I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 145

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Side Story 2. Past Connections

The child was born with the bell that announced noon.

“Both mother and baby are healthy!”

Due to the long labor, Ekian had stayed up all night. Joy bloomed in his eyes as he held his son, who cried loudly to announce his presence to the world.

How could he be so lovable?

Countless emotions flooded in.

Though he had cursed the nine months of carrying him in the womb, seeing the baby that was actually born made him think first of his own birth mother, who must have wished so much for his happiness.

Before this helpless, fragile, yet lovable being, he decided not to have doubts like ‘why on earth.’ He understood the many complex and vast emotions one could feel looking at this child.

At the same time, he felt he could definitively say that Judith’s previous question, “What if Ekian is disappointed that it’s a son?” was “complete nonsense.”

The child’s eyes were a vivid green like Judith’s, and his hair was dark black like Ekian’s. The moment Ekian met his son’s round green eyes, he naturally smiled.

“Son.”

He whispered in his still-crying son’s ear.

“You’ve been through a lot.”

Until reuniting with Judith, his son had also traveled a long journey, so to speak. Ekian smiled gently.

“To be honest, there won’t be only good things ahead in your path. Hardship is an essential part of life. But I’ll raise you with the earnest wish for that impossible thing.”

After conveying his sincere first words, Ekian handed the child back to the doctor. Now it was time to see Judith.

“Judith.”

Judith was lying in the room, drenched in sweat. Seeing Ekian enter the room, Judith smiled broadly.

“Did you see our child?”

“He has your eyes. I fell in love with my son at first sight.”

Ekian gently took Judith’s hand and said.

“You really went through so much. Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

“There are many uncomfortable places.”

Judith groaned and muttered.

“But at least now that I’ve given birth, the labor pains are gone, which is good.”

In fact, listening to Judith’s painful screams had been very difficult for Ekian too. If he hadn’t been there, she would have gone through this difficult birth process alone, which was horrifying just to think about. At the same time, Judith, who had traveled far determined to protect the child somehow, seemed newly amazing.

“You’ll gradually recover.”

Another doctor who had been attending to Judith said.

“Since it was a first birth, it progressed a bit slowly, but this was still a smooth delivery.”

Ekian brushed away Judith’s sweat-soaked hair. As he did so, he sighed deeply.

“While you were suffering, it was so hard for me to just watch without being able to do anything. With how I feel right now, I don’t want to have any more children.”

“Mmm, I did think that during the labor pains earlier.”

Judith said with a broad smile.

“But I once had my fortune told for fun before, you know? They said I’d have two children. One son, one daughter. According to that, wouldn’t I have one more?”

“That’s just superstition.”

“I thought so then, but thinking about it now, it seems quite accurate.”

“You’re probably just remembering the parts that matched.”

When Ekian waved his hand dismissively, Judith instead widened her eyes and argued back.

“Still, that was a famous fortune teller invited by the count’s daughter at a masquerade ball held at the Prona Marquis Estate. It wasn’t just some random street fortune telling.”

“…Hmm?”

At those words, Ekian slightly furrowed his brow.

“A masquerade ball at the Prona Marquis Estate? Are you talking about the one held about 6 or 7 years ago?”

As far as Ekian knew, Judith hadn’t attended any noble family gatherings since she was seventeen. Masquerade balls held by noble families weren’t common either. So it would be impossible to attend the Prona Marquis Estate’s masquerade ball twice.

“Oh, probably? I was fifteen at the time, so… Honestly, the fortune was so bad that all my friends were shocked… I got the worst fortune there. But thinking about it now, it all came true.”

Judith blinked several times and asked.

“But were you there too, Ekian?”

Ekian slowly nodded.

“That was the last gathering I attended before running away.”

At that time, Ekian was seventeen and the young duke of Meius that everyone was eager to invite to their events.

Though he didn’t enjoy social events like balls, he thought fitting well into noble culture was also a virtue of an heir.

So when invited to events like balls, he almost always accepted. Even if he didn’t actively enjoy them, people always flocked around him, and just smiling and making a few replies would raise his reputation along with the Meius Ducal House’s prestige.

Before the Ailan Baronial Family’s downfall, there had been times when the events he attended overlapped with those attended by Judith, who was then the baron’s daughter.

However, neither Ekian nor Judith was the type to approach someone they had no connection with, so the two had no childhood anecdotes or memories together.

Judith’s casual excuse of “I had a crush after seeing you from afar” was possible precisely because she had only seen him from a distance.

But…

The girl among her friends who received the worst fortune.

Ekian suddenly remembered something and asked Judith.

“By any chance… Judith, weren’t you wearing an owl mask? A white one?”

“Oh my?”

Judith was so surprised she even sat up.

“How did you know?”

That owl mask was a gift from one of Judith’s tutors. She said that since she was a clever student, an owl, the symbol of wisdom, suited her.

The other girls wore cute animal masks like butterflies, cats, squirrels, or rabbits. So Judith looked rather strange among them. Still, she liked that mask so much that she wore it throughout the event, regardless of what her friends said.

“It was a rather unusual mask. Is that why it caught your eye? Well, that owl mask was unnecessarily realistic.”

“Uh, well. The mask aside…”

Ekian chuckled and interlaced their fingers again.

“It seems we didn’t have absolutely nothing happen during our childhood. Do you remember the lion mask you talked with back then?”

“Huh???”

Judith’s eyes grew very wide.

“Don’t tell me… Ekian… that lion mask sitting in the fountain garden?”

Both their memories began returning to that time.

To their completely unknown ‘past connection.’

Gernet was the precious only daughter of the Prona Marquis Estate. The Marquis and his wife would do anything for Gernet.

To commemorate her fifteenth birthday, Gernet personally planned a ball filled with young girls’ dreams.

It was to actually create the setting of a romance novel that had deeply impressed Gernet at the time.

“Two people with hidden identities meet like destiny at a masquerade ball. And the fortune teller at the ball prophesies to them: ‘You two will become husband and wife!’ And that event really becomes the catalyst for them to marry later. How romantic is that?”

At that time, Judith was acquainted with several noble young ladies her age, and Gernet, along with Anais, was one of the girls she was close to.

Of course, this was ‘close’ by Judith’s standards and couldn’t really be called ‘intimate.’ In reality, Judith usually listened rather than naturally mingling and blending in with those girls.

“See, getting close without knowing each other’s identity is really fate. You fall for that person apart from their background or appearance!”

When Gernet clasped her hands together and spoke, Anais got annoyed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. If that’s the case, why are you, as the host, collecting all the participants’ mask information? You’re trying to approach Young Duke Ekian while pretending not to know him, aren’t you?”

“W-we’re collecting that for safety reasons! What do you mean pretending not to know and approaching?”

Gernet and Anais began their war of nerves. Judith sat between them, resting her chin on her hand, lost in other thoughts.

‘I should avoid getting involved with someone like the young duke from the start. It would be troublesome.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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