"You...."
Me?
Lloyd stopped talking.
It's so complicated in his head that he doesn't know what to say. Perhaps Aria had felt his feelings, she didn't say anything.
Her beating heart seemed to cool down.
'What about ordinary people?'
Jumping for joy? Saying thank you, I love you, shedding tears? To have heated discussions about whether the child is a girl or a boy, who do they want the child to resemble?
She recalled what she had read in the novel and tried to substitute it. It seemed that none of that was happening to Aria and Lloyd.
In her imagination, the two creaked. Like an actor who plays a role that doesn't suit them.
'Me and Lloyd's child.'
Aria unconsciously lifted her hand and laid it gently on her belly.
It's just flat. She hasn't felt anything yet. It was nothing like usual.
"They say it's 6 weeks."
Then, Lloyd, who had been keeping silent, finally opened his mouth. He fixed his gaze on Aria, who was stroking her stomach.
"They say it's healthy."
He seemed to convey the doctor's words instead. Things to watch out for in the early days of pregnancy flowed from his mouth.
He didn't even seem to know what he was talking about.
"Huh? Uh, ah. I see."
"…"
"…"
Aria sighed in response. They had nothing more to say.
Aria turned her head with a stiff motion and asked in an awkward voice.
"What about Lloyd?"
"…"
"What do you think about having a baby?"
"A baby ...."
Lloyd blinked slowly at Aria's question.
The two shining eyes below the languidly relaxed eyes shimmered as if they contained a wonderful universe.
'It's not that he hates it.'
She could tell just by looking at his face. Aria looked at him in silence and asked.
"Would you like to hear the heartbeat?"
"The heartbeat?"
Lloyd widened his eyes.
"Can you hear that?"
She nodded her head.
"I couldn't guess and I didn't know it because it was dull, but it seemed like I could hear it if it was in a quiet place."
"Does it have a heart?"
"I can hear the sound so it's' probably there right?"
"Does it have eyes, nose and mouth?"
"Well? Maybe there is?"
"The limbs?"
"I hope so."
It was a silly conversation, but they were very serious.
Possessed, Lloyd slowly approached her and knelt down on one knee. Then he carefully put his ear to her stomach and closed his eyes.
"...I can't hear it."
"Is it because you're not a siren?"
Aria's stomach only rumbled.
Seeing her husband, with his ears dyed red, leaning against her stomach with a serious expression and closing his eyes, was cute.
"It's fascinating."
"Right?"
Lloyd and Aria had similar feelings.
Like a slave who has broken their shackles and is free for the first time. Having rights they never imagined and believed they couldn't enjoy, they were just fascinated.
'Naturally, that's a given'
It was something everyone could enjoy.
It felt like she was suddenly alone in an unfamiliar foreign land.
'No, I'm not alone.'
Aria muttered that, then she smiled faintly.
Since there are at least two of them, this unfamiliar anxiety will be quickly overcome.
She did think so. If it hadn't been for Lloyd, who had hardened before she knew it.
"If it's something you can't handle, I don't mind you telling me honestly."
Hearing his unexpected words, Aria blinked her eyes blankly.
"What, what are you talking about?"
"…"
"If I said it's difficult to handle, what would you do?"
"...Aria."
"Did I understand it right?"
Was he going to terminate the child?
"What do you mean by that?"
Just because she was pregnant, maternal love didn't happen overnight. However, she could not calmly listen to him saying that he could destroy life that had already formed.
Isn't this Lloyd's child? Lloyd's and no one else....
"It's your child too."
Aria cupped her fists tightly with trembling fingertips.
Lloyd held her pale hand. With a firm and strong hand.
"Aria, I put you first."
Aria shook his hand. Lloyd stiffened for a moment, he squeezed her hand tighter again.
"Let go."
This time he didn't let go even though she told him too. He held her hand stubbornly until he realized that she was shaking.
Aria gritted her teeth.
"Let go!"
Instead of following her orders, he said firmly
"I put aside everything like love, ethics, and conscience and only think of you."
"…"
"I only need you. I only need you to be safe."
Lloyd said, showing that he would never back down, but his eyes were shaking slightly.
Even with sincerity.
Aria, who was speechless for a moment, managed to part her lips.
"You speak like I'm dying."
"I really don't know why Noah came to your dreams and forced you to have a child, saying that it's still too early."
Lloyd and Aria each had God's feelings.
Lloyd has God's goodwill and malice.
Aria has God's conscience.
If she conceives and gives birth to a child in this state, this child will become a vessel to inherit God's feelings.
Just as what Valentine has done for generations for God's malice.
Aria understood what he meant by saying this and refuted.
"Valentine's curse is over."
"Can you guarantee that?"
"Lloyd."
"It would be beneficial for both God and Noah to get their emotions back from us as soon as possible, so why talk about the time?"
Lloyd was convinced that it was Noah who wanted a child between them. He couldn't quite figure out what exactly Noah would want from a child.
Aria agreed with that part. Because it was what her dreams were suggesting.
"Of course, the child will be affected by God's feelings… but it will be fine."
"Of course the child will be fine."
It's Valentine's bloodline. Lloyd added cynically, then twisted his mouth.
Aria was taken aback by his reaction.
"God and Noah won't harm the two of us. Then why did they help us all this time?"
"…"
"Perhaps it was because they wanted a child to be born of us. The child will exist only if you and I are alive."
Why was he so pessimistic?
Besides, it was quite plausible, which made even Aria that was listening to it uneasy.
Aria gasps as he suddenly seems to have returned to being the vigilant boy he was when they first met.
Aria bit her lip and looked at him, swallowing his emotions.
"Valentine…was a sinner. A life that was born after devouring its parents and to die from madness. It would be a blessing if it did not exist in this world."
Lloyd has always thought so.
He said he would end it all on his own. Since he was only five years old.
He was just free from the curse, and he was just thinking about living with Aria now. But the anxiety that this might not be the end choked his breath.
"You, like Mother…"
He gritted his teeth for a moment, then continued in a suppressed voice.
"I will never let that happen."
It was a desperate plea for her to live.
Aria looked down at Lloyd on his knees and let out a deep sigh.
The past trauma.
That nasty thing seemed to be eating away at Lloyd as well.
The news that Aria was expecting a child spread quickly.
"A baby? A baby who resembles the mistress?"
Some employees lost their minds as if they were happy just imagining the appearance of a baby.
They whispered words that would be offensive if anyone heard them. Even while walking down the street, they would stop and drool profusely.
"Wow... it would be lovely, lovely, lovely, right?"
"Soft mochi…"
"I want to bite it…"
"I'm going to put it in my pocket!"
There were not one or two servants who were scolded by Dana, the chief handmaid, after saying strange things.
Not only that, but the kitchen staff were more motivated than usual. Until they were overheated.
Baker served dishes without knowing the end.
"If you have something you want to eat, just let me know. When we receive your order, whatever ingredients you need will be airlifted and served within three hours."
"No, not that far…"
Aria was burdened and answered shyly, but she couldn't stop the chefs from running wild.
Most of them were like that.
They couldn't hide their excitement at the blessing of a new life.
'It seems like everyone got a big drink....'
Aria was amazed that they couldn't get out of their overexcited state.
Overjoyed. Is this a common reaction of ordinary people?
'Me and Lloyd, on the other hand....'
Aria knew too. What Lloyd was worried about.
The story of the Valentine family has been heard so much that it is heartbreaking.
'But now it's just an old story.'
Noah could have appeared out of nowhere in his descendants' dream to delay returning the goodwill and malice.
Isn't Noah also the son of God?
But...
'Actually…..I don't know.'
She just wants to believe that.
In order to prevent the destruction of the world, Noah was willing to bear God's malice and made his descendants inherit it from generation to generation.
If the existence of the world depended on their child, Noah would choose the world over his descendants.
"Ha...."
It's disturbing.
'I'll have to walk a bit.'
Aria went out of her room and walked down the hallway.
"How could I have known that a day like this would come to Valentine's castle?"
Then, by chance, from a distance, she heard the maids talking.
"I know. It's natural to be happy when a child is born.'
"When the head of the family was born, nobody laughed. They said that the atmosphere inside the castle was thin ice, so they couldn't even breathe properly."
"That's of course. At that time, everyone thought the madam would die."
"Even the former Grand Duke always seemed so murderous. There were not one or two servants who died from malice just because they were in the same space…"
"There were even rumors that he had already gone crazy."
Aria took a deep breath and focused on the conversation. It was the first time she had heard of it.
'Although I certainly knew.'
Of course, there was a difference between guessing things on her own and hearing the situation directly through the employee's mouth.
Only then did Aria realize why the employees were so happy.
Until now, no one had ever blessed a Valentine's child.
'Then, Lloyd at that time....'
A 5-year old boy who memorized a self-sacrifice spell without hesitation.
Even though she fully predicted what kind of environment he grew up in....
'I want to hear more about it.'
It seemed that it would show her the way forward.
The next morning.
Sabina went to Aria's bedroom.
Originally, it was the day they took swordsmanship lessons together, but that day was different.
"Mother, I have something to ask of you."
"What?"
"Can you tell me the story of when you first had Lloyd, no, when you first came to the Grand Duke's castle?"
Aria asked cautiously.
Then Sabina widened her eyes for a moment. Like she was being asked a question she never expected.
Aria was worried that asking about the memories of that day would be disrespectful to Sabina, and that it might remind Sabina of her wounds.
"It wouldn't be particularly pleasant to hear."
But Sabina responded with a deep smile.
"If it doesn't matter that it was a story about when I was out of my mind."