Chapter 343: Test Results, and some Family Planning.
Chapter 343: Test Results, and some Family Planning.
“For the conclusion: that boy isn’t the biological child of this couple-desu no.”
[Alchemy Building]’s Flora told me the test results concisely. As usual, her twin bulges were threatening to break loose from her nurse uniform. Poison for my eyes.
As if seeing through my thoughts, she took out a small container with a strand of hair inside it from her chest pocket. That’s the hair left by the late Lowe king which Colonel passed over to me afterwards. Well, it’s actually a strand of hair with its hair roots still attached which was used for golem registration, so it’s a bit different from hair left by the deceased.
“On the other hand, it matched with this hair from the late king-desu no. There’s no mistake that the two of them are father and son-desu no.”
“Ah ah…”
When I heard her report, I looked up at the sky. The white ceiling of the [Alchemy Building] is so bright…
So, the imperial prince of Garudio Empire is actually not the son of the emperor and empress, but the prince of the Lowe Kingdom which was destroyed by that very empire in the past.
“What do I do with this…”
I can’t begin to imagine how this turn of events had occurred. The most important question here would be whether the Garudio emperor and empress knew of this.
At least the empress must know, right? Since it’s a child she had given birth to. Wait, no she didn’t give birth to him… Or did she?
So does that mean the emperor is the only one who doesn’t know… Is it? That’s kinda sad too… I don’t know if it’s fortunate or not, but the Garudio emperor and the prince actually look similar to each other. Their hair colors were the same, and although the emperor had blue eyes, the empress had the same brown eyes as the prince. Anyone who looked at the three would conclude they’re a family. They have good relationships as well.
If they knew that that boy isn’t actually their child…
What do I do… This is way too complicated a story. Ugh, it’s too heavy for me!
“So, I want to listen to everyone’s opinions on this but…”
At night, I gathered everyone in my room and explained the circumstances. Suu, who’s staying here today as well, was sitting on top of my legs as I sat cross-legged while wearing yellow pajamas.
On top of the uselessly large bed that ten people can sleep on easily (I use a different one when I sleep alone), everyone was sitting as they like while wearing matching pajamas of different colors.
Everyone would sleep together on this bed only when Suu stays over. That sort of unspoken rule was set in place somehow before I realized it. Of course, I didn’t lay my hands on anyone… I’m a coward after all. Let’s leave that aside for the moment.
“Umumu. Isn’t the key here whether the Garudio emperor knows that that boy is his actual child or not-gozaran ka?”
“I think he doesn’t know. They looked to be really close, too.”
When Yae, who’s sitting cross-legged with her hair down and wearing a pair of lavender- colored pajamas, said that, Hilda, who’s next to her and wearing a pair of orange-colored pajamas, replied.
“I’m not too sure of the details, but the point should be how the prince of Lowe Kingdom ended up as the imperial prince of Garudio Empire, shouldn’t it. If we knew that part, everything should become clear.”
Luu, who’s wearing bright green-colored pajamas, pondered while holding her cheeks with both hands. Yeah, that’s right isn’t it… Just how did the prince of the fallen kingdom, who escaped with the help of his wet-nurse, become the imperial prince of a different country; knowing the details surrounding that would become the critical piece we need to solve all the mysteries.
“Besides that, should we honestly tell the results to Colonel-san and the others?”
Linze, wearing sky blue pajamas, turned to look at me. Yeah, I’m not sure about that either…
“For now, I plan on telling them. There’s the part of their concern for the prince’s safety too. Since he’s living a fulfilled life in the imperial palace, I guess they can be relieved for the moment?”
“It’s a complicated talk for the people of Lowe, isn’t it? For their own prince to become the imperial prince of one of the countries that destroyed their own. If I was them, I wouldn’t know whether to be happy or be sad at that, to be honest.”
While lying on the bed, Elze, wearing red pajamas, said that as she munched on some small snacks in a wooden plate. Don’t eat stuff on the bed, oi.
“In this case, the one most likely to know the truth would be the empress, wouldn’t it. Should we just ask her directly?”
“No, well, you know. There’s the possibility the child had been swapped somewhere without her knowing, right? The empress might’ve been raising a child she thought was her own but actually was not in that case.”
“… It’s true that that’s a possibility.”
To my words, Leen who’s wearing black pajamas nodded with a *fumu*. Next to her, Kohaku’s group of five divine beasts were sleeping together with Pola. I wonder about it every time, but why does a stuffed toy need to sleep…
“King-sama, darkness magic. Fine if you use hypnosis on her.”
“Hypnosis magic? Oh right, I could’ve done that!”
Upon hearing the statement of Sakura who’s lying down on the bed with sakura-colored pajamas, I snapped my fingers. With hypnosis, I can find out whether the other side knows about this without worry.
I just need to put them under hypnosis, then ask “Is the imperial prince your actual son?” If they answered in the affirmative, they don’t know the truth; if they answered in the negative, then they know the truth.
“However, Touya-san. Is there really a need for us to go that far…? It may be a heartless view, but what they requested of Touya-san was until the end confirming the prince’s safety and current location, and nothing else. If we tell the three of them the truth, whatever happen afterwards would no longer be our concern, no?”
Yumina, wearing white pajamas, spoke up while hesitating somewhat. I know. If we mess up one step, it could mean destroying a happy family. Thus, it’d be best for us to leave it untouched.
Still, what about Colonel and the others? I don’t think they’ll fully accept it if we do not tell them everything. I think those three will be fine, but on the off chance some other former retainers of Lowe knew of this, they might do something stupid.
I don’t think there’ll be any people who would believe someone that randomly popped up and started clamoring that “the imperial prince of Garudio is actually the prince of Lowe”. However, what if that rumor makes its way into the ears of the prince? He probably wouldn’t believe it either, but it would still leave its small mark on his heart. He might be hurt by the negative words of the heartless retainers. It may damage his relationship with his parents as well… I don’t want that to happen.
I want Colonel and the others to learn the truth properly, and accept it.
Suu, who had been listening to our conversation, leaned her head back on my chest.
“Quite the difficult talk-ja no.”
“That’s right, huh. Was it boring for you?”
“I understood that Touya is as nosy as ever.”
That’s harsh. But well, it’s the truth, so I can’t say anything back.
“Still, that’s exactly our Touya-ja. And if that Touya is troubled, it’s our job to lend our strengths-ja. Don’t hold back, ok? I’m already glad just by being together like this, after all.”
Suu took my hands and brought them before herself. Our pose had become something like me hugging Suu from behind. Wait, Suu-san? It’s a bit embarrassing…
“Suu. Bad to monopolize King-sama.”
“Oo?”
Sakura who stood up lightly carried Suu off my lap while holding her by her armpits. After that, she sat down on my lap directly facing me (I’m still sitting cross-legged), and hugged me tightly. Wait a—, Sakura-san! This is even more embarrassing!
“Aah! Sakura-san, that’s not fair! Me too!”
“Uoh?”
This time, Luu peeled Sakura off and clung onto me the same way. Uh, girls!? Calm down for a bit!
“Guess we’ll have to join the fray as well, Hilda-dono.”
“Yes. Let us advance, Yae-san.”
“O-onee-chan, us too.”
“Eh!? Ah, right! Yeah, let’s go!”
“Wai-, hold on!”
A game of tag had begun out of nowhere with everyone else chasing after me around the room. Making so much noise this late at night, if this was a multi-storied building we’d be causing quite a lot of inconvenience…
In the end, I was caught by a tackle from Elze using [Boost], pushed down onto the bed before everyone else piled up on top of me. “It’s heavy!” … Is not something I will say. No matter what. That’s a death flag.
Also, various things are being pressed up against various places! If this continues, it’ll be bad in various ways, so it’s time to escape! [Teleport]!
“Fuguh!? H, heavy-degozaru!”
“Heavy…!”
Yae and Sakura who were directly above me became the bottom layer and let out voices of anguish. Ah, sorry.
“Alright alright, don’t make so much fuss just because you girls are excited about staying over. You all will become the queens of this country in the future, so it’d be good to learn some modesty, you know?”
While clapping her hands lightly with a *pan*, Leen admonished everyone. I’m saved. Gotta leave it to the oldest one here. Even though she’s the next youngest to Suu going by appearances.
After calming down thanks to Leen, everyone started talking about recent happenings. Since it’s basically girls’ talk, I don’t speak up on most of the topics, but when there’s something I’m interested in I make sure to join the conversation. I want to know things about everyone properly after all.
“That reminds me, how’s your training going, Elze? You’ve been receiving guidance from Takeru ojii after that, right?”
“Yeah. Shishou is amazing, you know! A while ago, we went to the foot of the Merishia mountains, and he smashed a huge rock around the size of a Frame Gear with one hit. We
were taught [Toukihou] there as well.”
“[Toukihou]?”
“Err, instill magic power within a part of your body and change its attributes depending on the situation… I think? The [Hakkei] used by the dragon clan’s Sonia-san also seemed to be a form of that. If you master it, you can let loose blocks of [Ki] like fireball magic, apparently. Shishou used that to strike down a flying wyvern.”
What is that Martial God-sama doing… I just hope he doesn’t get too heated up and blow away a mountain or something.
For Elze who usually devotes herself to training from morning to night every day, tomorrow has been allotted as a rare break day. According to her shishou, a warrior needs rest too, or something like that.
“Is Ende alright?”
“Ah… Well, he’s alright. I think. He’s better at me in terms of manipulating [Ki] anyway. He was being forced to have practice matches against Shishou every day and was beaten up every time, but he would get all better after going to [Alchemy Building] and having Flora hit him up with a quick injection.”
“… That’s not alright, you know.”
Linze who was listening beside us had a forced smile on her face. I’m a bit scared to ask what kind of injection he’s getting, but it should be fine. I think.
“But the both of us are definitely getting stronger. If I keep training a bit longer, I think I can defeat an intermediate-class with my own body in one hit.” (Note: ah, Elze is steadily developing into a bugged character too. How bright her growth is…)
…Just the other day the [Red Cats] group had to use three Frame Gears to defeat one, you know.
Well, Ende was defeating an intermediate-class with his own body when we first met him, so. Elze also has the trump card known as [Boost], and she should get even stronger if her dependant link with me is strengthened.
That reminds me, is Ende now something like a dependant of Takeru ojii?
As I was thinking about stuff like that, Suu came to me again and hugged me from behind. Suu’s a little bit fond of skinship, isn’t she. It’s still fine now, but once she starts growing various things will become problematic…
“Oh yeah, is your mother healthy, Suu? It should be soon right?”
“Umu. I wonder if she won’t be giving birth soon-no. I would prefer it if I get a little brother, but a little sister would be fine too. As long as mother gives birth safely-no ja.”
For the Ortlinde ducal house, they would probably want a boy as successor. Since the boy would be in the same age group as Prince Yamato, they should become good companions. The child would become Yumina’s cousin, and a brother- or sister-in-law to me… I think?
“Children-degozaru ka… Us too, one day…”
To Yae’s spontaneous muttering, everyone besides Suu went a little red and started fidgeting while letting their eyes swim through the air. Of course, I was no exception. I can’t get used to this atmosphere…
“If, if I remember correctly, according to Professor Babylon’s future-seeing artifact, eight of us will have girls and only one will have a boy, right?”
Hilda said that while laughing a bit embarrassedly. That was mentioned a while in the past but… Having eight daughters is pretty incredible. No, the moment we reached the point of nine wives it’s already pretty incredible though.
“If we speak purely of probability, us fairy tribe have low chances of giving birth to males, so there’s a high chance I give birth to a girl. Even if the partner is human, the child won’t have half of each parent’s racial traits like half-elves.”
Leen replied to Hilda first. I see, so the child between me and Leen would have a high chance of being a girl.
“The demon king tribe is the same. The child would be part of the demon king’s race… I prefer a girl. If I have a boy and he turns out like the current demon king, that’s horrible.”
Sakura said that with a scowling face. To say it like that… Well, it can’t be helped when he’s showing her that spoiled parent side of his all the time. And he’s a rather excellent ruler too. That person really does have way too high a tension in front of his daughter. I’ve been admonishing myself to not become like him when my daughters are born every time I saw him.
“But if he gets a granddaughter, won’t His Majesty the Demon King become even more excitable?”
“… Damn it. This is a big problem…”
Sakura started rolling around on the bed while going “Uunnn…” No, I don’t think you need to worry about it that much…
“I, I think I would be happy with a boy-degozaru ka na… As a swordswoman, as expected I want to train my child-degozaru shi…”
“That’s right isn’t it! I also want to be able to impart to him the essence of a splendid knight!”
“I-I think it’d be nice too for me to be able to practice with my son, or something like that…”
While embarrassed, Yae, Hilda and Elze talked about such things. Un, you girls, I think you can do those with a daughter as well you know.
“It’s kind of unfortunate, how there’s only one boy among all of us, isn’t it?”
When Linze muttered that, Yumina opened her mouth in reply.
“That may not be the case, you know. What the professor saw with her future seeing artifact was only a fact of ‘The nine queens all had children, but only one of them was a boy’. It doesn’t say anything about our potential second child, which may have had a second boy.”
“That means there’s a good chance some of us would have a boy for our second child, isn’t it? With that, there’s no problems on this issue anymore, I think.”
On hearing Yumina’s statement, Luu hit her hands together in joy. Wait, you mean for the number of my children to go over ten…? (Note: you sure don’t give up easily, eh, Touya? It’s a done deal the instant you had nine wives.)
Forget soccer, we can even make a rugby team at this rate. I also feel like we’re going to urgently need babysitters in the future. Oh, wait, we have the Babylon Numbers.
There’s a just nice number of nine of them, so I can ask them to each support one of the wives in childrearing… Wait… No. No no no, rejected. As if I can leave my own children to that ero maid, that klutz miko or that lolicon doctor! Besides them, it’s probably also impossible for the girl who does nothing but read books and the girl who sleeps all day every day to help with raising children…
There’s the necessity for me to secure the necessary personnel before my children are born… Wait, no, I’m rushing ahead too much.
“Hm, Touya.”
“Nn?”
“How does one make children-ka no?”
Suu’s one innocent sentence froze the room’s atmosphere with an audible snap.
Uh, what did you say?
“Suu… How old are you again?”
“Nn, I turned twelve some time ago-no. Didn’t Touya and everyone else celebrate it?”
Right. She’s twelve. No doubts about it. If this was Earth, she’d be a middle schooler next year.
“Um, Suu. Has Elen-obaasama not taught you regarding ‘those things’?”
“? Regarding what, Yumina ane-sama?”
With a wondering face, Suu looked at Yumina from over my shoulder. Ah, this face, she completely has no idea…
Back on Earth, we were taught things like that in primary school, but is this world different?
Now that I think about it, normal people have routes such as hearing about it from friends or accidentally peeking on their parents, so they learn about it relatively quickly, but royals or nobles don’t have that many options. They probably learn about it from a specialized teacher, or from their own parents.
In actuality, Yumina, Luu and Hilda… And Sakura as well. Those girls are all royalties, but it seems like they have the related knowledge. Suu’s the only special case here.
Well, her mother Elen-san was blind until a few years ago. There’s no way His Highness the Duke can teach her by himself.
“… What do we do?”
“Even if you ask me…”
I let out an ambiguous reply to Leen who’s looking at me with a slightly red face. To be honest, it’s not like I don’t have that kind of material in my smartphone, but as if I can reveal them here…
“I thought something like this might happen!”
The manager of [Garden], Cesca, and Professor Babylon entered the room while loudly slamming the doors open. Uoi! What’s with that perfect entrance timing!? Don’t tell me you girls set up surveillance systems in this room!?
“Leave it to us for things regarding that topic. We’ll teach the basics very thoroughly and carefully to Suu, no, to everyone who’s here.”
“Trust in our skills. We have the lessons on application prepared perfectly too!”
For now, I grabbed the two by their napes and started dragging them out of the room. Can you two don’t appear in the worst time for you two to appear in?
“Things get extra complicated when you join in. Don’t do anything weird!”
“Oya? Then you’re saying you would teach Suu-kun the basics thoroughly and carefully?”
“Ugu…”
“With hands-on guidance?”
“If so, then there’s no place for us to shine, eh…”
The two of them made smug smiles. These bastards…!
Suddenly, my eyes stopped on the book Cesca is carrying below her arm.
“What’s that?”
“I took it from the [Library]. It’s tonight’s teaching material.”
Oi, do you actually have future seeing abilities? How are you girls this prepared?
When I flipped through the book quickly, it’s surprisingly an actually decent book. Something like a health education textbook. If it’s this then, well…
I’m still worried, but it’s true we can’t continue like this. Do I compromise…? After some thinking, I grudgingly accepted their help.
“Listen, don’t go beyond the basics ok? I don’t need any special courses. Just go with the extremely-normal course, got it?”
I cautioned them just in case.
“I know, I know. You want to dye them in your own colors for the things beyond that, right.”
“That’s absolutely not what I meant!”
I’m starting to have a headache. For the moment, after asking everyone else to take care of things, I left my own room. Using one of the empty guest rooms to sleep shouldn’t be a problem.
Still, would it really be ok… I’m super worried… As expected, maybe I should’ve just used some of the relatively softcore videos in my smartphone… Nono, that’s also somewhat…
While having an internal conflict and muttering to myself, I headed to an empty room.
The next day, when I met with everyone for breakfast, Suu was acting a bit fidgety.
It’s not like she began to hate me all of a sudden, but when I talked to her she would turn red and avert her eyes. After that, she would turn to peek at me while fidgeting, and turn red again. Something like that repeated a few times.
“Don’t worry about it. She’s just a bit confused is all.”
Leen was saying that with a wry smile, but even the face of that Leen was somewhat red for some reason. Or more like, everyone else who’s at the table are also behaving weirdly for some reason. They would look at me from time to time and turn away in a rush when I met eyes with them, and some of them were muttering things like “forty-eight…”, and there were some sighs “Fuu…” that leaked out from time to time as if they’re worried about something.
What the hell did those two teach them!?
After that, it took Suu several days to return to her normal state. It’s troubling too when you’re being minded too much…
- Pixel