I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 156
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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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Special Side Story 2. Days of Old
If one could measure the relative depth of love, Ekian would definitely define himself as someone whose feelings deepened the more time they spent together.
Because his feelings for Judith had grown deeper after marriage.
In fact, they had known each other since Judith was seventeen, but the time they spent together wasn’t long.
Even during their married life when he stayed at the duke’s mansion in his true form rather than as ‘Master’, there weren’t many significant memories.
Ekian was extremely busy due to his double life, and Judith also found her unfamiliar husband difficult to approach, so she didn’t bother to open her heart.
So it was only after they began living together at the marquis’ estate that Ekian could finally observe Judith to his heart’s content.
“Do you know something?”
Ekian asked Judith with a delighted expression.
“You have a habit of fidgeting with your earlobes when you’re deep in thought.”
“Oh my.”
Judith raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“I had no idea.”
They were currently out for a walk in the rear garden near the marquis’ estate.
Holding their young son who had fallen asleep, Ekian asked gently.
“What were you thinking about?”
“Just… when would be a good time to have a second child, that kind of thought?”
Judith answered with a gentle smile.
“Of course, everyone thinks differently, but I want to have many children.”
It was actually what he had expected.
Judith loved children.
She had adored young Karl, of course, because she liked him.
He didn’t know much about her days as a visiting tutor, but she probably taught children more sincerely than anyone else.
You could tell from how every household regretted it when she entered the Meius Marquis Family.
“So that’s what you were thinking about.”
“Yes.”
Judith nodded and spoke seriously.
“If we have a daughter, I was even thinking it might be nice to name her after the woman who gave birth to you.”
Ekian’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.
“The parents who raised you are of course truly precious, but… the Last Shaman also truly gave everything for you. I hope her traces remain with us too.”
In a way, it was a connection made possible thanks to his birth mother.
It was as if his birth mother had poured out all her life force to save Ekian and Judith’s lives and bestowed such a happy life upon them.
“Thinking about it that way makes me feel a bit solemn. I haven’t done anything for her.”
When Ekian answered honestly, Judith slowly shook her head.
“I wonder about that. Having given birth to a child, I… understand that feeling too. The heart that’s anxious about not being able to give more even after giving one thing.”
Judith said while stroking the baby’s hair.
“She probably regretted not being able to give more rather than expecting anything in return. It’s just that the scope was mysteriously beyond imagination. So don’t feel sorry. That’s not what I meant.”
“Is that so? Then shall I shamelessly wish for more?”
“Oh my. You really sounded like an unfilial son just now.”
Judith immediately criticized him sharply, and Ekian shrugged his shoulders.
“No, you just said that for children, it’s regrettable not being able to give more…”
Of course, Ekian was joking too. He thought it would be difficult to feel any more love for the mother who gave birth to him.
Because of the future she had gifted him, he felt for the first time that he was glad to have been born.
“Fine.”
Judith, who was also joking, asked with narrowed eyes.
“So what do you want to wish for so badly?”
“Ah, I’ve actually been having a thought lately.”
Ekian answered while carefully examining Judith’s face.
“We’ve actually known each other for a long time, right? I’ve seen you since you were seventeen, but I have almost no memories of that time. Maybe because I didn’t pay much attention.”
“That’s understandable.”
Judith wasn’t particularly hurt.
“I was just one of many people who came to sell information to Master at that time. We never did anything private together, so what memorable events could there have been?”
When he first met her, he was nineteen years old.
At the time, he thought he was all grown up, but looking back now, he was just an immature child.
At the end of adolescence, still thinking he shouldn’t exist in this world and only tormenting himself…
He ran the Information Guild successfully, but it was a time when he himself was unstable.
To be honest, he wasn’t interested in any women, not just Judith. He couldn’t even think that he could like someone or be liked.
“So I feel a bit regretful about that time.”
Ekian murmured wistfully.
“I could have gotten to know you so much more, but I wasted all that precious time back then.”
Judith smiled shyly. She also didn’t have many memories of those days.
“It’s all because you were wearing a mask.”
She turned the arrow toward him.
“If you had been there with this face, I definitely would have tried to talk to you more. I was busy back then too, but I still had the leisure to make a joke or two to a handsome man.”
“What, making a joke or two is all?”
“I didn’t have the luxury for things like dating. I think that would have been sufficient compensation for my feelings.”
Judith said matter-of-factly.
“But still, wearing the mask was probably better. If you had worked without the mask, some other woman would have definitely snatched you up first.”
“Ah, wait. Let’s not imagine such a future.”
Ekian quickly blocked the imagination Judith was beginning to unfold.
“Just, well, regretting that we let those days slip by… let’s stop at that level.”
Carefully stroking his sleeping son’s cheek, he said wisely.
“Even these moments of our son growing up like this feel precious, so I’m saying this because it’s too regrettable that I missed Judith’s teenage years.”
“But there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Judith shrugged her shoulders.
“Let’s just be grateful to the Shaman for letting us get along well after becoming adults.”
“We should.”
Starting to walk back toward the marquis’ estate, Ekian nodded.
“It’s just a small regret anyway.”
Ekian’s heart certainly felt that way. In fact, he had never felt it as an enormous regret.
However, perhaps because ‘the heart that wants to give even the smallest thing’ is a parent’s heart.
The Last Shaman, who had already left this world, gathered her remaining strength and left him one last small gift.
That night.
Ekian had a very strange dream.
In an unrealistically vivid dream, amazingly, seventeen-year-old Judith appeared.
No, it was a dream of those days that didn’t remain in his memory.
“The Palena Marquis and Marchioness have had accumulated discord since before their marriage.”
Young Judith spoke firmly.
“They’ll probably divorce someday.”
Ekian stared intently at the red-haired young lady from behind his mask.
Her sparkling green eyes rolled around. Ekian clasped his gloved hands together and asked leisurely.
“How did Miss Judith come to know this information?”
Even while asking, he didn’t have much expectation. Judith’s answers were always the same.
“Well, I just happened to find out.”
Information that was highly accurate but not very useful.
If bringing only such information could be called a talent, it was indeed a talent.
“Hmm… I’ll pay 1 gold. If the two divorce in the future, I’ll give you 2 more gold.”
Even if it had no particular value, Judith’s information had high reliability.
So he had to pay for it, if only for the sake of future information.
“Wow.”
Judith openly loved it.
“Thank you, Master.”
Ekian stared at her intently.
Collecting 1 gold at a time like this, when would she ever pay off that enormous debt…?
“Ahem.”
Looking at Judith’s brightly smiling face, he impulsively said:
“Come to think of it, 2 gold would be better. If it’s about a baronial family’s domestic discord, it seems like information worth that much.”
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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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