However, he gasped when he reached inside the hut. A woman was lying dead on the ground, a pool of blood had formed beneath her legs. Judging by her body, she'd have likely died during the childbirth.
"Carnelia!!!" Eugene bawled. His appearance seemed more disheveled than before, if something like that was even possible. However, a broken prince was of least concern to William, whose eyes were trained on the dead woman's bloated stomach noticing the slight movements that were appearing on its surface.
At once he was beside the dead body, keeping his hand on her belly and feeling it. As he had guessed it was still warm, however the woman was dead for sure. Something hit his palm slightly and William's eyes widened in understanding.
Eugene's vision was blurry but he still looked at his actions questioningly. However, blood rose in his eyes when he saw William take out a knife from underneath his belt and pierced Carnelia's belly. To think he believed that William was different from count Bentinck even for a moment. Both of them belonged to a blood thirsty household, after all! He pounced on him with all his might, taking the knife away from his hands.
"What are you doing?" William asked, surprised at the sudden attack. His white shirt that had gotten colored red from Eugene's blood, was stained once more.
He brushed the stain, looking at Eugene in astonishment. However, he caught his bloodshot eyes glaring green at him and shivers ran down his spine. It took him only a moment to guess what Eugene was thinking.
"Tch." he pushed Eugene away from him and then picked up the knife that was lying on the ground. Without wasting a moment, he made an incision on the woman's abdomen. Warm blood flowed out of her, obscuring his vision to any signs of life. However, without being fazed by all that blood, William carefully dug his hand inside the cut he had made and pulled out a little, curled up thing from inside of her. It was bathed in blood of his dead mother but he announced his arrival to the world with cries that pierced the mortifying silence inside the hut. It was as if he as mourning the death of his mother.
Eugene, who had been glaring at William the entire time had his eyes become cloudy when the cries reached him as well. William took out his shirt and wiped the blood on the infant's body with it after he had cut the cord. Slowly and softly, he wrapped his body in the same shirt before handing the baby to Eugene.
"I noticed the baby kicking his mother's belly and thought that maybe he was still alive. And he was…" William kneeled near the prince and smiled warmly at the infant, crying in his arms.
Eugene sobbed. Even though Carnelia was dead, she had left a little piece of hers with Eugene and he promised to cherish him and love him more than anyone else in this world. When the tension was over, sleep caught a hold of him and he collapsed on William, who was kneeling next to him, resting his head on the count's shoulder.
William supported the child with his hands at once and smiled at the sleeping prince. He felt at ease now that everything was over. It would be dawn soon and he had to cross the Lativian border before the sun rose up. "It can't be helped." he sighed. Afterall, he couldn't leave both of them here like this. The Lativian prince was covered in injuries and had fainted from exhaustion. Even the infant's shrill cries could not keep him awake from his slumber.
He motioned the two knights who came with him to bring the medicines and food from their carriage to the hut. Looking at the situation, it felt like the prince was hiding the baby and didn't want the secret to be exposed. So, he chose to remain silent as well. With a wounded prince resting against him, a hungry child crying in his arms and his dead mother lying cold a few feet away from them, William Bentinck waited for the sun to rise up in the sky.