Chapter 15: Fate / Carry a Life

What do you think I should do?
When Light Blue asked me that, what did I answer?
The shock must have been so great that even a dragon’s memory—which can recall things from six hundred years ago with clarity—was no help.
Before I knew it, I was waking up in bed the next morning.

I tried to take refuge in the idea that it might all have been a dream, but Light Blue’s voice still echoing in my ears told me it wasn’t.

「Mmm... morning.」

Whether she’d come back while I was asleep or I’d returned to lie beside her while she slept, I wasn’t sure; either way, Nina had ended up sleeping next to me, and, sensing my movement, she woke and let out a big yawn.

「Good morning... Nina.」
「Hm? What is it?」

How much did Nina know about Light Blue?
She surely knew about her and Yutaka, but probably not that she might be pregnant. If she’d consulted Nina, she wouldn’t have come to me as well.

Can humans and elves even have children together? No—before that...

「How do elves make children?」

The instant I voiced that simple question, a fist came flying, and my consciousness cut out again.


* * *


「Nina... when I’m in human form my durability’s barely any better than a human’s, so go easy on me...」
「That’s because you ask weird things!」

Even Nina found that sort of topic embarrassing. Cheeks faintly flushed, she shouted.

「No, there’s nothing weird behind it. It’s purely academic.」

In my previous life—on Earth—species were distinguished by whether they could interbreed; in other words, by whether they could produce offspring.
Dogs and wolves can have pups together. That means they were originally the same species.
But humans and apes cannot. Even if humans evolved from apes, they are a different species.
Conversely, among humans, people can have children regardless of country or skin color. Classifications like “white” or “black” are cultural; biologically, humanity everywhere was a single species, Homo sapiens.

Elves and humans do look very similar. Aside from physical ability and magic, the real difference is ear length. But their lifespans are far too different. Whether they’re the same species was a hard question.

All that presupposes elves multiply the same way humans do. It wouldn’t have surprised me if you planted a seed, a tree grew, and a child came out of the fruit. I’d never even seen an elf child.

「...The same as humans. I don’t know whether a proper child would be born between a human and an elf, though...」

Nina looked away and spoke in an irritable tone.
The fact she went out of her way to mention “with a human” means...

「So you knew too.」
「Anyone can tell at a glance.」

No, I don’t think most people can.

「How many births do you think I’ve delivered?」

No sooner had I thought that than Nina puffed out her chest and said it.
Put that way, fair enough.

Surgery: cutting away bad tissue and stitching wounds closed.
Internal medicine: compounding and prescribing all manner of herbs.
And magical therapeutics to ease pain and steady the body.

In any of these, Nina is without question the village’s foremost physician.
Starting with Dalga’s son Dalgo, the number of children she’s delivered must be in the hundreds, if not thousands. Our stillbirth rate is extraordinarily low for this era thanks to her.

「Then... she really is pregnant.」
「I can’t say whether it’ll be a normal birth, or whether it’ll survive even if it’s born.」

...I see... And even if it is born, there’s the possibility it will, like a mule—the horse–donkey hybrid—lack reproductive ability.

But.

「Even so. The fact that a child can be conceived is something to celebrate. That’s how living things have kept the thread of life going.」

Yeah. That’s right.

「...Right.」

With a rare, unguarded smile, Nina nodded.

Yes. That’s what I told Light Blue.


* * *


Nina’s assessment proved right, and by autumn Light Blue’s belly had begun to softly round. The real spectacle was Yutaka—apparently he had no idea she was pregnant.
The moment he learned it—right there at lunch in front of the other students—Yutaka proposed to Light Blue on the spot, and everyone burst out laughing. It was very Yutaka of him.

So that her belly wouldn’t get too big, the preparations for their wedding were rushed, and three days later the ceremony was held with Nina acting as priest.
Light Blue, in a pure white maternity wedding dress woven from threads of moonlight (so that full‑moon business Nina mentioned must have been this), looked truly beautiful and happy; even I, hardly involved, was moved to tears and got teased by Nina for it—a fond memory.

...And then, another half‑year passed.

The fated day arrived.

「Uuuhhh...! Ngh... uuhhh!」

Light Blue curled up, her well‑shaped features twisted in pain, and groaned.

「Hang in there, Light Blue...! Nina‑nee‑san, is it still not time?!」
「Not yet.」

Yutaka, desperately cheering Light Blue on and looking even more pained than she did, asked, but Nina answered him flatly.

「She won’t start pushing until the contractions get closer together.」
「But...! She looks like she’s in so much pain.」

For a first birth, it usually takes about half a day from the onset of labor to delivery.
During that time the mother has to endure pain men can’t even imagine, so naturally he couldn’t sit still. Yutaka kept asking Nina the same thing and getting on her nerves.

「She’s trying to bring a person into the world—of course it hurts. Rin, he’s in the way; toss him out.」
「Okaaay.」

A rope of water snaked out, bound Yutaka’s hands and feet, and flung him outside.
I felt a little bad for him, but... well, a man can’t do anything in here anyway.

「Yutaka‑kun, it’s okay—Nina‑sensei is with her.」
「You’re about to be a parent, so pull yourself together! Come on!」

I could hear Ruful—who couldn’t enter the sickroom due to her size—and Tia, waiting with her outside, comforting and prodding Yutaka. I’d leave him to those two; if he tried to force his way in, Ruful could stop him.

「Yuu...‑chan...」
「I’ll call him back once delivery starts, so don’t worry. You just empty your head and behave. The hard part comes later—be ready for it.」

Soaked in sweat from head to toe, Light Blue gave a small nod.

「Nina‑sensei... I’ll do my best. I absolutely... want to bring this child into the world. So... if anything happens, choose this baby over me.」

With a grave expression, Light Blue appealed to Nina.

「Don’t be ridiculous.」

Nina laughed off that grim resolve.

「That’s not the resolve I meant. Listen: the hardest part is after. After the child is born.」
「...Huh?」

She was about to face the biggest trial of her life—literally life and death—and being told, out of nowhere, about “after,” made her eyes go wide.

「Unlike elf children, human babies are a huge handful. You can’t just let them gnaw on a root and call it a day. You feed them milk many times a day, change their diapers, get them down and they wake right back up, and you don’t get to sleep yourself... It is really, really hard. You planning to leave all that to that idiot alone?」

Nina’s words carried weight. Of course, she herself had never given birth.
But she had raised children many times.
In this age with hardly any proper medicine, it isn’t rare for mothers to die from poor postpartum recovery.

「So steel yourself now for that time. —I will not let either you or that child die.」

Declaring it with full confidence, Nina smiled brightly.

「...Yes!」

And after a day and a half of agony...
After a difficult labor that lasted thirty‑six hours, Light Blue’s child was born.

Red hair and long, pointed ears. A girl split cleanly in half between her parents’ traits.
She, named Yuuka, was—

—the world’s very first half‑elf.