The Alchemists

Aleksis then appeared on the screen and her parents who really missed her immediately invited her to speak. They told her that the little girl would soon have a younger brother.

"Wowww!!!! I want to meet baby brother...!" Aleksis exclaimed happily.

"Tomorrow we go back to Germany, so you can see your brother," Lauriel said with a smile.

They chatted for another minute and ended the call when Finland went into another contraction.

"It's two minutes since the last contraction... it's time." Caspar immediately rang the bell and the doctors and nurses came to prepare for the delivery.

This second birth was much faster and easier than the first, and Finland was truly grateful that she did not curse and yell at her husband as she had done in San Francisco. She felt that Caspar was not worthy of being cursed at because for the past 4 months, he had been very patient in taking care of her who turned into an irritatingly sensitive woman due to her stupid pregnancy hormones.

After half an hour of pain and struggling to push, finally a healthy baby boy was born into the Schneider family. His loud cry echoed in the delivery room.

"Hey... he looks like me..." Caspar said without restraint. He was really happy to see a mini version of himself who was also born on the same date. Even though a baby's face would change as they grow, he was very confident that the black-haired baby would remain similar to him.

Finland, who had felt relief after pushing her son out, was able to smile at Caspar's dreamy expression. She could see how happy the man was.

"Thank you..." Caspar hurriedly knelt at the foot of the bed and held his wife's hand. "I cannot imagine my life without you and our children."

London, who had been cleaned and wrapped in cloth, was immediately handed over to his father to be carried, and Caspar was moved by the little baby in his chest. His face looked in disbelief as he had witnessed the birth of a human who was his own flesh and blood.

The doctor immediately cleaned the mother and prepared her to be moved to another room to rest.

"Please come with us to the other room so you can rest," the doctor told Caspar to follow the nurses who pushed Finland's bed to the bedroom. The man swiftly walked beside the bed while carrying his baby.

***

The next morning, Jean and Billie arrived at the hospital. They took the earliest flight to Germany and rushed to visit Finland in the hospital. Lauriel and Aleksis arrived at noon, carrying some pearls from shells which they had collected themselves from the sea as gifts.

"Wow... thank you... you all came... I did not expect this... even though you were so far away... I feel so touched..."

"Ahahaha... of course we will come. We won't miss this for the world," Jean said, smiling broadly. Billie handed over a very beautiful bouquet of flowers and Finland received it joyfully.

Until now she still had trouble believing that the amazing girl, Billie, was now Jean's girlfriend. If there were a woman who could make her friend happy, she was sure it was Billie. She just felt a little sad because Aldebar would only wake up in 6.5 years. By that time, Billie would already look older than Jean.

"I want to carry London, can I?" Billie asked.

"Of course..." Caspar handed the baby over to the girl and Billie carried London happily and brought him to the window while humming a new song that she had created in her head when she first saw the baby.

Finland pulled Jean close to her and whispered in his ear, "Billie looks very natural with babies... do you have plans to have children?"

Jean's face suddenly turned red and he laughed nervously, "Uhm... I'm not in a hurry like your husband. Don't I have a lifetime to decide? I don't know if I'm ready to be a father. I'm fine being a cool uncle to your children. "

"Who's in a hurry?" said Caspar, frowning, "I am 442 years old today. For a regular person's standard, I am already very late."

Finland and Jean only laughed at that, and even Lauriel seemed to smile thinly.

"All right... I'm not in a hurry right now. We'll see about that. I haven't told everything to Billie either." Jean shrugged. "Maybe in 6 years, when Aldebar wakes up, I will tell her everything and marry Billie and then live forever with her... After all, talking now is also useless. Aldebar is not there to make an immortality potion for her."

The others agreed with his thoughts and nodded in confirmation.

The atmosphere in the hospital wing was very warm and filled with happiness. Finland never dreamed that one day she would feel this happy. All the bad things she experienced since she was a child: living in poverty, growing up without parents and friends, being endlessly bullied, now felt very far away.

She was now surrounded by the most important people in her life, who sincerely loved her and had become part of her family.

Finland, the poor orphan, now had a big family, a warm and loving one, and she never wanted anything else in her life, because the whole world was available to her if she asked for it.

***

The happy family immediately returned home on the second afternoon because they did not want to linger in public for too long. Billie and Jean's famous faces had begun to bring in a horde of news journalists and they just wanted to immediately avoid the attention and find peace.