Special Story 3.3

The news of the Queen’s pregnancy soon spread widely throughout the Holy City’s clergy and the noble social circles. Everyone had long known that the Queen had a mature soul—so much so that at times, she seemed like an old woman trapped in a young body.

But upon hearing the news of her pregnancy, people couldn’t help but think differently.

“Isn’t this a child giving birth to another child?”

“Considering His Majesty’s physique, I doubt the baby will be ordinary.”

“Why does everyone assume that? The baby could take after the mother’s side.”

The King, too, began having similar thoughts. If the dream were true, then a bean sprout would give birth to a lion—how was he supposed to handle that?

And the King used this situation to fulfill one of his long-held wishes.

One day during a meeting, he spoke up.

“You’ve all heard the news—finally, some good tidings for the Royal family.”

“Your Majesty, though belated, please accept our heartfelt congratulations.”

“Thank you. That said, I need your cooperation on one matter.”

“………”

“Her Majesty must rest properly for the time being.”

The nobles sitting around the council table wore puzzled expressions. The King’s words weren’t particularly strange—they were, in fact, quite reasonable. What gave them pause was the sharp glint in his eyes.

With a cold gleam, the King tossed out his next words as though they were nothing:

“Her Majesty will not be receiving visitors for a while. All current appointments are canceled.”

Lee-Jae had thought allowing one or two audiences per day might be good for her spirits. But the King would not yield on this point.

“And don’t go writing unnecessary letters under the guise of sending greetings.”

Only then did the nobles realize there was a warning hidden in his words, and they lowered their heads in silence.

“If it’s truly urgent, come to me instead.”

Though the King offered this concession, not a single noble would dare approach the beast-like monarch for mere personal concerns.

The King, watching the nobles shrink back, looked more pleased than ever.

Lee-Jae’s pregnancy progressed smoothly. The King visited often, bringing trinkets and small amusements, genuinely trying to brighten her days. Deborah and the maids took pains to perfect every detail of her care.

Though she had a few food aversions early on, Lee-Jae managed to get through that phase relatively well.

But not every day could be a good one.

In fact, things took a turn for the worse as her due date approached. Morning sickness, which she thought had passed, returned with a vengeance.

The royal residence was thrown into a frenzy. Lee-Jae felt as though even the air carried a stench, and breathing itself became torturous—let alone eating.

Watching her waste away in front of his eyes was just as painful for the King.

He knew force-feeding would do no good, but seeing his wife grow thinner by the day, he couldn’t help but keep bringing new dishes and urging her to try.

One day, he said:

“Lee-Jae. Try this one. Not even this?”

“I want to—for the baby’s sake—but I just can’t keep it down.”

At that, the King looked genuinely troubled.

“I don’t know if I should say this… Please don’t take it the wrong way.”

“Yes?”

“The baby matters, of course. But more than anything, I want you to eat for your own sake.”

She did her best to eat what he offered her, letting him feed her bite after bite. But in the end, she threw it all up.

The King comforted her quietly, patting her back for a long while. Then he stepped out—but outside, he was irritable all day, sighing heavily.

That day, no one in his presence dared to mention the Queen or the baby.

The clergy were worried, but at the same time, their curiosity grew.

What kind of child was this, to already cause such commotion before even being born?

It was a kind of peaceful curiosity. At that point, no one thought the situation would get worse.

But as the due date neared, Lee-Jae’s condition only continued to deteriorate.

She had begun to feel, for some time now, that the child within her carried a presence far from ordinary.

At first, the presence within her had been no more than the size of a fingernail. But as time passed, its energy grew stronger and stronger.

The energy of the fetus was still unrefined, unshaped.

And the problem was that Lee-Jae herself possessed a unique qi of her own.

Unable to control its own force, the child’s qi would frequently clash with hers—sometimes gently, sometimes violently.

Under normal conditions, Lee-Jae would have been able to absorb and harmonize such energies with ease.

But after days of hardly eating, she couldn’t even speak a single incantation properly, let alone suppress the sudden outbursts of qi that surged without warning.

The Royal physician began visiting daily. He couldn’t understand why Her Majesty’s condition had worsened so dramatically—but to the King, the cause was all too clear.

He was desperate to help her.

But he couldn’t recklessly lay hands on his wife’s body.

Pouring another force of qi into her already weakened system might result in something none of them could predict.

And the King… he had never been able to wield his qi the way she did—for healing.

As if things weren’t bad enough, her condition worsened again.

Just before the due date, Lee-Jae was struck with a raging fever.

The King was seized with despair.

He tried to force her to take herbal medicine.

But Lee-Jae insisted that what might be harmless to an adult could be lethal to the child. She relied instead on things like cold compresses, doing her best to avoid medication.

And so, she was left to face childbirth in her worst condition.

The physician, though deeply apologetic, had no choice but to admit to the King that this birth might carry serious risk.

The King trusted his wife with all his heart.

But a thought he’d tried to suppress began to creep back in.

Perhaps that lion had lunged at her in the dream because it had foreseen this.

Maybe it knew this would be too much. That it would be dangerous.

What if she… What if something happens to her?

The flush from her fever still lingered faintly on Lee-Jae’s face.

Her cheeks were hollow, her arms nothing but bone.

The King stood beside her bed, staring down at her in silence.

And even with such a pitiful face, Lee-Jae smiled and spoke calmly, as if it were nothing—as if the contractions she’d been feeling for some time now were a minor inconvenience.

“It’s no big deal. Everyone goes through this. Roderick and I were both born this way too, weren’t we?”

That was the moment he finally broke. He clenched his teeth, barely holding back tears.

“Just because someone else has done it… doesn’t mean it’s nothing!”

She always says it’s nothing.

But was it ever truly nothing?

Unable to bear it, he shouted—but immediately realized he had no right. He lowered his head and held her hand tightly.

“I’m sorry, Lee-Jae. I’m a terrible man. I…”

“………”

“This is all my fault.”

Roderick couldn’t shake the feeling that he had become utterly shameless.

When two people planned for a child and shared a night together, it was only natural to hope for such a result.

He knew the process could be painful. He knew, for some, it required the resolve to risk death.

But now, seeing his wife looking as though she might not survive—it made him feel like the most selfish person alive.

How could this be a noble act?

How could something so sacred be so brutal?

They had created this life together, so why was she the only one suffering like this?

They called it sacred—so why did it feel so unfair?

As he kept whispering apologies, he gently pulled away the hand Lee-Jae had used to cover her face.

And though she had been smiling faintly until then—she was suddenly crying, tears falling silently down her cheeks.

“This is my child. Our child.”

“………”

“Roderick, don’t apologize to me for this. A birth isn’t something you should say sorry for.”

“………”

“I just… I just want our child to be born into the world more blessed than I was.”

Her voice cracked, and she burst into tears.

Startled, Roderick hurried to wipe her face and nodded fervently.

“I know. I didn’t mean it that way. I just… You’re so precious to me. That’s why. Please don’t cry. My heart’s breaking.”

“Then smile too, Roderick.”

As always, she wanted him to joke around and say lighthearted things, as if everything were fine.

She wanted to soak up the warmth of his gentle energy.

So, once more, she smiled faintly first.

“If I call you, you have to come, okay? If you don’t, that’s real betrayal. Everyone says that kind of promise lasts a lifetime.”

“Of course. I’ll be right here, waiting. I’ll be praying for you. It’ll be okay. My wife is clever and talented—there’s nothing you can’t do.”

The King nodded at her words, agreeing, but in truth, he didn’t even know what he was saying anymore.

Once the preparations were complete, the attendants gently urged the King to step outside.

But he stood frozen, unable to move, like a statue. It was the knight commander who finally placed a hand on his back and pushed him forward.

The moment the door closed, the King’s expression crumbled even further.

It hit him with brutal clarity: from this point on, there was nothing more he could do.

The cries that pierced intermittently from inside rang sharply in his ears.

Knowing she was someone who endured pain in silence only made it that much harder to bear.

“W-What do I do…”

“…Your Majesty.”

“…Jade. What am I supposed to do..”

“Your Majesty, many capable hands are helping her. She will be alright.”

“But I… there’s nothing I can do. I can’t take her place. I can’t go through this with her.”

“……”

“I say I love her, and yet—how can I be so utterly powerless?”

What the King truly wanted to ask Jade was—what if she can’t make it? What if she dies?

But he remembered what Lee-Jae once said: that words spoken carelessly could make misfortune real.

So instead, he simply covered his trembling face with both hands.

The labor dragged on through an entire day and night.

Lee-Jae suffered terribly—so much that those assisting her were drained just from watching.

She had already cried more times than she could count throughout the ordeal.

And yet, when the soft bundle wrapped in a delicate cloth was placed in her arms, her eyes welled up again.

Because she realized—this is how every life in the world begins.

With blazing joy, and equally blazing sorrow.

With sacrifices that few could ever fully accept, and with trembling hearts barely holding it all together.

She had often thought—

When people reach a certain place in life, they start to believe they were born complete, as if they had always been that way.

Even when they know better, they look away.

Because the truth—that our lives are built on the sacrifices of others—is an uncomfortable one.

But now, looking down at her child, she thought something else too.

That when you came into this world, yes, I was in pain. It was hard.

But I hope you never know that.

I don’t want to burden you with that harsh truth.

Because some sacrifices were never made expecting anything in return.

Rather than weighing your life down with guilt, I just want to do what I’ve always done—pray.

I just want you to be happy.

To live your life fully and freely.

Lee-Jae was smiling at the child when the maids, having finished tidying up, summoned the King.

Seeing her husband, whose face had deteriorated terribly in just one day, she asked quietly for his agreement.

“I think I understand now why you had that dream about the lion. Why it destroyed everything in it, too.”

The room shimmered faintly with golden light.

It was a radiant aura no newborn should have been able to release—but it was there, unmistakable.

Now that the immense energy had flowed out with the birth, her color had returned, and she finally looked at peace.

“They said the baby’s healthy.”

“……”

“I think I’ve made a real contribution since coming here—at least to two people.”

One she saved.

One she brought into the world.

“That means I have some worth too, doesn’t it?”

But the husband in question, supposedly one of the saved, looked like he had spent the night scouring the underworld from end to end.

Even when tormented by vengeful spirits, he’d never looked this pale.

“…Enough. Stop talking… I’m sorry…”

The King couldn’t finish the sentence.

Lee-Jae laughed and told him to stop fussing, that everything was already over.

And Roderick brought her small hand to his face, burying himself in it.