City ​​of Witches 1049

Chapter 1049 – #250_임신

#1043

1.
Witches cannot get pregnant.
The same goes for apprentice witches.

However, if you ask if this is due to the nature of their spirit bodies, the answer is no.

Spirit bodies are ideal bodies.
Therefore, their ability to conceive and bear children should also be excellent.

If a witch had contact with a man, she could easily give birth to a whole team of babies, and it wouldn’t be strange at all.

So, why can’t witches conceive?

The reason is quite simple.

The starting point of magic, the accumulation of a long-held wish passed down from ancestors, is engraved on the ‘brand,’ and the brand exists in the uterus.

A witch’s brand is not a reproductive organ but a recording device, and it intentionally excludes all abilities related to reproduction.
That’s why, at least as far as Yebin knows, there has never been a record of a witch’s belly growing.

At the same time, several questions arose.

The biggest question is the safety of the mother and the fetus.

Is it really okay for a witch to give birth?
What will happen after that?

What about the fetus?
A witch’s brand is a place filled with self-assimilated magic power.
Is it even possible for a fetus to grow and develop there?

“Amelia, this is a first for me too, so I can’t give you any answers. I’ll look through the records left by my teacher more thoroughly by tomorrow.”
“Okay.”

“Shiwoo, you should also get a proper check-up tomorrow. How could this happen…”
“Okay.”

Yebin, as well as Amelia and Sharon, just looked bewildered.
It was such an unexpected event that they couldn’t express joy or anxiety.

“Have you used magic in the past eight weeks?”
“No.”
“Just in case, please refrain from using magic as much as possible. And it’s very important to rest during the early stages of pregnancy. Please keep your mind and body comfortable.”
“Okay.”
“Absolutely no alcohol or smoking. It’s also better to refrain from sexual relations with your husband for a while. And also…”

Not knowing what to do, Yebin quickly returned to her workshop after briefly conveying the usual precautions for pregnant women.
Only Amelia and Sharon were left in the reception room.

“……”
“……”

The two beauties stared blankly with their mouths half-open.
Sharon was the first to move.

“Hic.”
“Sharon?”

Sharon suddenly burst into tears.
Looking at her, tears were streaming down her face without even blinking.

“Congratulations. I’m really, really happy for you. Hic, hiiiic…. Why do I keep crying…”
“Sharon…”
“It’s such, such a joyous occasion. Shiwoo will be so happy when you tell him.”

As Sharon was naturally prone to tears, these were tears of joy.
Sharon hugged Amelia, who had become her close friend, and sobbed as if she were wailing.

“Waaah, Amelia!”
“Sharon, a grown witch shouldn’t cry like that.”
“But, it’s such a good thing… Hwaaaah…!”
“Stop, stop crying and come here.”

Amelia, looking embarrassed, smiled and gently stroked Sharon’s head.

2.
I rested for two whole days.
My fever was completely gone, and the fatigue that had been making my head throb was gone too.

“I really got a good rest.”

I felt as light as a feather, in the best condition.
As I was stretching and loosening up, Amelia entered the room with Yebin.

“Shiwoo, are you okay?”
“I’m sorry for causing you worry. I feel like I could run two more academic societies right now.”
“I have something to tell you.”
“Yes, yes.”

Shiwoo, who had woken up refreshed early in the morning and was about to light a cigarette with his coffee, had his cigarette taken from his mouth by Amelia’s slender hand.

“Hmm?”

As far as Shiwoo knew, Amelia had quit smoking a while ago.
He didn’t remember seeing Amelia with a cigarette in her mouth since the time when he had regressed into a child by Keter’s hand.

“I think you should quit now. You’re a dad, Shiwoo.”
“Huh?”

In front of a bewildered Shiwoo, Amelia gently smiled and carefully covered her lower abdomen.

“I’m pregnant. With your baby, Shiwoo.”

Ah, a role-playing situation?
Amelia had become quite bold, even with Yebin next to her.

“Amelia, your jokes have improved a lot. Well… I’ll quit smoking.”

It seemed like she hadn’t liked him smoking all this time.
Quitting smoking wouldn’t be that difficult.

Since he was a spirit body, he wouldn’t get addicted to nicotine or tar anyway, so smoking was just a mental dependence.

However, Amelia showed a sulky reaction to Shiwoo’s declaration to quit smoking.

But she soon seemed to understand and continued.

“It’s been eight weeks. Today, Yebin let me hear the baby’s heartbeat. It’s so small and wriggling.”
“……”
“Do you want to hear it too, Shiwoo?”

Yebin, who approached Shiwoo, who was still flustered, cast a spell.

-Thump thump thump thump

Would it sound like this if you hit a small drum in the water?
A small but fast and steady rhythm full of life.

“You can’t imagine how happy I am, Shiwoo.”
“Ah.”
“What should we name the baby?”

Only then did Shiwoo realize that Amelia’s words were not a joke or a kind of role-playing.

Really pregnant?
Amelia was really pregnant?

Then, was he going to be a dad now?

The advice his father had given him long ago came to mind.

‘Son. If I could go back to the past, I’d want to go back to the day I first found out your mother was pregnant.’
‘Because I made a mistake when I talked to your mother then.’
‘What did I say? I asked if it was certain. I said let’s sort out our feelings first before we talk. Your mother was very upset.’
‘From a wife’s perspective, what her husband says or does at that time seems to last a lifetime.’
‘So, if this situation comes to you, you must, absolutely must, show that you’re happy.’

When he first heard his father’s advice, he thought his father was just being immature and young back then.
How could you not be happy when your beloved partner was pregnant?

But now, he understood his father’s feelings to the bone.

The meaning of becoming a father was to become the head of the household in the truest sense.
It meant becoming a pillar that fully supported a small and precious life.
Did he have the qualifications to be a father? He now vividly understood the responsibility and the anxiety about the future.

It wasn’t a light matter that could be brushed off with just one emotion of joy.

But as his father had advised, there was an attitude he had to show now, regardless of these complicated feelings.

“…Kki.”
“Kki?”
“Kkiya-hooo!”
“…….?”
“I’m a dad now! I’m a dad! Urya-aaaa!!!!”
“Shiwoo…! Are you that happy?”
“Of course!”

Shiwoo did a somersault in the air.
Amelia smiled brightly and was happy.

3.
Of course, it wasn’t that he wasn’t genuinely happy.

He had long been prepared to take responsibility for all his lovers.
As much as he was receiving excessive love, he had no intention of feeling burdened by responsibility and duty.

It was just that he hadn’t expected it, and so many things were bothering him.

After Shiwoo and Amelia hugged and celebrated their joy, Shiwoo had a one-on-one meeting with Yebin and asked about his questions with a serious face.

“Is there anything wrong with her body?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Is the mother’s safety guaranteed?”

“I think we need to look into that a bit more. For now, we’ve found out that the fetus’s composition is a half-spirit body, like an apprentice witch. It’s in a fairly stable condition, so there’s no need to worry about a miscarriage.”
“I don’t know if that’s a relief…”

The first thing he was worried about was Amelia’s safety.

A witch being pregnant was an unprecedented situation.

There were no reports on how it would turn out.

But Yebin couldn’t say anything definite about that either.
Based on the examination results, so far, the fetus wasn’t having any adverse effects on the mother.

The next thing he thought of was the ‘prophecy.’

Shiwoo, who had visited the prophecy agency before, had seen two prophecies.

One was of himself holding a baby and being happy.
The other was of his unconscious self becoming the king of witches and ruling.

One of them was already about to come true.

If the prophecy had a level of inevitability that even violated the common sense of witches.
Was the image of his unconscious self being taken over and ruling as the king of witches also a future that would definitely come true someday?

The last thing that came to mind was ‘Why Amelia?’

Statistically, it seemed that Shiwoo’s reproductive ability was limited only to Amelia.
If that wasn’t the case, Shiwoo would have had several children by now.

If that wasn’t the case…

“……”

Shiwoo, who unconsciously thought of his small mother-in-law with a swollen belly, felt a chill down his spine.

Anyway, Amelia was the only one who hadn’t experienced magic amplification.
Not only amplification, but the replication of the brand hadn’t occurred either.

He never knew that the irregularity, the cause of which he couldn’t even understand, would be a foreshadowing.

“I will help with the research as much as possible. I would be grateful if you could help Amelia and the baby as much as possible so that there are no problems. Just in case, please keep this matter confidential.”
“Of course. I’ll do my best.”

Everything was up in the air.
No one knew what would happen in the future.

Shiwoo was left alone and quietly recalled the heartbeat that Yebin had let him hear.
Was this the feeling his father had when he heard from his mother that Shiwoo was conceived?

As the confusion and suddenness subsided, one feeling floated up again in his heart.
A happiness and joy that he was feeling for the first time, something he never expected to feel, yet it was spreading clearly.
A sense of responsibility that arose as if it were natural.

“……”

Shiwoo fiddled with his cigarette case.

A comfort item that he had shared with his companions since his slave days, through sorrows, joys, and hardships.
How much had he laughed and cried with this one cigarette back then?

Many things flashed through his mind.

“Thank you for everything.”

Shiwoo quietly threw the cigarette case in his hand into the trash can.

The novice slave who had been captured in the city of witches had become the father of a child.