Episode 4
I’m not sure how much time had passed.
—BANG!
A sound of explosion suddenly came from the fireplace.
Startled, I jumped up and instinctively ran towards the door.
But the next moment, a white, translucent film crawled up the walls, sealing the room off from the outside.
‘Uh……!’
Then, a cough was heard.
“Ahem!”
As I stared, tense, at the smoking fireplace, something black swelled up, increasing in volume.
“Ahhk!”
I screamed in surprise, and the black thing frowned, throwing off a robe that was scattering dust.
“You get startled every time by something that happens regularly.”
……So, it was Ren.
His jet-black hair framed eyes of sapphire-blue that flashed with displeasure, but the moment they met mine, the expression melted away as if it had never been there.
“I told you not to be so loud. A mage’s senses are sharper than ordinary people’s; every time you do that, it causes me immense pain.”
He approached me and reached out his hand.
I stood frozen as his soot-stained palm pressed against my forehead.
Up close, he smelled of a brazier and kindling.
“Do you have a slight fever?”
But his hand was far too hot to tell if I had a fever.
As if he couldn’t tell either, he tilted his head, still pressing his own forehead this time.
As Ren moved his chin this way and that, the afternoon sunlight shattered against his healthy almond-colored cheeks, glittering like gold dust. Even the ash from the fireplace settling on his thick, black eyelashes seemed beautiful. I found myself utterly at a loss for words.
‘Why, why are they all so ridiculously handsome…?’
You guys aren’t even major characters!
‘I think I gave the “handsome” setting more to Crown Prince Ernst…’
Ah, an ideal father probably shouldn’t have conditions like ‘must be handsome’!
‘…Or should he?’
Well, ‘handsomeness’ is somewhat hereditary, I suppose.
Amid my confusion, Ren spoke again, sounding displeased.
“I told you to send me an accurate description of your symptoms if you were sick. I would have forgiven you if you’d just been honest and said you wanted to see me, Lu.”
Flirting right off the bat with that face.
As I stood there silently, just listening, Ren tilted his head again.
“Luo, are you really sick? I was hoping you just called for me because you wanted to see me.”
Why is the situation unfolding like this?
Given that there was another man supposedly coming to propose, my Confucian-country-born, single-and-inexperienced self was utterly bewildered.
‘Is the direct approach the way here?’
So I spoke.
“Ren, I……”
“Hmm?”
The Tower Master’s dark eyes sparkled innocently.
“I’m pregnant.”
Silence fell.
I watched the sequence of expressions on Ren’s face: freezing, briefly blushing as red as a flower, and finally calming down.
Of course, this young Tower Master remained perfectly handsome through every single stage.
‘Though the blushing face is most my type…’
Then he approached, hugged me, and stayed still for a long while.
‘Ah……. So he is the father, I guess.’
Just as I was feeling relieved at this unexpected success, he asked.
“Who else knows?”
I looked at him, baffled.
If he were the father, this was a highly inappropriate first thing to say upon hearing the pregnancy news, wasn’t it?
‘But if he isn’t the father, he shouldn’t have hugged me!’
Yet, Ren simply waited for my answer with a face that seemed, if anything, tragically sorrowful, all while endlessly stroking my hair.
“……No one.”
When I managed to answer, he let out a sigh that sounded like relief.
“Come here.”
Ren led me to the bed and sat me down as naturally as if he were moving around his own room.
“I will protect you. You won’t suffer any pain. Understand?”
So…… you are the father?
I couldn’t bring myself to ask that directly, so I said something else.
“Uhm, you know. I heard Grand Duke Callisteon is going to propose to me at the victory banquet…….”
At that, Ren uttered a word like an exclamation.
“Lunatic.”
Then, as if he had said nothing at all, he pressed his lips together firmly for a moment before speaking again with great kindness.
“How could that be? It won’t happen. It absolutely won’t, so don’t worry at all.”
I really hoped the faint, manic gleam in his violet eyes was just a trick of the light.
He tried hard to lift the corners of his mouth, hiding his ominous gaze.
“You said you were in pain?”
“I-I have… morning sickness……. I feel like I’ll vomit all day.”
“My poor Lu.”
Ren bowed his head and kissed my forehead.
Every movement was utterly natural, and with each one, his score went up in my mind.
‘He’s the father, he’s the father…’
Unaware of my inner thoughts, Ren spoke sensitively.
“You’ll need medicine, and for various preparations, I’ll have to make a trip to the Magic Tower. Until then, drink this.”
What he pulled from his robe was a tea bag in a triangular sachet.
“Steep one bag first thing in the morning and drink it throughout the day. Tell Phoebe it’s tea good for the skin.”
Watching him say my maid’s name so naturally, I felt reassured.
‘Yeah, he’s the father. No doubt about it.’
At this point, maybe I can raise the stakes a little?
“This tea… it’s safe, right? I’m worried it might be bad for my… the baby.”
It seemed I had hit the mark, as Ren’s eyebrow twitched and he said.
“Of course it’s safe. For our baby.”
His black pupils were extremely clear, and his tone was unequivocal.
As I sighed with relief internally, he called my name tenderly.
“Lu.”
“Hmm?”
But the next thing he said was unexpected again.
“For now…… let’s keep it a secret from Erni.”
Erni.
That was the signature Crown Prince Ernst put at the end of every letter.
‘These guys really are incredibly close, as expected.’
They’d mentioned each other’s names freely in their letters, but hearing him use the nickname so naturally made me even more certain.
“Why……?”
If I’m pregnant, shouldn’t we prepare quickly, get married, or run away? What does Erni have to do with it?
I asked him with these thoughts in mind, and Ren shrugged.
“What Cal does is predictable, but Erni isn’t. It’s his brain—it’s the one I’d want to dissect first if human experimentation were allowed.”
But Ernst is a crown prince of a nation, isn’t he…?
Ren rose to his feet, having made that horrifying statement with no change in expression.
“I might not be able to return before your brother. If that happens, I’ll send the medicine first, along with the instructions.”
“Okay.”
He smiled softly and stroked my hair.
“What did I say?”
What had he said again?
I stared up at his firm-looking cheek until I remembered the correct answer.
“……That you would protect me.”
A charming smile formed in the corners of his long, narrow eyes.
“I, Ren Dafte, the Tower Master, said you won’t suffer any pain. Lu, don’t be scared. Just stay right here.”
It was the most reassuring thing I had heard since waking up in Brentania as Louise.
“Okay.”
If such an incredible mage is the father, surely we can manage somehow…
‘He said to keep it a secret, but he didn’t seem displeased at all.’
Thankfully, it seems I’m not on the unwanted single mom route.
Ren approached the fireplace again with a reluctant look and lit a spark.
“Whoosh.”
As he pulled his robe back over his head, there was a soft sound like wind.
A black, flame-like entity swallowed Ren, a brief whirlwind blew, and then everything vanished.
“……That startled me.”
It seemed he moved using the sparks.
The translucent white film surrounding the room was slowly receding.
I quickly put the tea bag Ren had given me into the teapot.
—Knock knock.
A knocking sound was heard, and then Phoebe urgently opened the door.
“His Highness Rurik has entered the capital! He’s in the middle of his victory parade, but it seems he’ll arrive tomorrow evening!”
Brew quickly, please.
True to my (quick-quick) heritage, I shook the teapot and forced a smile towards Phoebe.
“Good. I miss him unbearably.”
…As long as I can successfully hide the fact that I’m pregnant.
