My Ex-Boyfriend Gave Birth to My Child? What Does That Mean? - Chapter 5

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

My Ex Got Me Pregnant — Episode 5
* * *
“Kill it! Kill them all!”
“If you die here, I’ll slaughter you!”
“No, no, wait!”
The stench of alcohol hung thick in the air all around me.
A dim, crowded place where sighs, curses, and crude oaths flew freely.
An indoor Colosseum so packed there was barely room to stand—I gripped the betting slip in my pocket tightly, my hood from the Dark Brown Robe provided by the Magic Tower pulled low over my face.
The faint Perception Obscuring Magic woven into the robe was my only flimsy shield against recognition.
“Ohhhhh! Behemoth!”
“Go! Tear it to shreds!”
The enormous bear-shaped magical beast dominating the center of the Colosseum was said to have obliterated entire villages in the Eastern Region, a war prize of the Behemoth Knights. The creature had held the champion’s seat over ten times, a savage among savages.
Through the awful claws it had raised, a small white shadow flashed past with a whisper.
A harmless-looking bundle of pure white fur. When I saw its eyes blazing red, a shout burst from my lips—one perfectly suited to the rabid crowd around me.
“That’s it!”
……Wait. Before I sink into self-loathing for wading into this gambling arena, let me take a moment to defend myself.
Listen here, you.
If you could go back in time, what would you want to do?
I’m certain nine out of ten would say the same thing: “First, I’d use future knowledge to make money!”
That was exactly what I was doing.
This was an era of peace—no rebellions, no upheaval.
Still, a kingdom couldn’t afford to keep a standing army idle, so the Senate dispatched knight orders composed of knights and mages to hunt down magical beasts.
The creatures here were captured during those hunts, trophies of the knight orders’ exploits.
And in this place, the state had sanctioned a sacred gambling arena…….
Really.
The backer of the gambling arena held here was the Royal House itself.
The modest fees collected each time a wager was placed, the taxes drawn from the pot, and admission fees all went to support the knight orders and the nation’s governance.
So this was gambling for the sake of the state, wasn’t it?
……which was exactly the excuse my brother had used when he came home having lost money at gambling—but let’s pretend I don’t remember that for now.
Because I was going to win big!
“Wahhhhh!”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Soon the crowd’s raw roar filled the entire Colosseum.
A small magical creature resembling a white rabbit was perched atop the fallen bear-beast, grooming its fur with quick strokes. Behemoth, bleeding blue blood freely, was clearly beyond recovery.
My heart thundered like madness.
‘I won……!’
How impossibly cute that terrifying white rabbit looked, with its four red eyes!
The gamblers around me shrieked curses and flailed their fists at the air.
“Impossible! That’s just some unregistered beast!”
“How could something so small……!”
When that white rabbit—risen from Hell itself—had claimed the Colosseum championship in the previous timeline, it had become huge news in the capital for a while. Since no one had wagered on that rabbit then, the national treasury had grown fat on the profits.
That rabbit had been a common unregistered beast.
Unregistered beasts were ones captured by individuals and given to the state, not by the knight orders. They were usually just weaklings used to fill out the Colosseum’s roster.
But today, that bias had been overturned in an instant!
“Damn it, this is fraud!”
The raging gamblers reminded me uncomfortably of Schlere.
I decided I would never return to this place and quietly rose from my seat.
* * *
The exchange clerk who took my betting slip kept glancing curiously at my face hidden beneath the hood, then sighed quietly and handed me a Royal Seal Check.
According to Colosseum tradition, no name was written on the check.
I quickly grabbed it without anyone seeing, tucked it deep into my pocket, and hurried out of the gambling hall.
I hadn’t glimpsed the exact amount, but it was certain that the seed money I’d scraped together by selling off the jewels I’d received as gratuities for my work as a mage and the few precious ornaments I’d managed to gather in my lifetime had multiplied several hundredfold.
My hands trembled.
‘Thank goodness the Bank is close.’
My pace quickened. No one knew yet that I’d just won a fortune. But these shaking hands and wobbly legs would give me away.
I had to reach the Bank quickly before anyone stopped me!
“Miss, there.”
Please, let it not be some clichéd mugging attempt with thugs after my money!
“Would you like to buy some flowers?”
A flower basket appeared suddenly before my eyes.
“Just one flower, please. My siblings are starving…….”
A gaunt girl in shabby clothes held up a flower basket brimming with blooms.
I let out a breath of relief.
Then, from the basket she offered, a sour-sweet fragrance washed over me in a wave.
My head spun.
I saw the corner of the girl’s mouth lift slightly.
‘Danger…….’
As my sluggish hand reached for the inner pocket of my robe, something shifted.
As if the sky and earth were slowly exchanging places.
Everything around me began to drift upward at a languid pace.
The flower basket, slipping from its owner’s grasp in slow motion, rose high into the air and tilted.
Flowers of various colors spilled from the basket and danced in spirals on the wind.
The thin girl hiding behind the basket and a few passersby nearby flailed their limbs in the air like birds struck by a slingshot, their faces frozen in shock and confusion.
I was no exception.
My body, about to collapse as the strength drained from my legs, began to rise slowly as if sinking into water.
And.
A small child was looking up at me.
A boy in a modest robe. His hood, pulled back slightly, revealed a lovely face gazing up at me—delicate features plainly visible.
Fair skin, rosy cheeks. Hair the color of soft caramel, impossibly tender-looking. Large eyes that gleamed with the shade of new spring leaves—a color I knew well, seen every morning in the mirror.
But, for heaven’s sake!
I felt almost guilty for thinking of it that way.
The child was impossibly beautiful and lovely.
The boy, his pretty eyes wide with wonder as he gazed up at me floating in the air, slowly opened his mouth.
The sounds of people’s shock and screams seemed to come from far away, muffled as if behind a thick veil.
And then, the child spoke.
“Mother?”

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