The Baby Isn’t Yours

‘Something feels a bit… strange.’

Simon had arrived at the Imperial Palace early in the morning. After the academy’s performance show had continued late into the night, he had gotten a good night’s sleep and woke up at the break of dawn.

He had used a teleportation rune to transport the exhausted magicians to the palace, and it had taken exactly…

‘30 minutes.’

After unloading his baggage at the Imperial Palace and grabbing his report, a strange unease welled up in him as he headed towards the prince’s quarters.

The number of people welcoming the returning delegation was minimal, and the gazes directed at Simon felt unusual. It was as if they were trying to avoid his gaze.

The entire palace was eerily silent. Even the palace maids, the palace guards, and even the court jester avoided eye contact.

Walking through the deserted palace corridors, Simon contemplated the nature of this unease. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t pinpoint its source.

It was like a tiny thorn stuck between his fingers, sharp and painful, but its form remained elusive.

“I’ve returned to report, Your Highness,” Simon announced as he entered the prince’s chambers.

Prince Louismond was sitting in his office as usual, surrounded by piles of documents. When Simon returned from his mission, looking quite battered, the prince looked at him with a blank expression for a moment before breaking into a bright smile.

“Welcome back. I’ve been waiting.”

Louismond quickly got up from his desk, approached Simon, and warmly embraced him, clapping him on the back.

Even his reassuring pat on the back felt different. It was stiffer and more forceful. There was even a hint of trembling.

Simon furrowed his brows and looked at his cousin through a narrow gap between his eyes.

“Everyone’s acting strange today.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just strange, that’s all. Everyone. When they see me, they lower their heads as if they’ve seen an eagle in the sky. You too… seem a bit off.”

Simon’s golden eyes peered deeply into Louismond’s blue sky-like irises.

“Off?” Louismond smiled and averted his gaze, then called for a servant to bring a cup of cold chamomile tea.

He looked at Louismond suspiciously and immediately placed the report he had brought on his desk.

The maid came inside carrying well-brewed cold chamomile tea.

Until then, Simon had been silently staring at Louismond all this time.

“Come here and have a drink,” Louismond said, offering the chamomile tea. Simon unconsciously muttered while looking at the cup.

“By the way, Kalia gave me tea leaves… Was it chamomile?”

“Cough.”

Simon’s comment made Louismond cough. His hand, which had been carrying the cup of chamomile tea to his lips, paused. Tea almost came out of his nose, and he quickly wiped his wet lips, exhaling a short breath.

His hand was sweaty.

From yesterday, he had been worrying about whether the strengthened runes would work, and now Louismond set the glass down with a quiver.

Simon observed Louismond’s face with a discerning eye as he sipped the chamomile tea. The smile slowly faded from Louismond’s face, replaced by a more serious expression.

He fixed his eyes on Simon with a determined gaze and said in a dry tone, “Listen, Simon.”

“…”

With Simon’s golden eyes urging him to speak, Louismond clenched his lips and finally continued:

“Kalia has left.”

A barely noticeable crease appeared on Simon’s smooth forehead.

Simon looked at Louismond with a puzzled expression, and his head tilted slightly.

“What did you just say?” An emotionless tone seeped through his words, sharp and abrupt.

Louismond sighed silently, closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.

“Kalia has left. It happened yesterday.”

“Where did she go?”

“…I don’t know.”

“What?”

“She just left. Kalia left.”

Louismond never even imagined that the day would come when he would say something like this.

Louismond forcibly made eye contact with Simon all the while chewing the flesh in his mouth.

Simon stared at Louismond with an empty look, as if he had heard something bizarre. Simon’s head tilted slightly.

“What did you just say, Louismond?”

‘Kalia left? You let her leave without knowing where she was going?’

Simon then recounted the words that Louismond had chosen to use. He did not say ‘she went on a trip’ or ‘she went on a vacation’. His precise words were ‘she left’.

Simon’s face was now void of any expression. Even the slightest emotion had long disappeared from his face.

Simon then recounted the words that Louismond had chosen to use. He did not say ‘she went on a trip’ or ‘she went on a vacation’. His precise words were ‘she left’.

Simon’s face was now void of any expression. Even the slightest emotion had long disappeared from his face.

His face chilled into cold stillness but hints of tiredness couldn’t be hidden. The only indication of his unease was the clenching and unclenching of his fists. This little habit of his developed as a result of watching someone else’s habits for a long time. 

‘Leaving? Who? Kalia? She left? Why…?’

At first, he thought it was a bad joke. Then, he thought it was a ridiculous joke.

He even got angry at Louismond, asking what kind of prank he was playing so recklessly.

But Louismond didn’t make any light-hearted remarks like, ‘Haha, you fell for it,’ that Simon expected. In fact, there was no mention of ‘Kalia is waiting for you’.

Instead, he maintained a rigid face and a grim silence.

With the silence that followed, Simon realized the truth embedded in Louismond’s serious expression.

There were no signs of a joke in his tight pursed lips or stiff shoulders.

The atmosphere became so serious that Simon felt suffocated.

Thump.

The silence was filled with ‘sincerity.’ As he realized this, Simon’s heart dropped to the ground.

Thump. Thump! Thump!

His heart, which had stopped for a moment, now bounced back and tried to beat, to live, to struggle.

But all it faced was overwhelming pain; it wouldn’t return to normal. The agony suffocated him.

“Don’t lie to me. There’s no reason for Kalia to leave,” Simon forced out his words.

“I want to believe that too, but it seems like she had a ‘reason’ that we don’t know about.”

“…Louismond, stop it. This is not funny,” Simon vehemently denied it.

Turning his gaze away from the face of Louismond who was forcing reality, he suddenly stood up and roared.

“Simon.”

“Damn it, stop! What a terrible joke!”

Boom! Boom! Clang!

As an involuntary surge of magic ripples went out, the teapot on the table burst.

Several ornaments disintegrated into atoms on the spot.

Despite the raging storm of magical power, Louismond struggled to maintain his composure.

In truth, he had anticipated something like this.

“If you can’t believe it that easily…”

Simon had to accept it quickly.

He had to accept it as quickly as possible and go find her.

Louismond opened the door for the infuriated Simon.

With a firm nod and a powerful voice, he said, “Go and confirm it yourself.”

* * *

‘Damn it!’

Simon couldn’t accept any of Louismond’s words, yet he continued running with all his might.

He was too panicked and surprised to even think about using teleportation.

‘Nonsense. Kalia left? It can’t be like that, right? Why Kalia? Leaving like this without even telling me?’

But deep down, his heart already knew that Louismond’s words were the truth.

Today, something about the atmosphere in the palace was subtly different, as if everyone who knew them had an unspoken tension in their eyes. The tilts and shaking of their heads, as if they were gossiping about her absence.

Louismond’s unbelievable words were a stark reality that echoed in his soul.

‘No, no, it’s not true.’

But Simon kept lying to himself.

He couldn’t believe that Kalia had left, that she had gone to a place unknown, leaving him behind without a word.

But his feet kept moving, and his desperate expression remained unchanged.

His breath grew labored as he raced.

“Kuh, huff! Huff!”

His chin tipped down as he ran out of breath..

‘Where did Kalia go! She has her place here! Where, where’d she go…!’

His lungs felt like they were about to burst

‘Why? Why the hell, Kalia? Why, why?!’

His soles burned with each step.

‘…Why, why are you leaving me?’

This was the first time he was running so desperately in his life.

As he approached Kalia’s mansion, he gazed up at it with a distorted face.

This was the first mansion she was bestowed. Kalia had wished her house to be noisy and lively and had hired a bunch of employees

 Though her expression seemed a bit lonely, she had casually told him how nice it would be if there was someone to welcome her home everytime and to greet her at any time.

“Kalia. Kalia…”

‘Please be there. Please, please. You’re still here. You’re…’

Even when Kalia’s arm fell off during the Battle of Nuhakon, he wasn’t this scared.

Despite the many times he saw Kalia bloodied or injured on the frontlines, he had never been as desperate as he was now.

It was because back then, she was there in front of him and in his arms; he was confident in his skills to heal her. Even if she was heavily injured, he was willing to squeeze out every last drop of his mana to save her.

“But this isn’t it… Kalia!”

Madness gleamed within Simon’s eyes.

He was running like a lost madman, his elegant silver hair extremely messy and scattered.

Anyone could guess just by looking at his reckless and uncoordinated movement how dazed and panicked he was.

‘Kalia, Kalia!’

He repeated in his heart as if he were reciting a mantra.

He couldn’t even remember how he got to Kalia’s mansion. Heart dripping with desperation, he arrived at the mansion’s front door and gripped the cold handle of the firmly closed door.

The solid door easily gave way and opened beneath his strength.

For a moment, he felt a rush of belief that the door was not locked but that quickly faded away when he realized that Kalia’s mansion, which was usually bustling from the amount of more-than-necessary employees, was overly quiet.

He broke out in a cold sweat and his heart tightened painfully at how horrifyingly silent it was.

It was a chillful and sorrowful stillness that enveloped him. His instincts screamed hastily at him, trying to prevent him from heartbreak.

Don’t go inside the mansion. You will only encounter despair.

Run away from here.

‘No, I never run away.’

Simon gritted his teeth and ran up to the second floor where Kalia usually stayed. 

“Kalia! Kalia, damn it! Come out now, Kalia!”

Sweat formed all over his neat forehead.

When his screams weren’t answered, his heart sank with a thump.

He opened Kalia’s door without permission; it was a rude gesture that he would never normally do. However, to his dismay, the usual warm space that greeted him was empty and only cold emptiness welcomed him.

“…Kalia! Come out! If you don’t want to see me go crazy, come out!”

He barrelled through the room, searching it like a madman.

In his storm of grief, the curtains were torn off and parts of the ceiling were ripped. Under the bed. Anything on the walls. Everything was turned upside down in the frenzied rampage.

“Come out! Come out before I break everything. Kalia! Damn it! Come out. Please! Before I destroy the Empire, come out!”

All of the doors to the mansion were broken, and only Simon’s struggles filled with deep sadness and anger were resounding through the place.

One side of the garden had already been blown away due to his inability to control the force.

“Kalia. Kalia…”

Did you really leave? So suddenly like this? Without even saying anything to me?

By the time his frantic actions had calmed down a bit, the mansion and Simon’s heart were both in ruins.

Simon staggered to Kalia’s broken bed like a man who had lost all his strength.

He laid there, face down in the mess of her sheets and desperately grabbed onto the faint scent of Kalia.

Her scent overpowered his senses and it overwhelmed him; for a moment he felt suffocated from shortness of breath.

Simon grabbed the ragged bedsheet and screamed his pain into it. The heart-wrenching sound, filled with endless despair, was like the cry of a beast; it rang and echoed throughout the empty mansion.

He took a long time to catch his breath and gritted his teeth, then closed his eyes and whispered desperately.

“…Kalia, please. This kind of joke really isn’t funny.”

But no matter how long he waited, there was no answer.

However, no matter how long he waited, no matter how long he whispered…

Kalia’s voice did not answer his pleas.

* * *

The following day, Kalia’s butler, Jacob, came to find him.

With a letter from her.