"What the heck is happening over here?"
Everyone turned to face the source of the sudden voice that interrupted their original soft chatter. None of the soldiers knew what reaction they should give, standing in front of their other high commander. If they saluted, it would annoy Commander Elaine, as it might bother the baby. If they didn't salute it would very surely anger Commander Wyven.
"Leave us"
To their shock he didn't even seem to be acknowledging the fact that they didn't salute him, and simply kept staring at Commander Elaine - who didn't even seem to be acknowledging his presence - with a frown on his face. They all rushed out of the room as soon as they could, trying to be as quiet as possible.
The female general didn't look at him at all even when they were all alone and he was staring at her so intensely, she only looked at the little girl in her arms.
"Elaine Rodwelle Wyven"
Hearing him address her with her complete name, made shivers creep up her spine and fired up her already guilty conscience. Everytime he had called her out like this before, it had been her fault to make him angry, and it was never her victory in the end. Even now she was aware that it was her mistake.
"I thought we talked about this"
Unlike her expectations he breathed a heavy sigh, came to sit in front of her - across the table - and held his forehead, with a pained expression on his face.
She had expected him to get angry at her, or maybe she had wanted him to get angry at her because looking at him like this was making it difficult for her to breathe, her throat felt clogged up and she was clenching her jaw so hard that it hurt. It didn't help that she kept remembering the only other time in which she had seen him act this way, which was when they had lost their baby.
When he finally raised his head, to say something to her, he was stunned silent by the sight that welcomed him.
She was staring at him with tears falling down her cheeks, her lips were pressed together and trembling. Her arms and shoulders were shaking, as they brought the baby closer to her.
The little girl seemed to have sensed the distress from the arms holding her, as she woke up and started to cry once again. Shocked by the cries, Elaine looked down at her and tried to raise her from a horizontal position to a vertical one, while rubbing her back, thinking that she may need to burp - something she had learned when preparing for her own baby's birth.
After a while, the baby finally burped and slept while drooling on Elaine's shoulder, but that just seemed to aggravate her negative feelings as her head lowered in front of her husband - with her tears directly falling on her lap - while he looked at her with a hurt expression.
"Please."
His heart hurt looking at her deal with the baby so skillfully, and how it looked so much like when she had held their dead child in her arms, refusing to let go.
He could see her tears fall as he stood and walked over to where she sat and lowered himself to his knees in front of her. Putting their foreheads together, he closed his eyes to hold back the tears that were about to fall.
"I'll consider."
She knew that this meant that he agreed to her request.
* * *
Four years ago, when they had lost their baby, the both of them had been wounded in a way that wasn't visible, but hurt more that anyone could ever decipher. It was already really hard for them to accept that the baby they had been excitedly preparing for had left them alone so unexpectedly, but in addition to that, they had been informed that there was an extremely high chance that Elaine wouldn't be able to get pregnant again.
A year after that, when they had almost recovered from their loss, they decided - after much discussion - that they would not adopt and leave it to fate for Elaine to get pregnant again, as they didn't want to adopt a child as a replacement for the one they had lost.
But even after so much time passing instead of their wound healing, it just hid away from plain sight and festered, becoming worse than it originally was. But these two were so used to ignoring their pain and pretending to be strong that over time they had forgotten how to be dependent on someone else.
And after so much time of hiding their wounds from each other they were tired of doing so, thus, they decided that for once in their lives, they would be selfish and adopt the little girl.
* * *
A month later in the royal office, the voice of the king rang out,
"You do know that if other people get to know that the child you both, The strongest commanders of the Yastazian army, have adopted is Vensian from birth, you will receive much backlash, right?"
Standing in front of their rulers and friends, both of the commanders stood straight and replied.
"Yes, your majesty."
After they spoke in unison, the queen spoke next.
"But still, you want to adopt her?"
"Yes, your majesty."
Once again, they spoke in unison.
"First of all, you both stop addressing us like that, and then tell me what is so special about this girl that you two are so hellbent on adopting her, even going so far as to ask for our cooperation?"
"She's perfect."
Elaine spoke with shining eyes that seemed, as if they could see the deepest depths of a person by looking at them. Her husband nodded along, while sharing her expression.
"Once again, are you sure?"
"Yes."
* * *
In Yastaz people could only adopt a child with the help of a person who was in the government or nobility above themselves (Officers, dukes, duchesses, marquis e.t.c). If someone wants a person to forcefully give up the child they adopt, they would have to face the person who made the signatures on the adoption paper and if they had higher positions than the person who made the signatures they also had the authority to take the child away.
Therefore, the royal couple gave their signatures on the document which stated that the child which the couple will adopt will be theirs and whoever dares to slander or defame her with her origin and try to take her away from her parents will face the people who give their signature on the paper.
From that day forth there was not a single person in the kingdom who wasn't aware of the little girl adopted and doted on by the strongest generals in Yastazian history.