“Congratulations! “You are a very handsome Confucius!”
At the words coming from inside the mountain room, Roderick looked at the sky and burst into laughter without realizing it. It was just great. The fact that his wife and baby are safe.
“Your Excellency, would you like to come in?”
The midwife asked as she walked out, and Roderick entered the room without hesitation. Ophelia, covered in sweat, was lying haggardly on the bed.
“… “Roderick.”
“Ophelia.”
Roderick walked up to Ophelia and held her hand tightly. Everything was appreciated.
“Thank you, Ophelia. just… all of it.”
He opened his mouth in a trembling voice. He looked like he was about to shed tears.
“Hey, Roderick. “Then I will cry.”
Candice, who followed Roderick, opened her mouth as if teasing him mischievously, and as if those words were a signal, he burst into tears.
And it was Candice who was embarrassed by that appearance. She had no idea that her quiet and blunt husband would burst into tears.
“Why are you crying, Roderick? “It’s a great day.”
And Ophelia also shed a tear at the sight. It was a very rare sight for Candice, a couple laughing and crying together.
However, the midwives placed the baby, who looked like a small loaf of bread, into Ophelia’s arms with a familiar expression, as if they had seen this kind of scene many times.
“The baby looks just like you, Roderick.”
Unlike Ayla, who was a good baby, the baby was born two weeks before the due date and was so small that it was difficult to tell who it resembled.
Still, Ophelia looked at the black hair and said, as if her parents could see it in their eyes.
“… is that so? The way I see it…” It looks like Ophelia.”
Roderick continued speaking with difficulty, sobbing.
The head of the Weishafen duchy, called the guardian of the Peles Empire, was crying and even hiccuping. Candice felt like it would be a shame to watch this spectacle alone.
“Have you thought of a name for your child?”
Candice asked, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. It was clear that if she didn’t ask about this, the couple would just stare at each other all night and shed tears.
“… … Noah. “Baby, your name is Noah.”
And Ophelia opened her mouth, looking at her newborn son with sorrowful eyes.
Noah Abner Weishafen. The middle name was taken from Abner Heiling, Ophelia’s father and her child’s maternal grandfather.
That was the baby’s name.
* * *
The news of the duke’s birth quickly spread to the imperial family. This was because Roderick and Hiram were close friends.
“Already? Didn’t she say she had about a fortnight left?”
Winfred asked with wide eyes upon hearing the news that the child had been born.
“It seems like your baby wanted to see the world quickly. Just like you. “Win, you came out 10 days early too.”
“Yes, it was like that. Do you know how much your mother suffered because of you? When I think about that time, I…”
Winfred only asked because it was unexpected that he was already born so long before his due date, but he received a reprimand from his parents, or more accurately, from his father.
Winfred was embarrassed by this and started fiddling with the back of his head.
He had already heard of the fact that Empress Selene, who was weak, suffered further damage to her health while giving birth to him, and he always felt sorry and grateful to his mother.
Even so, it was a little unfair that he was scolded for something from a time when he couldn’t even remember. This was especially true because the speaker was his father, Hiram.
There was a high possibility that the father was just saying such things to annoy his son rather than genuinely reprimanding him. He seemed to be thinking only about how he could make more fun of Winfred.
Selene, too, must have read the playfulness on her husband’s face and made a stern expression as if telling him not to do that.
“Anyway, it’s something to celebrate. I want to go quickly and see the baby.”
Winfred asked, shaking his butt as if he wanted to invade the duke’s residence right now.
But contrary to his eagerness, Winfred already knew that it could not be done. This was because he knew that there was a custom to prohibit outside guests for a month after a baby was born.
Even the crown prince was no exception.
“You know I won’t see you for another month. So I’m only going to send gifts, Winfred, do you have any gifts you’d like to send together?”
The Empress asked, soothing her son in a kind tone.
At that question, Winfred had a sudden thought and jumped up from his seat.
“Now, wait a minute! “I’ll get it quickly!”
Winfred, who ran out of the Empress’s palace that way, ran as fast as she could to the Crown Prince’s palace, ignoring Joseph’s words as he followed her, shouting, “Don’t run because you’ll fall.” This was because the gift he had personally prepared to give to the baby when she was born was hidden in a secret safe in the bedroom.
Winfred burst open the bedroom door and took out the warm gift he had completed last night from the safe. Winfred, who is dexterous and has a great aesthetic sense, made it by cutting and pasting paper by hand.
He thought he had quite a bit of time left, so he tried to prepare leisurely, but something happened yesterday that suddenly made him want to complete it. It was amazing because he felt like he knew in advance that the baby would be born today.
Winfred worried that it might be damaged during shipping, carefully packed the gift he had made. Put it in a sturdy box and fill it with soft cotton to act as a cushion.
It was then.
There was a knock on the bedroom door, and before Winfred could answer, the door burst open and someone came in. It was Binka, the maid in charge of cleaning the bedroom.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Your Highness. “I didn’t know you were there.”
Binka looked around as if she were afraid that another evil spirit might come. It seemed like she had been scolded by the chamberlain for opening the door without knocking before.
Fortunately, she knocked this time, but she opened it right away without waiting because it was clear that if Joseph had been around, there would have been an outcry.
But fortunately, Winfred was the only one in the room right now, so Binka sighed in relief.
“Uh, hi, Binka.”
Winfred, who was trying to greet Binka with a bright smile as usual, remembered Joseph’s warning and greeted him stiffly, like a broken ventriloquist doll.
After warning him to be careful because he might be misunderstood by Binka as a woman, he always tries to keep his distance from Binka like he does now.
“Oh, hello.”
When the prince, who was usually friendly, became harsh, Binka looked at him with a downcast expression. Winfred’s heart seemed to weaken a little at that expression, but he thought of a possible misunderstanding and strengthened his mind again.
“Then I’ll go. “Please clean up well.”
Winfred woke up with a gift box in her arms. Looking at the floor around the desk where there were traces of last night’s paper craft, I felt a little sorry for Binka, who would have a hard time cleaning it up.
But he closed his eyes tightly and tried to leave the bedroom. He thought he should quickly go and send a gift for the new duke’s daughter.
But he couldn’t. This was because Binka asked Winfred this with a face that looked like tears were about to fall at any moment.
“Well, Your Highness… … . Did I make a mistake with Your Majesty? Please tell me and I will fix it. Ah, I’ll be better at knocking from now on.”
It was a pitiful sight that the weak-hearted Winfred could not ignore.
Although he was still worried about being misunderstood as thinking that he liked Binka as a woman, he thought that it was not moral to just watch her tremble while maintaining the misunderstanding that she was hated by the crown prince.
In the end, he called another servant and asked her to bring the gift box to the empress’ palace instead, and he stayed behind with Binka. He felt like he needed to talk to her for a moment and clear up her misunderstanding.
“You know what? You didn’t do anything wrong. I just kept my distance for fear that other people might misunderstand. I’m sorry for making you worry. “I should have told you the reason first.”
Winfred looked into Binka’s eyes and spoke honestly. And at his words, Binka widened his eyes and asked.
“Are you mistaken? “What’s wrong?”
“Well, you might misunderstand that I like you… So, they say there might be people who look at you unfavorably and criticize you, so… “
In response to Winfred’s subsequent answer, Binka waved her hand, saying it was nonsense.
“yes? That can’t be possible! How dare you do such a thing to my subject! “I’m not even from a noble family.”
“No, of course, I think that such misunderstanding is ridiculous. But it’s not because you’re a commoner! “Tell me what your topic is.”
Winfred strongly protested against Binka’s condescending words. As the crown prince of a country, it would have been an uproar to think like this, but that was what he thought anyway.
“Whether you are a commoner or a noble, you are all the same. If humans like humans, what does status have to do with it?”
And the most important thing was that Winfred never liked Binka as a woman.
“I just like that you seem like an elder sister.”
Winfred pouted and grumbled. It would have been better if Binka had been her real older sister. If she isn’t, she’s at least a relative’s older sister.
“majesty…”
And Binka looked touched by the prince’s very kind words. He had a strange expression, as if he were smiling or crying.
“I don’t know if a lowly person like me would dare say this, but I wish I had a younger brother like you.”
awww!