The Monster Knight Wants Maternity Leave (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 2
“Glorious Eldarion Empire Black Knights! We salute our Commander!”
“……!”
The moment she opened the door, she was startled by a loud shout.
Before her eyes stood rows of men, lined up with mechanical precision.
They stood rigidly at attention, clad in the familiar, tightly fitted Black Knights’ uniforms, their muscles rippling without the slightest imperfection.
—Flap, flap.
The angry, thunderous cry startled birds from the trees, their belated escape echoing through the silence.
Certainly, the scene she had expected was either Berel fighting the reckless monsters that had crossed the barrier—or someone skilled he had brought along with him.
Lucia stood frozen like a stone statue, caught completely off guard by this unexpected turn.
When her stillness showed no sign of breaking even after a long while, Berel, who had knelt before the Commander, lifted his head.
“Commander Lucia. It’s been a long time.”
At the firmness of his voice, Lucia lowered her gaze from the many faces before her and looked directly at him.
And upon seeing his face, she was startled a second time.
‘He looks exactly like him.’
Human genetics truly were wondrous.
Even the straight, unwavering look in his eyes as he gazed up at her was identical—down to the smallest detail—to the Berel she knew.
“In the end… he’s gone ahead of me, hasn’t he.”
There was only one reason why his son—so uncannily like him—had come here leading so many men.
Since he had been slightly older yet nearly her peer, Lucia accepted his passing with calmness and continued,
“You needn’t call me ‘Commander’ as your father did.”
“…Huh?”
“I mean, there’s no need for formalities. If this were a funeral, you wouldn’t have needed to come fetch me yourself. You’ve gone to unnecessary trouble coming all the way here.”
Berel straightened the knee he’d bent in surprise at the Commander’s unexpected words.
Then, flustered as if a fire had broken out, he quickly bowed his head deeply in embarrassment.
“I—I’m sorry! I apologize! I acted without considering the mood…!!”
‘Those wretched fellows…! Couldn’t they have given me a hint? No wonder none of them showed their faces today. If the Commander herself hadn’t brought me here, I’d have chased off those shamelessly cunning bastards a hundred times over!’
Just as Berel fumed inwardly, none of the key figures—who absolutely had to attend his meticulously prepared surprise celebration for the birth of a new Sword Master—were anywhere to be seen.
Seeing the thoroughly crestfallen man before her, Lucia sighed regretfully.
Even his loyal habit of never letting even a single unpleasant word slide—despite it being his father’s funeral—was identical to the man she remembered.
“Then go prepare again and come back.”
“Yes, Commander. Ah—no, wait. Commander? Or… Chief? Boss…?”
Berel, thrown into confusion by her instruction not to call her “Commander,” stammered helplessly.
Lucia walked inside and headed toward the dressing room to prepare properly.
Though she wasn’t particularly eager to wear the Imperial uniform again after so long, she decided to observe the utmost decorum out of respect for the man with whom she’d served in the Knights for many years.
As she scanned the room for her uniform, her eyes fell upon a large mirror that hadn’t been there before.
She recognized it—it was the same mirror she’d used for a long time during her days as a Royal Knight to perfect the crisp lines of her uniform—but she had no memory of bringing it here.
Drawn by an odd feeling, she slowly approached and examined it closely.
But the figure reflected within…
“……!”
What on earth…?
Lucia’s entire body froze at the unbelievable sight.
Instead of snow-white hair and wrinkled skin, she saw lustrous, long black hair cascading past her waist even while tied up, and vibrant skin with cheeks tinged a soft cherry hue.
And in place of her faded, blurred irises were bright, sharp blue eyes sparkling like stars.
There was no doubt.
It was her appearance from her twenties.
With trembling hands, Lucia carefully brushed her own face as if to confirm it.
And the conclusion she reached was:
“…So in the end, I’ve finally lost my mind.”
Thus crumbled the serene detachment she’d cultivated over ninety-odd years.
Was a natural death truly this difficult?
To Lucia, dying while no longer in possession of her own mind was among the most pitiful fates imaginable—so she had always hoped her end would be anything but this.
Overwhelmed by despair at her own wretchedness, she sank into despondency.
Just then—
*Knock knock.*
“B-Boss… It’s Berel.”
The timid Berel, told not to call her “Commander,” had chosen the awkward title “Boss” instead.
He wasn’t so narcissistic as to name his own son after himself.
She felt bitter once more at this foolish misunderstanding of him.
Clutching the mirror for support, Lucia deliberately chose not to answer, unsure whether his voice was a hallucination or a delusional memory.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but someone has arrived from the palace. They’ve brought a royal decree summoning you to the Imperial Palace tomorrow.”
Summoned?
Impossible.
She regretted every silent moment she’d spent listening to such nonsense.
Lucia had secluded herself here for forty years precisely to escape that place.
Moreover, the current young Emperor wouldn’t even recognize her face.
That made this even stranger.
No matter how much dementia she might have, she wouldn’t nostalgically recall such a meaningless moment.
‘…Could it be.’
Lucia looked again at her reflection in the mirror with suspicion.
Still youthful.
But that wasn’t what concerned her.
Roughly pushing aside her blouse, she examined the scars etched like tattoos across her body.
‘This one’s from the Heberni Valley border war, this one from the monsters in the Palail Mountains… and this…’
These scars were her body’s indelible records—tangible proof of unforgettable history and memory.
But, as expected…
‘It’s gone.’
The scar she sought—the final wound she’d received from the most ferocious and fearsome monster dwelling in these mountains—had vanished without a trace from her shoulder.
Her suspicion deepened.
She hurriedly opened the door and scanned the house.
“C-Commander!? Ah—no, B-Boss! However much I respect you, I’d never…!”
Berel, waiting outside the door, turned bright red and quickly spun around—the sight of her half-open blouse revealing her collarbone clearly flustering him.
Ignoring his flustered reaction, Lucia moved grimly through the house, determined to confirm her suspicion.
She knew this place.
Perhaps that was why she hadn’t noticed the dissonance earlier.
As she’d suspected, this was the Royal Training Grounds’ barracks—where she’d lived for nearly twenty years during her entire service in the Royal Knights.
‘…So it really is that.’
A strange word and tale, passed down only in songs by ancient bards who wandered the world through generations.
Regression.
“Berel, what year is it?”
Berel, still turned away in the corner, answered immediately at the Commander’s question.
“Yes, sir! It’s… the fifth year of the New Imperial Calendar!”
The fifth year of the New Imperial Calendar.
That was the year Lucia, having just entered training after the war ended, ascended to Sword Master.
After sending Berel away, Lucia stared blankly at her reflection, her mind frozen like a clock stopped by overwhelming thoughts.
How long she stood motionless before the mirror, she couldn’t say.
Eventually, a single sunbeam slipped through the window, illuminating a dry, white streak along her smooth eye.
Unfamiliar in her memory—that was a tear stain.
Last night’s fleeting regret in her life’s final moments.
Just one small, pale regret.
A child so young she could barely be called a girl.
‘…Mama…?’
The faint whisper from that child’s lips and her small, golden, clear eyes now shimmered in the sunlight, dizzying Lucia.
If her memory served, tomorrow she would receive a Sword Master–rank mission from the Emperor.
That would be the first step toward the sacrifice of the Saintess—the very act she’d always regretted.
Had she finally recognized fate’s second chance?
Only then did all the scattered pieces in Lucia’s mind begin to coalesce into one.
With rough fingers, she rubbed away the dryness at the corners of her eyes, and her gaze hardened with resolute determination.
*
Late at night,
at the Third Training Grounds on the hill directly behind the Imperial Palace,
Lucia gazed out the window.
More precisely, she looked down from the training barracks’ window at the brightly lit Imperial Palace below.
“…….”
According to her memories, she was to report her training results to the Emperor early tomorrow morning.
And receive her mission.
‘…For a top-tier assignment to be something so trivial.’
Before her regression, the Emperor’s top-priority order had contained no mention whatsoever of the Saintess.
Thus, she’d assumed it was merely a task like escorting some noble runaway from another kingdom to the temple.
Yet it turned out to be guarding the Saintess…
No—calling it “guarding” felt disillusioning.
Because that path marked the beginning of the Saintess’s cruel sealing.
‘To seal that child with my own hands…’
“…….”
She swept a hand across her shadowed face in the silence, then shook her head sharply as if to clear her thoughts.
‘I must not repeat the sin of that day.’
Lucia looked down at the paper in her hand.
It was a document she’d secretly retrieved from the temple the moment she’d regained her senses.
As Commander-in-Chief, Lucia had learned the location of classified documents.
Remembering that location, she’d gone there again to review the Saintess’s ongoing sealing plan.
Indeed, over fifty files containing information on numerous children lay there.
But according to her memory, there were only seven Saintess candidates.
Apparently, this was the point before they’d narrowed down the seven children who would manifest holy power from among all these.
Selecting the true Saintess’s file would be easy for her—the one who would personally retrieve the child.
The temple’s prophecy was simple, almost like a heroic legend.
It foretold that the Saintess would appear and resolve everything.
Though simple, everyone believed it—because right after the founding of the New Empire, the “Black Corruption” from the prophecy had indeed emerged.
That Black Corruption blighted the land, causing a great famine and heralding the continent’s end.
And just as prophesied, the Saintess appeared.
The sacred tree that manifested with her swiftly restored nature, laying the foundation for the Empire’s prosperity and peace.
It truly had been resolved as foretold.
But.
The truth was more than that.
In the classified documents she’d accessed as Commander-in-Chief, Lucia had found the original, untranslated prophecy and precise interpretations regarding the Saintess.
From the Saintess’s birth date and black hair to her day of awakening—
She understood why the temple had concealed this information.
Revealing it to the public would have made protecting the Saintess difficult.
But upon reading the subsequent records, Lucia despaired.
It stated clearly that they had sealed the awakened Saintess into the Tree of Life to extract her life force.
…While she was still alive.
It was a horrifying truth.
Before she could recover from the shock, a doubt arose in Lucia’s mind.
According to the interpreted prophecy, only the Saintess was mentioned—nowhere was there a sacred tree.
Thus, no matter how she looked at it, this was clearly a scheme devised by someone to steal the Saintess’s power for their own gain.
Yet the Imperial family members who would have benefited most had died young, and almost everyone in the temple had changed.
And nowhere in the documents was any specific name recorded.
Amid this impenetrable truth, the only certainty left to her was that Lucia herself had led that pitiful Saintess to a meaningless death.
No matter how unaware she’d been, she could never forgive herself for protecting those who grew fat off the Saintess’s death, burdened as she was by guilt.
That was the true reason she’d spent the rest of her life in lonely solitude.
Lucia tossed the paper containing the true Saintess’s information into the fireplace.
The beginning of the ordeal that had tormented her for half a lifetime burned away emptily, turning swiftly to ash that fluttered aimlessly.
She placed her hand firmly on the sword at her waist.
Whether it was will, fate,
or even just the tedious whim of some bored god—she didn’t care.
If only she could save that child in this moment, if only she could earn a chance to wash away her sin.
With her resolve hardened, Lucia stepped toward the place where the young Saintess awaited.
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
they’re so cute i’m gonna cry 😭😭 i adore them sm