How to say....
The slightly furrowed brow contained an emotion close to displeasure.
'No, is it an inconvenience?'
It didn't seem like he was making that kind of expression just because his time alone with Aria was interrupted.
"Lloyd?"
As Aria called him cautiously, Lloyd looked back at her belatedly.
"Huh."
He responded meekly and quickly managed his expression. It was the usual Lloyd again.
But she still felt a strange feeling in him that she couldn't explain.
"Hmm, unfortunately we'll have to postpone exploring the alley until later."
"No, not even later…"
When she answered the mischievous joke, narrowing her eyes, he smiled and held out his hand.
"Let's go back today."
Since they did just come down to greet today. Communicating with them in earnest will be for next time.
"Yes."
Aria took his hand and turned her head in the direction where the children had left.
'Does Lloyd hate children?'
Of course, he reacted unkindly to everyone except Aria.
It was no exception just because the other person was a child.
As a human being, he was considerate and took care of the weak, but that is all.
'But looking at parents and children, to be making that expression that was beyond bored and uncomfortable.....'
What does it mean?
Seeing Lloyd's reaction, Aria was left with complicated feelings.
"I'm hungry, I'm sleepy."
Aria simultaneously spoke of incompatible desires.
Lloyd had to ponder for a moment which one he should help first.
"Aria, are you sleeping?"
He called the attendant and ordered them to bring a light meal, then took the drowsy Aria back into his arms.
"Looks like you're sleeping."
Lloyd skillfully tidied up her disheveled clothes and talked to her so that she wouldn't fall asleep.
"Uh… I can't wake up."
Aria murmured in a sleepy voice before barely lifting her eyelids.
Breakfast was served soon after.
Aria's eyes twinkled in her dozed off sleep.
After a while, she said, looking down at the plate that had just been scraped clean.
"I seem to be eating too well these days."
Did I gain some weight? Aria tilted her head for a moment, then she said.
"I want to eat more strawberries."
Then, the kitchen family, who had been having fun feeding Aria these days, brought strawberries in a basket.
Lloyd held her, who was eating the strawberries, like a precious treasure.
"...Aren't you feverish?"
He touched Aria's forehead, which felt especially hot.
She chewed hard on the strawberry and muttered, 'Is that so?'.
"Uuuhhp!"
Gasp, perhaps she ate too well.
Aria covered her mouth and retched, then she looked at Lloyd's eyes.
She has had such an appetite lately.
Thanks to that, she didn't know the limits of her stomach and would stuff food into her mouth and vomit it all out.
'I was hiding it from Lloyd because I knew he would be worried.'
She didn't hide it, but it was more like she didn't mention it.
Just as expected.
Lloyd, whose expression hardened seriously, said in a subdued voice.
"...Call the doctor."
Cuirre was dragged right in front of Aria because Aria had one false nausea.
Sabina, Tristan, Vincent, and Cloud followed after him like sausages on a link.
When they heard that Aria was sick, they ran like crazy.
"Mya mya!"
The dragon too.
The dragon cried and rushed into Aria's arms.
Then, Lloyd grabbed the dragon's wings without hesitation with a rough movement.
"What do you mean Mya Mya? Speak properly."
The dragon was no longer a baby.
After only a few months of growth, it was able to grow past babbling and speak human language to some extent.
It was still small.
As a human being, maybe it had grown to the level of a child?
"Sheesh."
The child dragon lightly clicked its tongue and swung its head away.
Aria, who had been silently watching the scene, was examined by Cuirre, and she said again as if she remembered it belatedly.
"Come to think of it, a dragon appeared in a dream I had before."
"A dragon? That salamander?"
The child dragon chewed on Lloyd's shoulder. He didn't even flinch.
"No, it was younger, smaller, warmer, and had pretty pink eyes. Noah gave it to me…"
At that time, Cuirre, who had finished examining her, raised his head.
"You are pregnant."
While giving results that anyone can guess.
"…"
"…"
"…"
However, at least no one present here expected such an outcome.
The Valentine's family fell silent for a while.
Time passed.
"Uh, so… a nephew?"
Vincent spoke first in a bewildered voice.
"Isn't it about time?"
Well, of course, he thought it would happen a long time later.
He rubbed the nape of his neck, dumbfounded that he hadn't even imagined that he would ever have a nephew.
Perhaps one of the reasons is that Aria got married when she was 10 years old....
Another reason was that, for the Valentine family, having a child from the head of the family was not considered a blessing at all.
With the birth of the child, the Madam will suffer and die, and the head of the family will be locked up in a tower and go mad.
'There was a culture of hiding the children of the family head.'
But now it's a blessing.
It was no different from others.
No one was going to die with God's malice just because a child was born.
Recognizing this fact, Vincent's face brightened.
"Wow! That's very good!"
The child of Valentine and the Siren.
He couldn't even imagine what an extraordinary child it would be.
He was happy to have a nephew, but apart from that, it was also a very interesting thing from a scholarly point of view.
'Pregnant? Me?'
Aria recognized the reality one beat later than Vincent.
'... a child?'
She looked down at her belly, feeling her slumber disappear in an instant.
Although she knew that one day she would have a child with Lloyd.
'That's already....'
Aria immediately turned pale, covering her mouth. The first emotion that crept into her was fear.
It was scary. The fact that she has a life inside her body.
"Aria? Aria!"
She slowly rolled her eyes at the hand that held her shoulder firmly.
"Aria, it's okay. Breathe. Huh?"
Lloyd calmed her down.
Aria was belatedly realizing that she had forgotten to breathe, and she let out a slow breath.
'It's not that I don't like children.'
It was clear that if it was a child with Lloyd, they would be so cute and lovable that she would want to bite it.
But....
'I will never let my child live an unhappy life like me....'
Aria's mother, Sophia, said.
She told Aria not to associate with anyone and not to love anyone. She must cut it off.
Even though she didn't have to think about it anymore, she couldn't stop the sudden surge of anxiety.
'It's in the past.'
Aria closed her eyes tightly, then opened them, she tried to say calmly.
"It's just because I suddenly remembered her past."
That was all.
It's a good thing to forget now that everything ended with a happy ending.
After a while.
Lloyd came to see Aria.
"Are you feeling better now?"
After being alone in her room for a while, lost in thought, Aria nodded her head.
"I'm fine."
She was a little annoyed when she realized how long traumas from the past gnaw at people's minds.
"No… Actually, I don't think I'm fine."
Her heart was beating so fast that it hurt. She pursed her lips with a flushed face.
But at that moment, she lost her words.
The memories of summer days came to mind.
The day they shook off all the incidents and misfortunes that blocked their path, and were crowned as heroes in front of Valentine's people.
'Didn't Lloyd show some strange reaction that day....'
The children were playing lively, and the mother of one child was taking care of her child by her side.
And Lloyd, who was watching them, had a cold, hard expression. Soon, he showed signs of discomfort.
'Why haven't we both talked about a child before....'
It would be more accurate to say that neither of them had that in mind.
'Of course I should have done it.'
It was while she was contemplating what to say.
Aria raised her head in a sudden sense of incongruity.
"What are you doing there?"
Lloyd was standing at a distance.
It felt strange because Lloyd had been the person who had always been close to her.