Pristin was momentarily caught off guard by Tanya’s intense anger, but soon bowed her head calmly.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
She needed to leave this place as quickly as possible. There was nothing good about being with Tanya. Just when Pristin was about to hasten her steps.
“Are you both plotting against me?”
A bewildering question came up. Pristin paused and stared at Tanya in a daze without realizing it.
Her eyes were blazing with anger.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know.”
Tanya snarled as she marched closer to Pristin. Pristin watched her with a start.
“That’s right. You insulted me. You didn’t participate in the auction till the end because you used His Majesty as bait.”
“Sorry, but I didn’t know the identity of that masked gentleman until His Majesty presented me with a gift.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?”
“Whether you believe it or not is the lady’s prerogative.”
Pristin narrowed her eyes slightly, her expression bordering on arrogance.
“Do I have to convince the lady?”
“Ha…”
“Even if the lady’s suspicions are correct, I see no reason to apologize.”
With that, Pristin turned around and strode away, heading back to the party hall. Tanya’s arrogant behavior was no longer surprising to her.
It was when Pristine nonchalantly headed towards the staircase leading to the party hall.
“Oh…!”
Someone suddenly grabbed Pristin’s shoulder strongly from behind. Tanya stood right behind her with a very fearsome expression when a frightened Pristin turned reflexively behind her. Pristin opened her eyes wide in surprise as if she had read a horror novel.
“Princess, what is this…!”
“Happy? Are you happy to make me so miserable!”
“Let go!”
“I won’t! You’ve made me so miserable… I wish you would just disappear!”
Tanya grabbed Pristin firmly and shook her violently, making it increasingly difficult for Pristin to maintain her balance while wearing high-heeled shoes. Pristin struggled to free herself from Tanya’s grip, and Christine desperately tried to help, but it wasn’t easy to separate the irrational Tanya.
The two of them wrestled back and forth, gradually moving toward the stairs.
“Why, why does the sudden lightning aristocrat get to take everything!”
And then, at one moment, Tanya unconsciously pushed Pristin down the stairs. Pristin’s body tilted helplessly down the stairs without even a chance to use her hands. Seeing this, Christine screamed in horror.
“Countess!”
Christine saw Pristin’s body falling and hugged her without hesitation.
After a while, with a loud sound, the two women’s bodies rolled down the stairs. After rolling on the stairs for a long time, they soon fell unconscious and drooped.
Only after seeing it did Tanya realize what she had done. Her face turned pensive.
“Ah…!”
Tanya regained her composure and recoiled, staring in horror at Brelin beside her. Brelin shook her head in surprise. It was a call to flee. There would be no witnesses anyway.
Tanya nodded, and she and Brelin quickly left the room. It was none of her business what had become of the two women who had tumbled down the stairs; dead or alive.
What mattered was whether anyone saw them now. In that sense, in the moment of her escape, Tanya decided that it wouldn’t be so bad if they died of a head injury.
“Ugh…”
And regrettably, Tanya’s wishes did not come true. Pristin soon came to her senses. The shock of rolling down the stairs seemed to briefly distract her. And her sister, Christine, made a great contribution to her opening her eyes safely.
“Christine…?”
It was because Christine rolled down the stairs holding Pristin in her arms. Thanks to that, Pristin’s body was barely impacted and was fine.
But… Christine had not yet come to her senses. Pristin shook Christine’s body, who had fallen unconscious, with a stunned expression.
“Christine, Christine!”
“Countess!”
Then she heard the sound of people coming from the other direction. The noise they made as they rolled down the stairs must have alerted them to the situation. The people who arrived around Pristin looked at the two at the bottom of the stairs and asked in surprise,
“What’s going on? There was a loud noise…!”
“P, Princess Gennant…”
Pristin described the situation with a shudder,
“Princess Gennant pushed me down the stairs, and we both fell down together.”
“Oh, my God, such a cruel thing!”
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, but my sister…!”
“My God, she’s lost her mind!”
“What are you doing, call a doctor right now!”
The stairs became noisy; and it was only when Pristin was holding on to her unconscious sister with an expression that seemed to be about to cry.
“What the hell is going on?”
A different voice interrupted from behind. Everyone there knew who was the master of this voice. Everyone hurried out of the way for Jerald, and Pristin faced Jerald with tears in her eyes.
“Your Majesty…!”
“Pristin, what the hell is going on?”
Jerald quickly approached her.
“Princess Gennant pushed me down the stairs.”
Pristin gritted her teeth and explained the situation,
“And my sister… she tried to protect me… she grabbed me and we rolled down the stairs together.”
“…Princess Gennant again.”
When Jerald discovered who was responsible, his eyes quickly turned vicious. But he quickly regained his composure and asked Pristin,
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, Your Majesty, I am fine,”
Pristin replied in a trembling voice.
“But my sister won’t open her eyes. Ah…”
“Calm down, Pristin.”
“The doctor is coming now, Countess.”
Someone watching from the side announced the news in a concerned voice, and true to their word, the doctor arrived on the scene very quickly. Pristin and Christine were quickly taken to a hospital room.
Pristin insisted that she was unharmed and would stay by her sister’s side, but to Jerald, she was just another patient who had fallen down the stairs with her. Jerald was stern, insisting that she couldn’t go anywhere until he heard from the doctor that everything was fine.
In the end, Pristin had to quietly undergo a checkup in the room next to Christine’s. However, Pristin still believed she was fine.
“I’m fine, right?”
Pristin asked, confident that she was, but something about the doctor’s expression when he heard her question made her feel uneasy. Jerald was the first to ask, concerned,
“Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no, Your Majesty.”
The doctor answered quickly, lest the emperor misunderstand, and Jerald’s brow furrowed.
“Then why do you look so grave?”
“It’s not that…”
The doctor trailed off and bowed his head toward Jerald. Jerald looked even more puzzled at the sight.
“Congratulations, Your Majesty.”
“…What are we congratulating?”
What followed was quite shocking.
“The countess is pregnant.”
Hearing those words, Pristin and Jerald were stunned for a moment, unable to say anything. They were dumbfounded, as if they had just heard a story that didn’t make sense.
It was only after a while that Pristin spoke up.
“…I’m pregnant?”
“Yes, Your Excellency,”
The doctor replied politely.
“But it’s very early, so be cautious, and even more careful.”
“I…”
Pristin asked in a trembling voice,
“You mean I’m having a baby?”
“Yes, you are, and congratulations.”
“I can’t believe it…”
The doctor reiterated that there was nothing wrong, but that the mother needed to rest for her health.
The doctor then left, leaving Pristin and Jerald alone in the hospital room. Pristin looked up at Jerald.
“Your Majesty…”
“…Really.”
Jerald still looked dazed.
“We’re really having a child?”
“Yes.”
Pristin smiled, and gingerly moved Jerald’s hand to her lower stomach. It was still too flat. You couldn’t tell there was anything growing inside. Pristin said in an excited voice,
“Your baby is growing in here.”
“Ah…”
Jerald’s realization seemed to sink in, and he pulled Pristin into a big hug. Pristin was a little surprised by the sudden hug, but she didn’t seem to mind and hugged him back.
“Thank you, Pristin. Really…”
“Are you happy, Your Majesty?”
“Of course. Can I even put it into words?”
Jerald’s voice even quivered a little with emotion.
“God knows how surprised and delighted I am right now.”
“Thank you for being happy.”
“Of course I am. Who wouldn’t?”
Jerald murmured, his voice dripping with joy,
“The woman I love is pregnant with my child.”
The words hit home for Pristin, too. She was carrying the child of the man she loved. The thought of it made her happy beyond measure. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
“Thank you, Pristin. I really appreciate it.”
“…Thank you, too, Your Majesty.”
Really, at this moment, there was nothing but gratitude. Pristin stayed in his arms for a long time, overcome with emotion. She was so ecstatic that this moment felt like a dream.
