Release that Witch

After the couple left, Carter approached her to ask, ”Do you really intend to go there? You can stay at home if you don’t want to.”

”Why? Are you unwilling to have my company?”

”Of course not!” He shook his head wildly, completely not like a grim-faced knight, ”I want to be with you all the time.”

Even in those tragedies of love and death where actors and actresses expressed love to each other, their lines would not be more exaggerating than that. She had never expected to meet such a dramatic person in real life. She glanced at him and asked, ”Oh, who do you want to stay with, His Majesty or me?”

”Uh... Well,” Carter did not know how to respond. Probably he had never considered how to choose between responsibility and love.

May was amused and gently patted his cheek. ”OK, it seems that I’m as important as the king.”

The Chief Knight relieved and hugged his wife with his arms. His hands, in the meantime, started to move down.

”Stop! It’s still during the daytime,” she tried to stop him when she suddenly felt like throwing up, ”Ugh...”

Carter immediately stopped and asked with concern, ”What happened? Do you feel uncomfortable?”

May shook her head, pushed the knight away and took a deep breath. Although she knew she was not sick, she still felt nauseous as if her stomach were turning. She walked to the bathroom and retched, but nothing came out except for some saliva.

”I’ll go to call Miss Lily.” Seeing this, Carter became more worried. He put on his jacket and was ready to leave.

”Wait... Wait,” May stopped him. ”I didn’t catch a cold.”

”But you’re so ill... His Majesty’s textbook mentions that the early symptoms of a cold are vomiting and diarrhea. Miss Lily’s ability can cure the disease quickly. It’ll become more serious if we don’t receive treatment now.”

”Maybe I’m not sick...”

”Not sick?” Carter frowned. ”Why do you vomit?”

”This fool doesn’t have any common sense,” May thought, her cheeks flushed. She heard from people that when a woman was..., she might have similar reactions. But she had no experience of it. If she was wrong, she was afraid that she might be mocked. She was delighted to see her husband behave in a funny way, but she could not make mistakes on such an important issue, otherwise she would be teased by him for the rest of her life.

”In the Witch Union... I remember there‘s a green-haired girl who can see through things?”

”Do you mean Miss Sylvie?” Carter nodded. ”She does see hidden things that ordinary people can’t see... But she can’t treat illness.”

”Can you ask her to come?” May slowly returned to the bedside. Though she was just guessing, she still sat down slowly as if she were scared to disturb the little life in her. ”Maybe Miss Sylvie knows the reason.”

”You mean...” Carter also realized it at this moment. He opened his mouth with surprise and his eyes lightened up, and then he firmly clenched his fist and said, ”I’ll go to find Lady Wendy. If she’s in the Inner City, there should be no problem. ”

…

After the door was closed, May gently breathed out. This feeling was really wonderful as if the meaning of life had become different just in an hour. The possible new life warmed her whole body up. She closed her eyes, and could not help recalling the look of Jasmine when she had handed her the salted fish.

”This is probably... the taste of hope.”

On that night, her guess was confirmed by Sylvie.

She was pregnant.

***************

Roland got the news the next day and patted the shoulder of Carter Lannis who was extremely excited, ”Congratulations! The baby should be born in several months, so you still can’t forget about your work. When she’s about to give birth, I’ll give you a long holiday so that you can accompany her.”

”Yes, Your Majesty!” Carter saluted, one hand pressing his chest.

”By the way, how do women give birth to children?” Roland suddenly thought of a very important thing and asked, ”Is there any midwife in Neverwinter?”

”Midwife?” the Chief Knight asked in confusion, ”What’s that?”

”It’s a person who helps the delivery. When the child is born, there has to be someone... um, help to deal with it.” While answering the question, Roland also searched Prince Roland’s memories but found that the palace mentor did not teach any relevant knowledge. ”We can’t expect the mother to cut off the child’s umbilical cord by herself, right?”

”Ah, it’s usually done by the elders. Most of them have had similar experiences.”

”What if there is no such an elder?”

”Well...” Carter was dumbfounded, ”I’m not too sure.”

Aristocratic families would naturally not suffer from the shortage of manpower, but civilians certainly had no such privileges. Neverwinter had been established for a year now, and most residents came through recruitment and immigration. So, not many people had babies yet. However, once the lives of residents had stabilized, the fertility rate would definitely rise sharply. It was foreseeable that a large number of new lives would come to this world every year from the following year.

The problem was that there had not been any reliable medical system in Neverwinter up to now.

Roland could not be blamed for being careless, as there were no midwives in other cities, either. Sick people could only pray to deities, or buy some weird herbs from pharmacists with several silver royals. Thanks to Nana and Lily, disease and pains were almost eliminated in Neverwinter, which was the reason he had delayed the establishment of the medical system.

He initially had thought if the science and technology advanced by leaps and bounds and that they directly entered an information age, highly advanced modern medical science would still be nothing compared with the two little girls’ abilities. That was why he kept postponing the matter.

Yet Roland now found it absolutely necessary to have a medical system for a city of over 100,000 people, no matter how underdeveloped it might be.

For example, it was impossible for Nana and Lily to handle childbirth... They would be too busy, and once the war with demons started, they had to rush to the front. In that case, residents had to deal with patients in the city themselves.

After Carter left, Roland opened his notebook and recorded his idea of a primary medical institution.

Anyway, since it was a blank area, maybe he could start from childbirth.

Establishing hospitals, cultivating medical staff, democratizing health knowledge and the most basic means of treatment... Fortunately, the First Army had already had a basic understanding of these matters, so he only needed to make minor changes to the brochure used in the First Army and use it as a part of the teaching material for the public. He could also choose the first group of medical teachers from the First Army.

Though knowing nothing about modern medicine, Roland clearly remembered what an important role sterilizing medical instruments and the prevention of wound infections would play in child delivery in the future.

As for other parts of medical science, he could conduct further research in the future.

In the afternoon, he received a piece of good news.

Tilly Wimbledon was coming to the Western Region with Ashes and some other witches.