Side Story 1 Chapter 9

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‘It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the madam make such a face.’

Millan noticed Anissa’s hardened expression and glanced at her. Sweat began to fill her clenched fist.

“Madam, are you all right?”

‘I don’t want to get on the madam’s bad side…but I don’t want to lie about serious matters like this.’

Although he was a commoner, he was one of the talented people whom Anissa had noticed and appointed as the attending physician of Lagrange. 

He was given the position of a doctor, was directly hired by a great nobleman, moreover, it was in the only grand duchy of the empire, and thus was a very honorable position, so Millan did not forget the grace of Anissa. 

“Millan, can you take responsibility for what you just said? You didn’t just take a quick examination?” 

Perhaps because the news from Milan had disturbed Anissa, the three maids, including Marilyn, glared at him with strained eyes.

“Of course. How can I not be thorough when examining the madam?”

He felt wrongly accused but it couldn’t be helped. 

Unlike the indifferent Duke who, though he didn’t harass or treat the servants recklessly, he also had no inclination to know their name, the Duchess, who treated the servants with a friendly smile, was a good-natured madam popular among her subordinates. 

“Millan.”

“Yes, yes?!” 

When such a friendly madam urged him for an answer with a cold face he had never before seen in his life, Millan had no choice but to break out in cold sweat. 

“What did you say just now? I must have heard it wrong.”

“Pardon?”

“I asked what you just said.”

“Ah, t-that’s……”

Flustered by Anissa’s sharp question, Millan hesitated and closed his mouth tightly. 

“Can’t you answer quickly?!”

“You are w-with child, madam!” 

When Anissa’s voice rose, Millan, who was frightened, screamed and answered.  

His fists, which were clenched so tightly that his fingernails were digging into them, were white and trembling.

“....Really?” 

Anissa rubbed her face with one hand and leaned against the sofa as if collapsing.

“Madam! Are you all right?!” Surprised, Vanessa rushed in to help the madam who had fallen. 

Marilyn grabbed Millan by the collar and threw him next to Anissa, asking if she was hurt anywhere. 

“I’m fine, Marilyn. Don’t do that to Milan.”

She looked even more pitiful as there was no color left on her originally white face.

“As I see the symptoms are there and I could feel two pulse points, this is my judgment. But it’s probably better to call in a doctor more experience than me to check.”

Millan, who was very discouraged due to the eyes of the maids who seemed to devour people, responded while fidgeting with his fingers. 

“.....No. There’s no need to go that far. You’re probably right that I’m pregnant.” 

With an uneasy smile on her face, Anissa curled up on her stomach, caressed the faintly glowing aura. 

‘No wonder my aura was a bit odd.’ 

There were times when though I’m not angry at all, a red aura fills up the atmosphere, and there were days when my emotions fluctuates twelve times over trivial things. 

Even the aura that I was feeling right now was a playful one and clearly was not what I was feeling right now. 

“.....Please call Dietrich.” 

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“Are you all right?”

“No, I’m not all right.”

I’m so anxious.

Even before confirming it through Millan, I had already expected to some extent, but it was difficult to control the turbulent mind.

“Haaaaa.”

Dietrich hovered beside me as I sighed and leaned forward, opening and closing his mouth like a puppy.

“Dietrich, you’re making me dizzy.”

“........”

“Sit here.” 

When I moved my butt and patted the seat next to me, he came rushing over and sat beside me. 

“Are you not going to work?”

“I don’t think work is what’s important right now.” 

I slightly frowned at the sound of his voice ringing in my ears. Unlike his stone face, his aura felt unusual. 

‘I thought he’d be as anxious as I am…..’

Dietrich rarely cared for his younger siblings - though that was Lagrange’s family tradition - because he didn’t like babies. 

“......You.”

“Hm.”

I chewed my lips as he affectionately tucked my hair behind my ears as my head was tilted forward and stared at him. 

“Are you happy right now? While I’m so anxious that I feel like dying?”

“No.”

“What do you mean no?!”

His face was hard following mine, but his aura which he couldn’t hide anything, was dancing side to side as if he was having fun.

Very intensely at that. 

“You’re happy right now, you!”

“Then do you wish for me to be upset?”

“.....That’s not it.” 

I couldn’t find the answer to Dietrich’s cautious question. 

“No. You should be happy without worrying about anything. Then the baby too will….”

A baby. 

As soon as I uttered those words, tears suddenly burst out. 

“Hungh.” 

Then, Rogel, Vanessa’s son toddled over towards me and grabbed my hand as if to soothe me. 

“Mada.” (Madam.)

The touch of his hand, the size of a bracken, was as soft as silk and as warm as a well-heated ondol*, calmed my troubled mind just a little bit. (*floor-heating system in Korea)

“Rogel…..”

“Mada, cry?” (Madam, are you crying?)

I sniffed as I held Rogel, which smelled sweet and savory like toasted caramel, in my arms.

“Rogel, ah, Rogel, why did I say that I’d help Vanessa give birth to you?” 

Then I wouldn’t have to be this frightened. 

It was sudden, but there was no way that I wouldn’t be happy to have a child between Dietrich and me. 

I’ve only been to about half of the destinations I had planned to travel which was was a bit disappointing. 

“It looked like it hurt so much…..” 

The problem was that giving birth was so hard it was better to die. 

I had experienced watching the pregnancy and childbirth of my immediate maid, Vanessa. 

Vanessa, who had no choice but to give birth in a hot summer, overcame 13 hours of labor for Rogel.

I didn’t know how many times I hit her pale cheeks to wake her up after fainting in pain.

Millan said it was a case of Vanessa having a very difficult labor, but there was no way of telling I wouldn’t be experiencing the same.

“It would really be inexhaustibly painful…..”

Actually, Vanessa had already shown that she wanted to have a second child, as if she no longer had thoughts about that experience.

However, I, who had only watched her give birth, became so frightened that my limbs trembled at the thought of giving birth.

“Dietrich.”

Dietrich, who was sitting in an uncomfortable straight posture on the sofa with his mouth tightly closed, slowly raised his head at my call.

“Yeah.”

He looked like he didn’t know how to comfort me in this situation.

After hearing that I was with child, a joyful aura was fluttering around him, but in fact, in its depths, it was also full of concerns and worries toward me.

내가 가벼운 감기라도 걸리면 다짜고짜 밀런부터 족치는 탓에 나는 아파도 그에게만큼은 아픈 티를 내지 않았다.

‘하지만 이 일은 별개야.’

그럼, 별개고 말고.

감기 따위와는 완전히 다른 차원의 문제였다.

“좋겠다, 넌.”

“어?”

‘Right, there’s no way Dietrich wouldn’t be worried about me.’

If I caught even a slight cold, he’d start with Millan and torture him about it so even though I’m hurt I didn’t show my pain to him as much. 

‘But this is different.’

It’s not just different. It’s a completely different issue from a cold.  

“How lucky of you.”

“Huh?”

In the midst of this, I began to pick a fight with my toe touching his knee as he was affectionately caressing my foot.

“Even if you do nothing, a child would fall from the sky to you.” 

How nice. It was truly nice.

I was so envious that my stomach hurts.

“....I’m sorry.”

Dietrich apologized instead of arguing and placed his large hand on the back of my tearful hand. 

“Don’t cry.” 

It made me feel even more unfair seeing his pretty hands with prominent knuckles.

“I can’t see my hand….”

His hands were so big that my hand fit inside them and disappeared. 

The thickness of his muscular arms was almost twice as thick as mine. 

‘They said that since Dietrich became the Grand duke, the training for the knights doubled.’

Dietrich had better stamina than Yuric, who was the commander of the knights. 

“You even have such thick bones…..”

“..........”

“Look at these big hands. You even have big feet. You’re a complete bear.”

A good-looking person must be handsome even to the bones, in fact, Dietrich had very pretty hands and feet.

However, a bitter heart gripped me as I compared his feet to a bear simply because they were large - even though they were just the right size for his tall stature. 

‘Why did it have to be me!’

He had thick bones and a big body, and he had a crazy steel body that sometimes jumped from the third floor of the mansion to the garden because it was annoying to use the stairs! 

‘But why do I have to be the one to give birth!’

Wasn’t it right that the stronger of the two had to give birth? 

I glared at Dietrich, who couldn’t find anything to say to me, and buried my face in Rogel’s stomach.

“Unngghh.”

“Madaa.” 

“Unghuhu, Rogel.”

“Madaaaa.”

The child followed me and cried. 

The next day, Dietrich appeared before me with a gigantic swaddling blanket filled with stones of unknown origin. 

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