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Zachary added as if to appease Bianca.
"Do you give birth and then we get married again? Then you'll be able to remember this wedding too."
"No need. You know I don't like noisy banquets. It's fine like this. Memories can be built with other things."
Bianca mumbled sleepily. Sleep overcame her and took hold of her. She hadn't been getting enough sleep because she had been working on Yvonne's wedding gift late into the night. Bianca wrapped her arms around Zachary's waist and closed her eyes.
Zachary wrapped his arms around Bianca's shoulders and patted her back. The small, slender shoulders immediately quivered with the sound of even breathing.
There was a faint buzz of giggles and shouts outside the window.
Drunk Sauveur seemed to have fallen into the pond, and Robert's scolding of Sauveur could also be heard.
And soon, as if a sleep curtain had fallen, the commotion quietly settled down.
Bianca whimpered and tossed and turned. She had been having trouble falling asleep these days. Zachary looked at Bianca and smiled.
The moon was unusually bright tonight.
-------
The harvest festival ended, and Bianca's due date was approaching rapidly.
A few days before the due date, Bianca suffered from stomach pain. The pain was so intense that she couldn't even scream.
It was difficult to differentiate between simple pain and labor. Because of that, Bianca was transferred to the prearranged delivery room, and the midwives and others waited for Bianca's water to break.
It wasn't just the midwives who were waiting. With Bianca entering the delivery room as the starting point, Zachary also gave up on what he was doing. He had no choice but to let it go because he couldn't concentrate in the first place.
Zachary withered like a tree. His complexion was pale. He paced anxiously outside the room, moistening his dry mouth again and again.
The painful groans and screams of Bianca flowed intermittently from inside the delivery room. Not knowing what was happening in the room, Zachary could only wait.
Zachary tried to avoid negative thoughts as much as possible. With defeat in mind in war, the wars that would function were destined to sink in the mud. Zachary muttered positive thoughts in his mouth as if reciting the Bible.
Beside him, Vincent and the three commanders also nervously paced. Yvonne, being a woman, entered the delivery room with Bianca and could take care of her, but the men couldn't do anything. A midwife patted them on the back and told them they were covered in dust from the training room for nothing.
The servants were also worried. As the madam had a weak body, they were concerned that something might go wrong. They glanced at the castle with worry several times as they worked.
Meanwhile, a midwife rushed out of the delivery room. As soon as she made eye contact with Zachary, who was waiting in front of the room, the midwife approached Zachary. The old face of the midwife was filled with indescribable anxiety. Zachary immediately asked the midwife.
"Is there still no news from Bianca?"
"She's still in labor."
"It has been so long, and she is still in labor!"
Zachary clenched his fists. His hands were soaked in cold sweat, and his chin trembled. Although he knew there would be no difference if he blamed the midwife, his voice rose with a burning heart.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the midwife had assisted in delivering almost every child born in Arno, and there had never been cases like Bianca's. Of course, those cases that did occur never ended well.
His eyes darkened. The midwife calmly added,
"She is already exhausted from the pain, so when she really needs to push with force, she might be too tired to do so."
"That means..."
"We will be in trouble if we linger here. Either way, there will come a time when a decision must be made..."
The midwife looked at Zachary and said seriously. It was clear what taking a decision meant. Zachary's face turned pale.
As soon as Zachary's body wavered, the three commanders rushed to support him. But they were also dumbfounded.
Zachary barely opened his mouth and stuttered,
"Bianca, Bianca."
His tongue seemed tangled, and the pronunciation was unclear. Zachary shook his head. At times like this, he had to regain his senses. Zachary struggled to regain his composure. His thoughts were scattered into pieces, and it took him a long time to gather his senses.
Zachary raised his head again and looked at the midwife. There was no decision to be made, it was natural. His black eyes shone with determination.
"No matter what happens, you have to save Bianca. Do you understand?"
Zachary's order was so desperate that it almost sounded like a plea. The midwife nodded firmly.
At that moment, a maid who had been assisting the midwife in the delivery room rushed out and called for the midwife.
"Midwife, midwife! The lady's water broke!"
"Then I..."
"Hurry and come in, quickly!"
Zachary, worried about the situation in the delivery room, pushed the midwife's back. With a pale white complexion, he looked at the room from a distance.
A cry of struggle echoed in the delivery room. It was clear enough to be incomparable to the weak and intermittent cries. It was a cry that almost sounded like torture.
Wouldn't it be better if he suffered the pain? Bianca had a precious body that rarely even cut her finger with paper... He couldn't even imagine how she would endure that pain.
Zachary, who had been pacing in front of the room, fell to his knees. He clasped his hands tightly and prayed to God. Please, please, I hope Bianca is safe...
He was so desperate that his prayers reached the heavens.
How much time passed?
The cries ceased in an instant. Zachary looked up in surprise at the sudden silence. His eyes fluttered with anxiety.
"Waaaah!"
Instead of Bianca's cry, the sound of a baby's crying resonated. It was so loud that it echoed even beyond the room. Zachary could only blink. It was not easy to accept the situation.
And at that moment...
Before Zachary could comprehend the situation, the door to the delivery room opened. Yvonne came out. Her attire was disheveled and messy as if she had been suffering, but her face was completely flushed. Yvonne exclaimed joyfully.
"It's a girl! A girl!!"
"And the mother? Is the mother safe?"
Looking at Yvonne's smiling face, it seemed like she knew the answer, but Zachary couldn't believe it without seeing it with his own eyes. Before Yvonne could respond, Zachary stood up and entered the delivery room. His steps were hurried.
The maids were busy moving around the room. Amidst that, Bianca lay on the bed with a smile on her face. A maid placed a cushion behind Bianca's back, as she was exhausted and couldn't control her body.
Her hair, soaked in sweat, stuck to her pale white cheeks. Bianca smiled faintly when she saw Zachary. Her smile seemed weary, as if her lips were at their limit.
Zachary, in an exalted state, walked towards Bianca. His lips could barely articulate his current feelings. Zachary looked at Bianca without hesitation.
Bianca was the first to speak.
"What's wrong... with your face? I gave birth to a baby... but from your face, it seems like you suffered more."
Zachary's face contorted. His distress was nothing compared to Bianca's. Zachary stared at Bianca's slender forearms, lying weakly on the bed. There was a constant lump in his throat, and he couldn't speak.
Then the midwife intervened. She wrapped the baby in a clean blanket and handed her to Bianca.
"I thought it was a boy because of their majestic body and strong cry, but it's a girl. Nonetheless, it's beautiful that the features are already clear."
Bianca raised her arms to hold the baby. Her thin arms trembled, but Bianca cradled her in her arms.
Bianca looked at the baby. Silver-gray hair on the top of her head. Pure white skin. Zachary and their daughter... Bianca smiled mischievously and continued speaking with difficulty, word by word.
"...it's our baby. I... didn't I say she would be like you?"
"Yes... Bianca, thank you for staying safe..."
Only then did what had been blocking his throat burst forth. Zachary, who finally uttered the words, sobbed and collapsed onto Bianca.
How many times had he trembled with anxiety? Zachary couldn't believe this moment. Maybe he's dreaming.
Zachary's tears clouded his vision. Tears were a luxury in his life. After his mother and father passed away, no one was pleased with his tears. So he pressed them down and suppressed them. He had become so dry at the root that he had long forgotten their very existence...
They only resurfaced after he finally found his place.
Bianca reached for Zachary's cheek. Zachary buried his face in her slender fingers. His tear-soaked cheeks moistened Bianca's palms.
While the two were immersed in the joy of having their first child, the clouds dispersed, and a light descended from the sky onto the world.
-------------
As soon as everyone looked out the window at the sudden flash of light, a pure white light enveloped them like an explosion of light. The bright light, which didn't allow for anything to be seen beyond it, felt auspicious as if it were purifying the tainted times of the world.
The light that wrapped around the world slowly faded. Then, a trumpet sounded beyond the clouds. A hymn of blessing. Everyone looked up at the sky, not comprehending the hymn.
"This is..."
"A miracle..."
Zachary and Bianca murmured, unable to comprehend. Instinctively, they realized that this was the miracle the Pope had mentioned in his letter.
"This baby is... God's will," Bianca said, suddenly realizing that God had chosen and sent her to save Zachary, but above all, to have this child.
As she thought about it, the decision she made in her mind as soon as she returned was the goal of having an heir for Zachary. The future God showed her was, above all, a clear glimpse of God's will.
Zachary also sighed softly.
"If God's will was to save me, then He could have shown the future to me instead of Bianca. It didn't have to be Bianca."
Even if God's will was the existence of their daughter, it was the same. Because only Zachary and Bianca had created the child. Again, there was no reason to choose Bianca.
But God must have chosen Bianca. Zachary was convinced.
"I can see why they didn't choose me."
Zachary wiped his tear-soaked cheeks and smiled slightly.
"In your dream, you said you hated me."
Zachary was also vaguely aware of the content of Bianca's dream. He didn't know the details, but the woman in her dream hated him... Zachary murmured, kissing the back of Bianca's hand.
"If that were the case, I would have needed the courage to endure your rejection and even point it out."
If Bianca didn't like him, he would have thought that the best thing he could do was to stay as far away from her as possible. If it were before marriage, it would mean not getting married, and if he was already married, it would be contraception...
It would be the same no matter how worse the future he saw was. Zachary wouldn't be able to make the first move, he would distance himself and run away in the same way.
Bianca was the only one who could change Zachary's future.
"I am a man who can't change, Bianca. It was you who changed all of this. Thanks to you, I can enjoy happiness."
Zachary looked at Bianca. Through her watery black eyes, everything that had happened between Zachary and her passed like a flash.
Many things didn't go well... Whether it was in the dream God showed her or outside the dream. But the only thing that was definitely different was that the happiness she had never dreamed of now lay in their arms.
Bianca smiled softly, stroking the baby's nose.
"Since God made this happen, I believe our daughter will be a great person who will accomplish great things."
"That's right."
The baby sniffed, and the tip of her nose went up and down. Compared to Bianca's small body, the baby was quite strong. The midwife was not wrong when she said her bones were magnificent.
Seeing Zachary looking at the baby with a strange and thrilling expression, Bianca impulsively handed the baby to Zachary.
"Hold her in your arms."
"M-me? Won't she cry?"
"If she cries, you can comfort her."
Zachary, speechless at the simple solution, accepted the baby. As he had lived a life far from children until now, Zachary felt embarrassed and hesitated for a long time on how to hold the baby.
The baby, smaller than his forearm, smelled sweet. It was different from Zachary's metallic scent and Bianca's alluring rose fragrance.
Zachary was able to clumsily but plausibly hold the baby after a long time of training under Bianca. Zachary looked at Bianca and smiled, rolling his eyes. It was an awkward smile that didn't match his title as the "Wolf of the Battlefield."
"What do you think? Does she resemble her dad a bit?"
"Of course," Bianca smiled too. Seeing Zachary and their daughter side by side, she couldn't understand why her eyes hurt so much.
Zachary exclaimed that only Bianca could change the future, but Bianca knew better than anyone that all of this would have been impossible if God hadn't shown her the future. Bianca prayed to God to arrange for this figure to be safe.
The Saint fulfilled her duty and carried out the will of God.
At first, she thought that what God wanted was revenge. Whether it was Zachary's survival or Jacob's death... She always focused on surviving, resisting, and overcoming. She thought it was God's will to prevent misfortunes from befalling her.
But now she could be sure. What God wanted was not to avoid misfortune but to win the future for herself.
Another name for God's will was none other than happiness.
--------------------------------
Final Volume:
Victor II died the following winter. It happened less than a year after Her Royal Highness Odelli learned what she needed to inherit the throne.
Odelli quickly ascended to the throne and became the undisputed queen of Sevran.
The nobles, who didn't like Odelli, agreed that she wouldn't know how to rule the kingdom. They added that she would deplete the kingdom's treasury by hosting banquets and celebrations all the time.
But what she did as soon as she became Queen was aim her sword at Aragon. She held Aragon responsible, demanding compensation, driven by the secret pact with Jacob.
Zachary acted as an envoy in coordination with Aragon. When Zachary visited Aragon as an envoy, Aragon tightly closed his eyes in the face of the overwhelming sense of despair.
As a last resort, they insisted that they had no intention of antagonizing Saint Bianca. However, Sevran's side presented a letter as evidence indicating that they had accepted Jacob's invasion of Arno's territory.
Aragon was finally forced to accept Odelli's offer. Thus, they concluded the end of the war, and peace and revival came to Sevran.
Until then, the nobles thought that Odelli's succession as queen was nothing more than a fisherman's fortune gained through Jacob's death. And that the king who loved her too much had become senile after the death of his children.
But when Aragon kneeled, they could no longer think with indifference.
Odelli was determined, cold-hearted, and a rational ruler.
Furthermore, the Duke de Arno stood behind her. The nobles, who lacked the courage to resist her harsh policies, bowed their heads and obeyed her orders.
The years passed quickly.
Soon, fifteen years had passed since Odelli came to power.
Alexandra de Arno, the only daughter of the Arno family, who was born the year before her ascension to the throne, also turned sixteen.
Sixteen was the age to marry. Moreover, her father was the heroic Duke de Arno, and her mother was Saint Bianca. There were many reasons to marry Alexandra under those circumstances. A flood of courtship letters continuously arrived at the Arno family.
But Alexandra, who was directly involved, was not interested at all. Alex, who ran swiftly through the fields of the Arno estate with a bouquet of flowers in her arms, didn't slow down even after entering the castle.
Then she almost collided with Archbishop Thomas, who had just come out of the church, by a hair's breadth.
Thomas exclaimed in surprise.
"Oh my God, believer!"
"I'm sorry, Archbishop! I have to go see my mother quickly. I'm in a hurry!"
Alex looked back and shouted, then started running again. Her long limbs and legs were full of vitality as she moved like a white deer, and her short silver hair shone like scattered fragments of glass in the sunlight. Her youthful and neutral charm captivated the onlookers.
Thomas looked at Alex's back and involuntarily smiled. It had been sixteen years since the Pope sent him to the Arno estate as the archbishop. As much as he had been observing Alex since her birth, her exuberance was also very adorable.
Thomas recalled how he, a novice priest who had just become a bishop, arrived at the Arno estate.
While the cardinals fought an invisible battle for the position of the designated archbishop de Arno, Thomas was recommended by the Pope.
He didn't belong to anyone's faction; he was a simple bishop. When the Pope tried to send him to the Arno estate, elevating him to the position of archbishop, the opposition from those around him was severe.
Thomas also declined the position, saying it was a burden. But the Pope insisted repeatedly.
"Isn't it because of your sense of balance that you haven't joined any faction until now? That's what the Arno estate needs. Someone who is not on anyone's side. A person who doesn't take anyone's hand. Someone who only listens to the voice of God."
When the Pope said that, Thomas had no choice but to accept it.
Since then, many cardinals tried to lure him into their faction, but Thomas persevered. It was only after more than a decade that contact between the cardinals became scarce, but recently he has been receiving a different kind of checks.
It was to find out if Thomas had the desire to become a cardinal and Pope.
Tags:
TWB (Novel)