The Hidden King's Stolen Wife-Chapter 273: List of Names

Soleia bit down hard into the cloth that she had been given, sweat beading across her forehead as her veins popped against her skin. She let out a strangled cry, her teeth tightly gritted against the fabric as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Push, Your Majesty," the midwife said, glancing worriedly at Soleia before returning her gaze to her task at hand. "I can almost see the baby’s head."

She was pushing. Hell, if she had the luxury of time and energy to yell right now, she would’ve. But all of Soleia’s strength was placed into trying to get the baby out, for every second that it was in her stomach, she felt her insides cramp up and churn like never before.

Was getting drained of her life force by King Recaldo any better? Honestly, probably so. Soleia had never felt such a guttural, impossible pain before.

Worst of all, Rafael’s magic was of no use. He had been hovering beside her, trying to heal her body as it tore to give way to the child, but not even the power of the gods seemed to help. If anything, it only made matters worse, which was why Rafael had stopped and stepped away.

The servants and midwife had suggested Rafael leave the room, but he was insistent on staying. His face had turned pale, and he wanted nothing more than to wrench the baby out of Soleia and kick it to the ends of the earth where it could not hurt his beloved wife.

Several times he wished to step forward to help, but was quickly blocked by a maid who would come forward. They dabbed the sweat off Soleia’s forehead and kept her as clean and cool as possible.

Finally, a piercing wail broke through the room, and everyone in the chambers let out a collective sigh of relief.

Soleia slumped back into the bed, her chest rising and falling quickly as she caught her breath. She felt sick. Her limbs no longer felt like hers, and no matter how the maids dabbed away at her skin, they couldn’t fully remove the sticky sheen that had formed during her exertion.

"Your Majesty," the midwife said, bringing the baby over to Soleia. The latter weakly raised her head, her eyes half hooded over, and her lips parted. "It’s a boy."

"Let me see," she softly murmured, and the midwife dutifully brought the child over to her.

Her son was weak and frail, being a premature newborn. His skin was pale, almost translucent, and he was much thinner and smaller than the average infant. But he was still a darling, and when Soleia placed her index finger right next to the wailing child, he instantly grabbed her.

"Rafael..." Soleia weakly called out, sighing gently as she smiled. Her eyes were starting to get blurry. "Look at him."

Rafael had long scrambled forward the moment the midwife safely placed the baby into Soleia’s arms. He hovered his hand right over his newborn son, and gently, magic pulsed from his fingers. A red cloud of mist gathered around his fingertips, shimmering when it caught the light, and when it rained down on the infant, the child’s skin color turned a little more healthy than before.

"Your Majesty," the midwife said, lowering her head. "We may have to bring the young prince into intensive care. Being born nearly a month earlier than scheduled could result in problems―"

"Do it then," Rafael said, but his hands instinctively hovered over his son. Their son. The sheer impossibility of such a moment nearly struck him down; he knew that he would have children with Soleia, but seeing the reality of his desire to create a family with her caused his throat to clog up with unsaid emotion.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The physicians hovered over and placed the young prince in a special contraption that Soleia had specifically created for such a circumstance. Rafael had hoped that they would never need to use it, but Soleia insisted, claiming that it was better to be safe than sorry.

Turns out that his wife was right, as always. Rafael watched as his son let out a tiny cry. Soleia tried to pull herself up to take a closer look, but the midwife held out a hand to stop her.

"This is a good sign," the physician said encouragingly to both of them. "It shows that the young prince has enough energy to cry, and there is no fluid in his lungs."

Soleia paused for a moment, considering his words before finally lying back down to rest. Rafael stood by her side and dabbed her sweaty face dry with his handkerchief.

"You did it, sweetheart. Now let me heal you."

Soleia nodded tiredly, and Rafael focused his energies on healing her insides that were devastated after the birth.

"Does it hurt?" he asked worriedly. He didn’t wish to cause her pain, but he had never healed a woman who had just given birth either. It was eerily reminiscent of soldiers who took a machete to their insides, and his stomach twisted at the mental image.

"Just do it," Soleia said with a wince as she plopped back down against her pillows. "The hardest part is over."

Rafael could agree. As he healed her, there was another question he had to ask. "Darling, we haven’t decided on names yet?"

Normally, babies would be named after their parents, but since he and Soleia have had terrible father figures, it was a tad bit difficult to find good names for their son.

"Oh, right," Soleia said sheepishly. "I made a list of names― it’s on my table. Could someone be so kind as to pass it to me, along with a quill?"

One of the servants scuttled past and handed the items to her. Rafael raised his eyebrows as the parchment trailed all over the floor.

"Soleia... is this a list, or a census of every single baby name in Raxuvia?" Rafael asked with surprise.

"Well, I thought I would have a month to trim it down," Soleia huffed as she folded the parchment vertically in half. "Now this is for the boys... What do you think of Rowan?"

"Definitely not," Rafael frowned. "No more names starting with R."

"Your name starts with R," Soleia pointed out.

"Exactly. So did my father’s and my brothers’. There’s enough of Raxuvian royalty with Rs in their name," Rafael insisted.

"Fair enough, my dear husband Afael." Soleia rolled her eyes and crossed out an entire segment of names while her husband focused on stitching her insides back together.

Before Rafael could squawk at the butchering of his name, Soleia offered another one.

"How about Oreus?"

"Is this inspired by Orion?"

"Maybe?" Soleia blinked innocently at him, ignoring her husband’s faint jealousy. "After all, we both owe him our lives."

Rafael twitched before clearing his throat. "Let’s put it aside for the time being. Is there any name that says our child is the best gift from heaven or something? He and his sibling are nothing less than divine miracles."

"Hmmm..." Soleia’s eyes roved over the list before it stopped at a particular name. "How about Nathaniel?"

"Nathaniel," Rafael echoed, turning to stare at his son, whose crying had subsided. "It sounds good. How about it? Do you want to be a Nathaniel? If you don’t cry, your mother and I will assume you’re fine with it."

Both he and Soleia watched their son blink his bleary eyes at them, his mouth moving wordlessly in silence.

"Good enough," Rafael said, pleased. Now that he mentioned it, his son did look like a Nathaniel. "Welcome, Nathaniel Biroumand."

"If he hates his name, we’ll change it to Rathaniel when he gets older," Soleia added impishly.

"That’s a foul punishment!" Rafael squawked. "You might as well call him Ratatouille next!"