The Monster Knight Wants Maternity Leave (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 7

“Annie, was it?”

The mother and daughter she met today.

Naturally, they hadn’t even exchanged names yet.

“I’m sorry, but I think you should change your name. It might be hard to get used to at first….”

The child, trying not to forget Lucia’s rule, mulled over her words repeatedly until she recalled her own name.

‘Filthy Annie! Stinky Annie!’

No matter how she thought about it, those weren’t good memories.

As if shaking off the string of memories from the orphanage, the child hastily nodded before Lucia had even finished speaking.

In truth, even without that, the child was determined to obey anything Lucia said.

“Alright. Then from now on, your name will be….”

Just then—

*Knock knock.*

“Shh.”

Lucia placed a finger to her lips, looking at the child.

It seemed to be Berel, who’d apparently found out about her leave of absence. Knowing he’d be a nuisance, she decided to pretend she wasn’t home.

Footsteps sounded for a while, then all presence vanished.

‘Finally gone, huh.’

Just as she and the child relaxed their tense postures, a window opened somewhere.

Lucia instinctively reached for her sword.

She remembered that neighboring kingdoms occasionally sent assassins to keep an eye on new Sword Masters.

Hearing rustling from the living room, Lucia drew her blade and pressed it against the throat of the man she found.

The man, startled, raised both hands high and shouted,

“Huh?! Captain! It’s me! Me!”

She examined his face at the tip of her sword.

A tall man with droopy eyes and light sky-blue hair.

Since he called her “captain,” he must be an old comrade—but his youthful face was unfamiliar, and her memory wavered.

“Huh? You won’t even put your sword away? It’s only been five years! Vernon! Vernon Javier! The Shadow!”

“The Shadow… Vernon?”

Hearing Vernon’s nickname, muttered with a pout, Lucia’s memory returned.

The intelligence officer of the Black Knights, the third ace—Vernon Javier.

Convinced he was an ally, Lucia sheathed her sword.

“Phew… I almost had to change my pants right there.”

Vernon wiped the cold sweat from his brow and spoke with feigned nonchalance.

Just then—

Another figure appeared behind Vernon.

“Huh? What the—?”

A distinctly fierce female voice.

Someone burst roughly through the same window Vernon had entered.

Short, red-haired, with compact muscles and renowned strength—the second ace of the Black Knights: Gilliana Olivia.

“There really is a kid who looks exactly like our captain!”

Gilliana’s cat-like eyes widened as she spotted the child wedged into a corner of the living room, seemingly having been hiding there all along.

And then another.

As if linked like sausages, a white-haired boy entered next, staring blankly at the child and Lucia before murmuring,

“…So small.”

This boy was the genius of fabrication, coveted even by the Magetower.

The first ace of the Black Knights—Heath.

These three intruders strolled brazenly through the training dormitory as if it were their own home.

“…You lot. Why do you keep climbing through windows instead of using the door?”

Lucia was thoroughly annoyed—they’d completely ruined the relaxed atmosphere she’d finally built with the child.

Yet, she couldn’t exactly scold them harshly, because…

“Heh heh. Just like the deputy captain said—you really do sound like an old lady now.”

True to form, Vernon, oblivious to the mood, covered his mouth as if struggling to suppress laughter.

“Whoa! Seriously! What happened to our captain over these five years? Your voice aged overnight!”

“…Old lady.”

Vernon, the raccoon-like trickster; Gilliana, the brash cat-like warrior; and Heath, the inscrutable boy.

Indeed.

Lucia herself wasn’t exactly a paragon of etiquette—but these three surpassed even her in sheer audacity.

Lucia watched them calmly, recalling the last time she’d seen them after her retirement.

Even back then, their manners had seemed shockingly rude, as if senility had set in—but now, returning again, she saw they’d remained utterly unchanged.

Still, they weren’t entirely wrong.

‘My tone of voice, huh… So it really is noticeable. Guess I’ll have to fix it—it won’t do any good otherwise.’

Even though she’d somehow returned to her youth, it wasn’t easy for a woman over ninety to instantly adopt the speech patterns of someone in her twenties.

Moreover, Lucia had been so indifferent that she hadn’t even realized her own speech sounded odd.

Just then—

Gilliana suddenly grabbed the child under the armpits and hoisted her up.

“Whoa~! Isn’t this fun?! Little Captain?”

“……!!”

The child dangled precariously, like a scrap of paper tossed into the wind.

Pale as a ghost, nearly fainting without a sound.

Clearly, the child looked anything but happy.

Lucia quickly snatched the stiffened child from Gilliana’s grasp.

“Huh? Why, Captain? My niece goes wild for this!”

“Tsk tsk. Gilliana… To earn the hatred of the captain’s own child. Here, like this.”

Vernon winked slyly and pulled a candy from his pocket.

But offering it to the already-frozen child was utterly pointless.

Lucia shook her head at their foolishness and checked the child nestled in her arms.

The child’s head drooped limply against her chest.

Alarmed, Lucia pressed an ear close—and thankfully heard steady, even breathing.

‘…Asleep? Suddenly? Is this normal for kids her age?’

Lucia, blessed with exceptional stamina, hadn’t noticed—but this five-year-old had been awake since dawn without food or rest.

Child of divine protection or not, she was still just a child.

“I’ll take her to the bedroom first. You lot stay put and behave yourselves.”

Left behind by Lucia’s warning-like words, the three began trembling.

“Damn, the captain’s really furious! What do we do…!”

“Oh no… Why’d you go and—Gilliana, I’ll say a prayer for your soul.”

“…You lot?”

Only then, seeing their panicked expressions as if fire had just scorched their feet, did Lucia head upstairs to the bedroom.

Laying the child on the bed, Lucia noticed how the tangled black hair made her look even more exhausted.

She gently brushed aside the strands covering the child’s forehead to check her temperature.

Thankfully, being a saintess seemed to have kept her healthy—no fever at all.

“…Mmm…”

Startled by the child’s restless movement, Lucia quickly withdrew her hand.

Just as she turned to leave the sleeping child—

“Lusha….”

The child, now awake, mumbled softly.

“Yes. Good job. That’s my name.”

“…My name….”

Fighting heavy eyelids, the child whispered.

“Oh.”

Before saying the name, Lucia remembered someone else.

A name she’d longed for her whole life, though she’d never seen the woman—Lavinia Cluer.

“Your name is Nia.”

“…Nia, Nia…”

The child murmured the name—borrowed from Lucia’s mother—for a long while before drifting off to sleep again.

.

.

.

“So you’re saying you can’t reveal the father… and you just have a child?”

Vernon spoke as if he couldn’t believe it.

It was the Emperor’s idea.

In his view, it was better to simply say “I can’t tell you” than to offer an excuse involving medicinal herbs seven times over.

Lucia nodded from the sofa.

Sweat beaded on the faces of the Black Knights’ aces.

They were dead serious.

Heath, weak in stamina, soon collapsed limply onto the floor.

Seeing Heath fall, Vernon and Gilliana cried out desperately to Lucia.

“Captain…!”

“Boss!! Please…!!”

The reason for their desperation?

Because Lucia had punished them for barging in through the window by ordering them to maintain a horse-riding stance until they left.

“Heath. Come here. You’re excused.”

At Lucia’s command, Heath’s eyes snapped open, and he cheekily settled onto the plush sofa to catch his breath.

“You sly fox!! Captain! Why only Heath…!”

“Yeah!! We’re all knights alike! This is discrimination!”

At their indignant cries, Lucia had a brilliant idea.

“You’re too young. Why don’t you switch to stance number two, then?”

“No way!”

“No way!”

For once, Vernon and Gilliana shouted in perfect unison.

“…Hah.”

Amused by their lively antics after so long, Lucia let out an airy chuckle.

“…Wow. I always thought our captain knew nothing about men.”

“Right? Already has a kid! The boss is a true veteran of life now. Haha.”

“What?”

Lucia glared at Vernon and Gilliana, who kept smirking despite sweating buckets.

“Oh—those were just my thoughts… Ah, haha.”

“Ahem, ahem.”

Trying to lighten the mood, the knights flinched under Lucia’s dry, unamused gaze and broke into fresh sweat.

“But Captain—how did you raise her so quietly? There’s no nanny in sight.”

“Seriously? Boss—did the kid come from somewhere else?”

Despite their excruciating pain, curiosity won out, and they began patrolling the house again in horse-riding stance.

They seemed to think that as long as they maintained the posture, anything else was fair game.

No matter how much they looked around, the training dorm held nothing but weapons on the walls, a sterile reception room, and a few drawers—nothing resembling a child-friendly environment.

Just as Lucia herself had realized, this place was utterly unfit for raising a child.

‘…Somewhere else?’

“…Yes. Until now, the child’s father took care of her.”

She felt oddly proud—her ability to lie on the spot had clearly improved since the herbal concoction incident.

“I see. Then you’ll need to hire a nanny, won’t you? You’re hardly the type to raise a child alone.”

Lucia had already wrestled with that thought herself.

But hearing it from someone else? Unacceptable.

Her eyes flashed toward Vernon, who instantly straightened his slouching posture.

“Ahem! No—I meant it must be hard… doing it alone….”

“No. For now, I need neither nanny nor maid. What’s so difficult about raising one tiny child?”

Lucia’s boastful remark even made Heath, who’d been playing dead on the sofa, shake his head.

“…Boss. I’ve never said this before, but… I genuinely respect you.”

Gilliana’s unexpected confession—and then…

“But this? You’ll kill the kid before even enrolling her in the academy’s nursery!”

For the first time ever,

Gilliana’s usually vibrant, energetic face was utterly devoid of laughter, dry and grim.

Following her pointed finger, they saw dishes piling up—only one day after the maid had stopped coming.

Spoiled ingredients left out too long, a bathroom filled with filthy water, and stained floorboards.

True, Lucia had only recently rescued the place from a filthy warehouse—it was meant to be an excuse to keep the child here—but she certainly hadn’t planned on cleaning it herself.

Given her personality, the mess didn’t bother her much, so she’d intended to leave it to the child for a while.

If it stayed that way, she wouldn’t even need another excuse to keep the child here—which would be even better.

But realistically, this environment was completely unsuitable for childcare.

Cornered by their justified criticism, Lucia couldn’t think of another excuse.

“Sigh… Fine. Gilliana, how about you handle cooking? I’ll take care of the child and her education.”

“Deal. Heath handles cleaning?”

“…Yeah.”

They assigned roles with the gravity of strategists planning a battle.

Watching them, Lucia gave them a look of utter disbelief.

“You’re all talking nonsense. I won’t allow it. Now leave.”

Expecting this, Vernon pulled out his trump card from his pocket.

He handed her an elegant sheet of paper edged in gold leaf.

[My friend, you’ve got remarkably loyal subordinates. While you’re on leave, they’ve all come together demanding rest—and my head aches from it. At this rate, the Empire will collapse from lack of capable knights. You’ll have to take responsibility.]

The handwriting was unmistakably rough and hurried, stamped with the Emperor’s seal.

This was, in short, the Emperor’s personal order assigning the aces to report daily to the training dormitory.

How on earth had the Emperor—who usually clapped like a seal—written this letter himself?

Though their cunning intentions were obvious, the knights beamed at her with the innocent, sunny smiles of clueless children.

At that sight, something dark and deep within Lucia’s chest began to slowly boil over.