Season Opening of Year 79 - Part 2
With his keen nose and sharp intelligence, Titi fetched the butler in no time—so fast it almost seemed the man had been standing right outside the door.
"I shall summon help at once!"
The moment Titi dragged him in and he caught sight of Mar's dry heaving, the butler's eyes rolled back just as mine had. He yanked out a communication orb and proceeded to call a doctor, a mage, and a priest all at once. One would have been plenty, I thought.
"In cases like this, cross-verification by specialists is the only reliable course!"
"Well, that's true enough."
Rarely did the butler raise his voice so thunderously; cowed by the force of it, I simply nodded. Thinking it over, he had a point. Call only one and you risk a misdiagnosis. Call three, and even if one of them slips, the other two can set things right. This was no ordinary matter—it concerned pregnancy. Thoroughness was only proper.
"My lady, are you feeling any discomfort? A heaviness anywhere, or a chill, anything of that sort?"
"I-I'm fine. There's nothing wrong."
The butler, already convinced Mar was with child, examined her with fiery zeal. So intense was his manner that Mar—who had addressed him without honorifics ever since becoming a countess—slipped back into polite speech. For someone as meticulous about etiquette as Mar to use honorifics with a subordinate, she must have been thoroughly startled.
— Kkiing, kking...
In the midst of the chaos, Titi burrowed into my arms and whimpered as if the whole world had wronged him.
Too smart for his own good, this one.
I stroked him with a wry smile. Thanks to the butler's enthusiasm, Titi had come within a hair's breadth of being banished from the room. Animal fur could harm a pregnant woman, the butler had declared, and on that pretext he had tried to usher the puppy out. But Titi had slipped behind my legs, ears drooping, and the pitiful sight had won Mar's pity—and a stay of execution.
Having realized that the very butler he himself had summoned had nearly thrown him out, Titi now refused to leave my embrace.
"I'm not sending you out, so stop crying."
— Kkiiing...
I looked down and soothed him; the whimper only grew more heart-rending. If someone gave this dog an IQ test, he might well score an eighty or ninety.
The first to arrive was the mage, who could teleport.
"It is not only the lady's own mana that flows within her body."
Naturally, he was also the first to deliver positive news. At the mage's faintly smiling words, the strength drained from my legs. We had yet to hear from the doctor or the priest, but the mage's testimony alone made pregnancy all but certain. If Mar's body held more than Mar's mana, it meant she was carrying a child.
"Congratulations. A new life rests in the lady's arms."
"Glad tidings indeed. You have my thanks."
I barely kept myself from sinking to the floor as I offered my gratitude. To the first person who had confirmed that Mar and I had a child—I could have thanked him a hundred times over.
"You are too kind. It is the fruit of Your Excellency and the lady's own efforts. I merely confirmed it."
The mage shook his head at my thanks, insisting he had done nothing but cast a spell. He was right, of course, yet I felt a rapid swell of goodwill. Anyone who speaks kindly is easy to like; when that person is also humble and courteous, the affection only deepens.
"Ah, it appears to be about three or four weeks along. Needless to say, please refrain from any strenuous activity."
"I'll keep that in mind."
He even offered practical advice freely. What an excellent mage.
Hokon Milliwood.
I repeated the name to myself several times. A man who had brought us such joy deserved a proper reward. Of course I need not act myself—simply drop the name to Trixie, mention that I had met a fine mage, and she would handle the rest. No better reward could exist for a mage.
"It seems just about four weeks now."
"A child born between two Apostles... Truly a blessing from the Lord."
The doctor and priest who arrived next reached the same conclusion as the mage.
Had no one been watching, I would have wept.
I gently stroked Karl's hair as he buried his face against my belly.
I'm pregnant?
Doctor, mage, priest—three specialists in the medical arts had spoken with one voice. There was a child inside me.
It felt so sudden. Ever since the wedding Karl and I had spent passionate nights together, so of course a child could have come... but that had been only a vague possibility. I had never truly expected it so soon.
Yet it had happened. Inside me, a treasure proving the love between Karl and me had taken root.
A child.
Joy surged up in place of bewilderment. Even the unpleasantness of the dry heaving now felt like Enen's blessing.
Our child.
Before I knew it, tears welled in my eyes. Tears of pure happiness—how extravagant.
"This is wonderful news. To conceive right after the wedding—truly a child sent by the gods."
Beatrix, who had been watching Karl and me with a fond expression, smiled as she spoke.
"But if you needed a diagnosis, why didn't you simply ask me? There's a mage living in the same mansion, you know."
"I'm sorry. I was so flustered..."
I returned her smile at the joke offered in her own way. The truth was I really had been out of my mind. The instant the thought struck me that I might be pregnant, nothing existed in my sight or hearing except Karl.
"Four weeks means the baby will be born this winter, doesn't it? Maybe even arrive with the first snow."
"Heh, that could well be."
Irina's words and my sister's soft laugh made me stroke Karl's head again. A child born with the first snow—even an ordinary birth would be a happiness never to be forgotten.
"The birthday might be close to yours, unnie."
Luise's follow-up brought another smile. My own birthday fell at the end of November; as Luise said, our child was likely to arrive around then. How like my child to share a birthday season with its mother. If Father heard the news he would laugh so loudly—
Ah.
Look at me. We had been keeping this joy to ourselves.
"Karl, could you get up for a moment?"
"Can't I stay like this a little longer? The thought of leaving this one behind to go to work is unbearable."
I gently coaxed him, but the reply was a sulky protest most unlike Karl. Dangerous. For a second I nearly answered, Then stay like that until tomorrow. Karl had melted completely; one of us had to keep her wits.
"Just bear with it a little. This is far too happy a thing to keep only among ourselves."
Karl rose with obvious reluctance and drew out his communication orb. He would contact his side of the family; I would reach the Valenti house. Father, Mother, my brother and sisters—every one of them would be overjoyed.
Holding that expectation, I picked up the communication orb I had left on the desk.
I had thought "Apostle" was merely a title the Dawn Church bestowed on certain humans at its own discretion. Now I wondered whether even the gods themselves acknowledged it.
Academy term was about to begin; I was due to be tormented again by Ryutis, Later, and Tanian. And right at that moment a child appears? Surely Enen had sent down a treasure to tell me to take heart. No such happiness had come last year or the year before; only this year, after our beatification, had it arrived. The connection was plain.
If only I didn't have to go to the Academy, it would be perfect.
A small regret lingered. Of course I would not be boarding there—I would commute—so I could still see Mar and the child in her arms every day. Even so, a husband's heart yearned to stay glued to his wife's side and care for her.
Yet what could be done? In the Empire a husband might receive a honeymoon leave or parental leave, but pregnancy leave did not exist. Grant it and a man would be off work for ten whole months; the policy made a certain sense.
"Father, please calm yourself."
While I was wrestling my feelings into order, Mar's voice reached me—still speaking with her father.
— How am I supposed to calm down? You have already become a mother. Time flows so cruelly fast.
Anyone listening could hear the tears in that voice; I quietly turned my head away. I heard nothing. I saw nothing. The notion of the Iron Blood Duke bawling his eyes out was a reality I refused to know.
— Those tiny hands of yours, handing this father flowers, promising you would live with Papa forever—
"Ah, Father!"
As Mar's black history was broadcast in real time, I bowed my head. This humble one has been deaf for some time now.
— ...In any case, thank you for the glad news. I would love to come see you myself, but a father cannot go traipsing in and out of a newlywed home.
After weeping at length, my father-in-law composed his expression and spoke with dry calm.
"I don't mind at all. In fact I would be grateful if you stayed by Mar while I am at the Academy."
I edged up beside Mar and showed my face to the orb. For the next several months Mar would be alone in the mansion from morning till evening; having family nearby would be a blessing.
But Father-in-law only snorted and shook his head at my words.
— Do you mean to turn your father-in-law into a freeloader squatting in an empty house?
It was an irrefutable refusal; I could not open my mouth. True enough—when the master of the house is absent, a guest lingering for hours looks odd, even if that guest is the mistress's own father.
— When the vacation comes, send me an invitation. Your mother and I will go together.
"Couldn't we simply come to you instead?"
— By then Mar's belly will be quite round. You mean to drag her all the way to Ulken in that condition?
His look said I was talking nonsense; I shut my mouth again. I deliberately left unsaid that a teleport would make the trip instantaneous.
The day of the opening ceremony dawned.
"If anything happens, contact me at once."
"I know."
I had to leave my pregnant wife behind and travel far away.
"It's still cold, so keep warm, and be careful not to slip when you go into the bath."
"Heh, I will. Don't worry."
A wife who deserved every ounce of her husband's loving care would have to pass the hours alone in the mansion.
"Even if it's nothing special, call me whenever you're bored—"
"...Karl, you'll be late. Go on."
Mar, who had listened patiently until then, gave my back a push.
I still hadn't managed to tell her to say the word the moment she craved anything.