Volume 7 Chapter 3 Part 8
Fiancée of the Wizard
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Translation by burnt.marshmallows
Editing by Team Foxsunes
Noct took a big gulp of air. He then bent down to his knees and with those thin arms of his, fearfully reached out towards my belly that hadn’t even swelled up yet. It was as though he were touching a delicate glass handiwork. His hand moved as though he thought that he’d break it if he touched it carelessly. He was trembling ever so slightly.
Right before he reached my belly, that hand of his moved back, as if he had given up. But I wasn’t letting him get his way.
「You don’t need to be scared. Here.」
I took his hand that was trying to move away, and forced it to touch my belly. Noct opened his eyes wide and tried to pull away, but only weakly. Unable to break free from my hand, he stayed there stiffened while touching my belly with his hand.
……Oh no. Could this possibly count as sexual harassment? Young boy with a bright future gets sexually harassed by a pregnant woman. What kind of scandalous news is that?
While I started to get nervous in my heart, Noct didn’t seem to notice. Those lips of his started to tremble slightly
「Is there a child, in here?」
「Yes, you’re right.」
I smiled at his voice, that somehow sounded dumbfounded, as I let go of his hand. But his hand didn’t move away from my belly. I could feel the warmth from his gentle hands. It was a very, very kind warmth.
「Wow」
His tiny whisper caused the air around to vibrate. Those yellow eyes of his continued to stare at my belly, as if he were try to find something, as his hand gently moved left and right. And as he made another round trip as if to make sure of something, his hands trembled again.
「It’s so amazing.」
It was precisely because the words he said were so plainly straightforward that I felt like I could all the more hear how touched he was. But it seemed that that wasn’t the only emotion that was embedded in his voice.
Maybe it was envy. Maybe it was yearning. Or maybe it was something else. In the end, I couldn’t understand what that 「something」was even when Noct had finished patting my belly. But there was no doubt that the warmth in this boy’s hand was just as kind as that man’s kiss.
＊ ＊ ＊
A few days had passed after that. It was a night where the big blue moon shone bright. I sat together relaxing with Noct in the living with herbal tea in one hand. In my hand, I held a lavender colored wool yarn and my knitting needle. And in Noct’s hand, he held a quill pen, with his notebook and the history book laid out on the low table.
As I steadily continued to knit the second scarf, I glanced down at Noct’s good-looking side profile. He sat directly on the carpet, and clinged onto the low table, working hard on copying the words from the history book to his notebook. It was adorable how his beast-like ears would move around from time to time. But it seemed that it was wrong of me to think so based on the general public. Anyone who saw this would probably call him a monster or demon-kind, and would probably avoid this young boy, so they would probably struggle to understand.
Ever since I became pregnant, people from the Adina household, as well as Uncle Lancent started to contact me more often than they usually did. But I had yet to openly tell the family members about Noct. I had indeed told them that we were taking care of a certain young boy, but I didn’t disclose any details and my wet nurse was keeping her mouth shut too.
There just wasn’t a chance to do it. That could be one reason, but more than that, I didn’t want to cause unneeded worrying. If it were just my own parents, my brother who shared the same blood with, as well as the wonderful Uncle Lancent, who raised that man, they probably wouldn’t reject Noct. And it would pain me greatly to have to say this to Noct, but within the Royal Capital, he was an existence that should not be accepted. If the public found out that we were hiding an existence like that, it would probably cause a big ruckus. If that really happened, I didn’t want to drag those people in. I was embarrassed of myself for saying these things, given I was the one trying to hide Noct. I really felt bad for being a thoroughly selfish woman.
Without denying those wilful thoughts of mine, my wet nurse just supported me with a「I’m just following Young Madam’s wishes.」. But tonight, she was not in the mansion. Ever since the celebratory party, she had been staying at our house. But tonight, she was going back to her house for the first time in a while. I’ve known her family for a long time, but we couldn’t just borrow her forever. We almost forced her to go home, telling her that it’d be fine since we had Noct.
Only Noct and I were left in the Lancent mansion. I guess times like these were nice too once in a while. Thinking that, I started to move my knitting needle once again. After a short time, it seemed that Noct had found a good place to stop copying and called out to me.「Hey」
「Yes?」
I stopped moving the hand that held the knitting needle and looked up. With the third volume history book opened, Noct looked at me with a somewhat worried look in his eyes.
「Um, I was thinking that it was a bit late」
「When you say late are you referring to Edi?」
「Yeah. For him to not be back this late, maybe something happened……」
As Noct glanced at the large pendulum clock placed at the corner of the room and spoke, I put the scarf I was knitting halfway on my knee. Now that he pointed it out, it was already quite late.
「You’re right……. But in the past, him not being back at this time was quite a normal thing. Although I’d almost forgotten because he’d been coming home early recently. 」
「Really?」
「Yes. That person is a true workaholic. He really is a hopeless person.」
He was someone who often came home after midnight, so I was shocked or panicked at a timing like this. Moreover, he properly told me beforehand this time.
「You don’t need to worry. He’d told me in the daytime that he was invited by Sir Alheim to go drinking together. Sorry I forgot to tell you」
「By Alheim, do you mean the Royal Head Knight?」
「Yes, it’s that Sir Alheim Lix.」
He was the head of the Royal Knight. Even as one of the heroes who saved the world, his bravery was highly praised in other aspects as well. He was truly skilled, having raised up the ranks from being a commoner to becoming the Head of the Royal Knights. My impression of him was also that he had a personality where he would try to get close to any and everyone, without leaving them out. 「He’s such an amazing person.」When I said that to that man, he just shrugged and said:「He’s just someone who has no concept of holding back.」, but that lack of restraint was probably another of his positives.
I had received his notice that he had been invited by that Head Knight in the evening. It was when I had left dinner preparations to my wet nurse and I was completely absorbed in making the second scarf.
That was when the magic orb on the bracelet that I wore around my right wrist suddenly glowed, and that man’s voice saying that he had been invited by the Head Knight to go drinking suddenly came. He spoke in a tone that sounded like he hated it from the bottom of his heart. He was probably forced into it by the Head Knight.
Lately, he had been working so hard in providing service to the family…….or to be exact, service to me, that I felt bad. He was someone who would never want to do anything if it didn’t appear absolutely necessary to him, so he probably had quite a bit of stress piled up from putting in so much effort in providing service for me. I really hoped that he would take this rare invite like this to let go and thoroughly enjoy himself tonight.
「I did leave dinner for him, but it seems that he probably doesn’t need it now. Noct, are you hungry? If you are we can eatー……」
Together. I was about to continue my line, but I was interrupted by the ringing of the sound of the doorbell chime, which was hung on the wall connected to the main gate.
That was weird. A question mark appeared in my head for a moment. If it was just that man coming home, then only the magic stone should glow. Which means that this was a quest who had rung the chime.
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