Chapter 201

“I do have something in mind,” Rezette said at last.

“What is it?” Elise prompted softly.

“…Roana.”

It was a name he had repeated only in the privacy of his thoughts. Speaking it aloud for the first time felt strangely awkward. Rezette lowered his gaze without thinking and met his daughter’s bright eyes.

The name itself carried no grand prophecy. He had taken a letter from his own name and one from Elise’s, weaving them together with an ancient word that meant star. Whenever the child looked up at him, her eyes shimmered like starlight. Until he actually voiced it, he had not been certain it would suit her. Yet the instant he saw her round golden eyes widen just like her mother’s, conviction settled in his chest. His sun and his star were both here.

This small space was his entire universe.

Elise, her cheeks flushed with emotion, repeated the name several times under her breath. “Roana. Roana. It suits her so well. It’s beautiful.”

Instead of answering, Rezette bent and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. The warm scent of milk clinging to Elise softened the tension that lingered in his nerves. Roana Kyrstan. Their child would walk through the world bearing that name.

As if aware that her existence had finally been defined, the baby who had been called Cherry broke into a sleepy smile and soon began to nod off. To his surprise, Rezette felt his own eyelids grow heavy in sympathy. The long afternoon sunlight spilled across his face as a rare peace settled over him.

Roana, as Rezette’s daughter was now properly called, was for the most part a gentle baby. Of course, mostly gentle still left room for exceptions.

Elise sat in the carriage across from her husband and child with a faintly dejected expression. A month and a half had passed since she regained consciousness when a carrier pigeon arrived from Argan, bringing news from her homeland for the first time in over two months. Preparations to depart had been completed in haste. They could delay their return no longer.

The baby who clung to Elise in bed began thrashing and fussing the moment Elise tried to sit up. She cried inconsolably until Rezette scooped her into his arms, calming only after settling against his chest. Left to sit alone, Elise’s face darkened.

“I don’t think Cherry, no, Roana, likes me very much,” she murmured gloomily.

“That is impossible,” Rezette replied at once.

“If it weren’t true, she wouldn’t hate being held by me,” Elise insisted. “She always seems oddly uncomfortable.”

Over the past fifty days she had observed it carefully. The baby clearly preferred Rezette’s arms. Elise had always prayed the two would be close, but she had never meant they should bond at her expense. A subtle sense of exclusion crept over her.

Does she dislike me, Elise wondered miserably.

Roana latched onto her eagerly when it was time to nurse, but once her belly was full she flailed her short limbs and searched for Rezette. If Elise tried to hold her a little longer, the baby burst into tears without fail. Roana even rejected Ivetsa and Lady Petisson, insisting stubbornly on Rezette alone. As a result, caring for the child had unintentionally become his responsibility.

Rezette’s once awkward posture had grown surprisingly natural. He now held the baby with a steadiness that surpassed even Elise’s. He looked completely accustomed to the situation, which only deepened Elise’s gloom.

“Maybe Roana suffered too much in the womb,” Elise said quietly.

“For a Dragonborn, that is hardly suffering,” Rezette countered.

“Please stop projecting yourself onto her,” Elise protested, frowning. “What do you think? Does she seem anxious when she’s with me?”

Rezette let out a soft sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a scoff. “She does not dislike you. Nor is this because she prefers me.”

“Then what is it?” Elise pressed.

“She likely sees me as… something like a carriage or a moving cradle,” Rezette answered after a pause. “I cannot say she is entirely wrong.”

Because father and daughter shared the nature of dragon-human hybrids, Rezette sensed Roana’s moods as easily as she reacted to his presence. She seemed fond of a sturdy, spacious conveyance that periodically supplied her with the nourishment of magic. While she rarely demanded milk from her mother, she greedily absorbed Rezette’s magic whenever she could, displaying the instincts of a fierce little hunter.

Apart from the fact that Rezette made an appealing source of sustenance, Roana’s avoidance of Elise had a clearer cause. Rezette treated Elise like a fragile glass doll that might shatter at a touch. Watching this, the baby appeared to adopt the same view of her mother.

“Dragonborn are more animalistic than humans,” Rezette explained calmly. “They instinctively gauge the strength of those around them.”

“Strength…” Elise echoed in shock.

As Rezette offered one finger to the squirming baby, he added with quiet certainty, “Once you recover a little more, she will cling to you readily. Even now her eyes follow you everywhere.”

“…I see,” Elise replied weakly.

It was not particularly comforting. So I am the weakest one here, she lamented inwardly. Worse than a one month old baby.

The carriage rattled along the road, yet Rezette and Roana remained perfectly composed. Elise, by contrast, bounced in her seat every time the wheels struck a bump. Unable to watch any longer, Rezette gently transferred the baby into her arms and slid closer, drawing both mother and child onto his lap. The jolting stopped at once, as if they were seated upon the roots of an ancient tree.

“There,” he said quietly. “Better?”

Finally included in the same embrace, Elise’s face brightened. The baby met her gaze and babbled a delighted cry.

So adorable, Elise thought, her heart melting.

In just a month Roana had grown rapidly. Her cheeks were plump and pale, her eyes clearer and more defined. It was astonishing how quickly she developed for a child born before full term. In recent days she had begun to babble in earnest, filling the air with soft sounds and cheerful squeals.

The shape of her eyes really does resemble Rezette, Elise mused as she watched her daughter. Time slipped away unnoticed while she leaned against her husband and admired the tiny life wriggling in her arms. By the time Roana drifted to sleep, drowsiness weighed on Elise’s eyelids as well. Rezette stroked the back of her head gently.

“We still have a long way to go,” he murmured. “Rest, Elise.”

Wrapped in the warmth of her husband and child, Elise surrendered to a peaceful nap.

Their destination was the border of Argan, a journey of seven days across open grasslands. Progress was slow, largely because Rezette raised an eyebrow every time Elise secretly attempted to form a teleportation circle.

“If the imperial palace would collapse because we arrive a week late,” he said firmly, “then it is not worth visiting in the first place.”

Though nothing remained to drain Elise’s magic, he refused to yield. “I would object even if we were heading to Rotiara. The fact that you intend to travel somewhere still in ruins displeases me. And you plan to use magic yourself.”

“I have to dispel the barrier at the entrance to the capital,” Elise argued. “Only I can do it.”

“I am not telling you not to do that,” Rezette replied evenly. “I am saying you should do nothing beyond that.”

While Elise struggled to grasp the distinction, Rezette disrupted the spell forming in the air before her. Then, before she could protest, he silenced her with a kiss. Each attempt to speak earned her another cascade of kisses, leaving her breathless.

“Slowly,” he murmured against her lips. “Do not rush.”

“All right, I understand. That’s enough,” Elise gasped.

“Please allow your husband time to breathe,” Rezette added dryly. “You have already shaved years off my life.”

Lately he had become remarkably talkative, and his skill at persuading her improved by the day. In the end Elise surrendered first.

“You are unbelievably stubborn,” she muttered.

“Pardon?” Rezette asked lightly.

“I said you have a point,” Elise admitted with a sigh. “We’ll go slowly.”

Even so, the journey from the border of Argan to the imperial capital required another week by the shortest route. Rezette did not insist on prolonging that leg of the trip. From the border, Elise connected a teleportation circle directly to the capital.

A great crowd had gathered near the city walls to welcome the imperial princess. These were the people of Argan who had once cowered under the oppression of the Ugels. At noon, as the sun reached its peak, a brilliant teleportation circle flared to life at the appointed coordinates. The spectators erupted in emotional cheers at the miraculous sight. Only a member of Argan’s imperial family could accomplish such a feat.

Elise fussed with her hair, newly styled after so long, still seated on Rezette’s lap. “We cannot stay like this when we step out of the carriage,” she whispered urgently. “Everyone will be watching. I need to show them that the imperial princess is strong. I cannot appear unable to walk on my own.”

“…Of course,” Rezette agreed, his tone oddly subdued as he rested his cheek against her neck. Unlike before, he did not complain or treat her as though she were incapable of standing.

Why is he yielding so easily here, Elise wondered.

Her question was answered when Rezette lifted the sleeping baby with one arm and drew the hood of his cloak over his head. He had decided there was no need to reveal himself before the people of Argan. Although he had aided their army in Riosa and destroyed the Ugels’ capital, his reputation among civilians remained far from favorable. The northern war fiend, the hound of Van Yela, the invader from the south. His presence would only tarnish the princess’s return.

“So you are sending me out alone?” Elise asked, pouting.

At that moment the carriage door swung open. The thunder of cheers that had battered the exterior flooded inside. Startled awake by the sudden roar, Roana burst into loud, indignant tears.