For a week after giving birth, Ruri spent most of her time in bed. She’d had a conversation about the child’s name immediately after the baby was born but had passed out asleep soon after. When she woke up on occasion, Jade would bring a porridge-like food to her mouth and she would eat it, but it was an unconscious action that she could barely remember after the fact. By the time she fully awoke, she was flabbergasted upon finding out that a week passed.
Since the child was far smaller than a human baby, Ruri had assumed the burden on the mother would be small, but it seemed that was also linked to dragonkin biology. As Ruri drank the highly nutritious soup with tons of stewed ingredients, her eyes were drawn to the basket near her bedside, where Jade was pumping mana into their sleeping son.
“Are you sure we really don’t have to feed him milk or food?”
“Yes. It may seem strange to a human like you, Ruri, but mana is basically food for a newborn dragonkin.”
“Dragonkin really are mysterious beings, aren’t they?” Ruri said, referring to the fact that they didn’t need to be breastfed like human babies. Instead, their parents provided them with mana.
The baby grew by way of that mana, but in the week that Ruri was bedridden, Citrine had grown to three times his original size—to the size of a kitten. Ruri was both startled by this rapid rate of growth and shocked that she wasn’t able to see her child grow in real time, but Riccia had asked the spirits to record him with a camera. Thanks to her readiness, the first thing Ruri did now that she was recovering and awake more often, was check the footage of Citrine’s growth.
Fast-forwarding through the video, she could see how abnormally fast he grew. Dragonkin were a complete mystery—physically growing by eating mana made little sense to Ruri. However, the doctors assured her that her child was growing up fine and healthy, which gave her some relief.
Besides, dragonkin babies were similar to human ones in some ways. He spent most of his time sleeping, and he whined and cried when hungry—only he wanted mana instead of milk. The sounds of his cries were so adorable that it made her want to squirm. It was almost like the mere sound soothed her heart and cleansed anything bad from her. Of course, that had also been caught on camera.
After finishing giving mana to Citrine, Jade took back the bowl and spoon that Ruri was holding and proceeded to feed her. Feeding their partners by hand was a sign of affection for dragonkin, and though it had confused and embarrassed Ruri at first, she had gotten used to the process by now and opened her mouth for the incoming spoon without an ounce of shame.
“Are you feeling okay now?”
“Yes. I’m fine now,” Ruri answered, swallowing her soup and smiling.
Jade looked relieved. “I heard the reports, but I never thought that you would use up so much of your mana when you normally have so much,” he said, diligently scooping more soup up and bringing it to Ruri’s mouth.
“You and me both,” she griped as she ate.
The birth of their child had forced her into a near weeklong sleep, with her barely waking up. Although the dragon babies were small, they stole a large amount of mana and life force when being born. If the mother was a dragonkin, she would have a strong body and stamina to compensate for her mana, circumventing days of sleep. However, if she was a human or a demi-human who wasn’t as strong as Ruri, she would end up sleeping for a considerable amount of time due to her mana and stamina being siphoned away.
Birthing a dragonkin, the top of the hierarchy in this world, was that much of an ordeal. In Ruri’s case, however, it had been assumed she wouldn’t be as bad as other humans, since she possessed mana more powerful than even the Dragon King himself. However, when she’d opened her eyes, she had slept for a whole week, which had left Jade, Agate, the retainers, Kotaro, and Rin worried enough to hound the doctors for answers. She couldn’t help but pity the healers being pressured by the Dragon King and a couple of supreme-level spirits.
Apparently, Euclase and Rutile had managed to step in and settle them down. Ruri was grateful to have a couple of levelheaded individuals in her midst. It was probably hell trying to stop Jade, Kotaro and Rin. She sighed, imagining the foolishness that had ensued while she was sleeping. Even more so because she’d heard that Agate and the elders were making a fuss with the doctors as well.
However, as retainers to the government, it was understandable that they would be more concerned than necessary about her condition. After all, Ruri was an irreplaceable being—a Beloved.
Although she couldn’t label everyone who had raised a fuss out of concern for her as being bad, she knew that the doctors were feeling an inordinate amount of pressure. In fact, it may have been they who were most relieved by Ruri’s recovery.
After finishing her soup, Ruri stepped out of bed and peeked at her little one in the basket. He was sleeping safe and sound. Just looking at his sleeping face naturally curled her lips into a smile. Jade’s dragon form bore pitch-black scales, but Citrine had golden-yellow ones that would likely shine like the sun in the daylight. Every time Agate and the others came to check on him, they went wild over it.
“That’s His Majesty’s son for you.”
“His scales hold exceptional beauty.”
“I am sure he will be quite the handsome fellow with a promising future. I bet the ladies will be all over him.”
That was the sort of high praise they gave him. Perhaps he was overjoyed about Jade finally having a child, but Agate and the others were excitedly bustling around every day, looking for educators for Citrine—neglecting their work in the process. Euclase warned them that it was too early to be doing any of that, but they wouldn’t listen. The other retainers were getting fed up with their incessant chatter and lack of progress at work.
One of the reasons Agate’s group was so enthusiastic was that Jade’s child possessed enough mana, even as a baby, to secure a promising future for himself. Citrine’s mana wasn’t just strong because he’d inherited Jade’s blood, but also because he’d taken a great deal of mana from Ruri at birth. This was due to dragonkin biology feeding on mana. She might have had to stay in bed for a week, but if it meant him growing up to be big and strong, she felt it was worth the effort.
According to Rutile, the birth of a child between the Dragon King and a Beloved was an auspicious event, and the royal capital was reveling in festivities on par with Agate and his cohort. The celebration was expected to continue for some time, and even Finn, who usually stayed at Jade’s side, was keeping watch over the capital in order to maintain the peace.
After hearing about how lively the city had gotten, Ruri wanted to go see what it was like for herself, but there was no way they would give her permission to go outside. Rutile shut her down before she could even utter a word.
“Not a chance.”