Chapter 134
He looked the woman up and down.
“What is it?”
“It concerns Her Highness, the Grand Duchess. I thought Your Grace should know…”
The woman, who had been continuing with a stiff face, suddenly turned pale and closed her mouth.
Only after seeing that reaction did he realize that he had revealed a threatening air.
Varkas faintly narrowed his brow.
The incorrect prescription this woman had given his wife had already been fully proven to have been a mistake.
Had it not also been confirmed through the testimony of several servants and assistant practitioners that she had used medicine cautiously on Thalia, who refused treatment every time?
This woman had received punishment appropriate to her mistake, and therefore there was no longer any reason to bare his teeth at her.
Varkas calmly settled his mind and asked in a blunt voice.
“What is it that I should know?”
“It seems Her Highness, the Grand Duchess…”
The woman nervously moved her lips and anxiously looked around.
It seemed she was concerned about the gazes nearby.
He pointed with his chin toward a small reception room near the kitchen.
“Follow me.”
Varkas entered the dim room, set the tray of food on a shelf, and looked back.
The woman, who had been standing by the door and looking around the reception room, finally opened her mouth again.
“This is something I heard from the maids, but… it has apparently been quite some time since Her Highness, the Grand Duchess last received her monthly visitor. Judging by her recent symptoms, I suspect she may be with child.”
For a moment, he could not understand the meaning of what the woman had said.
The healer began speaking rapidly toward him as he stood there blankly frozen.
“However, Her Highness’s personal healer said nothing about it. I know very well that it is not my duty, but… in the early stages of pregnancy, there are many things that require caution, so I thought Your Grace should know even a day sooner. There are many excellent midwives in Kalmor, so it would be best to call them and have Her Highness examined as soon as possible…”
“Wait.”
He hurriedly cut off the woman’s words while holding his head, which was beginning to throb, with one hand.
A rough voice flowed out of his tightly constricted throat.
“So, my wife is pregnant?”
“Judging by Her Highness’s recent condition, there is probably a high chance…”
Varkas wet his lips, which were growing dry and cracked.
His wife’s face, which had seemed especially listless and drooping for the past few days, flashed through his mind.
He also remembered how she had suddenly begged for food.
In that instant, the blood flow inside his body quickened, and his eardrums grew muffled.
He looked down at his faintly trembling hands and frowned.
He could not understand why his body was reacting like this.
It was not as though he had held her without knowing this could happen.
If a bull in rut and a cow were placed in the same pen, a calf would be born a few months later.
That was the law of nature.
Was it not strange that he had not noticed sooner?
“Thank you for telling me. I will call a midwife at once and have it confirmed.”
After giving a mechanical answer, Varkas immediately stepped toward the door.
He was about to leave the room as he was, then remembered the promise he had made to her and turned back to take the tray.
Then, suddenly, he thought this might not be enough.
It seemed he should get more food from the kitchen that she might eat.
As he turned away while blankly thinking that, the healer urgently called him to a stop.
“I would like to say one more thing to Your Grace.”
He made no attempt to hide his annoyance and glared at the woman irritably.
The woman briefly showed signs of shrinking back, then soon met him with a firm gaze.
“Please give me one more chance to serve Her Highness, the Grand Duchess.”
He looked at her as if dumbfounded.
When he remembered his wife losing consciousness after coughing up blood, even now he felt like hanging this woman upside down.
He had merely held back because he knew that was too excessive a punishment to give a vassal who had served the grand ducal house all her life.
If not for the subtle protection of his retainers, who said her skill was too valuable to waste and suggested assigning her menial work at the treatment center rather than expelling her, he would have issued an order of exile long ago.
He spoke coldly, like a wild dog baring its teeth.
“Do you think your fault can be made up for with just this?”
“How could that be? I would not dare dream of returning as Her Highness, the Grand Duchess’s personal healer.”
The woman hurriedly bowed with a deathly pale face.
“I only… wish to be made an assistant practitioner. If you permit me to work under the person in charge of Her Highness’s treatment and serve as an assistant, I will do my utmost to ensure that nothing like before ever happens again.”
“I refuse. I have no intention of entrusting my wife to someone who committed a fatal mistake…”
Varkas, who had been speaking somewhat harshly, suddenly closed his mouth.
In any case, this woman was known as the most outstanding pharmacologist in the East.
In fact, had she not detoxified the poison of a magical beast in just a few days, when even high-ranking priests had been unable to do anything?
If, by any chance, a problem occurred that mages or priests could not deal with, this woman might be of help.
More than anything, he was uneasy leaving Thalia entirely to a healer from the Taren family.
If he placed someone from the grand ducal house beside her, that healer would not be able to play any tricks.
After quickly organizing his thoughts, Varkas clicked his tongue and spoke.
“Fine. I will permit you to return as an assistant practitioner.”
Relief briefly crossed the woman’s face.
He watched her quietly, then added.
“However, if my wife refuses, you will return to the lowest work at the treatment center.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
The woman bowed her head with a darkened expression.
It seemed she had recalled Thalia’s venomous attitude toward her.
However, it was not his place to intervene in easing her wariness.
If she did not even have that much skill, she could simply continue doing odd jobs at the treatment center as she had until now.
He turned away coldly.
In any case, he intended to hire additional practitioners to care for Thalia.
Having the high priest reside permanently at Raedgo Castle would also be a decent method.
It would somewhat violate principle, but if he offered to expand the church building, the high priest would not refuse.
If he had the clergy stay at the castle under the pretext of providing them lodging while construction was underway, holy magic could be mobilized in emergencies.
Varkas, his mind working fiercely, only let out the breath he had been holding once he reached his bedchamber.
His heart, which had never been disturbed even after running without rest for half a day, was beating fast.
When it came to matters related to her, his body always became uncontrollable.
In the past, he had hated that sensation to an unbearable degree.
When he was with her, he always felt as though he were fighting himself.
He had wanted to cut out from his mind those dangerous eyes that made him feel things he did not want to feel and want things he did not want to want.
When had he escaped from such thoughts?
“I… knew it. I knew you would come to save me…”
He hurriedly pushed away the memory that suddenly surfaced.
When he thought of that moment, he had the premonition that something inside him would suffer damage so severe it could not be undone.
Driving all the distracting thoughts from his mind, he pulled the doorknob.
As he entered the room, a rich fragrance filled his lungs.
Breathing in her scent, which had at some point deeply permeated his bedroom, he crossed the space filled with warm light.
When he approached the bed, he saw her curled up in a ball.
He set the tray down on the shelf and sat on the edge of the bed.
When he brought the back of his hand to her flushed cheek, he felt lukewarm heat.
Was this also a common reaction in the body of a pregnant woman?
As he checked her complexion with a worried gaze, her long lashes, which had been drooping, lifted upward.
“…You’re here now?”
Her blue eyes, still heavy with sleep, held him clearly.
She rubbed her eyes with her fist and gave a small yawn.
“Did you bring what I asked for?”
“For now, only the drink…”
His voice came out so tightly locked that it sounded awkward even to his own ears.
Fortunately, she did not seem to notice anything strange.
Thalia pressed herself against his side and demanded as if it were only natural.
“Then hurry and feed it to me.”
Then she lifted her head and gently opened her rose-red lips.
Varkas, who had stiffened as he watched her, grabbed the cup and took the sour liquid into his mouth.
As he cupped her soft cheeks with both hands and carefully fed her the drink, his body grew hot as if it had become a ball of fire.
He embraced her and lay down on the bed.
Then he remembered the healer’s words that one had to be careful in the early stages of pregnancy and barely gathered his senses.
“…Why aren’t we doing it today?”
As he caught his breath while holding her body, languid from the low fever, against his chest, she sent him an anxious look.
He stroked her rosy cheek and murmured.
“You have a fever. I will not do anything until you are better.”
“I’m fine…”
He briefly closed and opened his dizzy eyes.
“You are not fine.”
He exhaled the words like a sigh and swept his hand over her soft waist, which was barely a handful.
Perhaps my child is inside here.
As he chewed over that fact, which did not feel real at all, he looked down at the clear face that had already started dozing again.
When Thalia was not frowning, she looked just like a young girl.
At that youthful appearance, his chest sank heavily, as if it had become a lump of lead.
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