The Forgotten Field - Chapter 134

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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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Chapter 134
He swept his gaze over Aria from head to toe.
“What is this about?”
“It concerns Her Highness the Grand Duchess. I believe you should be informed, sir….”
The woman who had been speaking with a rigid expression suddenly turned ashen and fell silent. Only then did I realize I had let my threatening demeanor show.
Barcas narrowed his brow slightly. The woman’s incorrect prescription for his wife had been thoroughly proven to be a mistake.
The fact that she had carefully administered medicine to Talia, who repeatedly refused treatment, had been confirmed through the testimony of several servants and assistant mages.
This woman had received punishment befitting her transgression, and therefore had no reason to count her remaining days.
Barcas, having settled his mind, asked in a blunt tone.
“What exactly should I know?”
“It’s just that Her Highness the Grand Duchess….”
The woman nervously worked her lips and glanced anxiously around. She seemed bothered by the attention of those nearby.
He gestured with his chin toward a small reception room located near the kitchen.
“Follow me.”
Barcas entered the dimly lit room and set down a tray of food on a shelf before turning back.
The woman, who had been standing at the doorway peering into the reception room, finally spoke again.
“It’s something I heard from the handmaidens… but it seems Her Highness the Grand Duchess hasn’t had her monthly visitor in quite some time. Based on her recent symptoms, I suspect she may be with child.”
For a moment, I could not comprehend the meaning of what the woman had said.
The Healer began to rattle off words rapidly toward him, who stood frozen in bewilderment.
“However, Her Highness’s personal Healer hasn’t said a word about it. I am well aware it is not my domain… but in early pregnancy there are many precautions to take, so I thought you should know as soon as possible. Kalmor has many skilled midwives, so if you were to summon them for a prompt examination….”
“Wait.”
He grabbed his head with one hand, which was beginning to ache, and hastily cut off the woman’s words.
A rough voice emerged from his tightened throat.
“So you’re saying my wife is pregnant?”
“Based on Her Highness’s recent condition, it is highly probable….”
Barcas moistened his lips, which had grown parched.
The face of his wife, who had been unusually listless and drooping for the past few days, flashed through his mind. He also recalled how she had suddenly been craving food.
In that instant, his blood flow accelerated and his eardrums felt numb.
He frowned as he looked down at his hands, which trembled faintly. He could not understand why his body was reacting this way. It wasn’t as though he had held her without knowing this would happen.
When a rutting bull is placed in the same pen as a cow, a calf is born months later. It was the law of nature.
Rather, it was strange that he hadn’t noticed sooner.
“Thank you for telling me. I’ll have a midwife summoned at once to confirm.”
Barcas, having given a mechanical response, immediately stepped toward the doorway.
As he was about to leave the room, he recalled the promise he had made to her and turned back to gather the tray.
Then it suddenly occurred to him that this might not be enough.
He felt he should gather more food from the kitchen for her to eat. Lost in such thoughts, he turned to leave when the Healer urgently called him back.
“I have one more thing to say to you, sir.”
He looked at the woman with an irritated expression, making no attempt to hide his annoyance.
The woman, who had briefly shown signs of intimidation, soon met his gaze with steady eyes.
“Please give me one more chance to attend to Her Highness the Grand Duchess.”
His expression was utterly dumbfounded.
Recalling how his wife had collapsed while coughing blood, he still harbored the desire to string this woman up by her heels.
He refrained only because he knew such punishment would be excessive for a retainer who had served the Grand Ducal House faithfully for a lifetime.
Had it not been for his subordinates’ subtle advocacy—suggesting that rather than dismissing her given her talents, she might instead be assigned menial work at the Healing Center—he would have issued a banishment decree long ago.
He spoke with the chilling tone of a feral dog baring its teeth.
“Do you truly believe such a pittance will atone for your negligence?”
“Of course not, my lord. I would never dare dream of returning as the Grand Duchess’s personal healer.”
The woman bowed deeply, her face pallid with urgency.
“I merely wish to serve as an assistant. If you would permit me to work under whoever now tends to the Grand Duchess, serving in a supporting capacity, I swear I shall do everything in my power to ensure such a tragedy never occurs again.”
“Denied. I have no intention of entrusting my wife to someone who has committed such a fatal error.”
Barcas, who had been speaking with some harshness, suddenly fell silent.
Regardless, this woman was renowned throughout the Eastern Territories as the most accomplished scholar of pharmaceuticals.
Had she not, after all, detoxified a demon’s poison within mere days—poison that even high-ranking priests could not treat?
Should some unforeseen crisis arise that neither mages nor priests could address, this woman might prove invaluable.
Moreover, he felt uneasy entrusting her entirely to a healer from the Taren Family. If he stationed someone from the Grand Ducal House at her side, she would not dare attempt any treachery.
Having swiftly organized his thoughts, Barcas clicked his tongue and spoke.
“Very well. I shall permit your return as an assistant healer.”
Relief flickered across the woman’s face. He observed her quietly before adding:
“However, should my wife object to your presence, you shall be reassigned to menial duties at the Healing Center.”
“I shall bear that in mind.”
The woman bowed her head, her complexion darkening. She seemed to recall Talia’s caustic demeanor toward her. Yet it was not his place to intervene in easing her wariness. If she lacked even that much skill, she might as well continue her drudgery at the Healing Center.
He turned away coldly.
In any case, he had already decided to employ additional healers to attend to Talia. Stationing the High Priest at Laedgo Castle would be a sound arrangement as well.
Though it deviated somewhat from protocol, the High Priest would not refuse if he proposed expanding the Church building.
By offering to provide lodgings during the construction, he could keep the clergy residing in the castle, allowing him to summon holy magic in times of emergency.
After his mind had been working furiously, Barcas finally reached his sleeping chamber and released a long, restrained breath.
His heart, which had never wavered even after half a day of relentless riding, was now beating rapidly. Whenever anything concerned her, his body became utterly beyond his control.
Once, he had despised that sensation unbearably. Whenever he was with her, he always felt as though he were fighting himself. He had wanted to excise from his mind those perilous eyes that made him feel what he did not wish to feel, that made him desire what he did not want to desire.
When had he escaped such thoughts?
“I… knew it. I knew you would come to save me… I knew it.”
He hastily suppressed the memory that had suddenly surfaced.
Recalling that moment, he had a premonition that something within him would suffer irreversible and grave damage.
He banished all the idle thoughts crowding his mind and pulled open the door handle.
As he stepped into the chamber, a rich fragrance filled his lungs. Breathing in her scent, which had gradually permeated his sleeping chamber, he crossed the space suffused with warm firelight. As he approached the bedside, he saw her curled into a ball, sleeping.
He set the tray down on the shelf and sat at the edge of the bed. When he brought the back of his hand to her flushed cheeks, he felt a lukewarm heat.
Was this merely a common reaction of a woman carrying a child?
As he examined her complexion with concerned eyes, her long lashes, which had been drooping, lifted upward.
“…You’re back?”
Her blue eyes, still heavy with sleep, gazed at him clearly. She rubbed her eyes with her fists and let out a small yawn.
“Did you bring what I asked for?”
“Just… some water for now.”
My voice emerged strained and unnatural, even to my own ears.
Fortunately, she seemed not to notice anything amiss.
Talia, pressing herself against his side, made her demand as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Then feed it to me.”
She tilted her head back and parted her rose-tinted lips with a delicate invitation.
Barcas, his body rigid as he gazed upon her, gripped the cup and drew the tart liquid into his mouth.
As he cradled her soft cheeks in both hands and carefully fed her the drink, my body burned as though consumed by flame.
He drew her into his embrace and lay back upon the bed, but the Healer’s warning about caution in early pregnancy surfaced in his mind, and he barely managed to steady himself.
“…Why not tonight?”
As he held her fever-warmed, languid body against his chest and steadied his breathing, she cast an anxious gaze toward him.
He stroked her rose-flushed cheeks and murmured softly.
“You have a fever. I won’t do anything until you’re better.”
“I’m fine though…”
She closed her dizzy eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
“No, you’re not.”
He exhaled as though sighing and swept his hand across her slender waist.
Perhaps my child rests within her.
As he turned that incomprehensible reality over in his mind, he gazed down at her bright face, already nodding off once more.
When Talia’s expression softened without its usual severity, she looked exactly like a young girl. At that innocent sight, his heart sank heavy as lead.

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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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