After Feuzen came under attack, I thought there’d never be anything more shocking and terrifying in my life. But it seemed I’d suddenly broken that record. For a while I couldn’t gather my wits, as if I’d taken a massive blow to the head.

They say that when joy beyond words wells up, you weep, and that was exactly how I felt right then. My mother used to plead with me back in those days. Please get married and give me a grandchild.

Living alone was more fun and enjoyable, so I’d let my mother’s wish go in one ear and out the other, but now that I’d reached a point where I could never see her again, the first thing that came to mind was, of course, my mother.

It wasn’t that homesickness had flared up again; I’d just recalled my old self for the briefest moment. The current me had changed completely, and there was no going back to those days. The homesickness was long gone too.

I am Wolfgang Ritter von Streit.

Lord of Feuzen and commander of the Gale Knights.

And Hilda’s husband.

"My lord, I’ve brought Madam Arzt."

Priscilla brought in Madam Arzt, who’d been busy tending to the wounded. Now that the pregnancy was confirmed, Hilda absolutely had to be examined. Madam Arzt greeted me courteously.

Madam Arzt, a former tanner who’d always been pale and reeked of leather, now had a much better complexion and expression, which made it seem she was satisfied with life in Feuzen.

After examining Hilda, Madam Arzt said to me,

"It appears to be simple fatigue. She’ll be up after a good day or two of rest."

If it weren’t for the system, I too would have simply assumed it was fatigue, just like Madam Arzt. But the way she was looking at me was a little odd.

Was there something on my face, the way she kept stealing glances?

Normally she struggled even to look me in the eye.

"Do you know about the early symptoms of pregnancy?"

"Ah, yes. I learned about them from a midwife."

The level of medieval medicine wasn’t very high, so whether someone was pregnant was apparently judged purely by experience, in ways passed down like tradition. Of course, there’s no more certain evidence than a swelling belly.

"It seems my wife is pregnant."

"M-my lady is pregnant?"

Madam Arzt carefully examined Hilda. But there was no way to tell from the outside. So I made up a story that a few days earlier I’d dreamed the Lord was granting me an heir.

It was a ridiculous excuse, but astonishingly, in the medieval world it was a fairly persuasive justification. It was proof of just how deeply the Lord’s influence was rooted in the lives of medieval people.

"If the Lord has granted an heir, then this may well be a child of destiny!"

"It’s too early to jump to conclusions. First, check the symptoms."

"Has my lady perhaps been sleeping more?"

"I thought nothing of it, but she’s definitely been sleeping more."

It was certainly only recently that Hilda, who usually rose early, had become unable to stir in the mornings. There had already been signs of pregnancy, but because I was ignorant of such things, I’d brushed them off.

When Hilda personally led the defense from the front and cut down thirteen enemy soldiers, I was proud of what a remarkable wife she was, but after learning of the pregnancy, it sent another shiver through me.

What if she suffered a miscarriage as a result?

It could leave a tremendous scar on Hilda. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Fortunately, the system hadn’t mentioned anything about a miscarriage. If there were even the slightest problem with Hilda, the system would have alerted me. After all, she was carrying the heir to the Streit family.

Madam Arzt’s expression turned grave.

There wasn’t a single townsperson who didn’t know Hilda had fought against the enemy.

"For now, I’ll watch how things progress and observe her closely."

I felt that going to the trouble of even falsifying their identities to bring the Arzt couple here had paid off. They weren’t professional doctors, but their skill at setting bones and their knowledge of extracting painkillers alone made them far better than the doctors at the duchy hospital.

So they could be trusted.

When I came out of the bedroom, Sabine and Priscilla, who’d been waiting outside, approached. Hmm, their eyes showed they knew nothing. I’d learned of the pregnancy before the handmaids who stuck to Hilda all day long.

Sabine watched me intently.

"Master? Has something good happened again?"

"Hm? How can you tell?"

"Because you’re beaming."

The look on my face in the mirror was a sight. The corners of my lips were practically soaring to the heavens. I’d been sure my face was expressionless, but I was smiling without realizing it. And beaming at that! Was this an unconscious expression of joy?

"M-my lady is pregnant?!"

When I told the two handmaids about Hilda’s pregnancy, their reaction was fierce. Sabine was so shocked she even got the hiccups, and Priscilla was extremely proud of Hilda for carrying the heir.

And Priscilla lamented that her own attentiveness had fallen short.

If she’d paid a little more attention, she’d have noticed before the husband did.

So I told her again that I’d learned of it through a dream from the Lord.

"Goodness! A child of destiny! Ah, how can something be this holy!"

Sabine, a devout believer, recited prayers and chanted blessings over my child. Priscilla, marveling, also seemed to understand Hilda’s unusual behavior over the past while.

"No wonder I’d thought she was sleeping more and eating more."

"She’s surely been blessed by God! We’ll take diligent care of my lady, so don’t worry!"

I left Hilda in the care of the enthusiastic handmaids and headed straight for my study. I kept the matter of Hilda’s pregnancy secret until it was certain. The system had judged it, but she wouldn’t truly believe it until she was convinced of it herself.

If I explained the situation to Father Andreas, the Church might even recognize it. And the heir would be born amid everyone’s expectations. The child had been called one of destiny, but the talent was something I could cultivate.

So I needed to take a close look at the unlocked childcare shop.

Could I raise an excellent heir with points? A real child of destiny?

But come to think of it, in the Medieval Knight game there were also several items that could raise an heir’s latent stats. Of course, having had no heir, I’d never used them even once.

Maybe this childcare shop was the result of that content being reflected here. So I looked into the childcare shop in detail, and to start with, there were four basic bloodlines: dullard, average, prodigy, and genius.

[Streit Bloodline (Prodigy)]

Fortunately, my bloodline was classified as prodigy. It was a shame it wasn’t genius, but prodigy made sense in its own way. I was called Beren’s finest knight, and Hilda was hardly an ordinary woman either.

So the potential of the child Hilda was carrying had been rated as [Excellent Heir]. The childcare shop sold various enhancement items that could rank this excellent heir up to a genius-level heir.

The base unit was 5,000 points, and I sighed at the feeling that another point black hole had been created alongside the lord shop, but raising an heir was a very important matter.

I couldn’t let my heir squander the family glory I’d built up.

I’d have to invest points whenever I got the chance and make him at least a genius, if not better.

You could invest one item per week of pregnancy, but once the child was born, you could no longer invest. So the chances to invest were limited. About 40 weeks until birth, was it?