I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 11

Judith had never seen the Master as a man before.

How could she? She didn’t know his face or voice. Whatever magic item he used made his voice vanish from her memory after a while. He didn’t even have a trace of any cologne.

In short, none of her senses—sight, touch, smell, taste, or hearing—provided her with any information about him. And yet…

‘He has a good build.’

Now, standing so close to him in the darkness, she could clearly feel his body heat and the tight muscles of his physique.

Judith swallowed dryly as a thought crossed her mind.

‘…He really does have a great body, doesn’t he?’

She had known he was tall, but she hadn’t expected him to be this well-built.

After all, he usually wore a black, loose-fitting hood that obscured his figure.

‘He must work out a lot…’

Judith felt relieved that it was dark; otherwise, she was sure her face would have given her away.

Being in such close proximity to him in the darkness made her hyper-aware of the fact that she was alone with a man.

Judith’s heart raced—a feeling unfamiliar to her, as she had always been too busy earning a living to spend time with men.

It seemed the Master wasn’t unaffected either. She could hear the tension in his suppressed breathing.

‘Wow, I’m really conscious of his breathing. I need to make sure I don’t breathe too loudly myself.’

She didn’t know exactly when the tension between them started, but they continued walking together in silence, clutching each other tightly.

The path was winding, constantly changing direction, and pitch dark.

Judith thought there was no way she could find her way back here alone. She was deeply impressed that the Master could remember such a convoluted route.

“Here we are.”

Just as her legs were beginning to ache, the Master whispered hoarsely.

“We’re almost at Karl’s wardrobe.”

Judith widened her eyes in surprise. Had they already entered the Mayus estate? She hadn’t even noticed when they crossed into the mansion. She hadn’t expected the passage to be so directly connected to the mansion’s interior.

As she walked hand in hand with the Master, he suddenly asked her a question.

“But are you really okay with having a marriage record with Ekian Mayus?”

“Hm?”

“Judith, you’re a noblewoman. Nobles aren’t as free to remarry as commoners. If you have a record of divorce, it will be difficult for you to marry a good nobleman in the future.”

Although Judith had already assured him several times that she didn’t care, the Master still seemed incredulous and felt the need to ask once more.

In the darkness, Judith slowly responded, “Well… I’m not sure if you’ll understand this, but…”

She had spent a lot of time alone with the Master before, but this moment felt different. This time, it felt like they were speaking human to human.

“I’ve never really learned that nobles are different from commoners, or that nobles must preserve their dignity… I think most people are taught that from a young age by their parents, but my parents didn’t care much about me.”

“……”

“Especially my father, who should have at least taught me about the history and legacy of the Ailan barony… He hardly ever came home. I don’t think I even saw his face more than a few times.”

Judith’s voice was calm and composed as she spoke about her past.

“So I don’t know much about what people mean when they talk about a ‘good noble husband.’ Both my parents were nobles, but their marriage wasn’t something I would want to emulate. And in the end, my mother ran away with a servant.”

Judith thought about her mother. In her memories, her mother was always with a handsome servant with brown hair.

When her mother was with that servant, she seemed quite happy. And so Judith had always watched her from afar, feeling as though her mother were a stranger with whom she had no connection.

She had sought her mother out because she hated being alone and wanted to see her, but every time, she instinctively knew she couldn’t break into the happy space her mother shared with the servant. From a distance, Judith always thought the same thing as she watched them.

If only her mother had been a commoner, she could have married that servant and been happier. If that was what she wanted, why didn’t she just have the courage to run away with him before she married her father?

In the end, her mother finally found the courage to leave after her noble husband’s death and the crushing debt fell upon them. That’s when she escaped with the servant.

Watching her mother’s happiness and misery from afar, Judith had long since resolved that she would never live that way.

“I wouldn’t mind marrying a commoner. As long as he’s a responsible and handsome man who can take care of his family, that’s enough for me.”

“…You wouldn’t mind marrying a commoner?”

“Yes. To be honest, my father was a noble, but if all nobles were like him, I’d rather not marry one. The only things I inherited from him were debt and a title. If I could have chosen, I would have preferred not to be born as his daughter at all.”

Of course, if she had been born into a wealthy, powerful noble family, that would have been nice. But to Judith, the empty shell of the Ailan barony was utterly useless.

Most nobles considered preserving their family’s honor and legacy to be of the utmost importance.

Although Judith was the sole heir to the Ailan barony, whenever she thought about the barony, it felt as though she were floating untethered. It was as if the title itself never should have existed in the first place.

Her feelings had only grown stronger after recalling the original story.

For commoners, divorce or remarriage wasn’t as stigmatized, and so Judith wasn’t particularly concerned about having a divorce on her record.

Their conversation was cut short when the Master suddenly stopped walking and whispered, “We’re here.”

In the pitch darkness, the Master carefully guided her hand. He tapped on something, and soon, a soft light began to filter in through a crack.

“We’re inside the wardrobe.”

As expected, the boy’s clothes hanging above swayed slightly as they entered.

“You should be able to see and hear what’s happening in the room from here.”

The Master pointed at the crack in the door. Without needing to be told, Judith and the Master both pressed up against it to peek through.

Through the crack, they saw a young boy. The eight-year-old, with blond hair and blue eyes, was hugging a teddy bear.

Judith’s eyes widened as she looked at the small child.

‘Oh my, how adorable!’

The little villain hadn’t yet grown into the obsessive, tormented figure who would cling to the heroine. He was simply cute.

His chubby cheeks, shimmering blond hair, and glassy blue eyes made him look like a little prince from a fairy tale.

“He’s cute,” Judith murmured without thinking.

The Master nodded beside her. “He is, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he’s incredibly cute.”

Judith could understand why Ekian had been so fond of his younger brother. Karl sat quietly, clutching his teddy bear while reading a book.

For a while, they simply watched the boy together. But with only one crack in the door, their bodies remained pressed against each other.

Judith cleared her throat and whispered, “Master, nothing’s happening yet. Why don’t we take a break?”

“A break?”

“Yes, why don’t you sit down in the corner of the wardrobe and rest for a bit? We don’t both need to keep looking right now.”

“I don’t need to rest. You should rest if you’re tired.”

“But if I move, I won’t be able to see Karl from the corner of the wardrobe, even though I can barely see him now…”

“…So what you’re really saying is that you’re uncomfortable being this close and want me to move?”

“Exactly.”

“……”

The Master scoffed, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Judith boldly continued, “Your build is so large that being this close to you is really uncomfortable.”

“I’m uncomfortable too.”

“What are you talking about? I’m much smaller than you. Even if I move around a bit, there’s still enough space…”

“Stop fidgeting. I said I’m uncomfortable too.”

“You’re so big, Master, you can barely move at all.”

“There are nicer ways to describe someone’s size, you know. Why did you have to call me big? And stop fidgeting.”

Despite their whispered bickering, neither of them made any attempt to step away from the crack. Once they had started arguing, Judith felt a bit stubborn and didn’t want to give up her spot.

“I’m barely moving. What’s the problem?”

“Even so, being so close like this, and with you moving around…”

Suddenly, the Master’s words trailed off. She could feel his breath catch, unrefined and unsteady. The sudden silence startled Judith.

‘We are… really close, aren’t we…?’

The Master’s arms were now almost encircling Judith, as if trapping her in place. She became acutely aware of the strange atmosphere and could hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.

“Sigh.”

The Master let out a quiet breath.