The Villain's End Is Pregnancy - c71
“What on earth happened?”
As soon as Hendrick finished his meal, Ryan grabbed his wrist and rushed to the annex as if running. The family and servants looked on in surprise, but there was no time to make excuses.
The first priority was to figure out what was going on with the current situation. The atmosphere in the dining room just now was really strange.
Father treated Hendrick as if he were his own two sons, and Mother also discreetly took care of him. It was clearly different from being courteous to a prince.
‘This is strange. Something is definitely strange!’
Something must have happened while I was asleep. However, it was not a matter that could be found out by asking the family.
“Hmm?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know!”
“What do you mean just now! Why were Dad and Mom being so friendly to you! What did you do!”
Ryan demanded, his chest heaving. But unlike him who was agitated, Hendrick was calm.
“I had dinner with the family last night. We talked about this and that, and it got quite late.”
“So what?”
“Well, in the midst of pondering, Count Fitzroy asked if we could have a drink together if it was alright.”
At those words, Ryan also remembered what he had heard from the servant he met at the annex.
“What’s with all the luggage in the room you’re using? There was a tremendous amount? Isn’t it all from the palace?”
“That’s what Peter arranged and sent. As you know, I sent him back to the palace before traveling.”
That was also a well-known fact.
“I know well that Peter takes care of you enthusiastically.”
The news that the prince would wander outside without any preparation seemed to have come as quite a shock to Peter.
As soon as he arrived at the palace, he meticulously packed and sent the items Hendrick needed, and somehow he knew where he was going, so the things for the prince to use were already at each travel destination.
“What does that have to do with this?”
“When I said I would stay here, he must have misunderstood something and sent a full carriage.”
Ryan still looked at Hendrick’s complexion with suspicion. But he was composed and quietly looked back as if there was not a single lie in his words.
“Then you didn’t say anything to my parents either?”
“I only informed them of what you did on this trip.”
But why do the two of them treat Hendrick so differently from yesterday? Something felt off, but it was difficult to pinpoint what it was, so he decided to deal with the most urgent matter first.
“I guess you’ll be going back now that you’ve finished eating?”
“That’s too much. You’re going to chase me away without even offering me a cup of tea?”
Enjoying refreshments after a meal is a natural routine for nobles and royalty. It’s not strange for him to say such a thing since I missed tea time by forcibly dragging him here.
‘But why does this feel so suspicious.’
It seems like he’s hiding some ulterior motive. It’s not easy to read the emotions on that face. Though, I’ve always been clumsy at figuring out how Hendrick feels since long ago.
Knock, knock.
At that moment, there was a knock. Ryan and Hendrick’s heads turned toward the door at the same time.
“Who is it.”
Hendrick, who was currently the owner of the room, opened his mouth. Then, from outside, a servant said that the countess had ordered refreshments and asked if it was alright to come in.
“The countess seems to be paying special attention to me, so I guess it’s okay to eat before leaving?”
Of all times, a servant appeared just in time. Of course, as the countess, it’s natural to serve the prince, but Ryan still couldn’t shake off the suspicious feeling.
‘Something is definitely strange…’
A subtlety that is difficult to explain by pointing out what it is.
“Come in.”
Since it was still difficult to figure out what it was, Ryan thought to himself that he should have tea with Hendrick and try to find out.
Contrary to his determination, strangely, things did not go as Ryan intended. It was because Hendrick, who had pushed all the snacks filling the table in front of him, delivered news that made his ears perk up.
“I contacted the writer’s agent. They said they would meet today and try to set a date.”
“Already? When did you contact them?”
“I sent a messenger as soon as we entered the royal capital. It just so happened that they were here.”
“Oh… Then let me know as soon as you hear back.”
“Of course I will. If possible, do you want to meet today?”
“Absolutely!”
Ryan had no reason to refuse.
“Okay, then I’ll have to go see that transcriber too. I need to check the newly made type as well.”
“Ah, will you?”
“Let’s leave as soon as you finish your snacks.”
Even though Hendrick naturally said he would also accompany Ryan to Philip’s house, Ryan, who was already lost in other thoughts, didn’t notice.
It was the same until they finished the cookies, cakes, sweet and refreshing fruits, and cool drinks, and arrived at Philip’s house by carriage.
“Welcome, Mr. Ryan! Eek…!”
Philip greeted them but then stepped back in fright, his body trembling. Ryan made a puzzled expression at the reaction that was like a herbivore encountering a predator.
“Philip? What’s wrong?”
“Uh, um, well, oh my! Wow, greetings to you, Your Highness!”
Philip, who was stammering, quickly knelt on the floor. Only then did Ryan realize that he had been enchanted by Hendrick’s words and had come all the way here with him.
‘Ah, right. I told him to go to the palace!’
What was he thinking? No matter how intrigued he was by the story of the writer.
“Get up.”
“Yes, yes, Your Highness. Thank you.”
Unlike the confused Ryan, Hendrick naturally commanded Philip, who got up unsteadily.
“I heard from Ryan. You’re working on making letters out of metal?”
“Yes. That’s right. It’s over here.”
Philip, who was tense, guided Hendrick. Hendrick also checked the work spread out on the desk as if it was nothing.
“As you can see, I made each letter of the standard language notation separately as a type. This way, you can combine the letters you want, so it’s convenient.”
Philip quickly moved his hands with a tense face. Then, the typefaces scattered here and there formed a single word.
“Impressive.”
“Yes, it’s really amazing.”
“Who came up with it?”
“It was Mr. Ryan. Actually, I thought what he told me before was also tremendous, but this is truly a groundbreaking method!”
Philip’s face was full of pride as if he was proud himself. Ryan, who was standing a little away from them, felt unnecessarily embarrassed when he heard their conversation.
Just like last time at the wine farm and at the mine.
It’s not something he developed independently. He just changed what he had been using before to fit the situation here a little.
Because of that, he forgot about questioning Hendrick again.
“It’s really amazing. Ryan, how did you come up with this idea?”
No, to be more accurate, he couldn’t think of anything else because of Hendrick looking at him with sparkling eyes.
“It’s nothing much. As I said before, I didn’t do it all. I just found out about it while looking through various materials.”
His shoulders straightened, his nose lifted slightly. His cheeks twitched as Ryan pretended to be nonchalant. He must be imagining that the corners of Hendrick’s mouth seemed to curve up slightly.
“With this, it will be easier to commercialize than what we talked about last time. It’s a shame, it would have been nice to experiment with it in this state.”
“We had no choice back then because this wasn’t made yet.”
Philip pricked up his ears at the conversation between the two. Then he suddenly realized that the relationship between Ryan and Hendrick was strangely close.
‘I knew they were childhood friends… but this seems a bit different from that.’
The unlucky man who had never dated or liked anyone in his life didn’t accurately grasp what the subtle atmosphere flowing between the two was.
‘Julian said before that we might hear good news from the palace soon, I guess this was it.’
However, recalling the words of Julian, who was like a savior to him and whom he occasionally interacted with, he could guess.
“I’ll have to be careful with my body for the time being, so I’ll take this and experiment with it.”
“Hey! It’s not that serious! And why are you going there and why are you experimenting. It’s my job!”
Ryan and Hendrick continued to bicker, unaware of what thoughts were billowing in Philip’s mind.
“Ah! I got it! I got it, so stop there! Stoooop!”
Ryan quickly blocked Hendrick’s mouth to stop him from saying anything else. Then he spoke as if he had lost.
“I’ll tell you when we go, so come with me.”
This time, Philip was genuinely surprised.
‘To act so informally with the prince… As expected, what Julian said…’
Ryan didn’t realize that the transcriber’s misunderstanding was deepening, and at that time, no one could guess that it would lead to unexpected results.