Chapter 357
[Your Majesty? Your Majesty? Are you alright?]
Chomp-chomp circled around the frozen Michael as if puzzled.
āā¦ā¦No. The bedroom? You didnāt make a mess in there while playing around, did you?ā
[What kind of monster do you take me for! I cleaned everything up perfectly! And I put the Hand of Appraisal far away!]
āWell done. Iāll call you again tomorrow morning, so go outside and play until then.ā
[Yes, sir.]
Noticing that Michaelās voice was stiff, Chomp-chomp quickly replied and hurriedly withdrew its tentacles.
Since it had tossed the Hand of Appraisal, which had passed out from drinking wine, onto the nearby beach, it could just lounge around next to it until morning came.
Once Chomp-chomp had swiftly disappeared, Michael headed to the bedroom, holding Irene in his arms.
Just as Chomp-chomp had said, the bedroom was spotless.
He didnāt know where it had learned it, but there were even flowers folded from red cloth.
If Irene had been awake, she surely would have praised Chomp-chomp for a long time, saying how pretty it was.
But the one to give that praise was now sleeping peacefully in his arms.
Michael laid Irene down on the bed and covered her with a blanket.
Perhaps she sensed that the body heat she had clung to for days was suddenly drifting away.
āMmnhā¦ā¦ā
Irene frowned and groped around her.
She was searching for him.
Only when Michael took Ireneās hand did her expression finally relax again.
Listening to her gentle, even breaths, Michael sat by the bed with a still troubled look, gazing at his wifeās face.
āWhat should I do?ā
That was the thought now filling his head.
If Chomp-chomp had seen it, it was certain.
Given how they kept going at it these past few days, Irene was definitely pregnant.
It wasnāt that he wasnāt happy about it.
Michael ran a hand over his face.
A child.
Just thinking about it made his heart pound and left him feeling inexplicably excited.
On the day he first realized the true name of the feelings he had for Irene, he had a dream.
He and Irene. And a child he had never seen before, yet who looked so familiar, were together in the dream.
When he woke and realized the child was his and Ireneās, heād been so embarrassed he wanted to die.
Heād found himself ridiculous, imagining and yearning for such a distant future the moment his feelings had taken root.
But even after that, he had similar dreams several times.
In his dreams, Michael felt a happiness and perfect contentment unlike any other.
Especially when the child, still unable to speak properly, toddled over and fell into his arms, he was so overwhelmed that he nearly choked up.
But the happier the dream, the deeper his sense of shame and emptiness upon waking became.
Thatās how it had beenā¦ā¦
Still rubbing his face, Michael placed his hand on Ireneās belly.
Through the thin summer blanket, he could clearly feel the curves of her body and her warmth.
Even though Chomp-chomp had said so, he still couldnāt quite believe it.
That his wife, whose body was no different from yesterday, was now carrying a child.
Even now, he didnāt know what to do with this entirely new happiness.
But just as strong were the other worries that weighed on him.
Michael thought of Reyna and Felix, whom heād met a few months before.
* * *
After reuniting, Irene and Michael had stayed at the Fortress for a few more months to sort out the artifacts.
During that time, just as in her second life, Irene met her friends again and kept them close.
Thanks to this, Reyna and Cynthia were able to save enough money before the dungeons fully disappeared to live comfortably in the future.
And since Riosa had always been wealthy, there was no problem there either.
It wasnāt exactly the same as before, but Irene became friends with them again.
Then, when dungeons no longer appeared in the Fortress, Reyna and Felix left as well.
The two of them wanted to live in a village deep in the forest, full of lakes.
They settled in a beautiful village that could only be reached by crossing a lake by boat, and said with deeply satisfied faces.
āIn a place like this, no one from our hometown will come looking for us or meddling in our affairs. And the villagers are much friendlier to outsiders than Iād expected.ā
And then, as if it were only natural, they said,
āThere are a lot of children in the village, so when our child is born, theyāll be able to make many friends.ā
Just as they said, it wasnāt long before they sent word that they were expecting a child.
āSee! Itās already been six months! Looking at the date you wroteā¦ā¦ itās already the ninth month now, isnāt it?ā
