Chapter 35
By the time the two had come back home, it was already dinnertime.
In order to hide her morning sickness, Elisha decided to have her dinner inside her bedroom.
“Then I will bring you your meal, madam.”
After Anne had helped Elisha change her clothes, she left the room with steady, measured steps.
It was only after she was left alone in her room that Elisha put her hand on her still flat stomach with an uneasy face.
She had really tried to avoid her fate, but in the end, everything was still following the course of the original story.
‘Will this child be Hannes?’
In the original story, Hannes was a child who was unable to receive love from anyone.
His mother, the original Elisha, had only sought after her husband’s love and had neglected him while his father, Richard, had hated him even when he was still inside Elisha’s womb.
To top it all off, Richard had even tried to abort the unborn Hannes.
Because of his affectionless childhood, Hannes had become the sub-male lead who loved the female lead in a twisted way. He kidnapped the female lead, imprisoned her, and craved for her love.
‘……I’m not going to raise him like that.’
But Richard didn’t want a child.
No, he didn’t just not want a child, he was probably going to avoid the child with all his might.
Because the child was someone that would ruin his “ultimate goal.”
So far, Elisha had helped Richard at his side, but that had been for her own safety, not because she wanted in on his plan for revenge.
Elisha hoped that someday, Richard would find someone, not by Albert’s will but his own will, and live a happy life with his family. And not throw himself into his revenge.
But the day after Albert’s funeral, Elisha had accidentally overheard a conversation between Richard and Aaron.
‘Although I only served Sir Albert, I always hope, with a small part of my heart, that the young master will be able to marry and find a family of his own. Not because it was Sir Albert’s will, but according to your own will.’
‘……’
‘Or, is there a different woman that you hold in your heart? If it’s for that reason, I think it’ll be fine to break the engagement……’
‘……His Excellency had a very faithful servant. I say this because you still have your henchman that wishes to follow your will, even after your death.’
‘……’
‘I’m never going to live according to your wishes. In my life, there will be no child.’
Elisha recollected her hateful feelings and recalled the words that Richard had spat out, word for word.
‘Richard will never give up on his revenge.’
The happiness that one should have with one’s child was something that only Elisha wanted.
She wouldn’t be able to convince Richard to give up on his revenge.
‘For the sake of Richard and for this child, it would be better if neither of them knew of each other’s existence.’
In her past life, Elisha had grown up in a very troubled family.
Her father would beat her mother day in and day out, and her mother would constantly tell her that ‘she was enduring all this for her’ and would blame her miserable life on Elisha.
Elisha, who had seen those kinds of parents growing up, decided on one thing. That if it was going to be a troublesome life, it wasn’t necessary to live as a family of three.
“My child, I’m still a clumsy mother, but I will do whatever it takes to make sure you have a happy life.”
Elisha whispered as she caressed her still-flat stomach. Then she took out a piece of paper and a quill.
[Dear Ansel,]
This was the first step to her divorce.
In his dreams, Richard was walking through a field completely covered in white snow.
In that snowy field, there was nothing except for his footprints that were being imprinted into the snow.
Richard didn’t know where he was or why he was there, but he kept moving forward. He didn’t know why, but he felt that he had to keep going.
And he kept walking aimlessly.
‘……Is that a wolf?’
After he had walked for an indefinite amount of time, he came across a wolf pup huddled under a boulder.
In this vast, lifeless, wilderness, he couldn’t find the wolf’s parents.
He felt pity for the white ball of fluff that was left alone.
‘I wonder if Elisha would like it if I brought it to her.’
Richard planned to bring the wolf to Elisha and he carefully reached out his hand.
But the baby wolf only stared up at him with cautious eyes and didn’t come toward him like before.
The two were still staring at each other when the wolf suddenly got up and came towards Richard.
Richard reached out his hand to pick the wolf up. But at that moment, the baby wolf suddenly bit Richard.
Surprised, Richard suddenly awoke from his dream.
“……What a strange dream.”
His bedroom was already filling up with the first lights of dawn.
Richard got up from his bed and got ready to leave and start his day. And before he left, he stopped by Elisha’s room.
Because it was still before the sun rose, Elisha was in deep sleep.
Richard held his breath and quietly sat down next to her.
‘Because of the prolonged journey, her body was just weakened, so you don’t have to worry too much.’
The family doctor had said that there was nothing wrong with Elisha after the examination.
But he couldn’t stop worrying. Recently, Richard noticed that Elisha had gotten a lot thinner. Her condition was so bad that if someone touched her the wrong way, he felt like she would break, and if the wind blew, he felt like she would be blown away.
In the days after they had arrived, Richard hadn’t been able to see Elisha’s face properly.
Every morning, he had left early to scout out the person who had caused the demon stone incident, and by the time he returned home in the evenings, Elisha had already laid down to sleep.
‘When this is all over, I’m going to take care of her myself.’
He was going to feed her good things for her body and go take a walk together in the suburbs to get some fresh air.
‘In order to do all that, I have to finish this all up quickly.’
Richard looked at the sleeping Elisha’s face with affectionate eyes and kissed her forehead softly. Then he got up and put on his leather gloves.
Whether it was for monsters or for people, he wore his leather gloves when he was going to take care of something.
As Richard left the room, his eyes looked very different from when he looked at Elisha and one could see the coldness that was settling down in them.
Elisha, who had grown increasingly tired, woke up from her nap and went to the duke’s library.
She wanted to find out more information on pregnancy and childbirth.
The duke’s library wasn’t as big as the castle’s library, but there were still a lot of diverse books in there.
“I found it.”
She had been scouring over her book list, and when she went deeper into the library, she finally found what she had been looking for. But the book was quite some distance above her head.
Elisha stood on her tippy-toes and stretched out her hands towards the book.
But a surprised Anne grabbed her suddenly.
“I’ll take it out for you!”
However, Anne was a pretty similar height to Elisha, and she also struggled to reach the book on her tippy-toes. Eventually, she gave up and got a ladder to take out the book.
When Elisha saw Anne reluctantly give in and bring a ladder, she couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
After she had found out that Elisha was pregnant, Anne hadn’t left Elisha’s side and pretty much did everything for Elisha.
Even a personal knight wouldn’t be as reliable as Anne.
“Thank you.”
“Do you have another book that you need, Madam?”
Elisha thought about it for a second and then decided to head a bit deeper into the library. This time, she was going to look for the bookshelf with the books about the family’s power.
‘Like Richard, Hannes inherited the family’s power.’
But Hannes, who had lost his parents early on in his life, didn’t have anyone to teach him how to use his ability, and had to learn how to use it by himself. In the process, he also got hurt quite a few times as well.
‘Richard must have been like that as well.’
Richard, who grew up alone, must have also taught himself how to use his ability through many trials and errors.
When Elisha thought about how lonely Richard must have been in his childhood, it only fueled her wish to teach and stay by her child’s side, who would have a similar situation to him in the future.
‘If I want to teach my child, then I have to study first.’
This divorce was a choice that would ensure the happiness of both Richard and Hannes.
Although she knew that she wouldn’t be able to replace the father’s role entirely, she wanted to ensure that her child wouldn’t be able to notice that empty spot in the family.
Elisha picked a book called [About the family’s power] from the shelf.
For some reason, Anne thought that Elisha was overexerting herself and hurried over to take the book from Elisha.
“Let’s go back now.”
Elisha returned back to her room and opened the book about the family’s power first.
As she opened the book, a thin layer of pale dust flew into her face.
“Ugh…… .”
Elisha waved her hand in the air to chase away the dust, and when it was finally gone, she started to actually read the book.
[There were four families that contributed to the founding of the Arensia Empire.
There were the fiery Cairots, who controlled fire, the stormy Rubelins who controlled the atmosphere and the wind, the green Asters who controlled the Earth, and the life-sustaining Serriots who controlled the oceans.]
Elisha tilted her in puzzlement after she read the first paragraph of the introduction of the book.
‘Where were the Aster and Serriot families located again……?’
The Cairots were the imperial family and the Rubelins were the family that she was in right now, so she couldn’t not know where these families were located.
However, although she heard of the Asters and the Serriots, she couldn’t really remember anything about them.
After thinking about it for a bit, Elisha turned the page to find out the answer.
[The green Asters.
They have all the memories of the land and have the ability to predict the future.
However, as time went on, their powers grew fainter and fainter, and they eventually faded away from existence.
It is said that the first head of the truth-seeking Asters, Lalidin Aster, went into the center of the continent and became the world tree.]
When she read the explanation, she suddenly recalled the things that she learned about this world when she was younger.
‘He made a strong impression in people’s memories for a long time because people were amazed that a person could turn into the world tree.’
Elisha turned the page.
[The life-sustaining Serriots.
They had received holy power from the gods and were able to control water, and they had the power of purification.
The first head of the Serriots, Arien Serriot, was said to also have healing powers, although all of her descendants only had purification powers.
Arien Serriot sealed the infected land and poured all of her holy power into making the purification lake before she disappeared.]
It was only then that she also remembered about the Serriots.
The Serriots had received their holy power from the gods and had raised popes, who acted as a messenger for the gods, for many generations.
‘But the Serriots faded away from existence about twenty years ago.’
She heard that after the current pope, their subordinate would receive the position as pope.
‘Well, the Asters and the Serriots are both irrelevant to me, so let’s pass over them.’
Elisha flipped through the pages to find the chapter talking about the Rubelin’s ability.
She was still focused on finding that chapter when a knock resounded at her door.