Volume 7 Chapter 1 Part 6
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Translation by burnt.marshmallows
Editing by Team Foxsunes
「Hm? You have nothing to say to me, the father of the Filmina’s child? Is that right?」
That man spoke to him in a way one would to a young child. Even from the side, one could see that my brother was grumbling, frustrated. Fernan stood up vigorously and pointed his index finger straight at that man’s nose.
「~~ You better become an amazing father who won’t become an embarrassment to my sister’s child!」
It was a line befitting a parting scene. That man started to bellow out in laughter at how frustrated my brother looked. Everyone around, including me, watched over warmly at the sight of my brother glaring at that man’s smile, slightly teary-eyed. Dear brother, I hope that you will stay healthy like that forever.
「I had only heard about it from your stories, but your brother really is energetic.」
The princess said as she sat alone on the sofa located on a higher level, with an air of calm surrounding her. She bent over slightly, a look of amusement on her face.
If one considered her status as a princess, it would normally be unthinkable that she would be in a noble’s house without a single guard protecting her. I had told her that we would visit her another day.
But she started sulking and said:「Oh, am I the only one being ostracised here?」Her light pink lips pouted. What was I supposed to say in response to that? There was no way that I could tell her that「There will be another opportunity to meet soon… 」. Especially not when she sulked so adorably at me. In the end, the celebration party was held at night. One reason was because we needed to cater to the men who were working. But it was also so that we could find a time that was easier for the princess to leave the castle.
The princess was escorted by one of her close aides, a young man named Heinrich Yad Rubert. She came in a horse carriage designed to be stealthy. We received congratulations and gifts from Heinrich, who said that he would return at the appointed time. He had given us a set of history books filled with beautiful pictures, ones that even children would probably enjoy. I forced a smile, thinking that it was a bit too advanced for a baby. 「Someday your child will become an important branch who will support the large tree that is our country.」He winked, and said. You couldn’t really tell whether he was joking or not. What on earth was young Heinrich planning to make our child do……. But I digress. Let’s just put that aside for now. Even though his attitude had greatly softened since the time we spent at the Blue Sky Desert, I still had my reservations towards him. But it wasn’t the time to go into detail about that.
Out of the corner of my mind, I could see Heinrich’s smile. Although gentle, one could tell how formidable he was. As I evacuated that image out of my head, I saw that my brother had finally calmed down, having heard what the princess had said. Turning back to us, the princess gave us a smile, gentle as a spring breeze.
「Anyway, let me just congratulate you again. Filmina, you better give birth to a healthy child. I plan to come soon again to bless your child when your child is safely born.」
「Ah, thank you for your kind words.」
In this country, it was a tradition to receive blessings from a shrine when a new life is brought to this world. Through a priest, we receive protection from the goddess, the guardian deity of our country. Then, everyone prays together for the child to live a healthy life. That will be the first moment the child’s name will be recognized as an actual 「name」. Having been born in exchange for his own mother’s life and detested by his birth father, I had heard that my husband had only received his blessings when he was taken in by Uncle Lancelot.
The blessing we receive when we are born is the first blessing that we receive. We usually receive the second one during our weddings. The marriage is only recognized when we swear to the goddess to share our lives and walk through our lives together as a couple. The princess acted as our witness during my wedding with that man and helped us to receive our blessings. To have the shrine maiden princess, blessed by the goddess herself, as our witness was a great honor. However, the princess became our witness, not as the 「Shrine Maiden Princess」, but as our「friend」. If I viewed it from that perspective, there was no reason to reject her. When I finally relented, the princess nodded with a beaming smile. 「By the way」she started.
「My uncle left me with a congratulatory message too. I’ll repeat it exactly as he said it.「Come visit me anytime together with your child after it is born. Or if you want, you could just ditch Agedilus and come live with me.」Is what he said.」
……..Can that really be called a congratulatory message? The image of Sir Klanven, the king’s younger brother, appeared in my head. I could almost see him waving his hands, gently, like the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings. His eyes were an amber color that matched the princess’s exactly. The word「kind-looking」was a bit lacking in describing everything incorporated into his beautiful smile. I suppose「troublesome」would be a better word. It was as though the image of his pale-skinned hand, slender for a man, had been etched in my mind. I wished he would give me a break.
Seeing the mixed expression on my face, that man scrunched his face, creating wrinkles on his forehead. The princess giggled when she saw our reactions.
「As you can see my uncle is still exactly the same. But I still reserve the right to be the first person to give your child protection ok? I don’t plan to give way to my uncle on that matter.」
I let out a relieved sigh at the sight of the princess’s bright smile. I was relieved in many ways. Be it the wedding, or my pregnancy this time, I always felt that we were always indulging in the princess’s kindness. But I guess this was a privilege that came with being her close friend.
Hehehe. As I suppressed my laughter, that man looked at me in amusement. It seems that he could see through just what I was thinking. When I looked up into his sunrise-colored eyes and gave him a smile, I was met with a small sigh. What a dishonest man. It’s not like he thought it was that bad a thing either.
Although engrossed in his pleasant chat with my father, Uncle Lancent laid his blue eyes on us.
「Speaking of blessings, Filmina, Edi. Have you guys come up with any possible names for the child?」
「No, we haven’t.」
That man shook his head in answer to Uncle Lancent’s questions. Just as I was thinking that the conversation was moving on too hastily, I could feel the atmosphere in the room suddenly become tense. W-what is happening indeed.
As I looked around at everyone’s gazes in confusion, that man also furrowed his eyebrows in surprise. It seemed that it was only us, the ones at the center of it all, who did not understand what was going on. Everyone else had picked up on what Uncle Lancent was talking about. The first person who broke the silence was the princess.
「Well well. Then I shall run as a candidate as the child’s godparent. [4. TL Note: The “godparent” can also be interpreted as the person who gets to name the child.] I’m Filmina’s closest friend. It’s obvious that I’ll be the one to receive that privilege, right?」
Although said with a charming smile, that line caused the tension in the room to go up a notch. Even the head knight, who had been drinking wine and eating snacks alone, put his wine glass down on the table and leaned forward with a deep smile.
「Hey there now princess. Don’t forget about me. Actually, it’s not just me. I’m sure Yuri would want to be a candidate too, right? Not forgetting Widnichol. I’m sure he would be dying to want to be the godparent to his own master’s child.」
The head knight said smugly. Young Widnichol who was suddenly called out, shuddered in surprise before standing up straight while wrapping both his hands around his teacup. He seemed to hesitate at first, having been suddenly placed in the limelight. But he soon nodded furiously in agreement.
「Y-yes! It may be presumptuous of me, but, um, I do want to participate in the naming of the child if possible…….. 」
As his words began to taper off, many of the older folks smiled warmly at the sight. More and more troublesome people started to get involved.
「Head knight LIx, could you just wait a second? I, too, want to choose a name for my first grandchild.」
My father contended, with a serious look on his face, his eyebrows firmly pointing up. What do we have here? Upon hearing that, Uncle Lancent started to laugh mischievously.
「Well, that makes me Raul’s rival then I guess.」
「Ernest…….! You, how dare you say something like that as Filmina’s father-in-law?!」
「Why not? I’m also bursting with excitement about my first grandchild.」’
「Damn it! I completely understand how you feel. But even I cannot back down on this! Be it the princess or the head knight or the hero or the king’s brother, I don’t plan to lose!」
Forced smiles appeared on everyone’s faces in response to my father’s valiant proposition. But more than that, I myself shot my father a look to tell him that I wasn’t planning to lose either.
Hmm, it had just occurred to me. But everyone was getting ahead of themselves, and quite a lot I might add. Not only do we not know if it’s going to be a boy or a girl, we didn’t even know if the child was going to be born safely. And yet, everyone was getting so excited. I couldn’t help but become confused at why everyone was getting so much more heated up than the two of us, the main parties. But it wasn’t that I couldn’t completely comprehend their actions. I wondered what to call these mixed feelings of happiness and embarrassment.
The man who was sitting beside me with a look of dismay as always, looked terribly glum. He had been crying with happiness just the day before, when I told him about my pregnancy. But when it came down to actually going all out to celebrate with our close friends and families, he instead couldn’t celebrate openly, being the awkward man he was,
When I let out a few giggles, that man threw me a spiteful look. Ignoring his dirty look, I took another sip of the medicinal tea that he gave to me to let me drink even while pregnant. Seeing how my father wouldn’t settle down, my mother finally tugged on my father’s sleeves, frowning.
「Dear, can you please calm down a bit, What are you trying to do, pressuring them so early o?.」
My mother calmly reproached my father, who was passionately thinking about the grandchild he had yet seen, his fists shaking. 「But Fiora!」He didn’t seem to want to listen. My mother gave out a sigh. Oh no, this is going to be bad.
It appeared that I wasn’t the only one to think that. 「F-father.」my brother called out to him. But before he could finish, my mother gave my father a deep smile.
「ーーD・e・a・r?」
Her smile was calm as always. She had a smile that resembled one of a young girl’s no matter how old she became. However, those who saw her kind smile……mainly the three of us from the Adina family, our faces froze. As the room suddenly got unexplainably colder, even the princess’s and head knight’s eyes started to wander awkwardly. Young Nichol panicked and regained his grip on the cup he almost dropped. The man beside me just quietly cast his eyes down and Uncle Lancent just gave a pained smile. Only my wet nurse remained indifferent.
The mood had grown tense in a way different from just now. My mother, the very person who caused this change in the atmosphere, didn’t seem to think much about it. Softening her expression, she looked over at the two of us. Both of us naturally sat up straight/ My mother continued with a smile.
「Filmina, I’ll leave Suzette with you until your health stabilizes. Leave the house chores to her. Suzette, take care of Filmina.」
「Yes, Madam. I, Suzette, will do my best to support Young Lady..」
「My, Suzette? Filmina is already going to become a mother. I don’t think you should still call her that.」
「Dear me, I apologize. You’re right. Young Lady will remain as a Young Lady to me no matter how much time passes. But you are right, Young Lady is going to be a mother soon. With that, albeit a bit late, should I call her Young Madam instead?」
「Lovely. I guess I can finally become a grandmother. Filmina, take good care of you health alright?」
As expected of the current headmistress of the Adina family. I really should learn from my mother. Of course it was not as though I could disobey her. I obediently nodded profusely.
「Yes, Mother.」
Just like that, my mother walked away from the two of us to discuss future plans with my wet nurse. At this point in time, it had already been decided that my wet nurse would be living in the Lancent household mansion with us.
Don’t get me wrong. It was reassuring that my wet nurse, who had supported me ever since I was a child, was going to stay with me. I was thankful for it, However, the head of the Lancent household mansion was not me. It was my husband. He was quite tolerant towards my mother and wet nurse, who were able to tell him off without fear or mercy. But in this caseーー…… Without taking heed to my fears, my mother gave that man a smile and my wet nurse gave him a bow. I could feel him take a single gasp of air.
「You’re still new at being a father. You’ll have a lot to learn from Suzette. Help me take care of Filmina too alright?」
「ーーYes, mother-in-law.」
That was probably the only response that that man could give in response to my mother’s double-checking. Everyone around started smiling. Eventually, the laughter from around us infected the entire room, filling it with warm laughter. That man’s ears turned faintly scarlet, and he turned his face away. His obvious way of hiding his embarrassment caused even more laughter in the room. Ah, what a heartwarming sight.
Hey, sweet child of us.
There are so many people excited to see you being brought into this world.
As those thoughts enveloped my head, I couldn’t keep myself from smiling as I stroked my stomach.
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