He was about to finish his work and stand up to return home to the mansion from the imperial palace.

Knock knock−.

Edric sighed and answered to the knocking sound.

“Yes.”

He could tell who it was just from the knock. As expected, Crown Prince Lucius entered with a grin. It was the foolish smile he often wore when he had a favor to ask.

“I have a request.”

He said, holding out the next quarter’s military budget proposal. As if apologetic, he added:

“You can take your time.”

“I’ll do it now.”

Edric spoke casually.

As per their agreement to treat each other as friends rather than ruler and subject outside of work hours.

“Are you sure?”

As Edric sat back down, Lucius said with a sheepish look:

“This makes me feel bad.”

“If you feel bad, give it to me earlier next time.”

Lucius burst into laughter at his sharp retort.

“I’ll treat you to a drink soon.”

“I’ll pass.”

A drinking session with Lucius? He wouldn’t go to a place where he’d obviously end up with a pile of work, unless he was crazy.

He was a good man personally, but lacking as the empire’s heir. Quite lacking.

“You’re such a stiff friend.”

Lucius left with an awkward smile, and Edric put his glasses back on to start on the work Lucius had dumped on him.

Before fully immersing himself in work, he checked his pocket watch.

Seven o’clock.

‘There’s still time.’

He just needed to get home before the consummation anyway.

Edric closed the watch and focused on work.

What he thought would be simple turned out to require much more effort. No wonder Lucius, who hated troublesome tasks, would pass this onto him.

Review, re-review. Compare, cut.

After repeating the hamster wheel-like process several times, he finally achieved a somewhat satisfactory result.

Edric took off his glasses and firmly pressed between his tired eyes.

While there’s a sense of accomplishment in completing difficult tasks, he absolutely hated fruitless ones.

Therefore, he firmly decided never to accept Lucius’s trivial requests again.

He checked his pocket watch with determination.

“……”

Thinking he might have seen wrong, he put his glasses back on.

Oh no.

He thought it would be around nine at the latest, but it was already eleven.

Edric hurriedly got up from his seat.

He ran down the stairs without even properly putting on the jacket in his hand.

Melly’s voice came to mind.

‘You’ll come home early today, right?’

Her eyes looked very earnest when she asked that.

The carriage was already waiting at the main palace entrance. Wilson bowed slightly and opened the carriage door.

“As fast as possible.”

When he spoke softly, Wilson, who had followed him into the carriage, loudly relayed to the coachman:

“His Lordship says to go as fast as possible.”

But no matter how fast a carriage went, it couldn’t match even the leisurely speed of an automobile.

Stubborn humans.

To still adhere to the outdated principle that one must only use carriages in the imperial palace.

The carriage wheels rolled slowly, to the point where he resented himself for not having made a proposal earlier.

Just as they passed the palace gates, he suddenly recalled what happened at the recent banquet.

‘You should have a child soon, it would help you forget the pain of miscarriage.’

It would have been better if she hadn’t said anything at all.

Edric couldn’t forget how Melly had smiled and expressed gratitude to Lady Clurisa’s words.

Her smile that day looked sadder than tears.

That’s why he had intended to comply with her request without complaint this time.

‘Damn it.’

The situation was not helping him at all.

His face was filled with an anxious look as he stared at the congested road.

“There’s a festival in the nearby village, sir.”

Wilson reported quietly. The clock had already passed eleven-thirty.

It seemed impossible to get home before midnight.

At this point, Edric could only hope for one thing.

‘I hope Melly is already asleep.’

[This is the timeline separator]

Eleven-thirty.

Edric, who said he’d come home early, still hadn’t returned.

Melly felt disheartened.

Her beautifully adorned appearance, satisfactory even to herself, and the suggestive nightgown that had raised her expectations, now only fueled her sadness.

‘Does he have that much work?’

Melly thought as she sat on the chaise longue, wrapping herself tightly in a robe.

‘Just how much work could there be?’

She couldn’t think of any other reason for his lateness.

He was a man who prioritized work. More than her. More than anything else.

For a moment, she resented him. No, she resented Crown Prince Lucius.

He often relied heavily on Edric, sometimes even passing on his own work to him.

‘I should brew him some tea when he returns.’

Suddenly feeling sorry for him, Melly pushed away her sad feelings and prepared boiled water and tea utensils.

She waited for him, watching the milky steam inside the glass pot turn into fine droplets.

But as midnight passed and it neared one in the morning, drowsiness began to creep in.

The intervals between closing and opening her eyes were getting longer, even to her own perception.

At some point, she fell asleep.

In her dream, she was walking along a path between pastures on a bright sunny day.

She paused for a moment to watch children playing with sheep flocks beyond the fence.

It was such a peaceful scene that it naturally brought a smile to her face.

Suddenly, a boy about three or four years old approached Melly and greeted her.

‘Hello.’

‘……’

The smile faded from Melly’s face.

Blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes. Features that strongly resembled someone.

‘Edric.’

The child looked just like him. Melly knew this was her child that she had lost due to her careless mistake.

‘Hello……’

Melly pulled the boy close and hugged him tightly with trembling hands.

The warmth from his small body was comforting.

‘Mama.’

The child called her in a tiny voice. It was the word she had always longed to hear.

A hot emotion welled up inside her.

‘Mama is sorry.’

Melly cried as she held the child.

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.’

As if to say she didn’t need to apologize, the child patted his mother’s back with his tiny hand.

The soft touch, the warm temperature. Melly wished time would stop right there.

But the child’s warmth gradually faded away. And suddenly, feeling an unfamiliar cool sensation on her back, Melly opened her eyes.

That’s when she saw sapphire blue eyes, just like the child’s, in the pitch-black space.

“Edric.”

He had just moved her from the sofa where she had fallen asleep to the bed.

“When did you come?”

“Just now.”

“Ah, I see.”

Melly tried to sit up, using her arms for strength. Edric then said:

“You look tired, you should sleep more.”

‘Yes, you too.’

That’s what she had originally intended to say.

Not for her sake, but for his. Coming home this late at night, he must be very tired too.

But.

‘Mama.’

The child’s voice calling her was still clear in her ears. It felt like the warm sensation was still in her arms.

She didn’t want to leave that faint sensation as just a dream.

“No… I can’t.”

“……”

“We have something we need to do.”

At those words, Edric stared at her silently in the darkness for a while. It was a gaze tinged with vague contempt.

“You’re quite selfish.”

He finally spoke.

“Do you know what time it is? It’s two in the morning.”

“……”

“You could have asked me something else first, instead of demanding we do what needs to be done, when I’ve just come home at this hour.”

At that moment, Melly came to her senses.

She hurriedly apologized.

“I’m… I’m sorry. I was still drowsy from sleep, I didn’t think.”

At those words, Edric let out a chuckle and said:

“That means I’m not even on your mind. Because of a child that doesn’t even exist yet.”

“……”

A child that doesn’t exist yet. While Melly was momentarily stunned by the shock of those words, Edric languidly looked her over.

The night gown with a soft sheen like the moon reflected on the night sea. And the smooth thigh visible through the parted opening. For a moment, his lips curved into a crooked smile.

“You look very pretty today.”

“……”

“If it wasn’t for the sake of having a child, would you have waited for me dressed like this?”

He shook his head and answered his own question.

“I don’t think so. To you, I’m just a stud horse for breeding.”

“……”

“There will be no consummation tonight.”

He left the room after delivering that cold announcement. Without giving Melly any chance to defend herself.

[This is the timeline separator]

“A stud horse for breeding……”

Melly murmured, looking at the nightgown that had clung tightly to her body last night, now laid out on the bed.

It wasn’t unreasonable for Edric to think that way.

She had demanded consummation from him as soon as he returned home tired from work.

Because the dream was too sweet. And too desperate.

Because of a child in her fantasy, she had done something unforgivable to him in reality……

Melly grabbed the nightgown and rolled it up tightly. The nightgown that had seemed so alluring last night now looked like an eyesore.

She shoved it into a drawer and quickly closed it.

“……”

But suddenly remembering something, she opened the drawer again.

Among the layers of clothes, a piece of white muslin was visible.

It was the fabric she had prepared to make a baby’s first shirt for the child in her womb.

The child disappeared before she could even make the shirt once.

It was truly an unfortunate accident.

Melly gently stroked the muslin and then buried her face in it.

The scent of the fabric wistfully caressed her nose.

She wanted to see the child wearing this shirt and laughing brightly. No, she wanted to see the child crying.

She wanted the child to come back to her quickly, but whether it had lost its way or no longer wanted to settle its life in the womb of a careless mother, the child wasn’t coming.

Melly’s heart ached.

But…… her husband comes first.

She didn’t want to appear as a selfish woman to him anymore.

Melly kissed the muslin, then neatly folded it and put it back in the drawer. She carefully hid it among other clothes so it wouldn’t be visible.

Then as she got up, she saw the medicine Anna had left on the table.

Medicine to help with getting pregnant.

Melly looked at it for a moment, then dumped it in the sink.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Please take this.”

The next day, Melly handed Edric a thermos as he was about to leave for work.

“I prepared a special tea that’s good for fatigue. Because you must have been very tired yesterday……”

As if regretting last night’s incident, Melly blushed and lowered her gaze.

“I’ll drink it well.”

Edric took the thermos with an indifferent attitude and immediately passed it to Wilson.

Wilson respectfully received both the briefcase and the thermos, then gracefully passed in front of Melly.

Melly followed behind Edric and Wilson. When Eida joined them midway, Melly was pushed to the end of the procession that went Edric, Eida, then Wilson, but she no longer looked dejected.

“Don’t overwork yourself, take breaks while working.”

She saw Edric off with a consistently cheerful attitude.

As the carriage departed and Melly grew smaller in the distance, Edric smiled faintly, half-aware.

Despite pushing the limits of his patience last night to navigate through the congested roads, Edric honestly felt disappointed when she immediately demanded consummation upon seeing him.

That’s why harsh words came out before he knew it.

‘That means I’m not even on your mind. Because of a child that doesn’t even exist yet.’

While other words could be excused, he shouldn’t have brought up the child like that.

Especially since he had been by her side for the past three years, watching her struggle with the difficulty of conceiving.

While pondering how to make up for last night’s incident, Melly’s more docile attitude deeply reassured Edric.

It seemed his somewhat shocking words had become a catalyst for her to let go of her obsession with pregnancy.

‘This isn’t so bad once in a while.’

Completely freed from the guilt that had weighed on his chest all night, he felt satisfied with this unintended outcome and turned his head.

The slanting angle of the sunlight, the cool breeze, the grassy smell piercing his nose. And the wide open road.

He could now enjoy all of this.

Unlike last night, when his head felt like it would explode in frustration in the middle of the congested road.