I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 163

Judith truly couldn’t tolerate Ekian’s tactless remark.

No matter how surprised he was, how could he immediately blurt out ‘girlfriend’ right in front of the main gate!

Still, regardless of Ekian’s lack of tact, she understood why he thought that way.

Just like the heroine of the original story, Rose had grown into an incredibly beautiful girl. She even carried the air of a young lady now, with looks that made it obvious to anyone that she would grow into a stunning beauty.

Since Karl had brought such a pretty girl all the way to the Grand Duchy, it made sense that Ekian would think that way.

“Haha, saying something like that is rather rude, isn’t it?” Judith quickly smoothed things over.

Rose nodded with a deeply flushed face. “W-We’re really just friends, Your Highness.”

Karl also belatedly waved both hands frantically. “We’re not like that, Brother! Absolutely not!”

“Uncle?”

At that moment, Alex tilted his head and interrupted.

“Why is your face so red, Uncle?”

“B-Because Brother made s-s-such a ridiculous assumption! R-R-Rose is just a f-f-friend. Really,” Karl stammered awkwardly, unlike his usual self.

Judith and Ekian exchanged troubled glances.

Anyone could see that Rose wasn’t just a friend to Karl.

‘This… will this really be okay?’

In the original story, Karl became obsessively attached to Rose and acted viciously toward her….

Not only was he merely the second male lead who would never end up with Rose, but he also couldn’t accept that fact and continuously tried to drag her into misery.

Truthfully, Judith wished Karl and Rose had remained strangers.

Now that the original story and the future had become so twisted, Karl, who was growing up loved as the Young Duke of House Mayus, and Rose, who came from a commoner background, should never have had any reason to meet.

Yet fate was strangely cruel and brought Karl before Rose once again.

He simply inserted himself among the commoners because he wanted to ‘show off in front of ordinary people,’ only to end up experiencing a harsh first love.

‘This is a terrible connection.’

Rose’s true destined partner was the second son of House Soden.

Hud’s younger brother, from the Soden Marquis family.

However, if she tried to connect Rose with her real destined partner by contacting House Soden here, it was obvious Ekian wouldn’t stay quiet.

Because he practically wanted to sever all ties with House Soden.

‘This became more complicated than I expected.’

Meanwhile, Karl rambled while looking at Alex, “It’s just, Rose has never traveled somewhere far away before, and fossils are often discovered around the lake here, so she said she wanted to see fossils in person! And for reference, Rose says she wants to major in geology!”

In the original story, the one who crushed Rose’s dream was also Karl.

Believing that if he couldn’t have her, he should destroy her instead, Karl shattered Rose’s dreams one by one and isolated her.

But now, he’d personally brought her all the way here for a geological field trip just to support that dream….

‘No, no.’

Judith shook her head fiercely inside.

‘That’s bad for prenatal education. Let’s not think about the original story.’

For the sake of the second child in her womb, it was best not to think about dark obsessive stories.

“Anyway, welcome.”

Judith regained her composure on behalf of the three people currently thrown into panic and spoke.

“Come in, Miss Rose. I hope you’ll return home with lots of happy memories. By any chance, are you a little hungry? How about enjoying some afternoon tea in the garden?”

At that, Alex jumped up and down excitedly. “Yes! Please give us scones with strawberry jam! Can I have fun playing in the garden with Brother and Sister too? We can play tag too!”

In truth, both Karl and Rose were already a bit too old for playing tag, but perhaps Rose found little Alex adorable, because she smiled brightly.

“Of course, Young Master! We can play tag and hide-and-seek too!”

Naturally, Judith gently shook her head. “You probably haven’t recovered from your travel fatigue yet, so rest comfortably today. You can play with Alex starting tomorrow.”

Alex also smiled brightly as if he was fine with that and clung to Judith’s arm. “Mother, then with me….”

At that moment, Ekian suddenly lifted Alex high into the air.

“Alex, do you want to play tag?”

“Yeah? Yes!”

“So that’s what you wanted. Father will play with you! How about the person who’s ‘it’ wears a lion mask?”

“I like it!”

Alex shouted while wrapping his arms around Ekian’s neck. Judith smiled softly and guided Rose and Karl inside.

***

Afternoon tea was enjoyable.

The grand ducal garden was beautiful and spacious.

Karl wore a proud smile as he enjoyed the elegant afternoon tea set from the grand ducal estate.

“This is naturally carbonated water that’s commonly found in this region. Would you like to try some?”

That was because Rose looked almost dazed by Judith’s explanation.

“There’s a lot of sparkling underground water flowing through this area.”

“That’s probably because of the characteristics of the bedrock. According to what I studied, this region originally….”

As expected of Judith.

Judith immediately grasped Rose’s interests and smoothly guided the conversation so she could feel comfortable.

‘She really is a good person. Brother should spend his whole life offering dawn prayers in gratitude to Sister-in-law.’

On the other hand, Ekian….

‘Um, do your parents know? That you came together with a girlfriend….’

He’d said something like that right in front of Rose and made everyone uncomfortable!

Girlfriend!

How could he think something like that about Rose and himself when they couldn’t even be called that kind of relationship yet!

Rose and Karl were only sixteen now.

Usually at sixteen, discussions of engagement would already be taking place among great noble families, and even among commoners people would say things like, ‘Now that they’re fully grown, all that’s left is marriage,’ but…. Even so, they still had four whole years left until adulthood.

Besides, the relationship between Karl and Rose wasn’t something that could be defined by labels like ‘girlfriend’ or ‘boyfriend.’

Smart Rose liked intelligent people, and Karl also liked people he could truly converse with, so they simply got along well.

Of course, at first Karl had pretended to be a commoner when he went to meet Rose.

However, as they spent more time together, he eventually had no choice but to reveal who he really was. Truthfully, deceiving Rose with lies wasn’t enjoyable.

That was how, only recently, he finally revealed his real name.

‘M-M-M-M-Mayus Ducal House?’

Rose was so shocked she looked on the verge of fainting.

‘I’m sorry! I didn’t recognize you all this time, and I acted far too disrespectfully, didn’t I?’

‘I’m the one who hid it though?’

Karl said awkwardly while looking at her flushed face.

‘And you’re my friend. So don’t bow like that. Don’t even use formal speech. Do you think I revealed my status so you’d act like this?’

But when Rose’s expression still didn’t relax, Karl eventually stamped his feet and blurted out,

‘It’s an order! An order! Treat me like your old friend right now! We got along because, unlike all those idiots, we could actually have real conversations together, didn’t we?’

In the end, Rose reluctantly nodded.

Even so, her behavior had changed from before, making things unbearably uncomfortable.

‘It’s because your status is different now.’

Eventually, after seeking advice from one of the ‘idiots’ in the alley, that was the answer he received.

‘Isn’t it natural for things to feel awkward? I heard that’s why people go on things like honeymoons. Since two people who weren’t husband and wife become husband and wife, they start their new relationship in a new place.’

Karl jumped in shock.

‘W-W-W-What are you talking about! Honeymoon?!’

‘No, I’m just making a comparison.’

But just then, the time for the visit to the Grand Duchy that had been scheduled long ago was approaching….

And so, Karl had no choice but to ask Rose this in the end.

‘Would you maybe like to go see fossils? I’m going to visit my brother’s house….’