My Ex-Boyfriend Gave Birth to My Child? What Does That Mean? - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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My ex-boyfriend had my child? What on earth is that supposed to mean? Episode 6
Mom?
Mo… mom?
I hung suspended in the air, mouth gaping like laundry strung out on a line.
Then a firm arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me down.
I didn’t need to see whose arm it was. A voice I knew far too well reached my ears.
“That’s enough.”
Lyon Voltein, his arm encircling my waist, snapped his free hand with the ease of long practice.
Everything that had been suspended in the air—as though it had all been a lie—began to settle slowly back to earth. My worn shoes touched down with a sound so sharp it might have been a judge’s gavel.
The bystanders who had suddenly found themselves in chaos murmured among themselves, searching for the cause. Lyon moved without concern for entanglement, slipping away from the scene at an unhurried pace, one arm still holding me, half-dragging me along.
Lyon Voltein’s complexion hadn’t changed in days. The shadows beneath his eyes remained, his skin still pallid beyond reason.
Whether others gawked like vacant fools or not was of no consequence to Lyon Voltein. He simply opened his mouth without concern and spoke.
“Lu. What did I tell you about using magic?”
The small boy trotting along beside Lyon, his eyes still gleaming as he looked up at me, suddenly clapped both hands over his mouth in alarm. His already flushed cheeks deepened, as though paint might drip away.
“But Mom was…”
“Not your mom.”
At Lyon’s words, the child’s eyes widened further. Looking back and forth between my face and his, the boy’s eyes began to glisten with the threat of tears, and he grabbed my robe, clinging to it.
“Yes she is.”
“Not yet. Not until the ceremony’s done.”
The man replied indifferently, bending to lift the child in his empty arm. That he could lift the boy entirely with a single arm was remarkable—rare for a Mage. But honestly, his posture was anything but stable. I quickly pushed him away and spoke up.
“Don’t do that, hold him properly… wait—”
Before I could finish speaking, my legs gave out and I collapsed to the ground. I tried several times to push myself up, bewildered, but my legs trembled like a newborn fawn’s.
Lyon looked down at me and muttered dryly.
“You really do fall for it easily.”
“What are you talking about?”
“There was Paralysis Poison on the flowers.”
“What?”
Now that he mentioned it, the child who had asked me to buy him the Flower Basket had already vanished without a trace. He’d realized something was wrong and fled.
Lyon Voltein remained unfazed, as though he dealt with such things every day.
“It’s not a common method, but the boy was clever. You’ve been walking around broadcasting ‘I’m loaded’ with every fiber of your being—of course something like this happens.”
He wrapped his arm around my waist again and pulled. My trembling body was dragged along his course, and I found myself completely leaning against him.
We’d had light physical contact back at the Magic Tower, but I’d rarely been this close to him. It felt awkward.
“Mom.”
An impossible reality kept driving its fist forward without pause.
The child held in Lyon’s arms blinked and reached out toward me. When his soft palm touched my hair, the sensation defied description—my chest tingled with an odd feeling, and yet I felt utterly bewildered.
To be honest, he did look like me. But suddenly “mom”?
There has to be a limit to responsibility without reward!
Lyon Voltein, watching the rosy-cheeked boy blink, spoke in an impassive tone.
“If you’re sleepy, sleep.”
“Don’t want to…”
“I won’t run away, so you can sleep.”
“Really?”
Large olive-colored eyes turned toward me.
“You’re not going anywhere?”
Good heavens. Where did I want to go? I wanted to bolt right now, to flee this disaster unfolding before me!
But my mouth wouldn’t be honest.
“I won’t go.”
The child laughed brightly at my answer. His large eyes half-closed with drowsiness, fighting to stay awake, looked so endearing I could have bitten him.
The child drifted to sleep still smiling, breathing softly with that gentle rhythm only small children possess.
Lyon tilted his chin once, and a group of plainly dressed attendants approached. After receiving the child from Lyon’s hands, they pointed at me as if asking what to do. Lyon shook his head and gestured with his chin again.
“Watch the boy well. Have another Carriage ready.”
Lyon’s attendants nodded without a word and disappeared as suddenly as they’d appeared.
I murmured, my eyes following where the child had gone.
“He seemed deeply asleep. Won’t that cause Mana Depletion?”
Lyon glanced at the Plaza, which had become something of a disaster, over his shoulder and answered without concern.
“Of course, when someone casts a large-scale spell without proper magical formulae.”
“You didn’t actually teach Area Magic to such a small child, did you? Are you out of your mind?”
“You certainly are loud.”
Lyon bent slightly and lifted me into his arms—what they call a bridal carry.
“People are watching!”
“Show them. If you were worried about what people think, why cast Cognition Inhibition in the first place?”
She was right. Of course she was.
I gave up resisting with some embarrassment, and the realization hit me.
“……Wait. How did you see through me?”
“That Cognition Inhibition from the Magic Tower? It doesn’t work on me.”
Lyon Voltein walked forward without a care whether the people around us stared or not. I had no choice but to endure the moment with both hands shielding my face.
The moment I felt safe, the full weight of what had just happened crashed down on me.
If those checks in my possession had been stolen, I might never have been able to recover through my own efforts.
‘I should thank him properly.’
That’s the decent thing to do. The problem was that something kept scratching at the back of my mind—an irritating prickling sensation.
I peeked up at him with just my eyes showing above my hands.
“……But. Your timing for saving me was almost too perfect, wasn’t it?”
“I’ve been watching from the start.”
“Since when?”
“Since you were running around the Pawnshop.”
He tilted his head slightly to meet my dumbfounded stare. That infuriatingly beautiful smile of his.
* * *
Getting into the Duke’s Mansion Carriage was half forced and half willing. I couldn’t move well because of the Paralysis Poison, but more than that, I was afraid of being ambushed again and losing everything I’d earned.
Lyon Voltein—was he trustworthy?
This man had no legitimate business bearing his own name, yet he pulled in staggering annual profits from territorial taxes, harbor duties, market fees, and mines. My sudden fortune was pocket change to him. It was a waste even to think about it.
Lyon Voltein had me half-reclined in one of the carriage seats, then sat across from me. He reached into a Flower Basket and handed me a Bottle of Water.
The bottle was warm to the touch. Something magical had been done to it inside the container. As I sipped the warm water little by little, the numbness creeping through my legs seemed to ease gradually.
Lyon Voltein complained like a child.
“This is all because you wouldn’t come. I even left you an Invitation.”
“You never said when to come.”
“A child wants to see his mother quickly. You won’t come, so as a last resort, I use this to find you.”
He tapped his own temple with a finger.
I used my head? How?
“Your thoughts are predictable.”
“There you go again, acting so clever.”
“You didn’t want to owe me anything, right? But you needed money. So you wanted to use some memorable incident to rake in plenty of cash, didn’t you?”
“Ugh.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Go ahead……”
“I’m the one who used Regression Magic. Didn’t you ever think that benefiting from knowledge of the future would mean owing me a debt?”
Of course I had……
I’d thought about it……!
“You figured if you made the money in secret, it’d be fine, right?”
Damn it!
My eyes filled with tears from the sheer shame of being caught red-handed. This was practically a physical blow. Lyon Voltein was going to pound me senseless with facts until I couldn’t recover……!
He watched my anguish with the detached amusement of someone observing a toy spinning in circles. His voice, threaded with laughter, wrapped around my throat like a serpent’s tail, cold and suffocating.
“You didn’t even know what game you were stepping into.”
“……What game?”
“That rabbit thing.”
“……You mean the Unnamed Creature?”
“I caught it and passed it on.”
“Wait—did you do the same in the previous life……?”
“The backer asked me to help.”
The backer Lyon Voltein spoke of could only be the Royal Family!
“What—are you saying the Royal Family ran a Fraudulent Gambling Match?”
“Not exactly. But they were gathering resources for today.”
Let me piece this together again.
In the previous life, no one had bet on the Unnamed Creature. A beast that looked weak to anyone’s eyes. The title “Unnamed.” No one placed their money, and every coin wagered went straight into the National Treasury.
In other words, it was a state-orchestrated Fraudulent Gambling Match.
And I had become a bomb—snatching away the very money the nation had been trying to swallow.

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