Chapter 5.

Could I really be pregnant……?

“Pfft!”

“Miss? What’s wrong?”

“Puhahahahaha! Impossible. Really? Really? Are you joking? I can’t do that alone! Ah, I’m going crazy. Hahahahahahaha!”

When Shuvien suddenly grabbed the sink and started laughing like a madwoman, the maid beside her turned pale. Regardless, Shuvien couldn’t stop laughing.

“I mean, I’m not a hermaphrodite. And it’s not like storks deliver babies. No matter how I think about it, such nonsense—hahahahaha!”

“M-Miss. You seem quite ill. I’ll… I’ll bring someone!”

Left alone, Shuvien mocked herself.

“Yes. The symptoms are similar to pregnancy. No. I’m just connecting dots because I’ve been thinking about pregnancy so much.”

The reason she’d been eating so well lately was simply because the food was delicious.

Why did the Emperor only bring such tasty things?

Anyone would eat a lot of that food, right?

The recent fatigue was natural after eating well.

With less activity compared to food intake, anyone would feel sleepy.

Humans become lazy when they let their guard down.

“Still, having eaten hospital food for so long, I should diagnose properly. Eating, defecating, and sleeping all day! This is a complete health red flag!”

Besides, the most decisive factor was that the Emperor wasn’t there.

He was infertile!

“I need to stay alert. If I want to escape quickly someday, I need to be nimble. Should I exercise? What kind of exercise can I do in this world?”

But she still couldn’t go near the fragrances the maid had brought.

The nauseating smell kept rising again.

At that moment, the maid returned with the head maid.

The head maid examined Shuvien’s complexion and spoke.

“Are you alright, Miss? Should we bring a healer?”

“Rather than that, those fragrances seem spoiled.”

“That’s impossible! We just brought in the highest quality ones!”

“No. They’re spoiled. Refund them immediately. No, complain… I mean, go and confront them. Tell them they’re spoiled. They sold bad products!”

The maid took the fragrances and quickly disappeared with a puzzled expression.

“You seem quite unwell.”

At the head maid’s concern, Shuvien forced a smile.

“No. I’m fine. I’m fine now. But perhaps……”

“Yes?”

“Perhaps, perhaps.”

As Shuvien continued to hesitate, the head maid calmly prompted her.

“Yes, Miss. Please speak.”

“In this place, I wonder if healers. That, that… pre-preg-nancy… um……”

The head maid asked in response to her increasingly timid voice.

“Pardon? What about healers? Should I call one after all?”

“No, nothing. Hahaha! I’m just a bit tired. I want to rest.”

“But……”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m just tired.”

After barely managing to send away the suspicious head maid, Shuvien fell into contemplation.

“It’s a bit. A veeeery slight bit concerning. But it feels awkward to ask directly.”

In truth, trying to dismiss all symptoms as coincidence, what kept bothering her was the absence of her period since the one-night stand.

It seemed like more than a month had passed.

“Even if I’m in a book, I’m still a woman. So I should have periods.”

I need to find a way to secretly confirm the pregnancy.

I’ll feel at ease only after confirming it’s definitely not the case.

This was also an occupational habit.

Wanting to be absolutely certain whether everything was really fine, even though it surely would be.

‘If I had known this would happen, I would have paid more attention in gynecology class.’

That night, Shuvien made a very thorough plan.

“Please, I’m begging you. Hmm? I’ll soon go to the imperial palace, and look at this. Don’t you think my skin looks too dry? The entire Empire will watch the wedding. They’ll even make a portrait! Should I leave such a mess of skin for posterity? Sob! I can’t do it. That’s too cruel!”

“Of course! It’s definitely a problem. But Miss, secretly visiting a healer? I should go instead……”

“You need to help me distract the guards. Don’t worry. I’ll be back quickly. Please. Hmm? It’s my wish. Hmm?”

Shuvien was pleading with the maid.

Her excuse was visiting a healer for medicine good for her skin.

For that, she needed to divert the eyes of the Emperor’s imperial guards who were guarding—no, monitoring her—at the house.

“If we’re caught, it’s over. The future Empress seeking medicine because her skin is a mess. It’s too embarrassing! So, please. Hmm? Just help me this once. Hmm?”

The maid agonized greatly but after staring at Shuvien’s face, she nodded solemnly.

“Your skin is… a bit dry. That’s right. The future Empress’s skin can’t be like that. I’ll risk my life to help you!”

She felt somewhat deflated by that solemnity.

She had used skin as an excuse, but…

‘Wait, this is my original skin……?’

“But Miss, you seem different from before.”

“Hmm? How so?”

“I didn’t expect you to become so proactive. Actually, after the arranged marriage was set, you kept crying saying you were scared.”

“What changes by crying? I only waste the energy I worked hard to build up by eating. Since things have come to this, I need to charge in first……”

“Pardon?”

“Ah, no. I meant I should accept it with a humble attitude. Hahahahaha!”

The original Shuvien in the novel was the epitome of timidity, unable to say a word against Count Mondri’s gaslighting.

She left without being able to say a word about the injustice until the moment of her death.

The gap between that Shuvien and herself, who had experienced all sorts of trials through surgical residency, was inevitable.

‘Still, I should restrain myself. I should try playing the elegant lady once.’

Thus, with the maid’s help, Shuvien concealed herself in a black robe and successfully escaped the mansion.

***

She wondered what medicine was like here. At most, healers treated with medicines based on folk remedies without accurate diagnosis of illnesses.

‘This might cure simple diseases, but anything beyond that would be difficult.’

Still, they said healers could determine pregnancy.

To avoid rumors, she sought out a back-alley healer the maid had told her about.

In the eerie atmosphere, an old healer who matched the atmosphere perfectly greeted her.

‘This feels like an illegal transaction from a movie.’

As an action noir enthusiast, she felt like a fan meeting her idol.

The old healer seemed to have guessed the circumstances of the lady hiding her identity without even removing her robe.

“What brings you here?”

“I want to confirm a pregnancy.”

“Need to check secretly, I suppose?”

Shuvien hid her nervous appearance and put on an intimidating air like she’d seen in some noir film.

Thud-!

“You’ll need to keep your mouth shut as heavy as this money.”

“How much money is it……”

Gripping the healer’s hand that was trying to check the amount, Shuvien acted out an even more brutal noir scene.

“If this gets out, just as nothing in this world is free, I’ll collect the proper price for your life.”

“So exactly how much……”

“Hey! I put in enough. So, hurry up!”

It was exactly just enough not to be disappointing.

A little later, Shuvien staggered out of the clinic, forgetting to cover her face.

With her mind in chaos, she bumped hard into a man wearing a robe without even looking at him.

But with her mind in shambles, she only moved her lips without looking at the other person.

“I’m sorry. I can’t see anything right now……”

As she walked away in a daze, the man she bumped into hesitated and immediately whispered.

“Shuvien?”

At the end of the soft voice, the man removed his robe.

Through flowing brown hair, confusion flashed in gentle red eyes that matched his soft voice.

“Why are you in a place like this……”

***

When Shuvien returned to the house, the maid came running with a bright smile.

“Miss! Did you get the medicine? Is it something you just apply? Or do you need to eat it? This time you really must prioritize your skin! Our Miss will become extremely beautiful, receive abundant favor from His Majesty the Emperor, and quickly produce an heir……”

Lost in thought, Shuvien flinched at the mention of producing an heir and dashed into the bedroom.

Thud-!

“Huh? Miss? Miss! Ah, you must be feeling shy. Anyway Miss, don’t worry because no one discovered us!”

After the maid’s voice disappeared and Shuvien was completely alone in the bedroom, she finally let out her suppressed scream.

“……He said he was infertile. But why. Why on earth. WHY! How could it happen in just one time!”

‘Am I really pregnant!’

What she had seen in dramas.

She never expected to hear ‘Congratulations! You’re pregnant!’ here and now.

Shuvien looked at her stomach with an expression that the word “despair” was woefully inadequate to describe.

“To think Teunsil is really growing inside here! Is this even possible? Why on earth?!”

How far could things go wrong from just one one-night stand!

Was this a side effect of trying to forcibly change the original story?

But she couldn’t just wait quietly and die!

Yet while trying to avoid the death flag, she had confirmed it instead!

“No, then. What was that about? He said he couldn’t have children. Does that mean he wasn’t infertile?”

The child in her womb was definitely the Emperor’s.

Like reaching for stars by looking at the sky, the Emperor was the only man she had built the Great Wall with.

“Then isn’t this good? He thought he was infertile, but he wasn’t. I’m really carrying the heir.”

But at that moment, his voice flashed through her mind like lightning.

‘If the child in your womb had really been mine, you and that child would already be dead.’

Though it was just a thought, she felt her hair standing on end.

“Right. I shouldn’t forget that. It really felt like crossing the River Jordan with my eyes open.”

Then, perhaps he doesn’t want the child?

But he said he needed an heir.

Wasn’t he looking for a pregnant woman, even deceiving the world, because he wanted a child?

Why wouldn’t his own bloodline be acceptable?

“Why do I have to be in such a melodrama?”

Becoming a question mark murderer alone wouldn’t solve anything.

“Let’s meet. Yes, let’s meet and confront this properly.”

But it’s not like he’s someone easy to meet just because I want to.

He’s not someone who would come just because I summon him.

And I can’t sneak out like today and go to the imperial palace.

“How can I meet him?”

But contrary to her worries, it was easier than finding a healer.

Yes, for her specifically, he was truly an easy existence.

***

The next day, Bellian stood right before Shuvien.

He leaned against the wall, standing solemnly, but his eyes clearly showed he had waited eagerly.

At last, his deep voice resonated with authority.

“So. You wanted to see me? You missed me terribly? You said you wanted me, is that right?”

“……Pardon?”

She hadn’t said anything like that.

She just sent a simple request to meet……?

“Now, tell me why you wanted to see me so desperately.”

Somehow seeing not just a tail, but the particularly frisky tail of a Sigorjab¹country mutt breed in Korea breed from him—was that just her eyes going crazy?