Quota not met for the week. This is the week’s last chapter. Also, <10% of readers have voted on yesterday’s poll.
Biological Daughter
Truth be told, I was very curious, too. I wondered what Queen Sisi"s reaction would be upon finding out that Veirya was pregnant.
"Will Queen Sisi be shocked, fl.u.s.tered or lost for what to do?" I wondered.
I personally was every eager to see Queen Sisi"s shocked and lost for what to do expression showing on her proud face. I bet she never thought her friend would be pregnant. Additionally, Veirya was perfectly normal last time they met; there were no signs.
We went to the door together. When we arrived, Queen Sisi raised her head to scan the house. She then laughed: "What a cute house; it"s pretty much what I imagined it to be. A flower garden, a not-so-large house and a loved one by your side. If I could have those things as in fairy tales, I could give up everything that I have."
"I, too, like this place very much. Of course, that is because I am with those I love and those who love me. In saying that, when I first arrived here, the place looked quite spooky."
I nostalgically checked out at the house. Thinking back on it, the house definitely did not give off such a warming air when I first arrived. At the time, the sun wasn"t as bright as it was today. The house looked murkier. When we went inside, it was essentially walking into a box of dust. There was nothing in the fireplace, leaving the house colder than outside. Leah and Veirya didn"t speak to each other. Veirya would just sit there in silence as if she was a block of wood. The only feelings I initially had here were the cold despair and loneliness.
By this point, the house was clean. Anna kept herself busy in the kitchen. The elves upstairs would leave their room to chat with Veirya every now and then. Angelina and Veirya would take Leah out to play. The frighteningly empty house grew a tad squishy. Still, it was so warm that I was almost reluctant to leave.
Queen Sisi quietly laughed: "It sounds as though you weren"t too happy when you first came here?"
I honestly nodded and smiled: "Indeed. When I first came here, I did feel quite despaired. What could I do, though? It was the only place I could take shelter."
"By the sounds of it, it was my mistake. Had I not teased and toyed with you that night and treated you properly, instead would you have come to my side and lived as my favoured va.s.sal? Now that I think about, it truly wouldn"t be a bad life. Was I wrong?"
Queen Sisi turned to look at me. I turned to face her. Honestly, I had never considered the question. If Queen Sisi didn"t treat me that way that night and was sincerely kind to me, would I have been in her employ? I thought it might"ve been possible. I had nowhere to go at the time, so it"d only be natural for me to cling to the biggest tiger on the mountain to live. I would"ve chosen Queen Sisi over Veirya if I had the choice back then.
I began to think about my next step: "What should I do now? I think I"ll stop Queen Sisi from attacking the elves, as the only way that I"d be able to enjoy the special privileges that Queen Sisi has given me is to ensure that she"s alive. Nevertheless, there"s a prerequisite to that, which is "if". However, there are no "ifs" in this world."
I shook my head and answered Queen Sisi, "That is hard to say. I cannot tell you whether you were wrong or right. If I had gone with you, I might be different to how I am now. You might not like how I am at your side. If that was how it turned out, it would not be positive for either of us."
Queen Sisi stopped to think for a moment and then happily laughed: "I like every time you speak very, very much."
I understood what Queen Sisi meant. She wouldn"t admit her faults. She was too proud to admit her wrongs. Hence, if you made a mistake, you"d only be ridiculed.
Queen Sisi touched my face as she softly giggled. I knocked on the door. Veirya opened the door. Veirya looked at Queen Sisi with an expressionless look as she did in the past. Queen Sisi smiled and went to hug Veirya; however, she froze in place when she saw Veirya"s belly.
Once upon a time, Queen Sisi also loved to see people"s look of agony and astonishment. That day, I got to see that same look on her face, and it pleased me beyond what words could do justice. I guess seeing such expressions are entertaining.
"Wh-What happened to your belly, Veirya? What happened to you? Are… are you sick?"
Queen Sisi was dumbfounded. She never expected Veirya to turn into that shape. Nevertheless, I also noticed that, while people would usually guess a woman was pregnant if they saw her with a bulging belly, Queen Sisi thought that Veirya was sick, surprisingly. I, therefore, figured out that, although Queen Sisi was always teasing me, she was actually a completely clueless virgin.
"Mm, I am pregnant." Veirya did exactly as Angelina told her. She added, "And. It is his child."
"Wait… pregnancy… pregnancy… you… you… you two slept together? You two have already shared a bed?!!"
Queen Sisi looked at us with a shocked expression, making it seem as though she was looking at monsters, though I wasn"t quite sure what she meant by slept together. I was pretty convinced she just meant it in the sense that we lied on the same bed, not the act that we actually did. Queen Sisi was totally ignorant on the subject, after all.
"Uhm, we slept, and then we also…"
"Stop!! Stop!!" I swiftly stopped Veirya.
Although Angelina did teach Veirya what to do, there was no need to go into the details! Queen Sisi didn"t need to know the finer details. Or rather, we would lead Queen Sisi down the naughty path. Queen Sisi"s ignorance on the topic was a relief for me.
"So… so… so… what should I… Mm… mm… I think…" Queen Sisi was couldn"t even speak. She couldn"t even use her usual way of referring to herself. She stuttered and still couldn"t make a complete sentence: "I… I mean… I…. what should… what exactly should I do…? I… mm… should I give you something…? Um… but I don"t know what to give a child… I… what exactly should I do? I didn"t prepare anything… um… What… what… what exactly should I prepare?"
I almost burst out in laughter as I watched Queen Sisi"s frantically stammer. Though I imagined she might"ve been fl.u.s.tered over the discovery of Veirya"s pregnancy, I never thought she"d be that fl.u.s.tered. The nonchalant and proud Queen Sisi revealing such an expression was ecstatic to me. I never expected such a big reaction from Queen Sisi.
"It appears that our choice of method was great. d.a.m.n, I"m happy as can be," I thought to myself. I held in my laughter and said, "Okay, okay, let"s put this aside for now. I believe that our child is very happy to know that Queen Sisi, herself, is here. After all, not everyone gets the chance to see Queen Sisi"s revered beauty. I believe that our child is definitely very happy."
"Ind-Indeed, huh…? Mm… Yes, that"s right; that"s right." Queen Sisi desperately tried to regain her composure to return to being the proud Queen Sisi before. She carefully touched Veirya"s belly and mumbled under her breath to herself, "S-So this is what pregnancy is like… Mm… I"m surprised there"s a child inside… I see. I see… how miraculous, how miraculous."
Queen Sisi turned around and headed into the house. However, she then hesitated for a moment before turning around to call a lady-in-waiting over. She whispered something in the lady-in-waiting"s ear. The lady-in-waiting was absolutely surprised; she never expected Queen Sisi to make that request. But nonetheless, she didn"t comment. She turned around to prepare. With that said, I had a good guess of what Queen Sisi wanted to do. By my guess, she probably wanted to do something for the non-existent child while she was here.
"However, I am truly perplexed," Queen Sisi remarked.
I was pretty certain that I knew what Queen Sisi wanted to say, which was why Veirya"s belly was fine the last time they met, yet suddenly bulged. I could claim she actually already had a bulge last time, but it just wasn"t as obvious and had only become obvious today. Queen Sisi couldn"t prove otherwise, anyway.
To my surprise, Queen Sisi shifted her gaze to Leah. Leah froze. She looked at Queen Sisi, unsure of what to do. Queen Sisi stated, "Leah is a child that you just picked up, after all. She"s not your child. Would you still raise Leah if the child is born? Would you still take care of Leah the same way? That"s your biological child, while Leah is just a succubus you adopted. I thought Leah would be opposed to you having a child as she doesn"t have anywhere else to go, after all."
Queen Sisi hit me out of left field with her comments. Caught off guard, I looked to Leah. Leah looked at me without knowing what to do. I quickly explained, "That is impossible! I will take proper care of Leah no matter what!!!"
Veirya turned around as I exclaimed. She added, "Leah. Is our child."
"You didn"t conceive her."
"She is. My Child. She will. Always be. My child."
Okay, sometimes, Veirya was sometimes more useful than I was. Perhaps Leah didn"t trust me too much, since I say so much. Veirya, on the other, hand managed to rea.s.sure Leah with a simple remark.