Chapter 503 - Waiting Room (Patreon)

It was the deep of night, and most of Saniya was silent. Across most of the city, the lights were off in the homes of its citizens. Beneath the night sky dominated by the sign of the fox, a blanket of darkness rested upon the streets.

Only Rapra Castle itself was still illuminated in lights bright as day, for there were many guests present in the castle, to bear witness to a great event, one of unique significance to the young kingdom. Yet as everyone waited in anticipation, the king of the young nation was fighting his own private battle, to regain access to his own domain.

"Come on, I just wanna go in for a second, just to see," Corco tried in a colloquial tone. However, the vile guardian of the door would not budge.

"Unfortunately, this servant sees herself forced to decline," Llamka the guardian replied. Although she spoke in a deferential manner, she nonetheless moved not a single step, stubbornly blocking the way to the door even in the face of her king.

"Right. I command you to move to the side," the king in question tried again, this time making use of his authority. Yet the guardian remained unmoved.

"Impossible. Even if this servant were to draw punishment for her crimes, the ancient traditions need be upheld."

In the face of the stubborn Llamka, Corco suddenly felt powerless. He couldn't well punish his wife's head maid just because she was doing her job, right? So instead of forcing his way through, he tried to reason with her instead.

"Okay, sure. Traditions are important. But surely, there's gotta be something I can do, right? Like talk to her to calm her down?" a frantic Corco thought for a moment, before his head bobbed back up with enthusiasm.

"I could play music!" he shouted. "Wouldn't some soothing music help?"

"Please, royal lord," Llamka begged, now almost as unnerved as her king. Though as she spoke, strength returned to her voice. "No man can ever be present for a birth, even if he is the king. Should you enter, your wife will only be unnerved and distracted, at a time when she needs all her focus and her strength. The best royal lord can do for now would be to stay away. Please return to the waiting room. Otherwise, this servant will have to break her oath and lay her hands on her king."

For a second, the desperately nervous Corco considered simply pushing his way through. He wanted to be there for the birth of his first child. Just as much, he wanted to be there to support his wife. Who knew if she needed his support, or his help?

Thus, he observed his wife's maid, in search of any weakness which would let him pass. To his dismay, he found her looking at him with a kind of grim resolve, as if she was truly willing to suffer heavy punishment, just to adhere to some outdated laws. In the end, Corco didn't want to deprive his wife of a helpful and loyal servant just so he could go force his way inside.

If he was honest with himself, he really couldn't do much to help with childbirth anyways. Just how Llamka had said, he would be more of a distraction than any kind of help. In the end, Corco finally realized that entering here was more so to soothe his own nerves, rather than to help his wife.

"Fine," the king thus finally relented, and added in a somber tone: "Take good care of Maci, I'm counting on you," before he turned and left. Although Llamka said something else in reply, the king was no longer interested in listening.

After he had been denied entry to parts of his own castle, he was in no mood to bother with pleasantries. Dejected, he returned to the 'men's waiting room' inside Rapra Castle. This kind of room was a common arrangement within any medalan noble estate. Usually however, such rooms were only set up temporarily, as they would otherwise sit empty most of the year. Only the king's castle was extravagant enough to have one such room permanently, as it was only in use whenever the women of the main family were about to give birth.

Since having children was a woman's business, it was considered bad luck among the Yaku for men to be present during childbirth. Thus, for the entire duration of the birth, all men of the family would be stuck together in this waiting room, safely out of the way, with entertainment at the end of a single, long corridor, so they couldn't get close to the birthing mother, be it by accident or on purpose.

Thus, when the king returned to the room, he saw it well-filled with acquaintances, and stinking to the heavens. Normally, there weren't that many people in this part of the castle — the royal family's private quarters — but a lot of guests had come as soon as they had heard of the upcoming, great event.

For example, most of the king's privy council had arrived, if only to show their presence, and sat in the comfortable chairs worthy of a large salon. They were all laughing and joking, as they eagerly anticipated the birth of the southern kingdom's first heir. As soon as Corco entered however, everyone in the room stopped pretending to be calm. Instead, they all jumped up to greet their king.

Yet once they saw his sour expression, most of them awkwardly sat back down again, maybe hesitant to annoy the sometimes curt king further. In the end, only Fadelio, Atau and Brym came up to Corco.

"So what happened? You get rejected?" Atau was the first to ask, which earned him an elbow jab in his side from Brym, and raised eyebrows to signal 'shut up'.

"What? I just wanna know," the admiral stupidly claimed, all the while ignoring Brym's talkative eyebrows.

"No need to worry, master," Fadelio said in the meantime, as he did his best to ignore the other two. "The queen is in the best of hands."

But not in mine, a worried Corco thought. Yet rather than share his worries, he just returned a labored "sure," and walked past his friends, shoving the arguing Atau's shoulder out of the way in the process. Maybe his friends understood his wish to be alone, or maybe they were too busy arguing among each other, but they were no longer bothering the troubled king.

As he ignored the eager looks of the sycophants in the salon, Corco made his way to the corner of the room, where he sat down and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible. Although such an endeavor was impossible for the most important person in the kingdom, at least here, his authority had an effect. No one dared talk to the king, as his mind began to swirl like a whirlpool. A mixture of dread and anticipation threatened to sink his thoughts into deep, dark speculation, when a voice brought him back to the present.

"Excellent choice of seat, teacher."

When the dazed Corco looked up, he suddenly realized that he wasn't the only one who had picked this spot. Hieronymus Bombasticus, Saniya's resident chemist and hobbyist auctioneer, usually loved to be in the spotlight. This time however, he had picked a hidden spot in the corner, much to Corco's surprise. Rather, he was even more surprised that this obsessed researcher had come to an event like this in the first place.

"Hey, Ronnie, I didn't think you'd come," he said.

In fact, Corco felt like he hadn't seen the head researcher of his chemistry lab in ages. Most of the time, he would just stay with his work, and blow off all invitations to events, unless he could be the center of attention there. This time however, Ronnie had blended into the crowd so well that Corco hadn't even noticed the otherwise flamboyant Arcavian.

"Of course I'm here. Someone has to protect you from the vultures," he said, and sat forward a bit, which blocked the view of most of the room's craning necks to Corco. Once more, the king was surprised by the strange science man's delicate thoughts, yet as he thought more, he realized that this was nothing new.

"As always, you're the one who understands me best," he simply stated, and thought back to their days as tricksters and salesmen in Arcavia. Clearly, Ronnie had the same thought.

"We're old stage partners after all," the old scammer said with a smile too frank for his old profession. For a while, there was silence between them, before Corco became suspicious again. This guy had never been this sentimental, right?

"So why are you really here?" he asked, expecting a request for an increased research budget. Again. Yet Ronnie still played innocent.

"Isn't it enough to support a friend, and to witness the miracle of birth while I'm at it?"

The mad scientist's innocent smile gave Corco the creeps, and his words gave him a terrible idea.

"Oh god, you're not trying to clone people, are you?" he asked, only half in jest.

"Ahaha, or course not." Ronnie replied with a frank laugh, which relieved Corco, though only for a second, until the mad scientist continued. "We are nowhere near an achievement like that. Yet. However, I did read your reports on cultivation, and I think I have some ideas in regards to human modification. You see-"

"Spare me, please. I already have enough to worry about right now. I don't want to consider a Frankenstein scenario on top of that," An exhausted Corco bent forward and clamped the bridge of his nose with his fingers to fight an oncoming migraine. Maybe it had been a mistake to sit here after all. Though as he spied through his hands and past Ronnie, he noticed that some of the sycophants had stood up to get a better view, eager to see if they could score some cheap points with the miracle king.

Yeah, this spot is still better, he concluded. Clearly Ronnie had seen Corco's distressed look. Though for once, he seemed to interpret it the wrong way.

"Why worry so much? The queen is in the best of hands," he argued the same way as Fadelio, which only earned him an impatient look from Corco. Unlike Fadelio however, Ronnie seemed to understand immediately and added: "...but not in yours, I assume?"

Surprised by the astute observation, but still not one bit less nervous, Corco shrugged and looked around again, only to notice that even more in the crowd had stood up and were slowly shuffling in his direction.

"You worry too much, as always," Ronnie argued this time. "Even I know just how much you have done over the past year just to prepare for today. No one has worked harder than you, except maybe your dear wife. Now the only work left is to relax, and wait to reap the rewards of your labor. Oh, and please do not worry about the vultures. This master will lower himself for once, and hold them off for his king."

With a fluid motion and a dramatic expression, Ronnie stood up and placed himself in between Corco and the approaching people.

"This master must apologize, but King Corcopaca is exhausted, understandably so," he claimed, with a bow, "I humbly bid you to show mercy, and leave some space for now."

While Ronnie was expertly handling the crowd, Corco thought back to the work the chemist had mentioned. Of course, he wouldn't just reminisce to admire his own work. Instead, the nervous father-to-be wanted to see if he had missed anything, or forgotten something. Maybe there was something left he could do here, something that could still improve Maci's chances at success. Still, as he thought more, he realized just how remarkably thorough he had been.

The first thing he had done after he had learned about his wife's pregnancy had been to call upon his legion of Chutwa doctors through Itzali, their representative. As soon as they heard of the imminent heir, they put together a complete report on everything they knew about pregnancy and childbirth. At the same time, Corco also asked local medalan experts on the same topic about their opinion. Finally, he put together a list of reasons for the high mortality rates for mother and child during childbirth, as well as potential methods to fix them. Once he had a complete picture, he began to act.

First, Corco established the first, proper public hospital in Saniya, a plan he had held in reserve for a while. Until recently, the number of doctors in the city was still limited, so there simply hadn't been enough of them to make the plan a reality. Not to mention that all available doctors were mostly busy with research as well.

Yet Sumaci's pregnancy had coincided with the graduation of more and more doctors' apprentices, so the creation of a hospital had become possible just as the king began to focus on it. For now, it would be a pilot project, funded by tax money and free for citizens to use.

In the king's plans, the hospital would of course improve the overall quality of healthcare the citizens would receive. More than that though, it would serve as a hub of knowledge, with a special focus on childbirth.

With so many doctors all working together in the same space, a large number of similar medical procedures could be performed. Then, those methods could be compared, to see which would be the most effective. Double blind studies would also become possible. In general, the sheer number of cases would rapidly advance their medical knowledge.

Over the course of a year, over a thousand babies were born in this one building alone, all of which were recorded in great detail, including initial conditions, complications, methods used and outcome. Finally, after comparing all the numbers, it was found that — surprisingly — the old methods which Medalans had used for centuries were among the most effective.

In the past, due to cultural reasons, birth had been entirely the business of women. To that effect, all local Pacha shrines always housed at least one female apprentice — called a vestal — who would assist mothers with childbirth. As thanks for the vestal's work, the families of the mother would give donations to the shrines after a successful birth, which had always been part of a shrine's income. As it turned out, the mortality rate for mothers and newborns were a lot lower under care of the vestals than they were even under care of accomplished doctors. In this case, the practical experience the vestals had accumulated after delivering thousands of newborns clearly trumped the theoretical knowledge of the doctors.

That didn't mean that the hospital had been useless, of course. For one, one of Butcher's students had managed to successfully complete a c-section in which both mother and child survived, for the first time in Medala's history. They had also done much to advance the concepts of hygiene and sterilization during medical procedures. Now both were being practiced with much greater regularity, which led to much greater results.

Not to mention, the local vestals of Saniya were also attending courses at the local hospital throughout the year, to improve their theoretical medical knowledge. Normally, such an infringement in Saniya's traditions would have received heavy pushback from the conservative priests, in an attempt to secure their authority over births, as well as their source of income. However, after Corco had successfully backed the reformer faction during the Lightning War, such obstacles had long been removed.

Thus, he now had a number of experienced, well-taught midwives who could handle a regular birth. The best of them were currently taking care of his wife Sumaci. On top of that, doctors stood ready in a room nearby, in case a c-section became necessary. Over the year, they had even begun to experiment with blood transfusions. While they still hadn't found the right methods to reliably identify all the blood types, at least they had managed to find a few donors who were confirmed to be O-negative. With blood at hand which could be used on anyone without complications, the doctors could thus administer some transfusions of blood and saline solution in case Maci lost too much blood during the delivery.

Of course, he also made sure to provide pain relief through coca extract, though they were in the early stages of development and essentially would just be drugging his wife with cocaine.

While he was at it, Corco had also invented 'obstetrical forceps', essentially just long metal tongs intended to pull unborn babies out by their heads in case they got stuck in the wrong position. Although it sounded violent, it had supposedly been an extremely useful tool in the other world for a time. Apparently, this tool alone had improved child mortality more dramatically than any other invention, a factoid which was somehow stuck in his head, one which he could now put to good use.

Thus, all throughout the year, the king had spent an inordinate amount of time to make childbirth as safe as possible for both his wife, as well as their unborn child. At times, he had worked to the point of neglecting his other duties. As a reward - and as proof that his efforts hadn't been in vain - child mortality rates in Saniya were way down, which would lead to explosive population growth in the years to come. However, Corco still felt like he hadn't done enough, like there must have been a million different methods he hadn't considered yet.

What about water birth? Wasn't that semi-popular at some point? I should have run some experiments to see if that's safer. What if-

A sudden change of mood in the room pulled Corco out of his thoughts, just as he was threatened to lose himself within them again. He hadn't heard what had happened, but he could still perceive the shift in the air around him somehow. As he looked up, he realized why he felt so different. No one was talking anymore, and everyone was staring at him instead, as if expecting a reaction.

"Huh?" Corco asked, and looked around for help.

"Congratulations, teacher," a helpful Ronnie said and slapped his shoulder. "You have a healthy son."

Only now did Corco realize that the vestal who had been in charge of the delivery was standing by the now open door and looking in his direction as well. Rather than accept the wave of congratulations which washed over him as soon as he stood up, the king ignored everyone here and rushed out as quickly as he could. For once, his smaller cultivator's body was useful, as he forced his way through the crowd without consideration for anyone's health or feelings. Finally, his child had been born. Finally, no one would stop him from seeing his wife. Eager to see both safe, the king rushed towards his family.

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Thus, the fifty-second day of the autumn season in the eighth year of Strife marked the birth of Primus Corcopaca Pluritac, first crown prince of Medala and the Verdant Isles.

Hermit's Notes: Two more today, for a total of three over the week.