"Then, my lord husband, would you take Liese to your bed in my stead and give her a child?"
"Bwah—hack, hack!"
At Celine's abrupt words, Yuri involuntarily sputtered and broke into a violent coughing fit.
"Lord Yuri, are you all right?"
Startled, Lieselotte rose from her seat at once and gently rubbed his back. Her kindness only deepened Yuri's confusion.
"I-I was just caught off guard by something so completely unexpected. Surely that would be... out of the question."
Frantically searching for the right words in his head, Yuri somehow managed to force out a reply.
"My lord husband, there would be no problem whatsoever under kingdom law. I will only grow busier with my duties as ruler from here on, and if I grow heavy with child, it will hinder my work. Therefore, I would like Liese to attend you at night in my place."
Celine explained it all in a calm tone, but Yuri's agitation did not subside.
"In that case, couldn't we simply do without until things settle down?"
He somehow managed to offer a different suggestion, but Celine only looked at him in surprise.
"...My lord husband, are you ill?"
Celine's quiet voice rang softly through the room. For a moment, Yuri was too bewildered to grasp what she meant.
"What? No, I'm perfectly healthy."
"Then do you have little interest in your conjugal duties at night? Or are you perhaps an ascetic monk—or a sage?"
Celine pressed him further.
"No, I'm a perfectly normal man, so of course I'm interested."
"So you are neither ill nor a monk nor a sage... Then perhaps, my lord husband... your vigor has failed you?"
Resting her right hand against her cheek, Celine murmured with a faintly troubled expression, "If that were so, I wonder whether I might restore it."
"Bwah—L-Lady Celine, what on earth are you saying!?"
Flushing scarlet, Yuri hurriedly denied it. Seeing him like that, Lieselotte dropped her gaze, her face turning just as red.
"M-Mother, it's still daytime. To talk about something like that is... is indecent."
"Whatever are you saying? This is very important."
Celine said it with utmost seriousness, but Lieselotte was too embarrassed to find any words.
"Could it be that Liese is not to your taste?"
When Celine asked a little anxiously, Yuri shook his head at once.
"No, no, not at all. What man could possibly turn away a woman as delicate and lovely as a fairy?"
At those words, Lieselotte blushed clear to the tips of her ears and shrank in on herself even more.
"Then why will you not take Liese to your bed?"
Tilting her head, Celine gazed at Yuri with a puzzled look. Faced with such an innocent question, he found himself at a loss for words.
"Because... I'm marrying you, Lady Celine. Just because you and I... are not doing that, it doesn't mean I should turn to your daughter, Lady Lieselotte, instead. Surely that would still be strange, wouldn't it?"
Flustered and not even sure what he himself was saying, Yuri desperately strung the words together.
"There is nothing strange about it. I, as both her mother and your wife, give my permission."
Celine's grave expression only threw Yuri into deeper confusion.
"No, but... she hasn't even graduated from the Noble Academy yet. Isn't it too soon?"
Yuri tried desperately to object, but Celine was entirely unshaken.
"That is no issue either. I bore Liese myself before I ever entered the Noble Academy."
Celine's words reminded him of the common sense of this world—something unimaginable in his previous life. Healing magic was highly advanced here, and the age range for childbirth was astonishingly broad, from the early teens to the late forties. In noble society, having many children with strong magic was encouraged, and even in times of food shortages or financial hardship, taking consorts was treated as only natural under a state-backed creed of "bear children and multiply."
"My lord husband, if House Strauss is to endure as a newly founded noble house, we will face many hardships ahead. We have few blood relatives or marriage ties to rely on. That is why it is our duty to raise capable people ourselves and strengthen our house with our own hands."
Celine took a breath and met Yuri's eyes in utter seriousness.
"Above all, having many children is indispensable if this house is to stand firm and continue into the next generation. For that, Lord Yuri, we absolutely need your strength."
"Even so, with Lady Lieselotte, that, well, um..."
Seeing that the conversation was getting nowhere, Celine let out a deep sigh and decided to use her final measure.
"We have even been granted the royal seal. We have His Majesty's permission, as well as Her Majesty the Queen Dowager's, so you may set your mind at ease."
"What? Why the royal seal? You're serious?"
Stunned beyond words, Yuri could only stare in shock.
"Mother, please let childbearing wait until after I graduate from the Noble Academy."
When Lieselotte said that in a composed voice, Yuri's surprise only deepened.
"What? That's the part you object to? You're really fine with this, Lady Lieselotte? Bearing children with your own mother's husband, I mean..."
He looked at Lieselotte in disbelief, but she remained calm.
"Legally, there is no problem. And while it does trouble me, if you will love me as well, then I do not mind. We are a newly founded noble house, after all, and thinking of the future, I believe it would be better for us to have many children."
As Lieselotte showed such firm resolve, and Yuri sat there agape, too stunned to respond, Celine merely touched her index finger to her lips and murmured quietly,
"There is still time before she enters the Noble Academy. I do think we could just barely make it in time..."
"Mother..."
Lieselotte turned a slightly troubled look on Celine, and at last Celine sighed.
"V-Very well. If you insist, we shall wait where Liese is concerned until she graduates from the Noble Academy. But in exchange, my lord husband, I would ask that you and Liese oversee the administration of a harem for the sake of the Reberk Barony."
That proposal, too, went so far beyond anything he had expected that Yuri's eyes flew wide in astonishment.
"A... a harem?"
"The old noble houses have plenty of relatives and marriage ties, and with them a support system that allows them to help one another when the need arises. But we, as a newly founded noble house, have none of that. That is precisely why we must secure heirs with our own hands and strengthen those ties ourselves."
Celine paused for a breath, clenched her fist, and appealed to Yuri with all the fervor in her heart.
"From selecting consorts and concubines, to producing heirs, and even to resolving disputes among the consorts themselves, I would like you to move forward in consultation with Liese. However many it takes, let us build our numbers until we can rival the Queen Dowager faction."
Faced with the way she leaned forward in earnest persuasion, Yuri could not help blurting out,
"What is that, some kind of 'full steam ahead' strategy? You're serious?"
The Queen Dowager faction stood opposed to the Grand Queen Dowager faction, and in the Kingdom of Oltania it was the second-largest bloc. Considering that the Queen Dowager was still only in her thirties, it would be some time before she herself became the Grand Queen Dowager. The new king had no children yet, so even the choice of his consorts still lay ahead. If that was the case, then if they started producing children in earnest now and married them off into the nobles of the present Grand Queen Dowager faction, there was just barely a chance they might inherit that faction when the time came.
As a former Virtuous Consort, Celine would be more than enough to serve as a rallying point for those who would one day oppose the Queen Dowager—or rather, by then, the Grand Queen Dowager. For now, the current Grand Queen Dowager was still alive and well, so Celine herself remained safe within her faction, but there was no knowing what the future might bring.
"Yes, I ask this of you in all seriousness. There may be women who are not to your taste, my lord husband, but when one considers the development of the territory and the relationships we must maintain, we will not always have the option of refusing them. Please think of it simply as work and conduct yourself accordingly."
Perhaps realizing how carried away she had become, Celine cleared her throat and regained a little of her composure.
"As nobles, we bear an important duty to safeguard the future. To fulfill it, please lend your strength without reserve, my lord husband. It will be vital work—work that will shape the future of House Strauss, the baronial house of Reberk."
Celine's words settled heavily in Yuri's chest.
This is like Japan's Edo period in my previous life, I guess. It sounds like the sort of thing that could spark succession strife, but for the sake of the territory and noble society, political marriages may be necessary...
He turned her words over in his mind again and again, as if tasting them, and at last let out a deep sigh. What Celine had said carried not only the responsibility of family, but the weight of the entire territory's future.
So this is the role of the baron-consort—the husband of a baroness regnant...
"A-all right. I'll do my best."
At this rate, they're going to start calling me the Reberk Barony's breeding stallion...
As Yuri pictured the future, he gave a wry, half-resigned smile at the thought that the hapless noble was about to acquire yet another epithet.