Chapter 62
Late at night, beneath a mana lamp.
The princess consort's fountain pen scratched across the notebook.
=================
<Maternity Notebook>
[To the Nameless You]
[Preface]
Immediately after becoming pregnant.
Sir Nihirit recommended a notebook to me.
He called it a maternity notebook.
He said I should record every change in my body each day,
never leaving out even the slightest detail,
and write down everything: what I ate that day, when I went to sleep, when I woke up, whether my body felt heavy, and whether I felt nauseated.
I heard it was best to fill the pages as densely as a historian recording national history.
That way, during the next examination, Sir Nihirit would not miss anything happening inside my body.
I was a little worried.
What if I overlooked something?
What if something happened to our baby because of me?
I was frightened, but His Highness said he would help me.
That gave me the courage to try.
=========================
[First Regular Examination]
Date: October 14, 1047 Imperial Calendar
Gestational age: 4 weeks, 2 days
Maternal blood pressure / weight: 108/66 // 52 kg
Proteinuria / edema: (-) / (-)
Fetal heart sounds: Not audible (week 4, normal)
Fundal height: Not measurable (week 4)
Progress of purpura: No change
Medications: Aspirin 100 mg, once daily (continue), heparin 5,000 IU, twice daily (started today)
Clotting time: 62 seconds (within target range)
───
Attending physician's assessment:
Pregnancy confirmed. Begin heparin administration today. Mother's condition is good.
───
[Maternal Diary]
[6:12 a.m.]
Awake.
As soon as I opened my eyes, I felt that my body temperature was slightly higher than usual.
I immediately instructed the head maid to take my temperature. It was 0.2 degrees higher than normal.
Could this be the onset of a fever?
(Be sure to ask Sir Nihirit at the next examination.)
[10:15 a.m.]
Walk in the greenhouse.
There was the faintest tugging in the lower left side of my abdomen, like an ant crawling there.
I immediately stopped walking and took three deep breaths. The pain disappeared after one minute.
(Be sure to ask Sir Nihirit at the next examination.)
[12:37 p.m.]
…
=========================
[Second Regular Examination]
Date: October 28, 1047 Imperial Calendar
Gestational age: 6 weeks, 2 days
Maternal blood pressure / weight: 110/68 // 52.3 kg
Proteinuria / edema: (-) / (-)
Fetal heart sounds: Not audible (week 6, normal)
Fundal height: Not measurable (week 6)
Progress of purpura: No change
Medications: Aspirin 100 mg, once daily (continue), heparin 5,000 IU, twice daily (continue)
Clotting time: 58 seconds (within target range)
───
Attending physician's assessment:
Morning sickness has begun. Progress normal. Maintain the heparin dosage. Ensure sufficient fluid intake. Guidance was provided on how to keep the maternity notebook.
Excessive compulsive record-keeping may cause stress for the mother and is discouraged.
───
[Maternal Diary]
Sir Nihirit gave me a thorough scolding.
He flipped through the notebook I had filled densely, down to the minute and second, over the past two weeks, then sighed.
He said that if there was too much information, I might miss the truly important signs.
Moreover, he sternly warned me that such obsessive record-keeping would only cause fatigue for the mother.
Even His Highness was cowed by Sir Nihirit's forcefulness and did not dare take my side.
Afterward, Sir Nihirit carefully explained which parts I needed to record in the notebook.
He also told me a few things about morning sickness.
Stop drinking milk for the time being.
Drink ginger tea.
Avoid warm soup and eat cold fruit instead.
The strangest instruction was to eat dry bread in bed as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning.
But astonishingly, everything worked.
From that day on, my stomach felt much better.
After that, I told the head maid to leave dry bread by my bedside every morning.
=========================
[Third Regular Examination]
Date: November 11, 1047 Imperial Calendar
Gestational age: 8 weeks, 2 days
Maternal blood pressure / weight: 112/70 // 52.1 kg
Proteinuria / edema: (-) / (-)
Fetal heart sounds: Not audible (week 8)
Fundal height: Not measurable (week 8)
Progress of purpura: Slightly lighter.
Medications: Aspirin ——, once daily (continue), heparin ——, twice daily (continue)
Clotting time: 60 seconds (within target range)
───
Attending physician's assessment:
Morning sickness continues, but progress is normal. Slight weight loss is judged to be due to morning sickness and is not concerning.
Folic acid and iron intake checked.
Dietary guidance reinforced. Strongly advised to consume liver, spinach, and egg yolks every day.
Recommended choosing and calling the baby by a nickname for the sake of the mother's emotional stability.
───
[Maternal Diary]
Sir Nihirit was unusually strict today.
He is thorough normally, but today he was even more meticulous than usual.
He asked me one by one what I had eaten over the past two weeks.
He asked about bread, meat, vegetables, liver, spinach, and egg yolks.
I wondered if I was going to be scolded again.
Fortunately, he wasn't scolding me.
Sir Nihirit said that this was the most important period, when the baby's head and spine were being formed.
He said that was why he had checked so thoroughly, because certain nutrients were absolutely necessary.
— Iron / Folic acid
He told me to make a note of this and be sure to get enough of them.
And today, there was one more thing.
We chose a nickname for the baby.
It was a name His Highness and I decided on together.
Stelle.
My star.
When I told Sir Nihirit, he nodded and wrote it in the notebook.
He said it was a good name.
=========================
[Sixth Regular Examination]
Date: December 23, 1047 Imperial Calendar
Gestational age: 14 weeks, 2 days
Maternal blood pressure / weight: 114/72 // 54.0 kg
Proteinuria / edema: (-) / (-)
Fetal heart sounds: Not audible (week 14)
Fundal height: 12 cm
Progress of purpura: Nearly gone
Medications: Aspirin ——, once daily (continue), heparin ——, twice daily (continue)
Clotting time: 61 seconds (within target range)
───
Attending physician's assessment:
Progress good. Fundal height within the normal range. Purpura nearly gone.
Signs of anxiety observed in the mother. Guidance for emotional stability is needed.
───
[Maternal Diary]
In two weeks, I will be sixteen weeks along.
Around this time, blood used to flow from below.
And I would have to send my babies away.
I place my hand on my stomach. It is too quiet.
Anxious, I pressed my lower abdomen repeatedly with my fingers.
There was no response.
Sir Nihirit angrily told me earlier not to poke my stomach recklessly, and that irregular movement was perfectly normal at this stage, but I can't stop.
If only it would tap me just once, exactly once, I would want for nothing more.
December 25
Stelle isn't responding.
Could it be because my clotting time was one second longer than usual this time?
December 27
I
am
so
scar
ed.
Plea
se
move
just
once
for
me
.
December 28
In the end, last night, we went and did it.
My husband, who had gone even paler than I had, sent the knights of the detached palace in the middle of the night and had Sir Nihirit brought over, practically by abduction, while he was sound asleep.
Sir Nihirit, summoned in nothing but an overcoat hastily thrown over his pajamas, examined my abdomen first.
Then, after confirming the heartbeat with his stethoscope, he sat my husband and me side by side on the sofa and sternly scolded us.
He said that if the mother was this anxious, the baby would become anxious too.
A mother's body was the baby's home, and if that home shook, the baby inside would shake as well.
His Highness was scolded too.
Sir Nihirit asked why he had become anxious along with me instead of comforting me and telling me everything was all right when his wife was this worried.
If even the husband became agitated in front of his wife, where was the mother supposed to find support?
In the end, Sir Nihirit scolded us for an hour.
And yet, something strange happened.
After being scolded by Sir Nihirit that day, I was no longer anxious.
Come to think of it, the feeling of being scolded by Sir Nihirit was somehow familiar.
It was similar to the feeling of being reprimanded by the venerable elders when I lived with my birth family.
I know that Sir Nihirit is not even twenty years old.
But why was it that
I felt as though I were being scolded by an elder over fifty?
=========================
[Ninth Regular Examination]
Date: January 20, 1048 Imperial Calendar
Gestational age: 20 weeks, 2 days
Maternal blood pressure / weight: 112/70 // 56.8 kg
Proteinuria / edema: (-) / (-)
Fetal heart sounds: 152 beats/min (normal)
Fundal height: 18 cm (normal)
Progress of purpura: Gone
Medications: Aspirin ——, once daily (continue), heparin ——, twice daily (continue)
Clotting time: 58 seconds (within target range)
───
Attending physician's assessment:
Twenty weeks pregnant.
Both mother and fetus are very healthy.
Fetal heart sounds can be heard with an ordinary stethoscope.
First fetal movement confirmed. A small celebration is permitted to relieve the mother's stress.
However, excessive overeating is forbidden.
───
[Maternal Diary]
A miracle has happened.
The sixteen-to-twenty-week period that tormented me so much passed without incident.
No blood flowed from below, and my belly did not grow cold.
My belly is swelling rounder with each passing day.
And a few days ago, while I was lying down reading a book,
I felt a strange, wriggling sensation inside my belly, as if a tiny fish were swimming there.
Stelle greeted me for the first time.
A very modest party was held at the detached palace today.
=========================
[Fifteenth Regular Examination]
Date: March 17, 1048 Imperial Calendar
Gestational age: 32 weeks, 2 days
Maternal blood pressure / weight: 116/74 // 62.5 kg
Proteinuria / edema: (-) / slight (+)
Fetal heart sounds: 144 beats/min (normal)
Fundal height: 30 cm (normal)
Progress of purpura: Gone (maintained)
Medications: Aspirin —— once daily (continue), heparin —— twice daily (continue)
Clotting time: 57 seconds (within target range)
───
Attending physician's assessment:
Progress good. Slight ankle edema, but within the normal range. Fetal activity vigorous. From this examination onward, the mother may write in the maternity notebook freely according to her own wishes.
───
[Maternal Diary]
Stelle's kicks are getting fiercer by the day.
This morning, Stelle kicked my right ribs so hard that I let out a gasp.
I suppose Stelle takes after His Highness.
His Highness also seemed pleased, saying that Stelle would make an excellent knight.
But I think I would prefer Stelle to become a mage.
+
At today's examination, Sir Nihirit said there really wouldn't be anything left for me to write in the notebook now.
But since I've already written this far, I intend to fill this diary to the very end.
When our Stelle learns to read someday, I want to show you how much your mother fussed to protect you.
There is one more thing I should write down while I am at it.
A strange rumor has been circulating in high society lately.
The rumor says that His Highness and I conceived a child not purely thanks to Sir Nihirit's treatment, but with the help of medicine.
The culprit was His Highness.
It seems he had a little too much to drink at the twentieth-week celebration last time.
Apparently, he spoke about this and that while he was in a good mood in front of his subordinates.
All of it, in his own words, without anyone forcing him.
A bizarre rumor spread through high society that His Highness had acquired a ‘miraculous elixir for the night.’
We were worried that Sir Nihirit's great achievement and efforts would be buried beneath such a vulgar rumor.
So whenever we attended social gatherings, we stopped people and explained the truth.
But no one believed us.
If anything, the more we tried to explain, the more ridiculous details were added to the rumor.
Could that be why?
Lately, carriages and automobiles have supposedly been loitering around the Mercure Merchant Guild headquarters.
I truly must apologize to Sir Nihirit.
=========================
[Nineteenth Regular Examination — Final]
Date: May 12, 1048 Imperial Calendar
Gestational age: 40 weeks, 1 day
Maternal blood pressure / weight: 118/76 // 66.2 kg
Proteinuria / edema: (-) / (+)
Fetal heart sounds: 140 beats/min (normal)
Fundal height: 34 cm
Progress of purpura: Gone
Medications: Aspirin — discontinued two weeks before delivery, heparin — discontinued 48 hours before delivery
Clotting time: 48 seconds (back within the normal range)
───
Attending physician's notes:/———/
───
[Maternal Diary]
This is the last page of this notebook.
Since dawn, my abdomen had been tightening at regular intervals.
At first, I thought it was another one of Stelle's kicks.
But this time was different.
Pain like waves that tightened, loosened, and tightened again.
It was the kind of pain Sir Nihirit had warned me about.
The head maid immediately called for Sir Nihirit.
He arrived in thirty minutes.
This time, he was wearing a suit instead of pajamas.
It seemed he had been waiting nearby because the due date was approaching.
After examining me, Sir Nihirit nodded.
I was moved to the room immediately.
The maids bustled about according to Sir Nihirit's instructions, but from then on the pain was too severe for me to remember much.
And then.
I heard a cry.
Sir Nihirit told me it was a boy.
Stelle.
I'm afraid we won't be able to use that name after all.
Fortunately, we had another name prepared.
Your name is—
===================================
“Aster. That's a good name.”
Thud.
At the bedside of the peacefully sleeping princess consort.
I placed her maternity notebook there and murmured.
It seemed she had written the diary immediately after giving birth.
What incredible mental strength.
I wanted to read on.
But from that point onward, it was no longer a medical matter, so I closed it.
I had opened the maternity notebook now because the princess consort had asked me to.
She had asked me to fill in the final physician's notes, so I had simply written down yesterday's delivery record as best I could remember it.
I closed the notebook and stood up.
The princess consort was fast asleep, holding the baby in her arms.
I was about to leave the room quietly when Edmund was waiting for me in the hallway.
His eyes were swollen and red.
He must have cried that hard yesterday.
His eyes still hadn't returned to normal.
“Sir Julian.”
Edmund stepped in front of me.
Then he clasped both my hands tightly.
“Thank you.”
“I only did what I had to do.”
“Even so, I sincerely thank you. If it weren't for you, I would have had to part from Vi without ever holding that child.”
Come to think of it.
This pregnancy held tremendous significance for the couple as well.
Rumors had even been circulating that the imperial family intended to cast the princess consort aside because she had suffered four miscarriages.
With a healthy child like that born under such circumstances, they could finally breathe a little easier.
“Is there anything I can do to help? Name anything.”
“Then all you need to do is keep the promise you made at last year's Founding Festival.”
“If you want me to lend my name to the medicine, that won't be a problem. But will that be enough?”
I nodded.
A rather entertaining rumor had been circulating in high society lately.
Namely, that sildenafil had played the decisive role in the prince and princess consort conceiving a child.
In reality, that was half right.
The treatment I provided had been to prevent another miscarriage after the baby had already been conceived.
So the credit for the baby being conceived belonged to sildenafil.
In a situation like this, if the prince endorsed sildenafil?
‘When would I ever get a chance to sell the imperial family's name?’
No matter what anyone imagined, the effect would probably be even greater than that.
Especially among the imperial nobles, who were so sensitive about heirs.
But Edmund, an earnest soldier, kept trying to do even more for me without noticing my sinister plan.
“This alone is not enough to express my gratitude. Ah, I hear the head of the House of Nihirit is currently competing for a promotion. I will lend him my name.”
“My father would not want his abilities recognized in that manner, Your Highness.”
“Is that so? Hmm…. It's difficult. Preparing a reward for a friend who wants so little is quite a task.”
“This is more than enough for me, Your Highness.”
Prince Edmund laughed heartily and patted me on the shoulder.
“Good. I will gladly lend you my name. I don't know whether this will repay you, but if that's what you say, I can't very well refuse. Still, if you ever need something from me someday, tell me.”
“Thank you for your consideration, Your Highness.”
I released his hand and was about to turn away when Edmund caught my sleeve.
Then he whispered,
“Ah, but Sir Julian. Just in case… could you set aside some stock before the release?”
“…How much do you need?”
“About a month's supply, please.”
*
Several days later.
The Mercure Merchant Guild decided to officially release sildenafil.
The product name was Viagra.
Even before releasing the medicine, they began advertising it in the newspapers.
The full-page advertisement that appeared in the major daily newspapers across the Empire read as follows.
===================
There are many forms of courage.
The courage to go to the battlefield.
The courage to fight illness.
And the courage to break the silence.
‘ED (erectile dysfunction)’ is by no means a stigma.
Consult your healer.
— Mercure Merchant Guild
====================
The advertisement did not include the name of any medicine.
It was closer to a public-service announcement than a commercial advertisement.
I was the one who pushed for this format of advertising.
The board of directors and the guild master expressed concern about the advertisement.
[Director Shun. Are we really going to advertise it like this? Isn't there another way?]
The guild master inside the communication crystal was rubbing his hands and fidgeting nervously.
I spoke to our guild master, who still hadn't managed to shake off his nouveau riche air.
“The name Viagra has already spread widely by word of mouth. Right now, breaking down the barrier to entry will be more effective than making the name known.”
The prince's rumor had already been added to the mix.
There was no longer much advertising effect to be gained from simply publicizing the name.
So despite the board's lukewarm opposition, I pushed the advertisement through by sheer insistence.
And the public response that came back was explosive.
— “Did you see the Viagra advertisement?”
— “Viagra? Oh, that medicine?”
Citizens and nobles immediately realized what medicine those decorous words referred to.
The prevailing opinion was that the discreet, patient-conscious advertising method felt more mature and trustworthy.
— “The advertisement was pretty good, wasn't it?”
— “It made me think I might visit a healer too. Healing magic may be another matter, but medicine isn't all that expensive.”
— “Maybe I should go too….”
Above all, the expression ED (Erectile Dysfunction) broke down the wall in people's minds.
In this era, the decline of male function was referred to by the term Impotence (sexual impotence).
But once the dry expression ED took root in the public consciousness, men no longer feared the stigma as much.
Even if they could not seek help openly, perceptions had improved enough for them to visit healers in secret.
And though it was not intentional, the nature of the first advertisement changed the image of the medicine as well.
It might easily have become 'a medicine that encourages promiscuous sex,' but in the public consciousness it instead became 'the last resort for suffering men.'
In the end, even the board of directors, which had regarded my advertisement with suspicion, had no choice but to fall silent.
“See?”
[If you even understand business this well, why am I even here….]
“We were simply lucky this time. Aren't you more skilled at running the guild than I am? Come to think of it, how much stock do we have?”
[If you mean stock, we've prepared plenty.]
“That won't be enough.”
[?]
There was a minor problem along the way.
The guild was still estimating demand for this medicine far too low.
On the front: a respectable newspaper advertisement.
On the back: a rumor about the prince.
Our board had underestimated the power those two things would have when combined.
‘Well, it looks like demand will outstrip supply even if we run every factory we have.’
Looking to my past life, I heard that prescriptions for this medicine exceeded 300,000 in its first week on the American market.
There was no reason demand in this world would be any lower; if anything, it would be higher.
But this was not something I could do anything about even if I explained it, so I simply left it alone.
[At 100,000 tablets, they'll sell out in a week. Heh heh….]
I also left the guild master, who still could not foresee the coming upheaval, to his own devices.
Several days later.
At last, Viagra (sildenafil) was released to the public.
And it sold out in a single day.
[What? Why did this happen? Huh?]
The board of directors became busy in all sorts of ways, but that was none of my concern.
I am a person who develops medicines.
Production infrastructure is outside my domain.
That is for those fellows to handle themselves.
And the next morning, a line stretched in front of the guild headquarters long enough for carriages to circle it three times,
the day after that, it began trading on the black market at five times the list price,
and the following day, a sweeping crackdown began on the black market and hoarding.
The ‘Sildenafil Crisis’ that followed was recorded as the most chaotic week in the Empire's commercial history,
but that was a story unrelated to me.