My birthday celebration was very much cut short that morning.
You know what they say.
Anything bad that can happen will happen -Murphy's law
Though in this case it wasn't necessarily bad just bad timing.
My sleep was abruptly broken by Alfred waking me up due to knocks on my door.
I had him open the door to see Hilda walk in panicking.
"Our Queen has gone into labor!"
Oh shit
[Oh shit is right now get going]
I got out of bed and before alfred could recommend what shirt to put on I grabbed a random buttoned tunic and a huge metal canister in the corner before running out.
Running to my parents room I could already hear the screams. The seven maids, Valkyries were all standing outside guarding.
I can also see Heimdall, Tyr, Vili, and father outside.
They all seemed to be serious.
I didn't really have time to worry about them and had Hilda guide me through the blockade. As I was passing these loyal defenders I stated something that had them surprised for the moment.
"Valkyries, I want two of you guarding the room directly below and above this one. Someone has to be on the balcony at all times. No one gets in or out at this time."
The generals were shocked for a moment not just because of my wise orders but because all the Valkyries immediately bowed and split up to complete their tasks.
I guess they don't know mom extended her authority to me.
Reginleif, Prudr, Hilda stayed meaning five of them left.
Walking into the room without anyone stopping me I see a royal Druid attending my mother, her apprentice assisting him by making sure my mother was okay, and two midwives helping my clearly panting mother.
There was a woman in the room in full armor in the corner keeping a watchful eye. I could immediately tell who she was. She was my very first patient Sigrun.
Just looking at her devotion to guarding my mother, I put a few details together.
She's the head Valkyrie. When she looked to me she frowned before smiling.
"Have you come to help?"
Lifting the metal canister which was really a gas canister I said, "this is a pain killer to help alleviate her pain."
She looked at me and nodded giving her permission to proceed.
I walked over to my mothers side. Putting the metal canister down, the Druid nurse looks at me suspiciously.
"Don't stop him. He's a well known medicine maker" The royal Druid said.
I take out a type of glass mask that is connect by a tube into the canister valve.
"This is a type of gas mom that will help you feel less pain. You won't take a lot of it but it should help."
She looked to me and nodded giving her trust.
What I'm giving her is a mild anesthetic called notorious oxide. It's a simple one that is easy to produce by heating up ammonia Nitride crystals found in deserts. I found some in the market the other day and had Heimdall find some more. He didn't find a lot since this can is my only product but this should be enough for mom.
You can't give high dose pain killers to a woman in normal labor for many reasons least of which is that the sense of pain is informative for the doctors to know what's wrong.
So this mild dose is just to take the edge off.
Putting her face on the mask I dose her silently for a second before closing the valve. This amount should last a bit.
My mother clearly looks a lot better at this moment astounding the apprentice.
"Sir, do you require any help?"
"Prince Loki, just call your father in. The baby is crowning properly."
I nod and go get my father.
The next few hours were stressful to say the least but with my mothers stronger body and some of the best hands in healthcare around nothing happened that we couldn't handle.
"Waaaa waaaa!"
The cries of the baby echoed through the room as the smiles of everyone in the room lit up.
Interestingly enough my new baby brother was glowing in a golden light. I can feel a specific mana attracted to him.
My father looked to be witnessing a miracle while me being a little bit more analytical was looking more like having a light smile.
Light affinity huh? That's extremely rare.
My mother looked drained and sweating. Of course, the wetnurses are attempting to clean her.
The Druid uses a disinfectant knife to cut the cord.
And the baby is passed to my father after his hands are disinfected.
Interestingly, although druids do not understand cellular biology, they do understand there are microscopic life forms that are harmful so that's where the alchemical spell disinfect came from.
My father brings the new born baby who has begun to quiet down after seeing his father, to mother.
My mother has her arms outstretched reaching for her new child.
She looks at him with a vision of care and love. A perfect family I'd say.
"Loki come here and meet your baby brother Baldr", my father said.
I shook myself out of my reverie and realized that this is my family now.
Walking over I look at him. He looks like an alien to be honest but somewhat cute. He has golden eyes like the color of the sun and cream color skin like mine although he has slightly reddish hue currently for obvious reasons.
Light affinity is an interesting affinity. It is one of the only affinities that allows you to use the druids Life school without nature affinity. It also has interesting properties.
It is normally thought of as a mixture of properties water, fire, and nature affinity but I know that it's more of a mixture of water, Lightning, and Nature affinity because light is photoelectric.
It has properties similar to lighting with a less destructive effect.
With training from me, I'm sure I can develop him into someone powerful.
[Your brother has just been born and all you can think about are the properties of light]
It's so rare that I have to think of it.
[Don't pretend like you aren't just impressed with that. I know your extremely attached to him already]
...I've never had a brother.
Looking at him I feel like I have to protect him no matter what. This child has to live a better life than I did here. His presence is literally shining a light over these woods for me.
No longer will I have to be bunkered down here.Our enemies will either target us both or none at all. He can live an ordinary life of a prince. It's the reason I worked so hard.
Although my clinic has evolved and my goal has changed with it, I did first start it all for this little guy to live.
And now hearing him stare at me with his sun like eyes, I can't help but smile.
"Hello Baldr".
__End Volume 2: New Dawn Over The Lost Wood___
What you thought I had that much of an ego to call myself something pretentious like the new dawn?
[yes! But I'll give it to you props. You really felt that guilty about getting some else's body that you dedicated the whole first six years worths of logs to how you'd make it up to you parents. Every step from learning language, studying Druid magic to understand magic and mana, starting a clinic so you can see pregnant mothers, the detailed descriptions on souls that you learned from reincarnating, your training manuals, soul smithing advice from Nordri, and some experiments you ran on mice. I wouldn't say your an evil genius chess player trying to conquer the planet, but I can say you have some deep seated issues and are stubborn as fuck]
Language?
[Don't give me that, fess up!]
....I've never taken someone's life before. Even though strictly it isn't my fault, I still feel the same amount of guilt I did before. For all my parents gifts to me, I never deserved any of that. I'm just happy they can have some semblance of what their actual kid would be like. I've tried to pay my debts as best as I can and now that Baldr is here, it's time for this bird to leave the nest