One month later. Aura’s pregnancy turned out to be proper.

　　Her stomach still didn’t stand out yet, but she suddenly showed the unique symptoms for the initial stage of a pregnancy and her menstruation was more than three months late, so Doctor Mich.e.l.le had verified the pregnancy with conviction.

　　The Queen was pregnant. Naturally, these big news stirred the Carpa Palace up.

　　Some people already requested an audience with the Queen to give presents to mark the occasion of the pregnancy. Others indirectly put in a good word for a concubine candidate for Zenjirou on the same occasion.

　　Moreover, influential n.o.bles made a list of people from their own faction, who were currently breastfeeding a baby or had a big belly and were close to give birth, so they could be appointed as the wet nurse for the child of the Queen.

　　The “wet nurse”, who, as the name implied, breastfeed instead of the Queen, and the “nanny”, who was responsible for the upbringing after the breastfeeding period, were often different people, so a decision at this point was nothing definitive, but the influence of a wet nurse or foster sibling on the growing next ruler wasn’t to be underestimated.

　　The inner palace was a s.h.i.+elded s.p.a.ce and normally it was rarely influenced by the outside, but the news this time originated from it, so it couldn’t stay out of it. Due to that, Zenjirou, too, had no piece of mind in the last month and spent hectic days.

　　“Aw, there really is no useful information. What a flop.”

　　The sunlight recently had gotten gentler bit by bit and now shone through the opened windows into the room of the inner palace, where Zenjirou had faced his computer the whole time and now leaked a dejected sigh after stretching his body and craning his neck once.

　　Ever since Aura told him about her possible pregnancy, he had looked through his whole data storage numerous times, so he knew that he wouldn’t find anything new now, but he couldn’t help checking again when he had free time. That was how much he regretted his insufficient preparation back in the days.

　　“Aw, d.a.m.n. Why did I only consider the time after birth back then?”

　　No use crying over spilt milk. Although he did understand it in his head, he couldn’t stop himself from grumbling.

　　Zenjirou came to this world with the original duty to make a child. And he had believed that he had prepared adequately for that.

　　Baby bottles, freezer Tupperware for breast milk and a few packs of milk powder just in case. Additionally, he also prepared a few sets of cute baby clothes and bought some books on child-rearing with t.i.tles such as “Papa’s guide to raising a child” or “What a father can do” at the bookstore.

　　However, all these items or information served the purpose after the baby was born safely and were completely useless to help his wife during her pregnancy.

　　“Raising the child aside, I unconsciously considered the birth not my business.”

　　Zenjirou hung his head dejected in front of the computer as he said that self-reprimanding.

　　Or more precisely, he actually lacked an awareness for possible dangers for the mother and child instead of considering the pregnancy or birth “none of his business”.

　　That was nothing uncommon for a young, unmarried j.a.panese male.

　　Nowadays, cases, where the mother’s life was in danger at birth, were rapidly decreasing in j.a.pan.

　　The mortality rate for a mother during a pregnancy or delivery was around 0,005 percent in modern j.a.pan. That meant only five women out of a hundred thousand. An even lower rate than for being run over by a truck in Tokyo.

　　However, even on modern Earth were developing countries without proper facilities or hygienic environments, where the mortality rate for mothers was still close to five percent. In other words, one out of twenty mothers died.

　　Fortunately, the hygiene and medical skills in the Carpa Kingdom weren’t that backward, but even so, it wasn’t all that unusual that a mother of commonalty couldn’t endure the delivery and lost her life.

　　Needless to say, Aura had the best physicians in the country around her as the Queen and she herself was quite healthy and full of vitality and stamina. Doctor Mich.e.l.le had a.s.sured that it was “extremely unlikely”, but Zenjirou still ended up imagining the worst case.

　　“It could all be settled at once if we were to call someone of the Jilbell family from the Twin Kingdom, though.”

　　The medical technology in this world was several stages behind the one in modern j.a.pan, but the “healing magic” from the Jilbell lineage was an exception.

　　The Jilbell family could heal wounds, restore stamina or ease mental fatigue with the supernatural power called magic and with one of them by your side, there was nothing to be afraid of. A safe delivery would be even more guaranteed than in modern j.a.pan.

　　However, even as the major power ruling over the western part of the South Continent, the Carpa Kingdom had hardly any chance to keep a person from the Jilbell lineage around for the whole time of the pregnancy.

　　The delivery was still more than half a year away. The Jilbell Family would never sign such a long-term contract, where they diligently watched over the royalty’s well-being and the danger of a miscarriage.

　　Then he wanted at least to immediately call over someone from the pope lineage when Aura’s condition took a sudden turn for the worse. That was wishful thinking, since the fastest method of transport in this world was a raptorial dragon, but the Carpa Kingdom actually had an exceptional way to make that wishful thinking reality.

　　“If only someone beside Aura could use the teleportation magic, then we would be out of the woods.”

　　Zenjirou grumbled for the nth time.

　　For the royalty of Carpa, the obstacle of distance originally meant nothing as they could use “s.p.a.ce-Time Magic”. With the teleportation magic, they could travel to everywhere on the continent in an instant.

　　However, Aura was currently the only one left, who could use the s.p.a.ce-time magic.

　　The summoned healer would be for Aura, when her condition precipitated, so she would be in no state to perform a large magic like the teleportation.

　　“So it’s technically my role. I’ve to learn the s.p.a.ce-time magic.”

　　Apparently, Zenjirou had enough disposition to be able to use s.p.a.ce-time magic, albeit a latent one at best.

　　However, he had only started to learn magic for a few month. It usually required an average of three years of training to be able to use magic.

　　Although Lady Octavia, his magic teacher, had said that this number of three years could change drastically based on individual talent, environment or more training hours per day, it obviously didn’t mean that he could cut the three years short to one or half a year because of it.

　　It barely referred to reducing it to two years and ten months or two and a half years in very capable cases. With all due respect, it was impossible that Zenjirou would learn to use the s.p.a.ce-time magic until Aura gave birth.

　　“But that doesn’t mean I can neglect my magic studies. To begin with, it isn’t necessarily her only pregnancy.”

　　Turning off the computer with a click on the mouse, Zenjirou lightly slapped his cheeks to refresh his mood and stood up from the chair fitfully.

　　“I would like to take more magic lessons, but it definitely would raise suspicion when I meet more often with Octavia-san while Aura’s pregnant. Maybe I should get an old woman as a teacher to avoid rumours or in the worst case, leave the inner palace in search for a male teacher.”

　　So far, Zenjirou had enjoyed a shut-in lifestyle under the nominal cover of preserving Aura’s power, but if it was to protect the lives of Aura and their child, he was prepared to accept a few inconveniences and leave the inner palace.

　　Speaking of, he was supposed to leave the inner palace for a short period to meet the knight, whom he had borrowed the “dragon bow” to, currently postponed due to the turmoil of Aura’s pregnancy.

　　He might be able to get a slight idea about what troubles await him when he leaves the inner palace.

　　“Perhaps I should take Aura’s place for public events, which don’t require difficult decisions, until she reached the stable period?”

　　As Zenjirou mused about the future in front of the computer, he suddenly put a thought into words.

　　In the patriarchal Carpa Kingdom, Aura’s authority would be undermined when Zenjirou subst.i.tuted for her. That was an undeniable fact, but it would be mistaking the cause for the end when Aura endangered herself and the child by forcing herself to attend such events.

　　The point is, Zenjirou would just have to be careful and behave like a well-mannered doll.

　　“I should put some serious thought into it.”

　　Determined at heart in various ways, Zenjirou arranged the things he could and must do, in his head until it was time for his lesson with Octavia.

　　* * *

　　“…This is certainly not a pleasant feeling.”

　　Around the same time. Aura had interrupted her duties as a nausea had suddenly gotten the better of her and she breathed words that were close a whimper on a rare occasion.

　　She showed a symptom from the early stage of her pregnancy, namely “morning sickness”. When the words of Doctor Mich.e.l.le could be trusted, the worst stage of the morning sickness would soon be over, but she could hardly wait for that day to arrive.

　　“And here I thought I learned to suppress the urge to vomit on the battlefield…”

　　“Well, I guess it means that the fleeting impulse to throw up from a mental stimulation cannot be grouped together with the ongoing sick feeling from morning sickness.”

　　“Yes, I was painfully made aware of that… Though I am able to live without that kind of information.”

　　Still sitting on her chair, Aura raised her head from the vat, then glared up to Secretary Fabio, standing next to her, and replied with that.

　　Normally she brushed off the blunt way of speaking from her secretary without problems, but now she felt like snapping at each and every remark of his. She now could understand Zenjirou’s sentiment of wanting to be alone when sick. It was quite an ordeal to hide her heightened aggressivity, originating from her bad condition, from others.

　　In that way, Secretary Fabio’s existence was a G.o.dsend to her.

　　The middle-aged secretary was generous and loyal enough to simply endure some abusive language from her and usually didn’t mince his words either, so she would’ve enough reason to complain about him instead if she wanted to.

　　After she had safely given birth, she ought to somehow express her grat.i.tude and make amends to him, but for now it should be alright to presume upon his loyalty for a bit.

　　“…..Fuh.”

　　She rinsed her mouth with water from a silver goblet, then spat it into the vat and comfortably leaned back into her chair in a somewhat calmer state.

　　“So, what is the next matter?”

　　The Queen refocused on her duties, whereat her secretary resumed the conversation without giving her any considerate words like “are you sure you do not want to rest a bit longer?”.

　　“Very well. The letter from the envoy from the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell.”

　　“Oh, that one.”

　　Aura tightly shut her eyes and shook her head a few times to get a clear head when her secretary answered.

　　Originally it wouldn’t be strange for Aura to welcome an official envoy from the Twin Kingdom in the audience chamber herself, but as she was currently in poor physical health due to the pregnancy, she avoided public appearances as much as possible.

　　“I presume it is about the request to turn the rings I handed to Princess Isabelle, into magic tools. I shall read it.”

　　“Yes, here.”

　　With these words, Aura held out her hand, into which her secretary smoothly put the letter he pulled out of his pocket.

　　“Mh? This crest belongs to the Sharrow Royal Family?”

　　The crest on the envelope wasn’t from Princess Isabelle’s Jilbell Royal Family, but from the Sharrow Royal Family. Aura showed a slightly bewildered expression upon noticing that and tilted her head puzzled.

　　However, it wasn’t unusual that the letter came directly from the Sharrow Royal Family, considering that they would actually process the rings, even if she had told her request to Princess Isabelle from the Jilbell Family.

　　Convinced by that, Aura took a plain bronze dagger out of the drawer of her desk and opened the seal on the letter with it.

　　“Hmm…”

　　She calmly read through it, as the content at the beginning was just like she had expected, but suddenly widened her eyes when she reached a certain point of the letter.

　　“!?”

　　“Your Highness?”

　　Aura had been on the point of jumping up from her chair, so her secretary, surprised on a rare occasion, swiftly acted to support her.

　　“…It is okay. Nothing serious.”

　　Aura replied with that to Secretary Fabio, but contrary to her words, the blood had drained from her face and her complexion now looked bluish black.

　　“Hah.”

　　She clearly wasn’t okay, but the secretary obediently retreated as he decided to observe his master’s att.i.tude for now.

　　Before long, Aura finished reading the letter and took three deep breaths.

　　Her complexion was still kind of bluish, but judging by her expression, she seemed to have calm down a bit.

　　As Secretary Fabio had waited for the right time, he now called out to the Queen cautiously.

　　“Your Highness, may I ask about the content of the letter?”

　　Unlike domestic “messages from small flying dragons”, this letter was a diplomatic doc.u.ment from one royalty to another. Fabio was nothing but a simple secretary, so he had no right to read such a doc.u.ment.

　　After Aura took another deep breath upon her secretary’s question, she slowly began to talk with an expression that suppressed some kind of fury.

　　“It mainly contains what I already expected: Princess Isabelle’s grat.i.tude about sending her off with my magic and the notification that my request for turning the rings into magic tool has been accepted.”

　　The faithful secretary silently listened to Aura’s words, signifying her to continue.

　　The content had agitated Queen Aura to such an extent. Even Fabio, whose trade mark was his iron mask-like poker face, started to sweat on the hands, which he had unconsciously squeezed into fists.

　　“The problem is the ‘gossip’ that is embedded into it like small talk. You see, the rumour is about one princess born into the Sharrow Family.”

　　“A princess from the Sharrow Family? Including the branch family, there is quite a number of them, but I think the fifty-years old Princess Caroline is the oldest one from the direct descendants.”

　　“No, not in the world today. It is about the princess that was erased from the official records roughly a hundred and fifty years ago.”

　　“A hundred and fifty years ago…”

　　The iron mask of Secretary Fabio twitched upon her words.

　　One hundred and fifty years ago. The erased existence of royalty. On top of that, a woman.

　　At this point, Secretary Fabio had an exact idea about whom that story was about and to “whom” it connected. He licked once over his dry lips and waited for Aura to continue.

　　“Since it has completely been erased from the official records, this seems to be a rumour at best, but apparently the Princess, a direct descendent of the Sharrow Family, fell in love with a man she would never be allowed to marry in reality.

　　Some say the man of her affection was a mere commoner, others say he was from the ‘royalty of hostile country at that time’.

　　And as love sprouted between two people, who were never allowed to marry, they turned towards elopement before long. In the end, it says, they travelled to a ’new land, where no one would ever find them’.”

　　Aura finished the tale by nearly spitting out the last bit with raping talking as if she had became desperate.

　　The secretary took a few deep breaths like Aura before. Indeed, this were certainly extremely bad news, which warranted an agitation.

　　Even so, Secretary Fabio had more of his composure left than Aura, as he himself wasn’t related to it, and uttered his considered opinion without a crack in his voice.

　　“So the partner for the ‘prince, who eloped into a different world one hundred and fifty years ago’ in the myth of our Carpa Kingdom, was the Princess from the Sharrow Family. In other words, Zenjirou-sama has inherited both the Carpa bloodline and the Sharrow bloodline, I wonder?”

　　Aura shook her pale head wearily to the words of her secretary.

　　“Maybe? Maybe not? No one knows the truth. But it seems that the sender of this letter considers it to be true.”

　　Aura wrinkled her nose displeased and wildly threw the letter in her hand onto the table. The content was extremely unsettling, but she perfectly understood the importance of it nevertheless.

　　In this world, being royalty equalled having a unique magic in its bloodline.

　　Due to that, cases, where royalty of one country married into royalty of a different country just like in mediaeval Europe on Earth, practically never happened. The Carpa Kingdom, for example, had clearly written down a prohibition to marry foreigners for people, who had a relative of the first or second degree that could use “s.p.a.ce-Time Magic”.

　　The royalty with their bloodline magic belonged to its country and amounted to its military strength if necessary. Now considering that it would fall into the hands of foreign royalty, it was understandable to lose your cool.

　　“But does that letter really state the truth? What is the chance that they took advantage of a myth from us and sent the letter with the aim to stir up our country?”

　　Aura shook her head amused in response to her secretary’s prudent argument.

　　“I cannot deny that possibility, but the messenger arrived too late for that. A whole month has pa.s.sed, you know. Most likely, the messenger carefully delivered the letter with his own hands without relying on small flying dragons. If they had wanted to stir us up, it would have been more natural to use a small flying dragon.”

　　With small flying dragons, the same message was sent a bunch of times and only one of them had to reach the destination. The downside was thus that the information could easily leak to an outsider. So when the aim was to stir things up through a rumour, there was no reason not to use the small flying dragons.

　　“I see. Then why do we not persist in denying all knowledge of that matter?”

　　Upon the secretary’s bold suggestion, Aura awkwardly averted her gaze and answered.

　　“Impossible. My husband already ended up confessing it in front of Princess Isabelle during her sick bed visit that he is the descendant of the Carpa royalty, who eloped into a different world one hundred and fifty years ago.”

　　On a rare occasion, her secretary was at a loss for words to her confession.

　　“That… was careless.”

　　“It is all very well for you to talk. Back then, no one could have foreseen how precious that information is. Moreover, my husband had been sick at that point.”

　　“I am aware of that, but it does not change the fact that it was careless.”

　　Aura immediately defended Zenjirou, whereat her secretary coldly dismissed it with a sound argument. And after a bit of musing, he put the extremely unfavourable current state into words.

　　“In that case, the ‘rumour’ has a high credibility, much to our regret. Your Highness, Zenjirou-sama has inherited the Carpa blood without a doubt, correct?”

　　The secretary confirmed it now after all this time, whereupon Aura nodded while leaning against the backrest of her chair.

　　“Yes, that is for sure, because I added such a condition to the summoning spell. In addition, my husband has not all that much magic power as a royalty. He would not be able to use the ‘s.p.a.ce-Time Magic’ and ‘Bestowal Magic’ at the same time, not even by accident.”

　　There was no precedent of a royalty having inherited two bloodline, so it couldn’t be said with certainty, but an established theory at the present time didn’t rule out the possibility that one person theoretically could use two bloodline magic. However, it required an amount of magic power twice as much as a royalty generally had, to make it possible.

　　“Then the Sharrow Family must fear the latent power in Zenjirou-sama’s blood, namely the existence of this child.”

　　Aura felt the gaze of her secretary on her stomach and unconsciously stroke it with the palm of right hand, answering him.

　　“Yes. But I doubt that my child will pose any danger to begin with. Even when we a.s.sume that my husband has inherited both the Carpa and the Sharrow blood, once it mixed with my strong Carpa blood, the Sharrow blood was surely suppressed anyway.”

　　Unless their child became an abnormality that was born with an exceptional magic power and could use both “s.p.a.ce-Time Magic” and “Bestowal Magic” without any problems, it would never cause any troubles. And even the Twin Kingdom surely didn’t antic.i.p.ate such an unrealistic event.

　　Secretary Fabio expressed his consent to her words.

　　“Yes, I am of the same mind. However, it is a different matter altogether when Zenjirou-sama has a child with a concubine. The odds are that this child will manifest the blood of ‘Bestowal Magic’ instead of the blood of ‘s.p.a.ce-Time Magic’.”

　　“Certainly. I presume that is it what the Sharrow Family fears.”

　　The bloodline magic of royalty was a country’s best kept secret and if that were to leak to a different country, it was only natural that the members of the Sharrow Family would feel threatened. All the more in their case, since their bloodline magic was closely connected to their country’s defence and finances. If they were to lose their monopoly on magic tools, the Twin Kingdom’s earnings would plummet greatly, to put it charitably.

　　With one wrong step, the Twin Kingdom might resolve itself for a “next great war”.

　　“For now, we can only soothe the Twin Kingdom by hinting at them that my husband will not take any concubines.”

　　“Will that really appease them?”

　　Aura sighed in response to her secretary’s doubt and shook her head.

　　“I doubt it. I am sure they cannot rid themselves of the doubt that we will raise a user of ‘Bestowal Magic’ by having my husband secretly impregnate a woman and bring it up as someone else’s child even while we publicly announce that he takes no concubines.”

　　In fact, Aura herself might have resorted to that, if they weren‘t keeping track of Zenjirou. She knew how dangerous it was to anger the major power of the Twin Kingdom of Sharrow and Jilbell, but the prospect of having the “Bestowal Magic” in the own country was so attractive that she wanted to grasp at it against her better judgement.

　　“Anyway, I think we should consider ourselves lucky that we avoided the worst timing here.”

　　“Indeed. If it had come to light before your pregnancy or after Zenjirou-sama had taken a concubine… To be honest, I do not even want to imagine it.”

　　Secretary Fabio answered her like that and shook his head with a stiff expression.

　　If these news had come to light before Aura was pregnant with Zenjirou’s child, the Twin Kingdom might have demanded more forcefully that Zenjirou was to be handed over to them.

　　On the other hand, if he already would have had a concubine, it was even possible that they suddenly started a war at once. Considering that, the current situation was far away from having the worst timing.

　　“Good grief. I would have never known about my husband’s lineage if not for this letter. If they are that afraid of fire, they should not have lit one in the first place.”

　　Aura glumly gave vent to her displeasure, whereat her secretary answered with a voice that had regained its full composure at some point.

　　“Most likely, they ‘did not know that we do not know the truth’. Or more precisely, they ‘had no concrete proof that we do not know it’. Maybe they came to the conclusion that it would be too late to act if we should ever stumble over the fact by chance and all they did was watch from the sidelines?”

　　“I guess that is the gist of it. Either way, I have to talk with my husband first. I am pregnant and the circ.u.mstances are a bit complicated after all. It would be better to a.s.sume that this will not work out peacefully while we keep it a secret from him.”

　　For a moment, Secretary Fabio looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t put it into words in the end.

　　“…Very well. Although it is a very important matter, it ultimately concerns Your Highness and Zenjirou-sama. I will entrust it to you.”

　　“Yes, good.”

　　Aura nodded firm and had all forgotten about her morning sickness at some point.