“Huh, Your Majesty, you aren’t making sweets today~?”
Camila and Zeke, who had escorted Jill to Sufia to her etiquette class, returned to the drawing room.
Even though they should be staying by Jill’s side as her Dragon Knights, they seemed to have been ordered by Jill to stay beside the Emperor, instead. Sometimes, they took turns with Mihari while waiting for Jill to finish with her studies.
Hadith had no escort as of current. Nor did he need one—but it was nice to have someone else to worry about him and stay beside him. Especially if it was due to the intention of his bride.
While smiling, Hadith showed his sewing, and also a stuffed animal he was currently holding.
“No, I have some other business today.”
“Is that a stuffed bear!? No way, for Captain!?”
“I bought it secretly. I want to give it to Jill.”
When he visited the town together with Jill, Jill was looking inside a certain store’s window. She was definitely looking at that doll, but she denied it. Hadith knew she wanted it.
“I want to surprise her with this present.”
“A stuffed bear for Captain…? Wouldn’t she be more pleased if you bought her a weapon, instead?”
“That’s not true~ Jill-chan likes cute things, right~? When responding to the enemy attacks, she’s just being a rationalist.”
“—even so, Emperor, what are you doing with that stuffed bear?”
Before Zeke could get his reply, however, Camila exclaimed.
“How about giving it a cute wrapping~!!! It would become a great present~!!!”
“I plan to do that, too. But not before turning this bear into me.”
““Huh—?????””
Hadith, who had finished measuring the size of the bear, took out a felt fabric he had prepared. All the while Camila and Zeke were staring with round eyes.
“It shall wear a black cloak that I often wear, and also a crown. Because it’s an Emperor.”
“W-wait, could that be… your own clothes!?”
“Obviously. This is Hadith-Teddy—also known as Haddy. There are a lot more adjustments I am going to add after this.”
Hadith enthusiastically picked up the scissors.
Zeke muttered, his face was as if he was faced with a dire political issue.
“Haddy… hand-sewn… by the Emperor himself…”
“When we reach the Imperial Capital, I won’t be able to spend much time with her, that’s why, I want to make sure Jill never forgets me…”
“—Oi, absolutely don’t put your hair inside that doll, okay, Emperor!?”
“There’s no way I’m going to do that.”
They exhaled in relief, and sat around Hadith.
“I mean, Emperor, if you can sew… can you also do housework in general?”
“Rave said that that’s the basic requirement of being a man nowadays.”
They couldn’t see Rave, but Jill already explained it to them so they wouldn’t be confused when his name was mentioned. That too, made Hadith happy.
Ever since Jill came, everyday felt wonderful.
“Waah~ somehow, I feel like it would be better if you aren’t an Emperor…”
“On the contrary, if he weren’t an Emperor, would he be able to live decently?”
“Oh, that’s right~”
It turned out that they were concerned about him. However, Hadith only continued his work silently.
I hope she will be pleased when she receives this…
He never knew that he could strive that hard just to see someone smile.
Up until now, Hadith had constantly been smiling at everything he would end up trampling. Or to be precise, trampling them was the reason for his smile.
He was still too scared to believe that those days were going to continue.
“Emperor~ what do you like about Jill-chan~?”
—Camila’s sudden question had Hadith’s needle stuck.
“W, what are you asking, suddenly!?”
“…That’s a cute reaction but… considering that it came from a twenty year old man, it’s not~…”
“How about not asking such controversial questions like that in the first place? It takes this really creepy undertone depending on the answer. Did you forget that Captain is only ten years old?”
“Let’s change the question, then~ what if Jill-chan were about the same age as us~?”
“If Jill were…”
When Hadith began to imagine, his face turned red instantly.
“She, she would be this really beautiful woman. But, the current her is also really cute, especially when she laughs… she will stab a whole cake with a fork and eat it, then she will smile a little at me… She’s cute! So cute, so unreasonably cute… no, I can’t breathe…”
“Oi, water, drink some water and take deep breaths!”
“Sometimes ago, I asked Jill-chan, ‘what do you like about the Emperor?’”
His heart rate and blood pressure rose at once, but he quickly tried to regain his composure.
Hadith, who was being cared for by Zeke, looked at Camila. Camila picked up the cookies on the table and said.
“But I wonder if I should really tell it to the Emperor who doesn’t even know how to make children~”
This time, the needle pierced his finger.
“Wha, wha, wha—!?”
“Camila, you…”
“As I thought~ It’s still too early for the Emperor~”
“D, don’t tell me, you talk about such things to Jill!?”
While stopping the bleeding using a piece of cloth, Hadith turned bright red again,
Jill was only ten years old. But the inside was too manly to be called a child, and there were times when she acted like a full-fledged veteran warrior. But still, she was a cute girl. Camilla said that if they were to degrade her using her age, she would fire them—no, maybe she would even fire them literally.
“No way would I discuss such topic with Jill-chan~ even if she is very mature. She wouldn’t discuss such topic with a man.”
“Huh!? Wait, this explains why people can’t see Rave!? It’s because of the declining birthrate, isn’t it!?”
Suddenly, Zeke called out to Hadith who stood up.
“…It’s alright, someday, you will understand.”
“Does this also have a correlation with that fourteen year old age in women—!? Because I’m a man, I don’t know—!! It seems that the Goddess invaded our kingdom since long ago—!!”
“No, your Majesty, no~ you’ll finally see it when you kiss a girl. Romantic, isn’t it?”
“I see, I see everything now. Once I’m finally be able to see “it”, the bees will deliver the children to the cabbage field. Then the man picks it up!”
Zeke and Camila could only nod.
Hadith, amazed, held his mouth.
“I, I never knew… no way—“
“—now the Emperor has stopped working.”
“Well, isn’t it nice, maybe we can get even with Captain using this.”
“—I, I think, Jill is already with my child!”
““!!!!!!!!!!!???????????””
Hadith swiftly cleaned up sewing tools and stood up.
“I shall therefore face her.”
“No, wait a minute, Emperor~!”
“We, we are just joking with you!”
“Why are you guys being so noisy?”
“Jill—!!!!!”
Just in time for a break, Jill opened the door and entered. Camila and Zeke were clinging to Hadith, pulling his cloak and whatnot, trembling. Hadith approached her and knelt—
—first, I must apologize.
“I’m so sorry, Jill. I didn’t know that a child could be made with a kiss…”
“—Ha?”
“I have no excuses. Was he already born? Could it be, all this time, you were rising them all by yourself? Even worse when I realize they may not know their father… but I promise to raise him properly! Just leave the baby food to me!”
“…What are you talking about, Your Majesty? You can’t make a child with just a kiss?”
Jill’s denial had Hadith in utter shock.
Jill, who cleared her throat, asked for permission from Hadith to explain.
“—the proper way to make children is, if a couple lives together every day, one day, they will find a child. The locations differ; it could be between trees, in the river, or trapped inside bamboo…”
“I, I see… so it relies upon luck, huh?”
“Because, isn’t a child a gift from the heaven?”
—I thought the same!
But then, what happened after that—
—Jill smiled meaningfully towards Hadith, who was still reorganizing his thoughts, before turning to the other two.
“After we grow up, let’s look for them together. Oh, and you two…”
Jill cracked her fist towards Zeke and Camila whom were trying to escape the room silently—
“—come here for a moment.”
Hadith thought while staring at Jill’s demonic sergeant appearance, and her knights, whom were screaming and apologizing.
I went along with everyone’s joke, should I leave it as it is?
He knew what Jill knew, but kept silent.
It seems that Jill really likes me… and everyone else is also kind towards me… they believe in me…
I wonder what she really thinks about this Dragon Emperor me.
When will she realize that I’m still deluding myself?
I keep ridiculing that these days won’t last, while also excitedly looking forward to tomorrow, getting used to it step by step.