Chapter 120: A Period of Transition
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 120: A Period of Transition
On the way back to Dakuren from the hot spring village of Najune.
Inside the carriage—which moved with a smooth yet swift grace thanks to Macherite’s skill and Narupa’s speed buffs—I was nursing a massive headache.
“Uuu… u. u. u. u…”
The cause was Rune. She was clutching the hem of her dress with all her might, sitting bolt upright while tears streamed down her face.
Anyone could see she was grieving, and Yarismal and Eris were in a frenzy beside her, taking turns wiping her tears and applying moisturizing cream.
Despite the scene, I made no move to hold her or comfort her.
I mean, it was only natural, wasn’t it?
Rune was the one in the wrong.
She had hidden her pregnancy from me until she was practically full-term.
She kept it a secret until I finally noticed it myself!
Anyway, maybe it’s because she’s the future Lord, but even when she cries, she doesn’t just cover her face with her arms; it was strange to see the other wives attending to her like that.
“Huu… huff… My husband doesn’t even look at his wife when she’s crying… Seriously… hic, you’re so mean!”
“Oh, please. As if you’ve done anything to be proud of.”
“As if I’ve done anything to be proud of? Anything to be proud of?!”
Rune’s eyes snapped open, and she whipped her body toward me.
“Did I do it with bad intentions? I just wanted to be with my husband!”
“What if something happened to the baby because of your recklessness? What then?”
“This is how prenatal care has been done in the Dakuren family for generations! The couple always stayed together! Mother said that when she was pregnant with me, she even went hunting with Father! She said she even caught a bear!”
Bringing up my late mother-in-law was a low blow.
Besides, how could someone who passed away because of a weak constitution catch a bear while heavily pregnant?
The Old Man did tell me later that it was actually true, though.
The surprising part was that she caught it using magic.
“So, you’re saying it was right to hide it and drag yourself through dangerous places?”
“You could have just lectured me gently, but did you have to be so scary? Look at my tears! Look at them!”
“A mother-to-be should know how precious her own body is!”
“And you’re shouting at your pregnant wife! Is this how it’s going to be already? Just because you have a lot of women? I’m so miserable, I can’t stop crying.”
“Why are you twisting my words like that? Did I… did I start shouting from the beginning? It’s because you keep insisting you only wanted to be together, refusing to admit you were wrong or show any remorse!”
“…Did you just raise your voice at me again?”
I was learning a lot of new things today.
First, when Rune gets angry, she stops calling me ‘Honey’ and starts calling me ‘You.’
Second, setting aside her own faults, if I raise my voice even a little or don’t give in to her, she gets incredibly hurt and starts sobbing.
Just like right now.
“……”
She stared at me intently, not even blinking until her eyes turned bloodshot.
Tears weren’t just leaking out; they pooled in her eyes in large droplets as she glared at me.
Then, her lips began to tremble, stretching wider and wider until…
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—!!!!!!!!”
A wail pulled from the deepest depths of her core vibrated through the carriage.
She tried to sit while hugging her knees, but when her pregnant belly got in the way, she suddenly started pounding the seat with her fists.
“Whoa, whoa! What are you doing right now?”
“What does it matter to you what I do?!”
“What does it matter? I’m your husband, what do you mean what does it matter?”
“Forget itttttt!!! I said, what does it matter to youuuuuu!!!”
“Look at how a wife is behaving!”
“What about me! What about me!”
Eventually, we were both screaming at each other, and even Narupa, horrified, stepped in to pull us apart.
“Oppa, Oppa! You’re too worked up. Rune, you stop it too!”
“Eris, lay your sister down this instant! Sister, if you scream and get angry while pregnant, it will affect the baby. Please, control yourself.”
However, both of us were already seeing red and refused to back down an inch.
“Narupa, am I the one in the wrong? This only happened because Rune lied first!”
“Even if I lied! Is it normal for a husband not to notice until his wife’s body is like this? You should be ashamed, not proud!”
“Rune, that’s enough.”
“What’s enough? What did I do that was enough!”
“Hey, seriously!”
“What!”
Seeing her glare at me so fiercely, I completely lost my patience.
Wow, I really can’t take this anymore.
“Stop the carriage!”
I opened the window and shouted, bringing the carriage to a halt.
Macherite, who had clearly heard everything, pretended not to know and asked what was wrong, but I just opened the door and stepped out.
“Where are you going!”
“Why do you care!”
“I asked where you’re going!”
“Don’t follow me. I told you not to follow me.”
When I spoke with a hardened, grim expression, Rune’s hand, which had been clutching my sleeve, dropped away.
I didn’t know where I was going, but I pushed through the brush by the side of the road.
“Honey!”
I heard Rune calling from behind, but I ignored her.
I was so angry that my entire face felt hot, like I had become a furnace. The heat was no joke.
“Rune, stop it! Are you crazy? How dare you scream and fight with your husband! There’s a limit to everything.”
“What did I do!”
“Sister, what kind of woman in this world screams at a man like that? No matter how pregnant you are, this is too much. We keep telling you it affects the baby…!”
I could hear Narupa and Yarismal scolding Rune, but my anger wouldn’t subside.
“What? Screaming? If I had really screamed, her eardrums would have burst.”
I huffed to myself, walking straight ahead.
I didn’t know where I was headed or where the path led, but I wanted to be as far away as possible.
“If she’s pregnant, she should have told me, her husband, immediately. Becoming a father is a huge deal, and she hid it all this time just because she wanted to be together? I can’t even wrap my head around it…!”
Then, suddenly, my mind went blank.
I closed my eyes, frowned as hard as I could, and let out a long sigh.
“Other guys get told they’re going to be fathers and get congratulated, but a guy like me…”
Honestly, I don’t think I was asking for much.
It’s a good thing.
It’s a celebration.
It means I’ve become the head of a household, responsible for a child and a wife.
It means rebuilding the family structure I lost to the Demons when I was young.
Fine, I don’t need to be congratulated.
But at the very least, the person becoming a mother should behave properly and act cautiously for the sake of the child.
What if something happened to her or the baby?
“Haaaaaaah…!”
Suddenly feeling dizzy, I slumped down where I stood.
A long sigh that felt like it could sink the earth escaped me, and my head was so dizzy I couldn’t easily lift it.
I think I stayed like that, motionless, for several minutes.
“…ney!”
Huh?
“Honey! Honey!!!!”
It was Rune’s voice.
I was still angry and intended to stay in that position, but unlike before, she wasn’t screaming in anger; she sounded desperate and anxious.
“Honey!”
“I’m here. I’m here. Why are you shouting again?”
“Honey!”
“You should have stayed in the carriage, why did you follow me all the way here? Where are the other wives? You’re not in a condition to be running around, and this is exactly why I—”
I couldn’t finish my sentence because Rune suddenly threw herself into my arms.
Startled by how her entire body was trembling, I quickly pulled her closer into my embrace, and my chest became wet in an instant.
“I was wrong… so please, don’t leave me behind…”
“Rune.”
“I won’t… get angry anymore… hic, hic! Sob, uuuuuuuuuu…!”
She clung to me, weeping so sorrowfully it was a wonder she didn’t collapse on the spot.
“I was wrong… I was wrong… I’m sorry…”
“What were you wrong about?”
“About being… pregnant… hic… not telling you… hiding it… and exploring the dungeon together…”
To a third party, Rune’s sudden change in attitude might seem baffling, but the way Rune and Narupa treat me is based on two things.
Their love for me, and their lack of it.
Since both of them fundamentally suffer from severe attachment issues, the behaviors resulting from that can be extreme.
They both share the common trait of wanting to be stuck to me, but while Narupa tries to make me stay by her side, Rune tries to stay by mine.
The other thing they have in common is that they will use any means necessary to achieve that.
“Don’t go… don’t… waaaaaah…”
Rune, who had tried to stay by my side regardless of her pregnancy, felt an intense sense of anxiety when I stopped the carriage and walked away.
She probably knew she was wrong but was stubbornly digging in her heels, only to be struck with sudden realization and come running after me.
I should scold her properly.
I really should… but seeing Rune sobbing so sorrowfully, begging and clinging to me, my heart softens.
“Rune.”
“Hic… sob… yeah…”
“It’s our child.”
“Yeah…”
“The mother and father have to protect it, right?”
“We can just… protect it while being together…”
Rune leaned into me once more and whispered.
“Like Father… like my brother… please don’t leave me…”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Really?”
“No matter where I go, I always come back.”
“You could just not go. You could just stay by my side.”
“A man must step up for his family when necessary.”
“……”
A sigh thick with tears tickled my neck.
I couldn’t tell if it was a sigh of resignation or a sign that she hadn’t given up her resolve.
“I will protect us from the very front, so Rune, you protect our child and our family from the very center.”
“……”
“Understood?”
“……”
“Rune.”
“…I understand.”
“Promise me.”
“I… I promise…”
Mumbling, Rune burst into tears again, repeating that she was sorry over and over.
I held her tight and patted her back until she fell asleep from exhaustion.
Around the time her crying turned into soft, rhythmic breathing, I sensed the presence of the black-clad maid.
“I have come to escort you, Consort of Hus.”
“Consort of Hus already? Rune hasn’t even had her succession ceremony yet.”
“It is coming soon.”
Aslet quietly corrected me as she took Rune from my arms.
“And it is not a succession ceremony.”
“Then what is it?”
“A coronation.”
A wind blew past.
“It’s a period of upheaval.”
That wind made Rune’s hair flutter violently.