I froze like an idiot. Even though I’d known for a while that it was almost time, her words still shocked the hell outta me.
“Um, uh... Right, Leila! Leila, we need you!”
I rushed to call Leila.
And then, our house became a hive of activity. Leila could handle things to a certain degree since she’d learned a bunch of stuff about labor and delivery and practiced what to do. Lefi, who’d be in the same position as Lew soon enough, remained calm.
Thanks to them, I was able to regain my composure. I immediately left the dungeon and headed to the demon world to bring Zena, the midwife who’d been looking after us for a while now, back. She knew that Lew was due any day now, so she was waiting near the door I’d set up in the demon world. The one at Reauxgard’s embassy, which Fynar’d installed for me.
Even though I wasn’t the emperor anymore, given the circumstances under which it’d been built, more than half of it was still my property. Incidentally, two people working there belonged to the spy organization Avend. I wondered if having spies at the embassy might cause some problems, but they were specifically assigned to provide assistance to me during my occasional visits, meaning the Demon King had also been informed. Because of that, they’d temporarily lifted the restriction that normally prevented me from going to the demon world’s capital unless I went through the Demonic Forest, allowing me to go directly from my house instead. That allowed me to meet with Zena immediately, and I brought her back home with me.
Nell was also out working today, but she’d called home while I was away, so she rushed back at almost the same time as us. Then, she and Zena immediately began helping with the childbirth. They kicked me out. It is what it is. There was nothing a man like me could do in this situation except panic, and that wouldn’t help them. So now I was waiting at the inn with the girls.
“It’s okay, they’ll be fine... Everything will be just fine. I have a bunch of elixirs and other stuff on hand. Plus, Zena is super experienced... No problem. No problem at all.”
Watching me trying to reassure myself, Iluna and En patted my knees as they sat on either side of me.
“Yukiki, calm down. You don’t have to be so anxious. They’ll be all right. LewLew is strong!”
“Besides...the baby is hers and yours. They’ll be just as strong as both of you.”
And then, Shii, sitting across from me with her knees folded up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, beamed at me.
“Master, Master, we do our best as big sisters!”
The wraith triplets, who’d been floating around, landed on my shoulders and head, each saying things like, “We’ll take good care of them!” and “We’ll show them how cool we are!” and “We can’t wait for the day we can all play together!”
The anxiety I felt from all the waiting was gradually fading away as I talked with them. I still felt restless, and there wasn’t much I could do about that, but I was a little calmer. Right, right, right. What good would it do for me to panic? Calm yourself, dude.
“You’re right. This kid is half me and half Lew, which means they’ll be a bundle of energy.”
“Exactly! Lots and lots of energy, along with ears, a tail, and maybe even wings!”
“If they have wings, we won’t even know what species to categorize them as,” I replied with a laugh.
Me and Lew... I wondered which of us our child would look more like. While talking with Iluna and the others, I simply waited. I was also conscious of the fact that I shouldn’t show them how flustered I felt, so I just sat there.
How long had I been doing that? Several hours had already passed. At one point, Lefi, who was also pregnant and needed to avoid overexerting herself, came over to rest, but after a light meal, she’d said, “This trifle will not tax me or my child!” and went back to helping Lew with childbirth. Though I’d thought about stopping her, I’d been able to genuinely feel her vitality, so I hadn’t. Maaan...the women in our family are really strong. Completely different from me, who could only panic.
After covering a sleeping Iluna with a blanket and placing a curled-up, resting Shii on a cushion, I played shogi with En to calm my nerves. But I was losing even more badly than usual. Clearly, I still wasn’t able to concentrate properly. The wraith sisters, who usually drifted around aimlessly when they were bored, stayed with us today, acting unusually docile. I’d also touched base with the pets, who were all gathered in the meadow area because the birth of our child was a major event for them too.
And then...the door opened with a click. Nell beckoned to me. I immediately raced over, and there, wrapped in cloth, was a small baby crying vigorously.
“It’s a girl,” Zena said, wiping the sweat from her brow with a towel.
Lew’s child. My child. Our child. She had wrinkled ears and a tiny tail. Based on her appearance, she was a Werewolf. Ha ha, guess she takes after Lew. But the color of her hair was black, like mine. So much emotion filled my heart that I was almost afraid it would explode. And her name was...
“Riu. Hello, Riu.”
We’d decided that if we had a girl, we’d name her Riu. I’d been hesitant because it sounded too close to “Rir,” but I hadn’t had any better ideas. Lew hadn’t objected either. In fact, she’d said, “If she resembles Lord Rir, then I’m all for it!”
“Lew.”
“Hmm?”
“Thank you.”
“Tee hee... Of course.”
Despite her exhaustion, Lew, the new mother, smiled lovingly at me. I stroked her hair, then gently touched our child. Warm, alive.
Thank you for being born. Thank you for becoming our child. Your old man is chock-full of flaws, but...from now on, let’s grow together, one step at a time, and live our lives together.
And so, the number of people in our household went up by one.