Chapter 140
Suddenly, the thought crossed his mind.
What would it have been like if Varkas Raedgo Siarkan had married the First Princess as planned?
Politically, that would certainly have been far more helpful.
There would have been no discord between House Siarkan and the Crown Prince as there was now.
But for some reason, he could not easily imagine Varkas taking another woman as his wife.
“We have kept the guests standing for too long. Now, follow me. I will assign rooms so you may rest.”
Tyrone, who had been lost in thought, sharply came back to his senses.
When he turned, he saw Daren personally guiding the northerners.
As he moved toward the annex, Daren gave a light rebuke over his shoulder.
“You should go take a bath. You look terrible.”
Tyrone scraped at the dried bloodstain on his cheek and let out a faint sigh.
It was not the time to be absorbed in useless assumptions.
After washing away the blood and dust and treating his minor injuries, he had to return to the unit immediately.
A mountain of backlogged work was probably waiting.
Among them, the security issue was the most urgent.
He recalled the Zram group that had attacked him, and his complexion darkened.
While they had been calming the spark of war that had sprouted in the North, the internal problems of the East must have worsened.
Tyrone roughly swept back his tangled hair and led his subordinates across the spacious courtyard with weary steps.
Then, suddenly feeling a cool energy brush his cheek, he looked up at the sky where gray clouds were rolling in.
Just as the Grand Duchess had sensed, white snowflakes were scattering along the wind.
It was early snow.
Tyrone was seized by an unknown premonition.
Perhaps this year’s winter would be unusually long and harsh.
***
“Did you fight, by any chance?”
The woman, who had been quietly held in his arms while they passed through the long corridor, suddenly wrinkled her nose and asked.
Varkas checked whether there were bloodstains on his clothes.
They looked no different from when he had first left the castle.
If so, the smell of blood must have spread over his body.
Was she not a woman with an especially sharp sense of smell?
Moreover, after becoming pregnant, her nose seemed to have grown even more sensitive.
He widened his stride and explained in a calm tone.
“I merely went hunting.”
“Lie. You came back with the knights earlier. What kind of hunting requires taking that many knights?”
“Recently, raiders have been running rampant, so I increased the escort.”
The woman studied him intently with narrow eyes.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Varkas gave an answer without the slightest disturbance, adjusted her in one arm, and opened the bedroom door.
Perhaps it had been airing out, because the air was chilly.
He immediately went to the window, closed the glass, and then sat her down before the fireplace.
Then, as he pushed firewood into the dying embers, she tugged at his sleeve.
“From now on, don’t go hunting either. If raiders are running rampant, why put yourself in danger? You can leave meat to hunters or buy it from a butcher.”
He narrowed his brow.
After becoming pregnant, his wife had become more worried than before.
It seemed she believed that if anything happened to him, not only her own safety but also the child’s would be endangered.
It would probably be useless to boast that no such thing would happen.
After thinking for a moment, Varkas soon nodded.
“Understood. I will not go hunting from now on either.”
The woman, who had been looking up at him with a tense face, let her shoulders drop as if relieved.
It seemed he would have to control the servants’ mouths so they would not say tactless things about meat His Grace had personally hunted.
He looked at the firewood beginning to catch flame and lightly brushed the dust from his palms.
He knew that, as she said, using hunters would be more efficient.
Even so, he did not intend to stop hunting for the time being.
For some reason, he did not like the idea of her eating meat caught by another man.
It was a thought he had never had before.
Meat was meat.
What did it matter who hunted it?
He could not understand at all why he was acting according to such irrational thoughts.
But when he saw the woman, who had never touched meat since childhood, bite into greasy flesh and chew diligently, such self-mocking questions vanished as if washed away.
Watching her eat her fill of the food he had procured and slowly gain weight gave him a strangely satisfying feeling.
He did not want to borrow another person’s hands for this if possible.
“So… what did you catch today?”
She suddenly asked in a cautious tone.
She seemed worried that she had scolded him too harshly.
Varkas pumped the bellows to raise the flames and answered calmly.
“I caught pheasants.”
In that instant, her eyes sparkled.
The woman leaned her upper body toward him and chattered in a voice raised by one tone.
“The one we had last time, right? That was delicious. Tell the chef to roast the skin until it’s crispy. And don’t forget the cameline sauce!”
He watched her without even blinking.
It was simply wondrous that the woman who was always wary of everything around her and raised her thorns would become excited over something as trivial as food.
Perhaps realizing he was looking at her strangely, she grumbled with an embarrassed face.
“It’s not that I want to eat it. Th-this one wants to eat it.”
Then she stroked her stomach, which had begun to swell little by little, with one hand.
Varkas naturally lowered his gaze to it and clenched his fists tightly.
If he did not, he felt he might grab her with his dirty hands and handle her however he pleased.
Whether or not she knew he was enduring, the woman continued grumbling with her plump lips pushed out.
“I think this child must have a huge appetite. What if they’re born later and get fat like a pig? A fat baby would look ugly…”
“If that happens, we can entrust the child to the nanny and keep them out of Your Highness’s sight as much as possible.”
He spoke halfheartedly while firmly holding onto his scattered mind, and the corners of her eyes lifted.
“You idiot! Is that what you’re supposed to say right now? You’re supposed to say, ‘The baby will be pretty even if they’re fat!’”
“The baby will be pretty even if they’re fat.”
He immediately gave the answer she wanted, but her face showed no sign of softening.
The woman, huffing for some reason he could not understand, snatched the cushion from the chair and mercilessly swung it at his back.
“And there’s no way my baby would look ugly. The baby will definitely be very, very pretty! Even if they get fat like a pig, they’ll be the cutest in the world!”
She was the one who had worried about what would happen if the child looked ugly, so he could not understand why she was angry with him.
However, the sulky face venting unfair anger was so terribly pretty that it was troublesome.
He swallowed a sigh and turned toward the shelf.
Even though he was wearing loose trousers, his lower body was tightening uncomfortably.
If left alone, it would calm down eventually, so it did not matter much, but he worried that it might make her uncomfortable for no reason.
He did not want to make Thalia pay attention to anything unnecessary.
He simply wanted to leave her comfortable and without worry, just as she was now.
To cool his heat, he filled a basin with cold water and washed his hands and face.
But his aroused body showed no sign of cooling easily.
Should I go to the next room and take care of it roughly?
As he glanced down at himself and frowned, he felt warm body heat behind him.
“Are you angry, by any chance?”
The woman pressed herself close to him, poked her head forward, and stared at him.
He narrowed the space between his brows.
Is she doing this on purpose?
He glared at her suspiciously, then slightly pulled away.
“I probably smell like a horse. Please keep a little distance.”
“I’m fine…”
She pressed her nose against his shirt and sniffed.
Her damp breath, coming through the thin fabric, tickled his skin.
“The scent of mint and your own skin scent are the strongest.”
It seemed she really was doing this on purpose.
Varkas clenched his molars tightly, turned around, and lifted her into his arms.
Then he sat in the chair and wrapped himself tightly around the body that was becoming softer by the day.
Her chest, fuller than before, was pressed against his body.
He held it in one hand and carefully stroked it, then placed his hand on her lower abdomen, which had begun to swell plumply.
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