I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 131

“I’ve seen you from a distance, but really just barely. Everyone liked the Young Duke of Mayus, but he never seemed attractive to me. Would it help you overcome your past?”

“Ah. …That’s unpleasant in its own way,” Ekian muttered with a dazed look on his face.

“Right? In the end, I guess it means I found your masked face more appealing.”

“That explanation just made me feel worse.”

“Well… But it’s the truth.”

Ekian looked at Judith, who clicked her tongue, and pressed his forehead.

Seeing that, Judith tried her best to comfort him.

“That doesn’t mean your face is ugly. I’m sorry for asking before if you’d ever been dumped for being ugly. I really didn’t know what I was saying.”

Of course, it didn’t seem to be much comfort.

Ekian blinked slowly and muttered, “You really haven’t changed. Still, well…”

In any case, Ekian seemed somewhat shocked by the truth he had just learned.

“I’ve cleared up the misunderstanding about my mother. It seems she truly thought of me as her son.”

“Yes. In terms of ability, background, and heart, she’s better than my mother in many ways, so don’t hate her anymore. Got it?”

At Judith’s firm words, Ekian let out a helpless laugh.

A vague silence passed again. When Judith said nothing, Ekian murmured softly.

“Ever since I found out I wasn’t the biological son of the Duke of Mayus, I never imagined I could be happy.”

“Ah…”

“Really, I was living just to stay alive. I always thought I was a burden wherever I went. Maybe I was more devastated because I’d lived so happily until I was seventeen.”

Thinking of seventeen-year-old Ekian, forced out from a perfect family, made Judith sigh between her teeth.

Just the thought made her feel sorry for him.

He must have gone through a lot.

From growing up as a noble heir with everything, to starting over from nothing, hiding his identity, and running a massive information guild.

Living such a wretched life, only to be fated to die in an untimely explosion—perhaps even his biological mother, the Last Priestess, tried to change that future somehow.

“But Judith, if you’re by my side… I think I can be happy again. I want to rebuild the perfect family I once took for granted, but this time anew.”

When Judith unwittingly showed a pained expression, Ekian glanced at her.

It seemed he could feel her genuine sorrow.

Then, in a sly, whining voice, Ekian slowly began to plead.

“If you don’t stay with me, none of this means anything to me.”

He seemed to have realized that appealing to sympathy was working.

He hadn’t come this far without reason—he was sharp.

Judith narrowed her eyes and watched as the man moved on to his next dramatic act.

“I’ll keep losing sleep, wasting away day by day, and eventually, on the verge of madness, I’ll come find you and the child. I’ll force you to stay by my side, suffer alone, and then die young.”

“Are you threatening me right now?”

“I’m just stating the facts.”

He bowed deeply, nearly touching the floor, and spoke with a sighing voice. The sight was both pitiful and absurd.

“Then I’ll leave this territory to you, Judith. Naturally, our child will be the heir.”

Judith silently watched the man before her, who was practically reciting a will.

To be honest, it wasn’t an unfamiliar face.

After all, she had shared a room with Ekian Mayus for several days. His hair color was different, but it was definitely the man she knew.

It’s just that, unlike the always composed and well-dressed Ekian Mayus, the Grand Duke before her looked quite worn out.

He did indeed look like he hadn’t had proper sleep in a long time, just as he said, and having rushed straight here after dealing with the barbarians, his appearance was a mess. The area under his eyes was dark, and his lips were chapped.

Even so, objectively speaking, he was very handsome, though not comparable to the Ekian Mayus she had seen in the capital.

But precisely because of that, she could tell just how much mental anguish he must have endured.

Perhaps he had suffered more than she had all this time.

She had been a little angry with him, but knowing it was because of Elizabeth… and realizing how carefully he had considered everything, that anger subtly melted away.

“Well, I fully understand your life plan. Then, I have something to say too.”

Judith slowly looked at him and began to speak.

“Actually… even if I had never found out about my mother’s situation, I think I still would have stayed by your side. Because the Last Priestess asked me to. She asked me to make you happy.”

Ekian, who had his head lowered and was pressing his forehead, slowly raised his head.

“Thanks to the Last Priestess, I was able to repay a debt. So I wanted to fulfill that request. I’m not the kind of person who lacks decency. Of course, if my mother had made your life hard, then staying by your side would have gone against that ‘make you happy’ part, so I was planning to leave.”

“Then…”

A glimmer of hope began to appear in Ekian’s eyes.

Judith found that glimmer a bit annoying, yet looking at his worn-out face, she unconsciously softened her tone.

“Even as I entered the Grand Duke’s manor, that’s what I was thinking. Even Hud said that since you were the father of my child, of course I should accept you. But somehow, it didn’t feel like the right answer, and staying by your side like that felt unsettling.”

She, too, had done a lot of thinking while she remained alone in the manor.

If she simply let time flow as it was, she felt she would just end up becoming the Grand Duchess.

While everyone else treated that as natural, she alone found it complicated.

But only after hearing Ekian’s words did she realize the real answer.

“But I think all of that was wrong. They were wrong, and I was wrong too. I realized I was wrong, and that’s why I had been so conflicted all this time.”

“Judith, you…”

“I love you too.”

Judith declared gently.

“To be honest, I didn’t want to admit it because I was dumbfounded by everything you lied about… but that was the answer. I loved the Master who did his best to protect and care for me, and in the end, I couldn’t help but love you, who acted the same.”

Ekian blankly looked up at Judith.

Judith found his expression so amusing that she thought she would remember that face until the moment she died.

To think that a man so cold and decadently handsome could make such a foolish face.

“Of course, I seem a bit like a pushover.”

She shook her head and continued, “I feel like I could make you suffer a bit more. Anyone who knows our situation would probably advise me to do that. But if I did, your face would get even worse, and in the end, since I’ll have to live with you for the rest of my life, wouldn’t I be the only one at a loss?”

“J-Judith.”

“It’s not because of the child, not because of the Last Priestess’s request, and not because I feel sorry or grateful that you went to such lengths because of my mother…”

“Judith, then—”

“Don’t interrupt. I’m not done yet. Anyway, I want to be by your side, by my own will. I’ll probably end up as the Grand Duchess, but… I’ll do well.”

She added resolutely, “I’ll do my best. Honestly, I’ve grown fond of this territory too.”

Though she declared her position so firmly, Ekian didn’t seem to care much about her resolve regarding becoming the Grand Duchess. Instead, he absentmindedly mumbled.

“Then… may I call your name now?”

“Yes.”

“Can I come closer?”

“You c— mmph!”

Ekian stood up and approached Judith, cupping her cheeks in both hands, and lowered his head to kiss her.