Pregnancy Is Too Much For The Villain - C153.1

“Valentin!”

The voice of the one who shouted out struck the heart of the anxious one heavily.

Valentin clung to the heavy bars blocking them. Reynard, recognizing his husband’s voice, urgently pressed against the inside to see him.

Finally, a face he could see. His alpha, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Huk, Reynard…!”

Valentin’s tearful exclamation burst out. The gaunt face of his husband filling his vision, the rough skin and sunken eyes of the longed-for one he had finally met after a long time. He reached his hand through the bars to touch it. Watching Valentin stretching his hand through that damn narrow gap while crying incessantly, Reynard personally brought his face close. It was a desperate gesture with the iron bars suppressing freedom between them.

“How on earth did you come here?! Why on earth in such a dangerous place…?!”

A worried, hoarse voice was heard.

“I didn’t even know you had ended up like this…! What on earth is going on…?”

Valentin’s face, crying out, was soaked with tears.

The alpha’s eyes trembled as he looked at his omega. Those strong eyes that had never wavered even while being treated like the world’s dirtiest criminal, enduring such humiliation. They quivered slightly.

Reynard couldn’t fully extend his handcuffed hands outside the bars, so he brought his bound wrists as close to the iron bars as possible and barely stretched out just his fingers. It was an action he wasn’t even aware of. I must wipe away those tears…. That sentiment seemed visible in his desperate gesture.

Valentin painfully stood on tiptoe and rubbed his face against the fingers that barely emerged through the gap. Just as they had always naturally caressed each other.

“Reynard! I’ll save you! By any means necessary…!”

“I’m fine. I’m really fine, Valentin. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Nowhere at all.”

Looking at his omega shaking his head with tears while sobbing, the alpha muttered in a dejected voice.

“Why did you come all the way here…. Why…..”

You should have gone far away and lived well…. The question of why you came back couldn’t be fully articulated. Though he knew rationally that he should cry out like that, the alpha’s instinct upon meeting his imprinted mate again was overwhelmed with joy. Reynard’s voice trembled slightly.

Perhaps sensing the unspoken cry, Valentin opened his quivering lips again and whispered rapidly.

“I’m sorry for leaving you. I should never have left, no matter what happened….”

“No. I hoped you would leave me and be safe. I hoped you would find the freedom you wanted and be happy….”

Before the words could finish, Valentin shook his head vigorously.

“I realized that my happiness can only be complete by your side. And I know it’s the same for you.”

It was the most important truth found after a long time on a distant journey.

“We must be together.”

“…..”

“Even if painful moments come, even if there’s not a single happy thing…. Still, we must be together no matter what. Let’s endure it all and live relying on each other. I’ll never leave you again. Please live like that with me.”

The voice full of conviction was desperate.

The courage of one who had realized the greatest truth shone brightly despite the tear-stained face.

Seeing Valentin shine like a perfectly cut diamond and become solid, Reynard couldn’t bring himself to say no.

How could he reject someone so lovable? Wasn’t this the one he had always loved with all his blood vessels, cells, and even his invisible heart? The alpha nodded at the request of the omega who had given him even his own life.

“I’ll do that, Valentin. I’ll live like that with you for sure.”

A raw promise was exchanged between the couple desperately caressing each other’s faces through the cold iron bars of the prison carriage that separated them.

With the roaring crowd, the princess and Denox’s soldiers trying to give them even a brief moment to talk, and the angry shouts of the police, the surroundings were in utter chaos. The two people who were given the gift of time to barely touch and talk to each other thanks to the efforts of an enormous number of people had no time for other flowery words or long speeches circling around to reach the truth. They could only reveal the truth like this in this short time. They could only exchange promises that were the essence itself.

“And I have something to confess to you.”

Reynard leaned closer to listen to Valentin’s whisper.

“I’m pregnant.”

“What…?”

“It’s your child, Reynard. This time, we must protect this child no matter what.”

At that moment, Reynard’s gaze, which had been full of desperation, changed to something very fierce and intense. It was the sharp instinct of an alpha trying to protect his pregnant mate.

“You’ve suffered alone, Valentin. I’m overjoyed beyond words.”

Valentin faintly curved his lips into a smile on his stained face at the rapidly delivered words.

After kissing Valentin’s hand, Reynard called out to his close aide in a clear voice.

“Felix!”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

It was he who had been on guard among the citizens in case any accident might occur. Felix quickly responded to his lord’s call while sticking close behind Valentin to protect him.

“Quickly take Valentin safely away from here.”

“Understood.”

“And execute the plan immediately. Given how things have turned out, change to Plan B as the final plan and carry it out. Push through with it right away.”

“I will carry out your orders immediately!”

Felix immediately led Valentin away, saying, “We must leave this place now.” But Valentin couldn’t easily part. An urgent voice emerged again.

“No…! Reynard…. What are you going to do? How on earth…?”

“Don’t worry, Valentin. I’ll return right away.”

Valentin couldn’t understand. How could someone who had become an unjust and wrongful criminal, trapped in such a shameful prisoner transport carriage, say they would return right away? Having already fallen victim to the unreasonable actions of the public authorities, the emperor, and the vile Clifton…? How on earth was he going to do it?

“I’ll do whatever I can!”

He had to save Reynard, even if it meant begging the emperor or prostrating himself before his father-in-law, the Grand Duke, to ask for help. Reynard shook his head at Valentin’s breathless words.

“No. You don’t have to do anything. Trust me. I’ll definitely return to your side.”

“Reynard…..”

“Wait safely at home with our child. It’s my only request. Please don’t get hurt this time.”

At that desperate and earnest wish, Valentin could only nod while her vision blurred with tears flowing again. Because this time, she really wanted to keep it desperately too. She hoped that her loved one’s heart would not be hurt more and would remain whole.

“I promise. I’ll wait for you in a safe place.”

The promise was easy because she would do as he wished.

“Yes. I’ll come to your side soon too. Everything will be over soon.”

Valentin couldn’t understand, but Reynard’s face was full of confidence.

“Everything is within the expected range. So don’t worry. It won’t be long now.”

“Alright, Reynard. You must not get hurt!”

Reynard barely caught Valentin’s face as she burst into tears like a child. Then he pressed his face against Valentin’s through the iron bars and kissed her. It was a kiss to comfort and soothe his beloved.

“I’ll return in one piece. I promise. Wait for me.”

“I’ll wait….”

Tears kept blurring her vision.

“Let’s go now!”

The barrier had reached its limit. Felix grabbed Valentin’s shoulders to safely escort her and quickly slipped through the crowd. Reynard didn’t take his eyes off his husband until he was completely out of sight.

And then he quietly entered back into the darkness of the prison carriage.

Like a beast waiting silently for the perfect moment in a pitch-black cave.

Justice

Those with number nicknames moved in unison to carry out their lord’s final orders.

Their master sat quietly in his toy-like prison cell, controlling everything from that spot.

The chess pieces that didn’t even realize they had climbed onto this board of destruction were now cornering themselves more and more by their own choices.

From the moment they first climbed onto this board by their own power, it was clear they couldn’t escape. It was obvious that it was because of nothing other than their own greed and selfishness. No matter how much those standing on the edge of the cliff stamped their feet and tried to find another way, it was clear there would be no way out. Everyone Reynard had drawn onto this board from the beginning was like that.

The end was in sight.

* * *

“Aaaaah!!!”

Clifton, who had only trembled at the news that angry citizens wearing red flag-shaped badges had gathered in front of the imperial palace, finally exploded when he heard the news his aide brought today – that the parliament had unanimously resolved to revoke the 3rd prince’s right of succession. At this point, no matter how hard the emperor tried, it would be difficult for him to restore his right of succession. Knowing this, he was screaming and yelling despite having an incomplete leg with a hole in it.

“How dare they! How dare such lowly citizens…!”

He had completely forgotten how much he had valued those very lowly citizens he was talking about until he lost his mind like this. It was a foolish appearance. Everyone knew that public opinion would soon become the opinion of the members of the lower house, and how influentially it could dominate a debate in parliament, but after finally losing his reason, he was expressing his raw, unfiltered true feelings outwardly.

Until he ascended to that position, it was public sentiment that needed to be treated preciously and each vote that mattered, but that was never his true heart to begin with. The thought that the imperial citizens existed simply for his own benefit. The dirty bottom that only considered them as tools to elevate himself.

His true gaze and heart had always looked down on them, like a noble god looking at each worm crawling on the ground.

He was in the process of turning the luxurious inner chamber of the imperial palace, where he was barely standing with crutches on his unhealthy leg, into a complete wasteland. It was understandable that Clifton’s deteriorated mind, unknowingly addicted to drugs and continuously taking morphine to eliminate pain, would spew out such dirty true feelings. The sound of him throwing decorated vases, breaking mirrors, tearing down curtains, and kicking chairs in uncontrollable anger echoed through the corridor.

It was nothing short of the behavior of a madman.

Someone entered that inner chamber naturally without even knocking.

“Your Highness.”

“…Evener!”

The only person who could freely enter and leave this room. His partner.

“You…! What have you been doing until things turned out like this?!”

The roaring voice screaming angrily resonated through that space.

Evener, setting aside facing her husband’s fury who was clearly out of his mind, looked for an attendant and asked.

“Did His Highness take a sedative?”

“…When the aide came earlier, he got angry and threw everything, so…”

The attendant hesitated and turned his gaze to a corner of the floor at the end of his explanation. Indeed, as he explained, there were broken medicine bottles with drugs messily spilled out just as they had burst.