/
It’s the beginning of the seventh month, the start of harvest season.
I receive happy news that this year would be a bountiful harvest.
Furthermore, I receive another wonderful news.
“ “ We’re pregnant. “ “
The two say at the same time.
The first thing I felt was relief.
I’m king so it’s my responsibility to produce children.
The two getting pregnant means that my, Julia’s, and Tetra’s faculty in that department is normal.
It would have been quite dangerous if Julia were infertile while Tetra was normal.
If I had been seedless, it would have been solved if we were just to adopt a child with the blood of the Rosyth clan in him.
“Really?”
“Our periods didn’t come.”
“We also checked through sorcery. Both are positives.”
I see.
Then for the meantime…….
“Good job!!!”
I embrace the two.
“Hmm, but I don’t actually feel anything, huh.”
I look at a two for a second time.
Nothing changed. Their bellies aren’t swelling, but that goes without saying.
“I think it’ll be a little while until your bellies would start swelling. It’s the seventh month. I think it’s the fifth week of your pregnancies so birth would be around the beginning or the middle of the third month, right?”
It’ll still be around eight months until birth.
It’s still quite a long time, huh.
“That said, for the two of you to get pregnant at the same time…….”
What am I supposed to do at night from now on?
It’s not good to have intercourse with pregnant partners, huh. It’ll be sad private power generation (*wink wink*) from now on, huh……
Julia laughs as if my thoughts had shown on my face.
“I think it’s fine so long as you don’t do it intensely, you know? The baby should be properly protected by the amnion and the fluid after all. Well, it’s NG if complications like bleeding arose though.”
“Isn’t it great, Almis. It’s normally not possibile for two wives to get pregnant at the same time, you know?”
……It’s not like I particularly have such special inclinations.
“However, what a relief. With this, your dad can now rest peacefully and enter nirvana.”
“He still isn’t dead yet, you know. Don’t go treating him as if he’s dead.”
Okay, I’ll stop talking about people as if they’re ghosts. Well, the point still stands, however, since it won’t be strange if he died anytime now.
He still wants to keep on living anyhow.
“That guy will probably come back to life saying, ‘I still haven’t seen my grandchild.’”
“I told you he isn’t dead yet, so he won’t be coming back to life!”
At the mention of the word grandchild, Abraham suddenly pops up at the back of my mind.
Come to think of it, my and Tetra’s child would be a grandchild to that person.
Geez, even I want to live until I see my grandchildren.
“As expected, the first should be a boy yes?”
“Well……let’s see. For the meantime, I can’t rest easy until you two give birth safely.”
At times like this, it’s important for men to say that any gender’s fine. Unfortunately, I’m the king of a country.
Therefore, at the very least, I need to have Julia give birth to a boy.
“At the very least, we need to have three boys. Conversely, more than that would be a bit problematic. As for girls, there won’t be any problems having them.”
Tetra says while looking fondly at her belly.
In these era, it won’t be strange for children to die anytime.
Therefore, numbers are necessary. However, if you sire too much, a succession problem will come to the fore while the amount of grantable territory will also decrease.
Balance is necessary in that area.
“Come to think of it, do you know when Ron and the others’ weddings are?”
Tetra changes the topic.
I quietly nod.
“Yeah, they told me they’d be holding them a month later. They’d be holding it in a series.
The first day would have Ron and Soyon’s, the next would have Roswald and Lia’s, and the last day would have Gram and Lulu’s.
Well, doing it that way would make it easier for them to prepare their wedding halls.
By the way, the reason they couldn’t get married up until now was they were busy.
They needed slaves in the maintenance of their newly obtained territories and manors.
Furthermore, I had brought them around as my guards as well as made them recruit in the establishment of the Sorcery Institute.
…….It was mostly my fault, huh.
This month is harvesting period so we’re dead busy. Therefore, it’s become so that the wedding ceremonies would be held next month since things would calm down by then.
“By the way, Almis. Julia and I won’t be able to battle with paperwork this month. So, what should we do?”
“…….First, we’ll hunt for sons of great clansmen and the like. They should be able to use Cretian language after all.”
In the end, we couldn’t put foreigners at the center of the country.
“Well, for the meantime, I plan to rely on the great clansmen for important posts.”
I don’t want to put the clansmen at the center.
That said, even if you say such selfish things, it’ll be impossible to manage the country ((without them)).  Compromise is necessary.
Besides, if you candidly kept them at a distance, they’d accumulate dissatisfaction.
But then again, I don’t intend to rely on the great clansmen forever. I plan on relying on them for, at the very least, twenty years more.
What I’m thinking of now is the appointment of slaves.
Honestly, appointing released Cretian slaves is correct. That way, the possibility of them holding sentiment towards other countries would be extremely slim.
I also plan to focus on appointing Adernians as much as possible.
Basically, if among the choices I had people of each blood with the same capabilities (i.e. pure Adernians, quarter Adernian-Cretian, halves, and pure Cretians) then I’d be appointing in order from the purest blood to the next.
I’ll be slowly implementing this to make an organization with a focus on skills.
Well, I wonder if it’ll be done by the time I die?
“Soyon……I’ll definitely make you happy.”
“Ron………even now, I’m more than happy with you.”
The two kiss each other without hesitation even before the public’s gaze.
The guest’s applause and jeering flutter about.
How do I say this…….
“We…….did quite the embarrassing things, huh.”
I mutter while looking at the two who had just held their wedding ceremony which elevated their status from stupid couple (bakappuru) to stupid husband and wife (baka fuufu).
Julia and Tetra strongly nod at my muttering to show their agreement.
Is this what you call youthful indiscretion?……
That said, these two getting married was……within expectation.
The two constantly fought and it was one of my jobs to remonstrate them about it, huh.
What was most full of hardships was when Soyon saw Ron “sharpening his sword.”
It was a headache……
If I recall correctly, the two were both 14 at that time huh.
It was problematic that Soyon was an extremely rare type of girl who’s not very inclined to such things. [TLN1]
There’s nothing more difficult than persuading someone who doesn’t understand something.
Even I got the same treatment at that time, huh.
Well, in the end, it was resolved when Soyon finally assented when it became clear to all the other girls older than thirteen that those were impure.
That time, I realized how important sex education is.
“Congratulations, you two.”
“Congratulations”
“Congrats”
The three of us congratulate Ron and Soyon.
The two turned awkwardly bashful.
“Thanks…..Leader.”
“Almis…the two of us getting together like this……is all thanks to you.”
The two deeply lower their heads.
Stop it you two, it’s embarrassing.
“Well then, here – it’s my congratulatory gift for you two. Sorry, I don’t know what to get. I didn’t know what’s appropriate as wedding gifts……”
I readily give Ron a sword that’s made from Dragon Damascus. It should be the same sharpness and feel as my sword.
“This is our gift”
“Here you go.”
Tetra and Julia give Soyon a staff.
You can see from the size of the crystal attached on its tip that it’s an extremely expensive staff.
“”Thank you very much!!””
The two receive our gifts happily.
They’d be receiving gifts like slaves, horses, tableware, cosmetics, and the like from the great clansmen so we thought of giving them something practical as a gift. Choosing a sword and a staff as gifts could be strange though.
Well, give us a break since we’ll also be giving the couple some gold coins as congratulations in addition the gifts.
“Roswald……”
“Lia……”
“Big sis!! Commander!!”
The two look at each other passionately as Virgar wails loudly.
Roswald is wearing Adernian-style garments while Lia is wearing Germanis-style garments.
The eyesights of the other great clansmen are spontaneously gathering on Lia, a foreign looking tall and beautiful girl.
But then again, perhaps there are also those among them that are frowning at her who’s a “former slave.”
In the Adernia peninsula, giving even slaves proper human rights…..or something would be a mistake in this era. However, they are treated as people and there are frequent and incessant emancipation of slaves that occur.
That said, those who hold ill will against Lia, who’s neither an intelligentsia, a brethren Adernian, nor a Cretian who are representative of civilization, are bound to exist no matter what you do.
Well, the two doesn’t seem to let it get to them and don’t mind it all anyway so it’s all good.
“That said, that girl, Lia. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her, huh.”
“Me too. I wonder what happened?”
“I heard she lived in Roswald’s house all along. She continued waiting all alone even all throughout the war. Praiseworthy, yes?”
Lia……
If I recall correctly, you were a slave given to me by Ains as a bonus, huh.
Who could have anticipated these things?
I never thought that Roswald’s feelings would continue up until this point.
Without a doubt, it’s a setting where you fall in love with a slave and foreigner.
No, was it really like that in the beginning?
Like(koi) is a disease but love(ai) is true. Yep, what the hell am I saying, huh.
“Roswald, here’s my gift.”
I give him a spear.
It’s not a spear used by hoplites. It’s a lance, a spear used while mounted on a horse.
Naturally, the edge is made from Dragon Damascus.
“This is from us, although it’s not much.”
Tetra and Julia gives Lia a box.
Lia opens it and finds a beautiful silk garment inside.
“WOW! Thank you very much!!”
Lia happily thanks the two.
We honestly didn’t know what Lia likes. Finally, after losing our minds thinking up something, we thought of something insensible thing like giving a horse and some equestrian equipment, but it’s good that we ended up with giving clothing.
“Eh, wha? This is……”
Lia turns deep red.
She notices Julia and Tetra’s prank.
They said they’d give up with the see-through underwear though.
I really didn’t know.
Well, it would be a good thing if the succeeding generations of my vassals would increase though. Make lot’s of them for me okay?
“Lulu!!”
“Gram-san!!”
Gram kisses Lulu while holding her up in his arms.
The difficulty of the extremely tall Gram kissing the extremely short Lulu was quite high.
Gram would need to lower his hips for quite a bit.
To resolve this, he had to hold Lulu up.
But really, Lulu is quite short, huh.
What an unbalanced couple, these two.
If I recall correctly, the two have a two-year age difference. If this were Japan, they’d have the difference in height between a grade schooler and an adult, huh.
I don’t have any worry regarding these two.
They’re getting by steadily one way or another.
Ron and Roswald, on the otherhand, are idiots, so I couldn’t help but worry about them.
“It’s slowly becoming a custom but, here’s my congratulatory gift.”
“This is?”
“It’s supposedly called a dragon bow. It’s a composite longbow made using raw materials from a dragon. It shoots several times stronger than a normal bow. I figured you’d be able to handle it.”
This is something I ordered from Ains. It’s said to be the bow used by the People of the Desert.
Using it would require an incredible amount of physical strength but it’s no problem for Gram who, on top of his already large amount of physical strength, has the influence of my Divine Protection of the Great King.
“Here’s the gift from us. A Staff, it’s a maching set with me, Julia, and Soyon!”
“Thank you!!”
Lulu happily holds the staff.
This staff has several wooden disk, a hidden sword inside, and a huge crystal on the tip.
In other words, it’s quite heavy. However, contrary to her appearance, Lulu is quite a strong person.
As such, the wedding ceremonies of the six ended peacefully.
Their marriages show that my base has solidified.
In twenty years, their children will come of age and would probably work as my retainers.
I’m very happy.
Julia and Tetra, too, are pregnant. I’m very happy as a husband, as a father, and as a king.
Local governance is also advancing favorably.
Yes, local governance is……