Portrait of Queen Berta

I accidentally got pregnant with His Majesty's child

Chapter 4: Unexpected

"Berta is pregnant?"

The report, brought to him by the court's doctor, caused astonishment in the royal palace that day.

"Oh my God!"

"First of all, congratulations, Your Majesty."

"Isn't this wonderful? His Majesty who doesn't have an heir yet... Even a princess would be enough!"

The fact that the king had no children of his own, was the greatest political challenge of all for his closest aides.
They could not bear the thought of their young and talented king going down in history as the king who didn't left any heir.
The end of his bloodline.

Even if he wasn't the son of the rightful first queen, even if the mother of his son was of a native, he might at least be able to get rid of the status quo of the childless king.
As long as a baby were born safely, that was all that was needed.

Then their king would no longer be ridiculed for being 'seedless'.

While his entourage looked happy, Harold himself seemed surprisingly calm.
He took his hand away from the papers he had spread out on his office desk and let his gaze wander through the air as if he were thinking, and then he tilted his head.

"Is it really mine?"

"..."

"Well of course! The behavior of the second queen is controlled by the court's ladies, as is the custom of the palace"
"Yes and the timing calculation fits as well."

The control of the court was not lax at all, even an insect entering would be noticed.
The king couldn't have been unaware of this, but he was having a mix of emotion flowing through his veins.

"Yes, time... but it was only a few times. I didn't even pray for a child."

"It doesn't matter. You did what you had to do, what matters is that you could!"

"I didn't go there with the intention of giving Berta Kasha a baby in the first place."

Harold didn't know if he could express the honest joy that was spreading in his chest, even in front of his own attendants.

(Fifteen years... Fifteen years.)
From the time he came of age and was considered fertile until this day, he had been asked to do his "royal duties" to a degree that it became disgusting for him to pronounce the word.

But that's not all.
In the midst of all the excessive attention that has been paid to this, Harold himself, in a very mundane way, had nurtured in his mind a desire to be a parent.

"Oh, how troublesome"

This child won't be of Margarita, the rightful Queen, nor of the traditional bloodline noblewomen that follow her.

But the child was... There's no doubt he's Harold's child.
In other words, that baby, born of a Petra's mother, will be a direct descendant of the royal family.

"If it's a princess, it would be good but... if he's a boy"

Harold knows that the country's aristocrats as well as the other nations' relationship with his Kingdom will be influenced by this event.
Would he be able to prepare everything for the next King to have the support of the Petra's forces and the royal linage as well?
What kind of Kingdom will he leave for the next generation?

There are countless things to think about and moves to be made.

Harold suddenly wondered if his father, the previous king felt the same way, when Harold, the bastard child was still in his birth mother's belly.
Somehow, after thinking so, he mocked himself for being too quick to accept the situation.

He knew that it was a possibility, but was reluctant to hope again, and to let his heart suffer another deception.

Although the royal family was surprised by this outcome, the Kasha's clan wasn't expecting it neither.

The current head of the Kasha, is known by being cunning and unpredictable, but in reality he had no intentions to attain power through his daughter's pregnancy.
He expected her to stay quietly at the Palace, while the natives power is accepted and their legitimate rights, to participate in the politics of their Kingdom, are finally recognized.

Now this became troublesome, she's in a position nearly a hostage in the palace, if the Queen sees her as a danger, his daughter's life would be at risk.
Not only her, but there can be movements to make them appear as rebels and shut up the voices of the natives once and for all.

Berta, of course, was aware of her father's intentions either.
In the unlikely event that he expected his daughter to win the king's favor, the family would have chosen one of her charming half-sisters rather than Berta.

If they intended to have one of their descendants to inherit the throne, they would have put more pressure on abolishing the legitimate queen of the royal lineage.
But it would be seeing as something presumptuous and many would oppose the idea of a Kasha's bloodline woman getting the position of legitimate wife of the king of royal linage.

In other words, at present, the position of her child, who isn't born yet, without royal legitimacy or the support of relatives living inside the Royal City, is very risky.

In the letter from her father that arrived shortly after she told him she was pregnant, he wrote 'Prioritize the health of both, mother and child! Be very careful!'

His father true thoughts are hard to read always, but this time he's straightforward.
This wasn't on his schedule.
Somehow, seeing that her father was truly worried about her, even to send a private letter immediately after becoming aware of the situation, relieved a little her troubled heart.
Her father is much more considerate than anyone from the royal family, the one Berta married in.

"Well, I'm sure His Majesty didn't think that his first child, whom everyone around him was so eager to have, would be a half-Petranian."

Before arriving at the palace, Berta didn't know that the issue of the king's succession had become so difficult to handle.

(In house I only heard some rumors when going to the marketplace. After all, the power struggles that occur in the distant royal palace were nobody's business there)

"I never thought that my child would be born as a prince or princess..."

"That is a disqualifying argument for a woman who lives in the royal court as a queen, don't you think?"

"The king, doesn't consider other women except his first wife, I have no relationship with the king except as a ceremonial partner. It isn't different of being complete strangers."

Although Berta has maintained a non-interference position in front of the Royal Palace, with her pregnancy, she will probably be forced to bear the weight of the royal family's most crucial issues, all at once.
The environment around Berta will be forced to change, that's already happening.

"Succession's problems... There isn't a family in the world in the actuality or in the past that doesn't have a dispute over this."

"And moreover, the current royal family is in a situation where, if you look around, there are plenty of landmines everywhere."

Will Berta be throwing her own child into the center of such a flaming royal palace without a clear ally?

(I myself already am in a complex position. Surviving on my own is something I'm able to do only thanks to my strong Petranian allies. However, what fate will this unborn baby bear?)

--Berta Kasha, the second wife of King Harold, will bring a long-awaited baby into the royal family at the first moon of the year.

In a palace that had experienced many premature baby deaths, a child was born with a thunderous cry... was born fully healthy, and showing strong signs that native blood, from his mother, was flowing through his veins.

...　The Prince of Destiny.
No one knew at that moment how his name would be engraved in history.

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