When the roses bloom fully, we should hold the wedding.

Rosalyn Embly closed her eyes and imagined a garden of fully bloomed roses in her mind.

Having imagined it dozens, hundreds of times already, it was as clear as if it were right before her eyes.

People applaud the bride and groom. Rosalyn walked down the aisle holding a bouquet of red roses. At the end stood Maximilian.

She walks, holding her breath halfway due to nervousness, and barely reaches the end. Then Maximilian would take her hand and say:

“My lady, please come to your senses!”

“Open your eyes. You must wake up!”

“If you don’t gather your strength, the child might die. My lady! My lady!”

Child.

That’s right. I was giving birth to a child.

“Aaagh!”

The pain of her body being torn apart came again. Rosalyn gritted her teeth and screamed. It felt as if someone had set fire under her waist. Or was slashing it with a knife.

“I can see the head, you need to push from your upper belly!”

“My lady. *sob* Please, ah. Oh God. Please, please.”

Sophia, the maid who had served Rosalyn since she was very young, prayed to God incessantly while shedding tears. That was all she could do.

The midwife couldn’t bring herself to scold Sophia. The mother’s health was that dire. It was to the point where neither the mother’s nor the child’s life could be guaranteed.

“This won’t do. The mother can’t push at all.”

The midwife wiped the sweat from her forehead and gestured to a maid standing nearby.

“One of you go up and push this lady’s belly. If the baby stays in the birth canal for too long, it’s dangerous for both mother and child.”

At her words, an older maid climbed on top of Rosalyn.

“Push! Harder!”

“Aaagh! Aah!”

Rosalyn howled like a beast. She begged to be saved, then immediately pleaded to be killed. Watching this scene, Sophia finally collapsed to the floor and wailed.

“My lady, push! One more time!”

Rosalyn could no longer distinguish what was reality and what was a dream. The rose garden appeared and disappeared repeatedly. This time of agony felt like an eternity.

“I can see the ears. The baby’s head is almost out. You’re doing well. Now, just one last push!”

“My lady, my lady! They say the baby is coming out. *sob* My lady.”

Her ears were open, but no sound was registering in her head. To Rosalyn’s ears, it was just a buzzing resonance. Sophia held her lady’s hand tightly, wishing that even a little of the pain would come to her instead.

Our poor lady, our pitiful lady.

The sympathy for Rosalyn soon turned into anger towards Maximilian, the root cause of all this.

That man ruined my lady’s life and now he’s trying to take her life too.

It’s all because of him that we left Ersche and came to this far-off foreign land, Ansen, and that my lady is suddenly giving birth in this countryside without proper doctors.

“It’s done, it’s done! The baby is out, it’s a boy. It’s a son. A very handsome son.”

“*sob* My lady. They say it’s a boy. My lady, my lady…”

The midwife quickly wrapped the baby in a clean cloth and skillfully cut the umbilical cord. The baby, seemingly unfamiliar with the world it was forced into, didn’t open its mouth for a while, but soon burst into tears.

As the baby’s cry filled the room, everyone inside breathed a sigh of relief.

Until then, no sound had been audible, but as if by magic, only the baby’s cry pierced Rosalyn’s ears. Rosalyn, who had been struggling even to breathe, barely opened her eyes and flailed her arms.

“A, a son, you say it’s a son?”

“Yes, my lady. It’s a son. He looks healthy.”

Sophia, who had been praying, wiped her tears and brought the child to Rosalyn. Rosalyn tried her best to focus her blurry vision.

My child. My son.

“Baby.”

Having come out of his mother’s womb two months early, the child was particularly small. Rosalyn felt sorry for this and tears welled up. If she had been healthier, the child wouldn’t have come out into the world so early.

“Daniel, I’ll call him Daniel.”

“A noble name. Young Master Daniel.”

“Daniel…”

Rosalyn looked down at the child with loving eyes. Although he was still red and wrinkled, making it hard to even politely call him pretty, to Rosalyn’s eyes, he was the most beautiful angel in the world.

She tried her best to keep her eyes open for as long as possible to capture her son’s image. But the more she tried, the blurrier her vision became.

The experienced midwife was the first to notice this state. Realizing that Rosalyn was about to lose consciousness, she shouted.

“Oh no, the blood… Bring the doctor waiting outside right now! Hurry!”

“My lady, you can’t fall asleep yet. You need to see Young Master Daniel. My lady, my lady!”

The situation, which had briefly calmed, became urgent again. The doctor who had been waiting outside immediately entered and examined her condition.

“Her temperature is too high? And there’s a lot of bleeding… This lady, you said she had a weak heart, right?”

“Please save her, please save our lady.”

“Whether she lives or dies is now in God’s hands. Move aside. Joshua! Bring my bag right now!”

Sophia tightly hugged the baby amidst the bustling people. Tears quietly flowed down her cheeks.

Where did it all go wrong?

If she had strongly objected when she learned that her lady was going to meet Maximilian Atilei, if she had advised her to give up when she first found out she was pregnant, would things have been different?

“Try to open your eyes! Ah, this won’t do. The bleeding shows no sign of stopping.”

The doctor exhaled in frustration as he examined Rosalyn, but the situation only continued to worsen.

It was obvious that they couldn’t shake off Atilei’s pursuit if they stayed in Ersche. So they decided to go to Ansen, a country in the Southern Continent.

However, even before boarding the ship to Ansen, Atilei’s encirclement was closing in moment by moment. That’s when Maximilian suggested to Rosalyn that they split the group.

‘If we keep moving together like this, we’ll be caught by Atilei. Rosie. I’ll go somewhere else with the knights to draw attention. You go to Ansen first.’

‘What if you get caught?’

Rosalyn was terribly afraid that Maximilian would go back to prison. Maximilian comforted Rosalyn and said,

‘That’s better than something happening to you and our child.’

‘Max…’

Rosalyn had been in poor health since childhood, and Maximilian was the first peer she had ever met and conversed with.

The innocent lady was deceived by this snake-like man and even ended up with child. Despite having to flee to Ansen while pregnant because of this, Rosalyn showed no sign of resentment towards Maximilian. She just sniffled as she saw him off.

Sophia, who watched them from the side, found his actions rather ridiculous. Wasn’t it because of Maximilian that all this happened in the first place?

Although he expressed it as splitting the group in two, the knights attached to Maximilian were only three or four at most. Well, their original purpose was to protect Rosalyn. Honestly, it didn’t matter much what happened to Maximilian.

Until then, Sophia had been focused solely on helping with Rosalyn’s delivery upon reaching Ansen. She never imagined the situation would unfold so breathlessly.

“This lady, does she have family?”

The doctor asked Sophia as he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. Sophia nodded urgently.

“Yes. The lady’s father, our master, is alive. This lady is from a very high-status family. So please…”

“Bring the family as quickly as possible. They should be here for the last moments.”

“Last moments? What do you mean? What’s going to happen to my lady?”

“I’ve done all I can. If she’s lucky and the fever breaks, she might live, but…”

The doctor trailed off, giving a signal to his assistant. Understanding the meaning, the assistant hurriedly gathered the things they had brought.

“It will probably be difficult. The mother’s body was too weak to begin with. It’s a miracle she managed to give birth safely.”

“Ah. Our poor lady, our pitiful lady.”

“Pray that God shows mercy.”

The doctor left after saying only those words.

Sophia entrusted the baby to the other maids and approached Rosalyn. She was so pale that it was doubtful whether she was even breathing.

Sophia and the other two maids cleared away the blood-soaked bedding and put water into Rosalyn’s mouth. The remaining maid went to get milk to sate Daniel’s hunger.

Rosalyn only let out occasional faint moans, unable to open her eyes. The maids huddled around the bed, tending to their mistress.

“Who were those people?”

The youngest of the three maids asked, shuddering.

“The ones who attacked us. How could they kill so many knights in an instant? In just thirty minutes.”

“It doesn’t matter who they were. Anyway, when the master comes, he will surely find and kill those who attacked us. So just think about serving the lady well so we can return.”

“*sob* Can we really return? What if those people again…”

The young maid, overwhelmed by the situation, showed tears. She couldn’t be blamed.

Not long after arriving in Ansen, they were attacked by unknown assailants. Amidst that chaos, only Rosalyn and three maids barely survived.

It was understandable to be scared, having seen people die so cruelly before their eyes for the first time. Even Rosalyn went into labor two months early due to the shock.

“Don’t say such things. Lady Rosalyn, Young Master Daniel, and all three of us will return alive.”

Sophia said, patting her shoulder.

They took turns caring for the baby and wiping Rosalyn’s body with cold wet towels to bring down her fever. They endured like this until daybreak.

Fortunately, Rosalyn’s raging fever subsided a bit as dawn passed. The maids were so happy they hugged each other.

“If you just hold on a little longer, the master will be here soon. He’s on his way to see you now.”

Sophia whispered in Rosalyn’s ear. She prayed earnestly that she would gather even a little strength.

But that afternoon, the person who opened the door of the old inn was not the one they were desperately waiting for.

“Y-Young Master, how did you…”

“How? Is it strange that I’ve come?”

As if he had been waiting for all the chaos to end, Maximilian appeared in Rosalyn’s room right on cue.

Sophia was confused. They had parted ways before even arriving in Ansen. How did he know and find this place? They hadn’t even contacted him.

“Where’s Rosalyn?”

“The lady has lost a lot of strength giving birth to the child…”

“Is she dead?”

“How could you say such a thing!”

She raised her voice without realizing it. Maximilian raised one eyebrow. Sophia immediately realized her mistake and lowered her head.