TOPWL 235
Yudit stuck his lips out and splashed water at Khalid.
“It’s not like that. I still slept quite a lot when I was growing.”
He didn’t usually sleep well because he never knew when he might die, but he still sometimes escaped into sleep, so he wasn’t short because he lacked sleep.
“And I am not short. Your are just tall.”
Yudit’s nutrition wasn’t terrible, so his height passed the average height of commoners by a wide margin, though it still meant nothing compared to Khalid.
“Alright, alright.”
Khalid quietly pulled Yudit into his arms. When Yudit pressed his ear against Khalid’s wet chest, he heard the beat of Khalid’s heart. It was beating a little faster than usual.
“I had so many things I wanted to ask you, but now that I’m actually with you, I want to stay like this for a moment.”
Yudit felt the same. The sensation of Khalid’s skin against his in the warm water felt good. Yudit leaned against Khalid as his whole body relaxed and closed his eyes. As if he turned back a clock, the things that happened today came to his mind one by one.
‘Thats the king’s seal, right? Did you steal it’
‘I did not. My father gave it to me himself.’
Billian stared at Darham like she couldn’t believe it. Darham held the seal out proudly and showed it to Billian.
‘He said he didn’t care about the throne or anything else, and that he would go save you no matter what, so he begged me to at least take this.’
‘You’re unbelievable…’
‘I can’t live without you either.’
Seeing the king’s desperate effort to put his son, who was obsessed with a woman, on the throne, Yudit smiled.
‘Well, my older brother is still alive, and the queen is grinding her teeth, so it won’t be easy, but I’ll go back and try. There’s probably a huge bounty on my head right now. If you ever run short on funds for the territory, go sell my head. You’re the only one I can give it to, Billian.’
‘Don’t say things like that, it scares me!’
The mix of jokes and sincerity made Yudit laugh.
Darham made a contract with Khalid. In exchange for him becoming king, the Gotha Kingdom would become a vassal state of the Empire. Tomorrow, Khalid and Yudit would leave for the capital of the Gotha Kingdom. That would probably be their final battle in Gotha. The biggest war was waiting for them, and even though he felt a little scared, he was relieved because he would be with Khalid.
“I didn’t know where to start, but I guess I don’t need to hesitate.”
Khalid’s words pulled Yudit out of his thoughts.
“What?”
“It doesn’t matter whose child it is. It’s your child, so I’ll raise the child well. I just don’t want you to get hurt because of something like that.”
“What are you talking about?”
Yudit blinked. Khalid was saying something strange even though it was their first time meeting again in a long while. Khalid wrapped his arms around Yudit’s stomach and spoke.
“I’m saying it doesn’t matter even if the child in your belly isn’t mine.”
“What…? Then whose child would it be?”
Khalid blinked at Yudit, who looked completely confused.
“…Do you not know whose child it is?”
“No, of course it’s your child.”
“I’m telling you that you don’t need to lie…”
Khalid’s eyes widened.
“You weren’t lying? It’s really my child?”
“I’ve never been with anyone except you.”
Khalid looked relieved at Yudit’s words. Was he really that suspicious of him? Khalid hugged Yudit again. Yudit clearly felt Khalid’s lips brush his damp hair.
“That’s a relief. I’m really relieved.”
“You thought I slept with someone else?”
“No. I was scared you might have been forced by someone and got pregnant.”
Yudit blinked at the thought he hadn’t even considered. So Khalid had been thinking that way since he first saw his stomach? When Yudit imagined how much Khalid must have worried alone, he felt a little sorry. Yudit cupped Khalid’s cheek with his hand and looked at him in the eyes.
“That’s not what happened, so don’t worry. This child is yours.”
“Alright, I believe you. I only worried because there was a small chance.”
“But thank you for worrying about me.”
Yudit gave him a short kiss, and little kisses came back to him in return. The feeling of their damp noses and lips pressing together felt pleasant.
“Can I… touch it?”
“Of course.”
Yudit guided Khalid’s hand to his belly. Khalid caressed him like he was handling something fragile, extremely careful. When Khalid’s large, rough hand rested on his belly, Yudit suddenly realized how long he had been waiting for this moment.
“I can’t believe it… you’re pregnant, and that the child is mine…”
Khalid gently stroked Yudit’s stomach as he spoke.
“The baby will be born next year.”
Yudit placed his hand over the back of Khalid’s hand and intertwined their fingers.
“We’re… becoming a family.”
Family.
How sweet that word felt. After saying it out loud, Yudit suddenly realized how much he had wanted a place to belong, something like a family’s fence around him.
“Yes, we’re becoming a family.”
His words made Yudit’s chest tingle. And he almost shed tears.
“Do you have a prenatal name?”
Yudit shook his head.
“No. I was just calling the baby, baby.”
“That’s unexpected. I thought you’d give a name.”
“I felt sorry for the baby, but… I kept thinking the baby might be lost. Because we were in the middle of a war. And if I gave a name and then something happened… I felt like my heart would hurt too much every time I heard that name.”
“…You must’ve struggled a lot on your own. I feel guilty.”
“You didn’t know. And the baby behaved, so it wasn’t hard.”
He craved sour things early on and felt sleepy often, but that was it. The baby had been so calm that he hadn’t suffered much. If anything, he felt sorry because he thought he made the baby suffer instead. After hesitating, Yudit asked:
“If you don’t mind… would you give the prenatal name?”
“Me? Am I allowed to?”
Yudit nodded. He asked lightly, but Khalid began to seriously think about it. Seeing him struggle over it for the first time felt novel. Just when Yudit started to feel guilty for asking because Khalid’s brow was creased, Khalid finally spoke.
“Rudbeckia… how about that?”
The unexpected answer made Yudit widen his eyes.
“It’s a flower that looks like a sunflower shrunk to the size of a cosmos. When I went to war at sixteen, there was a field of Rudbeckia nearby. I cried there sometimes.”
“You cried?”
“Yes. And when I found out the flower’s meaning was eternal happiness, I even plucked some out of spite. I was so unhappy back then that I even blamed a flower like a petty man.”
Khalid smiled awkwardly.
“Maybe because of that guilt, I haven’t looked at that flower in a long while, but that name suddenly came to mind. If you don’t like it, I’ll think of another one.”
Yudit softly repeated the name, Rudbeckia.
“I like it. If we have a daughter in the future, I think it would be fine to use that name as it is.”
“A daughter…”
Khalid repeated the word like it felt new to him. Yudit rubbed his belly, which had grown quite heavy now, as he asked:
“Do you think it’ll be a boy or a girl?”
“A girl…? Or maybe a boy. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Whether the baby’s an alpha or an omega doesn’t matter either. I only want the baby to be born healthy.”
“I agree. Mm, but Rudbeckia is a bit long… can I just call the baby ‘Ru’?”
“Whatever you want. Then I’ll call the baby Ru too.”
Khalid gently stroked Yudit’s round belly and sweetly said, “Ru.”
At that moment, thump, the baby kicked. Yudit and Khalid immediately looked at each other.
“Did you feel that too?”
“Does the baby… kick like this?”
“I heard you can feel movement once the months pass. But it my first time feeling it this clearly.”
Maybe the baby reacted because they gave a name. When that thought crossed his mind, Yudit felt even sorrier. If that was the case, he should’ve named the baby earlier. Reading his feelings, Khalid spoke.
“You can call the baby more from now on. As much as you haven’t until now.”
Yudit nodded. A mix of complicated emotions made tears gather in his eyes. It was a mixture of guilt, regret, sadness, and happiness. Khalid brushed the tears from Yudit’s eyes with his thumb and spoke gently.
“My prince still cries easily.”
***
Yudit woke up in the warm bedroom. Khalid was holding him from behind. He felt sorry when he realized he’d slept all night using Khalid’s arm as a pillow, and he tried to slip away, but Khalid had already woken up and pulled Yudit into his arms.
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