Prologue — Time with His Son

“Papa’s here, Zenkichi.”

Zenjirou was currently in a room of the inner palace with his beloved son, Carlos Zenkichi, in his arms.

There was a soft smile on his face. He was swaying back and forth using himself as a rocking chair as he stared happily down at his child. The slightly dopey smile on his face coupled with the rest of his behavior put him a hair’s breadth from real “baby-brain.”

“You’re so big now.”

The words were not one hundred percent accurate. Of course, Zenkichi had only been born a year and two months ago, so he was in the middle of a rapid period of growth. However, it had only been a day since the last time Zenjirou had held him. No growth would be quick enough to perceive in that short a time period.

“You’re so big now, Zenkichi.”

There was an extremely simple reason this was all Zenjirou was saying. “You’re so big now” was the second phrase he had been given permission to use in front of his son. With automatic translation through the soul of language being a fact of life, it was important for a child to hear as little of any other language as possible until they had a good grounding in their mother tongue. The mother tongue for Capua was common to the west of the continent and the two phrases Zenjirou could properly pronounce were “Papa’s here” and “You’re so big now,” learned in that order.

The prioritization of his learning definitely showed the signs of baby-brain as well. Regardless, he used the two phrases he was permitted to show as much love as he could to his young son.

“Papa’s here, Zenkichi. You’re so big now.”

While it was still early in the morning, it was still the blazing season. The supply of ice to the room was being kept to a minimum to acclimate Carlos to the Capuan climate, so the temperature was already over thirty degrees. Even so, Zenjirou didn’t feel the slightest hint of discomfort.

However, his son did not necessarily feel the same way.

“Uhh...uuhh, wahh.”

Despite the pleasant rocking, the gradual increase in temperature and being held inevitably made the infant start fretting.

“Sir Zenjirou, could you return Prince Carlos soon?” Cassandra, the child’s wet nurse, asked softly, picking up on the child’s shifting emotions.

Zenjirou was about to reply in agreement in Japanese but barely managed to swallow his words. Instead, he nodded and put Carlos back into the crib with familiar movements. Then, he moved closer to Cassandra and spoke quietly to prevent the young prince from being able to hear.

“I leave the rest to you,” he said.

The middle-aged woman gave a comforting smile. “I understand, sir.”

Her smile soothed him somewhat, and although he didn’t wish to leave, he stepped out of the bedroom. Once he had left, he began to walk down the corridors.

“Oof, it’s as hot as ever in here,” he commented to himself. “The season’ll be over in about a month, though.”

The temperature was so hot that it felt almost impossible to get enough oxygen. Regardless of how used to it he should have been by then, he couldn’t contain the complaint. In truth, with the lack of ice in Zenkichi’s room, the temperature should have been the same there too. The very fact that he could hold his warm son without feeling the heat, only to be overwhelmed by it as soon as he left, showed how unreliable his sense of temperature was.

Still, he picked up his pace to escape the heat, returning to the center of his daily life—the living room. Ines and several of the young maids were on duty inside.

“Welcome home, Sir Zenjirou,” Ines greeted him.

“Thanks. Is Aura in the bedroom?” he asked.

“She is indeed.”

Zenjirou didn’t stop moving as he spoke, walking straight through the living room towards the bedroom. He carefully opened the door, trying to keep the cold in as much as possible as he slipped through. The door was immediately closed behind him.

“Phew, I’m alive again,” he muttered. The air conditioning was on full blast, keeping the temperature below twenty-five degrees. He gulped in the air in relief.

“The heat must have been exhausting,” Aura commented lightly as he wiped the sweat off. “Was Carlos well?”

The queen was wearing a loose dress as she reclined in a chair. Her hair was unbound, and she was dressed very much in a relaxed way. However, the sheaf of official drake parchment in her hand showed that she had not completely escaped the weight of the crown.

Zenjirou perched himself on the end of the bed. As he did, he used the cloth from the maid at Aura’s side to mop his brow.

“Yeah, he’s the same as always. The temperature’s still high, though, so he got kinda sulky after just a little bit of cuddling.”

That was a lie. Well, from Zenjirou’s perspective, it was completely honest. However, the words were not objectively true. The period Zenjirou had been holding Zenkichi for was by no means “a little bit.” Even well-trained dogs in a dog café would eventually bite the hand holding them if they were held for too long. Zenjirou had been holding his son for a similar amount of time.

Since she had been waiting alone in the bedroom for the entire time he was gone, Aura was all too aware of that. Casting her eyes to the clock in the corner, she gave him a fond, if somewhat rueful, smile.

“I see. Well, do not let it get to you too deeply. It would appear I was correct to stay, though. I would have wanted to hold him for just as long if I were able.”

As she spoke, Aura handed off the sheet of drake parchment to the maid behind her.

“Your health’s the most important thing right now,” Zenjirou said. “You should stay in the cool air as much as possible.”

She could deal with any paperwork here, but the royal palace was the only location she could carry out her required meetings. In addition to needing to maintain any stamina she could with her pregnancy, Aura was spending as much time as possible in the inner palace in the air-conditioned room.

“How’s this one doing?” Zenjirou asked. He’d wiped any sweat off his hands before softly putting his right hand on the swell of her stomach.

She relaxed slightly at his touch and smiled gently. “According to Doctor Michel, very well indeed. Personally, I have suffered much less sickness than with Carlos—practically none, in fact—so I am all the more nervous.”

As she spoke, Aura put her own hand atop his while he gently caressed hers.

“You just need to wait a little longer. Then I’ll have gotten us a healer from the Twin Kingdoms. At that point, things should ease off slightly.”

The healing magic the Gilbelle family commanded was practically foul play in this world. Even if the pregnancy faltered somewhat, they could use their personal magics to heal the woman in a moment. That would mean that Aura could relax more than she currently could.

She nodded happily but then realized something. “Now that I think about it, there is a detoxification spell that falls under their domain. If I had a healer at my side ready to cast it before I absorbed any alcohol, then—”

“Aura,” Zenjirou said sharply. It wasn’t often he raised his voice like that, but his wife was being stubborn.

“Hmph...” She likely knew she shouldn’t have said it. She hunched over slightly and looked up through her lashes at him. “I cannot?”

“That’s not up to me. You should ask Doctor Michel later.”

“Hmph, that means essentially the same.” She pouted.

When it came to matters of health, not even the monarch could gainsay Aura’s attending physician. The likelihood of him allowing alcohol while she was pregnant was zero. A modern doctor in Japan might allow very restricted consumption of alcohol if they decided that the mental stress of abstinence was too high. However, the doctors of this world, like Michel, would not. Alcohol during pregnancy was forbidden. Without question. That was his decision.

“I shall have to abstain for quite a while, then. A child is very welcome, but no less hard for it,” she sighed.

“I know you like to have a drink, but I don’t think you were as focused on it with Zenkichi,” Zenjirou remarked, looking askance at her.

“Indeed. The sickness was ongoing for so long and the changes to my senses were such that I did not truly desire it. Fortunately, the sickness has been much lighter this time, and my senses have not changed enough to notice.”

“I see, so while your sense of taste hasn’t changed, you still can’t have the alcohol that you’d enjoy.”

Aura shrugged wordlessly, then changed topic. “Something like that. The air conditioning has made my appetite last despite the heat, though, so it has not been a major issue.”

While Capuans were used to the heat, there were still limits. Even they grew tired of the heat of the blazing season, in spite of having been born and bred in the region. This meant that it was all too common for their appetites to wane with the increasing heat, so all that passed through their throats was water and booze.

Zenjirou certainly found alcohol—particularly ice-cold beer—to be a pleasant...