Hope for the Future
Urgent footsteps rattled throughout the Marquis’. Feeling infuriated by Molitia’s pallid complexion while being in his arms, Raven began to shout urgently.
“Get a doctor!”
At the sudden bolt of lightning, the doctor sprinted in confusion. Since the Marquis’ couple had initially thought that they would be enjoying themselves at the party, the fully straightened clothes were somehow replaced by their own desperate feelings.
The doctor, who took a deep breath, slowly settled down next to the bed. While lying silently in a room with such little heat, she still looked rather pale.
There was a slight crack in the doctor’s face when she began the examination in various places. She promptly touched her medical kit before she soon had to let it go since it was nothing.
It was Raven who became frustrated by that apparently aesthetic behavior. It wasn’t even enough to rush her for treatment and the doctor who was in the office had just been tilting her head instead. He could no longer help but to raise the wrath that was surging right to his head.
“Why do you keep on tilting your head? You need to prescribe something or better yet, tell me any of the symptoms!”
“We-well, Duke…”
“If you don’t tell me quickly, I will hold you personally responsible for my wife’s ailment right now.”
The Duke was never a man who would speak recklessly. The contemplating doctor immediately bent her head downwards.
“I’m unsure if it would be fine for me to tell you this, but… congratulations.”
“Congratulations?”
Raven’s face immediately became distorted.
“Did you just congratulate me on my wife’s affliction right now?”
“Well, that is not what I’m trying to say.”
The startled doctor’s head was slowly sinking even deeper.
“I think the Duchess is expecting.”
“What…”
Bewildered—Raven couldn’t fathom what he actually looked like for that moment.
‘What is the doctor talking about?’
He felt like his head had just overloaded. He even wondered if there was a new medical term that he wasn’t aware of.
“Who, what?”
“In the beginning, it’s alarmingly easy for a baby to miscarry, but even though she had been bleeding, the child’s pulse is still picking up. I have to say that it’s just like a miracle.”
Raven looked devastated when the doctor was repeatedly reporting to him that he even had forgotten to get angry.
A child.
She was with their child. Raven immediately became emotional. When the tip of his nose eventually tingled, he turned his head without realizing it. He had never even thought about it. He didn’t think of having a child with that frail body of hers. No, he never even meant to. It was already a great miracle for him just to have her around.
Nevertheless, she was with a baby. She went through all these hardships with their child. When he realized that even this small body of hers was strong enough, on top of the fact that his child was growing as well, his irrevocable desperation had fluttered his heart even further.
“What the hell are you…”
He then carefully held Molitia’s hand. A tiny hand slowly met with a comparingly huge hand of his. Her fingertips that were as chilly as her pallid complexion had caused pain in his heart.
“What should I do with the treatment, then?”
“I will prescribe a medicine that won’t burden the baby at all. Since she has been bleeding already, she will become extremely sensitive, so you cannot help but to be careful with each and every part of her. But if you’re going to use this medicine…”
“If?”
Raven raised his eyebrows at the voice of the doctor who was taking another brief pause again. Oh—the weak doctor had no choice but to put everything that she had thought aside before informing it honestly.
“The Duchess is exceptionally frail that it might not be so easy for her.”
Raven’s lips were shut tight. He didn’t say anything for a long time.
Thump—the sound of burning firewood and the doctor’s liver shrivelled at once.
“Trauma. Will there be any problem with the treatment?”
“No. The trauma can be treated rather quickly.”
“For now, I won’t leave you if there were to be any defects in the treatment of the trauma itself.”
“Okay, I will do my absolute best.”
“Other drugs…”
Raven’s eyes fell upon Molitia. It appeared like he couldn’t make any decision just on his own.
“I’ll talk to you later.”
—————-
Molitia felt as if she was floating in the air.
She couldn’t feel anything—where it was, what time it had been. Her body seemed heavy like she was immersed in water but still, light as if she was on a cloud.
“You’re awake?”
When she lifted her eyelids, she could see him under the bright light. His appearance that seemed to have darkened a little somehow, looked rather unfamiliar to her.
“Ra…ven…?”
A hoarse voice flowed out from her small lips. For a moment, she became absent-minded from the cracking sound and a series of terrible incidents began surging into her mind.
As she jumped out of her seat in surprise, Raven quickly helped her out. He embraced her as her chest rushed up and down.
“You don’t have to worry. There’s no one who’d touch you anymore.”
Her breathing gradually stabilized at his tender touch. Her eyes, which had been moving unsteadily before, slowly died down as well.
‘There isn’t anymore.’
This wasn’t that nasty place. It wasn’t the place where not a single ray of light had come in and above all, no filthy person was next to it.
“Molitia!”
Her upper body then staggered with relief. Raven, who was utterly surprised, quickly caught her.
“…no, it’s fine. I was just relieved and started to feel a little dizzy for a moment.”
As she tried not to worry him, Molitia smiled softly. Then, she looked at the unfamiliar room once again and it seemed to be the Marquis’ mansion. Molitia, who turned her head slowly as if scouting the area around, proceeded to touch her own cheeks.
A cloth that was as big as her own swollen cheek had already been applied there. Judging from the stinging sensation, the cloth appeared to have been saturated with medicine.
“…what about the Marquis’ heir?”
Raven’s face turned glaringly fierce at Molitia’s word. For Raven, ‘Ferdinand’ was already branded as a disgusting name.
“For now, I’ve delivered that thing to Marquis Werner. I thought that I ought to give him at least that one last moment since it’s his son.”
What—for now?
When Molitia tilted her head, he soon replied with a face cold as ice.
“He’s a traitor. Even though it ended in failure, it is only fair to deal with the crime strictly. Maybe during the crack of dawn, we’ll have him evicted to the Imperial City.”
It was the natural result. Molitia felt no sympathy for him at all. He was a man who tried to humiliate her and even more so, deceived the Empire. It was absolutely clear that the price of the crime would never be that easy.
Raven gazed at Molitia, who was deep in thought, before he slowly opened his mouth.
“Don’t you have something else to let me know?”
“Something else to say?”
“Okay, how’d you even think of hiding it from me?”
“What do you mean?”
“…don’t you trust me?”
He thought that she could have told him herself. He wasn’t aware if he brought it upon himself. Raven then slowly parted his mouth along with a deep sigh.
“You’re not alone.”
“……what?”
“I mean the kid. Why would you even hide it from me?”
Molitia stopped breathing for a moment. A child? Did she really have a child in her stomach?
“You didn’t know…?”
“Well, no… I thought I might just have imagined it, but…”
Her trembling hands then slowly wrapped around her stomach. Her flat tummy indicated no signs of having a child inside at all.
Did she really have a child inside here?
“…do I really, really carry a child inside my stomach?”
Raven nodded at Molitia’s repeated questions. Upon hearing the definite answer, only then did Molitia shed a tear along her cheek. It was her own baby. All those worries from before were never lies.
Molitia, who was still crying with emotional tears, slowly breathed in. Then, a feeling was clearly remembered at the top of her head. When she recalled the cold sensation that flowed from her lower abdomen as it escaped her body, she quickly hugged her stomach.
“Raven, what should I do? I was bleeding!”
“I know. The doctor has long gone already.”
“What did she say? The child, is it fine?”
“Fortunately, she said that it’s all clear. The amount of bleeding wasn’t that immense that the child could be swept away.”
“I’m truly glad…”
She slowly heaved a sigh of relief. At the same time as she noticed, the worst situation of losing her child had almost unfolded. Her drooping eyes softly turned to her stomach.
‘It wasn’t an illusion at all.’
A sense of joy began to swarm as the worries had melted away. Her slim belly still felt rather difficult to be real. However, just by being aware of it, she felt that the pain which she suffered before was going away just like a lie.
Raven hesitated to tell the whole story since his wife appeared much happier than he had thought. Her tears were clearly those of the tears of joy.
Therefore, he became much more hesitant.
However, it was absolutely impossible to avoid talking about it forever. He then pressed his lips slightly before placing his hand on Molitia’s shoulder.
“I have something to say about the child as well.”
“What is it?”
“Molitia.”
Her bewildered purple eyes slowly turned towards Raven.
“Let’s give up on the child.”
“……what do you mean?”
She couldn’t understand those words. Molitia, who wasn’t able to comprehend what he meant, stared blankly.
“Give up on the child—is it suffering a bad condition?”
“No, that’s not true. I’m just worried about you. You’re already frail yourself and I don’t even know what kind of variables could happen if you’re going to have a child.”
“But the child…”
“It’s just that, still. I can’t even provide you the slightest medicine because of that child.”
“…Raven.”
“I can’t even guarantee that your fragile body could actually stand it.”
“I’m having a baby.”
“Molitia.”
Raven’s expression immediately hardened from her firm voice.
“It’s my child. Yours and mine.”
Her hand softly slid across her lower abdomen.
She was having a child.
Hope for the Future
Urgent footsteps rattled throughout the Marquis’. Feeling infuriated by Molitia’s pallid complexion while being in his arms, Raven began to shout urgently.
“Get a doctor!”
At the sudden bolt of lightning, the doctor sprinted in confusion. Since the Marquis’ couple had initially thought that they would be enjoying themselves at the party, the fully straightened clothes were somehow replaced by their own desperate feelings.
The doctor, who took a deep breath, slowly settled down next to the bed. While lying silently in a room with such little heat, she still looked rather pale.
There was a slight crack in the doctor’s face when she began the examination in various places. She promptly touched her medical kit before she soon had to let it go since it was nothing.
It was Raven who became frustrated by that apparently aesthetic behavior. It wasn’t even enough to rush her for treatment and the doctor who was in the office had just been tilting her head instead. He could no longer help but to raise the wrath that was surging right to his head.
“Why do you keep on tilting your head? You need to prescribe something or better yet, tell me any of the symptoms!”
“We-well, Duke…”
“If you don’t tell me quickly, I will hold you personally responsible for my wife’s ailment right now.”
The Duke was never a man who would speak recklessly. The contemplating doctor immediately bent her head downwards.
“I’m unsure if it would be fine for me to tell you this, but… congratulations.”
“Congratulations?”
Raven’s face immediately became distorted.
“Did you just congratulate me on my wife’s affliction right now?”
“Well, that is not what I’m trying to say.”
The startled doctor’s head was slowly sinking even deeper.
“I think the Duchess is expecting.”
“What…”
Bewildered—Raven couldn’t fathom what he actually looked like for that moment.
‘What is the doctor talking about?’
He felt like his head had just overloaded. He even wondered if there was a new medical term that he wasn’t aware of.
“Who, what?”
“In the beginning, it’s alarmingly easy for a baby to miscarry, but even though she had been bleeding, the child’s pulse is still picking up. I have to say that it’s just like a miracle.”
Raven looked devastated when the doctor was repeatedly reporting to him that he even had forgotten to get angry.
A child.
She was with their child. Raven immediately became emotional. When the tip of his nose eventually tingled, he turned his head without realizing it. He had never even thought about it. He didn’t think of having a child with that frail body of hers. No, he never even meant to. It was already a great miracle for him just to have her around.
Nevertheless, she was with a baby. She went through all these hardships with their child. When he realized that even this small body of hers was strong enough, on top of the fact that his child was growing as well, his irrevocable desperation had fluttered his heart even further.
“What the hell are you…”
He then carefully held Molitia’s hand. A tiny hand slowly met with a comparingly huge hand of his. Her fingertips that were as chilly as her pallid complexion had caused pain in his heart.
“What should I do with the treatment, then?”
“I will prescribe a medicine that won’t burden the baby at all. Since she has been bleeding already, she will become extremely sensitive, so you cannot help but to be careful with each and every part of her. But if you’re going to use this medicine…”
“If?”
Raven raised his eyebrows at the voice of the doctor who was taking another brief pause again. Oh—the weak doctor had no choice but to put everything that she had thought aside before informing it honestly.
“The Duchess is exceptionally frail that it might not be so easy for her.”
Raven’s lips were shut tight. He didn’t say anything for a long time.
Thump—the sound of burning firewood and the doctor’s liver shrivelled at once.
“Trauma. Will there be any problem with the treatment?”
“No. The trauma can be treated rather quickly.”
“For now, I won’t leave you if there were to be any defects in the treatment of the trauma itself.”
“Okay, I will do my absolute best.”
“Other drugs…”
Raven’s eyes fell upon Molitia. It appeared like he couldn’t make any decision just on his own.
“I’ll talk to you later.”
—————-
Molitia felt as if she was floating in the air.
She couldn’t feel anything—where it was, what time it had been. Her body seemed heavy like she was immersed in water but still, light as if she was on a cloud.
“You’re awake?”
When she lifted her eyelids, she could see him under the bright light. His appearance that seemed to have darkened a little somehow, looked rather unfamiliar to her.
“Ra…ven…?”
A hoarse voice flowed out from her small lips. For a moment, she became absent-minded from the cracking sound and a series of terrible incidents began surging into her mind.
As she jumped out of her seat in surprise, Raven quickly helped her out. He embraced her as her chest rushed up and down.
“You don’t have to worry. There’s no one who’d touch you anymore.”
Her breathing gradually stabilized at his tender touch. Her eyes, which had been moving unsteadily before, slowly died down as well.
‘There isn’t anymore.’
This wasn’t that nasty place. It wasn’t the place where not a single ray of light had come in and above all, no filthy person was next to it.
“Molitia!”
Her upper body then staggered with relief. Raven, who was utterly surprised, quickly caught her.
“…no, it’s fine. I was just relieved and started to feel a little dizzy for a moment.”
As she tried not to worry him, Molitia smiled softly. Then, she looked at the unfamiliar room once again and it seemed to be the Marquis’ mansion. Molitia, who turned her head slowly as if scouting the area around, proceeded to touch her own cheeks.
A cloth that was as big as her own swollen cheek had already been applied there. Judging from the stinging sensation, the cloth appeared to have been saturated with medicine.
“…what about the Marquis’ heir?”
Raven’s face turned glaringly fierce at Molitia’s word. For Raven, ‘Ferdinand’ was already branded as a disgusting name.
“For now, I’ve delivered that thing to Marquis Werner. I thought that I ought to give him at least that one last moment since it’s his son.”
What—for now?
When Molitia tilted her head, he soon replied with a face cold as ice.
“He’s a traitor. Even though it ended in failure, it is only fair to deal with the crime strictly. Maybe during the crack of dawn, we’ll have him evicted to the Imperial City.”
It was the natural result. Molitia felt no sympathy for him at all. He was a man who tried to humiliate her and even more so, deceived the Empire. It was absolutely clear that the price of the crime would never be that easy.
Raven gazed at Molitia, who was deep in thought, before he slowly opened his mouth.
“Don’t you have something else to let me know?”
“Something else to say?”
“Okay, how’d you even think of hiding it from me?”
“What do you mean?”
“…don’t you trust me?”
He thought that she could have told him herself. He wasn’t aware if he brought it upon himself. Raven then slowly parted his mouth along with a deep sigh.
“You’re not alone.”
“……what?”
“I mean the kid. Why would you even hide it from me?”
Molitia stopped breathing for a moment. A child? Did she really have a child in her stomach?
“You didn’t know…?”
“Well, no… I thought I might just have imagined it, but…”
Her trembling hands then slowly wrapped around her stomach. Her flat tummy indicated no signs of having a child inside at all.
Did she really have a child inside here?
“…do I really, really carry a child inside my stomach?”
Raven nodded at Molitia’s repeated questions. Upon hearing the definite answer, only then did Molitia shed a tear along her cheek. It was her own baby. All those worries from before were never lies.
Molitia, who was still crying with emotional tears, slowly breathed in. Then, a feeling was clearly remembered at the top of her head. When she recalled the cold sensation that flowed from her lower abdomen as it escaped her body, she quickly hugged her stomach.
“Raven, what should I do? I was bleeding!”
“I know. The doctor has long gone already.”
“What did she say? The child, is it fine?”
“Fortunately, she said that it’s all clear. The amount of bleeding wasn’t that immense that the child could be swept away.”
“I’m truly glad…”
She slowly heaved a sigh of relief. At the same time as she noticed, the worst situation of losing her child had almost unfolded. Her drooping eyes softly turned to her stomach.
‘It wasn’t an illusion at all.’
A sense of joy began to swarm as the worries had melted away. Her slim belly still felt rather difficult to be real. However, just by being aware of it, she felt that the pain which she suffered before was going away just like a lie.
Raven hesitated to tell the whole story since his wife appeared much happier than he had thought. Her tears were clearly those of the tears of joy.
Therefore, he became much more hesitant.
However, it was absolutely impossible to avoid talking about it forever. He then pressed his lips slightly before placing his hand on Molitia’s shoulder.
“I have something to say about the child as well.”
“What is it?”
“Molitia.”
Her bewildered purple eyes slowly turned towards Raven.
“Let’s give up on the child.”
“……what do you mean?”
She couldn’t understand those words. Molitia, who wasn’t able to comprehend what he meant, stared blankly.
“Give up on the child—is it suffering a bad condition?”
“No, that’s not true. I’m just worried about you. You’re already frail yourself and I don’t even know what kind of variables could happen if you’re going to have a child.”
“But the child…”
“It’s just that, still. I can’t even provide you the slightest medicine because of that child.”
“…Raven.”
“I can’t even guarantee that your fragile body could actually stand it.”
“I’m having a baby.”
“Molitia.”
Raven’s expression immediately hardened from her firm voice.
“It’s my child. Yours and mine.”
Her hand softly slid across her lower abdomen.
She was having a child.
