Chapter 97 - Chapter 97: Becoming a Parent
Lewis's meeting with the King was decided, and he was going to the Royal Capital alone. Cecilia's accompaniment was not permitted because she is a teleportation mage, so she cannot enter the Royal Capital. Cecilia opposed Lewis going alone, but Lewis said that was fine and pushed through the opposition.
Aurora also promised to guarantee his personal safety.
"I'm accompanying you too, so they won't detain or execute you on the spot. You're my guest in this position. I can do at least that much. Besides, there's no extradition request from the Empire yet, and no one knows you're staying here, right? So we won't do anything beforehand."
"That's how it is, Cecilia. Besides, even if this is a trap, there's no other way, right?"
"However, if something happens to Your Highness..."
"If that happens, Steve won't keep quiet. Your Majesty knows that too."
Aurora had reported that Steve saved Cecilia, and also conveyed that Cecilia is Nancy's sister.
In the Cascade Kingdom, Nancy is considered dead, but the King naturally had information on her survival and marriage to Steve. Therefore, it's understood that Cecilia won't be judged lightly for anger or sadness.
"In that case, will Lord Archibalt accompany you as well?"
"That's impossible, I think. You probably heard about my sister's childbirth, but my main wife also gave birth. It's not the time for work, is it?"
Aurora looked towards the Archibalt Territory.
After Cecilia's curse was lifted, Nancy immediately went into labor and gave birth to a girl. Then Christina also gave birth to a boy right after that. Both mother and child were healthy, but Steve used healing magic on his wives every day and watched the children without taking his eyes off them.
Since he wasn't working at all, Nick and Barney came to Archibalt Land and tried to ask him to come to work, but he refused the meeting with the reason that he didn't want to let germs into the house.
The two pleaded with Brian, got Steve to talk to them, and finally managed to get him to show up at the factory. At this time, everyone reflected that they should have given authority to someone other than Steve.
It's common in small and medium enterprises, but they made the mistake here of not having a proxy decided when the person with authority is absent.
Also, the clothespins Steve made with magic, and steam locomotive parts, all stalled. Brian couldn't leave it alone, so he called Steve and lectured him.
That was the extent of the information Aurora had grasped.
So, normally Steve would teleport to the Royal Capital with his magic, but this time the King sent a teleportation mage to Aurora, and they will teleport using that mage.
Lewis's existence cannot be made public yet, so travel by steam locomotive is not possible.
While talking about Lewis's audience, Steve was washing the children's diapers. Humming, he used Separation Magic on cloth diapers with poop, removed the poop, then washed with boiling water. Bella, watching the scene from nearby, looked at Steve strangely.
"Are you having fun?"
"Very fun. Washing children's diapers makes me feel like I've become a parent."
Steve could use Separation Magic and Water Magic, so he volunteered for the job of washing cloth diapers. He disliked anyone else washing them halfway and making the children use dirty diapers. If there were paper diapers it would be different, but unfortunately such convenient things don't exist in this world.
Seeing Steve like that, Bella looked somewhat exasperated.
"Nobles don't do things like that, right?"
"Others might, but I do. There's no rule saying I can't. Besides, baby poop doesn't smell, so it's not unpleasant, did you know?"
"True. Speaking of that, being present at childbirth is an exception too. Also, village children are usually made to take care of younger siblings, so they know poop doesn't smell. It's not surprising."
Steve is present at childbirth because he can use Healing Magic. In case of emergency, he can save them with magic before either mother or child dies. Since there are no nobles who can use such magic, only Steve attends childbirth, while others are made to wait outside the room.
"I was excited when I saw the baby's hair from the birth canal."
"You got scolded terribly by Chris later, aren't you reflecting on it?"
"She told me not to look next time because it was embarrassing."
Steve watched the baby coming out from the birth canal both when it was Nancy and when it was Christina. He had no ill intent, but Christina was very embarrassed, so she scolded him after childbirth. She had no time to be angry during childbirth, it wasn't the time for that.
"When I finish washing this, I'll go see Arthur and Isabella's faces."
Arthur is the eldest son born by Christina, and Isabella is the eldest daughter born by Nancy. Arthur has black hair and inherited Steve's hair color, while Isabella has silver hair and inherited Nancy's hair color.
Incidentally, Steve proposed the concept of genes, but it hasn't been confirmed yet, and research is ongoing at the Royal Research Institute.
"If I don't show up at the factory soon, Nick might come barging in, won't he?"
"Should I take parental leave?"
"Parental leave isn't set for the president, and there are things only Steve can decide."
"That's right. I underestimated it."
Steve slumped his shoulders dejectedly.
In the end, it wasn't decided how to handle the proxy authority, and Steve was being chased by work.
In addition, there were return gifts for childbirth congratulations. Christina's pregnancy was already known, and many nobles were preparing for the due date. Almost all nobles except the center had expanded their territory thanks to Steve, so sending childbirth congratulations when the child was born was natural.
So, just making a list of received items is a big job. Since Steve was overwhelmed with childcare, Brian was making the list, but the sheer number was stalling other work.
Regarding return gifts, Steve is making red and blue glass cups with magic to give. Expenses are only shipping costs, so finances didn't worsen, but writing handwritten thank-you notes took time, and the work never seemed to finish.
He claimed to relax by looking at the children's faces, so it progressed even less.
Even Brian, claiming to scold Steve like that, comes to see the grandchildren's faces, and they repeat getting scolded by Abigail together.
Because of that, today after being scolded by Abigail together, Brian and Steve were having a father-son conversation while making the list and writing return gift letters while looking at it.
"How are your impressions of becoming a father?"
"There's various things every day and I don't know how to say it, but even when I hold them they don't stop crying, but when Mother holds them they stop crying, it's frustrating as a parent."
"You were the same too. I wonder why children distinguish between men and women?"
"Me too?"
"That's right. Freya and Sherry were too. We didn't have money to hire a wet nurse, so we couldn't confirm, but seeing Arthur and Isabella stop crying even with a wet nurse, our children must have been the same."
"It's frustrating that they stop crying with a wet nurse, but not with a blood-related father."
"That's true. Besides, they poop indiscriminately regardless of gender."
"I got hit twice or so too."
Pooping on someone means when changing diapers, the baby poops additionally, and poop gets on the face of the parent changing the diaper. Steve got hit too, as expected. It's an episode precisely because he's doing childcare himself.
"Well, but it's fun every day. When those kids grow up and inherit the territory, I get the motivation to make it a richer and easier-to-manage territory."
"About that, I was a bad father. I made my children struggle with money."
"I didn't mean to criticize Father."
"I know. But, you only turned a profit after you awakened your magic talent, and without that, I don't know what would have happened now."
Brian looked back at Steve's growth and remembered his great contribution to the territory.
Making steel with magic and selling it, making farming tools and hunting equipment with steel, finding buckwheat and figuring out cooking methods, after that, no more starvation deaths in the territory.
On the contrary, now education reaches the subjects, everyone can calculate, and the monetary economy is running. Literacy rate is top class in the country, and there's no shortage in hiring officials.
It's no mistake to say this is successful management.
They've come this far, but from Brian's eyes, Steve looked unsatisfied. As in the previous statement, he aims for an even richer territory. Factory product development continues, and for farmland, he's researching with the Royal Research Institute if soil improvement is possible.
While having a status equivalent to Duke with the Dragon Head Medal, there's also the desire to go on without relying on it.
Originally on the verge of overwork, childcare was added, and it was worrying that it wasn't running well now. He scolded him for putting work aside and prioritizing children, but he knew the cause was the excessive workload itself, and felt sorry for Steve as a father.
It was the same for Steve, thinking he didn't want his children to struggle due to his incompetence when they inherit the territory.
Therefore, he made a cave with magic deep in the mountain, went there every night, and stored stainless steel and copper made with magic. It was like buried treasure.
However, it's too remote and transporting is difficult, but he carelessly forgot that. It was the result of being satisfied with choosing a place not visible to people so it wouldn't be stolen.
"After that, when the grandchildren can move, worry will increase again. Besides, children are children forever. Parents never stop worrying."
"I understand. When Sister Freya was short of money, and when Sister Sherry was short of money, it was tough. Behind Father not abandoning the two, there must have been great struggle."
"You too. How much did you worry, do you think? Well, it's also the responsibility of parents who got involved in war while minors."
"I had magic aptitude. That's unavoidable."
"Then, if Arthur and Isabella had magic aptitude, would you do the same thing?"
"I won't. Even if I didn't have magic aptitude, if the two are minors I won't take them to the battlefield. Even if they become adults, I don't want them to participate in war."
"That's right. So, I who did that is a bad father. Maybe I was right as a lord."
Brian laughs bitterly at himself.
"Not only territory management, but creating a world without war too, I suppose."
"Can you do it?"
"I can't do anything about diplomacy, but I want to propose at least to national policy. At least, I want to maintain a peaceful state with neighboring countries. For example, a large-scale economic alliance. Unify currency, abolish borders within the region. The purpose is commercial liberalization, but if it becomes part of war deterrence, that would be nice."
What Steve was thinking was the European Union or the Schengen Agreement. It was an attempt to reproduce the effort to continue peace in the region with the most wars in human history in this world.
However, when a new epidemic spread, there was a history of countries ignoring the Schengen Agreement and closing borders. Also, regarding each country's military, it's difficult to integrate them, so there's a problem of whether complete peace can be made.
Still, it's far better than the current situation where neighboring countries scheme and always aim for territorial expansion.
"You really hate war, don't you."
"I hate it terribly. People dying unreasonably. If only soldiers gather somewhere to fight, I guess that's one thing, but involving commoners I can't allow. Besides, many soldiers are conscripted commoners."
"In the next generation, I hope a peaceful era comes."
"It's difficult, but making that is the role of adults, I suppose."
Such was Steve, but he himself would be drawn into war.
Thank you always for typo reports.