## Chapter 1348 – ##10_The Duke’S Dignity (7)
##98
1.
Sharon, beaming, continued her meal amidst a feast of snow crabs spread across the table.
With the knife cuts in the shells making it easy to extract the meat, and Sharon’s skills as a crustacean hunter, she could effortlessly pull out the plump crab meat.
Then, as Ruelle had taught her before, she dipped it into the innards collected in the crab shell and brought it straight to her mouth….
“Uuuuuum…. So yummy.”
The orchestra of bisque flavor began in her mouth.
Some might say this taste is no different from imitation crab meat, but that’s absurd.
Sharon, who sometimes chewed on one-plus-one imitation crab meat to soothe her longing for snow crab, could absolutely not agree.
“Sharon, aren’t you tired of eating like that?”
“Nope! Not at all!”
A point to note here.
Sharon, already in her 27th week of pregnancy, had not experienced morning sickness even once since becoming pregnant.
Instead, her appetite had increased tremendously.
To exaggerate a bit, she ate so much snow crab every day that she single-handedly processed half of Gehenna’s water volume, making it sometimes confusing whether she was a witch or a seal.
“Munch munch.”
Well, Sharon has always been charming with her hearty eating habits.
Shiwoo was taking care of her by selecting and bringing crustaceans to the table every day.
She shouldn’t eat too fast, but Sharon, who had diligently finished the snow crab until there wasn’t a single piece of meat left, leaned back on the chair and smiled happily.
“Haaa, that was good.”
Shiwoo, who had already experienced being a father, felt a special emotion seeing Sharon now.
Sharon, whom he had met when he was wandering the present world without knowing anyone or anything.
She, who had been his female friend and then girlfriend, had gone through a wedding and was now a pregnant mother with a bulging belly….
He could still clearly picture Sharon, the convenience store worker, scanning barcodes with a very tired expression.
“Tori, tell your mom to stop eating so much crab.”
“Tori loves snow crab the most in the world, Dad!”
When he jokingly nagged, Sharon put her hands on her hips, puffed out her belly, and spoke in a falsetto.
Even as a mother-to-be, Sharon’s cuteness was still world-class.
“Wait, I need to hear this myself.”
“Dare you ignore me, a first-class simultaneous translator of Tori? Go ahead and listen.”
Sharon, wearing a maternity dress, lifted her clothes so Shiwoo could feel the baby’s movements and showed her bulging belly.
He put his ear to her belly, which was now so swollen it could be said to have a watermelon inside.
“Tori must be sleeping. It’s very quiet.”
“Really? Until just now, she was saying, ‘Mom, I love snow crab the most in the world!’ while eating deliciously.”
“Did you translate it correctly?”
Perhaps taking after the lively Sharon, Tori was usually very active, but now she was quiet.
“Hehehe.”
As they were having a quiet moment of couple’s intimacy, a seductive laugh was heard.
When he glanced up, Sharon’s eyes were slightly raised as if she was plotting something.
This was a sign that only Shiwoo could recognize.
Sharon had a habit of laughing exaggeratedly when she had an embarrassing request to make.
“Since Tori is sleeping, it’s just the two of us?”
As expected, Sharon slowly slipped her shoulder strap down.
“Shall we do some exercise?”
Sharon was also a case who had greatly benefited from pregnancy.
Her grades might be an F, which was a failing grade, but an F in the chest was a scholarship for semen.
“Should we be gentle so Tori doesn’t wake up?”
Sharon’s lovely smile slowly closed as the two kissed.
2.
“Master.”
“Shiwoo?”
Eloa, who had succeeded in making a baby with Linne at the same time, a month apart from Sharon.
She was sitting in an armchair by the window, spending time, and her face lit up at the welcome voice.
“I thought you might be bored, so I came to visit.”
“You must be busy, why are you taking care of me? I’m fine, so go on.”
Her master was trying to scold him with a stern look, but Shiwoo knew her too well now.
If he took his master’s insincere words at face value and left, she would be sulking all day.
“It’s okay. The most important thing is family, isn’t it? Let’s see.”
“T-that tickles.”
“How is Kongkong doing? Did she listen to her mom?”
“Uuuu….”
In Eloa’s case, she was particularly embarrassed to show her belly to Shiwoo.
It wasn’t that Kongkong was embarrassing.
She was the child of the beloved Shiwoo and Eloa.
It was a result that they had finally achieved after overcoming the pain of loss, a result that they would give their lives for.
“Isn’t it unsightly…?”
However, it was undeniable that it was far from a beautiful body in terms of aesthetics.
On top of that, Eloa had a complex about her unique pink hair and eye color.
In this situation, her belly had also popped out, so she kept thinking, ‘I want to show Shiwoo only my beautiful side….’
It was truly an undeserved happiness.
“What’s unsightly about it? It’s so beautiful.”
“Don’t tease your master.”
Unlike the old Shiwoo, the current Shiwoo had the sense to understand her feelings.
And he also knew how to solve it.
-Slip
“Ah, ah…! Shiwoo! Didn’t I tell you not to do that!”
“You’re always cute.”
When he untied the ribbon and lifted the dress, Eloa’s bulging abdomen, the proof that she had been completely conquered by Shiwoo, was revealed.
The creamy scent of her skin, which Shiwoo had been patting with powder whenever he had the chance, was wafting in the air.
It was a peach shake-like scent, mixed with her original subtle peach fragrance.
“Kongkong, let’s kiss Daddy.”
“Ugh, hugh… huff….”
When he carefully kissed her repeatedly, Eloa clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut.
A small nasal sound could be heard, as if she was ticklish.
This was an act that was embarrassing for Eloa, but at the same time, it was also a process of feeling loved, being pampered even in her embarrassing state.
Disciple, love, and child.
She was happy.
In fact, Eloa still missed Lapi often.
Sometimes, she would wake up in the middle of the night, wiping away tears due to the piercing sadness and pain.
The period of longing would continue even after ten thousand years.
However, Eloa no longer lingered in the past.
She did not feel guilty about being happy alone after losing Lapi due to her own mistake.
She would not forget Lapi.
She would mourn her, long for her, and love her until the moment she closed her eyes.
However, that was not a betrayal of Lapi, nor was it turning a blind eye while ignoring atonement.
As Shiwoo had said once.
While mourning the departed, she would simply take steps towards tomorrow.
Perhaps that was what Lapi would want as well.
The blue sky shining through the window was so clear that it made her eyes water.
“Didn’t I tell you to stop!”
“Just ten more minutes. Just ten minutes.”
Even so, Eloa was clearly.
Smiling.
3.
“Is this the place?”
“Yes.”
Linne nodded, carefully holding her belly.
This was Mimasaka City in Okayama, Japan.
As you can tell from the unfamiliar name, it was a region where foreign tourists rarely visited, and at the same time, it was a city that was declining with a decreasing population.
In fact, Shiwoo was a little puzzled.
They had barely managed to take a vacation to go on a trip to Japan together, but the place they had come to was such a place with nothing to see.
Moreover, the place she had insisted on visiting was an empty lot between old commercial buildings.
There was a sign saying it was private property, but it was just a vacant lot with trash and waste materials left haphazardly.
However, Linne could see a different scenery in that desolate and shabby city.
She could see the appearance of the old house, Hyangwolru, with its beautiful pebble garden and cherry blossoms.
“What is this place?”
“It’s the site where Hyangwolru used to be.”
“Wasn’t Hyangwolru in Hexennacht?”
“It was originally here. I bought the land and left it empty.”
She had wandered with her master to Europe during her apprenticeship as a witch, but for the last three years, she had lived alone with her master here.
This was because her master’s condition had deteriorated to the point where she could no longer move.
Here, Linne had taken care of her master, who was the object of her love and hate.
Even once.
She wanted to feel her warm touch and voice, even if it was just an act.
She had already given up on that expectation a hundred times, and here she was, dwelling on it for the hundred and first time.
However, even after her master had left her in vain, without fulfilling any of her expectations.
Linne often visited the site of Hyangwolru.
It was to not forget.
While the area around the vacant lot was being developed into a city, she watched the empty lot, which had been left alone and turned into a garbage dump.
It was to laugh at the given mission and the end of the traitor who had abandoned that mission.
But now she knew.
It wasn’t just anger or hatred that existed there.
It was ridiculous, but her longing for her and her foolish love-hate also led Linne to this place.
And now Linne stood before her master as a mother of a child.
“You were wrong.”
Because there was something she wanted to say one last time.
“Your way, your beliefs, your values. Even the nonsense that family and love were just obstacles in the face of a mission. All of it. Was wrong.”
She had wanted love from her.
Even if it was just once, even if it was a fleeting lie, she wanted her to be Linne’s family again.
But in the end, she had left Linne alone in this world.
Leaving behind a wound that would never heal.
“I hate you, I resent you. Even now, after hundreds of years, I cannot forgive you.”
That was why Linne hated her master.
She had made up her mind to take revenge.
But there was no revenge she could take on the departed, so this was also an empty murmur.
“I will not become like you.”
“I will be happy with this child in my belly.”
“Everything you taught me will have no impact on my family.”
“I will cherish the duties of a mother, which you despised and abandoned, more than anything else. I will build a happy family as if to show you.”
Now Linne knew.
She was a pitiful person.
She was a weak person who had no choice but to be that way, who knew no other way.
“So, I will forgive you.”
Therefore, she would cut it off here.
The chains of hatred that had bound Linne until now.
“Because I will be a different mother than you.”
Linne, who had taken a breath, leaned her head on Shiwoo’s shoulder and smiled calmly.
Shiwoo, who had followed her without knowing why, hugged Linne’s shoulders.
But Linne, who he thought would cry, was only smiling as if she felt relieved.
She quickly turned her back on the vacant lot and rubbed her cheek against him, acting cute.
“My love, there’s no need to be so serious. More than that, I want to eat tuna.”
“Again? Does Hina want to eat again?”
“She says she wants fatty tuna belly. There’s a sushi restaurant nearby that I used to frequent.”
“Then, let’s go there.”
“That’s a shame. If it weren’t for Hina, I would have had some sake with it.”
“There you go again, showing off. You can’t even drink well.”
“No! I can drink well now thanks to Tiferet!”
“But you still turn red after just one glass.”
Leaving the desolate vacant lot behind.
As the two walked away, chatting, dusk slowly descended.
