Chapter 135
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Only then, set at ease, he pushed the bowl aside and called for Liam.
“You called, my lord?”
“Bring the attending physician.”
“Yes, understood.”
Before leaving the room, Liam, having confirmed that Ruby was awake, let a relieved look show on his face.
She felt that strange sentiment again at the sight of Liam’s face. He was worried about me.
“It must still be hard on you, but it’s best to be examined. Try to bear with the drowsiness a little.”
“…All right.”
As he’d said, now that her stomach was full, drowsiness poured over her again. But with him cupping her hand and pressing into her palm as if massaging it, she couldn’t easily fall asleep. When she looked over to see just what he was doing, Ivan explained first.
“I heard that pressing here drives off drowsiness.”
The way he kept pressing did chase the sleepiness off, but a different, untoward sensation rose up instead, and it was torture.
“Is it hard to bear?”
Sensing her pheromones, Ivan brushed the back of his hand over her flushed cheek and asked. It wasn’t severe, but he felt a slight fever, and his expression sank darkly.
“Ah… Did you find the serpents?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a relief… From the state of the soil they’d dug, I thought they hadn’t fled long ago, but still I worried we might let them slip away.”
“It’s thanks to you, Ruby.”
“Hehe, we’re already in this together, aren’t we?”
Whether it was the contract, or a simple promise, or the affection that had grown between them without their noticing, the reason didn’t matter. The two simply felt glad they could help each other.
“That’s right. And now you’re not a guest, but one of my beastfolk. Yes, it’s as good as us being one body already.”
“…Not one body, one boat. The meanings are different.”
“You never just let anything slide, do you. Can’t you easy?”
“How are ‘one body’ and ‘one boat’ the same? Truly becoming one body doesn’t mean that, Your Grace.”
She was already struggling with the heat rising in her, and saying such provocative things only made it worse.
Even as she breathed in soft little pants from the slight fever, Ruby kept talking back point by point, and Ivan looked down at her with a calm smile.
“Well, that’s something we’ll find out in time, isn’t it?”
“…What?”
The tender smile twisted oddly into an unfamiliar expression. Ruby couldn’t take her eyes off this look she was seeing for the first time. As the two gazed at each other in silence for a while, a soft knock reached their ears.
“My lord, excuse me.”
Liam and the attending physician came into the bedroom. Ivan drew back a little and sat on the edge of the bed so the physician could examine her comfortably.
He watched the physician examine Ruby with his arms folded, fixedly. A flicker of suspicion passed quickly through his eyes.
She didn’t know where that suspicion came from, but Ruby could tell that at least it wasn’t directed at her. After all, his gaze kept slipping to the physician’s examining fingertips.
“Alpha, may I intrude for a moment?”
When the physician had nearly finished his examination, Count Morado spoke from outside the bedroom.
“Come in.”
The moment Ivan’s permission was granted, the door opened, and Count Morado, Alex, and Isabelle came in one after another.
Ruby was at a loss for words at the expression Isabelle wore the instant their eyes met. It was a gaze full of hostility, as if glaring at the woman sleeping with her husband.
She had no idea what this was supposed to be. If she found it unpleasant to have someone near her fiancé, shouldn’t she be saying so to the Duke?
No, before that, was the Wolf tribe polygamous or polyandrous? She wished someone would make that clear first.
A curiosity flared up in her on the spot, and she wanted to ask the physician right beside her, but she couldn’t bring herself to. It would be a problem if everyone here got the wrong idea.
“I truly don’t know how to repay this debt, young lady.”
Just then, Count Morado cut across Isabelle’s hostile, resentful gaze and spoke.
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