Chapter 2

“What… did you just say?”

“You’re pregnant. Congratulations.”

She hadn’t misheard.

When Enria asked again, the physician once more repeated the word pregnant.

“Oh my goodness!”

Instead of Enria, who sat frozen stiff, Chavel clapped both hands over her mouth and let out a series of shrill exclamations.

“Oh my, oh my! Is this a dream or real life? Lady Enria, you’re pregnant!”

‘I heard you the first time.’

With a throbbing headache, Enria pressed her temples and furrowed her brow.

The physician, seeing that Enria was too dazed to respond, turned to Chavel to explain further.

“During this stage, women become sensitive to all kinds of smells and naturally lose their appetite. It’s common to feel nauseous most of the day, and some experience frequent vomiting.”

“Oh, that’s right! She’s been feeling sick for days now—barely eating and not sleeping well.”

“You should see a specialist as soon as possible.”

At that, Dale, who had been standing by the door, spoke up.

“This region is quite remote. It took an entire day just to bring this doctor here. Fetching a physician specializing in childbirth will take several more.”

“There are midwives in the village,” said the doctor.

“I can’t entrust my lady to someone unqualified.”

Dale’s firm tone, calling Enria my lady, left the physician sighing as he began listing what precautions to take and what to prepare until a proper specialist could arrive.

Enria, still unable to process any of it, sat staring blankly at the blanket covering her lap.

Her mind was utterly numb from shock—so much so that she wondered if she had gone deaf.

‘Pregnant…?’

This wasn’t in the original story.

Then again, neither was Caldeon abandoning her—or the two of them ever sharing a bed.

So perhaps it was inevitable.

Maybe she should have expected this after all those nights together.

‘But to find out only now… this is just…’

It was overwhelming—completely beyond her control.

Even knowing that the plot had long since veered off course, she couldn’t help but feel disoriented.

For a moment, she even wondered if she had somehow mixed up the contents of this novel with another one she had read.

Pressing hard against her temples, Enria struggled to think about what to do next.

But soon, the growing nausea and fatigue pushed all thought to the back of her mind.

***

— Why are you here?

— Huh? I came to read a book…

— Stay beside me until I wake. Don’t ever leave me alone in bed again.

Enria rested her chin on her hand, gazing out the window as memories of her life with Caldeon surfaced—especially that day, the one that had replayed in her mind ever since she started to recover.

The day he refused to let her go.

It must have been then—when she conceived.

That morning, she had woken early and quietly left their bedroom while Caldeon still slept deeply, exhausted from a monster subjugation near the northern border the previous night.

She had wanted to let him rest and, with affection blooming in her heart, decided to study magic to better understand her own powers—to be more useful to him.

But before she could read more than a few pages, Caldeon, now awake, had appeared and dragged her back to bed.

After that, things blurred. His overwhelming presence, his desperate touch—it had all felt so consuming that, for the first time, she’d mistaken it for love.

That delusion only deepened as his obsession over her grew day after day.

— Again? Why…

— It’s not enough.

— But the rampage has already been suppressed—

Cutting off her confused protest with a kiss, Caldeon murmured that it still wasn’t enough.

Even now, Enria couldn’t decide if that had truly been love.

But in those moments, with how he looked at her, how he touched her, she couldn’t help but believe it was.

Even now, abandoned, she remembered that look—and it still made her heart ache.

‘Come to think of it… we never used protection.’

She had spent countless nights with him, yet not once had they done anything to prevent pregnancy.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

‘Why was that?’

Surely he knew what could happen.

But the original novel never mentioned such a thing, so she had no idea what Caldeon might have been thinking—or whether he had thought about it at all.

In the original story, Caldeon neither loved Enria nor touched her before she was executed by Roseanne’s brother, Rahar.

So this was completely unknown territory.

“Haa.”

Lost in thought, Enria exhaled and rested her cheek on the table, blinking at the bright window light.

‘Should I keep it?‘

It wasn’t as though she had anything to lose.

This was a world inside a book—a borrowed life.

Having a child wouldn’t ruin her, and she didn’t need to worry about struggling to survive.

If it came to it, she could sell her jewels, buy land, and farm.

In her previous life, she’d been a farmer’s daughter who knew how to cultivate crops, after all.

‘Yes… I can’t get rid of it.’

Her hand instinctively went to her belly.

The realization that a life was growing inside her filled her with awe and wonder.

It was his child—hers and Caldeon’s.

‘I’m sure they’ll be beautiful.’

That single thought swept away all her hesitation.

Even if raising a fatherless child would be difficult, what did that matter?

She was living in a body that was supposed to die—what more was there to fear?

Slowly straightening, Enria made up her mind.

‘I’ll have this child.’

***

Once she decided to keep the baby, her tangled thoughts cleared.

She asked both Dale and Chavel—who knew the truth—to keep her pregnancy secret from Caldeon.

Dale was troubled by the request, but Enria insisted that she wanted to tell him herself when the time came, and that silenced him.

Still, she knew she couldn’t keep it hidden forever. So she and Chavel—her most trusted ally—put their heads together.

“So, you don’t want His Grace to find out you’re pregnant?”

“That’s right.”

“But will that even be possible? Everything that happens here gets reported to him through Sir Dale.”

“Then what should we do?”

Enria sighed deeply, her face clouded with worry.

Chavel thought hard for a moment, then clapped her hands as if struck by a brilliant idea.

“Why not leave here before the baby is born?”

“Leave?”

“Yes! You could write a letter saying you’re going on a trip with me and don’t wish to be disturbed. Sir Dale can deliver it to the Grand Duke, and we’ll move to another territory until you give birth. It’s not safe to have a baby here anyway—there aren’t any skilled midwives in this backwater.”

Enria looked uncertain.

Would Caldeon really believe that?

But Chavel continued eagerly.

“Just write the letter and give it to Sir Dale. Once he leaves for the north, I’ll find us a new place—somewhere with good midwives. You’ve enough gold to buy a fine mansion even in a large territory. Once I secure one, I’ll contact you again.”

Enria nodded.

The plan was flimsy, but it was all they had.

And she couldn’t exactly run far on her own in her condition.

Besides, Chavel was right—if she wanted a safe birth, she’d need to move somewhere with proper help.

“…All right. Let’s do that.”

Having no better option, Enria began writing the letter to Caldeon.

It was short and simple: she’d be traveling with Chavel for a while and didn’t wish to be sought out.

After sealing it, she handed the letter to Dale and ordered him to deliver only that message—and never, under any circumstances, reveal her pregnancy.

Since Dale was a man who followed orders to the letter, she wasn’t worried.

Once Dale departed for the north, Chavel also left using a teleportation stone to search for a mansion suitable for childbirth.

The stone was expensive, but it would get her there far faster than Dale, who traveled by carriage.

Enria waited calmly for her return, spending the days reading books on pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare.

Until that day—

The mansion exploded.

The blast came so suddenly she had no time to flee.

Someone caught her before the debris could strike and carried her swiftly outside.

‘Why is he here…?’

Enria stared, wide-eyed, at the man who’d saved her.

He brushed his finger through the air with a sharp snap!—and a massive carriage appeared before them.

“Get in.”

“W-What?”

“Groen will be here soon. We don’t have much time. Please, get in.”

He gestured for her to climb aboard.

Groen? Appearing here?

Before Enria could even blink, he placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her firmly into the carriage.

It wasn’t rough—but the suddenness of it filled her with dread.

Because she recognized that face all too well.

She had just been abducted—

By none other than Rahar, the heroine’s brother, the man who, in the original story, would one day cut off Enria’s head.