A Child Was Born.

Polia Kingdom Royal Castle.

It was the sight of Ian, the king, unable to even go inside, pacing outside the queen’s quarters that had become the birthing room. Then the head maid, Leni, standing right beside him, asked anxiously.

“Is it still far off?”

“Your Majesty, it has only been one hour since the labor pains began. You must wait much longer.”

“One hour, is that not too long? Even now, is she not screaming in pain like that?”

“That is how it originally is. And they say it often takes over ten hours, so please do not exhaust yourself from now.”

“Mm, this feeling of my blood drying as I wait is the first time since Charlotte.”

“Oh my? You remember that moment?”

“Of course I remember. I was young, but I remember it all. Even then, was it not you, Leni, who stayed by my side like this?”

Once, when his mother gave birth to his younger sister, he had been impatient outside the birthing room. The one who had soothed him was Leni, who had now become the head maid. Perhaps she remembered then as well, as she smiled and spoke.

“Even then, the princess was born safely, so it will end safely now too. Queen Adrina is strong, so there will be no problems.”

“Yes, it must be so..”

As he nodded with a stiff expression, footsteps approached where he stood—his mother, his younger sister, and Princess Helena. The reason they came only after an hour was that the three had briefly gone out to handle the work of the Royal Welfare Foundation that Queen Adrina had been managing in her stead.

“Your Highness the Queen Mother. Welcome.”

“I received the news late, so I am a bit late. Is the labor still continuing?”

“It has been one hour.”

“The labor will continue still. Let us wait more comfortably.”

Perhaps because she had much experience, she looked calm to some extent. In contrast, his younger sister Charlotte and Princess Helena, who had no experience, had faces stiffened tight. Since neither had such experience, at Adrina’s painful screams coming from the birthing room, their faces could not help but turn pale.

“Truly, in my heart, I want to go in and at least hold the queen’s hand.”

“Stop that. Such a thing is not good for the mother either. And no matter how worried you are, would you disturb the royal proprieties?”

“But. I…”

He was about to say that since he was the king, could he not do as he pleased, but when he saw his strict mother, he decided to stop. At this giving-up face, Emily (Ian’s mother) thought that though he was her child, he was a man who cherished his wife too much.

‘Sometimes I am truly envious.’

She sometimes thought what it would have been like if her late husband had been like this in the past. But such a thing would never have been. He was a person who had even tried to hug her at the moment of birth. He had truly been crazy about women, and since he had also been drunk, he was someone they absolutely must not resemble.

‘It is truly fortunate he does not resemble his father.’

He was a man with upright character, who loved his woman and knew how to treat her warmly. And since he cherished his own people and treated them kindly, she thought he was truly an ideal husband and king. Like others, she too thought it was fortunate that her son had become the king of this nation.

Meanwhile, she was only now reassured that a grandchild would be born.

‘It took truly long.’

They said other royal families had problems because they had and bore too many children, but on their side, it became a problem because they could not have a child for a long time. Fortunately, the first grandchild had been conceived and was being born today. It was as if the first grandchild was being born now.

Inwardly, she even worried if more grandchildren could be born in the future. People’s greed had no end; once one thing was resolved, another desire arose.

‘The more royal descendants, the better.’

It was the royal bloodline descended from herself, who had been born in pain. For her, it could not help but be an ideal she desired that such bloodlines increased. Inwardly, she saw Princess Helena with her daughter at one side. Truly, she thought she was not a bad child.

‘She is of the Doicheun Empire’s imperial family, but we have not been reduced at all. And just by supporting Ian’s back together with Queen Adrina, she can become great strength.’

Though for now the Doicheun Empire was struggling and being taken from here and there, she knew well that it was not an empire that would end easily. Someday it would revive, and that would in turn be able to become great strength even for her son, or perhaps for a grandchild born from Princess Helena.

Of course, there was the premise that her son had to accept it. But just by looking at the relationship between them, she could tell. Her son had some feelkings toward Princess Helena. She did not know if it was love or pity, but she thought it was fortunate as long as he did not only try to push her away.

Time flowed endlessly. The labor pains continued. In such a situation, Ian could not even go to handle work and had no choice but to keep pacing only in front of the birthing room. In the end, Marquis Norwen, the chancellor, had to come in person and ask for approval on important matters.

Thus Ian briefly looked over the documents, signed them as they were, and had to send the chancellor away. Such time was continuing for eight hours before he knew it. The bright outside had turned into dim evening.

From the continued waiting, Ian decided to send his mother, younger sister, and Princess Helena to eat for now. He forced them to go despite them saying they would keep waiting. In this situation, with a slightly tired face, Ian sat on the sofa placed in the corridor that had been prepared.

The continued waiting was exhausting him mentally. And it did not feel like a joke to wait not just idly, but waiting without knowing when the child would be born. It felt as if respect for all parents naturally arose.

‘You little thing. Exactly how much are you trying to make your mother suffer, coming out this late? Hurry and come out already.’

At Adrina’s intermittent groans and screams even now, he could not help but feel his lips drying. He thought it was the first time he realized that giving birth took this much time and effort made the parents’ hearts suffer.

‘If raising such a child into an adult for over ten years, how much harder time would they spend?’

People only knew when they faced a situation, and as he thought of having a child, he felt he could understand other parents’ hearts even a little. As he thought that, he thought of the Auk soldiers who were even now suppressing rebels on the colonial continent.

‘I should provide more support.’

He did not send many tanks and fighter aircraft, saying he would save money. The equipment they had and the over one hundred thousand troops they sent were enough. But thinking carefully, he thought that if they sent more equipment, the sacrifices of their allied soldiers would decrease by that much.

‘Twice the existing quantity—no, three times more, I must send.’

As he thought of increasing even more the amount of equipment planned to be sent, in truth he was not considering withdrawal. He felt the emotions of a parent, but even so, it was not something where he could abandon the meaning of being a king. Suppressing the colonial rebels was another huge business.

‘They say our construction contractors are slowly entering the kingdoms where the rebels were suppressed.’

The kingdoms whose issues had been resolved by prior suppression were pouring their efforts only into restoration. Since the shares of Polia Kingdom construction companies in that restoration had increased, they were entering in large numbers and proceeding with the rebuilding.

Literally, by our construction companies consuming a considerable amount of restoration costs, it also entered as gold for our kingdom. It was a huge plan where the construction companies earned money and the kingdom could increase its budget through taxes.

‘At minimum, for over ten years, the construction companies will grow so huge they become bloated.’

He heard that not only existing construction companies but also many newly formed construction companies were increasing. Among such companies, there were also examples of secretly making contracts with each nation through tricks, splitting shares, and trying to take profits again.

‘Is it that they mean to recover even a little of the costs, no matter what?’

Finding that was the work of “Mauter,” which had been reorganized as the intelligence bureau, and each nation would surely be trying to hide such evidence. He thought that in many ways, this restoration business was also complexly entangled. Then, at the sound heard in that instant, he felt his head turn blank at once.

“Waaahh~!”

Murmur, murmur—

The attendants and maids in the corridor also looked startled, and Ian too sprang up from the sofa where he had been sitting. They said it often took over ten hours, but now, after eight hours had passed, the baby’s crying was heard. He tried to rush into the birthing room at once. It was Mardin, his secretary, who stopped him.

“Calm yourself, Your Majesty. You must not go in like this.”

“Is it not fine now?”

“Since the royal grandchild has just been born, should it not be tidied up so you can prepare to greet them?”

“Th-that is true. I was too excited.”

If he barged in unthinkingly right after the baby was born, it was clear the situation would only become more chaotic. Only then, realizing he had been too excited, he had no choice but to pace only in front of the door again. After about ten minutes had passed, the birthing room door slowly opened, and a maid wearing a white apron stained with blood came out carefully.

At that sight, his heart felt as if it dropped for no reason. With how much blood was on it, he could not help thinking, it is not that something went wrong, is it? Then, a voice that announced the sex like thunder came to his ears.

“Y-Your Majesty.. A princess has been born.”

“What did you say, a princess?”

“Yes.. it is a princess.”

It was a face as if she had committed a sin. It was natural that in a place like the royal family, they preferred sons more than daughters. In such a situation, since the sex was female, it was natural that even the maid’s voice informing it did not have energy.

“A princess… a princess, you say…”

Seeing Ian muttering to himself, everyone could not help but become faces tense to the utmost. They thought perhaps the king might become greatly enraged and explode in anger. With an heir to the throne finally being born after a long vacancy, for it to be a princess could not help but be a major problem.

As if it were the calm before the storm, the corridor was so quiet it was silent. But in that moment, Ian’s huge laughter burst out as if filling the corridor.

“Wahahahaha—!”

At this laughter, everyone’s eyes could not help but go wide. Why was he laughing like this? Could it be that hearing it was a princess made him so angry and absurd that he laughed like that? As everyone grew even more tense, Ian’s voice was heard.

“A princess—what a lovely fact this is! May I go in now? I want to see my daughter at once!”

“Pardon? Ah, you may go in.”

“Let us hurry. I want to see the princess and the queen’s faces at once!”

At this urging, the maid, looking slightly flustered, opened the birthing room door again and opened the inside. When he looked inside, the sight of maids clearly in the midst of cleaning up came into view. And all of them repeatedly had flustered faces. They too had heard Ian’s laughter from outside.

“Everyone worked hard! Thinking of your labor, I will grant reward money, and I will also send you on leave, so rest well for a while!”

At Ian’s words, the faces of the maids in charge of the birthing room brightened greatly. They knew it too. That their king’s spending was quite large when it came to rewards. He saved on everything else, but it could be said he did not spare at all on things like this.

Amid the maids’ pleased face, Ian moved his steps to where a spacious bed was placed. And there, Adrina lay on the bed with a very haggard complexion. In her arms was a small baby, moving as if wriggling.

‘This child is my daughter?’

With the swell rising in his chest, he felt as if tears would come out without realizing. He had never thought he would have a child. With that reality before his eyes, his heart swelled, and at the same time he felt as if he had the whole world. Then Adrina’s words, her voice quite hoarse, were heard.

“Your Majesty… you have come.”

“You suffered to give birth to the child.”

“…I am sorry.”

“No, what are you saying? Why are you sorry?”

“I… ended up giving birth to a daughter. What shall I do with the sin of not being able to give birth to a son..”

At her solemn face with even tears welling, Ian only then realized that the meaning of having a daughter was quite different here. In an instant, he thought of one of his father’s consorts, a woman who had only given birth to daughters and always looked extremely sharp.

Thinking of how she had shown an extremely sharp reaction, it was clear that here it was considered a sin. But Ian stiffened his expression, shook his head, and spoke.

“A sin? What sin could you have committed! You have done a very great thing. Did you not give birth to a lovely daughter for me? Even if it is not a son, I do not care. What if we have only daughters? The fact that she is our child does not change. Adrina, do you dislike our daughter?”

“H-how could that be? She is so lovely.”

“See? How lovely and cute she is. From now on, let us raise our daughter happily together.”

At Ian’s words as he came close and even held her hand, Adrina finally felt the emotion of relief and the feeling called happiness arose. Even at the moment she heard it was a daughter, she had despaired and struggled. Inwardly, she too had wanted a son.

But with a daughter being born, she believed it, yet inwardly she was afraid, thinking His Majesty might turn away from her because she had failed to produce an heir.

‘It was a foolish thought. His Majesty is always the same and kind.’

As always, he was kind to her and cared for her. And even now, like this, he was comforting her and looking lovingly at the daughter who had been born. Perhaps because she felt reassured for some reason, her two eyes slowly closed on their own.

“Adrina?”

“…….”

“Ah, no! Why is this happening all of a sudden!?”

“Your Majesty, fix your composure. She has merely fallen asleep. She used too much strength, so please do not worry too much.”

Only after hearing the words of an older maid who seemed very experienced could Ian feel relief. Then he carefully lifted his daughter who was held in Adrina’s arms. The appearance of his daughter, wrapped in fine cloth, still had swelling that had not gone down. But even that face felt lovely.

“My child, I am your father. Please take care of me from now on.”

At his gentle voice, the baby only wriggled in his arms. Fortunately, she did not cry as if she was uncomfortable. Meanwhile, at that sight, the maids thought that His Majesty truly was His Majesty. Even though it was not a son but a daughter, he was so very kind.

Even a maid who had received many royal children thought that, at this king’s reaction, he truly was an unusual king.