January 20, 1503, Age of the Sea Circle
The beginning of the year had passed at great speed, and in the blink of an eye it was already the end of the month. On this day, a historic event was taking place in the Pacific Kingdom: the birth of the heir to the throne.
Orion's first child had finally decided to make his appearance in this world, and early in the morning Ginny had gone into labor. At last, after several long hours that felt eternal, the loud cry of a baby echoed through the silent royal residence.
"Congratulations, it's a healthy boy," said the doctor who had assisted Ginny during childbirth.
At Ginny's request, Orion had not been allowed to be present — the revolutionary didn't want her husband to see her in such an unglamorous state and had forbidden him from participating in the delivery alongside the medical team.
Of course, Orion would have stepped in immediately if it had been necessary, but fortunately, everything went smoothly. The delivery had been normal and without complications.
Holding his son in his arms, Orion looked down at the child's delicate face and at the strands of pink hair that adorned his head. Evidently, the little one resembled his mother quite a bit, at least physically.
Completely mesmerized by his baby and overflowing with joy, Orion stood there smiling like a fool for a long while, until the doctor gently reminded him to bring the child to his mother's arms.
Ginny, completely exhausted from labor, took her baby into her arms with eyes full of tenderness, and she couldn't help but begin to cry silently with happiness. Ever since she was a little girl, she had always dreamed of becoming a mother and having a family, and now that dream had finally come true.
Thinking about the happy future awaiting her with her husband and child, Ginny smiled brightly and gently rocked her son.
"What a beautiful baby! He looks just like his mother!" said Giolla from the side, her eyes glowing as she took in the touching scene.
Almost without realizing it, she moved closer to Orion, pressing her enormous breasts against his arm. She wasn't fully aware of it, but she too felt a strong desire to become a mother — though for now, she would have to wait to make that wish come true.
"What's his name?" asked Hototogisu, watching the baby with her usual deadpan expression, already wondering how she should address him in the future.
"His name is Sam," said Ginny with a tender smile, rocking her baby lovingly.
"Sam Lysander — not a bad name!" said Mario, Orion's grandfather, who had just become a great-grandfather and was absolutely overjoyed that the family tree had expanded once more.
In his mind, the Lysanders were on their way to becoming a great and powerful clan in the future, and he would be the most senior member of the family — respected by all as a wise old man!
Just thinking about that future, surrounded by countless descendants, Mario nodded vigorously to himself, not paying any attention to the glances from the others in the room.
"Don't you think the baby… is glowing?" Christina suddenly said, observing the child while keeping her Observation Haki active.
At her words, some of the women with sharper senses — or those capable of using Observation Haki — showed thoughtful expressions, though none of them said anything. After all, that "glow" was only a feeling, something they couldn't properly explain.
However, Orion had already activated his Prism Eyes, and upon observing his baby's tiny body, he saw that the child was surrounded by a mysterious energy very similar to the one that resided within his own body and formed the structure of the System.
Still, this energy didn't seem to cause any harm to the baby — in fact, it appeared to be strengthening his body — so Orion decided not to worry about it. It was to be expected that his son wouldn't be entirely "normal," especially since he was the child conceived with Ginny, who had been registered in the System as a Main Wife.
According to the System's description, women with that bond were the perfect partners to produce the best possible offspring, so Orion had already expected his child to be special. However, he hadn't anticipated that the boy would possess the same type of energy that seemed to make up the System itself.
For now, he didn't fully understand what that meant, but perhaps in the future, Sam would be able to use that power at will — which would make him truly extraordinary. After all, Orion himself had used that same energy to enter a forced Berserk Mode, exponentially increasing his power.
At the royal palace of Pacific Kingdom, the birth of Orion and Ginny's firstborn son was celebrated throughout the rest of the day by their loved ones, and it wouldn't be until the following day that the excited women in Orion's life finally began to calm down.
…
February 6, 1503, Age of the Sea Circle
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Robin, happy birthday to you ~"
Two weeks had passed since the birth of Sam, the son of Orion and Ginny, and today they were celebrating once again — this time for Robin and Orion's birthdays.
Although Orion's birthday was on February first, he had developed the habit of celebrating it on the sixth, so he could celebrate together with Robin's birthday.
It was something Orion had promised the girl many years ago, when he had brought her from the West Blue, and in the years that followed, they celebrated their birthdays together whenever possible—that is, whenever Orion happened to be in the kingdom at that time of year.
"Make a wish, Robin!" said Ginny, who was holding her little pink-haired baby in her arms.
Robin closed her eyes and slowly formed a wish in her mind. Then she opened them again, and after glancing briefly at Orion, she blew out the candles without hesitation.
The crowd erupted in applause, and the atmosphere grew livelier and more cheerful as food and alcohol began to flow through everyone's hands.
Suddenly, the tiny baby, only two weeks old, began to cry inconsolably, and both Ginny and Orion excused themselves from the party to take care of their child. Watching Orion's back as he left the room, Robin sighed softly, thinking that it would be nice if the wish she had just made came true someday.
Meanwhile, Orion and Ginny returned to the revolutionary's quarters, and after changing baby Sam's diaper, she nursed him for a few minutes until the infant was full and drifted off to sleep.
Over the past few weeks, Orion had been spending time with Ginny and her baby, helping wherever he could and experiencing the novelty of being a father for the first time.
Because of the kind of life he led, he knew perfectly well that he wouldn't be able to devote this kind of attention to each of his children in the future, since otherwise he wouldn't have time for anything else. For that reason, he had taken a short vacation to focus on the responsibilities of fatherhood, though he would soon return to his life filled with adventure.
Perhaps it was a little unfair to his wives and children, but that was simply the kind of person Orion was. After all, he carried the great ambition of changing the world, which meant he had to devote nearly all his efforts to that goal.
Even so, that didn't mean he would be a completely absent father—although it would be impossible for him to be a full-time parent like a normal man. For example, in just a month, Kuma would come to transport them to Dressrosa, where he would marry Scarlett.
He had offered Ginny the chance to come along and bring little Sam, but the beautiful revolutionary had gently refused, telling him to go and handle his affairs without worry. She would stay behind with baby Sam, though not for long either, since she also had her responsibilities as Commander of the Southern Army, which she could not neglect.
From an ordinary person's perspective, Ginny's and Orion's actions could indeed seem a bit careless, but for people of their status and obligations, it was simply unavoidable. Fortunately, this was where the advantages of the clan-style polygamous family model came into play—the system adopted by most monarchs around the world.
With that model, children always had other family members available to care for them even when their biological parents could not. It wasn't unusual for other wives or concubines to look after the children of another woman in the harem, and generally all the children were raised communally, without distinctions among them.
Of course, in kingdoms or empires with long histories, the clan system was often the source of countless problems and intrigues, with members scheming against the children of their rivals in the race for the throne. It wasn't uncommon in such cases for the children to suffer discrimination, limitations, or even be eliminated altogether.
Fortunately, the situation in Pacific Kingdom was far more harmonious. There was no need to worry about such conflicts—and probably never would be, as long as Orion was alive—since he had the great advantage of being assisted by the System.
"Look at him, sleeping like a little angel," said Ginny, her eyes glowing as she watched her tiny baby sleep peacefully while she hugged Orion's arm.
"That's right. He's much calmer than I expected. Clearly, he inherited my serene personality," Orion said shamelessly, prompting Ginny to reach out indignantly and pinch his cheek, stretching it quite a bit.
She had discovered, to her great surprise, that Orion's cheeks could now stretch a lot, making him look quite funny every time she pinched them. Of course, this ability didn't activate on its own—it required Orion's will—but he enjoyed seeing his wife happy, so he simply allowed her to stretch his cheeks playfully whenever she wished.
Finally, after playing for a while with her beloved's cheeks, Ginny looked at the peacefully sleeping baby and said,
"Obviously, he inherited both his appearance and his calm personality from his beautiful and charismatic mother!"
With her hands resting proudly on her hips, Ginny looked especially pleased with her baby, and Orion wasn't nearly foolish enough to contradict her and risk putting her in a bad mood.
He simply limited himself to thinking that his son Sam had not yet shown any magical abilities and merely seemed to be a normal baby, even though that mysterious energy continued to coat his body permanently and even appeared to be flowing in and out of him regularly… almost as if the baby could control it without realizing it.
Perhaps in a couple of years, his son Sam would surprise everyone with something completely out of the ordinary, but for now, both he and Ginny were content to enjoy the fact that he was simply a healthy, normal baby.
…
That night, Orion left Ginny's room, leaving both mother and child peacefully asleep. Since she had given birth only a short time ago, Orion had no intention of indulging in the long-awaited night of passion with her, preferring instead to let her recover in peace. There would be plenty of time in the future to consummate their love in a more "conscious" way, so there was no need to rush things.
Even so, he was no longer sleeping in the quarters of the beautiful revolutionary, since he didn't want his libido—which was several times higher than that of a normal man—to cause any problems.
Leaving Ginny's room, Orion stepped out of the royal residence and made his way toward the great library, located near the central plaza of the kingdom's capital. That was where Robin often spent long hours studying and reading the new additions that continually arrived through merchants or other channels.
Around her birthday, Orion would usually order a particularly large number of books, which were presented to her as a sort of pseudo gift. Still, this was not the world of his past life, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for Orion to obtain new books, since they simply weren't produced on a large scale in this world.
Books here were quite limited, and he was beginning to think they might already be on the verge of collecting every available one in the South Blue.
Upon entering the grand library, Orion found a few people inside, browsing the shelves in search of specific books. Despite it being nearly midnight, there were still quite a few scholars in Pacific Kingdom who visited the library regularly.
This was mainly thanks to Orion's efforts to recruit academics from various fields to improve the cultural background of the kingdom. These "experts" were tasked with conducting research in different areas and were subsidized by the royal government.
In addition, many of them often taught at the public school—not only to children but also to adults who wished to learn, though the latter were very few. After all, this was a world where knowledge was little more than a useless luxury for most ordinary people, who were focused on far more utilitarian ways of living.
Orion walked to the deepest part of the library and reached an area not open to the public, accessible only to authorized personnel—which basically meant Orion and his main subordinates.
After passing through the door, he found Robin sitting at a large desk, writing intently in a book. Orion approached her and sat beside her without interrupting, waiting patiently for her to finish what she was doing.
Finally, after a few minutes, she set down her quill and fixed her gaze on him.
"What brings our glorious king to this remote, forgotten corner of the kingdom?" Robin said with a smile, resting her cheek against her palm in one of her classic poses.
She had just turned thirteen and had already taken her first steps into adolescence, beginning to show delicate features that hinted at the stunning beauty she would display in the years to come.
After years of living happily and safely in Pacific Kingdom, free from the fear of persecution by the World Government, Robin had become a much more open girl than Orion had expected, one who enjoyed being in the company of others—though she limited herself to those she felt comfortable with, which basically meant Orion, his family, and his direct subordinates.
Even so, Robin retained a somewhat "dark" side that gave her personality a unique touch. It wasn't that she was negative or depressive; rather, she tended to have strange ideas and often thought through extreme scenarios in dangerous situations, analyzing them calmly with a faint smile on her lips.
Orion was quite fond of Robin's personality, and perhaps that was why her compatibility with him was close to 100%, according to the System's parameters. In any case, Orion greatly enjoyed spending time with Robin, and over the years, she had been one of the people he had spent the most time with.
They especially loved debating all kinds of interesting theories, though sometimes they simply met to read together in quiet harmony.
It could be said that Orion knew Robin very well, and he immediately picked up on the note of complaint hidden beneath the playful tone in her words.
"Well, as the glorious king that I am, it is my duty to ensure the well-being of my loyal subjects, and that is why I have come here—to grant you a wish!" Orion said, matching the same playful tone Robin had used.
She covered her mouth with the knuckle of her index finger, laughing softly at the ridiculous, exaggerated expression Orion was making, and her faint annoyance vanished without a trace.
Truth be told, she had been a little irritated, since the birthday celebration that was usually her special moment with Orion had been overtaken by the newborn Sam, who had become the center of attention.
Even Orion had left the party early to take care of his baby, which was also a bit disappointing for her. Still, Robin knew she was being unreasonable—she was jealous of a tiny baby—but she couldn't help how she felt. They were simply her truest emotions, and she couldn't ignore them.
That was why, upon seeing Orion come to find her in the great library, she had felt very happy, though she couldn't resist sneaking in a small complaint in disguise.
"All right then, since our king wishes to show off, I have a request that only he can grant," Robin said with a calm smile.
"Very well, ask whatever you wish! If it's within my power, I won't disappoint you!" Orion said, still acting grandiose on purpose.
However, Robin's next words made him turn serious once more.
"I want to join the kingdom's troops… and I want to go to the outside world."
That was something that had been on Robin's mind for quite some time, but she had never mentioned it and had instead been patiently waiting for the moment she could regain her freedom.
However, after seeing Orion fall into a coma as a result of his dangerous encounter with the Celestial Dragon and his subordinates, she had realized that the peace she enjoyed every day was an extremely fragile thing.
Until now, she had simply been enjoying Orion's care, which had kept her safe from the outside world and given her some of the things she wanted most: a family, a place to call home, countless books, and endless opportunities to expand her knowledge.
She had been content with all of that—until the moment she realized Orion might one day leave on one of his adventures and never return. Once that idea entered her mind, it settled there and refused to leave, no matter how hard she tried.
In the end, she had come to a logical conclusion to deal with the weight of that thought: she needed to become stronger.
Even if she couldn't be strong enough to protect Orion, she at least had to be strong enough to share part of his burdens. Otherwise, what was the difference between her and a beautiful canary raised in captivity?
Little Robin was awakening new desires she had never had before, along with the onset of puberty. They weren't just romantic feelings toward Orion, but above all the desire to share both his joys and his hardships.
She didn't want to be just a young genius locked away in a library. She wanted to be able to stand by Orion's side in important moments and help him in ways that only she could. It wasn't arrogance—she simply had enough confidence in herself to know that she could give Orion things no one else could.
For that reason, now, before the king of this kingdom—her savior, her friend, and her crush—she was asking for the chance to spread her wings and leave the nest that Orion had built for her.
The nest had indeed been warm and safe during the hardest times of her life, but now it was time to take a step forward and begin a new stage.
Orion looked at her seriously, and upon seeing the pure, determined eyes of the young genius, he smiled and nodded.
"Very well, I'll ask Giolla and Christina to train you, then. If you're going to leave the safety of the kingdom, I want you to be strong enough to protect yourself in case something unexpected happens.
I want you to master Armament Haki—it will complement the powers of your Devil Fruit.
Once your training shows its first results, I'll grant you the second part of your request."
Hearing that Orion had agreed to let her begin combat training, and that he had basically accepted letting her leave the kingdom at will, Robin smiled brightly and threw herself into Orion's arms, hugging him tightly.
For his part, Orion had never intended to keep Robin as a caged canary; he had merely been waiting for her to be ready to take that step. If she had wanted to stay forever in the library, focused on her studies, he wouldn't have refused, and he would have continued to protect her from all harm.
However, he preferred that Robin become more independent and stronger, allowing the other side of her talents—the combat skills she had yet to develop—to shine.
Now, she had finally decided to take that step, and Orion was quite pleased about it.
Suddenly, while Orion was thinking about Robin's future training plans, the girl who was hugging him took him by surprise, giving him a brief kiss on the lips.
Then, with her cheeks blushing, she said,
"That's a reward for our glorious king."
Orion simply shook his head, thinking Robin was becoming craftier by the day, but he didn't pay much attention to it, assuming she was just showing her playful side.
However, her next words made his heart skip a beat.
"Now… can you let your other self out? I want to see him."
Orion looked at Robin's shy expression and simply shook his head once more, sealing off his adult mind and letting "little Orion" take control. However, now that his other self had entered adolescence, he could no longer really be called by that nickname—it was better to refer to him as "young Orion."
Orion's eyes became slightly purer and more innocent, showing that the difference between his adult self and his younger self was no longer as wide as before. Probably in a few more years, the two would merge completely into one.
Young Orion deactivated the use of his Age Change ability, causing his height to decrease slightly. Then, looking at Robin with a grin that made him look somewhat roguish, he said,
"Robin, today's my birthday party. Don't you have a gift for me?"
Robin blushed even more, and with a swift motion, she wrapped her arms around Orion's neck, then leaned her entire weight against him, bringing her lips close to his and sharing with him her very first real kiss.
For both young Orion and Robin, this was their official first kiss, and they enjoyed it with great awkwardness. In the silent central hall of Pacific Kingdom's great library, Robin and Orion ended the day of their shared birthday celebration with a perfect finishing touch.