The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 568: You should never underestimate childbirth

Chapter 568: You should never underestimate childbirth

The first report came on the twenty-fourth day of the second month.

"The first bloom had been sighted in Aeraneed."

"Confirmed?" Natha put his utensils down and looked at Opti with utmost seriousness--even more so than the time the Realm of Wrath waged war.

"With the Chief Gardener’s endorsement."

It was the northernmost city of the realm. The second report came the next day, followed by the third and fourth sighting on the twenty-sixth at the same time. By the time the first bloom reached the port city, Natha had ceased all activity to stay in the Lord’s Quarter.

No matter how many times it was, every new report made me flinched in both anxiety and excitement. I didn’t even have the chance to feel guilty about pulling Natha from all his duties or making Malta, Lesta, and Eruha flooded with work.

Thankfully, nothing big was happening outside--nothing that the vassals couldn’t solve. Was it my good karma? Or perhaps Shwa was just a good child. But the situation leading to the birthing time was very smooth. Opti even brought a piece of good news on the morning of the twenty-eighth.

"The war is tipping to Wrath’s side; they managed to seize the fortress and now taking up a defensive stance."

We were all raising our brows around the breakfast table--even Amarein. "Defensive? Wrath?"

Opti grinned and gave me a wink. "They said they’ll hold the advance until the baby’s safely born."

Oh, gosh...did those battle-frenzy warriors really reign in their thirst for revenge for our sake?

"Give them my gratitude," Natha wrote something on the napkin--some numbers--and gave it to Opti. "This much should suffice."

After another wink, the teenage-looking spy dashed out again.

See what I meant by everything seemed to be going smoothly? Still, although we had no idea when the exact date would be, Natha stayed with me all the time. He even stayed with me in the bathroom, saying it might happen there.

How should I say this; he looked more anxious than I was.

Was it because of that? I actually felt rather calm. The anxiety and worry were overshadowed by the excitement and impatience of holding Shwa in my arms. I went to bed wondering if it would be tomorrow, and I spent the regular after-breakfast transfusion time talking to Jade about all kinds of things we would do with the baby.

"Your frown will become permanent at this point," I pressed a finger in the middle of Natha’s brows and giggled. It was tea time on the twenty-ninth, and he had been glancing outside as if he could spot the first bloom of the garden from there.

Well, he might be able to, but there was no guarantee that the first bloom of L’Anaak Eed would start in the Castle. Hell--there was no guarantee that it would happen when the first bloom arrived in L’Anaak Eed. What if it only happened after the whole districts had their first bloom?

After a few days of feeling jittery, I learned to just go with the flow.

Instead of loosening his furrow, he just looked at me up and down. "How are you feeling?"

"Good," I shrugged. "Good enough to not feel lethargic. You were the one who checked on my core an hour ago."

"Anything could happen in an hour," Natha grabbed my hand and checked on my pulse. Again.

Well, I just let him since he looked so endearing. It never felt annoying watching his handsome face hovering with a concerned face around me.

Hmm...pretty privilege even worked on a married couple, huh?

"What about the pendant?"

"I’m wearing it," I pulled the chain of the emergency mana Amarein gave me the last time. "You saw it when you changed my clothes this morning."

"Who knows if it’d fall somewhere in between," Natha grumbled, and I started to see the familiarity between him and Jade.

That boy might have taken after my appearance, but he was definitely taken after Natha somehow in the personality department.

"Do we need to be this concerned? We already prepared a lot of mana containers," I stroked his cheeks to try to calm him down. "It’s not like I have to push the baby out of my womb."

Not like I had one. Logically speaking, Shwa should come out of the flower--like Thumbelina or something. The only thing to be concerned about was probably the mana intake needed for the final push, but we already prepared everything we could; the mana containers, the mana pendant, and eating the mana-rich food diligently all this time. We even had Sada’s pill should something unwanted happen.

"But--"

"I agree--you should calm down, boy," D’Ara came to my support from the couch, sipping on her tea. Natha looked offended, but she added before he could say anything. "I’m not saying you should be less vigilant, but the more you’re worried about the sweetling, the more you should stay calm. What if something really happens and you can’t function because you became too agitated."

Natha’s face tensed up for a second, before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He looked at me and pressed his lips on my palm, sliding down to kiss my wrist before taking another deep breath.

"Okay, you’re right..." he exhaled slowly, and I used this rare chance to pat him on the head--which Jade also followed while giggling.

I leaned down and whispered in his ear, hiding my blush from everyone. "I’m happy to see how much you’re worried about me, though."

Finally, Natha let out a soft chuckle--something I realized I hadn’t seen for these past few days. So I added, smiling widely to reflect my blissful state. "But I’m happier seeing your handsome smile--"

I paused. Everything felt frozen around me. The time felt frozen. Or was it me? Was it my heart that stopped working?

My eyes flickered as a cold sensation shot through my spine, and a flame raged in my core. Instinct kicked in and I tried to take a deep breath, but all I heard was a sound of wheezing. Everything felt sluggish, and I gasped in a desperate attempt to suck on air.

"Sweetheart?"

"P-Papa?"

I heard voices; Natha and Jade, D’Ara and Amarein, the servants and the vassals--but everything felt distant, and the once bright afternoon shifted into a dim twilight as if the sun was swallowed by the cloud.

And I fell. My legs trembled so much that I couldn’t stay up, and they kept trembling even when Natha caught me and carried me to the bedroom. I could feel the agitation in his tight hold and the cold seeping out.

"He’s losing mana," someone said--was it Amarein? I could hear them fine, but everything sounded so vague. "The pendant kept him safe for now."

"For now?!"

"The mana flow is very unstable. Let’s proceed with the transfusion as planned."

What happened? Through flickering eyes, I saw Natha pinned my arm down and push a needle into my wrist. Arta and Panne were carrying the preservation chest where the mana containers were. Somewhere outside, Jade’s fearful wail and Lesta’s shooting voice intertwined.

And I was still trembling; seizing.

"Sweetheart...sweetheart, I’m sorry--" Natha’s trembling voice clashed with the sound of my clacking teeth.

Ah, fuck--why couldn’t I stop shaking?

D’Ara pulled my eyelids to keep my eyes open and stared into my soul; my core.

"The baby is coming," she said. "The soul is separating itself from Valen."

Shwa! Shwa is coming!

Suddenly, nothing registered in my head anymore but Shwa. The cocoon inside my soul was trying to break free. The flower in our garden was trying to bloom for the last time.

All alone.

"Nat!" with an energy I didn’t know I had before, I grabbed Natha’s hand tightly, staring into his silver eyes. "Nat!"

"No."

I looked at his shaking eyes incredulously, continuing what I wanted to say anyway. "Go--go to Shwa. Please!"

"No!" he stood up indignantly, as stubborn as a petulant child. But his fear was seeping out and filled the room with chilling cold. "I am not leaving your side at a time like this!"

"Ra Natha!"

The room went silent at my angry shout. I swallowed the bitter, hot saliva pooling in my mouth and pressed down on the pain spreading through my body. I glared at him and put every bit of strength left in me into my voice.

"Go...to your child! Our child!" my breath was rough at the end of that short demand, so all I could manage afterward was a soft plea. "Please, Nat...please..."

"Natha, you should go," D’Ara held me and placed her hand over my solar plexus, soothing the chaotic flow of mana in my core. "Stabilize the flow of mana from your child’s side."

Natha looked at me with a crestfallen face, but I no longer had any leeway to think about anything but keeping myself conscious. He staggered back and turned around to walk outside, but he returned to the bed right after, almost stumbling into the mattress.

"I’m sorry," he cupped my face with a pair of trembling hands. "I’m sorry..."

I received his kiss and despite urging him to go earlier, held him for a few seconds more.

"I love you," he whispered, with all his love and fear in his eyes.

I swallowed hard and whispered as loud as I could. "I love you too, Nat."

At that moment, I knew that both of us did not want to let each other go. But I pushed him weakly, and he let me go obediently. Natha stood up and shoved a box in D’Ara’s hands, before disappearing quickly before his resolve waned again.

The moment his presence vanished from the room, gone from the Lord’s Quarter, my strength left me. The tenacity I clung to while holding all the pain crumbled, and pain...pain unlike any other blasted through my body as my soul was ripped open.

And I screamed. I screamed and screamed as the sheet was ripped by my clawing hands. I screamed as they tried to pin my struggling limbs down. I screamed like I never screamed before in my life.

Until my airway shut and my breath stopped.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.