* * *
It was after having a dream that Juliet realized the existence of the baby.
“I saw Nix in my dream.”
“The baby dragon?”
“Yes.”
While the maids combed her hair, Juliet stroked the baby dragon, Onyx, sleeping on her lap.
He was soundly asleep, oblivious to the world around him.
“What kind of dream was it?”
“Just an ordinary dream.”
It was a dream where she was on a small boat on a peaceful lake, watching the fish.She might be mistaken, but Juliet felt she had a similar dream before. It was a dream where when she dipped her hand into the clear water, a beautiful fish swam away, wagging its tail.
The only difference was that there were two fish back then, but only one this time.
“…”
But this time, Nix appeared.
Suddenly, Juliet had an inexplicable intuition and asked her maid:
“…Josephine, what’s the date today?”
And then Juliet came to know that she was pregnant.
“Congratulations…!”
“Bless you!”
While everyone at the mansion rejoiced, Juliet was somewhat dazed.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy, but she was more composed than expected.
Not sure how to bring up the topic, she kept quiet and waited for Lennox to return.
‘He might not welcome it.’
Out of long-standing habit, Juliet always assumed the worst. Even as he lovingly cared for young Nix, he believed he couldn’t be a good parent.
So, she decided not to get disappointed, whatever his reaction might be.
Well, that was the plan.
‘…But isn’t this a bit too much?’
Juliet sighed, watching the man who never considered leaving her side.
“People will gossip.”
Duke Carlyle gently smiled and embraced his wife.
“If they had regrets about life, perhaps.”
Flustered by his shameless response, Juliet felt embarrassed even to see her doctor.
It was only after the doctor exclaimed, ‘You need some moderate exercise!’ that Lennox reluctantly allowed her to take a walk.
“Hello, Lord Halbery.”
“Good morning, Your Highness. Do you feel any discomfort?”
“No.”
Duke Carlyle called the doctors multiple times a day.
“It’s a relief you don’t have morning sickness.”
After her check-up, Juliet smiled at him.
“Isn’t it strange?”
“It’s not strange, it’s fortunate.”
He gently touched Juliet’s pale wrist. It was only the 8th week, so whether or not she had morning sickness was still uncertain.
“…”
Lennox remembered how difficult it had been for Juliet the last time she was pregnant.
Intellectually, he knew that the pesky curse had been broken when the snake disappeared. But when Juliet got pregnant, he became extremely cautious.
He often secretly checked on Juliet’s condition, even in the middle of the night.
“Overexerting yourself is bad. You understand, right?”
“Yes, I’ve been eating and sleeping well.”
The doctor emphasized the importance of eating well since she had anemia.
Thanks to this, the best and rarest ingredients were delivered to the Duke’s house daily, and joyful exclamations came from the kitchen.
Fortunately, Juliet ate even the foods she didn’t normally enjoy, which relieved him.
But Lennox had no idea what was happening to himself.
By lunchtime, a meal was prepared in the reception room.
“You need to eat for two. Even if you don’t feel like it, eat a little.”
Maid Josephine served the main dish after the appetizer. It was fresh seafood just caught from the coastal region.
“It’s ingredients that arrived this morning.”
Everyone marveled at the delicious-looking dish when the lid was lifted to reveal well-prepared lobsters. Everyone, except one.
“…”
Ugh.
Lennox frowned and soon felt nauseous. The feeling surged the moment he opened the lid of the dish.
It was strange. He didn’t have any particular aversions to food and, unlike Juliet, he even liked seafood.
“Your Highness? Do you feel unwell?”
“Lennox? Are you okay?”
Everyone was shocked at the Duke’s pallor.
“…I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
Until then, Lennox thought his discomfort was due to accumulated fatigue.
Although the symptoms were unfamiliar, he had been tense ever since he found out about the baby.
However, it was the same with the next dish and the next meal.
Even though carefully prepared dishes were served, Duke Carlyle repeatedly felt nauseous.
At one point, he was even asked to leave the reception room as he was disturbing Juliet’s meal.
“There were no issues with the cooking process.”
“I’ve even gone up to the head chef, who is in charge of the kitchen, and checked thoroughly, but no suspicious points were found.”
“Perhaps…”
The first to notice what was going on was the elderly head maid.
“It seems our baby already likes its father.”
Josephine’s eyes widened in surprise. In all her life, she never thought she’d see such a thing.
“But you’re experiencing morning sickness instead.”
* * *
Although it seemed impossible, it turned out to be true.
[Oh my, the baby must be telling the mother not to suffer too much.]
The maternal aunt, Helen, sent a congratulatory message with that reaction.
[Well, he should at least do that.]
On the other hand, the maternal grandfather, Lionel Lebatan, seemed to find it amusing.
“Are you really okay?”
However, Juliet felt pity for him who couldn’t eat even when delicacies were in front of him.
“…Who’s worrying about whom right now?”
Lennox wrapped his arms around Juliet, who was lying next to him on the couch. They were enjoying a cool afternoon lying on a gazebo couch in the middle of the garden.
Lennox was actually feeling okay despite the bizarre phenomenon.
The doctor said it was just a coincidence, but Lennox liked the fact that while he suffered, Juliet didn’t experience morning sickness.
“It will get better after three months. So, please endure it till then.”
Saying that, Juliet drifted into sleep. She seemed to be getting sleepier these days.
Lennox smiled only after confirming she was asleep.
“…Maybe I’m being punished for being mean to you.”
He thought to himself, wondering if the baby inside her might resent him.
Rustle.
Then, a faint noise came from the bushes.
“Uh…”
Nix, who had gone to get a storybook, had returned.
“Juliet, is she sick?”
Seeing Juliet’s head resting on his lap and her deep in sleep, Nix’s eyes widened.
“No.”
When informed she was just asleep, Nix sneakily looked disappointed. Juliet was supposed to read him a book.
“Come here.”
“No, I can read it myself…”
Lennox looked at the gloomy child and smiled.
“You’ll regret it, you know?”
“…”
In the end, Nix slowly came over with his storybook. Duke Carlyle began reading the fairy tale book to Nix.
Listening to the soft, comforting voice, Juliet smiled with her eyes closed.
* * *
“The Master must have finally gone mad.”
Jude muttered, but none of the knights nearby reprimanded him for his disrespectful words because they all had similar thoughts.
“Miss Juliet…no, Her Highness is the one suffering, but I don’t know why he’s so troubled.”
“But considering everything, she’s still quite well.”
The physician with a grim face rubbed his eyes.
“Other than a little anemia, Her Highness is healthy.”
The slowly but steadily growing baby didn’t seem to be draining Juliet’s vitality.
However, in front of his wife, who was acting so gentle, Lennox Carlyle’s temperament was becoming increasingly fierce every day. To the extent that including the gloomy Duke, the members of the Duchy were all losing weight.
“It might be better to wage another war.”
As Jude complained, Elliot beside him shook his head.
“I wouldn’t want an event like the recent war.”
A visiting northern nobleman carelessly blurted out in front of the Duke.
-He must resemble his bloodline.
-There’s an old saying that if a baby resembles its father, the mother suffers during childbirth.
-It’s surely going to be a son that looks like the Duke then.
It would have been flattery in any other context.
-Women are indeed peculiar. Why do they make such a big deal out of something everyone goes through, haha!
The nameless nobleman of a certain family paid a heavy price for that stupid comment.
“…His Highness smiled for the first time in a while.”
“Yes, it was the first time I saw him smile so eerily.”
Very brightly, at that.
From that day on, that noble family couldn’t set foot in the North.
“The Master ordered all financial support to be cut off.”
Yet, they made sure Juliet didn’t hear a word about it. It was impressively discreet.
Milan, Jude, and other members of the Duchy were wandering the garden with urgent documents to sign.
On sunny afternoons, the Duke and Duchess usually spent time together in the garden gazebo.
“Shh, everyone be quiet.”
But the leading Milan suddenly stopped.
“Hmm? Why?”
“Look over there.”
Following the vice-commander’s words, they looked towards the gazebo in the middle of the garden.
Under the round dome roof, the Duke and Duchess, along with a baby dragon, were peacefully asleep. It was a picturesque scene.
“…Maybe we should come back later.”
“It seems best.”
They decided not to disturb the Duke and Duchess’s nap and quietly retreated.