Episode 67
Even dressed, it still wasn’t very noticeable, so his surprise was understandable.
When I nodded once more, Callisteon gave a soft smile.
“I don’t… feel anything. Is it not moving now?”
“I guess it doesn’t move that much yet. It was moving just a while ago when Phoebe touched it.”
I found myself speaking almost apologetically. He touched my hair with his other hand.
“It’s still damp, Lu.”
Strands of pink hair were caught between his pale, slender fingers. Perhaps because it was wet, the color seemed deeper than usual.
“Ah, yes. We were applying the oil when suddenly the baby moved…”
“…How do you dry it? I want to help.”
Unfortunately, in this splendid magical world, there were no hair dryers. If Ren were here, he could probably dry it poof with magic, but it meant there was no tool-assisted method.
“Just leave it, Carl. It takes forever. Phoebe will do it a bit later.”
“…Would you dislike it if I did it?”
As if I would.
I finally gestured towards a towel nearby, and Callisteon picked it up with careful hands. His rough hands, more accustomed to holding swords or pens, clumsily held the towel and began to dab at my long hair.
“…It really does take a long time.”
I muttered an apology, and he whispered softly.
“I wish that were truly the case.”
Because of the subtle atmosphere his words created, all the facts I had momentarily forgotten in my excitement about the baby came back to me at once. My flimsy house dress, my bare feet, the dim bedroom…, the distinctly male scent in an enclosed space.
‘It’s a good thing I’m turned away and he can’t see my face.’
Only the monotonous sound of him dabbing the towel against my hair echoed in the tense silence. Time passed agonizingly slowly. If not for that sound, my pounding heartbeat would surely have been heard.
“Lu.”
Callisteon finally slowed his movements and called my name.
“…Yes?”
He, sitting behind me, let his forehead rest against my shoulder. The man’s warm body heat seeped through the thin, single-layer cotton dress. After making me so tense, he changed the subject.
“I’ve been thinking… I hope it’s a girl. If it’s a daughter who looks like you, I’ll pass Babenberg to her, and whenever some insufficient fool dares to covet the position of son-in-law, I’ll behead him.”
I laughed, astonished. Because of that, his hair tickled my nape.
“The baby inside will hear you and be scared, Carl. And what if it’s a boy? What if the son feels hurt?”
I said it without thinking, even though it might not be his child.
“Then…”
Callisteon corrected himself.
“Even if it’s a son, I hope he has your hair. I know you’re beautiful no matter the hair color. But still… I like your current hair color.”
Truthfully, I like my hair color too.
‘How can hair be as pretty as cotton candy like this?’
In my previous life, I had never even seen a doll with hair this beautiful.
I looked down at my hair with pride, when Callisteon leaned his upper body forward a bit more and gently kissed my cheek.
“I think it’s dry enough now.”
He whispered softly, like a breeze. If he just raised his voice a little, he wouldn’t need to whisper right by my ear like this.
When I turned my gaze and stared blankly at him, he curved his lips into a gentle smile.
“Sleep well.”
He was close enough for his breath to reach me.
If I hadn’t snapped back to my senses at that very moment, I might have turned my head as if bewitched and kissed him first myself.
I quickly retrieved my nearly plummeting heart and stuck it back in place, pretending nothing was wrong as I smiled.
“You sleep well too, Cal.”
Early Morning
I woke up early due to the baby’s movements.
‘Should I go show Karl?’
Naturally, Callisteon came to mind because of last night, but considering the subtle atmosphere, I didn’t dare take the initiative to seek him out.
‘Is Cal really my type after all?’
Frustrated, I reflected on myself.
‘But now isn’t the time to choose a man I like; I need to find the baby’s father.’
Sighing, I got up and opened the diary.
Just as my life in Edessa had been peaceful these past few days, Louise’s academy life, recorded here, had also been smooth. That’s because after reconciling with Len, Louise had brightened up considerably and created quite a few happy memories.
Sure enough, Ren’s name appeared again in this entry.
Today, I got in trouble because Len made me laugh.
He gave me a rolled wafer cookie after class, and when I tried to sneak a taste in the afternoon, the cookie was too tough.
Thinking it was strange, I looked closely and found a small note rolled inside the cookie:
「Let’s look at the stars on the dorm roof tonight.」
Sitting on the roof looking at stars was one of my few good memories, something Master Moghold rarely did with me at the imperial star palace…
The sky seen from the dorm roof was even more beautiful than back then, and not a single thought of reality came to mind.
So they did rather date-like things, huh?
Chuckling, I turned the page.
As I placed my finger on the embossed pattern, writing began to appear again.
I had a terrible dream.
A dream where I die.
No wonder I felt unusually happy.
Instantly, my head rang sharply, and a dream I’d never seen unfolded like a movie.
Louise, lying still as if asleep. So pale, her heart not beating.
And the shock and pain Louise felt upon seeing that scene pierced my heart as if tearing it apart.
“…Ah.”
I let out a small moan and closed the diary.
It felt as if Louise from this time period, waking from a nightmare to write in her diary, was overlapping with me.
Born as the imperial flower, with a beautiful appearance, but in reality, never loved, leading to a lonely and unhappy childhood. Because of that, she grew up with an overly self-conscious, passive personality, afraid of being hated.
‘A foolish girl who thought眼前的 happiness was just a lie and willingly resigned herself to misfortune.’
As I sat crouched, catching my breath, a small sound came from the door.
“Your Highness? You’re awake already?”
I don’t know what expression I was sitting there with.
But the sound of Phoebe’s approaching footsteps grew increasingly urgent.
“Your Highness! Your Highness, are you unwell? Is anyone outside? Fetch the physician at once!”
With Phoebe’s help, I lay down again, and the physician came.
With a troubled expression, he diagnosed that there was no particular abnormality in any part of my body.
‘Of course.’
My body, at least, was fine.
I must have fallen asleep without realizing it.
In my dream, I saw Louise’s death, over and over and over again.
‘It seems I saw all the dreams Louise had over several years at once.’
Sometimes when I read the diary, the emotions within would rush over me as if they were my own; seeing them in dreams made my head ring and my heart pound.
‘It seems the assimilation with the character that other possessors experience has finally arrived, three months late.’
Unfortunately, this Louise was truly a depressed child.
When I woke with a bruised heart, plagued by dreams, I saw Callisteon.
“Are you unwell?”
Looking up into his worried blue eyes, a conversation I once had with Ren suddenly came to mind.
“The date you mentioned has passed. I’ve done everything you wanted. Even at this moment… I’m by your side. And yet, you’re still anxious? Still unable to choose anyone?”
Back then, I couldn’t understand those words at all.
Now, I think I finally get it.
The reason why the three men insisting they are the baby’s father have completely avoided antagonizing each other and maintained only an appropriate competitive dynamic.
‘Louise thought death was approaching.’
I would have thought the same.
The nightmares were that persistent.
Anyone who had the same dream so many times would think that.
‘And not only that, but all three of them knew that fact.’
That’s why they didn’t force Louise to choose and continued to wait for her.
All hoping, with one heart, that those unfortunate dreams were not true.
