I Will Raise this Baby as Another Man’s Child - Chapter 28
“If you teach me, I’ll do my best to learn.”
“Are you asking me to teach you?”
“What?”
Realizing a beat late that she had misunderstood, Hinael turned her head sharply. The sunlight felt even hotter, making her face flush, so she shaded her face with her hand.
She couldn’t let Lutz see her face, which was as red as it could get.
“You’ve got quite a lot of demands for someone who volunteered to be a hostage.”
“It’s a misunderstanding. I just made a mistake, but I don’t intend to ask anything of Your Highness.”
“Remember, only I can make demands.”
He chuckled softly. The heat that had just subsided flared up again.
The two reached the foot of the mountain and waited for the carriage.
After enduring the awkward silence for a while, a carriage approached. Lutz informed the subordinate acting as the coachman of their destination and opened the door.
“Get in.”
Afraid of being scolded for dawdling, Hinael quickly grabbed her dress and climbed in.
When the carriage started moving, silence fell again.
She stared at the wooden floor, trying not to notice Lutz sitting opposite her. She focused on the sound of the wheels rolling over the bumpy road.
But then, she heard a strange noise mixed in.
When she looked up, she saw Lutz with his eyes closed. He seemed peaceful, but his breathing was oddly unsteady.
Then she realized his breathing was heavier than hers.
He wasn’t moving more than she was, even though they were in the carriage together.
‘Why is he breathing so hard?’
It seemed he had exhausted himself searching for her all night. Moreover, he had recently been poisoned and hadn’t fully recovered.
She felt uneasy, thinking she had overworked someone who needed rest.
Hinael cautiously asked, staring at his heaving chest,
“You seem unwell. Shouldn’t we stop at a nearby inn so you can rest?”
“I sent the delegation ahead to find you. We need to join them quickly.”
“But you look so exhausted…”
Hinael leaned forward to check his complexion. Just as she was about to get a closer look at Lutz, he growled in a raspy voice that sounded like it was scratching his throat.
“Don’t make me worry and stay still.”
“What if you collapse again?”
It was when she was straining to see his face. He suddenly opened his eyes wide.
“S-Sorry. I’ll be quiet.”
The moment her clear eyes lost their direction under his fierce gaze, she noticed something bulging in the center.
Startled, she flinched, and for the first time, Lutz showed signs of agitation.
“What are you looking at?”
Even though she quickly looked away, he remained on guard.
However, his breathing became rougher, making it impossible to stay put.
Hinael moved, ready to be scolded.
She sat next to him and looked closely at his face.
“You really don’t look well.”
“Stay away. Don’t move…”
“Do you have a fever? Let me just touch your forehead.”
“I said don’t move! Ha… Damn it, whew…”
At first, it was a sigh, but later it seemed like he was wheezing. When she raised her arm to touch his forehead, he grabbed her wrist roughly.
“Ah!”
“Please stay still.”
“I just need to check if you have a fever.”
“Hinael.”
He called her name sternly and let go of her wrist. But Hinael couldn’t ignore him suffering because of her.
She needed to know his condition to inform the man driving the carriage so they could rest if necessary.
Determined to stay put, Lutz seemed to give up and closed his eyes again. His rough breathing continued to disturb her ears, and unwanted contact persisted.
Her clear eyes couldn’t resist staring between his legs.
At this point, it was hard not to think lewd thoughts.
‘No way… No matter how full of vigor he is, would he get excited in this situation?’
Although she didn’t know much about the male body, she had enough basic knowledge about male and female sexuality.
Of course, Hinael was different. She had even experienced pregnancy in her past life.
Recalling that Lutz’s condition was quite serious, she changed the subject.
“How did you find me?”
“You’re really persistent… I found this.”
He showed her a white ribbon.
When she tore off the ribbon from her negligee and dropped it, she had been half in doubt. She hoped he would find her, but she was skeptical about whether he could find it in the vast forest.
Seeing that her desperate wish had reached him, Hinael took the ribbon with a delighted face.
“I secretly dropped it hoping it would be a clue, and Your Highness really found it.”
“As soon as I found it, I thought it might be from your clothes. It did serve as a clue.”
Lutz didn’t mention the supernatural ability he had exhibited.
If he hadn’t heightened his animalistic sense of smell, he wouldn’t have been able to search in the first place. Dropping just one ribbon wouldn’t have been much help.
It might have been different if she had left clues along the way.
“And… how did you get into the room where I was locked? There was a lock.”
“All locks in this world can be opened. Don’t I have that much skill?”
“What would a prince need to pick a lock for? Anyway, I survived thanks to Your Highness. I’m really grateful.”
“I saved you because I would be in trouble otherwise.”
“I know that too. But still, thank you. Being in the same space as that man was like hell.”
Fearing she might cry if she talked more, Hinael stopped the conversation. Lutz also remained silent, perhaps finding the quiet preferable.
The tense muscles still didn’t relax, but she pretended not to notice.
She began to genuinely worry about him when she felt his breath getting hotter.
By the time they exited the rugged terrain of Smao and entered the border area, passing through a small city, it was already dark.
Though she was tired from the long journey, it was bearable. However, it was strange that Lutz, who could endure days on horseback, was struggling so much.
Eventually, he leaned his forehead against Hinael’s small shoulder, panting heavily.
Having been scolded for looking at his face earlier, she stared straight ahead and spoke.
“Your Highness, are you very tired?”
“Haa.”
“Your… Highness?”
Worried that something might happen, she reached out and touched his forehead.
“Huh! Your body… is so hot.”
He was even sweating coldly.
If she had known this, they should have stayed in that city for the night.
They couldn’t push on through the night.
She gently stroked Lutz’s hair and spoke softly.
“We should rest for today. If we go further, it’ll be bad.”
“Whew… That might be best.”
Just hearing him respond was reassuring.
Afraid he might faint again, she didn’t push him away and firmly supported him. Then she called out loudly to the carriage driver.
“His Highness is unwell, so we need to go to the nearest village!”
“May I check on him?”
“It’s fine, just keep going.”
Lutz’s sudden voice made the man focus solely on driving the carriage.
“Lean on me comfortably.”
She thought she heard a brief mocking sound, but the noise of the carriage was too loud to be sure.
She remained silent and sighed quietly. There was nothing she could do except to keep talking to him intermittently to wake his drowsy consciousness.
After running for quite some time, the man’s welcoming voice finally rang out loudly.
“Your Highness! We’ve reached a village!”
Even a small village was good enough. Just the thought of entering a place where people lived made her heart swell with hope.
Hinael wriggled with joy and looked up at Lutz.
“We’ve arrived at a village.”
“It’s fortunate that we arrived before I went mad. Or perhaps, it would have been better to leave you alone.”
He muttered words that she couldn’t understand.
She could fully sympathize with the feeling of going mad if they couldn’t find the village. But hearing him say it might have been better to leave her alone made her heart sink.
‘He must be very angry because of me.’
They could have safely reached Tubon with the delegation. They wouldn’t have had to wander through the forest or see unpleasant bloodshed because of her.
However, many things changed when Hinael disappeared.
Deviating from the original schedule, he even had to tell lies he didn’t need to. And those lies were to be reported to the Emperor.
He gave the embarrassing excuse that he was traveling with his wife to help her adjust to the unfamiliar land, which was enough to make anyone irritated.
Thinking of Lutz made her feel uneasy. The resolutions she made to fulfill her duties as a wife crumbled too easily.
Although her resolutions hadn’t changed, unexpected situations turned her into an incompetent being.
Suppressing her complicated feelings, Hinael covered Lutz’s head to prevent it from shaking too much.
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