Chapter 137
A faint smile brushed Varkas’s lips.
He rustled through the wrapping and took out another strawberry.
“Here.”
Thalia, looking up at him with wet eyes, opened her mouth again.
Varkas carefully pushed the strawberry inside.
Unable to swallow the slightly large fruit in one bite, she bit about half of it, and the overflowing juice wet her lips.
Varkas wiped it away with his thumb and cast a deep gaze at her moving lips.
For some reason, she felt embarrassed, lowered her eyes, and swallowed what was in her mouth.
“You should try one too. It’s decent enough.”
“I obtained them for Your Highness.”
Varkas calmly spoke while bringing the remaining flesh to her mouth.
“Please eat them all, Your Highness.”
Thalia quietly looked up at his neat face, then obediently opened her mouth.
Varkas busily carried the red berries into it.
Even though she held them in her mouth for a long time and chewed slowly to fully savor the taste, the six large strawberries disappeared in an instant.
As she smacked her lips with a regretful expression, Varkas rose from the bed and spoke.
“Please wait a moment. I will obtain more.”
“It’s fine. I’m full now.”
She hurriedly caught the man, who looked as if he might grab his coat and go outside at any moment.
The sun would set soon.
She could not make the ruler of the East run around everywhere trying to find fruit that was not even in season.
Thalia firmly pulled his arm.
“This is enough, so don’t make such a fuss for no reason.”
“A fuss?”
He sent her a puzzled look.
Could it be that he had no awareness of his own extraordinary behavior?
Thalia let out a short sigh.
“What else would you call running all over the place in winter to find strawberries, if not making a fuss?”
Varkas tilted his head to one side as if he could not understand.
“Why is it excessive for a man to procure food and offer it to his wife? Even mere beasts do that as a matter of course.”
Thalia looked up at him, speechless.
He seemed to sincerely think that way.
Even if he had taken another woman as his wife instead of me, he would have acted the same.
Feeling her mood, which had seemed to float in the air, settle heavily, she raised the corners of her eyes.
“Anyway, it’s fine, so sit down. Even if you get more, I’m already too full to eat it.”
“The maids will soon bring citron pie. Please eat at least that.”
At the voice ringing above her head, her heart melted once more.
She blamed it on the pregnancy.
Her emotions rising and falling, and the food she had not even glanced at before constantly flickering before her eyes, were all because of the life sitting inside her body.
“…I’ll eat just one slice.”
A faint hint of a smile once again brushed Varkas’s mouth.
She silently stared at it, then, feeling as though she could not bear it for some reason, turned her gaze toward the window.
Before long, the maids came in carrying a tray with a steaming pie and a traditional drink of the East.
While they were setting the food on the table, Varkas came out after changing clothes, lifted her along with the blanket, and sat before the fireplace.
Then he began cutting the hot pie, filled with thinly sliced citron, honey, cinnamon, and nuts, into small pieces with a fork and feeding it to her.
Thalia, who had opened her mouth out of habit, met the gaze of a wide-eyed maid and blushed.
Unlike Varkas, she did at least have enough awareness to know that a grown adult being fed like a newborn baby was undignified.
“Tell them all to leave. They’re in the way.”
As if he had only then recognized the maids’ presence, he gestured with his head.
“Your service is no longer needed, so withdraw.”
The frozen maids all left the room at once.
Varkas lifted the fork again as if nothing had happened and brought the pie to her mouth.
Do you really think this isn’t excessive?
Thalia glared at him as if demanding an answer, then opened her mouth as if she had no choice.
Varkas made her eat an entire large slice of pie in the end.
Then he also spooned apricot preserves into her mouth, though she had no idea where he had found them.
It seemed this was the first time she had eaten this much food since she had lived with the Taren family.
“Does your stomach hurt?”
After feeding her as much as he wished, he seemed belatedly worried and asked while gently rubbing her solar plexus.
Thalia shook her head slightly.
“I’m fine.”
“…I heard you were examined by a priest today. Did she say anything particular?”
Thalia, who had been soaked in a feeling of fullness she had not felt in who knew how long, tensed faintly.
When she first heard of the pregnancy, she had been curious about Varkas’s reaction.
But now that he was right in front of her, she could not bring herself to speak.
After hesitating for a long time, Thalia murmured in an awkward voice.
“…She didn’t say much. Just that I should eat well and rest well for a while.”
“…”
“I’m tired. I’ll sleep now.”
As she avoided his gaze and wriggled under the blanket, she felt the arm around her back tighten.
Thalia glanced upward.
Varkas was staring intently at her with narrowed eyes.
“Do you truly have nothing to say to me?”
Thalia swallowed dryly.
“…No.”
“You do.”
His voice gained strength.
Thalia raised the corners of her eyes.
They had said they would remain silent until she spoke, yet had they ultimately confessed everything to him?
Avoiding the eyes that seemed to see right through her, she snapped bluntly.
“What should I say? You know everything anyway.”
“What is it that I supposedly know?”
“Don’t play innocent! You heard everything. That’s why you’re asking like this, isn’t it?”
“If I knew, why would I trouble myself by asking?”
Varkas refuted in a calm tone.
Thalia glared at him suspiciously.
“…You really didn’t hear anything?”
“I did not.”
At his perfectly unwavering answer, her suspicion slowly subsided.
Perhaps the head maid had only hinted that Thalia had something to tell him.
Thalia wet her lips, which were drying out.
Varkas swept the hair up from her forehead and gently urged her.
“So please tell me. What did the priest say?”
“S-so… I’ve been dozing often lately, and I haven’t had energy, right?”
Her voice cracked terribly.
Thalia gathered saliva in her mouth, swallowed, and checked his expression.
The light flowing from the fireplace cast warm shadows over his cool face.
At that gentle-looking appearance, the strange fear flickering in one corner of her chest melted in an instant.
“That’s… apparently because there’s a child in my belly.”
He did not move at all and only quietly looked down at her.
But Thalia could see the silver fragments within his blue irises glitter like rippling water.
He exhaled a sigh that seemed to rise from deep within his lungs and leaned his head against her shoulder.
At the same time, his large hand, with tendons standing out, covered her abdomen.
The hand that had always seemed merely elegant covered her entire stomach.
“…It seems I must take even better care of you from now on.”
His breath, like a large cat purring, tickled her earlobe.
For some reason, Thalia felt as if tears would come out, so she bit her lip.
Only after a long while did she manage to speak in a composed voice.
“Yes. From now on, you must serve me even more devotedly.”
“I will.”
Unlike his answer, which was calm enough to seem blunt, the hand stroking her abdomen was endlessly gentle and careful.
Suddenly, she remembered when she had first met him.
At a moment when the entire world had felt cold enough to sting, this hand had wrapped around her warmly.
The memory of that day, which sometimes felt like a curse, did not hurt so much in this moment.
She curled up in his arms and buried her cheek against his broad, beating chest.
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