Chapter 148. You Will Get Used to It
"Mmm..."
Blair woke up to the sound of birdsong.
However, feeling the cool temperature, she burrowed back under the covers. Burying herself in the cozy blankets felt wonderful.
After curling up in the blankets for a while, Blair raised her body at the sound of birdsong coming once again.
As if the child in her womb had also woken up, she could feel it moving and wriggling.
Blair stroked her belly and offered a greeting.
"Hello, baby. Did you sleep well too?"
After sharing some time talking with the baby, Blair got up from bed and opened the window. Though the weather was chilly, the fresh morning breeze felt pleasant.
The clear sky without a single cloud as well.
"The weather is nice."
From Libren to Ikar was a three to four hour journey by carriage. It wasn't that far, but for a full-term pregnant woman, it was quite an exhausting schedule.
So after arriving, she rested at home for three days straight and hadn't yet been able to look around the village.
'I should look around the village today.'
And take Pipi for a walk, who must have been cooped up from staying only in the room.
Blair tidied the bed, closed the window, and headed to the first floor. From the stairs going down to the first floor, the peaceful morning sound of clinking dishes came pleasantly.
As she came down to the kitchen, the middle-aged woman preparing the meal offered a greeting.
"Oh, you're up?"
"Did you sleep well, Nilda?"
Nilda was a servant she had hired in Ikar.
She wanted to call Anna again because she was comfortable with someone she'd been with, but since Anna was Mikhail's person, she felt she shouldn't. If she hadn't known his feelings, maybe, but now that she knew, even more so.
"Of course. Did you rest comfortably too, miss?"
"I told you not to call me miss."
Nilda laughed heartily seeing Blair look embarrassed at the title "miss."
"But you're too young to call you madam. Once the baby is born, no one will know if I call you miss."
Blair smiled as if conceding defeat.
From what she could tell during the few days they spent together, Nilda had an open-hearted and affectionate personality. Though it had only been a few days, Blair liked this aunt-like woman.
"Is there anything I can help with?"
"Oh my, for a mother-to-be, eating well and resting well is helping. Please sit down."
At Nilda's wave of hands, Blair, who was about to sit at the dining table, froze upon discovering the fireplace lit in the living room. Her heart dropped with a thud, then started racing fast.
As her breathing gradually became labored, suddenly a voice from her memory came to mind.
'It's okay.'
As that voice had once taught her, she slowly steadied her breathing.
Just then, Nilda, who was carrying food, looked puzzled seeing Blair standing there stock-still, then saw the fireplace at the end of her gaze and was startled.
"Oh my, look at my mind! I was supposed to put it out beforehand but I just... I'm sorry, miss."
Nilda then hurriedly approached to put out the fireplace. Blair grabbed her arm.
"...It's okay."
Her gaze still couldn't leave the fireplace, but her breathing gradually stabilized.
Blair, trying hard to seem okay, smiled faintly and added.
"I think I'm okay."
Having calmed the startled Nilda, Blair sat down and gazed blankly at the fireplace. Looking at a lit fireplace was something she couldn't have even imagined in the past.
'Is this the result of practicing lighting fires with Herdin?'
When she thought that she could handle fire, the fear greatly diminished.
Though he was no longer by her side, what he had taught her remained in her memory and was protecting her.
Realizing that fact anew made one side of her chest ache. However, as the breakfast preparation was completed, she quickly escaped from her thoughts.
Blair finished her meal while listening to Nilda's stories about the village.
After that, as she was preparing raw meat for Pipi and about to go up to the second floor, suddenly a knock was heard along with a woman's voice.
"Is anyone there?"
Blair blinked and looked at the door.
Since she didn't know anyone in the village, there shouldn't be anyone visiting yet.
Seeing Nilda doing the dishes, Blair put down the bowl containing Pipi's food and stepped forward.
"I'll go check."
Peeking through the window next to the door, she saw two women standing there. Being close to the door, she couldn't see their faces clearly.
'But why does the voice feel so familiar...'
Feeling an inexplicable sense of déjà vu, Blair opened the door and only then realized the identity of that déjà vu.
Blair's eyes widened in surprise upon confirming the visitors' faces.
"...Rina?"
"Ma'am!"
Behind the teary Rina, Melly could also be seen quietly showing her joy.
Rina, who was about to embrace Blair while practically wailing, hesitated when she saw her swollen belly. And then she poured out tears again.
"What do I do, you're already full-term! How much you must have suffered alone!"
"How are you two here...?"
Instead of Rina, who was sobbing while hugging Blair's neck, Melly who was standing behind smiled and answered.
"His Excellency sent us."
At the same time, Rina also answered.
"We were fired!"
"What?"
"Now we have nowhere to go. We're going to live with you, ma'am, for the rest of our lives!"
At Rina's protest, Melly burst into laughter and subtly added.
"Strictly speaking, we weren't fired, but our duty station changed."
"Ah..."
Blair was conflicted between the joy of seeing the two and the feeling that she couldn't simply be happy about it.
'Since I decided to divorce Herdin, I didn't want to owe any more...'
But facing the two people who had come a long way to find her, the joy of seeing them took precedence.
As if reading Blair's mind, Rina gauged her expression and asked.
"You won't kick us out, right...?"
At the sight of Rina looking at her with anxious eyes, Blair finally admitted her feelings.
The desire to stay with the two was greater than her interests with Herdin.
Blair smiled as if conceding defeat and patted Rina's back.
"You came well, both of you."
Only then did bright smiles spread across Rina and Melly's faces.
* * *
"Then please wait a moment."
The servant who put down the teacup left the drawing room. Herdin stared blankly at his face reflected in the teacup, then picked up the cup.
The very next day after Blair left the Libren mansion, he had brought forward the schedule that was planned for next week and come straight to the capital.
If he had stayed there longer, he felt like he would go looking for her again, ignoring their promise.
Throughout his past life and this life, in both lives, he had only valued his own feelings and forced his feelings on her. Rationalizing himself with the excuse that it was for her sake.
Therefore, if parting was her will, he had to respect that will even now. Even if his heart were torn apart.
Of course it would be difficult right away, but even her absence would become familiar with time.
...Yes, it surely will be.
Just as he was thinking so and mocking himself for unconsciously thinking of her again, the drawing room door opened.
"Perhaps from traveling a long way, or from a great battle, you seem to have lost some weight."
These were Ivan's first words after quickly scanning Herdin's complexion.
"Thank you for your concern."
Herdin answered in a dry tone and handed him the documents summarizing this incident. Ivan's brow furrowed as he initially skimmed through the documents casually.
Ivan, having grasped the facts that Gerard had driven the previous Duke and Duchess of Delmark to their deaths by making it look like an accident, that he had used black magic, and that Miela had framed Blair to drive a wedge between them and Nerha, put down the documents.
"Somehow I had felt uneasy about the Pope... My instinct was right. He was a much more insidious and dangerous person than expected. A war almost broke out, didn't it?"
Unlike his words of relief, his eyes held regret.
This was because what he had so desperately wanted was to obtain Nerha's port through a war with Clania.
However, it was Gerard who attacked Nerha first, and Miela's scheming made it so that Nerha and Herdin were set against each other, so the responsibility should be sought from the Temple, not Nerha.
Herdin ignored Ivan's greed as if he didn't know and mentioned Miela's punishment.
"I intend to put the priestess on trial as soon as the discussion with the Temple is concluded."
"We'll need to discuss that with the Temple as well. We can't let a traitor who dared to cause a war go just because she's a servant of god."
Ivan needed a way to show his fairness in his relationship with Clania, and from the Temple's perspective, Miela was a piece not worth protecting even at the risk of opposing the Emperor.
Therefore, Miela would be punished as a traitor.
If lucky, as a healing slave at the border; if unlucky, she would be executed.
It was a fitting price for her crimes.
"Anyway, I heard Blair didn't come with you."
Ivan, having finished the discussion about this incident, brought up another topic. Perhaps it was a topic he had been waiting for more than the incident itself.
"By now her belly must be quite swollen, so it would have been difficult for her to travel a long way. Is she planning to give birth in Libren?"
At the existence of the nephew who could bind Delmark, Ivan's eyes flashed with greed.
Herdin, who was staring at those eyes, spoke.
"My wife wishes for a divorce."
Ivan, who seemed briefly surprised by the unexpected statement, soon wore a relaxed smile.
The more Blair wanted a divorce, the more Herdin would want him to block the divorce.
"That child is still saying childish things. I'll try to persuade her well, so don't worry."
"There's no need for that."
Herdin firmly cut off Ivan's words.
"I intend to respect my wife's will."
"What do you mean..."
Only then did Ivan's expression twist as he understood Herdin's intention.
Herdin, who was about to put his hand in his inner pocket, paused, then lowered his hand and stood up from his seat.
"I will visit when the documents are ready."
He left the drawing room, leaving Ivan who was scoffing behind.
As he boarded the carriage, a rustling sound came from his inner pocket. Herdin took it out.
It was the divorce application that Blair had written. With his signature also completed.
He stared blankly at the document, then sighed and closed his eyes in annoyance.
He had definitely promised to accept the divorce from her.
What am I trying to do now, I wonder.