The Duke Only Needs My Child - Chapter 155

Herdin toured the port with the chief supervisor of the port construction.

Due to strong winds in winter and increased accidents from workers’ sluggishness, port construction was temporarily suspended.

Herdin planned to identify gaps in the blueprint and make the design more detailed before this winter ended. So that construction could begin right away when spring came.

After reporting on the port construction plan while walking with Herdin, the chief supervisor moved on to the next agenda.

“Ah, and the talks with the shipyard you mentioned earlier went well. They said they’ll start designing the ship as soon as they receive the deposit.”

“There’s no rush since the port will take time to complete, but the longer we spend reviewing the design, the better. But did they say my requirements could be reflected?”

“Yes. It’s not a difficult task to add more passenger cabins, they just haven’t made many like that before.”

“You’ve worked hard.”

Herdin had commissioned the shipyard to design a large vessel. Because a port without ships is meaningless.

Of course, ships would naturally gather once the port was built, but he was thinking of expanding the business a bit more.

To build a large ship in the name of Delmark, to directly import and export goods across the sea to the continent.

Not only that, but he also decided to build a huge passenger ship specializing in transporting people. Larger and more luxurious than any existing passenger ship.

That ship would become the first passenger ship connecting Ardel with across the sea.

‘When I grow up, can you take me to the sea?’

Blair always wanted to go to the sea, to the vast world across the ocean.

But he couldn’t keep that promise to take her to the sea, and she eventually reached the sea on her own.

Although he couldn’t keep that promise, he wanted to create a path for her to a new world across the sea.

‘I’ll give you this sea.’

‘…’

‘The sea suits you.’

The day before parting with Blair, looking at this sea, that promise at least.

On the day when the port is completed and you cross this sea on a passenger ship. What expression will you make as you gaze at the vast expanse of sea?

Herdin, who was unknowingly raising the corners of his mouth imagining Blair’s joyful face, turned his gaze as he felt an approaching presence.

“Your Excellency!”

It was one of the mansion’s servants. Judging by the pale face, it seemed to be a serious matter.

And he had an ominous feeling that it would be related to Blair.

Before Herdin could ask what was wrong, the servant shouted urgently, gasping for breath.

“Madam… has gone into labor.”

At that news, his mind went blank.

* * *

Upon hearing the news about Blair, Herdin immediately returned to the mansion on horseback.

The butler of the Livren mansion, who was just checking the mansion entrance, was quite surprised to see Herdin entering the mansion.

“Y-Your Excellency?”

Herdin, who had gone out with Luth, returned alone much earlier than scheduled, and in a very disheveled state at that.

Above all, what surprised him was Herdin’s expression, colder than ever before. Yet at the same time, he also looked somewhat precarious. It was a completely different atmosphere from when he left the mansion.

Herdin went straight up to the second floor where the bedroom was, without asking the butler. It was better to confirm with his own eyes than to waste time asking the butler.

Herdin’s breathing quickened as he strode across the second-floor corridor. At the same time, his expression contorted in pain.

He wasn’t sure in what state of mind he had returned to the mansion. He had been out of his mind since hearing that Blair’s labor had begun.

The moment he heard that news, memories of his past life came flooding back.

‘Your Excellency! Madam has given birth to the young master!’

The memory of not being able to be by her side at that moment when she would have been most afraid, when she would have needed her husband more than ever…

Thinking of Blair from his past life, who must have died lonely and alone while he was away…

It was maddening. The memory constricted his throat, making it hard to breathe properly.

Throughout the ride back to the mansion, he prayed desperately.

Please, let it not be too late.

Let me be by your side this time…

Finally reaching the door after walking down the corridor that felt like a foreign land, Herdin entered without knocking.

Passing through the reception room into the bedroom, he first saw Melly and Lina looking at him with considerable surprise.

And behind them, Blair was sitting propped up against the bed’s headboard.

Surprised by his earlier than expected return, Blair looked at him with wide, round eyes.

“Herdin?”

Herdin strode over to her. The first thing he saw was her belly, still round and swollen just as when he had left.

Seeing her belly and Blair’s intact appearance, he could finally breathe again.

“Why did you come back so early?”

“…They said you were in labor.”

“Ah… I guess someone told you.”

Blair looked troubled. It seemed she had hoped the news wouldn’t reach him. Herdin’s eyes turned cold at her expression.

Blair, after gesturing for Lina and Melly to leave, explained the situation as if to reassure him.

“It was false labor. As you can see, the baby is still fine.”

“What caused the symptoms? Was it the long-distance travel recently? Did I overexert you yesterday? Or—”

As Herdin’s voice gradually rose, his hands were trembling. Seeing this, Blair took his hands in hers.

“Herdin, calm down. I’m fine. Our baby is fine too.”

Despite Blair’s assurances, Herdin couldn’t stop the trembling in his hands. Looking at him with concern, Blair pulled down the blanket covering her belly.

Just then, the baby’s movement was clearly visible, wriggling on her round belly.

“Look. Our baby is saying it’s fine too, see?”

Blair placed his hand on her belly to calm him.

“It’s not your fault, it’s a common symptom as the baby’s birth date approaches.”

“…”

“Were you very surprised? I told them not to tell you because I thought you might be.”

The fact that Blair had tried to endure this news alone without telling him made his heart sink once again.

At the same time, he suddenly remembered Blair’s troubled expression when he left the mansion in the morning.

It had started from then. She had been having symptoms.

She had endured the pain. So as not to worry him. So as not to interfere with his work.

A laugh that was almost like a cry escaped at his own obtuseness for not noticing. No matter how many times he swallowed and suppressed the rising emotions, they wouldn’t subside.

“Every time you say you’re fine… it drives me crazy.”

It was the same during their stay in Ikaru.

Witnessing pregnancy up close was a much more difficult and arduous process than he had vaguely heard about. Her body changed day by day, and there were many challenges even when she wasn’t in pain.

But Blair faced those changes fearlessly and calmly. Every time he saw her like that, his heart ached thinking she might be used to preparing alone from her past life.

The guilt lurking in a corner of his heart would stab and tear at his heart at every opportunity. Like an awl hidden in his pocket.

And that awl would never disappear. Even if she didn’t remind him of its existence.

“So please, let me do something for you.”

“…”

“If it’s hard, say it’s hard. If you’re scared, say you’re scared. If it hurts, say it hurts… Like that.”

“Herdin.”

“Didn’t we say we’d do everything together? Isn’t that what being a couple means?”

Blair quietly watched him crumbling with guilt, then gently stroked his still slightly trembling hand as she spoke.

“To be honest, I was a little scared, but I wasn’t too worried because I knew you’d come soon. And you really did come this quickly.”

“…”

“You’re already doing plenty well as a husband and a father.”

It must be hardest for her, and she would be justified in blaming him when overlapping with the past, yet she was comforting him instead.

“I’m just being by your side, that’s all.”

“That’s what doing well means.”

Herdin quietly gazed into Blair’s eyes as she said this.

Her eyes reflecting him were sparkling.

Just as they had when she had purely loved him back then, unchanged.

“Come here. I’ll praise you.”

Blair smiled, patting the space beside her. There was no refusing his wife’s order that wasn’t really an order.

Herdin sat down next to her. But instead of kissing her, he embraced her.

Blair, who seemed momentarily surprised by the sudden hug, obediently leaned against him and hugged him back.

The faint scent of milk from her, her comforting touch, finally calmed the trembling of his body that had refused to stop.

It was around then that Blair spoke.

“Herdin.”

“…”

“Forget about the past already. I’ve forgotten it all.”

Her gentle voice settled on his heart like a caress. Listening to that voice, Herdin realized anew.

He loved this woman.

There was no way he couldn’t love her.

* * *

The labor pains began precisely on the evening before Asiel was born. As if he remembered the day of his own birth.