“Hannah...”
“Oh. You’re really not hurt. Thank goodness. Thank goodness.”
Hannah was covered in tears as she absentmindedly cupped my face with both hands and caressed it.
However, as she checked to see if I was completely unharmed and my entire body was in good shape, she pushed back my disheveled hair to check my ears, and her hands, which had been kneading my shoulders and arms, stopped when they reached my thin waist.
“I couldn’t protect my baby.”
I muttered in disappointment.
“They said he looked like me."
Hannah’s eyes quickly turned red as she thought about what Valquiterre had said.
“I guess he knew he wouldn’t be welcomed. No. I would’ve... loved him a lot.”
My body, which had been shedding tears while talking to Irena earlier, seemed to be squeezing out every last drop of moisture from my body.
“The baby not welcomed? Don’t talk nonsense.”
Hannah lashed out.
“That’s because you didn’t see him. The Lord has been acting like a lunatic since you disappeared. He must have had a hard time looking for you.”
When she spoke as if to protect Kaian, a look of rejection appeared on my face.
“He practically lived in the lake. He wouldn’t come out of the water, so I dragged him out when he was exhausted.”
“Hannah, I’d rather you not talk about that.”
“Listen. He tried to drain the lake of water during the spring farming season by damming it. He was going to look for you.”
“He wanted to make sure I was dead. He likes things to be certain.”
Hannah beat her chest in frustration.
“Claudel. This isn’t the time. Let’s get out of here.”
“Let’s get out?”
“Yeah. There’s no reason for you to stay in the palace.”
Her words sent ripples through my mind.
‘I have nowhere to go.’
I was now officially Claudel Quinn Vermont again. I was practically a woman who had never been married.
So I could go back to being enemies with Temnes. I would never set foot in that house again, but I had no intention of going back to the Duke of Vermont.
Valquiterre was kind enough to treat me as a friend, but the fact that the royal marriage had been canceled would be a huge topic of gossip in society.
I couldn’t stay in the palace forever.
“There’s no reason to stay, but there’s no reason to leave either.”
I barely managed to calm my anxious mind and answer.
“Why is there nowhere to go? Let’s go to the capital mansion. Let’s go and...”
“Why should I go there?”
“Claudel. Talk to the lord again. He really loves and cares for you.”
“Why didn’t I know that?”
“You knew that too.”
Hanna clung to me.
“You love him.”
“I was mistaken once upon a time. Not now.”
I suddenly felt sorry when I saw Hannah's disappointed expression.
'Hannah didn't do anything wrong.'
It was all Kaian and my fault. It was because people who didn't fit together and didn't get along got together.
Even Irena had pushed away my inferiority complex that I had tried to ignore, so now there was no one else to talk to me about except Hannah.
But it was true that I felt bad because she kept bringing up Kaian.
"You said before that if Kaian treated me badly, you would run away with me."
I decided to change the direction of the conversation.
"Yes. Let's get out of the palace. If you and I live together, we'll be able to live well anywhere."
"Yeah. That was a good idea!"
When I stopped crying and showed my determination, Hannah smiled bashfully.
"I'm worried that I won't be able to take care of you."
"Don't worry about that. And I can work too."
For a while, Hannah had been very polite and called me 'Madam.' When I was genuinely happy that I was back alive and she called me by my name, 'Claudel,' all that filled my heart was the joy of meeting my friend again after a long time.
“I think it would be good to go back to where we used to live.”
Hannah asked, surprised at my words.
“In the village of Plogne?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“I can make a new place for myself.”
Why did I worry about having nowhere to go?
The new place I had made with my own hands and with my own strength would be so strong that it would not collapse at the slightest touch.
Suddenly thinking that, it felt like the soul that had left home had returned to the body that had been living day by day without any plans.
“Good idea.”
Hannah kept smiling with her swollen face and hugged me tightly.
“Let’s go out to the castle and choose slowly. A place where we can stay for a long time. Or we can travel a bit.”
At that moment, I suddenly froze as if I had frozen and did not respond, so Hannah awkwardly released her arms that were holding me.
Unlike when we had talked about leaving the castle a little while ago, I stared blankly at her with a pale face and then reached out to Hannah’s belly.
“Ah!”
My hand came in wearing a loose cloak and touched Hannah’s belly, which she had been standing there talking about without taking off.
It was a very familiar feeling.
The feeling when the baby’s seed ripens and becomes a fruit in a person’s body.
It was a pregnant belly that was elastic enough and roundly swollen, and where you could feel the baby moving gently.
Just a month ago, I would talk to my baby all day long, with my belly like that.
“...Are you pregnant?”
“Ugh...”
“When?”
Hannah hesitated and grabbed my hand.
“Anyway, let’s get out of the castle quickly.”
Thump.
I shook my hand away.
“Claudel?”
“Did Kaian tell you to do this?”
“What?”
“He asked you to lure me out of the castle and bring me to his mansion. Did he?”
“No!”
Hannah jumped up in embarrassment.
“I got pregnant. It was long before you disappeared.”
I could tell right away that if her belly was round enough to touch, she must have been more than six months pregnant.
So the baby had to have been conceived at least around the end of last year.
“Why did you hide it from me?”
Hannah sighed in embarrassment.
“I didn’t mean to hide it. I can’t marry Rohan. I just couldn’t tell you because I was worried.”
Hannah was born and raised in the village of Plogne and had no identity in the Kingdom of Oberon.
If she were to serve the Duke of Vermont, she would have to be the daughter of a prominent vassal family, but she didn't have any status at all.
So she became the adopted daughter of the Pebble family, a vassal, to stay by my side, and gain status. This time, the problem was the law of the Kingdom of Oberon, which prohibited marriage between nobles and commoners.
'Hannah. Allow me to take responsibility for you and my child.'
When she told Rohan about her pregnancy, he knelt down and proposed to her.
However, she couldn't readily say 'yes.'
'Let's go to the Continent of Sol together. We can be a couple there.'
'I can't. I can't leave Claudel here and leave.'
Rohan seemed upset, but he understood Hannah.
'I'm sorry I have no status.'
He apologized to her even though he had done nothing wrong. The one who was sorry was Hannah. It was her fault for putting on a false identity despite not being a noble.
To stay by Claudel’s side, what she endured ended up hurting the man she loved... and the baby in her stomach.
While she was hesitating amidst all these worries, I slipped in the stomach and disappeared.
“Because the baby’s father is Rohan. It would be hard for you to refuse Kaian.”
“That’s not true. I... You are more precious to me than Rohan.”
Hannah’s tears flowed again without her knowing it, feeling wronged.
“You know how much I care for you, Claudel. When I thought you might have died, I thought I would die too.”
“...”
“Claudel. Come with me.”
I held her hand and headed toward the door.
The moment when Hannah held onto the glimmer of hope that we might be able to go out of the castle together, she felt relieved.
Click.
I quickly closed the door after letting her out gently.
“Claudel!”
Hannah panicked and tried to turn the doorknob, but the door, locked from the inside, did not budge.
“Hannah. Don’t stay with me.”
“...”
“Don’t take the father away from the baby. I want you to be happy with Rohan.”
My voice heard through the thick crack of the door, was wet with tears as if I would never see Hannah again.
“Don’t come to me again.”
“Claudel! Claudel!”
When Hannah knocked on the door with her palm, the maids came and dragged her out.
***
The capital mansion of the Temnes family was having a tumultuous day. Since the head of the family had been staying in the capital for a month and a half since the lord’s castle was empty, the vassals ended up coming up in turns to take care of important matters.
“The atmosphere in the Pagos region is unusual.”
The bailiff who was serving on the Pagos Plains, far from the Rowen territory, reported in a panic.
“They seem to be protesting against being enslaved as serfs after receiving funds from the farmers’ association and being re-incorporated into the kingdom’s territory.”
“Are you saying there will be a riot?”
“Well, isn’t it up to His Majesty the King to handle it?”
However, the bailiff hesitated for a moment about whether to honestly tell Kaian that malicious rumors were spreading about his mismanagement in the Pagos region and Rowen.
“Whew. I’ll think about it for a bit, so I’ll step back and rest for today. You’ve worked hard in Pagos.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
As he stepped back from Kaian, the man thought to himself.
'It's not as bad as the rumors say.'
The lord, who had been polished for a long time like a sharpened sword, was definitely not the type of person to be swayed around by a woman.
Since Kaian, whom he had seen in person today, had also been in perfect order, he was relieved and thought that the rumors he had heard were just baseless rumors.
However, when Kaian was alone, he held his head in pain.
"What did I do wrong?"
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