The Burden of Infertility
"You... what is your name?"
Aisia asked in a low voice.
"My name is Minna. I'm from the southern region of Liberia. I lost my family in the war with the Wurt Empire and came to the capital after many hardships."
As she spoke, Minna's eyes trembled.
Aisia could guess that Minna's journey to her side had not been easy, given the story of losing her family.
"However, since I can speak the language and know a bit of Liberian etiquette, His Majesty assigned me to you, saying 'a person to help by your side.'"
"...Truly incomprehensible. Why is he doing this?"
Aisa was confused.
The general who had shown all kinds of cruelty during the war had gone out of his way to bring a Liberian maid for her.
Was it generosity?
Her face naturally furrowed.
"I didn't see it myself, but I heard that while he was staying in this mansion, he paid a lot of attention to Your Highness's health and mental state."
Minna cautiously conveyed this, having seen her expression.
"He said, 'Your Highness should be able to feel a little at ease even in this foreign land.' So he prepared Liberian food or looked for a maid who converses in the native language..."
At those words, Aisia's chest was strangely shaken.
'Why? Wasn't it enough to just lock me up and humiliate me with a degrading examination? Now, is he trying to shake my heart by using my own people?'
Hatred and suspicion rose simultaneously, but on the other hand, a faint sense of relief bloomed that she was "a Liberian who could become my ally."
And it seemed that the fragmented heart that she originally should have had for 'her people' was gathering.
"...Even if you come, not much will change."
But she said this in a blunt tone, turning her back.
"Still, being able to use Liberian would be somewhat convenient."
Despite the relief, in her heart, the question 'Is this maid really going to harm me, or is she just another surveillance agent following Adolf's orders?' continued without interruption.
Minna explained while brewing tea from the basket.
"My role is to find a little appetite and mental stability so that Your Highness doesn't collapse. You don't have to trust me, but I prepared it because you would be familiar with Liberian herbs and food."
"...I understand."
Aisia answered in a sharp tone, but the hand receiving the warm tea from Minna was slightly less trembling.
For the first time in a long time, feeling the scent of home, a corner of her heart seemed to gain warmth.
Since Minna started attending her, small changes appeared.
First, Aisia, who had completely refused meals, began to take a little of the simple Liberian traditional porridge or tea water that Minna brought into her mouth.
"Compared to the strange seasonings that the Empire pretends to be, it's better."
She still gave excuses with a cold expression, but in fact, her body was gaining a little strength.
Minna served her carefully and organized the room, and when the doctors did the check-up, she accompanied them and said, "If it's only this much, Your Highness won't be uncomfortable anymore."
Thanks to this, the examination that used to be groping by strangers' hands without mercy became a check-up where they kept a little distance.
"Your Highness, are you all right?"
After the check-up, Minna asked in a low voice.
Aisia smiled bitterly and replied, "Even with you here, it's humiliating," but nevertheless, the habit of gasping for breath during the examination decreased like before.
Also, following Minna's advice, Adolf Kareha reduced the number of visits to her, who feared him when she saw him.
'Self-esteem and confidence will recover over time, never to be shaved forever.'
When she realized that the cause of her confidence being shaved was herself, she began to listen to her behavior only through reports.
The pride of Aisia Lil Shuhain, who had been broken by the Wurt Empire people, began to recover for the sake of her own people, Minna.
At least the external wounds had healed to some extent, and the pain was not as severe as before, so she stopped waking up in the middle of the night in pain.
However, the infertility diagnosis remained, and it continued to weigh on Aisia's heart.
That's why one day, while enjoying tea with Minna under the sunlight shining through the window, Aisia made a strange expression, saying that her infertility might not be cured.
Minna was clearly attending the Aisia princess, but since she regularly reported Aisia's condition to Kareha, this fact was directly conveyed to Kareha's ears.
'She is lamenting her infertility?'
Kareha heard this through Minna and finally felt confident that he could obtain active treatment from Aisia.
One day, Adolf Kareha entered her room with doctors.
"It will be uncomfortable, but please undergo the examination again."
She turned her head and did not answer.
This time, it was different from the usual check-up.
Originally, for precise diagnosis, magical tools should have been used, but due to Aisia's extreme opposition, they had prepared the tools that couldn't be used.
The doctors prepared magical diagnostic tools and various medicines, and when Aisia saw the magical diagnostic tool, she screamed in desperation.
"What are you trying to do by poking at my body like this! Even dirty things are enough!"
Adolf Kareha took a deep breath.
He had the duty to fix the fate he had broken.
"To accurately know your condition, so that I can find another treatment method if possible."
She smiled bitterly.
The corners of her mouth that smiled bitterly trembled.
Aisia had a reason why she had to duel in the Wurt Empire to force a duel with Kareha.
"Healing? Don't make fun of me. You're trying to use me, right? You're a war maniac, right? Now, are you trying to humiliate me and bring humiliation to Liberia?"
Because the general of the Wurt Empire, Adolf Kareha, was a madman equivalent to a demon in the Liberian Empire.
If it was just a war maniac, she would have known he would kill her, but combined with the fact that he had humiliated her to this extent, and the recent reason he had deliberately loosened the noose was for this examination, Aisia trembled.
However, Adolf Kareha denied it in a strong tone.
"It is not so. I really want to treat you."
"That's ridiculous. Why the princess of the enemy country..."
Aisia couldn't continue.
When she faced his steady gaze in his silent expression, it seemed that his words were true enough to resonate in her heart.
Therefore, Aisia lowered her head, looking at the ground, avoiding the eyes that met hers.
"Instead of throwing me in prison, just die like that, it would be better than poking at my body like this."
She herself thought that she was not a hostage-like life.
She felt a sense of contempt for the backstabbing of his servants around her, but the treatment was not bad.
That's why her confidence began to recover, and the thorns she had put out began to fold a little.
With a more obedient attitude than before, the doctors started the examination, and the resistance was clearly reduced.
They measured her magical power status with a magic circle and rechecked the physical damage areas.
During this process, she had to slightly lift the sleeve of her clothes, and with the brushing gazes, Aisia felt a sense of humiliation while shuddering.
"Enough. No more examinations..."
"Your Highness... How about trying to receive treatment."
She cried out with tears in her eyes, but the next words were swallowed by the maid's words.
Seeing her calmed a little by her maid's words, Adolf Kareha looked at her with a pained expression.
But such eyes no one could see.
"I'm sorry. But to find a way, I have no choice. Even if I say trust me, you know that you don't trust me now."
"No matter what you say, I don't want to hear it!"
Aisia turned her head and gazed at the wall. But perhaps because of Minna's advice, the examination was successfully completed.
In the end, the doctors who finished the examination concluded that the results were exactly the same as before.
The magical power damage was serious, and recovery was impossible with the Empire's medical level.
After sending the doctors away, Adolf Kareha remained alone in the room, looking at her.
"It really has become a sorry sight. However, I have no intention of giving up yet."
He said in a low and firm voice.
Instead of answering, Aisia maintained silence.
Inside her heart, confusion 'What is this person really?' and despair 'It will only make me more humiliating' were mixed together.
After Adolf Kareha and the doctors left, Aisia could not help but suspect the purpose of why he was trying to treat her so much.
"There is no such thing as pure goodwill in this world."
Moreover, since the action of capturing her as a hostage, who is the princess of the enemy country, was nothing more than 'healing', Aisia began to worry about what Kareha's purpose was.
When it came to the point that she thought maybe she was his trophy from the war he had won, she was on the verge of going mad.
The first princess of the Liberian Empire being just a trophy? A trophy of Adolf Kareha, the cold and crazy war maniac of the Wurt Empire!
Since there was no reason for him to treat her who was infertile, Aisia, who couldn't find a suitable answer, laughed madly, and then...
"It can't be... It can't be!"
"Yo-Your Highness!"
In the state of pulling her hair out, Minna rushed to calm her down.
So time passed again.
After internal meetings and investigations, Adolf Kareha confirmed the existence of the legendary healing artifact from old records once again.
The ancient sacred gemstone called the Tear of Life.
There was a record that using it could heal magical power damage as well as severed limbs, but the ruins where the artifact was sealed were extremely dangerous and no one had returned.
There were countless ruins in this world, and it was known that ancient artifacts called artifacts were there.
Therefore, many people in history had challenged the ruins, but no one who challenged them had returned healthy; it was impossible to infer the existence of such an artifact from the hieroglyphs on the stone in front of the ruins, so there was no certainty that such an artifact existed.
Nevertheless, he made up his mind.
'The Savior also obtained an artifact that would help in the journey from the ruins.'
Since he judged himself to be equal to the Savior in terms of simple power, Kareha informed his subordinates that he would enter the ruins.
"I will personally find the ruins. I will obtain the artifact and reverse the peace of the Empire."
People tried to dissuade him, calling it a reckless plan, but he had already hardened his heart.
However, as his subordinates investigated the ruins, new information was discovered.
Even if it was just power, the missing people in history were adventurers confident in that aspect, but the reason the Savior could clear the ruins came out.
The record remained that the artifacts inside the ruins could only be unsealed if there was someone with 'the power of the Savior's bloodline'.
When Adolf Kareha heard the information found by the subordinates, he realized that it was pieced together like a puzzle from the novel's information.
'The Savior's bloodline...?'
In the past, did the Savior also have a bloodline...? The subordinates said that the researchers presented a question of how to find the bloodline since the word Savior eventually remained in legends.
But Kareha, who had read the original work of this world, could recall it quickly.
'Aisia Lil Shuhain... If she is the one who gave birth to the Savior, she would naturally have the Savior's bloodline.'
In the end, it meant that Aisia herself could not obtain the artifact unless she accompanied Kareha.
"However, she is unlikely to accept it. Rather, she will think it's a trap to kill her."
He expected that if he made a suggestion, she would scream that it was a trap because of her always negative thoughts about Aisia.
Adolf Kareha clenched his head.
Still, there was no other way.
Since finding a way to cure infertility was only hoping for the artifact, that's it.
So, he made another request to Aisia.
"Do you know about the Tear of Life?"
Before making a serious request, he lightly opened the topic to Aisia.
Aisia sometimes chatted with her maid, but her reaction to Kareha's words was only stony.
Kareha laughed inwardly at the fact that the appearance of this woman he remembered recently was either as hard as a stone or as boiling as a demon.
It was a drop of water on the face of Kareha, who had always maintained a landmark after realizing the fate of this world.
He felt strange at that calm wave.
'Oh... Why did I laugh?'
He recalled that it was a time to have a serious conversation and shook his head and continued.
"If there is that, there is a legend that it can treat infertility."
"Treat infertility...?"
Kareha, who obtained her stony reaction, said she needed it.
"I have found the ruins where such an artifact is sealed, so come with me there."
Since he had to bring up the Savior to explain the reason she needed it, Kareha was at a loss because he could only make the request to come with him.
At those words, Aisia, who had been listening to the expectation for infertility treatment, was in a daze.