Supporting Characters Also Need Some Love

SPECIAL CHAPTER 24

Part 146

 

The long summer vacation came to an end when we returned to Midok after finishing the national wedding in the Cocone Kingdom. On the first day of fall, after working hard in his office where reports detailing the activities of the Inspection Department during the vacation period were piled up like a mountain, Damian returned to the Duke’s residence humming a tune.

 

In recognition of her contribution to discovering Viscount Cheros’s iron trafficking, Damian was today safely promoted to the rank of Third Class Magistrate. As soon as Adrian, who had barely escaped from being buried in a mountain of documents, returned, she had dinner with him and was boasting about her promotion.

 

“Ugh.”

 

Damian covered her mouth, put down her spoon, and took a bite away from her stew. Adrian jumped up, approached Damien with a worried face, and rubbed Damien’s back. He patted her and asked if she was okay.

 

“Um, it’s okay. But, isn’t this beef stew a bit spicy?”

 

Adrian, who had put his nose to the stew bowl in response to Damian’s question, glared at Ethan who was fidgeting behind him.

 

“How does he manage his food, making my wife cry about spoiled food?”

 

“Well, that can’t be possible…”

 

Ethan, with a frustrated face, took the bowl of stew and smelled it. It smelled perfectly fragrant. He picked up a spoon and tasted it. It was a delicious beef stew with a wine flavor on the tip of your tongue. Adrian, who has no sense of taste, would anyway say that Damian was strange if she said something was strange, and would say that it was delicious if she said something delicious, so his evaluation had no meaning, but Damian was different. He looked at Damian, who looked sorry for this embarrassment but was unable to hide her discomfort, and then he bowed his head politely.

 

“Sorry, ma’am. I’ll put something else.”

 

“I’m sorry, Ethan, today. I guess I just feel bad.”

 

Finally, Damian stopped eating and stood up. He tried to tell Adrian, who followed her as if it were a matter of course, to finish her meal, but it was no use. Ethan, who was looking perplexed at the Duke and Duchess leaving the restaurant without even getting a drink, called Jenny, the all-purpose problem solver for his wife. Jenny, who was called in, heard her situation, tasted the stew with her cautious face, and put down her spoon with a big smile on her face and said,

 

“Call a doctor, butler. Immediately.”

 

Ethan, who was shocked and wondering if they should even call a doctor, was asking Jenny questions before guessing the situation. Then he ran out of the dining hall with his arms raised high next to his ears.

 

* * *

 

The smell of the meat, which was always spicy, somehow felt fishy, so she skipped eating and ended up calling the doctor. Adrian’s face, which was already full of worry, became even more clouded as the doctor, who was said to be generous in other matters, always made too much of a fuss and didn’t know if he was expecting the deacon to come or if he wanted to laugh.

 

“Well, even though I said I was fine, I just felt nauseous for a moment, so I decided to grab a late-night snack a little while later.”

 

This was meant to reassure Adrian, but the doctor didn’t respond and examined me closely, even with cold sweat rolling down his forehead. Then he asked cautiously:

 

“Duchess, when was your last visitor?”

 

“Menstruation? Ah. That’s… huh?”

 

When was that? She had her last period in Homet’s estate, and then… She didn’t? What? What!? So, she, really?

 

She raised her head and looked at Jenny, who was standing behind the doctor. Jenny nodded happily with a face like an emperor who had unified the continent. The doctor, seeing her puzzled expression, thought he had given her a sufficient answer and did not ask any more questions.

 

“I will prepare some medicine that will help the lady tomorrow.”

 

And Adrian’s anxious voice caught the doctor as he turned around.

 

“Wait a minute, what do you mean by medicine? What happened to my wife?”

 

It was a slightly sharp question, but both the doctor and Jenny just looked at Adrian with happy faces. She stopped Adrian because she thought he was going to grab the innocent doctor by the collar.

 

“Ah, it’s me.”

 

“Yes Damian, where does it hurt?”

 

“I think there’s a baby.”

 

“Yes?”

 

Wow, her Ad’s eyes were really big. Behind Adrian, who was sitting next to her and not even breathing, Jenny and the doctor bowed their heads and quietly went out and closed the door. It’s been a while since she had seen Adrian this surprised. She was trying to reach him but couldn’t reach him and stopped in the air. She grabbed his hand and said,

 

“Ah, take a break, breathe.”

 

She tried to get up from the sofa where Adrian was sitting, but when his hand grabbed her, she sat down again. He washed her face dry with his left hand, stroked her neck, patted her head, and got very angry. His brilliant golden eyes were turning red, and his cheeks seemed to be slightly flushed. It was clear how excited he was from his completely red eyes. She wandered around for a while, not knowing what to do, and even the tips of his fingers, which he carefully stretched out over her stomach, were shaking and she ended up bursting out laughing. When she burst out laughing, Adrian also laughed as if he was holding his breath.

 

“Is there a baby here?”

 

“I guess so? Wow, that’s right. It’s amazing. I can’t believe it.”

 

It really didn’t feel real. She didn’t feel anything yet. The baby inside was just growing and her belly would be getting bigger, right?

 

‘When did you come, baby? I’m sorry I didn’t even know you were here.’

 

While she was still stroking her flat stomach and apologizing in her mind, Adrian spoke in a trembling voice.

 

“I’m so happy and a little scared.

 

“Is it that good?”

 

“Yes, I thought there was nothing more I could ask for than to be able to be by Damian’s side, and I’m so happy to think that Damian’s baby is with you.”

 

“I’m happy too.”

 

She spent the night in Adrian’s warm embrace and woke up feeling mysterious and happy. She realized that she was Bigor in Wonderland. Duke Bigor was literally in an uproar. And the chaos got worse throughout the pregnancy. 

 

‘Wow, it’s really like treating people like soap bubbles.’

 

The symptoms of morning sickness she picked up were scary, but she was able to eat well except for meat dishes with strong flavors. Nevertheless, the family doctor was very excited, buying various herbs to support the health of pregnant women and relieve morning sickness. And Jenny’s herbal research became more serious. Maybe it was just his herbal research, but Jenny smiled and followed her around. Although her baby was precious, she told her that she would continue to go to work as long as it did not put too much strain on her body, so Jenny was included in her work bag from the next day.

 

She was planning to go ahead with Jenny’s wedding, which was scheduled for the fall, but the wedding was postponed again after the bride herself jumped up and tried to stop her. She was already living a married life, so there was no need for a ceremony. 

 

‘Sir Franz, I’m sorry, I can’t beat Jenny.’

 

There was still nearly a year left until her birth, but three experienced midwives were immediately hired and the cheers in the support center disappeared. They may be surprised or something, but the entire Bigor Knights have entered into a silent practice. Moreover, the period of her pregnancy leading up to the birth of her baby was recorded as the period of the cleanest politics in Laurentian history. It was widely rumored that the Knights of Bigor would be dispatched when the inspection department’s administrators smelled corruption. No, actually, their knights roamed the country.

 

A report on the behavior of a baron who had become angry while reading a document was leaked to the Knights of Bigor by Jenny, and she saw the knights flocking to the baronial territory as if they were going to catch their parents’ enemies. After some time, they were able to see a rare scene where the baron, his face turning red, came to the castle gate with a written complaint accusing himself of his crimes and cried out for them to arrest him. Adrian also joined this wave of fuss. Participation was something like taking the lead, holding a flag and moving forward like a rhinoceros horn.

 

Adrian finally received the King’s seal on his resignation letter. With the post of Commander-in-Chief left vacant and a clause stating that he would immediately return in case of a military crisis requiring the raising of an entire army, ‘Blue Moon’ was reborn as the best peacekeeping organization on the continent.

 

Thanks to this, her pregnancy period was also recorded as the period when the international situation in the Southern Continent was the most peaceful. In addition to her father, older brother, and sister-in-law, who were jumping up and down with joy, she received congratulations and blessings from many people, and she received the utmost care, but it was not easy to embrace a life and send it out into the world. There were days when my body changed, it became difficult to move, and her mood fluctuated. She thought it would be better not to overdo it, so she took maternity leave a little early after the year changed. As her stomach swelled a lot, not only Jenny but also Adrian started accompanying her on her way to work, so it was an inevitable choice. They needed to make it easier for their finance department administrators to work more comfortably. She couldn’t bear to watch him jump up from his seat dozens of times a day thanks to the former commander-in-chief coming and going from his office, telling her to treat him like a person with no self-confidence.

 

Adrian, who became unemployed, has been looking for everything that was good for pregnant women. He has imported everything from strange items whose purpose he has no idea to fruits he has never seen before. When she asked him what this was, he said he prepared it because he thought she might want to eat it. 

 

‘No, you have to know what it is to want to eat it.’

 

She later found out that when the Empress of the Vito Empire was carrying her child, she was said to have eaten a fruit that was famous for being sweet. It wasn’t bad, but it was obvious that it would have been a hassle for many people, so she lied and said it wasn’t that good. Even after that, Adrian’s extraordinary challenges did not stop.

 

* * *

 

Another summer, after five hours of labor, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. It was said that the baby was in good condition for a first time child, but as the birth was imminent, Adrian’s father-in-law grabbed him by the collar and shook him after he was kicked out of the birth room, and Adrian cried, tears like chicken droppings.

 

‘Oh my god.’

 

When she heard from Jenny that the former commander-in-chief, Duke Bigor, was crying in the hallway, she was embarrassed, and she also told her that everyone in the hallway raised their fists and cried anyway. That’s how she became Irene’s mother. Irene, who was born with Adrian’s dark blue hair and the red-orange eyes that were the mark of the royal family, had her face set aside from her hair and the color of her eyes. As Irene grew older and her features became more defined, she went so far as to say that she looked like she had put a wig on her face when she was a child.

 

From her point of view, she was an absolutely adorable child, so the fact that everyone in the dukedom turned into fools was a painful story to tell. She was so worried that she would grow up to be a self-indulgent duke’s daughter because there were so many people who would fall down as soon as Irene took a breath. Fortunately, she grew up to be a well-mannered child who took after Adrian’s neat personality, but that was even more fatal. A little child with plump breasts and rosy cheeks who looked exactly like Damian said in a polite tone, “Hello, how are you, Sumika?” When she said hello, her father and brother’s legs relaxed, and when she said, “Thank you, thank you,” Ethan ran out, offering to wash his liver.

 

What could she say about Adrian and Jenny, who took charge of childcare on behalf of her while she was at work? Adrian, who had to attend regular aristocratic meetings as the Duke of Bigor, proudly carried Irene in his arms even at the royal palace. She spent time with Crown Prince Daryl, who was born two years before Irene, and waited for Adrian, who was in a meeting, and ended up losing the hearts of the Crown Prince and Mr. Gukseo.

 

Several years have passed, and Jenny was showing boldness these days by refusing invitations to Irene at the palace. She said her daughter was busy, so if they wanted to meet her, please come in person. After that, she received few invitations, but one day, the King called her to the palace for the first time in a long time.

 

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Translator Note: