After Retirement, Living a Stud Life in Another World - 226

Chapter 226: Gretel’s Child

“Ugh, haah!”

With a painful sound, sweat trickled down my childhood friend’s forehead. Even though Gretel is praised as the reincarnation of a hero, the light’s champion, giving birth was still clearly a difficult process.

Now that I think about it, I’ve become quite the regular at childbirth. In this world, childbirth used to be a private ritual only for women, but somehow, starting with Clara, I’ve found myself accompanying my wives and lovers to their deliveries as a matter of course. Even when the births were difficult, if I injected my magic, things tended to turn out well.

Out of all the births, I thought Gretel’s would be the safest. After all, she has trained her body to the limit and is the strongest healing mage on the continent. I thought there was no way anything could go wrong… but here she was, in pain, and I was surprised.

“I’m… fine. The pain is because I’m using all my healing magic on the baby. Ugh, it hurts…”

I see. It makes sense that she would pour all her strength into delivering the “treasure” she longed for.

“But please, hold my hand!”

How could I not grant such a sincere request? I grabbed my dear childhood friend’s sweating right hand with both of mine, pouring my feelings into it. It probably wouldn’t help much, but I wanted her to know that she wasn’t fighting alone.

“Yeah, Lutz’s magic feels warm… Ugh!”

“Gretel!”

“Lady, you’re doing great! Just a little longer!”

“Haaahh!”

The next moment, the long-awaited cry rang out.

“Ugh… Aahhh!”

It was the first cry of the child that was the result of my and Gretel’s love. Finally, the child she had longed for had been born safely.

“Prepare the bathing water!” “It’s all ready!”

Under the direction of the midwife and Zeri, everyone moved swiftly, carrying out the necessary procedures. I could leave it to them now.

“Gretel, you did well. You’ve worked so hard.”

“Yeah, but… my stomach still feels…”

When I looked at her stomach, it was smaller than before, but still noticeably round. This wasn’t just the afterbirth.

“Zeri!”

“…I can’t believe it, but it seems like it’s twins.”

Wait, twins are pretty common in this world, right? I didn’t understand why Zeri was so surprised, but it seemed another baby was on the way.

“Lady, I know you’re tired, but just a little more effort!”

“There’s no way I’ll get tired from this! Compared to when I stormed the Duchy’s army, this is easy. To think I’m getting another treasure… I’m so lucky. Bring it on, let’s go! Haaah!”

Gretel, with an unexpectedly bold energy, began her struggle again. All I could do was hold her hand and pray for the safety of both her and the baby.

After a little while…

“Fwehh…!”

The second baby’s cry was weak, in stark contrast to the first lively cry. Well, it’s crying, so it must be okay.

“Oh my…!” “This is surprising…”

Hmm? The reactions of the midwife and Zeri seemed a bit strange. What happened? Could it be…?

“Is it attached?” “Yes, definitely. It’s a boy!”

What? After fathering over twenty children, I’d never had a boy, and now the boy is being born from none other than Gretel, who was supposed to be the least likely to have a son. No matter what, I would love any child of hers, but to have both a boy and a girl born at the same time felt like an incredible reward. I couldn’t help but feel overjoyed.

“Alright, the male part is done now!”

I smiled broadly and was promptly ushered out by the midwife. Of course, women still had more to do, so I had to leave.

After a short while, I was allowed back into the delivery room, where I found the two children, now clean and wrapped in the finest clothes sent by the marquis family. I gazed at them with Gretel.

“You really worked hard.”

“Yeah, it was harder than I thought, but I’m happy. To have two such beautiful children… I’m truly lucky.”

The girl was as expected, resembling neither me nor Gretel. She had strawberry blonde hair, just like her mother, and her gray eyes, already wide open, sparkled with curiosity.

She moved her tiny body non-stop, as if she was eager to walk freely. Not just in appearance, but in her lively energy, she seemed to take after my childhood friend. I was so happy. Given the strange nature of my seed, her magical power would likely be SS or higher, and I could already imagine how Gretel’s father, the Marquis of Hanover, would be overjoyed with the next heir fever.

Then, I looked at the boy, who seemed very different.