IWJACM Chapter 32

A fair point. In truth, even Elise didn't think Lady Phaetyson's insistence was simply obstinacy.

To any eye, Elise looked as if she might collapse at any moment. She knew nothing at all of Lothier Castle, and was said to be carrying the seed of that notoriously savage yon'gyn. It was only natural that the more people she had watching over her, the better.

Assuming, of course, that there was actually a child growing in her belly.

Elise recalled the kind, businesslike smiles the maids had worn. It struck her freshly, all over again.

This was Rezet Kyrstan's territory. And Lady Phaetyson, Alfredo, and the rest of the household were Rezet Kyrstan's people.

Just as he'd promised, she was likely safer here from outside threats than anywhere else—but she couldn't be free of the eyes and ears within.

What was more, these were the very people who would be attending her most closely from now on. Which meant, in effect, that she had no one on her side here.

This had been the first time she'd ever needed to speak at such length just to manage a maid. It wasn't a matter that particularly displeased or angered her. When she thought about it, it was stranger still that Rezet Kyrstan treated her with a princess's honors at all.

'Well, either way, life in Lothier won't be smooth going.'

She must not let her guard down.

There was no secret that could be kept forever. Already, counting herself and Rezet along with the physician, three people knew of the contract between her and Rezet.

The physician was someone the Grand Duke had bought off, so as long as his master kept a tight rein, he wouldn't go around talking recklessly. But a secret stopped being a secret the moment it left one's own mouth.

Above all, the biggest problem was Lady Phaetyson herself. How long could she hope to evade the eyes of the seasoned lady-in-waiting who ran the inner workings of this castle, more or less single-handedly?

Watching the way the woman insisted on confirming Elise's physical condition with her own eyes, it seemed likely that if the lie came to light, she'd have a petition drafted to the Emperor before Elise could blink.

'If only I could bring her over to my side.'

But this was someone already thoroughly displeased by her very existence. Elise couldn't think of a single way to win Lady Phaetyson's goodwill.

Which left only one person for Elise.

"Yvessa Leonilla."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Whose person are you?"

"Yours and His Grace's, of course."

Yvessa answered, bewildered. Elise pressed further.

"Where did you work before this? Were you a palace maid?"

"No. I worked at His Grace's residence in the capital. He called me in himself."

"He told you to look after me, and to report everything concerning me?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Then you're his person."

"Does that… change something?"

Elise studied Yvessa's confused expression quietly. Yvessa was the one person in this world that Elise had, right now. Could she be trusted?

"Yvessa. When the carriage went over the cliff—I saved your life. Do you remember?"

"Of course. How could I ever forget a debt like that? If Your Highness hadn't pushed me clear, I wouldn't be among the living now."

"Then let's call it payment. Trade masters—that's the price of your life."

Yvessa's mouth fell open blankly. Elise continued, calm and even.

"What I ask of you isn't much. It doesn't mean betraying the Grand Duke, either. All you have to do is keep one secret of mine."

There was no way to hide the truth even from the very maid attending her at her side. Within a month or two at most, it would come out that her belly wasn't growing round—being found out was only a matter of time.

"I don't need any maid besides you. Though if I really do conceive, that might be a different matter."

A mountain breeze blew in through the wide-open window. Elise's long, glinting silver hair danced and swirled with the wind.

"There was never a child to begin with."

Something in the princess's voice struck Yvessa as hollow, like a lonely bare branch in the dead of winter.

Just then, someone knocked at the door. Elise smoothed her wind-tossed hair and turned toward the doorway.

"It seems the very person who can prove what I just told you has arrived, right on time."

Standing at the door was the elderly female physician who had examined her back at the Van Yela capital.

"You've improved a good deal since I last saw you at the capital. Almost unbelievably so, given the serious accident in between."

Freya, the physician who had spent a long while taking Elise's pulse, finally released her with a sigh of relief.

"I'm at last getting a proper reading of your pulse. Of course, it's still far weaker than an ordinary person's. But it doesn't seem so dire that tomorrow can't be counted on."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Your vital energy is gradually gathering itself around your core. Still, I'd advise you preserve your strength and watch the progression closely for at least a few more weeks. Whether this is a temporary symptom or the beginning of true recovery isn't clear yet."

Even so, it was good news. Color returned to Elise's face.

"Are there symptoms that would cause trouble for conceiving a child?"

"That's something we'll need to watch further. His Grace is a rather different case from an ordinary man, after all."

Yvessa was already staring, aghast, back and forth between Elise and the physician. Only now did she seem to grasp what Elise had meant by "there was never a child to begin with."

Freya, looking at her with some difficulty, finally spoke.

"First, there's something Your Highness ought to know beforehand. It concerns matters to be mindful of when a human and a yon'gyn come together. I've been putting it off, worried it would trouble you in the meantime…"

"Go on. Don't hold back."

Elise straightened herself to listen.

She couldn't simply leave everything to the other party. Elise needed some prior knowledge of her own.

On the road to Lothier, she'd realized she was more ignorant of matters between men and women than she'd assumed. She hadn't even known a man's part could grow frighteningly large like that.

Freya began her explanation in a heavy tone.

"First, I'd like to explain the conception and growth process of a yon'gyn in the womb. As you may know, the founding ancestors of the yon'gyn were half-bloods born of the Mad Dragon Semesitha and humankind. But such beings only existed during Semesitha's active period—the yon'gyn of today are the offspring of those half-bloods intermarrying again with humans, and their descendants after that."

Elise already knew this much. Across generations, the dragon-blood and abilities of Semesitha grew progressively thinner in the yon'gyn line. But since draconic nature was never fully diluted by human blood, each generation left the yon'gyn further removed from both dragon and human alike.

"His Grace the Duke is a special case, but most yon'gyn are closer to beasts. Low intelligence, high aggression. Semesitha himself wasn't an ordinary dragon to begin with, but a half-mad dragon—and that very madness is passed intact to the yon'gyn as well. The same holds true for a yon'gyn's unborn child."

"……."

"By comparison, a human womb is far too weak to carry a yon'gyn's seed. Taking root in the womb is difficult enough, but the real trouble comes after conception. A yon'gyn fetus grows by devouring its mother's body."

"Devouring the mother's body?"

"Yes. Especially once it's grown large enough to roughly take on a human shape, it begins to thrash violently to escape the confines of the womb. As I mentioned, part of a yon'gyn's body takes on a draconic form. If they're fortunate, it's only the head, wings, or skin—but if it's the claws, talons, or teeth that carry the beast's nature, there's no way the mother's womb survives intact."

"……."

"Even if it manages, somehow, to be carried the full ten months, all the nourishment has been drained away, so by the time birth draws near, the mother is too weakened to deliver the child. Since the mother can't push the child out of her own body, the child tears its way out of the womb itself, and into the world."

The physician paused for a moment, and an indescribable silence followed. Even Elise found it difficult, this time, to react with her usual composure. It was a story that easily surpassed the vague notion she'd had that bearing a child would simply be a difficult business.

Unbidden, words Rezet had once flung at her drifted back to her ear.

'Right now, you've spoken of wanting to die in the most miserable way possible.'

'So that was why.'

Was that, perhaps, how he himself had been born?

Was that why he'd been so angry that day she lied before the Emperor?

"There is also a method of cutting the child from the belly before the mother dies entirely… but the odds of survival are just as slim either way. That's precisely why the world calls a yon'gyn infant a demon, and shuns it. Because in truth, they are beings born by devouring their own mothers."

"Why does the child thrash inside the womb?"

"Because a human womb has no mana for a yon'gyn fetus to feed on and grow."

"Mana…"

"So instead, it drains every last bit of nourishment from the mother's body. Leaving her just barely enough to keep breathing, at most. The bodies of women who die bearing a yon'gyn's child are almost too gruesome to look upon. Their faces and limbs are all but turned to stone, and their bellies are torn open."