Could that somehow work?

That night, however, Lydia had a nightmare. She dreamed her daughter, who looked exactly like her, brought home an illegitimate son who resembled Richard, penniless and carrying a secret that could cost him his life if discovered.

Worse yet, the man had a childhood friend with red hair.

Good heavens, how awful! Lydia bolted upright in bed and gulped down cold water. It was a night when the unpredictable future became slightly, just slightly more frightening.

* * *

“She ate her meals well and had her snacks too. There’s been no bleeding since that day, and the doctor visited and said both Her Highness and the baby are perfectly healthy.”

Anna kept reminding herself that Arsen was the grand duke. Otherwise, she felt she might snap at him for asking the same questions multiple times a day.

“I understand. You may go.”

Since Lydia found his constant inquiries about her health annoying, Arsen had changed tactics and was now pestering Anna instead.

“You’re being excessive.”

Kedrick, who had come to fetch Arsen, who showed no signs of leaving Lydia’s bedroom, shook his head.

“People are teasing that the Grand Duke is henpecked.”

“What?”

Don’t like being called henpecked, do you? Kedrick was about to tease that he would start calling Arsen henpecked if he continued his excessive worrying…

“Don’t let my wife hear that. She might suggest separate bedrooms again.”

This teasing would be pointless. Kedrick let out a weary sigh.

Come to think of it, he had forgotten about the bedroom incident. When they moved from the borderlands to Count Wonde’s territory, Lydia and Arsen had started using separate bedrooms.

While they had shared a room at the Edis mansion because there weren’t many rooms, Count Wonde’s mansion had plenty, making it unnecessary to share. Nobles didn’t typically share bedrooms; that was for commoners.

However, Arsen strongly opposed having separate rooms.

He lived in the Grand Duchess’s room as if he had no room of his own, and eventually Lydia threw up her hands in surrender, and they ended up sharing a bedroom. Until then, Kedrick had dismissed it as them still being newlyweds.

But Arsen grew increasingly excessive, and his fussing reached its peak when Lydia became pregnant. When they had lived huddled together in the borderlands, Arsen’s behavior hadn’t mattered, but now he was a grand duke!

There should be dignity and decorum, but in front of Lydia, Arsen was nothing more than a doting husband.

“At this point, it’s an illness, an illness. Have you heard of excessive jealousy?”

“A husband worrying about his pregnant wife’s health is excessive jealousy?”

“You should worry in moderation.”

Once again, it was a rebuke for being excessive. Arsen knew it. He sometimes felt he was being too much. But he had his reasons. He was truly afraid.

Just thinking about how Lydia had nearly died from poison meant for the empress, which she had drunk to avoid suspicion, still made his heart race. He regularly dreamed of Lydia lying pale in bed.

On such days, his heart would sink if Lydia so much as coughed a few times. Ironically, Lydia, who had nearly died, didn’t seem concerned, making Arsen appear to be an overly anxious husband.

“While we’re on the subject, send some donations to the temple. Tell them to pray for the Grand Duchess.”

But what did it matter? As long as Lydia remained healthy, he could endure any amount of criticism.

As Arsen continued to worry daily, the day finally arrived.

* * *

Perhaps thanks to the instruction not to trouble his mother and to be born all at once, Lydia gave birth quickly despite it being her first child.

It was a son who looked exactly like Lydia, with curly pink hair and lake-blue eyes.

“Ian Bayern.”

Arsen gazed tenderly at his son, who had inherited his old name. He was even more lovable for resembling Lydia.

“You must be relieved of one worry now, Arsen.”

Watching Arsen smiling contentedly at Ian, Lydia suddenly giggled and spoke.

“If Ian had been a daughter, your brow would never have relaxed, right? Worrying about suitors who hadn’t even appeared yet.”

“That was just a joke.”

Lydia teased him so much that he claimed it was a joke, but Arsen had actually been serious.

He had been practicing his swordsmanship diligently before Ian’s birth. It was to maintain his skills in case a daughter was born and needed her father to thrash some worthless man who made her cry.

But since a son was born, he planned to reduce his sword practice.

However, life is unpredictable. The following year, Arsen dreamed of a black wolf, and the year after that, he had a daughter who looked exactly like him.

In the end, he increased his sword training hours.

* * *

Time flowed like water. The land that had been divided between the borderlands and Count Wonde’s territory was now fully integrated as the grand duchy. The borderlands were called the eastern region, and Count Wonde’s territory the western region, with the population growing daily. The mana stone mine still operated secretly, and Robert, who had been instrumental in developing the mine, passed away peacefully.

Developing the port, building schools, laying roads—the grand duchy developed day by day. As a result, Arsen was incredibly busy. He eventually passed the position of commander of the Black Wolf Knight Order to Kedrick, but he didn’t neglect his sword training.

He had a rabbit-like wife and son to protect, as well as a wolf cub-like daughter.

“Did you run away from class again? I’ve told you so many times not to do that, Ian Bayern.”

“But it’s so boring!”

Thirteen-year-old Ian looked more and more like a carbon copy of Lydia as he grew. Though his build took after Arsen, making him much larger than his peers, his fluffy pink hair and bright blue eyes made him look incredibly youthful.

Since Ian’s face probably looked exactly like Lydia’s when she was young, Arsen couldn’t be strict with him.

But Ian didn’t need strictness. His temperament had been gentle from birth, and he was so good-natured that he would just laugh even if someone took away his snack.

However, even Ian had a flaw—he couldn’t focus on anything. For such an Ian, lessons that required sitting still were like poison.

“Learning to endure boredom is also a lesson.”

“But……”

“Your mother gets upset when you keep doing this.”

Ian pushed out his lips and hung his head. Though Arsen felt sorry for him, he steeled himself and didn’t comfort him.

In reality, Lydia was very upset that Ian was scattered like her.

After admonishing Ian, Arsen looked at his daughter standing next to her brother with her hands raised in the same manner.

“Idis Bayern.”

She was a daughter who looked exactly like Arsen. When he met her jet-black hair and red eyes, Arsen felt strange. He had never imagined he could love a face that resembled his own so much.

“Why did you try to catch a wild boar?”

And he had never expected his daughter who resembled him would have such an aggressive personality. Neither Arsen nor Lydia had been such troublemakers, so it was a mystery whom Idis took after.

From a young age, she would climb any tree she saw and swing any stick she found. Not only that, but she would catch mice and snakes without any disgust and show them to Lydia, nearly making her faint a couple of times.

He had tried teaching her swordsmanship to drain her energy, but Idis became even more unruly, and today she had secretly followed Kedrick on a wild boar hunt, only to be caught and brought back.

“You’re still too young to go hunting, as your father has told you many times.”

“I’m not young, Father.”

At eleven, she was young, quite young indeed. Looking at her eyes that showed not an ounce of remorse, Arsen heaved a deep sigh.

At least she doesn’t hit her brother, so that’s something to be grateful for.

“Both of you can put your hands down now.”

Though they had done wrong, seeing them sitting with their hands raised side by side filled him with overwhelming tenderness. These days, he truly understood the meaning of the saying that a child is so precious you could put them in your eye and not feel pain.

“Go back to your rooms before your mother comes.”

No sooner had Arsen finished speaking than the two siblings grinned and ran off to their respective rooms. Watching their adorable retreating figures, Arsen burst into laughter.

‘When Lydia comes, she’ll scold me for being too soft.’

Speaking of which, where had Lydia gone after making the children stand in punishment? Just as Arsen was about to ask about Lydia’s whereabouts, she entered the room.

“Honey, again!”

As soon as she saw the children weren’t in the room, Lydia frowned.

“They showed sufficient remorse, so I sent them back.”

“Remorse? Maybe Ian, but Idis, that child?”

“……”

Arsen subtly avoided Lydia’s suspicious gaze. Lydia glared at him with narrowed eyes.

“I’m letting it slide just this once.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Your Highness.”

“Tsk, you’re getting too slick.”

As if saying she would let it go just this once, Lydia relaxed her gaze and handed Arsen a letter.

“It’s from the imperial family. They’re planning to select the crown prince through a competition and insist we attend.”

“We can’t refuse, I suppose.”

Arsen and Lydia had been living almost in seclusion in the grand duchy. The furthest they went outside the grand duchy was to the Evansi marquisate. They avoided setting foot near the capital, not wanting to get involved in complicated matters.

The imperial family had sent a couple of invitations, which they had politely declined, citing childbirth and demonic beast subjugation as excuses. Rumors in the capital said the grand duke lived like a mouse, afraid of offending the emperor, which wasn’t entirely untrue.