EP.256 Epilogue. The Saint smiles silently. (3)
The next day at noon. My heart was fluctuating like never before.
Just a moment ago, I had drunk some water, but my mouth felt completely parched, and my legs were pathetically bouncing up and down, creating an annoying thud-thud against the floor.
Before long, my stomach began to churn as well.
I didn’t think I had been this nervous even when I first faced a dragon. Nor when I headed out to defeat the Demon King, carrying the fate of the world on my shoulders.
I only worried if this uncomfortable feeling of mine would show on the outside.
“Congratulations. You are at 5 weeks of pregnancy.”
The physician’s low diagnosis suddenly made the heavy weight lodged at the pit of my stomach disappear.
Instead, a torrent of indescribable emotions began to erupt like a geyser.
“Is that really true?!”
I inadvertently jumped up from my seat, raising my voice.
Given the situation, I had tried to remain calm.
But the boiling excitement was impossible to control.
“Of course it’s true. I guarantee it with my 30 years of experience in medicine.”
Whether it was due to the calm tone of the elderly physician, my excitement slightly subsided.
But it was still only slightly.
The extreme state of excitement in my head remained unchanged.
“I… I’m going to be a dad…”
Muttering words like a deflated balloon, I slowly savored the overwhelming joy that surged within me.
I thought I would feel dazed or flustered, but when the moment came, the tremendous excitement that had taken root deep in my consciousness left all my nerve endings almost paralyzed.
“Did you hear that? Hero! I! No, we! Are going to be parents! Parents! Ah…”
Carried away by the joy I couldn’t fully digest, I ended up calling out to the Hero without thinking.
Oh no. Just a little while ago, I had heard not to be too loud.
I felt completely ashamed in front of the physician who had warned me, and even more so in front of the Hero.
“Ugh… Priest… My head is ringing…”
“I-I’m sorry, Hero. I didn’t mean to…”
The Hero, who lay languidly on the bed, sounded as if pleading, her voice woefully ringing out.
Making a painful sound and furrowing her brows, she looked so unlike the vibrant person I always knew that the stark contrast hit me even harder.
This was the first time I had seen the Hero looking so weak.
I still vividly remembered her joyfully bounding toward me with her broken limbs flailing like a scarf.
Ah, the Hero was also an ordinary human, with red blood running through her veins.
It felt surprisingly astonishing to realize that such an obvious fact had never occurred to me until now.
“Pope’s Deputy. I mentioned this just a moment ago, but the Hero is in dire need of absolute rest right now, so please be extra careful with your actions…”
“I’m sorry…”
Ultimately, I got scolded by a senior citizen at my age.
They say a person’s environment shapes who they are.
Given my predicament even after being given the title of Pope’s Deputy, it seemed those words did not apply to me.
“Hero. How are you feeling?”
“Ugh… My nose is all mixed up… My head is spinning… My stomach is bubbling…”
The Hero replied with a groan to my cautious question.
Her vocabulary had dropped to that of a three-year-old child, but compared to yesterday when she couldn’t utter a single coherent word, she had improved a lot.
“Priest… Please stroke my head…”
“Sure. Right here…”
“Also, please touch my belly…”
“Okay. I understand…”
“Also, pat my back…”
“I’m sorry. I only have two hands…”
Huuuu…
I tenderly soothed and comforted the Hero, who was whining like a child with its first cold.
According to the physician’s diagnosis, what was bothering the Hero right now was mild morning sickness occurring in the early stages of pregnancy.
It made her lose her appetite, and sometimes made her feel nauseated. Some people even experienced certain smells as abysmally disgusting.
In general, the symptoms were mild enough that it would heal naturally without medication.
However, for the Hero, whose perception was unusually heightened compared to ordinary people, the horrors of morning sickness were no trivial matter.
By her own account, the sound of a cockroach crawling felt thunderous in her mind, and her distorted vision caused her to be unable to even walk.
She had to clutch her nose in agony even at the mere smell of curry from a house several dozen kilometers away from the castle.
Thanks to the Hero’s unusual condition, the fact that the Sister and I had been discovered was conveniently forgotten, but the fleeting relief was soon replaced by guilt and anxiety that swept it all away.
“For the time being, please make sure to rest. Of course, no strenuous exercise. Moreover, since the Hero’s body doesn’t respond to poison, medication won’t work well on her. Pope’s Deputy, please keep a close eye on her from your position. Understood?”
“Yes…”
The physician’s gentle and warm tone started to tighten my throat.
As my wife was going through such hardship, what was I, the husband, doing, keeping my head clear?
I was drenched in cold sweat at her seemingly reproachful words.
Was this how it felt if I had a mother-in-law?
Such thoughts briefly flickered through my mind.
“Ugh… I never dreamed having a child would be this tough… I initially wanted around 100, but now I think ten would be enough…”
“Hero, ten is already a significant number.”
Even after the physician left, the Hero’s whining continued for a while.
“Priest… If you kiss me, I might feel a little better…”
“Again? I did that just a moment ago.”
“That was on my forehead! You haven’t kissed my cheek yet! If you kiss my forehead, you must kiss my cheek right after! Don’t you know something so obvious, Priest?!”
“Ah…”
Seeing her throw a tantrum like this for the first time was refreshing in many ways, though it was something I’d normally witness only with my little brother Bigtim.
I strangely felt like I was gaining something.
If it weren’t for a time like this, I would probably never see the Hero get angry with me in my lifetime.
“Hmm…”
After comforting her for a long while and soothing her, the Hero finally fell asleep.
I wondered why, even though I had just learned of her pregnancy, I already felt like there was one child.
If I thought deeply enough, I might find out the answer, but I decided not to bother with such efforts.
“Ugh…”
“…”
Gently stroking the Hero’s head a couple of times, I fell into contemplation.
Truly, no matter how I looked at it, she was an amazing and beautiful woman, one too good for me.
Throughout my life up until this point, I had lived without anything to show off, but by meeting the Hero, marrying her, and now having a child…
I had lived well. I could proudly say I had lived a life of pride.
I could boldly tell myself and the whole world that I lived honorably.
But it wasn’t just the Hero who helped me come to this conviction.
She was the one who, more than anyone else in this world, needed me and gave me the strength and courage to protect what was precious when I felt like I had nothing.
The Saint.
Without her grace, I could never have enjoyed such undeserved happiness.
It was thanks to the miracle she bestowed upon me that I was able to save the Hero from being trapped in the dungeon, and to conquer the Demon King without a single sacrifice.
So, I owed a duty to repay the favor that the Saint had granted me.
Yes, even if it meant betraying the one I promised to spend my life with.
Creeeak.
“Regis, we are ready…”
“Yes. I’ll be there shortly, Sister.”
Through the slightly ajar door, the Sister spoke to me, and I gradually withdrew my hand from stroking my wife’s hair.
The incident of sleeping with the Sister that had happened two days ago.
Initially, I had assumed it was an accident caused by the Saint unintentionally bestowing her holy power onto the Sister while she was asleep, but after some contemplation, we reached a certain hypothesis.
Perhaps, the Saint’s actions were not a mistake but intentional. That maybe, in her hazy state, she sent us a sort of message.
The Sister, with a massive amount of holy power within her body, became obsessed with being intimate with me in a state of a lost mind.
And after engaging with her, the Sister’s mind returned to its original state.
What if this was indeed the message the Saint wanted to convey to us?
If what I thought were mere childish whims from the Saint had valid reasons behind them?
Could it be that there exists a method to neutralize the holy power within the Saint more effectively than before?
While it was a ridiculous hypothesis that made me only chuckle, it was worth trying.
“I’m sorry, Hero…”
Muttering my apology filled with guilt, I made a firm resolve in my heart once more.
Tonight, I would embrace the Saint.
◈◈◈
“I can’t do this…”
Just minutes after making my resolve, the weak complaint spilled out, and the Sister’s gaze instantly turned icy.
“What do you mean by that now?”
Her tone was polite, but the breath behind her words was fierce enough that it wouldn’t be strange for her to curse at any moment.
Well, I could understand her feelings perfectly.
I was just as repulsed by my own weakness of will.
“I’m already married, and I’m going to have a child. No matter how mature I am now, doing something to an unconscious woman without her consent is… well, that’s just…”
Huff…
As I continued to make excuses while sweating profusely, the Sister sighed with frustration and stepped closer to me.
“I’ll give you permission. So, you just need to embrace the Saint silently. Do you understand?”
“Y-Yes…”
There was no way out. I could only nod under her fierce admonition.
“And if you’re worried about the Saint’s consent, tie it up and throw it away. She must want this too.”
“That’s true, but… what about societal views… ethical issues… those things…”
“Do you truly believe that trivial matters are more important than the Saint waking up? Do you, Regis?”
“Of course not.”
My will broke under her piercing gaze filled with deathly intent.
Just days ago, she couldn’t even make eye contact with me due to the embarrassment of what we had done; now she had transformed drastically.
When it came to intimidation she was a force to be reckoned with.
“Please keep in mind. From now on, what you are about to do is purely a life-saving mission. It’s definitely not a lewd act. It’s just like when you give artificial respiration and your lips touch a little.”
“…”
Is that so?
While it sounded absurd at first, the logic behind it began to make some sense when I thought about it more.
There didn’t seem to be any significant flaws in her reasoning.
However, the indescribable uneasy feeling still clung tightly to my neck, refusing to let go.
It could be because my conversations with the Sister always ended up this way.
No matter how hard I tried to keep my head clear, I often realized I was acting as she intended.
She was a thorny figure, quite the opposite of the Hero.
“Could it be that it wasn’t the area or time of contact, but rather the sexual arousal that was the key?! Yes! Then it makes sense why Welna was so obsessed with physical contact with you, Priest! Ah, it should have been obvious from the start! Why did it take so long to realize…!”
Following the Sister’s agitated monologue, I just kept trailing behind, overwhelmed.
Even if the Saint were to wake up after this, how would we deal with the aftermath?
It was a futile thought, but I couldn’t easily shake off that worry, so I decided to close my eyes.
