“No.”

“I don’t want to.”

The children also stuck their feet to the spot like they had turned to ice and wouldn’t move.

“It’s late at night. It’s time to sleep.”

“Did you already forget the promise to sleep at the palace?”

“Promises must be kept.”

“Wah……”

“Then instead, we’ll play here tomorrow too.”

“Instead, tomorrow Eric must listen properly in class, and Elodie must get along well with friends. Only if you keep what Mom asked today can you play here tomorrow too.”

The children nodded. The four said goodnight to the snowman family, held hands, and left the cabin.

“Everyone worked hard today too.”

It had been a busy but peaceful day.

* * *

Before they knew it, spring had passed and summer had come.

The day all four family members had been counting down to had finally arrived.

After half a day of labor pains, a vigorous baby’s cry echoed through the delivery room. The midwife wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes, placed it in the mother’s arms, and gently comforted the mother.

“Erica, you really worked hard.”

“You worked hard too, Grandma.”

“For me, fulfilling my wish to deliver your child didn’t even feel like work.”

Greta had given up her wandering and stayed in this palace since last winter solely to fulfill that wish.

“I was also relieved that Grandma delivered the baby.”

While Grandma handled the remaining tasks, Erica greeted the baby who had stopped crying and become well-behaved as soon as it was placed in Mom’s arms.

“Hello, baby.”

Erica finally got to see the face of her second child who had spent nine months in her belly. Erica, who had been carefully examining the child’s face, asked Grandma.

“Couldn’t you develop some magic for men to give birth?”

“Didn’t you say there wouldn’t be a third before giving birth?”

She had definitely declared during labor that she would be the kingdom’s biggest fool if she did this again, but now the child in her arms was so pretty that her mind was already changing.

Who did it take after?

As soon as she solved that curiosity, Erica had this thought.

‘Roderick won’t let go of the baby, will he?’

She became eager to see Roderick’s reaction, who must be anxiously waiting outside the door just for the baby to be born safely.

“Grandma, please tell them they can come in now.”

At Erica’s request, Greta opened the door. As expected, Roderick was waiting right outside the door with the children, just waiting for news.

Roderick, who had been sitting on the windowsill talking about something with the children, looked her way when the door opened. He looked clearly nervous. Even after hearing the baby’s cry, there had been no word, so he seemed anxious.

“The mother is healthy.”

When she told him what he had been hoping to hear, Roderick’s expression instantly brightened.

“Of course, the pretty young lady of the Winterborn family is also very healthy.”

“Wow!”

At the news that it was a girl, Elodie cheered, while Eric made a sullen expression and let the toy wooden sword he had been holding to give to the baby droop.

“Come in.”

As soon as the children entered, they poured all their attention on the baby, but the baby’s father didn’t show interest in the baby.

“Erica, did it hurt a lot? Are you okay now?”

Having heard all the groans of labor from outside the door, Roderick checked on Erica first as soon as he entered.

“It would be good if I could give birth.”

“Yes, you give birth next time.”

Grandma, who had been watching the two, laughed. It wasn’t a joke though. Erica was serious about developing magic that would allow males to get pregnant too.

“I’m fine. Compared to Eric’s time, this was nothing.”

But those words only added fuel to Roderick’s apologetic feelings.

“If this…… was nothing compared to Eric’s time…… then how much more painful and difficult was it then? And alone too…… Erica…… I’m really sorry.”

He was digging a tunnel by himself again on this happy day. Erica hugged him and gave Roderick’s back, who kept apologizing, a big smack.

“Don’t dampen the mood on a good day. I worked hard to give birth, so could you praise my achievement a little?”

She was curious and looking forward to seeing what reaction he would have when he saw the baby, but he wasn’t showing her what she wanted to see.

Only then did Roderick take the baby from Grandma Greta and hold it.

The baby wasn’t particularly small, but being held by Dad who boasted a bear-like build, it looked too small. Even to Roderick’s eyes, it must have looked only small, as his movements were careful as if it might break if he touched it wrong.

Roderick stared at the baby, then lowered his head and kissed its forehead.

“Hello……”

His voice choked up and he was silent for a moment.

“It’s Dad.”

“Huh?”

“The baby opened its eyes.”

As if remembering the voice it had heard every day in the womb, the baby opened its closed eyes. As if it really remembered, it looked up at the owner of the voice with newborn eyes that had no focus.

“My goodness……”

Roderick, who was making eye contact with such a baby, exclaimed in admiration.

“It looks like you.”

Although it was hard to pinpoint exactly who the baby’s face resembled, it had clearly inherited Erica’s blonde hair and emerald eyes.

That’s why she had thought Roderick wouldn’t be able to let go of the baby.

“Pretty.”

“Cute.”

The children who had gathered closely around Roderick looked at the baby and exclaimed in admiration.

“Mom, was I this pretty when I was born too?”

Eric asked. Roderick, who had never seen baby Eric, was also curious about the answer.

Lately, Erica had been looking back on that time often anyway. Erica recalled the moment she first held Eric and answered.

“You were pretty. Because you looked like Dad.”

“Did Eric look a lot like me back then too?”

Roderick asked with an expression mixing regret and joy.

“Of course. You looked exactly the same, so I wondered if I had the ability to clone humans.”

Back then, he had actually looked exactly like the man Erica hated, so while he was pretty to look at, he wasn’t pretty to her heart.

“Why did you have to look like that guy?”

……There had been moments when she held her forehead saying that.

But as time passed, the moment came when affection for ‘my pretty baby’ grew larger than the sense of duty that since I made this human, I must take responsibility to the end.

And honestly, if she had to be fair about it, she was fortunate to have had Eric.

One day Roderick suddenly came looking for her, and if she hadn’t had Eric, she might have married a man from the neighboring village whom she didn’t even like and spent her whole life suffering with a bent back as a country woman until she died.

Having fallen into shock that her first life, which she had lived doing her best, had ended futilely, her second life that she had tried to drift through listlessly and powerlessly became one she lived earnestly again thanks to Eric.

‘And anyway, having Roderick and Eric was the predetermined path of this novel. And receiving this child was also my predetermined fate.’

Erica stroked Elodie’s head, who didn’t ask if she was this pretty when she was born, and gave the answer the child would surely want to hear.

“Elodie was this pretty too.”

She had heard before that the spirit of life had shown Elodie Roderick’s past. That she had seen everything about how she was born then too. That was when she was about five, so she didn’t know if she still remembered.

“Come to think of it, they look quite similar.”

Roderick, who would know Elodie’s face from that time better than anyone, muttered while looking at the child in his arms.

Blonde hair and fair skin, plus green eyes. Even to Erica’s eyes, baby Elodie and the second child looked quite similar.

The fact that Erica and Elodie had been mistaken for mother and daughter when they wandered around in the old days made even more sense now.

Since everyone said they looked alike, Elodie excitedly took out the baby gift she had brought.

What she took out was a strawberry hat she had knitted earnestly after learning to knit. Elodie, who had put the hat on the baby, kissed her forehead and whispered.

“Now the baby wears the same thing as Mom and big sister.”

“Big brother is a really strong knight, so I’ll protect you from bad guys.”

Having a dad’s favorite who looked exactly like her, plus an obsessive sister and a really strong big brother. While she was born with tremendous luck, Erica was already worried that this child might not even be able to put her feet on the ground due to triple overprotection.

* * *

“Elise.”

When Roderick called, the baby who had been yawning in the cradle smiled brightly. Roderick’s eyes curved following the baby.

“Today is a very special day.”

It was Elise’s first birthday after all.

Elise, whose face had been hard to distinguish who she resembled more when first born, grew to look exactly like her mother as she got older.

Her personality was also exactly like her mother’s in that once she got angry it lasted long, but aside from that, she was gentle and quiet just like her dad.

“Elise, no. Sit still.”

“You’ll fall and get hurt.”

“Our Elise can’t get scars on her knees.”

So she calmly accepted Dad’s and her siblings’ excessive attention.

“Let’s put this on her.”

“No. She has to wear the same thing as Elodie.”

“This looks prettier to Dad’s eyes.”

Before the ceremony the child would receive on her first birthday after being born, Dad’s and the siblings’ opinions clashed. As the tight battle continued, the three asked the baby.

“Elise, this is cooler, right?”

“Elise, you want to wear the same thing as big sister, right?”

“Elise, you like what Dad picked better, right?”

And Elise’s answer was……