“An egg!?”

“Master, it’s an egg! An egg!”

“Zimjo l-laid an egg!”

“I see it too.”

It was about the size of a goose egg.

An egg that shone with a deep, dark purplish-black.

A deep, dark violet as if ebony and amethyst had been mixed together.

She had said that if I gave her venom she could lay an egg, but I was still shocked.

I hadn’t known she would lay it immediately like this.

When insects become adults and mate, they begin forming eggs inside their bodies.

It’s the same with snakes.

If I counted handing Zihwa my venom as mating, then the egg should only just now be forming.

Birds are the ones most similar to reptiles in many ways.

Plenty of biologists say birds evolved from dinosaurs; comparing them to reptiles or insects, that should have been the process.

The normal thing would be the egg forming inside over several days and then being laid.

Yet the moment she said she had taken in enough venom, she laid it like this.

We had crowded to the bed with my wives and were marveling at the egg that glimmered like amethyst when—

Flap-flap.

Zihwa stretched her body beside us with her wings spread wide.

She thrust her neck out, then opened her wings to their full span and folded them again.

[ Nnng. Whew. That wasn’t easy. ]

It had looked very easy, yet Zihwa said it wasn’t.

Her voice even sounded very strained.

Well, it was understandable.

I don’t know everything about birds, but I know a certain amount.

For that reason, this was something I knew: for some birds, laying an egg is # Nоvеlight # not easy at all.

Zihwa’s egg wasn’t that large, but some birds lay very large eggs.

Kiwis lay eggs nearly the size of their own bodies.

So when kiwis lay, they sometimes die from the pain, or the egg gets stuck inside and kills them.

This is called egg bind.

It means the egg is large and can’t be laid easily, so it gets stuck inside the body.

“You worked hard. Do you, um, need postpartum care or anything?”

[ Postpartum care? ]

“Like resting the body a bit after having a baby.”

[ Ah, humans are frail, so they need that, but I particularly do not. Still, thank you for thinking of it. Hehe. ]

As I told her she’d worked hard, Hwa-eun, who had been staring at the egg, asked in a cautious voice.

“C-can I touch it?”

She seemed to want to touch it.

Zihwa smiled faintly and said,

[ Of course. ]

With permission given, everyone reached out toward the purplish-black egg resting on the bed where soft leather had been spread.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who wanted to touch it.

As my fingertips touched the egg, it felt warm.

It’s known that birds’ body temperature is warmer than mammals’, and it seemed Zihwa was no different.

'Ah, when I held her the other day, she was definitely warm.'

Come to think of it, when I’d dragged her over toward the bed a few days ago, she had been very warm.

My wives’ voices reached me.

“It’s warm.”

“It really is. Warm.”

Perhaps because its purplish-black shine gave it the feel of a mineral, everyone had thought it would be cold.

Even though I knew birds have high body temperature and, since it was freshly laid, of course it should be warm, that color was enough to make me think it might be cold.

Just as everyone, being too cautious, started to pull their hands away—

Zihwa made a request.

She told me to brood it.

[ I’ll take a turn flying once around—brood it for me. ]

“Huh? You want me to brood it?”

[ Why are you so surprised? It is only natural for the father to brood together. ]

From the way she spoke, Zihwa seemed to be a bird species in which the male and female take turns brooding.

Among birds there are species where only the mother broods, and species where mother and father alternate; it seemed to be the latter.

But I couldn’t help being flustered.

I’d never brooded an egg.

I’m no Edison.

Among the great men, it’s famous that when Edison was a child, he wanted to hatch chicks and tried brooding an egg.

But I was Fabre.

The famous Fabre anecdote is about holding a bombardier beetle in his mouth and getting startled, something like that.

So of course a question came out, but Zihwa bumped me on the head, pressing me down to sit on the bed, then rolled the egg between my legs and said,

[ Feed it lots of venom. ]

“An egg needs venom too?”

[ Of course. Now is when the real part begins. An egg needs energy to grow. ]

“Whoa...”

Tapping my shoulder with her wing, Zihwa hopped out the open window and flew away.

So this was truly the responsibility without pleasure.

I hadn’t done anything, yet it felt like the responsibility was heavy.

I had thought it was over, and now it was beginning.

My wives, who had been looking between me and the egg in thought, spoke with expressions of resolve.

“Lord, we’re very curious what kind of child will be born. We’ll hold back a few more days. Hurry and hatch it.”

“I am very curious as well.”

“Me too!”

They were saying they would wait longer, so hurry and hatch the egg.

But now that I had reached the Life-and-Death Realm, my confidence was high.

And since it had been a while, I wanted to as well.

Smiling faintly, I said,

“No, um... when Zihwa comes back later, how about in another room?”

My wives shook their heads and answered.

“No. This first. She said it needs venom.”

“That’s right, Master. I’m curious—what kind of child will be born.”

“Yes.”

A child would be born—their maternal instincts must have exploded, and they told me to hurry and hatch it.

It seemed I wouldn’t be able to get out of here until this child was born.

'Haa. My fate.'

I closed my eyes, wrapped my hands around the egg, and drew up venom.

Well, I too was curious to see what kind of child would be born, even one day sooner.

***

In the imperial palace audience hall, they were anxiously awaiting a courier.

One of the Three Sovereigns, among the highest masters of the martial world, had died; a wing of the Dai Viet expeditionary force had been annihilated; and the last courier from the Dai Viet expedition had reported that the Blood Cult rabble were flooding toward the Central Plains.

The Blood Cult’s strength was one hundred fifty thousand.

They said contact with the First Army had also been cut off.

Was it the one called the Alliance Leader of the Martial Alliance?

The last courier had included a grim memorial: if they retreated, the common people would suffer greatly, so they would brace to die at Beast Palace and block the Blood Cultists.

They had hastily sent General Maeng Gyu-seong of the Iron Cavalry and reinforcements, but it was unknown whether they could stop one hundred fifty thousand.

The emperor, who had been nervously drumming the armrest with his fingernails, asked the Minister of War,

“What of the forces from Shaanxi, Hubei, Henan, and Anhui?”

The Minister of War answered hesitantly,

“From Shaanxi twenty thousand, from Henan ten thousand, and from Anhui fifteen thousand have gathered and are heading to Guizhou.”

At that, the emperor flew into a rage.

The forces were absurdly few.

At least one hundred thousand—no, two hundred thousand—should have been gathered, but thirty-five thousand?

It was unbelievable.

“How can the numbers be so few!?”

“W-well, that is...”

As the emperor thundered at him because the numbers were absurdly small, the crown prince, wearing a bitter expression at the Minister of War, answered in his place.

“Because the enemy force consists entirely of martial artists. We cannot include common soldiers at present, hence the numbers.”

“What!? How can this be!”

At the prince’s words, the emperor lamented greatly.

Then came the prince’s proposal.

“Withdraw a portion of the northern forces.”

He meant to take some of the northern troops.

The forces holding the Great Wall were the very elite.

They practiced the northern martial disciplines and always stood fully prepared—he proposed sending them.

Pulling some of those meant accepting the risk to the north, but for over a hundred years there had been no northern incursions.

They had to gamble.

Truly, only that method remained.

“Is that truly the only way?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. If you summon one hundred thousand of the Northern Imperial Guards, your son will personally go to war.”

It was best to decide quickly.

The report said the Blood Cult scum grew stronger by eating the essence-blood of humans.

The emperor deliberated, then made his decision.

“Order twenty thousand Iron Cavalry stationed in the north and eighty thousand Northern Imperial Guards...”

They would dispatch twenty thousand Iron Cavalry and eighty thousand troops stationed in the north.

They would urgently send thirty percent of the northern defensive forces to Yunnan.

Though the enemy numbered one hundred fifty thousand, once they clashed with General Maeng Gyu-seong’s command, the number would surely drop.

Then one hundred thousand Northern Imperial Guards would be enough to make a fight of it.

Besides, reinforcements were being gathered from other places as well, so the final numbers would exceed two hundred thousand.

Just as the emperor was about to bestow his treasured sword upon the crown prince—

“Your Majesty! A courier has just arrived from Yunnan!”

“Oh! Admit him!”

At the shout from outside, the emperor spoke out quickly.

At last, the news from Yunnan they’d been waiting for had arrived.

The courier burst into the audience hall and shouted in a grim voice,

“At present, His Highness the Imperial Son-in-Law has rescued the isolated forces of the First Army, who had been surrounded by fifty thousand Blood Cult experts, and is moving toward the location of the Third Army!

In the process, he cut down fifty thousand Blood Cultists!”

The man who had stolen the princess had caused an incident again.

At the report, the emperor sprang from his seat.

“Oh! My imperial son-in-law!?”

It was good tidings.

At the news that of the one hundred fifty thousand, he had crushed fifty thousand and was moving to strike the enemy’s rear, hope bloomed in the great hall.

“I thought him the thief of the world, yet how is it that everything this fellow does is so praiseworthy?”

Rejoicing, the emperor shouted,

“Then does that mean only one hundred thousand Blood Cultists remain!?”

“Yes!”

“Your Majesty, with matters thus, if we quickly attach additional troops to the relief force, I believe General Maeng Gyu-seong can make a fight of it!”

“I shall order that we scrape together more troops from Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong!”

They quickly decided to converge the forces assembling from all regions, and they had just narrowed to the proposal to send only twenty thousand Iron Cavalry from the northern troops as the rapid relief—when another voice came from outside.

“Your Majesty, a courier from Yunnan has arrived.”

“Hm? Another courier? Admit him.”

A courier had arrived an hour ago and brought news from Yunnan, yet now, not long after, another had arrived—the emperor felt puzzled as he summoned the courier inside.

The prostrate courier’s eyes were glazed.

He must have run to exhaustion, using lightness skill.

Feeling a foreboding, the emperor asked,

“I heard news from Yunnan an hour ago; what news is it this time?”

Gasping for breath, the courier answered,

“His—His Highness the Imperial Son-in-Law has used spirit beasts to erase a wing of the Blood Cult’s forces and has taken the head of the Blood Cult’s leader!”

“What!? Is that true!?”

“Yes, Your Majesty! And then, upon the arrival of General Maeng Gyu-seong, His Highness’s spirit beasts and the general’s forces slaughtered the Blood Cultists and completely routed the fifty thousand Blood Cultists massed before Beast Palace!”

Shouting as if to vomit blood, the courier collapsed unconscious on the spot.

The emperor slammed the armrest of the jade throne and leapt up, laughing loudly.

“Kahahahaha! I have truly gained as son-in-law a hero of the martial world!”

Every time news arrived of the imperial son-in-law, it was good tidings.

He couldn’t help but be pleased.

It was at the point where one might suspect he was seeking out the nation’s troubles to resolve them.

Laughing greatly, the emperor shouted to his ministers,

“I must bestow a great reward upon my imperial son-in-law!”

“I deem that truly fitting!”

“Of course that is what should be done.”

He had beheaded the Blood Demon and had practically driven off the Blood Cultists by his own power.

It was right to grant a reward, and all agreed with the emperor—when the crown prince, who had been listening, asked cautiously,

“Your Majesty, what reward do you intend to bestow? Surely this time it won’t be four concubines?”

The last time, three wives had been permitted, so was he jokingly asking if four concubines would be allowed this time?

Isn’t there that saying—“a hero has three wives and four concubines”?

At that, the emperor smiled slyly and said,

“Did not the surviving crown prince of Dai Viet say he did not care if he lost his country, as long as the people were saved?”

“That is true, but...”

“I am the emperor; should not my son-in-law at least be a king?”

At those words, the crown prince and the civil and military ministers opened their eyes wide.

Autor's Note:

There are many who asked me to compile and post more together.

For now, up through Wednesday’s installment.