I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 16

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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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The ominous black potion that had been in the vial seeped directly into the lawn.

Karl staggered and muttered in surprise.

“Wh, wh, Mother?”

Before Karl could even be surprised, Isabella, who had come running from somewhere, slapped Sera across the face.

“You… You!”

Isabella’s strength was as good as the cracking sound that tore through the air. Sera fell face-first onto the lawn.

Isabella, unable to control her anger, grabbed the fallen Sera’s hair and lifted her up.

“You, you… How dare you right now…!”

Knights from the ducal house came rushing from the distance. Isabella threw her to the knights and shouted.

“Lock her up for now!”

Sera could only tremble without saying a word, whether from the shock and pain of being slapped. The knights dragged Sera away.

Karl stood up from the swing with a dumbfounded expression.

“Mother, why are you doing that to Sera?”

“You call that speaking properly, Karl?”

Isabella gripped Karl’s shoulders tightly. Karl’s body swayed and the swing made a creaking sound.

“What? Dismissing your tutor and not joining the Knights’ Order like Sera said? You’ll vomit up everything you’ve eaten?”

“B, but Mother…”

“You believed and followed such nonsense until now? Huh?”

Karl was startled by Isabella’s angry eyes, which he had never seen before. Though she was famous for being cold and frigid, and losing her reason once angered, Karl had never seen this side of his mother. It was thanks to Isabella managing her emotions well in front of the child until now.

However, having witnessed the shocking scene directly, Isabella could no longer maintain her composure.

The child, facing his mother’s flashing eyes for the first time, stammered and muttered.

“B, but still, that’s how brother will come back, and others won’t point fingers at me…”

“You still haven’t come to your senses! Do you think Ekian would be happy to see you like this? Huh?”

Isabella was now even shaking Karl’s shoulders.

That’s when it happened.

“My lady, please stop.”

A woman approached and pulled Isabella away from Karl.

Only then did Karl take a deep breath and blink his eyes. The person holding Isabella was a woman with red hair and green eyes whom he had never seen before.

The young woman in a plain dress and worn shoes spoke calmly.

“If you’re going to blame someone, you should blame Sera. The young master is still a child…”

“Judith, he’s not just any child! He’s a genius who remembers things from when he was two or three, and his intelligence is already at adult level!”

Isabella shouted angrily, and then the woman called ‘Judith’ grabbed Karl’s hand and answered calmly.

“What does it matter if his intelligence is at adult level? He’s still eight years old.”

“…What?”

“Even if his intelligence is that of an adult, he hasn’t lived as long as an adult. It’s natural that other things are still immature.”

As if her mind was finally returning a bit, Isabella stopped speaking. Judith spoke carefully but clearly.

“Even if he reads difficult books and solves difficult problems… he’s still a child who has only lived for 8 years.”

Tears suddenly welled up in Karl’s eyes.

Smart, clever, genius, he’s already an adult… These were words he had been hearing continuously since childhood.

Sera too would often warn him, ‘Everyone knows the young master is clever, so you can’t act like other children.’ So he couldn’t act childish, pretend not to know anything, or study and eat normally like usual…

But for the first time, someone had appeared who called him a ‘child.’

“So when the young master doesn’t know something, we adults can teach you.”

Isabella stood there as if nailed to the spot. Judith, who had been patting her arm, slowly bent down to meet Karl’s eyes.

“Young master. It’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Baron Judith Ailan.”

Since her attire was worse than even the ducal house’s maids, he wondered who she was, but she was a noble after all.

Karl calmed his surprised heart and looked at her with proper courtesy.

“…It’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I am Karl Meius.”

Her round green eyes curved gently. The woman’s face seen up close couldn’t be called a peerless beauty, but it was clear and bright.

Judith took Karl’s hand and spoke.

“Not everything Sera said is right. Young master, right now my lady must be more upset than ever before.”

“But, brother…”

“Young Duke Ekian would be very heartbroken to see you living like this.”

Judith continued gently.

“When the young duke left the Meius Mansion, it also meant he was entrusting his parents to you. But how can you make your parents so upset like this?”

Karl’s eyes shook wildly as he had never thought of it that way. He gasped for breath and asked.

“But who are you to know all of my brother’s feelings?”

Wariness appeared in Karl’s eyes. Perhaps it was natural.

“What do you know about my brother? Sera is someone who was very close to my brother when they were young!”

The person who reacted to the mention of ‘Sera’ was Isabella.

“That damn Sera, Sera, Sera, Sera!”

Isabella, who was already furious, shouted in anger. Isabella was someone who lost her reason once angered. This was also why her reputation in high society wasn’t very good despite being an elegant noble.

“If Ekian really treasured Sera, would he have left without saying a word to Sera either?”

“Ah, then what’s different about Baron Ailan? How am I supposed to believe this person’s words!”

It was when Judith’s eyes shook slightly. Isabella shouted loudly.

“She’s carrying your nephew!”

“…What?”

Even Judith was flustered by those words. She had never imagined that the pregnancy would be revealed to the still young Karl in this way. But Isabella, whose eyes had already rolled back, didn’t stop talking.

“She was your brother’s lover! Do you understand?”

Karl, who was evaluated as a genius despite having a child’s emotions, knew quite a lot. Perhaps because of this, Karl understood the situation instantly.

“My goodness.”

Karl widened his eyes and muttered while looking at Judith’s flat stomach.

“Then… you did those kinds of things with my brother and made a baby?”

Judith was rarely flustered. She alternately looked at Karl and her own stomach for a moment, then rolled her eyes and muttered.

“Ah, um, well, something like that…”

Karl jumped up from the swing. The boy approached Judith with quick steps and thrust his big eyes forward as he asked.

“Where is my brother? Huh?”

There was only one answer Judith could give to that question.

“Um, he ended up leaving again…”

A moment of silence flowed. Karl looked at Isabella with disbelieving eyes. Isabella could only clear her throat with “Ahem, hmm,” without being able to say anything.

After a brief silence, Karl, who had understood the situation in his own way, clenched his fists and shouted.

“What a crazy bastard!”

“Uh, huh?”

“Irresponsibly getting a woman in her prime pregnant, then abandoning his own child and running away?”

“…Uh-huh?”

“Even if he’s my brother, this crosses the line! I absolutely can’t take his side!”

Anger began to fill the eyes that had been full of longing and reverence for his brother.

“Isn’t this really a hopeless crazy bastard! Why did he grow up to be such trash? Huh?”

Behind them, out of their sight, the large oak tree that had moved once while observing Sera earlier swayed again.

In fact, the Master, Ekian, had been hiding in the tree from earlier.

Judith had told him to leave it to her, but still, this was a problem that had happened to Karl.

Naturally, he couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. Telling Judith he would watch was all part of this plan.

For him, hiding his presence was a simple matter, and he had been hiding and lurking in the tree through the secret passage.

Ekian blinked his eyes while looking at the garden, somewhat dazed.

‘Judith did… solve it wisely and well though…’

She had caught Sera in the act and corrected the relationship between mother and son that had been flowing to extremes.

She had also said what he always wanted to say to Karl, ‘You’re still a child,’ as if it were natural.

Also, as if reading Ekian’s mind, she conveyed the message, ‘He left entrusting his parents to you.’

It was all touching, all good, but…

“Didn’t he leave home and become a completely hopeless delinquent bastard? Right, Mother?”

Karl’s sharp criticism was unexpected.

Ekian let out an involuntary groan from up in the tree.

‘Is this… really resolved properly?’

The perfect and gentle image of his older brother that existed in his younger sibling’s mind was being shattered to pieces.

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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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