An Urgent Royal Pregnancy
When Edwin returned to the imperial palace, the first thing he saw was Kylus looking unusually flustered.
A reaction like that could only mean a major natural disaster had struck some remote province.
“What is it?”
Even when Edwin asked in order to grasp the situation, Kylus hemmed and hawed, dodging the answer.
“Don’t make me ask twice.”
The reply that finally emerged, just before Edwin’s frustration boiled over into anger, was entirely unexpected.
“The Crown Princess of Bellot and Sir Rohas have urgently requested an audience.”
“At this hour of the night?”
Edwin’s tone was icy.
“They say they have something important to report.”
Kylus added with a troubled expression.
Edwin, who had been forced to leave in the middle of his date, was in a foul mood, but he wasn’t the type to neglect matters that required his attention.
“Where are they now?”
“I’ve escorted them to the drawing room.”
The moment he heard Kylus’s answer, Edwin headed straight there.
When he opened the door, he caught Everett Rohas and the Crown Princess hastily springing apart from where they had been pressed closely together.
Edwin glanced back at Kylus. The look clearly asked, Urgent matter, you said?
‘Just hear them out first,’ Kylus mouthed silently.
Edwin decided to do exactly that.
Of course, if the reason turned out to be trivial, they would pay dearly for interrupting his date.
He waved off the flustered Everett, who was trying to stand and bow, and took his seat. Kylus immediately activated an anti-eavesdropping artifact.
On the surface, both the Crown Princess and Everett looked unchanged. Everett had always been awkward in the Emperor’s presence, so his demeanor was normal. The Crown Princess’s calm attitude was the same as ever.
The only indication of how serious the situation was came from Kylus’s unusually grim expression.
Once Kylus had confirmed the artifact was active, the Crown Princess finally spoke.
“It seems we must hasten the national marriage.”
True to her Bellot blood, the Crown Princess was known for her strong will, yet her face looked strangely pale.
This was the same woman who hadn’t caught so much as a cold during the long negotiations between the Empire and Bellot. For her complexion to be this ashen…?
Even knowing he ought to be worried, Edwin couldn’t hide his confusion.
Still, he wasn’t overly alarmed. While her voice was grave when she spoke of hastening the marriage, her expression wasn’t entirely somber. If anything, a faint thrill of excitement lingered beneath it.
Everett, who had been sitting rigidly upright since Edwin’s arrival, wore an almost identical expression.
His gaze, previously fixed forward, drifted sideways. The look he gave the Crown Princess was soft and tender.
For a moment, Edwin assumed the reason she wanted to move up the wedding was something nauseatingly sweet—like “We can’t bear to be apart even for a single day.”
He had certainly hoped the two would grow close, but advancing the national marriage created problems for him.
Still, that was an intensely personal reason. Edwin made a point of separating public duty from private feelings.
“The reason?”
He asked, hoping for an answer that left room for negotiation.
This time, Everett moved to reply instead of the Crown Princess.
But at that exact moment—
“Ugh.”
The Crown Princess retched.
Her pale face. The lemon tea placed only in front of her. Everett fidgeting anxiously beside her, yet somehow radiating happiness.
No way.
It was a far more effective explanation than words.
Edwin suddenly understood why Kylus had dragged him away from his date. This really was serious.
In hindsight, “We can’t stand to be apart even for a moment” would have been a hundred times better.
Edwin wanted to grab his past self by the collar—the one who had arrogantly declared he would make them pay if the reason was trivial.
His eyes shook with dismay.
But the Crown Princess and Everett, lost in their own little world, didn’t even notice how badly the Emperor was panicking right in front of them.
“Are you all right?”
Everett’s face crumpled as he lifted the cup of lemon tea to her lips.
The Crown Princess looked as though she had zero appetite, but perhaps out of consideration for his sincerity, she took a small sip.
Everett smiled as if simply watching her drink was the most adorable thing in the world.
At some point, the two seemed to have completely forgotten they were standing in the Emperor’s drawing room.
Even Edwin hadn’t yet fed Lina in front of others. He had been fed by her, of course—but that had been at a restaurant, and they’d had their reasons.
His eyes, which had been lenient toward the new couple because they were in the throes of first love, cooled sharply.
It was only after Kylus, who had been carefully watching Edwin’s reaction, cleared his throat and intervened that the pair finally snapped out of their private bubble.
“Ahem. Everyone, His Majesty has asked you a question.”
Only then did the Crown Princess’s previously melted expression harden back into its usual dignified mask.
She seemed to realize Edwin had already guessed the situation, because she spoke plainly.
“I am pregnant.”
He had suspected it, but hearing the confirmation still made the back of his neck tighten.
The Crown Princess continued as if she hadn’t noticed his reaction.
“In Bellot, children born before marriage are treated as illegitimate.”
Bellot’s laws regarding bloodlines were far stricter than the Empire’s. In the Empire, an illegitimate child could be formally recognized and entered into the family register. In Bellot, however, it was legally impossible for such a child to be officially acknowledged, and they held no inheritance rights whatsoever.
This was indeed a matter that required hastening the national marriage at all costs. Otherwise, the first child of the throne’s successor would be branded illegitimate and stripped of any claim to the succession.
While this marriage posed a serious threat to Edwin’s own romantic situation, as Emperor he was obligated to offer congratulations first.
Yet the very first thought that flashed through his mind was, Why?
The eastern regions were conservative. Territories closer to the capital were slightly more flexible, but the closer one got to the border, the stronger those old customs became.
When he and Lina had traveled to Diegis, the excuse he had given the innkeeper—“We do not share a bed until the sacred marriage rites are fully completed”—came from the customs of Everett Rohas’s hometown and the surrounding villages.
Bellot, which shared that same eastern border, was equally conservative.
Given that background, Edwin had never imagined these two would end up with a premarital pregnancy and come asking to accelerate the national marriage.
His thoughts must have shown on his face, because both the Crown Princess and Everett turned bright red.
Everett, having grown bolder in front of his woman, offered a small defense.
“Well… we only ever met alone indoors, so…”
It was an understandable reason, but far more information than anyone needed.
Everett flinched as if the Crown Princess had pinched him somewhere hidden beneath the table.
She deliberately cleared her throat to reset the mood, composed her face into a calm mask, and continued smoothly.
“You instructed us to stall for time because there are suspicious movements among the factions pushing other candidates for the national marriage document. But… even if it’s late, if we hold the ceremony by next month at the latest, we can at least claim the child is premature.”
The Crown Princess clearly believed the only reason Edwin had asked them to hide their meetings was to set a trap for the suspicious factions.
She seemed regretful that she had missed the chance to owe him a favor by failing to carry out his request properly, but she showed no sign of suspecting that the Emperor might have an intensely personal reason for wanting to delay the wedding.
Next month.
He had been preparing himself to tell her soon, but the sudden deadline made his breath catch in his throat.
It wasn’t as though they had until next month simply because the wedding was scheduled then.
Even though Bellot was a small country, this was still a national marriage. Preparing everything in roughly a month would be tight even if they started tomorrow.
Edwin, who usually treated the Crown Princess with curt annoyance, offered an unusually polite suggestion—perhaps for the first time.
“Let us delay the official announcement of the national marriage a little. In exchange, the Empire will take full responsibility for the preparations.”
He was trying to buy time with money.
It was an offer the Crown Princess would find difficult to refuse, yet her answer didn’t come easily. True to her cautious nature, she seemed to be carefully weighing his intentions.
Edwin was taking a noticeably low stance. If she interpreted this as a political scheme, that tenacious princess would surely try to negotiate aggressively.
To get an answer from her, he chose to humble himself.
“It’s a personal reason. Rohas already knows about it.”
The Crown Princess’s gaze shifted to her lover, whose expressions were far easier to read.
Everett answered in a small voice, confirming it was true.
The Crown Princess was calculating by nature, but she also understood that sometimes a debt of the heart was more powerful than any promissory note.
“I understand.”
He had barely bought himself some time.
But the heavens, it seemed, were not on Edwin’s side.