Duke, Please Stop Because it Hurts

‘Ah.’

Molitia opened her eyes. It was Raven, who had been in a hurry to catch his own breath.

“Molitia, are you okay?”

She slowly blinked a couple of times. As her mixed feelings eventually disappeared, a frightening and eerie sensation began to creep upon her.

She had almost died. A cool sensation of blood slowly seeping out of her body. Molitia immediately embraced her belly in reflex.

“Child—the child.”

“The child is okay. Don’t worry about it.”

A sigh of relief gradually set in her head. She felt that the pats against her back had hardened. She was still alive. She hadn’t hurt herself.

Finally, Molitia reached out her hand and began hugging Raven with a sense that reality was slowly kicking in. A pair of uncontrollable trembling hands were felt over his whole neck.

His hand, which was holding onto her thin body, was gradually intensified. He was surprised as Molitia ever was. And since he had been trained, he could take upon it reflexively—unlike ordinary people.

A baffling sensation immediately filled him up and escaped through the tip of his body.

“Ethel!”

“Yes!”

The knight, who was still distracted by Raven’s command, immediately regained his senses. The woman who belatedly realized that she had failed, instantly tried to run away, but she was already caught in Ethel’s strong grasp.

“Let go of me!”

“Where are you going to run away!”

“How dare you grab a hold of someone’s wrist!”

She was still rather familiar with the voice that flowed into her ears.

—No way.

Ethel snatched off the deep-covered robe. Along with the robe, locks of brilliant blonde hair flowed out. It had been a face that was as familiar as the voice, which eventually made a devil-like impression.

“…Ar…jan?”

The tacky outfit was the first to stand out. Clothes that she would have never worn before. However, Arjan must have been struggling to escape entirely from Ethel.

“Why are you here…”

Since when was it? Molitia recalled what was said when she had pushed her as if she was already aiming for her.

“Die.”

She remembered swallowing on each and every pronunciation just like an intense wish. As the sense of death had begun devouring once again, a stinging pain pricked her stomach.

“Oh, my stomach…”

“What’s wrong with your stomach?”

She grabbed her stomach at the sudden pain. She tried to straighten her hands, but beads of sweat were still pouring out slowly.

“Ah, my stomach…… it hurts…”

“Oh my God. Hang in there, Molitia.”

Raven embraced Molitia before turning his head around.

“Ethel! Take her back to the Duchy. Never ever let her go—and bring the carriage over to the side.”

“Okay.”

The memory of being inside the carriage wasn’t remembered fully well. Instead, she had just been holding onto her pregnant stomach because she was afraid something could go astray.

“It’s all right, Molitia. Hang in there, please.”

Whenever she groaned in pain, whispers would float over beside her—just a little bit more. Molitia also kept on murmuring endlessly inside as if she was holding onto the last strand.

————

“Fortunately, you had just been surprised. Both the baby and your wife are fine.”

The doctor’s words towards the end of that nervous moment couldn’t have been much sweeter.

Then, the doctor said with a determined look to the visibly relieved couple.

“I did say that it was already stable, but if you happen to receive a huge shock, you could have experienced a miscarriage. Therefore, you should always be more careful.”

After finishing the examination, the doctor handed her the prescription. A medicine that allowed tense muscles to relax after taking it and its effectiveness would be shown soon after that.

She looked at her stomach, which wasn’t hurting any longer. Would her swollen stomach deflate once the child had gone? She thought that she had already heard it thousands of times in just a short period of time.

The idea of losing a child was even more chilling than she had thought before and it was absolutely dreadful. She didn’t want to feel the unpleasant sensation of her scouring spine ever again.

As he could feel Molitia’s anxious eyes, Raven propped down next to her before patting her shoulder.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

“Raven…”

Her lips were all entangled together and did not part properly.

“My own mistake has almost caused an issue for my child. And I’ve already made a commitment to protect this child as well.”

“It’s not even your fault. Don’t blame yourself.”

She couldn’t help but to feel the eeriness creeping on her. If he hadn’t been able to catch her—a terrible image drifted automatically into her head even though she didn’t want to at all.

Her fingertips turned cold and her mind immediately froze. Molitia slowly stopped stroking her stomach.

“Raven.”

It was bearable for her to be hurt. However, it was never acceptable to touch her child at any costs.

“Where is Arjan?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“I don’t think that you’ll just have her sent to the Imperial Palace just like that.”

Raven then confessed himself frankly at her sharp remark.

“…yes—Young Lady Clemence will be interrogated by myself. We’ll thoroughly find out they did it and who is actually behind all of this.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“What?”

Raven wrinkled his eyebrows at her very unexpected words.

“Don’t you remember what she did to you? She tried to kill you—she tried to kill the child. How would you know what she’ll try to do once you meet her again?”

“I know, Arjan is showing me such monstrous hostility. That’s why I have to listen even more. She tried to kill my child, as well as myself.”

This rigid relationship could not last forever. Someday, she still had to see the end and she just realized that now is the end itself.

Raven looked at her firm eyes with own trembling eyes. Molitia, who was infinitely thin, would sometimes show off her incredible strength.

And at those moments, he wouldn’t be able to break her demands at all. She used to defeat even the iron-like Raven along with his sheer iron-like stubbornness as well.

“You can’t be away from my side.”