Ruri thought that the discomfort in her stomach she had been feeling for a little while was indeed strange. While she had planned to talk to Jade about it, not only had Celestine fled into the nation at the worst time, she’d had to deal with the Nation of the Beast King and the transmigrators shortly after, which meant she completely lost her opportunity to mention it. But now that the situation had settled down considerably and Jade had gained some breathing room with work, Ruri wouldn’t be disturbing him by bringing the topic up.
When she visited Jade’s office with Rutile as her guard, she found Euclase there along with some other retainers: Claus, Agate, and Finn.
“Jade-sama, is now a good time?”
“Yes, what’s the matter?”
“I’d like to talk to you about something.”
“I recall you saying that before. It completely slipped my mind with the situation in Furgal. Is there something troubling you?” Jade asked, putting down his pen and preparing to listen while the retainers continued work as usual.
“I’ve had a funny feeling in my stomach for a little while now. But when you tune with a dragonkin, you stop getting colds or illnesses even if you’re human, right?”
“That’s right, but funny how? I’ll give you the medicine if need be.”
“Well, it sort of feels like there’s a mana-like heat gathering and clumping up. But I’m not running a fever and it’s a bit different from a stomachache. Also, I feel movement, like some sort of twitching on occasion,” Ruri said, patting the lower part of her stomach.
Everyone in the office froze in place. After a pause, they all turned to stare at Ruri.
“Huh? What?” she asked. Silence fell over the office, and a strange air hung overhead, causing Ruri to tense up.
“Do you happen to have any weird illness, by chance?” Euclase asked, making Ruri wonder if she had a curable illness or not.
“Ruri, when did those symptoms show up?” asked Jade.
“About a month ago, I suppose. Before Celestine-san arrived.” Ruri gave a very rough date since she didn’t remember the details well.
Euclase was astonished to hear this. “One month?! Rutile! You didn’t notice at all?!”
“No! My apologies,” Rutile said, visibly shaken by Euclase’s angry, accusatory tone. She put her hands on Ruri’s shoulders. “Ruri, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because there was nothing wrong. I was fine, and had an appetite...” Ruri replied, not knowing why she was being reproached but sensing that everyone in the room was on edge.
Jade was particularly flustered. The pen in his hand had been crushed, and the ink was spilling out onto his hand. With him frozen in place like he hadn’t even noticed what had happened, Euclase reprimanded him. “Your Majesty! This is no time to space out! If she is a month in, she might give birth at any moment! We must prepare quickly!”
“Oh! I...uh...yes. Prepare... Prepare? What should I do?” Jade answered.
Euclase gave up on him, seeing that his mind was not working at full capacity, which made him worthless in their eyes, and started giving orders to those around them. “Agate, prepare the doctors. Clause, you will serve as aide for the royal office while His Majesty is out. Finn, strengthen security. Rutile, gather the court ladies!”
Everyone rushed off at Euclase’s orders, leaving only Ruri behind.
“Euclase-san. What is going on? ‘Prepare the doctors’? Am I sick after all?” Ruri asked, growing worried after seeing that this had made even the people who possessed the dragon’s blood panic.
“No. You’re pregnant!”
“I’m...what?” Ruri uttered, her brain struggling to catch up. After a long pause, she tilted her head and screamed at the top of her lungs. “Whaaaaaaaaat?! Hold on a second! Pregnant?! But my belly is flat!” She was right. Unlike the currently pregnant Padparadscha, her belly was as flat as a board.
“That’s common for dragonkin.”
“Huh? What?! But the strangeness happened a month ago...”
“The pregnancy period for dragonkin is about one month! Normally, you start preparing as soon as symptoms show. What were you thinking, waiting this long to tell us?”
“You should have told us sooner!”
“This is the first time I’m hearing about any of this!” The reprimands were unreasonable to Ruri. Why hadn’t anyone told her? Well, she’d forgotten to tell anyone, but being snapped at didn’t sit right with her. “One month... Does that mean I’m already due?!”
“Yes! The child might come at any moment. Dragonkin go through pregnancy and birth faster than any other race.”
That is way too fast! Ruri thought, feeling the most intense culture shock so far, but there was also a part of her that agreed with the rules of this fantasy world.
“No way! What should I do?!” she asked, unable to rely on childbirth knowledge from her own world.
Her panic was understandable, considering she had suddenly been told that she’d be giving birth without time to rejoice in her pregnancy.
“Jade-sama...” She turned to Jade for help, but he was so pale that it was concerning in itself. “Are you okay, Jade-sama?!”
“If it happened before Celestine arrived, that means that Ruri was pregnant when she went to the Nation of the Beast King. I can’t believe I let her go somewhere so dangerous...” Jade muttered to himself, too shaken up to even respond to Ruri’s cries.
“Even if Ruri didn’t notice, you should have noticed yourself now that you’re in tune with each other, Your Majesty,” Euclase said, shifting the blame to Jade. “Anyone who doesn’t notice changes in their own wife is a failure of a husband!”
“Failure...” Jade repeated, the words landing a critical hit, causing him to curl up and clutch the sides of his head.