Of All Things, I Became a Crow - Side Story Special #8

*Rainelle’s POV

When the child was born, the ‘what kind of appearance will the child be born with?’ question was solved.

Our child was a little injeolmi¹-like puppy with golden fur. No, not a puppy, but a wolf cub, although in its current form, he was a perfect injeolmi.

The difference was that it had black wings as small as a finger on its back. It can open it eyes and control its head as soon as it was born.

The beak on its mouth was scratched off with its front paws as soon as he came out.

It seemed to be a temporary part to break the egg. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have come off so easily.

After taking over the child from Karmeut, I now had to face another problem.

“Uh, I did not get wet…?”

It was an important issue. When it was inside the egg, it grew with the nutrients contained in the egg, but since hatching from the egg, it had to get nutrients from the outside.

…. The problem was that I never produce any milk throughout my pregnancy. In the first place, I wasn’t even getting normal symptoms during my pregnancy.

Even something like morning sickness started after I laid the egg.

In addition, I guarded the nest almost as a black bird throughout the egg incubation. It was a situation where I didn’t know if the milk was flowing or not.

“I’ll call the doctor right away.”

Karmeut straightened his face and immediately called for someone. Because of the situation, the attending physician came right away.

“Congratulations, Your Majesty the Emperor, Your Majesty the Empress.”

“Please examine the Empress.”

The attending physician seemed to understand what the words meant. Considering the situation, a female physician had been taking care of me from the time I was pregnant.

“Your Majesty the Empress, have you ever had any inconveniences?”

“・・・・・・ No, there wasn’t like that. That’s why I’m rather worried. Now that the baby is born, it will have to eat something…”

It was common for mother to have breast pain after pregnancy, but I’ve never felt any discomfort or in my breasts, let alone aches.

There was actually no sign of milk even when I changed my form. I was able to be sure because I was always checking my body since I laid the egg,

“If it’s breast milk, don’t worry, Your Majesty. I’ll get him a nurse right.”

“Doctor. You should know better that our child is not an ordinary child. Besides, I do not want to leave my child to anyone else.”

“But…….”

“I think the safety and future of my child are more important to me than the prestige and dignity of an empress.”

At my firm answer, the attending physician bowed her head. Since I had revealed my intentions to Karmeut, he was not that surprised.

“Kiing…….”

The quiet child in my arms wriggled and let out a small cry. The whining sound immediately stole our attention.

“What’s wrong, baby?”

“Kking, kking, kking…”

The child whined a little louder and looked around as if looking for something. Then the attending physician spoke in a low voice.

“I think the child is hungry.”

“Is that right?”

I looked down at the child. Seeing the child whining and looking around despite being held in my arms reminded me of one of the hypotheses I had in mind.

Wolves, which are mammals, need their mother’s milk and must grow to a certain extent before they can eat food, but birds born from eggs can eat food as soon as they are born.

What if our child, although looks like a wolf, does not need to be fed milk first?

As soon as I thought of the situation of the child who could already open its eyes and control its head as soon as it was born, I thought that could be the case.

“Karmeut. Bring me some fresh meat and fruit. And warm milk too just in case.”

He seemed to understand what I was thinking. Karmeut immediately called someone and ordered them to bring the things he had instructed.

Since it was related to the successor of the Imperial Family, the task was surprisingly very quick. Immediately, finely minced raw meat and fruit that had been cut to make it easy to eat were served on plates.

“Baby, can you eat this?”

Carefully, I pushed out the plate of carefully warmed milk. The child sniffed and smelled it, then jerked its head and whimpered.

“Ki-ing, kiing…”

Apparently this wasn’t it.

“Rainelle, how about this?”

Karmeut cautiously held out a plate of minced meat to the child. The child then turned its head and sniffed with its nose.

“Kkiung!”

The child cried loudly. Then he dove its head and stuck its nose into the ground meat.

Surprised, Karmeut pulled back the plate and removed the meat stuck on the child’s nose. Then the child whimpered in protest.

“I guess this is okay.”

“I know.”

It was a bit unexpected, but it was a pleasure. Karmeut held out the plate again, and the child began to eat the meat with his little mouth.

When I saw the child eating the meat, making noises, my lips went mushy without me realizing it. Karmeut also watched the child eat the food with a relaxed expression.

The child seemed to be full quickly and removed its snout from the plate. When I gently patted the child on the back, it let out a small belching sound.

“I didn’t know it will look like a wolf.”

“Well, I guess our blood really merge together. Wouldn’t it be closer to a divine beast than a human?”

“Maybe something like that.”

As Karmeut muttered so, he carefully poked the child’s cheek with his finger. Then the child whined, grabbed Karmeut’s finger, and began sucking it.

I could see Karmeut’s golden eyes melting completely. I couldn’t help but laugh because they looked so lovely together.

“I’m so glad the child hatched safely.”

“Yeah.”

“But is it a boy or a girl?”

“You can check that now.”

Saying that, Karmeut lifted the child up. Then the child whimpered as if in protest, but Karmeut’s eyes were fixed on one spot.

“It’s a boy.”

“Really? I wish he look like Karmeut.”

Karmeut smiled and hugged the child. The protesting child soon became quiet.

“What shall we name him? I’m rather worried because we have so many things in mind.”

“Because he’s a boy, and his golden hair resembles me…”

Karmeut agonized, “Uh, hmmm. There are so many names that we come up with, so it is difficult too.”

“How about Helis?”

A name with a slight twist to the name of the sun god. I wanted to add the name of the sun to the child with hair that shimmered like the sun.

“It’s nice”.

“There are many other names, so I think it would be okay to be more careful.”

“I like the way it sounds. Most of all, it’s the name you give.”

Karmeut smiled softly and hugged the child.

“Helis. From now on your name is Helis, our dear son.”

At Karmeut’s words, the child licked his lips. He seemed sleepy.

As we watched him, we burst into laughter. Yes, the child should eat well and sleep well.

Birds sang all around us.

– Born!

– He is born!

– The Queen’s child is born!

– Let’s sing!

– Let’s celebrate!

– Let’s celebrate the Queen’s child seeing the light!

– Lovely baby!

– Cute baby!

– Happy day!

The birds sang and danced. The different cries formed a harmony and became a song.

Biting and scattering petals, dancing in the sky, the birds sang and danced at the top of their voices. Everyone present congratulated us on the birth of our child.

On a day when the brilliant sunlight was pouring, our child came out into the world bathed in sunlight.

***

Karmeut himself announced the birth of the child. After a long and long wait, news of the birth of the Imperial couple’s child spread throughout the Empire in no time.

At the news, both nobles and commoners congratulated them. The entire Empire was enveloped in a festive atmosphere. Of course, a ball was held. It was something to celebrate.

“Wow! Wow! His ears are cute!”

The people who could meet our child, Helis, were extremely limited. And one of those people was of course Princess Sepia, who looked at Helis in my arms with her eyes shining.

“Ugh, cute, cute—!! I want to touch it—!”

“Please bear with it, Sepia…”

“I know. I know, but I think it will be so soft…!!”

Sepia wiggled her fingers and her eyes were twinkling excessively, making those who saw feel that she was fighting fiercely inside with her urge to indulge.

“He’s still small and fragile.”

“I hope he grow up quickly…! Can he change into a human?”

“Because it’s our child, maybe?”

“I wonder how cute he will be in human form!”

At that, I smiled a little and nodded my head. Actually, I was thinking that too.

“I’m also curious. How cute and lovely my child will be.”

“I’m sure he’ll be very cute and handsome. He’s sister and brother’s child after all.”

Sepia then wiggled her fingers again.

“I’ve seen my older brother’s portrait when he was little. Oh, how cute he was.”

“Really? There was such a thing?”

“Of course there is! Next time, I’ll show you where the portrait is.”

“I look forward to that time.”

Sepia smiled mischievously, covering her mouth with one hand and giggling.

“He also has small wings…… Will he be able to fly later?”

“Perhaps?”

“Will sister teach him to fly?”

“That’s how it should be. Because I can fly.”

“Wow, wow.”

“I’ll give Sepia a ride on my back later.”

“It’s a promise, Sister!”

She crossed our little finger and waved it. I laughed at her act of raising our little finger excitedly.

The child, Helis, was sleeping soundly in my arms.

***

Translator(s) note: Annnd so, The End. Or not really. If you want to read more, please read at kakaopage and support the author! Thank you for reading up to this point and bearing with our beginner level of translation~ And thank you too for the ones who have supported us and left comments! We will be picking up another web novel after this, a Japanese one. If you are interested, please do check it out~ We planned to update it at the end of the week! Hoping to see you again!

Notes:

1 Injeolmi: A kind of Korean dessert made with sugar, rice, and powdered beans.^↩