Chapter 146
But he had always stood on the opposite side from her.
Now he was playing the role of a devoted husband, but she never knew when he might turn his back on her again.
She continued in an eager tone.
“When this child is born, you teach him how to ride a horse. You easterners learn to ride before you even learn to walk, don’t you? This child is half eastern too.”
Thalia had been chattering recklessly, intending to make Varkas grow attached to the child, but suddenly wondered what she would do if he really put a baby who had not even learned to walk on top of that smelly, violent beast, so she hurriedly added,
“But you have to teach him only after he has grown enough. And... if he is too scared, I hope you won’t force him. This child might take after me and...”
She was about to say he might be timid, but quickly changed her words.
“He might dislike horses, you know.”
“...That would be a little troublesome.”
As Varkas stared down at her lower abdomen, a faint crease formed between his brows.
“If he is to succeed me and rule the East, he must learn horseback riding. The heir of the grand ducal house has to command nearly sixty thousand cavalrymen.”
Thalia frowned.
She had not the slightest intention of sending the baby fairy growing healthily in her belly to a battlefield.
Dangerous things like that could be left to Varkas or the knights who followed him.
My baby will live happily with me somewhere safe.
She barely suppressed the urge to say that.
What mattered was the fact that Varkas clearly recognized this child as the heir of the grand ducal house.
“Then teach this child slowly and carefully so he can come to like horses.”
The man raised his head and looked at her.
His face was still hard to read, but Thalia could now easily read the worry and expectation dwelling in his eyes.
He said softly,
“Do not worry. Once the child is born, I intend to raise the child well with patience. More importantly... is it not difficult for you when the child moves like this?”
“Of course it’s difficult!”
In truth, this was the first time she had experienced such strong fetal movement, but Thalia deliberately exaggerated.
Varkas’s face immediately hardened.
“Have you spoken to the healer? Is there some way to lessen the pain...”
“They suggested using sleeping herb, but I refused. It might harm the child.”
Wanting him to know just how much she cared for the child, Thalia explained in detail.
After stroking his chin for a moment, Varkas soon opened his mouth.
“You may follow the healer’s advice. Your Highness must be healthy for the birth to proceed safely.”
“I can manage just fine even now.”
Thalia snapped back indignantly.
“It’s something every woman in the world endures. Why would I not be able to?”
A skeptical look appeared on Varkas’s face.
Feeling his gaze naturally move toward her legs, Thalia’s face flushed with humiliation.
Why?
Because I’m crippled, do you think I won’t even be able to give birth?
She barely managed to hold back the urge to snap at him like that.
If he recalled her ruined body and was swept up in even stronger guilt and responsibility, and if that made him prioritize her and the child above all else, then she could endure any amount of shame.
She hid her stinging feelings and deliberately gave him a coy smile.
“Why are you taking it so seriously, you fool? I was only whining.”
“......”
“You’ve always been like this, but your head is too rigid. You don’t make jokes, and you take teasing far too seriously.”
“How could I take it as a joke when my pregnant wife is complaining that she is suffering?”
Varkas let out an exasperated sigh.
At those words, Thalia’s heart softened, and she allowed him to stroke her belly a little longer.
A short while later, the maids entered the room with the meal.
Varkas watched her eat, then changed his clothes and went outside.
Thalia waited until late for him to return, but soon fell asleep in exhaustion.
Her stamina had hit rock bottom after several days of poor sleep.
Thalia, who had fallen asleep as if collapsing unconscious before she could even feel the pain, opened her eyes the next day only when the sun was high in the sky.
Rubbing her gritty eyes as if sand had gotten into them, Thalia first placed a hand on her lower abdomen to confirm the child’s safety.
Yesterday, the child had thrashed about so much, yet today it was quiet again.
Maybe this child also slept soundly for the first time in a while.
She thought that blankly, then looked around the room.
Varkas was nowhere to be seen, but traces of him having stayed through the night were visible here and there.
He had probably slipped out quietly so as not to wake her, since she had fallen into a deep sleep for the first time in a while.
She immediately got out of bed and began preparing herself.
Perhaps one of Varkas’s attendants, the chief butler, or the soldiers had overheard the news Edrick Lubon had brought.
She intended to interrogate them.
“Not that coat. Bring me something as inconspicuous as possible.”
The maids, who had taken out a coat made of silver fur, exchanged troubled looks.
Thalia asked with a puzzled face,
“What is it?”
“No matter what clothes you wear, Your Highness will stand out.”
The maid blushed and mumbled in a voice that seemed to crawl into the floor.
Because she was in no mood to listen to flattery, Thalia only let out an annoyed sigh.
“Then just bring any coat.”
The maid immediately brought a thick wool robe.
She draped it over her shoulders and carefully left the room.
Fortunately, the pain in her waist had subsided a little, so moving around was not terribly difficult.
“Do you happen to know what the knight who came last night said?”
As Thalia was passing through the corridor, she spotted Varkas’s attendant and threw the question at him without warning.
The boy, who did not look even twenty years old, flinched like a horse struck by a whip and stammered.
“I, I... that is...”
Thalia frowned.
She was used to most people treating her like a boil that must not be touched, but lately, that tendency seemed to have grown even worse.
She added in an interrogating tone,
“Why can’t you speak properly? Did you hear anything or not?”
“I-I apologize, Your Highness the Grand Duchess. I know nothing. I went to sleep early yesterday...”
“Then who attended Varkas last night?”
“T-That, too, I am not really...”
Why does Varkas keep this kind of idiot around?
She glared irritably at the boy, who could not even open his mouth properly, when a sigh-laced voice came from behind her.
“If you have something you’re curious about, ask me directly. Why are you taking it out on the wrong person?”
Thalia flinched and turned her head, then stiffened when she saw Edrick Lubon scratching the back of his head.
He let out a heavy sigh and strode toward her.
“I will answer as much as I can. First, let us move somewhere else...”
Thalia reflexively looked at the sword hilt hanging at his waist.
Perhaps this man had come under Ayla or Gareth’s orders to harm her.
Seized by irrational fear, Thalia hesitated and stepped backward.
Then she staggered and lost her balance.
At that instant, the man rushed forward like an arrow, grabbed her wrist, and roughly pulled her toward him.
Thalia, whose nose struck his firm chest covered by a breastplate, frowned and hurriedly pulled herself back.
Then a rough voice sounded above her head.
“Stay still! That was nearly a disaster!”
Thalia flinched and looked behind her.
Right behind her heels was the first step of the long staircase leading down to the first floor.
Realizing that she had almost fallen down the stairs, Thalia wrapped one hand around her belly and hunched her shoulders as much as she could.
The man pulled her further into the corridor and raised his voice fiercely.
“Damn it, why are you always so precarious, Your Highness? How much more do you have to disturb other people’s dreams before you’re satisfied...”
“I get it, so let go of me.”
Thalia pulled her wrist out of his grip and carefully studied the knight’s deathly pale face.
Seeing him place a hand on his chest and breathe deeply as if his heart were pounding, the tension suddenly drained out of her.
She felt foolish for suspecting that this man might be an assassin sent by her half-siblings.
This man was an idiot who had stood against the Crown Prince of the Empire, claiming he would fulfill his role as a guard knight.
If he had known how to do something sly like assassination, he would not have done such a stupid thing in the first place.
Thalia let her shoulders droop and spoke in a sullen tone.
“It happened because you startled me. It’s all your fault.”
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