Feeling the intense gaze, the other person was momentarily flustered, but then responded confidently as if nothing had happened.

“It wasn’t loud enough to echo through the entire hallway, so you don’t need to worry! Only I heard it!”

Right, you’re the only one who heard it. Because the current situation is a fiction you created.

The other person believed that Natasha, who had taken Abraxas, was unconscious during the night and provided false information. It seemed like they were trying to make her think she had spent a long night with Sieghart.

She thoroughly examined every inch of the negligee. Even her thighs were marked with traces of love.

Natasha struggled to suppress a hollow laugh that threatened to escape her swollen lips.

“You know, how do these embarrassing marks appear?”

“They appear when you kiss very deeply and then suck on the skin. It’s more savage than romantic. His Excellency must have been very excited yesterday! How embarrassing.”

“You seem to know a lot about these things, Cayena.”

“Well… I’ve had a lover too, you know!”

Natasha smiled lightly at her friend’s belated excuse.

“I see, Cayena. As you say, I must have spent the night with His Excellency. We had a very sweet night yesterday…”

She desperately hoped it wasn’t true. Even as she made all the preparations, she hoped this was an impossible gamble.

Even if Cayena had fabricated minor incidents behind her back, she prayed with all her might that it wasn’t that.

An uncomfortable truth was beginning to surface. Her fist clenched involuntarily at the indescribable emptiness.

Natasha pretended not to know about it as much as possible. She quietly killed time by spending her days as usual.

Then, two weeks later, Cayena asked with a worried voice about her menstrual cycle.

“My lady, how is your monthly cycle these days?”

“Why are you suddenly asking about my cycle?”

“Well, it seems like you haven’t had your period for several months. Two months might be understandable, but not having it for three months… Could there be a health issue?”

“My cycle has always been irregular, so skipping two months wasn’t uncommon, but three months is certainly a first. Could there be a health problem?”

Cayena showed a hesitant expression. After pondering for a while, she carefully asked.

“Um, could it be… pregnancy?”

“Pregnancy?”

“You said two months was common but three months was a first. If you became pregnant right after missing your second month, the timing might match. Would you like to take a test, just to be sure?”

Cayena volunteered to bring a test kit, saying it was better to check just in case.

That evening, Natasha dropped blood into the flowerpot Cayena had brought.

‘If the flowerpot’s result is correct, then I’m pregnant.’

When she checked the flowerpot half a day later, a forsythia-colored flower had bloomed.

Natasha laughed softly and drew back the curtain on the opposite window. Another flowerpot greeted her behind the curtain. It was identical to the one Cayena had delivered earlier.

‘And according to this flowerpot’s result, I’m not pregnant.’

Sieghart and Natasha had definitely not had intercourse.

Could one become pregnant without having intercourse? There was no need to wonder which of the two results before her was closer to the truth.

“Haha… Haha!”

Natasha mercilessly threw the flowerpot indicating non-pregnancy to the floor. Crash! The broken pot spilled soil as it shattered. The uprooted stem drooped, and the unopened bud hung down with it.

“Really… It really was your doing.”

She knelt on the floor and stared at the flowerpot with a haunted expression. The image of the unopened flower bud kept flickering beyond her empty eyes.

Her heart ached unbearably.

Cayena Ten was the child Natasha had loved until the end in her past life. Even at the moment when the blade pierced her heart, she had worried about Cayena being left alone.

‘You must have suffered a lot. Now, don’t hold back and tell me everything. I’ve always been on your side, Princess. I’ll take care of you, no, my lady, with all my might here too.’

Not knowing that the child would secretly smile at her buried in the coffin.

“Ah, ah… Ah, ugh… Argh!”

Her heart twisted and pounded violently. Thump, thump, thump! The massive sound invaded her head noisily.

‘Cayena, I really like you.’

‘I really like you too, Princess. No, I love you! You are my truest friend and life companion.’

‘Really? Do you like me more than that Young-sik you like?’

‘How can you compare the two? Even if both of you fell into water, I would rescue you without hesitation, Princess!’

The long betrayal of her beloved friend was enough to bring her despair.

“Yes, you’re pregnant!”

The village doctor clapped his hands in congratulations after finishing the examination. He said it was definitely a pregnancy and listed all the precautions a pregnant woman should take.

Natasha listened with one ear and let it go. He probably wasn’t a quack doctor, but Cayena must have paid him extra for a false diagnosis.

Beside her, Cayena was visibly delighted as if she were the one pregnant. Her hand, which was about to embrace the expectant mother tightly, moved up to pat her shoulder. She then added that a pregnant body should be handled carefully.

The situation where she should laugh and say she was embarrassed was quite disgusting. Smiling brightly, Natasha gently removed Cayena Ten’s hand and quietly asked.

“Cayena, could you step out for a moment?”

“Pardon? You want me to leave?”

“There’s something I’d like to ask privately. I heard that one should be careful about relations with one’s husband in early pregnancy, so I wanted to ask about that in more detail.”

“Oh my, you’re such a tease! Alright. I’ll wait outside for a bit.”

“Yes, I’ll just ask a few questions and be right out.”

Cayena laughed, saying she was being silly, and left the room.

As her footsteps gradually faded away, Natasha erased the forced smile she had been wearing.

“How much?”

“I beg your pardon, my lady. Could you repeat that…”

“How much did that child pay you to hire you?”

“Wh-what are you talking about? If you mean the consultation fee…”

“What consultation fee when there was no consultation?”

Natasha snorted. Her eyes, now much colder, greeted the doctor.

“You say I’m pregnant?”

“…”

“I didn’t know a pure body could get pregnant. Are you performing an examination that goes against God?”

“Th-that is…”

The doctor waved his hands frantically, refusing the approaching footsteps. Sweat streamed down his forehead.

After confirming that the door was tightly closed, he swallowed hard. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, creating ripples.

“Th-three hundred gold…”

Three hundred gold.

That was about a month’s salary for Cayena working as a maid in the duke’s residence.

The price of her chastity was just three hundred gold. Natasha kept muttering “three hundred gold” in disbelief.

Natasha shifted her gaze back to the doctor. He bowed his head as if he had no face to look at a patient.

“What were you planning to do when I had my period?”

“P-pardon?”

“Since I’m not a pregnant woman, I’ll have my period when the time comes. How were you going to explain away six days of bleeding? Were you planning to confess that it wasn’t actually a pregnancy then?”

“W-well, about that…”

The doctor repeatedly licked his dry lips with his tongue. As he hesitated to answer, his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down several times. The vibration of his legs hidden under the table reached even Natasha.

“A miscarriage…”

“…”

“We were planning to… inform you that you had miscarried.”

There was no unnecessary hesitation. The word that flowed out between his stammering lips was quite shocking.

At the two words “miscarriage,” Natasha’s vision suddenly blurred. Feeling a headache in her whitened field of view, she grabbed her temples and groaned.

“When your period came, we were going to mention the risks of the early stages when miscarriages are common, and say that an unfortunate event had occurred. If your period was too delayed, we were going to give you medicine to induce bleeding… Later on, your belly would grow, so it was obvious everything would be exposed…”

Meanwhile, the frightened doctor confessed everything. The plan he described was so meticulous and thorough that it couldn’t be considered a spontaneous crime.

“Was it all that child’s plan?”

“Y-yes. That’s right…”

A deep sigh escaped her.

‘If it’s a shameless intention to register a child conceived elsewhere under the duke’s family registry, I’ll turn a blind eye.’

‘The princess is claiming she’s pregnant when we’ve never had relations.’

The hurtful words from before came flooding back.

At the time, she thought the man simply didn’t want to acknowledge Natasha’s child and was avoiding it.

Evidence of the night spent together, proof of pregnancy, and even the doctor’s examination report. In the face of such meticulously prepared evidence, Natasha had no reason not to believe the facts, so she assumed Sieghart’s claim was false.

“You say it was that child’s plan to claim a miscarriage if I had my period…”

A bitter voice repeated the doctor’s words.

You should have confessed then. How could you say the child ‘died’?

Cayena Ten, that child knew how precious the baby was to her.

Natasha wanted to protect the child in her womb, even if it meant giving up her escape. Because the child was a long-cherished wish and hope.