Chapter 22
Crunch.
The strawberry burst in my mouth.
Kara hurriedly picked up and gobbled down the strawberries on the plate, wearing a blissful expression.
One, two, three....
Before I knew it, the plate was gradually being emptied.
Watching her, I let out a sigh of relief.
‘Thank goodness.’
Seeing my wife shed tears as she experienced morning sickness for the first time, watching her eat so happily made something ache in a corner of my heart.
Count Eisen smiled fondly from behind his glasses, and Alina clapped along excitedly.
“Is it good, Sis? Does our baby like it too?”
“Mhm, she likes it a lot. She says Daddy and Big Sis Alina are the best.”
Kara took my hand and smiled with her eyes.
“Thank you, Varg. Thank you so much.”
Her warm touch and happy expression.
All the hardship Count Eisen, the servants, and I had endured together to recreate Frost Strawberries felt rewarded, almost like a blessing, by that one smile.
Yes, this was enough.
Feeling as though I possessed the whole world, I reached out to stroke Kara’s hair.
But.
Happiness was cruelly short-lived.
“Ugh...!”
Kara’s face suddenly went pale, and she clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Kara?”
Her shoulders heaved violently.
I instinctively realized what was happening and hurriedly held out a basin.
Fortunately, the head maid, who had plenty of experience, had brought one in preparation for just such a situation.
“Bleeaagh!”
Kara vomited up every last one of the 「Frost Strawberries」 she had just eaten.
Red strawberry flesh poured out mixed with stomach acid.
“Cough! Cough! Ugh....”
As though in pain, she clutched at her chest and continued dry-heaving.
Her happy smile from moments ago was gone, leaving only a miserable face streaked with tears and mucus.
“......”
I was speechless.
I take it back.
Finding something she wanted to eat might have been a blessing, but this morning sickness was no blessing.
This was torture.
My wife’s back as she suffered while vomiting up everything she had struggled to eat.
The corners of her eyes reddened from retching.
Seeing Kara suffer through her first pregnancy at an age when others would be attending the academy was agony for me as her husband.
‘Damn it.’
I clenched my teeth.
The hands that could crush snow-bear bones and knock the heads off barbarian tribesmen from other tribes now felt utterly powerless.
The woman I loved was suffering, yet I couldn’t suffer in her place or solve it with strength.
For Varg, this time spent doing nothing but patting her back and watching was harder and felt longer than any battle.
“It’s okay... It’s okay....”
I stroked Kara’s back with trembling hands.
The only thing I could do was offer this pitiful comfort.
After a warlike bout of vomiting ended.
Kara lifted her head, her face pale.
She rinsed her mouth and spoke in a weak voice.
“...I’m sorry. You went to all that trouble to make them... What a waste.”
“What are you sorry for? It’s not your fault, Kara.”
Upset, I raised my voice slightly.
When she had whined about wanting strawberries, she had looked exactly like a spoiled little girl, but now she was worrying about me instead.
Seeing my stiff expression, Kara raised a weak hand and caressed my cheek.
“Lighten up, husband. I’m not going to die.”
“......”
“Our baby’s protesting to show that it’s alive. It means the baby’s healthy... Don’t worry so much.”
Even while suffering, she gave me a faint smile.
The one who was in pain was comforting me instead.
Kara was becoming a much stronger mother than I had imagined.
I swept Kara up into my arms.
“Let’s go to the bedroom. You need to rest.”
Kara didn’t resist, instead wrapping her arms around my neck.
Her eyes closed as though exhausted, but an unwiped stain remained around her mouth.
The bedroom.
I laid Kara on the bed and carefully wiped around her mouth with a warm cloth.
The red stain disappeared, revealing her pale lips.
On impulse, I kissed those lips, briefly but deeply.
Smack.
Kara stared at me with startled eyes.
“Varg? My lips must taste sour... I threw up everything in my stomach....”
“No?”
I cut her off with a broad smile.
“It tastes like Frost Strawberries. The sourness, I mean.”
“......Tch.”
Kara’s eyes grew moist.
With eyes filled with both emotion and love, she pulled me down by the neck.
This time, Kara kissed me first.
Mwah—.
A little longer.
More deeply.
Sharing each other’s warmth and breath, we forgot the pain of morning sickness, if only for a while.
After a long while.
Kara fell asleep from exhaustion, and I carefully left the bedroom.
A single note was in my hand.
【 Smoked reindeer jerky, Snowflake Mushroom soup, honey-preserved ice.... 】
It was a list of foods Kara had murmured she wanted before falling asleep.
They were all plain and rough, yet full of human warmth and carrying the nostalgia of Norhaim.
Count Eisen was pacing anxiously in the hallway, a worried expression on his face.
“How is Miss Kara? Has she calmed down?”
“Yes, she just fell asleep. Thanks to you, we made it through the crisis.”
“That’s a relief. Phew....”
Count Eisen breathed a sigh of relief.
After hesitating for a moment, he began speaking with a bitter expression.
“Actually... when I was in Norhaim as part of the delegation, Miss Kara was still in her mother’s womb.”
“Ah....”
“Lady Flina suffered quite badly from morning sickness then too. I remember that rascal Gorgon turning the snow-covered mountains upside down in midwinter to find wild strawberries.”
Eisen narrowed his eyes as though recalling a distant memory.
“I’ve heard that the severity of morning sickness is sometimes hereditary. Miss Kara may suffer just as her mother did.”
My heart dropped at those words.
Kara’s mother had died in a difficult childbirth.
Could Kara also...?”
Perhaps noticing my anxiety, Count Eisen hurriedly added,
“Ah, of course, medical care is different now. The Empire’s finest physicians are standing by, so please don’t worry.”
“...I certainly hope so. Thank you.”
Forcibly shaking off my unease, I held out the note in my hand.
“For now, these are the things Kara says she wants to eat. Can you obtain them?”
Count Eisen accepted the list and scanned it.
His expression grew strange.
It contained nothing but native Norhaim foods that were difficult to obtain and not even sold in the Empire.
“...Miss Kara certainly is modest.”
Eisen gave a small chuckle.
“Knowing her, she didn’t deliberately name things that were difficult to obtain. These are simply the only hometown foods she’s ever eaten, so that’s what she asked for.”
His words made my chest ache.
My wife was longing for the taste of her harsh homeland rather than the Empire’s lavish cuisine.
“Understood. I’ll contact the merchant guild and do my best to procure them. And....”
Count Eisen’s eyes lit up.
“Once Miss Kara wakes up, we should let her taste real strawberries from the Empire, too. I mean sweet, genuine ones—not the sour counterfeits we made.”
“Haha, sounds good.”
We looked at each other and shared a bitter smile.
The war against morning sickness had only just begun.
There was another problem left to deal with.
“I’ll do everything I can to support her until she enrolls, but... the problem is dormitory life after enrollment.”
Count Eisen spoke gravely.
“As a rule, the academy dormitories are separated by sex, and there are no family dormitories. Living alone while pregnant would be difficult.”
“I suppose it would.”
“It would be fortunate if she found a good roommate, but... if nothing else works, I’ll pull some strings and arrange for Mr. Varg to share a room with her.”
“Is that possible?”
“In principle, it’s prohibited by Imperial regulations, but there’s ample justification for making an exception for a pregnant woman’s health. Who do you think I am? Isn’t it an administrator’s job to make the impossible possible?”
He grinned and pushed up his glasses.
I felt reassured.
There were still many hurdles to clear, from the entrance exam to dormitory assignments.
But with this man, and with Kara, I felt as though we could get through it.
“Please, Count.”
“Leave it to me.”
The resolve of two men met in the dark hallway.
That was when it happened.
Hubbub.
The front gate of the mansion suddenly grew noisy.
A massive freight wagon was lumbering in with a heavy rumble.
It was Kloser, the master tailor and owner of a clothing shop in the borderlands.
He jumped down from the wagon carrying a carefully wrapped box of clothes.
“Count! Lord Varg! Lord Varg’s trousers are finished, and I’ve delivered them in person!”
“I appreciate the effort, but why is the freight wagon so large for delivering a single pair of trousers?”
Count Eisen tilted his head and pointed at the wagon.
It was far too large to be an ordinary freight wagon…
It was a magic-stone-powered wagon for transporting special goods.
The cargo bed had been sealed two or three times over with thick tarpaulin and leather.
What was more, white, icy air was pouring through the gaps.
“And what is that...?”
Kloser awkwardly smiled as he lifted the cover over the cargo bed.
Then.
“......!”
Count Eisen and I could hardly believe our eyes.
The cargo bed was packed full of white snow.
“What is this? Did you deliver a load of snow?”
“Ah, well, you see.”
Kloser wiped away his sweat and explained.
“Before I set out, I saw a gigantic member of the Revered Peoples named Gorgon von Wintersword arguing at the border checkpoint.”
“My father?”
“Yes. The checkpoint soldiers stopped him, saying they couldn’t let him through until they completed an inspection because they didn’t know what might be inside the snowballs. So he explained the situation and begged them to send these things to Eisengard as quickly as possible... He was practically in tears.”
Kloser shook his head in wonder.
“Since I happened to be heading this way, I heard what had happened and loaded them up for him. I even used magic stones to keep them from melting.”
“Wait, what about the cost of those expensive magic stones?”
When Count Eisen asked in surprise, Kloser pulled a crumpled receipt from inside his coat and waved it.
It was....
A receipt bearing Young Master Kairon’s signature and seal.
“Don’t worry! I still haven’t returned this all-purpose payment voucher the young master granted me. I put it to very good use for this delivery fee and the rental cost of the freezing magic stones!”
“......Huh.”
“Thanks to the young master, I’m living in luxury. I even had all the wagon wheels replaced with top-of-the-line ones while I was at it! Hahahaha!”
Kloser guffawed with an immensely proud expression.
It was shameless enough to leave even Count Eisen, the Empire’s greatest administrator, speechless.
But to me, that shamelessness was salvation.
My father’s request.
With trembling hands, I brushed away the snow piled in the cargo bed.
Rough leather pouches and jars buried in the cold snow emerged.
I took them out one by one and checked their contents.
Dried reindeer meat.
Frost Strawberries.
Pickled Root Fern.
Snowflake Mushrooms.
They were the foods Kara had just told me she wanted to eat.
Every last one had been prepared perfectly, without a single item missing.
“Ah....”
My chest tightened.
My father had not forgotten for even a moment.
The foods he had sought out when his wife, Kara’s mother, had suffered from morning sickness.
The memory of shedding tears of blood because he had been unable to find them then.
He had foreseen that his daughter would seek out those same foods and prepared and sent them in advance.
The love of a father and husband, crossing decades of time, had arrived wrapped in snow.
With reddened eyes, I gathered the packages into my arms.
* * *
At the same time.
The Winterfang Tribe’s encampment in Norhaim.
On a hill swept by biting wind.
Chieftain Gorgon, draped in a bearskin cloak, stood gazing blankly southward toward Eisengard.
“Spacing out again? How pathetic.”
Granny Baba lightly tapped Gorgon’s shin with her cane.
“Ah, Granny... Nothing. I was just wondering whether what I sent arrived safely.”
“It probably arrived and then some. Don’t make such a fuss.”
Granny Baba clicked her tongue, but Gorgon only smiled bitterly.
“Thank you, Granny—for remembering it all.”
“Hmph. As if I remembered.”
Granny Baba snorted.
“I just didn’t throw away the scraps of paper you scribbled on while crying every night.”
After Kara’s mother passed away.
Gorgon spent decades tormented by guilt, wondering whether his wife’s death might have been caused by the foods he had fed her during her morning sickness.
So he had obsessively recorded the foods she ate, vomited up, and liked during her morning sickness, trying to find the cause.
That agonizing record had been put to use for his daughter today.
“Tch. Anyway... that Varg fellow is going to have a rough time.”
Granny Baba muttered meaningfully as she looked toward the southern sky.
“Why? Now that the food has arrived, won’t she be all right?”
“Food will only help. Like mother, like daughter—her morning sickness is going to be vicious. Looks like that boy of yours is going to taste the same living hell you did.”
“......”
Gorgon’s face turned pale.
He quietly made the sign of the cross toward the south.
‘Hang in there, son.’
The old wolf’s longing and concern rode the snowstorm toward the Empire.