The Ideal Sponger Life: Volume 2 by Tsunehiko Watanabe

Author:Tsunehiko Watanabe [WATANABE, TSUNEHIKO]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Published: 2021-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4 — Secret Missive From the Twin Kingdoms

A month later, Aura’s pregnancy was confirmed.

Her stomach was not yet visibly protruding, but she had been experiencing characteristic symptoms of pregnancy and her cycle was over three months late, so Doctor Michel had determined that it was certain.

The grand tidings of her pregnancy had, of course, set the country aflutter. Droves of people aiming for an audience with the queen converged upon the palace to offer gifts, along with those suggesting names of potential concubines for Zenjirou. Also coming out of the woodwork were influential nobles offering wet nurses for the queen’s child, telling of women who were already breastfeeding along with those whose stomachs were heavy with nearly-due children of their own.

There were many cases where the “wet nurses” would feed the child in the mother’s place, but also more figurative instances where the child would simply be raised by another. Either way, any wet nurse and her own children would, without a doubt, have a strong influence on the heir to the throne.

It was usually difficult for news from the outside to reach an isolated place like the inner palace, but this particular information had originated from within, so they could not remain removed from it. Because of this, even Zenjirou had found himself with very little time to relax.

“Ugh, nothing useful. I really screwed this up.”

Sunlight streamed in from the open window, the harsh rays having abated rather recently. Zenjirou had been sitting at his computer for a while and had just stretched and cracked his neck before giving a dejected sigh. He had been looking over the materials on his computer ever since Aura had told him she might be pregnant, so he knew perfectly well that he was unlikely to find something new. Even so, he obsessively confirmed it to himself whenever he had the time, mourning his past self’s inadequacies.

“Why did I only ever think about what came after the birth?”

He understood that reprimanding himself didn’t help, yet the stream of complaints didn’t stop. He’d come to this world with the express duty of providing an heir to the throne, and had prepared for it to an extent. Baby bottles, freezers for breast milk, and even boxes of powdered formula were all on hand if needed. He’d even brought several sets of cute baby clothes and books like Papa’s Childcare Manual and What a Father Can Do.

All of the items and information he had brought, however, were useful after a safe birth, and none of them would help to aid his pregnant wife in the meantime.

“Man, I thought about childcare, but I just wrote off the birth itself as having nothing to do with me,” he spat reproachfully as he slumped over the computer. More accurately, rather than considering the pregnancy and birth as being irrelevant to him, he hadn’t been entirely aware of the inherent risks of the process.

As a young, unmarried, Japanese man, it was hardly surprising. The number of occasions where women were at real risk during their pregnancy in modern Japan had dropped sharply.

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