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~Chapter 15~
Dominic the horse was about to give birth.
Lily kept petting the horse’s black fur.
“It’s okay, you’re doing well. Everything will be fine… I’ll stay with you as long as you want.”
She used a little magic to calm Dominic.
The black horse seemed to relax and breathed easier.
Blake came back to Lily after kicking Sebastian out.
“How is she?”
“She looks like she’ll give birth soon, but I don’t really know. I’ve never even seen a person give birth.”
“It’s similar for horses. When the water breaks, you’ll soon see the foal’s front legs.”
So, they waited quietly in the stable.
Blake suggested Lily rest in the castle, but she refused.
“Do what you want. Have you ever not done what you want? But I recommend sitting in a chair. Otherwise, you’ll regret it.”
He became grumpy when she refused his kindness.
The stable was quiet. Blake kept watching Dominic for a long time.
After a long wait—
Blake finally looked back.
“Hey, miss. You should really be in a warm room—”
But Lily had fallen asleep on a small chair.
He quickly closed his mouth.
Blake gently picked up the sleeping Lily.
Her small body fit perfectly in his big arms.
She was so light. Cool to the touch.
Blake stood still, feeling strange.
‘What do I even want to do with this woman?’
He wondered about old memories that sometimes came up.
It hadn’t even been a month since Lily started living here, but it felt like a long year.
‘She said she’d leave after a year. But… where would she go?’
Would she go back to her awful ex-husband?
A younger voice inside him shouted,
—No way.
Even Blake now agreed.
‘I’d never let her go back. I’d rather do what the maids said—beat up her ex and bring her back!’
But then… where would Lily Hedwick go?
“Ridiculous,”
he muttered in a low voice.
He knew he shouldn’t worry about what Lily would do in a year.
He had more important things to think about: his land, managing everything, fighting.
Blake tried to shake off his worries and laid Lily down on a pile of hay.
He didn’t forget to throw his coat over her.
His thoughts and actions were different.
He thought,
‘Maybe my old diary is still in my childhood room. Maybe I’ll find some answers there after the horse gives birth.’
“Miss…! …Miss!”
Someone was calling Lily, waking her up from sleep.
She slowly opened her blue eyes.
“You can see the foal! Can you bring me the towel hanging there?”
Blake’s voice woke her up right away.
She rushed to Dominic’s side. Through the stall door, the mare was lying down.
“Oh… Coco!”
“Everything’s going well. You can see the foal’s nose, right? That means it’s coming out in the normal way.”
Dominic’s front legs waved in the air as she worked hard.
Lily bent her knees and watched.
“How can I help?”
“Just cheer her on.”
He meant, just watch for now.
Lily understood the joke, but watching Dominic made her clench her fists with worry.
Blake sat down next to her.
He noticed how Lily wouldn’t even blink, her eyes wide with worry.
He covered his mouth, hiding a smile.
Finally, the black foal in the birth sac dropped to the ground.
Blake and Lily looked at each other.
At that moment, their eyes shone with joy at the new life.
“Mr. Blake…!”
“Give me the towel!”
Blake quickly climbed over the stall door and checked the foal.
“Come here, miss! Dominic already knows her baby, so you can wipe the foal now.”
Lily did as he said, drying the foal’s body.
The two highest-ranked people in the castle were doing this themselves.
While Lily worked, Blake kept checking Dominic.
“The foal looks even bigger than me!”
“Horses can stand up right after birth. They’re born big.”
“I can’t carry her in my arms. Her head is bigger than my arm! Oh, hello, little one.”
Lily learned for the first time that foals could open their eyes right after being born.
She locked eyes with the newborn black foal and wondered what it was thinking. Her heart pounded.
They worked hard for a long time,
and soon the foal was nursing from its mother.
Lily and Blake stood outside the stall and watched.
“She’s really lovely. Look at Coco the Second. She looks just like her mom.”
But Blake was looking at Lily instead of the foal.
Her platinum blonde hair was messy, even with horse hair sticking in it.
Blake knew he looked just as messy.
He leaned his head against a post and joked,
“Coco the Second? I’m warning you, if this horse doesn’t answer to Dominic the Second, I’ll be upset.”
“I can’t give up Coco. How about ‘Coconik the Second’ as a compromise?”
“Oh, please. Don’t call her a coconut.”
At that moment, Dominic the Second stumbled to the stall door—straight toward Lily.
She hugged the foal’s head.
“Can I say a blessing for her?”
“Il Dexter isn’t here, so go ahead.”
Usually, a priest or healer would do the blessing,
but Blake just meant “the shaman’s out, so it’s fine.”
Lily thought, ‘Am I not a trustworthy shaman?’
Well, maybe not. She admitted it to herself.
“You’ll be a strong horse. I can already imagine you running across the fields without ever getting sick. You’ll be a brave friend who isn’t afraid of nature. I’ll always love you.”
Blake looked at Lily for a moment and smiled.
He remembered the first time he saw her.
On a night with even more snow than now,
she had appeared at the door with a tiny body and a squeaky door hinge.
From that moment, the castle started to change.
“Hey. About that day in the snowstorm… don’t worry about it. What I mean is—”
He was about to say more.
“You hear that, Coco the Second?” Lily finished her blessing. Blake nearly stumbled.
“That name…”
“Sometimes I’ll call her Dominic the Second, too.”
“I’d rather jump in the river than trust you.”
The next day at noon.
Blake was covered in dust.
“Ugh, this is annoying.”
He acted like someone who never learned manners.
He was searching his old childhood room.
No one had used it for a long time, since he never had a child of his own.
‘My diary should be here somewhere…’
The room was a huge mess, just like his wild personality.
Even with his big, strong body, it took him a long time to find the diary.
‘Why am I doing this? I barely have time for my work, and now I’m looking for a diary because of Lily Hedwick… She’s just too pretty, that’s the problem.’
He paused for a moment and hit his own head.
Finally, he squeezed into the window seat and opened the diary.
A few old, thin pages turned.
What stood out were lots of curse words about the capital.
“Damn rotten noble brats, I’d rip out their guts and toss them in a pigsty, then—”
As he kept reading, the insults got even worse.
He remembered—he’d written this after meeting the mean nobles in the capital for the first time.
He was still rough now, but back then, he was even worse.
He even tried to fight the nobles, so they had to tie his body under his cloak.
“The first page is cursing, the second, the third… ten, twenty-five, thirty-one… all swearing.”
‘What a hateful little brat I was…’
Blake almost forgot that angry kid was really him.
