones."
"......Tch."
Kara's eyes grew misty.
With a gaze full of emotion and love, she pulled my neck closer.
This time, Kara kissed me first.
Smack-.
A bit longer.
Deeper.
Sharing body heat and breaths, we forgot the pain of morning sickness for a moment.
A while later.
Kara had fallen asleep from exhaustion, and I quietly left the bedroom.
In my hand was a note.
【Reindeer jerky, snowflower mushroom soup, honeyed ice pickles...】
A list of foods Kara had murmured she craved before drifting off.
All rustic and rough, but full of human warmth and the scent of Norheim.
The Eisen Baron paced the hallway with a worried look.
"How's Miss Kara? Settled down?"
"Yes, she just fell asleep. We got through the crisis thanks to you."
"Good. Phew..."
The Eisen Baron patted his chest.
He hesitated, then spoke with a bitter expression.
"Actually... when I was in Norheim as an envoy, it was right around the time Miss Kara was in her mother's womb."
"Ah..."
"Lady Plina had severe morning sickness too. I remember Gorgon scouring the snow mountains for wild berries in midwinter."
The Eisen Baron narrowed his eyes, lost in distant memories.
"They say the intensity of morning sickness is often hereditary. Miss Kara might suffer like her mother."
My heart sank.
Kara's mother had died in difficult childbirth.
What if Kara...?
Sensing my anxiety, the Eisen Baron hurriedly added,
"Oh, of course, medical care is worlds better now. The empire's top physicians are on standby, so no worries."
"...It better be. Thank you."
I shook off the unease and handed him the note.
"These are what Kara wants. Can you get them?"
The Eisen Baron scanned the list.
His expression turned peculiar.
All were hard-to-find Norheim local foods, unavailable in the empire.
"...Miss Kara sure is simple."
The Eisen Baron chuckled.
"It's not like she picked tough ones on purpose. She's just used to home cooking, so that's all she knows."
His words ached in my chest.
My wife, craving barren homeland flavors over fancy imperial cuisine.
"Got it. I'll contact the merchants and procure as much as possible. And..."
The Eisen Baron's eyes gleamed.
"When Miss Kara wakes, we should show her real imperial strawberries. Not our sour fakes, but the sweet genuine ones."
"Haha, sounds good."
We shared wry smiles.
The morning sickness war had only just begun.
One more problem remained.
"I'll support you as much as I can until enrollment... but dorm life after will be tricky."
The Eisen Baron said seriously.
"Academy dorms separate men and women by principle, no family housing. Too much for a pregnant woman alone."
"Yeah."
"Lucky if she gets a good roommate... Worst case, I'll pull strings for you two to share a room."
"Possible?"
"Against regs in principle, but for a pregnant woman's health? Plenty of justification for exceptions. Who am I? Making 'impossible' possible is an administrator's job."
He grinned, pushing up his glasses.
Reassuring.
Many hurdles from entrance exams to dorm assignments lay ahead.
But with him, and Kara, we could do it.
"I leave it to you, Baron."
"Count on me."
In the dim hallway, the two men's resolute wills crossed.
Then.
Clamour.
The mansion's front gate grew noisy.
A massive wagon rumbled in with heavy thuds.
It was Clozer, the border town's tailor and chief altar priest.
He jumped down from the wagon holding a carefully wrapped clothing box.
"Baron! Young Master Barg! Your pants are done—delivered personally!"
"Good work, but... why such a huge wagon for one pair of pants?"
The Eisen Baron tilted his head at the wagon.
Too big for ordinary cargo...
It was a mana stone-equipped special transport wagon.
The cargo hold was triple-sealed with thick waterproof tarps and leather.
White frost leaked from the seams.
"And that...?"
Clozer grinned sheepishly and pulled back the cover.
Then.
"......!"
The Eisen Baron and I doubted our eyes.
The hold brimmed with packed snow.
"What is this? Delivering snow?"
"Well, you see."
Clozer wiped sweat and explained.
"Before I left, at the border checkpoint, this giant Norheimer named Gorgon von Wintersword was arguing with the guards."
"My father?"
"Yes. Guards blocked him, saying they had to inspect the snowballs first. He explained the situation, begged to rush them to Eisen guard... practically in tears."
Clozer clicked his tongue.
"I was heading this way, so I took pity and loaded them. Used mana stones to keep it frozen too."
"What about the costly mana stone fee?"
At the Eisen Baron's shocked question, Clozer pulled a crumpled receipt from his pocket and waved it.
It was...
Signed by Young Master Kairun, with his seal.
"No worries! Young Master gave me this all-purpose voucher—I haven't returned it yet. Covered delivery and mana stone rental perfectly!"
"......Hah."
"Thanks to him, I'm living large. Even got new top-grade wheels for the wagon! Hahaha!"
Clozer laughed proudly.
Even the empire's top administrator, the Eisen Baron, was speechless at the audacity.
But to me, that audacity was salvation.
Father's request.
With trembling hands, I brushed away the piled snow.
Beneath lay crude leather pouches and jars.
I pulled them out one by one, checking contents.
Dried reindeer meat.
Frost strawberries.
Fern pickles.
Snowflower mushrooms.
Exactly the foods Kara had just told me she craved.
Perfectly prepared, nothing missing.
"Ah..."
My chest tightened.
Father hadn't forgotten for a second.
The foods his wife—Kara's mother—had craved during her morning sickness.
The memory of failing to get them, shedding bloody tears.
He'd foreseen his daughter craving the same and sent them ahead.
A father's and husband's love, packaged in snow, arrived across decades.
I hugged the bundles to my chest, eyes stinging red.
The same time.
Norheim, Winter Claw Tribe encampment.
On a hill whipped by biting winds.
Chieftain Gorgon stood draped in bear pelt cloak, staring blankly south toward Eisen guard.
"Spacing out again? So gloomy."
Baba the Elder poked his shin with her staff.
"Ah, Elder... just wondering if it arrived safely."
"More than arrived by now. Such fuss."
The elder tsked, but Gorgon just smiled bitterly.
"Thanks, Elder. For remembering it all."
"Hmph. Remembering what."
She snorted.
"Just didn't toss the scraps of paper you cried over every night."
After Kara's mother passed.
Gorgon had tormented himself for decades, wondering if his foods caused her death during morning sickness.
So he'd obsessively recorded what she ate, vomited, loved—searching for causes.
Those desperate notes were used for his daughter today.
"Tsk. Anyway... that Barg boy's in for it."
Baba the Elder murmured meaningfully at the southern sky.
"Why? Food's there now—should be fine."
"Food's just help. Like mother, like daughter—her sickness will be vicious. Your son-in-law's about to taste the hell you went through."
"......"
Gorgon's face paled.
He quietly made the sign of the saints toward the south.
'Hang in there, son.'
The old wolf's longing and worry rode the snow winds to the empire.