A Highest Rank in Another World!

Inside Noah's house, Emma was lying on her bed, and right next to her Lucio was sitting looking despondent.

"How are you feeling?" He turned around and looked at Emma. She was lying motionless on the bed.

"I feel terrible."

"I see. Do you want me to stay here with you?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I'll leave the work with the others and stay here." Lucio lay down on the bed together with Emma and then hugged her from behind. His arm fell across Emma's chest and she held it and squeezed it.

After his hand was squeezed, Lucio noticed that Emma's hand was shaking and was also cold.

Because of this, he hugged her even tighter.

"Don't worry, you are not to blame for anything."

"I feel like everything I've done up to this point ended up causing this."

"But you didn't do anything wrong to harm our son, this happened spontaneously and it wasn't anyone's fault."

"..."

"You're certainly not at fault, okay?"

"...."

####

Back to a day ago.

It was evening, dinner had been prepared by Dala with the help of Lari, and Emma, Lucio, Lisandra, and Noah were sitting at the table waiting for dinner to be served.

After a few more minutes of waiting, Lari and Dala set the plates and then brought the pans to the table. After that everyone began to serve themselves.

With all plates full, everyone ate while discussing some random subjects such as the protection of the village, a new trip to the capital, and also the lack of food.

Everything was going well until a sudden groan from Emma caught everyone's attention.

She then made an uncomfortable expression, as if she was in pain.

"What is it? Is everything okay?" Quickly Lucio stood up and supported her. He held her hand and then looked at her belly. Emma was caressing her belly looking like she was in pain.

Lucio's hand started to be squeezed and Emma looked at him looking scared.

"All right, I'm going to take you to bed, all right?" Lucio let Emma lean on his shoulder and lifted her.

Lisandra, Lari, and Noah sitting at the table looked terrified and didn't know what to do.

"Mom, what's going on?" Having no experience in "taking care" of a pregnant woman, Noah was quite scared.

And Lisandra who had seen her pregnant mother before know something bad was happening, so she was also terrified.

Because of this she approached and helped her father to take Emma to her room.

Lari on the other hand was silent and seemed to be in shock. Dala who was still in the house also seemed to know what was going on.

She stood in the kitchen as she looked at Emma looking extremely shocked and sad.

Not knowing what to do, she shouted that she would call for help and quickly left the house.

Seeing the expression of terror from all those people around her, Noah began to despair even more.

"Hey, mom, what's going on? Where is it hurting? I can use healing magic to help you if I have to." Noah approached Emma who was about to enter her room, but he was pulled away by Lucio.

"No need to help, Noah, just wait out here. You too, Lisandra." Lucio was nervous and sweating non-stop

When he turned to look at Noah and Lisandra, the two saw an expression that they never had seen before.

After Lucio closed the bedroom door, Noah and Lisandra continued to hear some strange moans inside the room. In addition, they could also hear Lucio's worried voice trying to support Emma.

"Hey, Lari, what's going on?" Not being able to enter the bedroom, Noah ran up to Lari.

But she didn't answer, she just had a sad expression on her face.

Noah gritted his teeth at being ignored again.

He brought his hands to his head and pulled his hair. Then he started to walk around looking down not knowing what to do.

Lisandra who was standing nearby looked at her brother not knowing what to do too. 

"What is that?" And Noah who was looking at the ground noticed some strange red spots on the ground.

He bent down and took a good look.

"Is that blood? Hey, that's blood, isn't it? What the fuck is going on?"

Realizing that things were worse than he imagined, Noah ran to his mother's room ignoring Lisandra's voice and also Lari who tried to stop him.

When he opened the bedroom door, he saw a scene he would not have wanted to see.

Emma was crying desperately and appeared to be in severe pain.

In addition, the sheet and blankets were soaked with blood. 

His father was standing beside her completely frightened and he didn't know what to do.

"..."

Noah saw that and took a few steps back.

"Noah...." Emma saw Noah at the door and called for him while crying, but Noah just turned away from the room and then ran outside.

'I need to get help, I need to get help. Goddess, what do I do? My brother is dying.' Noah began to cry as well.

####

"I didn't think that would happen to me someday."

"That's right, you already told me about your mother."

"Yes, she went through a miscarriage too. I was supposed to have a younger sister or brother now if that hadn't happened."

"I see."

"Speaking of her, I miss her, I wonder how she is?"

"You haven't visited her since you started adventuring, have you?"

"I fought with her before I left home, after that, I refused to go back there. Now that I've remembered that, I confess I'm missing her a little."

"What do you think about visiting her?"

"And what am I going to say? Look, mom, I got married, I have two kids and I just lost a baby... Is that what I'm going to say?"

"..."

"But that's a good idea. But maybe she's not even alive anymore."

"Don't say that."

"Well, I never received any news of her and any letters, it all may have happened in those several years that have passed."

"So, you want to visit her? I can prepare a carriage for both of us to start a trip tomorrow morning."

"Don't be in such a hurry, I want to get some rest."

"Okay."

"But I want to find her, maybe she has already forgiven me."

"She certainly didn't want you to disappear."

"Maybe..."

"..."

"But I'm afraid she's moved house or moved town."

"No matter, it's good that we take a trip to forget our troubles for a while."

"You're right."

Lucio kissed Emma on the head and continued cuddling with her until Emma slept.

####

Noah and Ciaphia walked around the village for a while before they arrived at Ciaphia's house.

After the two arrived, they were met by Taciane and Eli.

Already knowing what had happened, so did everyone else in the village, the two were silent as soon as Noah entered the house.

They noticed that he was crying earlier and that he was quite shaken.

"Do you want something to eat? It looks like you won't have lunch at your house today." Ciaphia walked with Noah and sat down on the couch along with him.

"I'm not hungry."

"You need to com eat something, you haven't even had breakfast."

"It's okay, I can handle a few hours without eating. I just want to be quiet for a while."

"That's fine, but if you want something just tell me, okay?"

"I want you to stay here with me."

"Of course, I'll stay together with you."

Ciaphia held Noah's hand and then laid Noah's head on her lap.

"Get some rest." 

"..."

Noah closed his eyes and then slept on Ciaphia's lap.

When Taciane realized that Noah was sleeping, she finally asked about how everything was at Emma's house.

"It's not good at all. Emma won't come out of her room and Lucio is together with her. Lisandra is also locked inside her room. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was reading."

"And Lari?"

"I didn't get to talk to her, but she seems pretty shaken up too."

"I see."

"..."

"And I see Noah is not doing very well."

"Yes... He's suddenly become quite "emotional". It's the first time I've seen him in that state, I've never seen him so sad before."

"I can imagine. It must be sad to lose your little brother or sister, that must be why Lisandra is so protective with Noah."

"Yes..."

"And I'm pretty protective with Eli too, aren't I?"

"... Do you want me to answer?"

"No need."

"Ahahaha, well, but there's nothing for us to do now, we just need to support them for now. I've never seen a family with as many problems as Noah's."

"Me neither. Since we got here they had a lot of problems, Noah got hurt so much and then disappeared again...."

"Yes."

"I hope things get better from now on."