Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 122 - Beautiful — Tears Unshed

What does it feel like to become a father?

I knew the due date was coming. I'd had months to prepare.

And I still stood there like an idiot.

I stood outside the delivery room listening to Eris's voice, completely dazed. Roxy and Sylphie held my hands, both of them so anxious they were murmuring prayers to the gods.

Then a baby's cry rang out, and everything went quiet.

I walked in. Lilia was holding the child, and she looked up at me with a smile.

"Young Master Rudeus, it's a girl!"

A girl.

The girl's name should be...

Aiwensa.

"Let me see her..."

Eris's voice was weak. Lilia carried the baby over and placed her in Eris's arms. Eris looked down at the tiny face and pulled an expression I hadn't expected.

"Is this really my child? She's so ugly..."

I laughed and walked over, sitting down beside her.

"She'll grow into her features. She'll become a beauty just like Eris."

"Mm... mm! Rudeus, do you like girls?"

"Of course. Boy or girl, they're both gifts you've given me. You worked hard."

I leaned in and kissed her.

When I pulled back, I took the baby myself. People say newborns are always ugly at first, but Aiwensa already looked adorable to me. She had her mother's red hair. Beneath her left eye was a beauty mark exactly like mine, and her eye corners drooped gently downward, just like mine.

As for her eyes, she was crying too hard to open them, so I had no idea what color they were.

I hoped they'd be like Eris's. Because Eris has beautiful eyes.

...

After Aiwensa was born, our home got louder.

Lilia and Zenith came by constantly, bringing homemade food and wanting to see their granddaughter. Paul would show up whenever he had a free moment, pretending not to care while very obviously trying to get Wensa to say "grandpa" first. It was never going to work. Norn came by just as often, dropping in to play with Wensa whenever she had the time.

One afternoon, Eris was nursing Wensa, holding her with a gentleness I still wasn't used to seeing from her, when she suddenly looked up.

"Rudeus~ When will Wensa learn to talk?"

"Probably a few more months. Around 5 months or so she'll start babbling — mama, papa, that kind of thing."

"I hope she says papa first."

"Please don't say that. I'm already dreading the day she gets married."

Roxy's hand came down on the back of my head in a clean knife-strike.

"Rudy~ She's only a few weeks old and you're already thinking about marriage?"

"Of course. Since she's a girl, her future husband has to be better than me."

Roxy tilted her head, pretending to think it over. Then she smiled.

"Mm... there's no man better than Rudy."

Eris nodded immediately.

"That's right! Rudeus is the best man."

The best man who married three wives.

I didn't think I qualified for that title, honestly. Because if Wensa's future husband ever tried to tell her he wanted three wives — one of them being her, I would absolutely kill him.

Uh... killing was probably too far. But I would definitely break them up.

Right. Decided.

"What are you thinking about, Rudy?"

Sylphie came in from the side, carrying a bowl of soup.

"Eris, drink this."

"Oh, okay!"

I looked at the scene in front of me and thought of Aisha.

If she were here, she'd be scheming right now. Trying every trick she could think of to make Wensa say "Auntie" first.

It had been several months. She hadn't written a single letter.

"Rudy, time to head out?"

"Mm."

Heading out meant going to the royal family's best clinic for a checkup, Wensa first, then the wives. Just a routine examination.

Half an hour by carriage and we arrived.

The doctor cleared Wensa without any issues, then moved on to my wives. I watched and thought, not for the first time, that magic really was more convenient than technology. No wonder every isekai story with magic never bothered inventing science.

"Hm...?"

When the doctor got to Roxy and Sylphie, he made that sound.

I was on my feet before I'd decided to stand up.

"Doctor? What's wrong with my wives?"

"Nothing's wrong. There's no need to be nervous." He smiled. "Congratulations."

"...Hm?"

"Both of these ladies are pregnant."

Roxy came to her senses before I did. She lowered her head and looked at her belly, quiet for a moment.

"Rudy... did you hear that?"

"Of course!"

"I..."

Sylphie was already crying.

I stepped forward and pulled them both into my arms.

"Why are you crying over good news?"

Sylphie choked against my shoulder.

"I... I thought something was wrong with me. That I couldn't give you children..."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because... even with the Long-Ear Tribe bloodline making it harder to conceive, it's been 3 years. And we've tried so many times..."

"Hey. It's okay."

I held her while she cried.

Roxy, meanwhile, was grinning like an idiot.

I glanced over at her, then back at the doctor.

"Thank you."

"It is my duty, Lord Rudeus. Both madams' pregnancies are very close in timing — approximately 14 days along for each."

"Understood."

On the carriage ride back, Eris handed Wensa to me and then threw her arms around Roxy and Sylphie, openly, without a moment's hesitation.

"Congratulations!"

Roxy and Sylphie both smiled and returned the hug. After that the three of them fell into conversation about the babies, about pregnancies, about everything at once.

"I honestly thought... with how small I am, maybe I just couldn't," Roxy said, a little red-faced.

That stopped me.

She was small. She really was small. Would it be dangerous?

Roxy caught whatever was on my face and shook her head quickly.

"Rudy, don't worry. Everyone in my tribe is this size. It's fine."

"Is that right?"

"Mm-hmm."

I looked at her for a moment. "I've never actually met your parents."

"The Demon Continent is so far away~"

"Do you want to see them?"

She was quiet for a beat. "...A little. Because back then, I ran away after a fight with them. I did go back once, but I left again almost right away."

"I remember. You told me."

"So I want them to know I'm happy. That they don't need to worry about me anymore..."

"I'll find the time to make a trip to the Demon Continent."

"Rudy~ You spoil me too much."

She leaned up and kissed me.

After that I kissed Sylphie, then Eris. When Sylphie and I finally broke apart, her eyes were a little unfocused.

"Rudy."

"Hm?"

"I've always wanted a child. You know that." She hesitated. "But... what if the hair is green?"

"Relax. Within Asura and Ranoa at least, that prejudice is already getting weaker."

"But..."

"There's still plenty of time. Don't worry."

She settled against me. "...Mm. I love you, Rudy."

"You couldn't have said that before the kiss?"

"Hmph~"

Sylphie is genuinely adorable.

I held Wensa and let my thoughts drift to the green hair question. What I'd said wasn't wrong, the prejudice was diminishing, at least in those two kingdoms. But according to Ruijerd, this was a curse. And curses weren't so easy to root out. Orsted had said the same thing. Still, as Ruijerd's reputation continued to improve, the curse itself seemed to be weakening.

There wasn't much more I could do right now. I'd done what I could. I'd heard recently that Norn was writing a biography of Ruijerd, which was a start. I'd go talk to her soon, suggest that she include his past, let people understand why the Superd had once been so terrifying. Not because it was their nature. Because of what was done to them. If the public could understand that, it would be enough.

.....

We went straight to Zenith's house after returning and told them the news.

Zenith and Lilia lit up immediately, pulling their daughters-in-law into their arms. Paul walked up to me, put a hand on my shoulder, and gave me a look.

"Way to go."

"Heh."

Since Norn had started boarding at school a few months ago, Roxy said she'd pass the news along to her tomorrow.

Either way, at Zenith's absolute insistence, we ended up having dinner at home again. I'd suggested a restaurant more than once over the years. It never worked. Zenith had a single, unanswerable line for every occasion.

"Food made outside isn't safe!"

There was simply no response to that.

At dinner, Paul and I got sidelined as usual. The women dominated the table and didn't need us for anything.

"Rudy, drink with me?"

"Did Mother agree?"

"Well... it's a big occasion. Should be fine, right?" Paul murmured.

Zenith's voice came from directly behind him.

"Dear-est~ And just how, exactly, are you teaching Rudy to drink?"

"He definitely already drinks! Rudy's all grown up."

Paul had a point, and it didn't matter at all.

Zenith turned to me.

"Rudy~ A little now and then is fine, but! You absolutely cannot be a drunk!"

Fear of one's mother, I thought, is encoded in the genes.

Zenith had no idea I went out drinking with Nanahoshi on a fairly regular basis. It wasn't the same as being a drunk, not really. But if she knew, going out regularly with another woman for drinks, she would absolutely lose her mind.

Thankfully, my wives all love me, and somewhere along the way they had developed a shared, unspoken agreement never to mention it to Zenith.

"Mother, I really don't drink much..."

"Mm~"

Zenith nodded, then looked at Paul.

"Fine. I'll allow you two a little tonight. Don't get carried away."

"Yes! Dearest!"

"Yes, Mother."

Paul and I drank and talked about nothing in particular. On the other side of the table, the women shared stories from when they were young, laughing, reminiscing, trading memories.

Then, gradually, Paul became the subject.

It turned out that not all of those memories were fond ones, at least where Paul was concerned.

He took it well, considering.

The meal went on for a long time.

When evening came, I carried Wensa and followed my wives down the road home, listening to them still going, voices overlapping in the dark.

"Rudy has this side to him too — scared of Mother Zenith."

"He really was, even as a child."

"When Rudy was little, he..."

The three of them went on and on, trading stories all the way home.

I just listened.

It felt good.

➤ Next: Norn and Ruijerd