Had it been only about a year and a half since she heard the news of the marriage?

The atmosphere Kailen gave off, seeing him again after so long, had changed.

She could not define it precisely, but his eyes, the subtle texture of him, were clearly different. That change seemed to stem from the princess before her.

Something feels wrong. It really does feel wrong. That was what Isabel’s instincts murmured.

That solid child who had never feared whatever stood in his way, who would sooner break than bend, and yet now he wore such soft eyes…

He was the child who had not shed a single tear at his own mother’s funeral. She could not believe the change in a son who had been as unyielding as a rod of bamboo.

Though he was her adopted son, Kailen had always been a child who tugged at Isabel’s heart.

She had felt sorry for him, to a degree that made her wonder how a person could be so utterly without fortune in their parents. That was why she could not help but hold him close. She had done what she could over the years, yet she had never managed to break down that stubborn wall. And so she still felt sorry for Kailen.

One day, the cousin who had lost her husband and eldest son, Bianca, came to her door holding the hand of her youngest son Kailen and asked for her help.

〈Help me, Isabel. You were the only person I could think of.〉

She had nowhere to lean on. Please help her settle in Frenon.

They were cousins, but they had grown up together like sisters, so Isabel naturally welcomed Bianca and her youngest son.

Isabel found a house where the mother and son could live comfortably, and arranged for several people to look after the household in place of the ailing Bianca.

After that, she said she would continue to support them, but Bianca never asked for financial help. Fortunately, she said there was enough money left in a foreign bank account her husband had set aside to last her and her son a lifetime.

Isabel visited the mother and son at their home two or three times a month, to ease Bianca’s loneliness. Aside from the fact that Kailen’s eyes were not those of a child, those three years seemed to pass without any great trouble for the two of them.

That was, until she saw young Kailen being strangled by a Bianca who was dead drunk and senseless.

Whether the horrible memory had resurfaced, Isabel closed her eyes gently and opened them again, then announced to Adeline that their tea time was over.

“Well then, I have documents to review, so I will take my leave first.”

* * *

As autumn deepened, a cold edge crept into the wind.

Isabel stopped at the entrance to the walking path that ran along the outer edge of the Belliche International Brokerage Complex, where goods from various countries were sorted and flowed out across the continent, and raised her right hand. It was a signal to follow no further. The manager and aides who had been trailing behind like a tail fell back and kept their distance.

Isabel, with only her adopted son Kailen at her side, resumed walking. No words passed between the two of them for a while. Only the sound of the wind brushed past the hems of their coats.

“I hear Adeline is with child.”

The words came out abruptly.

Kailen kept his gaze fixed ahead and answered.

“Yes.”

“Is this something I should congratulate you on?”

“…”

When Kailen’s silence stretched on, Isabel stopped walking and drew a leather case from inside her coat. She pulled out a slender cigar and put it to her lips. Kailen stepped to her side and lit it for her.

“Well then, let us set the congratulations aside for now… What do you intend to do going forward, including with that child?”

Kailen did not answer.

It was not that he truly had nothing to say. It was less that his mind was empty and more that too many thoughts were passing through it all at once.

A child…

A child.

When he first learned of the pregnancy, he had felt nothing but bewilderment. It was, quite literally, an existence that had appeared in his life without warning, with no place in any plan.

If his intentions had been properly carried out from the start, there would have been no child between her and himself.

So there was no way he could arrive at a clear conclusion standing here right now.

“What is there to do? A child coming along does not change things so greatly. Things are moving along smoothly according to the original plan, and I intend to keep it that way.”

“I tried to talk you out of this marriage between the two of you from the very beginning. But you said you needed to see things through to the end or you would never feel settled. Truthfully, I suspected it even then. That perhaps you were only looking for an excuse to deny your own feelings. But you said it was the path that would bring you peace, so I said nothing more. Yet seeing your face after so long, you do not look at peace.”

“Did I look that way?”

“Do you not even know your own state?”

There was no reproach in Isabel’s tone, but with those few words she was stirring up something more complicated inside Kailen.

“Why do you walk into your own hell willingly? Why not be honest with yourself, even now? The misfortune that befell your father and Cedric was not something that child had any direct hand in.”

Kailen listened in silence.

The misfortune of his father and Cedric did not, in truth, occupy a very large part of him.

He had simply come this far in search of a meaning for his own life.

To put it plainly, he had taken the easiest path available to him in order to survive.

“I wanted you to be happy. You said your heart could only find peace if you returned to Krauben and avenged your father and Cedric, so I supported you in every way I could. Then it would be best to stop exactly there.”

“…I had already intended to.”

As he answered, Kailen thought to himself.

The child was far too unexpected, but he did not think he could plant a seed and then turn away from it entirely.

Then taking responsibility was the right thing to do.

And Adeline, the mother of that child, Adeline…

She was, by now, a woman who belonged to him.

“Why not tell your wife the truth, even now?”

“Tell her what? That this marriage began without anything like love? That I had been hating her from the very start? What would change by saying it.”

“Whatever it may be. Adeline has a right to know the truth. And the later she finds out, the deeper the wound will be.”

Kailen was silent for a moment before he replied. Isabel had said something he had not expected, and there was a brief flicker of something unsettled in him, but his expression had since composed itself.

“Then it would be better for her not to know at all. That way, there would be nothing to wound her.”

Isabel shook her head and let out a sigh.

“You are very sure of yourself. But the world does not always turn the way you want it to.”

“…”

Thinking that her words sounded almost like a curse, Kailen looked back at his adoptive mother.

She had finished the cigar at just that moment, and exhaled the last of the smoke as she said her farewell.

“I know that no matter how long I advise you, if it goes against what you think, you won’t listen anyway. So I’ll stop arguing and be on my way.”

* * *

After the incident at the office, Kailen treated Adeline with nothing but tenderness. Like she might blow away in the wind, or shatter if she so much as bumped into something.

It seemed he was doing it because he thought she had been hurt by his failure to react with joy the moment she mentioned the baby.

Whatever his reasons, it meant he considered her important, and that made Adeline glad.

My little one, you truly are a blessing.

She rubbed her flat lower belly, which was so flat it was hard to believe a baby was growing inside, and talked to it at every opportunity. Spending her days that way, even the nights that passed without seeing him no longer left her as deeply melancholy as before.

Eating well, resting well, staying healthy and safe. Those were the only things on Adeline’s mind these days.

But that peace did not last very long. She had been perfectly fine right up until the day before, but today, the mere smell of food was enough to make her stomach turn.

“Urgh.”

At the surge of nausea, Mrs. Lien, who had been at Adeline’s side, quickly held out a shallow bowl.

“Ugh… hah…”

Tears gathered at the corners of Adeline’s eyes as she brought up the juice she had drunk that morning. Mrs. Lien took the bowl away and held out a glass of water, stroking her trembling back.

“This is perfectly normal when you are with child. It is hard, but please bear with it a little.”

“How long will this go on… I can bear the misery, but I can barely eat anything properly… I worry about the baby.”

“Do not worry about that ahead of time. Even mothers with worse morning sickness than yours go on to deliver healthy babies in the end.”

It usually settles down gradually around the fifth month of pregnancy. Let us try different things and find foods that sit a little easier on your stomach.

Mrs. Lien soothed her with those words.

The hands of Mrs. Lien, dabbing at the corners of Adeline’s mouth and eyes with a clean handkerchief, were truly gentle.