Stella took a small jewelry box from her dressing table and held it out to Melissa.
“I have plenty of jewelry. You don’t need to give me any.”
Melissa shook her head, worried that Stella might give her some of her jewelry. She said this partly to refuse, but also because she actually had an overflowing amount of jewelry at home.
Moreover, Melissa didn’t like wearing dangling things on her body. The only things she didn’t mind wearing were weapons like swords.
She occasionally wore earrings and necklaces she didn’t even like when visiting the imperial palace to look pretty for Kai. But the moment she left the palace, she quickly removed the jewels that felt heavier than any weapon.
“Open it.”
Despite Melissa’s assurance that it was fine, Stella stubbornly held out the jewelry box. Though Melissa sighed deeply, she accepted the small jewelry box. When she opened the lid, her eyes grew wide.
“Oh? This is…”
“It’s a Golden Bloom petal. It fell yesterday.”
“Wow, it’s really pretty.”
Even to Melissa, who didn’t particularly like sparkly things, the Golden Bloom petal appeared incredibly beautiful. Though not a jewel, it sparkled and was dainty with a nice fragrance, reminding her somewhat of Stella.
“I heard you haven’t been sleeping well lately. Take this home, dry it well, and drink it as tea before bed. Then you’ll sleep deeply. You’ll have energy the next day too.”
“Thank you. I’ll drink it well.”
Melissa carefully closed the jewelry box lid again and hugged Stella tightly as she spoke.
“Melissa. I have one more favor to ask.”
“What is it? Tell me anything. I can even beat up Kai.”
At Melissa’s playful words, Stella chuckled before shaking her head, saying it wasn’t that.
“The favor I want to ask is…”
“Yes. I understand.”
“You haven’t even heard what the favor is.”
“I absolutely understand. I understand everything.”
Melissa answered confidently. Stella thought about jokingly asking for something very expensive but stopped herself. If she did, Melissa would probably go to get it right away.
“Would you be willing to be the godmother of my baby?”
“…”
Melissa, who was expected to readily agree the moment she heard the request, remained strangely quiet and said nothing. Stella worried if it had been rude to ask an unmarried lady to be a godmother.
But shortly after, Melissa hugged Stella tightly again with tears welling up in her eyes as she exclaimed.
“Of course! Who else would do it if not me! I wanted to be the godmother from the start. I’ll be the godfather too. So don’t ask anyone else, okay?”
Though Stella knew she would agree, she hadn’t expected her to be this happy about it, and felt both grateful and sorry at Melissa’s enthusiastic response.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I’m the one who’s thankful. But Stella, is it still a long time until the baby comes?”
Though Melissa knew everything about war, weapons, and even monsters, she had almost no knowledge about marriage or childbirth.
Even when she wanted to marry Kai, marriage itself was the goal, and she had never thought about what would come after.
Whenever she tried to imagine a child resembling her and Kai, she would shake her head. Without even having to imagine, it was obvious they would be the world’s number one troublemaker and stubborn rascal.
Melissa thought once again that it was really fortunate she hadn’t married Kai, for the empire’s citizens’ sake.
“Yes. There are still seven months left.”
“Really? That’s… similar to horses.”
Melissa replied in a disappointed tone as she counted on her fingers trying to estimate. Stella blinked blankly before bursting into laughter at Melissa’s casual comparison to horses.
* * *
Time flew by like an arrow.
James’s love confessions toward Rudina never tired, and though her feelings for him grew as time passed, the strange guilt about doing something wrong to a child kept making Rudina take a step back.
As his father had said he was in his growth period, James had grown another span taller since then, and now his presence stood out so distinctively among people that he could be spotted at a glance even from afar.
The jewel fruit they had planted with the earth fairies finally sprouted after three months and had now grown to about the size of Stella’s thumb.
“How is it growing even slower than the fairy seed?”
“Jewel fruits naturally grow slowly. But this one is actually growing fast. When Grandpa Uhu was young, he saw a jewel fruit that was planted when he was twenty, and it only bore its first fruit when he turned a hundred.”
“Wow! That really grows slowly!”
“Compared to that, our Sprouty is growing fast indeed. Look how much it’s grown already.”
Sprouty was the nickname the four fairies had carefully chosen for the slowly growing jewel fruit sprout.
“Right. Maybe it’s growing this fast because it’s next to Stella.”
The earth fairies all nodded in agreement with Oton’s plausible theory.
“Oh? There’s Stella!”
When Ark, who was on fairy seed watching duty today, suddenly shouted loudly, the rest of the earth fairies came running.
“Oh? What’s wrong with it? Ark, did you drop the fairy seed while cleaning it?”
“No. I didn’t drop it.”
“Then why is it like this?”
“How would I know!”
Ark answered with an aggrieved expression at Esta’s accusatory question. Though Iver and Oton were also surprised by the fairy seed’s sudden change, they calmly approached and examined it closely.
“The light has gone out.”
“Can you see here? There’s a tiny crack too.”
Oton pointed to the side of the fairy seed with her finger.
“Where?”
“Oh, it’s true!”
“What do we do! It must be broken!”
While the other fairies were making a fuss, Oton narrowed her eyes and closely examined the crack in the fairy seed.
“No, it’s not broken.”
Though Oton spoke quietly, the fairies immediately understood and stopped their commotion. Then they waited patiently for Oton’s words.
“I think a fairy is about to be born.”
“Gasp!”
“What do we do!”
“Then what about Stella? What about Stella’s baby?”
As far as they knew, this fairy seed had appeared because of Stella’s baby. If that was true, then Stella’s baby should be born today too.
“Let’s take this fairy seed to Stella!”
“Yes!”
At Oton’s suggestion, the fairies carefully wrapped the fairy seed in a blanket and began moving it. It had grown three times bigger than when they first found it, so it was hard to carry alone.
Esta and Ark worked together to carry the fairy seed, while Iver followed behind them anxiously, worried they might drop it.
When they reached the door to Stella’s room, Kai was pacing anxiously in the corridor with other officials. Terrible screams escaped from inside Stella’s room.
“Stella!”
“Something must have happened to Stella!”
The fairies rushed into the room without hesitation. Usually at this time, only the empress, Rudina, and a few maids would be present.
But now Stella’s room was full of dozens of doctors as well as maids and midwives with lots of birthing experience standing by.
“Unnnghh!”
Stella’s pain-filled groans and rough breathing continued to be heard.
“Looks like Stella’s baby is coming.”
“But why is it hurting Stella so much? Is it a bad baby?”
“This is how humans give birth.”
“Really? How long will she hurt like this? All day today? Until tomorrow?”
Ark kept bombarding Oton with questions, not knowing what to do out of concern. Oton, who had been answering well at first, finally burst out.
“Be quiet! For now, we need to stay by Stella’s side until she gives birth.”
As soon as Oton finished speaking, the four fairies climbed onto the pillow where Stella was resting, seemingly in agreement.
Stella’s face was contorted in pain, and sweat had beaded heavily on her face that was red from exertion.
Seeing Stella in pain, the earth fairies wished they could hurt in her place. But since they couldn’t, all they could do was stick close to Stella’s side and pray for the baby to come quickly.
Stella’s labor that began around lunch didn’t end even after evening passed. Stella grew increasingly exhausted, and still the baby hadn’t come.
Finally, Kai brushed aside the doctors’ and officials’ attempts to stop him and rushed into Stella’s room. Seeing Stella taking rough breaths on the bed, Kai felt his heart crumbling.
“Stella.”
Kai sat on the bed and called his wife’s name tenderly.
“…Kai?”
Stella opened her eyes with difficulty and smiled faintly when she saw Kai.
“You can smile even in this situation?”
“…I’m happy… to see you.”
Stella answered with difficulty before grimacing again as another contraction began. Kai held Stella’s small hand, wishing he could feel the pain instead.
After a while,
“Your Majesty, please push just a little more. We can see the baby’s head!”
Someone’s urgent voice was heard. Stella’s hand that Kai was holding tensed up.
Shortly after…
“Waaah!”
A baby’s cry was heard. It was a baby girl who looked just like Stella.
—
T/N: Melissa comparing human childbirth to that of a horse. LMAO. Also, it’s a baby girl! Yay!
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bluemoon238
I like James and I get there’s a species difference but I still feel a bit off about it from the way it started. I can only imagine what it would feel like raising a child who literally grew to adulthood overnight and started trying to get with you