Chapter 94: Encounters

The convent gates were only a few steps away.

Prussia walked fast with her arms folded over her chest, the way a thief carries something they stole. Alpis trotted beside her with her tail concealed, completely at ease.

Then Prussia saw who was standing at the gates, and her feet stopped on their own.

"Ah! Prussia!"

Lady Noelle waved with a bright smile.

She wore a white dress, smart and simple, with a beige hat tilted just so over her silver hair. Beside her stood Lloyd Halcyon in casual noble attire, a sword resting at his waist.

"Oh, where are the two of you headed?" Noelle asked.

Alpis turned her face away and coughed into her fist.

’It’s uncomfortable...’

The holy magic coming off this girl was ridiculous. It was warm and clean and gentle, and it made the dragon girl’s skin prickle.

’And Master says she’s a closet pervert? Hrmm, I find that hard to believe. Tsk, not one bit.’

Prussia smiled awkwardly.

"Oh, n-, nothing. We just wanted to step into town and pick up a few things for the festival."

The lie came out smooth enough, but left a sour taste.

Prussia was never good at making friends with women. She grew up surrounded by her father’s hunting companions, loud brutes who laughed with their mouths full and measured people by the size of their kills. Girls her age never knew what to do with her, and she’d never known what to do with them.

But ever since that night at the orphanage, it felt like there was hope of building something with Noelle.

Lying to her felt the same as lying to Mariella.

This was a friend.

’Still... no one can know.’

Not that she’d gotten so fat, definitely not that she might be pregnant.

Noelle tilted her head.

"Hm? Prussia, did you gain some weight?"

Prussia’s face twisted inwardly into that of a goblin.

’SHIT!’

On the outside, she kept smiling.

"N-, No, certainly not."

Noelle stepped closer.

She leaned in so far that their noses almost touched, and studied Prussia’s face with great seriousness. Then her eyes slid down to the two enormous things on Prussia’s chest, and stayed there.

"You definitely put on weight, but..."

She narrowed her eyes.

"What I don’t understand is why you’re hiding something so obvious from me."

Prussia’s smile cracked.

Alpis, standing beside her, sighed exasperatedly.

"She’s pregnant."

"ALPIS!" Prussia whirled around. "Why would you say that?!"

The dragon girl shrugged.

"Well, she might not even be pregnant. So we might as well ask another woman. Maybe Lady Noelle can understand what’s going on with you..."

"..."

"...?"

Noelle’s face went slowly red.

She staggered back a step.

"P-, Pregnant?! You’re really pregnant?!"

Even Lloyd, who had been quietly standing in the back, stared with his eyes wide open.

The way they looked at her made Prussia uneasy.

She hugged her body without realizing it. For a moment, there was a sudden urge to hide under a blanket where nobody could see her.

’This is embarrassing...’

’How do women deal with this? Is pregnancy something to be ashamed of?’

Mother had always said it was a nice thing.

But the way they were looking at her didn’t feel nice at all.

Her face fell, just a little.

Then, out of nowhere, Noelle took both of her hands and pulled her close.

"Prussia."

Her voice was worried and very serious.

"Is there anything you need me to do? Anything at all. I’ll do it without a second thought."

Prussia looked into those blue eyes.

The sincerity in Noelle’s eyes was beautiful.

"W-, Well... there are a few things..."

Noelle closed her eyes with grace and nodded.

"Then I’m here to serve."

She turned to look over her shoulder.

"Lloyd, I know I said I wanted to do some shopping in the commerce district. But that might not happen for a while. You’re free to wait, or leave if you’d like. You mustn’t feel obligated to accompany me. I’d feel terrible for taking so much of your time."

A vein throbbed on the side of the young lord’s head.

He covered it with a clever ahem and a gentle smile.

"Not at all, Sister Noelle. The market can be dangerous, and while I’m sure you can take care of yourself, I’d feel like less of a man if I didn’t offer my aid. Consider me yours until sundown. That’s a promise."

He flashed her a charming smile.

Noelle smiled back. "Thank you, Lloyd."

’Hmph.’

Behind that charming smile, his thoughts were not charming at all.

’How much more is this woman going to embarrass me? I’m only doing this to get in Lady Euphemia’s good graces. But it feels like I can’t reach her through Sister Noelle anymore. All because of that Adonis, tch! He set his eyes on Noelle and Euphemia first, and now he wants both? A real man would never do something like that. Tch!’

A few minutes later, that opinion changed.

The four of them sat on a bench beside the fountain in the convent courtyard.

Prussia had just finished explaining everything: she’d slept with Adonis last night, this morning her body felt strange, her chest had grown and her breastplate no longer fit, and she had come to the conclusion that she was pregnant.

Lloyd’s mind went completely white.

’He slept with her?! She’s carrying his child?!’

’M-, MAYBE HE IS A REAL MAN!’

’Wow, he’s... really ahead of me, isn’t he...?’

He kept his face perfectly calm and stared at the fountain, because he was a gentleman.

Noelle was not a gentleman, or woman.

The more Prussia talked, the redder her cheeks became. And the more Prussia talked, the closer Noelle edged along the bench, until their knees were touching and she was practically hanging onto every word.

"A-, And then?!"

She asked breathlessly, looking thirsty.

"What happened next?!"

Prussia lifted a brow.

"Uhm... and then I met you at the gate?"

"Oh..."

Noelle’s eyes turned half-lidded with disappointment.

Alpis stared at her with a deadpan face.

’So Master was right. She IS a pervert.’

Noelle let out a thoughtful sigh and crossed her legs.

"Honestly, I don’t know anything about pregnancy. You see, I was adopted, so my mother never had the chance to tell me anything, and I live in a church. It’s not like there are books about that sort of thing in here."

"Oh. That’s fine," Prussia said.

Noelle shoved herself into Prussia’s face again.

"So is Adonis really that fertile?! How big is it?! Ahh~ I know it’s a cannon down there. So, when will your stomach start swelling? And... how did it feel when he was inside you—"

She gasped and slapped both hands over her mouth.

"..."

Lloyd stared at the fountain harder.

Noelle cleared her throat and rose to her feet, smoothing down her dress like nothing had happened.

"W-, Well! If you really think you might be pregnant, we can visit a fortune teller. And afterward, we can go to the market and look for a dress. Doesn’t that sound good?"

Prussia blinked.

"...You’d come with us?"

"Of course." Noelle smiled. "That’s what friends are for."

Prussia’s chest felt tight, and this time it had nothing to do with its size.

...

Meanwhile, in the textile market of the commerce district...

Many shops were filled with silks, linen, wool and leather.

Adonis stood in the middle of it with several palace maids around him, a few of whom had insisted on helping him carry things. His arms were already full.

He ran his fingers over a bolt of white fabric and hummed.

’Too stiff.’

He was shopping for Prussia. The swordsman attire he’d made her no longer fit, and it was a problem he couldn’t really blame on anyone else.

’I noticed it this morning, and honestly... it’s kind of my fault.’

After the nuns used the vitality spell on her, and after he’d gotten carried away in bed, he must have accidentally pushed his [Hand of God] into the afterglow of that spell. The enchantment had amplified the vitality magic and put a little extra weight on her.

A very specific place he’d been grabbing all night.

His lips curled into a perverted smile.

’Interesting. So I can enchant body parts the moment a vitality spell has been used on them. Prussia’s tits are way bigger now, though it should wear off by tomorrow, or...’

He shook his head and straightened his back.

’No, no. Prussia’s breast are already perfect. I mustn’t be swayed by such things. I’m a gentleman, after all.’

"Your Highness?"

One of the maids bowed.

"I and the others would like to fetch some materials from the next street over. Will you be alright on your own?"

"Mm. Go ahead. I’ll wait here."

She bowed again and left.

Adonis went back to feeling the textiles, comparing colors and shapes in his head.

Something golden for the trim, maybe.

Prussia suited red things like white, gold and pretty much any shade of blue.

He was holding up a sample when a voice spoke beside him.

"Hello, brother..."

"Hm?"

He turned his head.

A young man stood a step away from him with black hair that fell just past his ears, and calm, dark eyes that gave off an eerie feeling. He stood there, casually feeling the textiles, like he had always been standing there.

Adonis’s eyes trembled for a moment.

The man before him was the consequence of King Aldrius’s hunger for perfect genes.

The reason the royal court had so ardently desired another successor.

A man who should never have been born with a talent for magic and royal blood.

Second Prince Cassius.