After Story 2. Verdick Jr. (2) – unedited

Time passed, and there was a room for the child at Duke Verdick’s residence. The bookshelves in the room were filled with books by Evanstein Verdick, and a toy sword and other protective equipment were placed on one side of the room.

Two men were losing their minds in front of the Duchess’s room. As Leon continued to pace in front of the door, Evan got mad and told him to stay still. But Evan was equally anxious.

“Why, why isn’t it coming out?”

“Isn’t the first birth supposed to take a long time?”

“Sister just keeps screaming.”

“…….”

Quite a lot of time has passed since the midwife entered. There was not only the doctor at Duke Verdick’s residence, but also the midwife and palace doctor sent by the crown prince, so they believed that nothing big would happen. However, since there are not a few cases in which mothers die during childbirth, they could not shake off their anxiety.

Even if they knew how much Aris wanted a child, they wondered what good it would be if something went wrong with Aris’ body because of the child.

“Aaaahhhhkk!”

A scream leaked from inside the tightly closed door. They wanted to go into the room right away and make sure that Aris was all right, but they put up with it. If someone else entered the room in the middle, it could adversely affect the health of the mother or the child.

In the end, the brothers held each other’s hands for the first time in ten years to shake off this anxiety. Their eyes were still fixed on the door.

As time passed, like a thousand eons had passed for the two of them, a baby’s cry began to be heard from the inside. But the two couldn’t be relieved. Even if the child was born, they couldn’t be relieved until they saw Aris’ condition with their own eyes.

Besides, Aris’ screams continued despite the baby’s cry.

“What, what happened? Brother, the baby was born, so why is Sister…….”

“I’m outside too, how can I tell?”

Leon focused all his attention on his hearing. However, the voice that came from inside told Aris to give a little more strength. The baby was already born, but why?

But it wasn’t long before Leon found out why. The baby’s cry came in twos.

“Two, two?”

“What? What do you mean by two?”

Before Leon could answer, the doctor came out from inside. He must have had a hard time that his brow was covered with sweat.

“The babies were born healthy.”

“Then Aris!”

“The Duchess is also fine.”

After hearing Aris’ condition, the two of them let out a sigh of relief. However, since they had not seen Aris’ condition with their own eyes, they entered the room nervously.

On one side, was where the baby gets washed, and the other was treating Aris after the birth.

The brothers ran up to Aris and grabbed her hands from both sides. Aris suffered so much that she couldn’t even open her eyes properly. Aris, who looked at Evan and Leon alternately with her narrow eyes, smiled.

Evan and Leon tried to smile at her smile, but strangely, tears welled up in their eyes instead. How hard must it be for Aris alone?

“Duchess, would you like to see the baby’s face?”

“Yes.”

The midwife wrapped the washed baby in a soft cloth and brought it to the side of Aris’s face. The child’s hair was soft white blonde. As soon as she saw the child’s hair, she looked at Evan, and he was looking at the baby with an excited face.

“Can I hold it?”

“Of course.”

“How should I hold it? Won’t it break?”

Evan was at a loss because it was such a small baby. The midwife was by Evan’s side and helped him hold the baby properly. Evan held on tight to the baby, fearing that it might fall, but focused all his attention on the child, lest he hold it too tightly and hurt the child.

“Baby.”

The baby couldn’t even open its eyes properly, but it was infinitely cute and lovely in Evan’s eyes. He was about to ask Aris what to name the child, but the midwife was with another baby in her arms.

“Huh?”

“Duchess, I brought the second baby here too.”

To Evan’s surprise, he looked back and forth between the two babies. Two babies. Come to think of it, Leon also said ‘two’ outside, and it seemed like the doctor also said ‘babies’.

The other child the midwife was holding had dark hair that looked just like Leon.

“Leon.”

“Huh?”

“This baby have black hair too?”

As Aris said with a smile, Leon looked at the baby like a fool, then he held out his hand towards the midwife. Then, as Evan did, he held the baby. He carefully stroked the baby’s cheek with his fingertips, fearing that he would injure the baby. It was soft, supple, and warm.

“It looks so…… weak. And small. I must protect you.”

“That’s right. How can these children survive in this harsh world?”

The first meeting with the newly born babies became an opportunity for the fathers, who were already too polar, to come to their senses. However, Aris thought that even up to this point, it was just a normal paternal love. It wasn’t until the kids were 12 that she realized that they were nothing but ordinary.

Both sons grew up very well. Luckily, one looks exactly like Evan, and the other looks exactly like Leon.

Perhaps by a twist of fate, Ludwig, a son with platinum blonde hair who looked exactly like Evan, liked learning swordsmanship from Leon. Even the talent for swordsmanship must have been inherited from Leon. Otherwise, there was no way the knights would pay attention to him, saying that he had a high chance of becoming a sword master at the young age of 12.