The Villain's End Is Pregnancy - c58
At some point, Ryan forgot about Hendrick’s presence as he trailed behind him. He was just busy discussing various ideas with the manager and producing printed materials.
“Great! It came out clearly.”
And after experimenting with different methods for a while, he obtained satisfactory results. Ryan’s face brightened. His gaze scanning the paper in his hand was also full of vitality.
“Congratulations, young master.”
The manager was also delighted as if it were her own achievement, even clapping her hands.
“Thank you, Benny and Luke. Thanks to your hard work, I was able to see the results faster than I thought.”
“Not at all. The hard work was all yours. I’m the one who had a very valuable experience thanks to you, young master.”
Ryan smiled back at the warmly grinning manager and looked down at the paper in his hand once more.
The thin paper had letters clearly engraved on it. It was even more satisfactory than he had anticipated.
“If it’s like this, other things will turn out well too.”
At this point, he wanted to meet Philip soon and experiment with the typefaces he had ordered separately. After staring at the paper with a satisfied expression for a while, Ryan turned his head.
“Ah…”
And only then did he realize there was an existence he had completely forgotten about. How could he have erased such an important person from his mind?
‘Why has he been so quiet all this time, not letting me pay attention to him!’
Without a clock, he couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but Ryan was aware that Hendrick had been standing guard here for at least a few hours.
The fact that Hendrick had stayed here without budging while Ryan was occupied elsewhere made him feel apologetic.
“Was it okay for me to watch?”
As if waiting for this moment, Hendrick naturally struck up a conversation. Ryan readily held out the paper to him.
There was the guilt of having continuously forgotten about him, as well as the desire to receive more praise from others for what he had created.
“This is amazing.”
Hendrick exclaimed in admiration upon seeing the printed material.
“It’s very clean and clear. More precise than writing with a pen or brush.”
“Of course. That’s because it’s engraved on metal and then imprinted.”
“On metal? How did you come up with this idea?”
Ryan felt a bit smug at the eyes full of genuine astonishment that Hendrick met his with.
“It’s something anyone can do if they think about it enough!”
He felt a little prick of conscience after answering, but he deliberately ignored it. There was no one who knew the truth anyway.
“I want to hear more details. Shall we change locations?”
“Hmm, should we?”
“Yeah. How about eating something while we talk? You must be hungry too, coming straight here as soon as we arrived.”
“Ah… right.”
Only then feeling the hunger, Ryan rubbed his belly with his palm. Then he hesitated again and lowered his gaze.
Another existence he had forgotten about.
‘Haah…’
A concern that weighed heavily on his heart each time he recognized it. Now that he had even lied, he needed to think about what to do in the future, but nothing came to mind regarding that.
“Ryan?”
“Oh, yeah. Let’s go.”
Ryan came to his senses at the kind voice calling him. For now, he had to put off the matter about the child.
He sneaked a glance at Hendrick. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have noticed anything strange and was instructing the manager to prepare a meal.
From there, Ryan moved to a villa not far from the wine farm together with Hendrick.
“Please rest for a bit and I’ll bring some refreshments first.”
“Alright. There’s no rush, so don’t hurry.”
“Yes, yes. Understood, young master.”
The manager showed a gentle smile and disappeared. And in the room where the two were left alone, an awkward silence flowed for a moment.
‘Huh, how did it end up like this?’
He didn’t know why they had been ushered into a room together. Was it a problem that he had been so engrossed in talking about printing while moving that he wasn’t paying attention?
Only after entering the room and hearing the manager’s words did Ryan realize where he was and let out deep sighs inwardly.
“Well, um, I’ll go wash up and change clothes in the room across first and come back.”
Even while speaking, Ryan was already slowly backing away. It was simply out of the thought that he needed to escape this awkward situation first.
“No. I’ll go. You use this room.”
“Huh? No, it’s fine.”
At Hendrick’s words that he would obviously change rooms, Ryan hurriedly waved his hands. No matter what, he couldn’t chase the prince out of the room.
“Your luggage was all brought here too. It would be heavy to carry, so it’s better for me to move.”
Only then did Ryan notice his luggage that had been brought in behind the manager. Thanks to Catherine adding this and that at the last minute, it had increased by two more compared to the beginning.
‘Right. There was that too.’
Where had his mind been? It was all because Hendrick listened to him so well.
‘Who’s blaming who?’
Still, how could he chatter away so excitedly? Of course, it was fun. Just the fact that he was talking to someone about the letterpress printing he had been pondering alone all this time.
No, he had discussed this with Philip too. But he now realized that he had gotten too carried away simply by having a conversation with Hendrick on a topic of interest.
‘There was no need to even bring up the mine…’
If there was a problem, it was that he had been so excited that he even revealed the reason for going to the mine.
“Rest. I’ll receive the refreshments from the manager.”
While Ryan was immersed in complex thoughts, Hendrick, who was now lighter without the luggage, had already left the room.
“Oh…”
Only then coming to his senses and about to call Hendrick, Ryan stared at his receding back and came to a conclusion with difficulty.
“Well, what can I do? Now that it’s come to this. I should actively make use of Hendrick.”
Yeah, what’s done is done. He was going to tell him anyway once he got something satisfactory to a certain extent.
Now that it had come to this, it would be fine to let him know everything he had planned and ask for his help.
Feeling much lighter after organizing his thoughts again, Ryan stretched his stiff body. Then he went into the bathroom, washed up simply, changed into new clothes, and returned to the room.
“Huh?”
And coming back to the room without much thought, he opened his mouth upon seeing the tray on the table. He looked around quickly but no one else was in sight.
“Seems like they just left it.”
Why did he naturally assume Hendrick would be here too? Even he found it a bit absurd, so he let out a small chuckle and approached the table, plopping down.
The tea was fragrant, the cookies were sweet and savory, and the muffins made in a nice size were quite tasty. The warm sunshine, the soft chair. The moderately heated air.
‘Sleepy.’
Was it because he had been rushing around busily and then got comfortable after the long journey followed by the time-consuming printing experiment?
Before he knew it, his eyelids started feeling as heavy as a thousand pounds.
“Yawn.”
Finally, Ryan, who even let out a long yawn with his mouth open, had his head droop down. It was then that a faint thought came to him that it was strangely difficult to resist lately once drowsiness hit.
“Ryan?”
A cautious yet kind voice was heard. Soon, the sound of the door clicking was followed by soft footsteps.
“Oh my, fallen asleep like this again?”
He could tell the words contained laughter even without opening his eyes. It was Hendrick.
What, you don’t like me napping?
Even in his half-awake state, he naturally felt peeved and thought grumpily. Once again, a voice as sweet as swallowing cotton candy reached his ears.
“What, why are you pouting your lips?”
But it wasn’t just the voice.
‘Wha-what?’
What on earth was happening? His mind that failed to immediately grasp the situation that occurred in an instant came to an abrupt halt.
Before he knew it, a warm sensation was touching his lips. No matter how drowsy he was, he couldn’t mistake what it was.
‘A kiss!’
The moment he clearly realized what he was doing, the sleep urge that had hit him vanished at once. Ryan’s closed eyes snapped open.
“Hey! You… mmph!”
He grabbed Hendrick’s shoulders and tried to turn his head. But faster than that, a hot lump of flesh pushed into his opened mouth.
In that moment, what engulfed Ryan’s senses was the absurdity and at the same time, the hot and burning sensation.
A thick and pleasant pheromone instantly permeated the surroundings.