Chapter 88: Idle Talk (4) – The Story of ???

Idle Talk (4) – The Story of ???

The mechanical clacking of keyboards filled the otherwise quiet room. Right now it was past 8 p.m. End of march, which was also the end of the school year, served as a deadline for all sorts of documents. One could see the figures of several people who had remained here past working hours to draw up those documents in time.

Nagisa was one of them

“Gaaah, there’s no end to them!”

“Yes, yes. We got it. But please be so kind as to move your hands rather than your mouth.”

“Hey, how about we catch a coffee?”

“We went to get one just one hour ago, didn’t we?”

Having her whining ignored by her friend, Nagisa went back to working on her documents. She was giving a detailed report on the kindergartners she was responsible for. This management report would not only be shown to the mothers, but also to the state agency in charge.

“Compared to the reports for men, this form has a lot less entries to be filled out.”

“There’s no way we’d be assigned as caseworkers for male kindergartners.”

Nagisa and her coworkers, who were all common women, were in charge of female kindergartners belonging to common women. They were kindergarten teachers responsible for girls before their enrollment at elementary school.

On the other hand, the ones in charge of male kindergartners before the enrollment to elementary school were teachers of high family descent.

In Nihon the little boys would be living in the Exclusive Male Zone together with the mothers up until entering elementary school. Bringing and fetching the boys from kindergarten was a duty. And Nagisa’s group couldn’t even enter the kindergarten commuted by boys because it was situated inside the Exclusive Male Zone.

“I heard it’s reeaaally difficult to handle male kindergartners,”

“For the mothers it’s the last period of time where they can pour their love into their children. But, they aren’t allowed to even make a single mistake either.”

“It’d be terrible if an incident like back then repeated itself.”

“Those incidents aren’t as rare as you’d think.”

This work is hosted on mananovel.com

Occasionally a kindergarten teacher of high family descent would act indecently towards their male charges. The boys, who were just five years old, couldn’t understand what was being done to them. The last of such incidents came to light when another teacher witnessed that act of indecency by chance and reported it.

Nagisa couldn’t stop talking to her friend who was focusing on filling out a document next to her.

“When are you going to be back?”

“So far as it goes, in about three years, I’d say. But, I won’t know until I give birth. I might want to get a second one too.”

“Ah, it’s a story you often hear, don’t you? Children are so cute, so women get a second one.”

“I’m already 26 years old after all. If I plan to have a second child, I’d need to give birth, take a one year break, and then give birth to the second one right away.”

The age span of twenty to thirty was considered to be suitable for pregnancies in this world. However, it was mostly high family women who were able to experience a pregnancy at the early age of twenty. Most of the common women would find a job after graduating college and then ask for conception after working for a few years.

Nagisa’s same-aged friend would be taking a temporary leave at the beginning of April as she wanted to give birth.

“Say, Nagisa, are you really sure about not giving birth?”

Nagisa pondered for a bit about the question of her friend, who had stopped writing, and then answered, “I feel it’s best like that for me.” Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

“But, your compatibility is Best, isn’t it? Moreover, you mentioned you don’t even need any gene manipulation.”

“That’s true, but…”

Common women had the state look up the male sperm with the best affinity for them and chose one for artificial insemination. They were only allowed to go through with it if their compatibility was labeled as Good, Superior, or Best. Among those three ratings, the highest would be Best.

And even if a woman knew about the male sperm with the best affinity for her, she’d take courses to improve her compatibility even further instead of going for the artificial insemination right away. Many of those courses were about daily habits such as exercises and diet.

In short, they’d find compatible sperm around the age of twenty, and then optimize their daily routines for several years to improve the compatibility as much as possible before the actual conception.

Sometimes it was deemed necessary to perform gene manipulation during the artificial insemination. This gene manipulation would be carried out within the boundaries of what was regarded as scientifically safe…or so the state announced.

Nagisa had been evaluated to require no gene manipulation when getting inseminated with the most ideal sperm for her.

Many women were taking the daily routine optimization very seriously, but it depended on the person themselves how far they’d go with it. Yet, in case gene manipulation was recognized as necessary, it had to be performed no matter what.

“I think it’s a waste.”

“Nah, it’s fine, it’s fine. I think it’d be impossible for me to be a mother. Dealing with children at the garden is plenty for me,” Nagisa denied with a laugh while shaking her hand.

Her friend couldn’t say anything against it.

Nagisa’s mother had neglected her. She was a woman obsessed with a fervent admiration for me, but as a woman of commoner descent, she had no choice but to lead a life unrelated to men. And then, when she gave birth to a girl, despite strongly wishing to bear a boy, she fell into despair. This was also reflected in her choosing Nagisa as name. A name which could also be used for boys.

Because conception through artificial insemination was possible for up to two children, Nagisa’s mother usually could have given birth to another child. However, since the state found out about her neglecting Nagisa at an early stage, her mother was forbidden from getting another artificial insemination.

Her mother then continued to raise Nagisa under the watchful eyes and guidance of the state. And even though she tried her best to pour her love into Nagisa, it didn’t go all too well.

Having witnessed her mother being unstable over this, Nagisa couldn’t imagine herself becoming a mother. But, although Nagisa had spent a difficult childhood, the job she chose was that of a kindergarten teacher. Even though she couldn’t imagine herself as a mother, she loved the innocent, gentle smile of children.

Her friend loved Nagisa’s smile. And because of that she felt it wasn’t easy for her to say something, just as she also felt that she’d love Nagisa to become a mother and pour her love into her own child.

Seeing her friend’s expression showing those conflicting feelings, Nagisa said, “Is your mother doing fine?”

“Yeah, she’s been doing great. She’s living in Toukyou, so I’ve been able to meet her frequently.”

“It’s reassuring to have a granny around when raising a child, isn’t it?”

“I’ve already told her that I’d be relying on her.”

“Hahaha, your mother is going to become a lot more lively.”

“Yep. She’s been looking through catalog for baby items while whining about having to look after her grandchild, you know?”

“Hahaha, that sounds so like your mother.”

Her friend’s mother had often doted on Nagisa. Her friend would receive the gene manipulation right away, if she went to the clinic in April. Her compatibility with the chosen male sperm was Superior. After the gene manipulation, she was scheduled to take part in a program to improve her constitution through diet and exercises. Then, at the earliest in June and at the latest in August, she’d go through the artificial insemination process.

This program was very popular among the women as it combined a monitoring of the mother’s health from the insemination to the birth with an optimization training before the insemination.

The gene manipulation procedure put little to no burden on a woman’s body. A patient would be hospitalized for around two days after the operation to make sure that there were no complications, but as she’d be healthy during that time, she could spend the time relaxing for the most part.

“You’re going to come visit me, right?”

“Should I bring some books with me?”

“Let’s see. Romantic novels would be great!”

“Yes, your wish is my command. As always, you’re such a maiden.”

“Nagisa, you’re way too blunt with your words!”

Her friend, who longed for love and romance, was a huge fan of Nanase, the family head of Eternal Yoshiwara, who had married her husband after experiencing a passionate, stunning love story. The latest romantic novel, which would be using Nanase as reference, was slated to go on sale in April, so Nagisa decided to buy her friend that book.

“Well then, let’s give this a final push!”

“Yep!”

They were slightly delayed thanks to all the chatting, but the two went home after finishing their reports without a hitch.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

April the 6th.

Nagisa visited the sickroom of her friend. The gene manipulation procedure had succeeded without any complications. As promised, she had brought the romantic novel, which had gone on sale just yesterday, as a gift for her friend who was scheduled to be discharged tomorrow.

“Thanks!”

“It’s great to see that everything went well,” Nagisa said.

“The success rate was 99.9%.”

“Putting it the other way around, it still had a chance of 0.1% to fail. Your mother was so happy that she cried over it having succeeded.”

“True…but she got scolded by the nurse for being too loud and was thrown out of the sickroom.”

“Well, I think that cannot be helped.”

Her friend happily flipped through the new romance novel.

“I’ve gotta read all of this today and tomorrow!”

“Staying up too late is out of the question. It’d be bad for your body.”

“Somehow that sounds like something my mother would say.”

“You’re going to become a mother soon, so take care of your own body.”

“Pfft! Y-You’re so similar to her. Stop it!”

Feeling relieved to see her friend being full of energy and health, Nagisa spent some time having a fun conversation with her. Being in charge of cute girls at the kindergarten and happily talking with her friend like this; once again Nagisa felt that her life was fine like this.

Recently, the number of women, who chose to not give birth, was on the rise. Some of them only wanted to get pregnant from having sex with a man, but that would be quite a challenge for common women like Nagisa and her friend.

Nagisa had heard unconfirmed rumors that common women could get a man to accept their Service requests. Nagisa had put forth such a Service request. With April being the month when a new school year would start, new boys would become first years at junior high and start their Service Activities.

This was a period of time she women would embrace the hope that they might possibly get luck. Nagisa’s friend had also put forth such a request before her artificial insemination.

And if she was able to meet a man….she wanted to know what sort of people those men were, after seeing how the longing for them had driven her own mother almost crazy.

“Oh right. Next month a new love game is going on sale as well.”

“Another love game? You sure love those games, don’t you?”

“Jeez, you’re so unromantic, Nagisa.”

“No matter how much you might be liked by a guy inside a game, it bears no meaning, right?”

“You can see a dream. A nice fantasy, okay? It’s the same with male V-Streamers, too.”

“Yeah, whatever floats your boat.”

Her friend was calm and gentle, enjoying a lot of popularity among the kindergartners. But, she was a tad too addicted to watching dreams. It went even as far as her actively talking about her romantic fantasies with the kindergartners. Sometimes even Nagisa felt appalled by her friend’s smile as she happily recounted her romantic fantasies to the five and six-year old girls.

I wonder what sort of women men like.

Nagisa had never seen, talked to, or met the real thing. Though she had seen them through her monitor by watching paid and Service streams.

I doubt someone like me would fit the bill anyway. I’m sure men wouldn’t like me who’s often called candid, Nagisa thought.

And then she looked at her friend. Her long, straight, black hair was maintained properly. Her skin was pretty and her figure was charming, to say the least. Her personality was gentle and meek. She was a wonderful woman overflowing with motherhood.

I’m sure any man would love a woman like her.

As she was thinking about such things, the time for her to go back arrived.

“It’s about time for me to leave. I have to prepare for the new year, too.”

“Oki. Thanks for coming. Nagisa, you know…if I give birth to a healthy baby…would you carry it?”

Her friend asked while looking somewhat anxious. Nagisa showed her friend her sweetest smile of the day.

“Of course I would. I’d pamper your child so much that you wouldn’t know who’s worse, me or your mother.”

“Oki!”

Her friend smiled all over her face when she heard Nagisa’s reply.

At that moment, a ringtone could be heard from her friend’s tablet. This sickroom allowed the usage of tablets.

“Hey, wait a sec. You’d usually put it on silent mode inside a hospital, wouldn’t you?”

“H-Huh? That’s weird. I should have done just that.”

“Girl, get your act together. Every once in a while you’re kind of absentminded.”

There were times when a tablet would ring, even in silent mode, but Nagisa couldn’t imagine this to be one of those cases. She got up from her chair and put on her rucksack, before placing a hand on her friend’s belly.

“The next time we meet, this is going to be big, huh?”

“I’m sure.”

“Great. I’ll be looking forward to that.”

“Yep!”

Nagisa removed her hand from her friend’s belly.

“Do your best at work, Nagisa.”

“Sure thing. Let’s both do our best.”

.

.

At the end, Nagisa called her friend’s name with a smile.

.

.

“Suzune.”