Ch#150
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the maids dashed into the hallway like arrows. Marisen and the nanny, who had been frozen as if paralyzed, hurriedly rushed to the bedside.
Talia scanned their pale faces with terrified eyes before grabbing the hem of the Eastern woman’s dress as she stuffed a pillow under Talia’s hips.
“W-what’s happening? Is something wrong?”
A flash of sympathy crossed the woman’s bronzed face.
She wrapped her hand around Talia’s ice-cold palm and answered calmly.
“Do not worry too much. For now… we are just monitoring the situation.”
It was an answer meant to avoid a detailed explanation.
Gasping like someone being strangled, Talia pulled on the woman’s sleeve even more violently.
“The baby… Is something wrong with the baby?”
The woman did not respond.
Talia yanked her sleeve harder.
“I’m asking you if my baby is alright!”
“You mustn’t move like that!”
The woman quickly pressed down on her shoulders. Her dark brown eyes, shining with determination, firmly held Talia’s gaze, which was stained with anxiety and terror.
“Take deep breaths. You must stay strong, if only for the sake of the child.”
Looking up at that resolute face through eyes brimming with tears, Talia finally took a deep breath.
Will everything really be okay if I do this? She wanted to ask, but the woman was already busy rushing to one side of the room to gather a mountain of linen cloths.
As Talia followed her movements with bloodshot eyes, Marisen tightly gripped her pale hand.
“I—I will cast healing magic for you.”
Her face, too, was ashen.
Talia squeezed the healer’s hand back as if clinging to a lifeline. Soon after, a warm energy seeped into her body.
However, the miracle of magic solving everything did not occur. The lower abdomen, which had been pricking as if poked by ice picks, began to tighten with a powerful, wringing sensation.
Talia let out a sharp groan and curled her body. Seeing this, Tiuran rushed over and laid her flat again.
“You mustn’t let any more amniotic fluid leak out! Please, you must endure it even if it’s painful.”
Talia struggled to follow her instructions. But the pain was so severe that staying still felt nearly impossible.
She tore at the blankets, breathing heavily.
At that moment, the door burst open, and a middle-aged woman in a black habit rushed in.
“Move aside.”
The priestess pushed past Marisen to reach the bedside and, without hesitation, hiked up Talia’s skirts to her thighs.
Her damp undergarments and the loosely bandaged leg were exposed, but there was no time to feel shame. Talia bit her lip against the pain that was growing sharper by the second.
Meanwhile, the priestess removed her undergarments, spread her knees, and inserted her fingers inside.
Before Talia could even process the shock of the action, the priestess turned back and shouted.
“The cervix is already starting to open. The baby is coming.”
“It’s still too early!”
The nanny’s scream pierced Talia’s eardrums like a needle.
Even in her delirious state, Talia wrapped both arms around her stomach protectively.
She was right. It was far too early. Weren’t there still three months left until the due date?
Talia shook her head frantically.
“No. Stop it! Do something to stop it!”
“Once the water has broken, there is no turning back. We must get the child out quickly.”
The priestess spoke in a stern tone and nodded to the maids waiting by the door.
“Set up the partitions around the bed. And you, go get the medical bag from my quarters. There should be one ready on the shelf.”
Following the priestess’s orders, the maids moved in perfect unison.
Talia watched the chaotic scene as if witnessing a nightmare. Then, feeling another surge of intense pain, she squeezed her eyes shut.
The pressure on her abdomen was becoming increasingly severe. Now, even Talia could clearly sense it.
The child was trying to come out.
The terror brought on by that fact was so extreme that Talia couldn’t even properly register the agonizing pain that felt as if her spine were snapping. Only one thought filled her mind.
Can a baby born now survive?
Even Talia, who was ignorant about pregnancy and childbirth, knew that the survival rate for premature babies was not very high.
How much had the baby grown inside her all this time?
With trembling hands, she fumbled to touch her stomach, which had become hard as a rock.
Just half a day ago, she had worried the baby might be too big. She had even slightly regretted eating so much without a second thought.
But now, she regretted not making the baby grow more. She should have eaten and eaten with all her might. She should have raised it to be strong enough to withstand any situation.
“You mustn’t lose consciousness! Your Grace, you must hold on.”
Someone applied a cold towel to her face.
It was only when she snapped her eyelids open at the cool sensation that Talia realized she had been closing her eyes.
Blinking her bloodshot eyes, she stared at the dark ceiling where candlelight flickered, then slowly lowered her gaze to scan those surrounding her.
Between the priestess, Tiuran, Marisen, the nanny, and the head maid and several others who had taken their places, Talia rolled her eyes incessantly, yet she didn’t know what she was looking for.
The moment she opened her mouth to ask something, another horrific pang of pain arrived. This time, it was a pain capable of freezing all thought.
Talia instantly lost all composure and began to flail her limbs wildly. A sharp scream tore from her open mouth.
Just then, a sound like the growl of a beast echoed through the walls.
“Move out of the way.”
“Your Grace, the Grand Duchess is in labor. Entering the room now is against protocol—”
At the same time someone let out a pained cry from a hurried attempt to stop him, the door swung open, and a man in a black military uniform appeared between the partitions.
Talia reached out her arm toward him like a drowning person pleading for salvation.
“Barkas…”
Barkas strode to the bedside and leaned over her.
Talia clung desperately to his hot neck, which was soaked with sweat. Through a vision blurred by tears, his distraught face came into faint focus.
“Help me, Barkas… Help me… It hurts so much.”
At her tearful plea, the arms encircling her tightened with immense strength.
Pulling her into a suffocatingly tight embrace, Barkas asked the priestess sharply.
“What is the situation?”
“The birth canal is opening smoothly. However, the child is not descending…”
As her abdomen contracted violently again, all sound receded into the distance.
Talia sobbed thinly, tearing at the thick, tough fabric covering his solid frame. It felt as if her lower body were being crushed alive.
“Your Grace, you must push now. You have to push the child out!”
Talia shook her head manically.
No. I can’t. I’m scared. It hurts too much. I said it hurts.
She looked up at Barkas imploringly. She stared and stared as if clinging to him would solve everything.
Within her tear-stained vision, his face appeared paler than ever. That plaster-like face hovered just above the bridge of her nose.
“It’s alright, Talia. It’s okay, so don’t cry.”
He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his frozen hands, his voice sinking to an unnervingly low vibration.
Talia’s face contorted.
It wasn’t alright. Nothing was okay. But if he said so, she wanted to believe it was.
