‘No, how could you say that…’

The radiant golden eyes looking straight at her and the tightly shut, neat lips seemed sincere.

Disturbed, Kalia scrutinized Simon with a very serious gaze to figure out whether his words were truth or not.

After a pause, Simon slightly lifted one corner of his mouth and said.

“It was a joke.”

‘…But it didn’t seem like a joke.’

But upon thinking again, there was no chance Simon would really start a war just to see her face more often.

He wasn’t a person so idle, and there was no reason for him to do so.

Kalia removed the lingering seeds of doubt with a lukewarm feeling.

Then she smiled back at him as if it was nothing and replied.

“Is that so?”

He shrugged his shoulders, standing slanted, his hand in his pocket and his white shirt not properly buttoned, just like a dissolute young master from any aristocratic family.

“But I also think that it’s not impossible.”

“…”

“I feel like smashing something right now.”

Although he was clearly smiling, his voice was tinged with undisguised irritation.

As Simon had said, despite meeting after a long time, he didn’t seem to be in a good mood.

No, strictly speaking, Simon had been continuously in a bad mood since that day.

He apparently couldn’t accept what happened that day.

Although Kalia felt unjust as she didn’t cause the incident alone, she fully understood Simon’s anger.

It must have been miserable for him to be betrayed so shamelessly by a friend he trusted without a doubt.

‘I am indeed trash.’

While recalling the undeniable past, Kalia chastised herself in gloom before quickly pulling herself together.

‘No. I shouldn’t keep thinking like this. Such depressing thoughts might affect the baby in my stomach. I need to pull myself together. My body and mind are not just mine now.’

While she was clenching her fist thinking such thoughts, Simon who was staring at her intently, asked.

“Are you on your way from seeing the Crown Prince?”

Kalia nodded affirmatively, hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth.

“Um, Simon.”

“Speak.”

To his cold reply, Kalia took a deep breath and quickly spilled out her words with an incredibly sincere face.

“I am saying this again, I was really sorry about that day. And it was my first time experiencing something like that, I didn’t know I would make you suffer that much that day… to the point that you couldn’t get out of bed. As you know, I am a fool with only good stamina.”

“No, wait.”

Simon quickly raised his hand to stop her.

“Who said that I couldn’t get out of bed because I was exhausted?”

His face turned white as a sheet, gritting his teeth in anger.

“…Huh?”

“What on earth do you think I am…!”

But contrary to his pale face, Simon’s ears were turning bright red.

‘His ears are red?’

Simon was visibly flustered to the point his ears turned red. Such a thing rarely happened, which left her perplexed.

‘…Why?’

Kalia couldn’t stop her head tilting to one side.

She held her chin and scrutinized Simon.

Simon, as if to cool down his anger, ruffled his beautiful silvery hair that shone under the moonlight.

His fine hair that fell down was disheveled above his neat and clean forehead.

Inhaling a large breath that made his chest heave, he spoke in a restrained voice.

“And please, stop saying you’re sorry, Kalia.”

“Hmm?

“You don’t have to feel sorry for me at all, so stop saying sorry.”He growled menacingly with his teeth clenched.

While Kalia was speechless due to surprise, Simon was still grumbling nervously as if he still couldn’t believe it.

“Ha! Me? I, Simon Terroan, couldn’t get out of bed because I was tired just from what happened the night before?”

“…No, it’s just that you couldn’t get up the next day.”

“Shut up. It’s not that it couldn’t happen, but that I’m enjoying that state…”

The raging Simon stopped speaking as he bit his lip hard.

He exhaled deeply, something he had already done a few times, and looked up at the sky.

‘…Oh God.’

His voice, mumbling emptily, was filled with deep sorrow.

Soon, he seemed to have calmed down a bit and opened his mouth again.

“…No, it’s not that it couldn’t descend, but it didn’t, Kalia. Don’t ignore that clear difference.”

‘Whether it didn’t descend or couldn’t descend, what’s the difference?’

Kalia, who had pouted her lips, nodded her head as if she understood at Simon’s fiery gaze.

“Oh, okay, I got it. Anyway, I’m sorry.”

“…I told you not to say you’re sorry, Kalia.”

Simon growled roughly again.

Then don’t get angry, or don’t apologize while getting angry.

By then, even Kalia was a bit annoyed. She was getting tired of it all.

She wanted to spend peaceful time soothing her belly instead of this.

Seeing Kalia’s expression, Simon, along with a short sigh, called her name in a somewhat softened voice.

“Kalia.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think I got the title of Archmage for nothing?”

‘…Why is he asking that?’

Kalia seriously pondered his suddenly changed statement, but couldn’t figure it out.

Seeing Kalia’s puzzled face, Simon ruffled his silver hair and explained bitterly.

“I’m not so easily affected by spells cast on scrolls.”

Kalia tilted her head as if she didn’t understand and asked.

“But you were excited that day, weren’t you?”

“No, that’s…”

“Don’t you think we were out of our minds then? Simon, something happened between you and me. How could you and I….”

Feeling her own over-excitement, Kalia calmed down and continued.

“Anyway, Derek’s scroll is dangerous as it turns even friendship into desire!”

At her excitement, Simon, on the contrary, seemed to have lost his words and looked dumbfounded.

Then, as if something had struck a nerve, his face twisted.

Unable to contain something surging within him, he launched a lightning bolt in the middle of the imperial garden with a short spell.

A huge thunderbolt flashed down behind him.

Thud!

‘…Again. That jerk has destroyed another imperial garden.’

Luckily, there was a magic that could restore it.

Looking at the dumbfounded Kalia, Simon gritted his teeth and spoke quickly.

“Oh, what am I going to say to you in this state, you blockhead. I’ll explain it calmly later, so don’t go anywhere for a while. I need to go and mend the defensive magic array for two weeks. I’ll talk to you when I come back. Then, I’ll explain it calmly. Wait. Got it?”

‘Two weeks? Hmm…’

It was tough.

Kalia couldn’t hide her complicated expression, but seeing his burning eyes, she nodded for now.

Only then did Simon turn back as if satisfied.

It was impulsive when Kalia, watching his departing figure, opened her mouth.

“Simon.”

As if asking why she called him, he looked back at her. Kalia hesitated for a moment.But she had already called him, so she couldn’t back off.

She opened her mouth with a careful heart.

“Do you… still hate children?”

“What the heck are you talking about all of a sudden?”

Simon stared at Kalia’s out-of-the-blue question.

Trying to find hidden intentions in his gaze, Kalia awkwardly smiled and added.

“You’ve been talking about marriage too. Once you’re married, you’ll think about kids… I’m wondering if you’re still against it.”

Simon had been strongly against having kids for some time.

If Kalia even began to discuss anything related to children, he would shudder and stop her.

Regardless of whether it was a newborn or a slightly older child, if there were children around, he would take Kalia and avoid them, changing their location.

Even though this was the kind of person Simon was, wouldn’t it be a little different if it was his own child?

Kalia awkwardly threw out the question as if trying to squeeze out a nonexistent hope.

Simon stared at her with an indescribable expression, then seemed to fall into deep thought, closing his mouth.

Then, he spoke.

“I still don’t want to. And I think I’ll continue to not want to.”

At his firm statement, Kalia looked at Simon with a hardened expression she couldn’t hide.

For some reason, he repeated his point with a face full of conviction.

“I’ve recently felt the desire to get married, but that doesn’t mean I want to have a child. So we don’t need to have one.”

‘As expected.’

As Kalia sighed, Simon, who was avoiding her gaze, responded rudely,

“Why are you worrying about such a pointless thing?”

‘Because your child has been conceived inside me, you son of a…’

“Anyway, I’m leaving.”

Watching Simon’s retreating back, Kalia made a firm resolution once again.

She must not mention anything about children to Simon, ever again.

* * *.

“…Sigh.”

After walking for a while, Simon stopped just before he entered the lobby.

Then he half-turned his body and looked at Kalia’s back, who was walking aimlessly in the distance.

Her tightly tied lemon-colored hair shone as it swayed, reflecting the moonlight.

The moonlight embraced her, cutting through the darkness.

It was as if the hidden sunlight was pushing back the darkness of the night, revealing itself solely for her, shining brilliantly.

It was a clear back view that he had seen many times, but every time he looked, it was dazzling.

She was an honest woman who didn’t know how to play games, who stood with her feet firmly on the ground, her waist straight, and faced everything head-on.

Her hands, unlike her soft hair, were rough and calloused.

There was an arrow-pierced wound on her straightly falling shoulder, a long sword cut on her tight abs, and there was a scar from when her right arm had been ripped off and then reattached.

Simon had poured his energy into it for three days and nights to reattach it, but the traces of the tear didn’t completely disappear.

They were scars that she would carry for a lifetime.

They were her glory,

They were the evidence of her efforts.

And they were the proof of who she was now.

That’s why Kalia wasn’t ashamed of her rough hands, unlike other aristocratic ladies.

Although the stupid nobles hid behind the social circle and jeered at her, calling her ‘Iron Lady Kalia’, and pointed their fingers at her, those words didn’t even touch her high and noble swordsman’s ears.

In a way, it was a blessing that Kalia had no sense, couldn’t follow the roundabout way of speaking of the other women, or wasn’t interested in other people’s murmuring.

Thanks to that, while her body was covered in scars, her heart would remain intact.

“…Such a dull woman.”

While he liked that about her, Simon couldn’t help but chuckle, finding himself amusing.

A small, rectangular box rolled around inside the pocket of his trousers.

As he fiddled with it, Simon remembered what Kalia had said a while ago.

“You’ve been talking about marriage too. Once you’re married, you’ll think about kids… I’m wondering if you’re still against it.”

…If that dull Kalia was going to say that much, she must have meant something.

‘Princess Luina of Ains.’

Simon frowned as he recalled the events of that morning.