HPTL Prologue

Pregnancy

At twenty-one, Christian Baren was the foremost knight of the Cassel Empire, which ruled half of the Arcadra continent.

As the eldest son of the Baren Count family, he was the fastest in the 453-year history of his lineage to become a knight of the Erenstein imperial family, the rulers of the Cassel Empire. Barring any extraordinary circumstances, he was destined to serve as the exclusive knight of Vincent Erenstein, the crown prince poised to become the empire’s next emperor.

“You… you’re pregnant.”

That is until he heard those damned words.

︶︶︶ ✦ ⋆˚₊⋆ ☽༄༅༄☾ ⋆₊˚⋆ ✦ ︶︶︶

“Say that again.”

Christian Baren, his mood souring, drew his sharp longsword.

“I… did what?”

The physician kneeling before him trembled violently, mucus and tears streaming from his nose and eyes in a revolting display, but Christian paid it no mind.

“L-Lord Knight! Spare me, please! I’m just a lowly physician! A physician cannot lie to a patient—I only spoke the truth, so why… Urgh!”

“So even to your eyes, I look like a knight.”

Christian Baren sneered at the old physician’s excuses. His gaze turned cold once more.

“And yet you dared to utter such nonsense? You spew rubbish, tarnish my honor, and still beg for your life?”

Christian raised his drawn sword high into the air.

Gripping the hilt with force, he prepared to bring it down on the old physician, who cried, “Spare me!” while prostrating himself before him.

“I’ll make sure that serpent tongue of yours never wags again.”

“Please, stop!”

Just as Christian, glaring down at the physician with cold eyes, was about to act, a woman who had rushed out as soon as Christian entered the examination room opened the door. The old physician cried out, “Yelena!” as her name escaped his lips, and Christian’s gaze shifted to her as well.

“You’d better have a good reason for interrupting me.”

Without lowering the sword still aimed at the physician, Christian spoke coldly. The old man frantically gestured for her to leave, but Yelena approached undeterred.

Standing before Christian, she spoke.

“I don’t know which noble house you serve, Lord Knight, but if you commit murder simply because you heard something displeasing, wouldn’t that tarnish your honor far more?”

“Honor, you say.”

Christian let out a derisive scoff.

“Do you even know what this man just said to me?”

“I do.”

“And yet you still speak such nonsense.”

Christian’s refined brow narrowed.

His commanding voice pressed on.

“I am a man. A robust man among men, incapable of bearing a child. Yet this fool dared to claim I’m pregnant—an absurd lie. You say murder would stain my honor? No. It’s this man’s nonsense that has defiled it!”

Christian Baren’s blue eyes pierced the old physician, who nearly fainted from the outburst.

Christian continued.

“I cannot allow such a quack to practice medicine. For the sake of the empire, it would be better for me to take his life myself.”

The more he spoke, the more his anger surged. Barely suppressing his fury, Christian raised his sword once more toward the physician’s neck, making the old man tremble more intensely.

Christian lifted his sword toward the cowering, sobbing physician.

“L-Lord Knight, whatever your name may be! Perhaps you should calm yourself?”

Yet again, Yelena stepped in front of him. Christian Baren’s pale blue eyes began to glimmer with irritation.

Meeting his frigid stare, Yelena cried out urgently.

“I understand why you’re upset, Lord Knight, but there have been precedents of men conceiving and giving birth!”

“Utter nonsense.”

“Please, just hear me out.”

At Yelena’s earnest plea, Christian’s brows twitched.

He was not one to hesitate once he’d made up his mind, but the intensity in her gaze—so earnest it seemed to shimmer—momentarily halted him.

Seizing that hesitation, Yelena quickly pressed on.

“Before the Erenstein imperial family came to dominate the Arcadra continent, an ancient race of spirits imbued with the power of the Chief God¹ ruled these lands. This ancient spirit clan lived as dual-sex beings before their formal coming-of-age rites. After the rites, they could choose their gender as they wished.”

“Are you trying to lecture me on imperial history now?”

Yelena shook her head.

“When half of Arcadra became part of the Cassel Empire, the ancient spirit clan was absorbed into it as well. Despite ruling Arcadra for centuries, they were forced to adapt to human rule, concealing their identities, marrying humans, and preserving their bloodlines.”

“And?”

Christian Baren’s voice dripped with cynicism. Ignoring the increasingly chilling atmosphere, Yelena continued, determined not to falter. Everything hinged on this moment.

“Over a thousand, two thousand years, the pure bloodlines of the ancient spirit clan dwindled until none remained. Yet, on rare occasions—very rare occasions—those who inherited their blood received a special gift. They came to bear the ‘seed’ of the ancient spirits.”

“….”

“Bearing a seed was considered a noble and sacred act, so gender—whether male or female—mattered little. Thus, twenty-one years ago, a hundred sixty-seven years ago, two hundred eleven years ago, three hundred thirty-three years ago, and even further back, countless men have carried and birthed the seed of the spirits. If you doubt my words, you need only visit the Great Temple’s library to verify the truth.”

Twenty-one years?

Ridiculous.

If, as she claimed, a man had borne a spirit’s seed twenty-one years ago, there’s no way he wouldn’t have known. And if such an outrageous event had truly occurred, the empire’s gossipmongers—ever eager to wag their tongues—wouldn’t have stayed silent for two decades. So how could this mere physician assert something that never happened? And what was that?

“Seed²”

Absurd.

Christian, who had been listening calmly to Yelena’s steady explanation, finally spoke.

“Are you saying I’m carrying the seed of an ancient spirit?”

“If not that, how else could we explain your condition, Lord Knight?”

Christian scoffed.

“Amusing. I’m merely a bit tired, lacking appetite, nauseous, and unable to control my emotions as I’d like…”

His attempt to shout in anger cut off abruptly.

Yelena shot a subtle glance at the flustered physician before approaching the now-pale Christian Baren.

“The seed of an ancient spirit can only be conceived under very specific circumstances. Namely, one who inherits the ancient spirit bloodline must couple with another on the night when the Red Moon rises, an event that occurs just once a year.”

The Red Moon³.

A crimson moon that rises over the Arcadra continent, blessed by the Chief God, for a single day each year.

On that night, when the Chief God’s power is unleashed, the faithful are forbidden from mingling their bodies with others.

“Does anything come to mind?”

“I never imagined the noble Lord Baren would visit a filthy place like this. What’s wrong? Did something unpleasant happen at the imperial banquet?”

“Why not just leave? Your presence or absence hardly matters to Hyung-nim anyway. His eyes are always fixed elsewhere.”

“Lord Baren makes unexpected sounds in bed. Not bad, though.”

A teasing voice echoed in his ears. Noticing Christian’s face drain of color, Yelena took another step closer.

“You mustn’t get agitated while pregnant. Why not lower your sword and sit for a moment?”

“….”

“Lord Knight?”

At that moment, the longsword in Christian’s hand clattered to the floor.

“That man’s… child?”

Me.

To bear the child of that damned man, of all people.

Christian Baren fell into despair.

︶︶︶ ✦ ⋆˚₊⋆ ☽༄༅༄☾ ⋆₊˚⋆ ✦ ︶︶︶

At twenty-one, Christian Baren had sworn eternal loyalty to Vincent Erenstein, the first prince and crown prince of the current Erenstein imperial family.

Though he currently served as a knight under His Majesty the Emperor, he firmly believed that one day—soon—he would become the honorable exclusive knight of the crown prince he so admired.

But that night.

The night the Red Moon rose shattered all of Christian’s brilliant life plans.

“I will leave the Baren Count family.”

“Chris!”

It was only natural for Count Baren to be horrified by Christian’s resolute declaration. The count, proud of his eldest son who had elevated both the family name and the empire’s prestige, tried repeatedly to dissuade him—pleading, even raging. But—

“I will never return to the capital in my lifetime, and no matter where I go, I will not sully the family name. If you truly consider me your son, please grant me this request, Father.”

The count could not ultimately ignore the earnest plea of the son he trusted above all others.

At dawn the next day, while everyone slept, Christian departed the Baren estate.

He intended to go to a place where no one knew him. And he planned never to return.

“…!”

Christian, who had planned to walk down to the village to take a carriage—since riding horseback while pregnant was out of the question—halted at the sound of approaching hoofbeats in the distance.

A carriage, kicking up clouds of dust, was racing toward him.

To his surprise, it stopped right in front of him, and the door swung open as he eyed it with suspicion.

“You…”

Christian’s expression soured as he spotted a woman smiling brightly from within the carriage. Yelena spoke.

“Once I’ve taken a patient’s pulse, they’re my patient forever—especially someone in your condition. Please, get in. I’ll take you wherever you wish to go.”

After a brief moment of hesitation, Christian nodded and climbed aboard.

Yelena instructed the coachman to head toward the border. Glancing at Christian, who sat stiffly with a hardened face beneath his hooded robe, she spoke up.

“This humble one has a question for you, Lord Knight.”

“Speak.”

At Christian’s curt reply, Yelena asked,

“Judging by how discreetly you’re acting, it seems you intend to keep this matter hidden. Does the child’s father know about it?”

Christian swallowed a bitter scoff at her words.

“Why should I tell him?”

He continued, addressing Yelena’s startled expression.

“What happened to me is merely the result of a single night’s mistake. He does not need to know. Besides…”

Christian’s gaze darkened.

“Even if I told him, it wouldn’t change anything.”

It would only risk putting this child’s life in jeopardy.

“I will never tell him.”

Christian Baren swore to himself, again and again, that he would keep his pregnancy a secret—at least from that man.

︶︶︶ ✦ ⋆˚₊⋆ ☽༄༅༄☾ ⋆₊˚⋆ ✦ ︶︶︶

Seven years later.

“Mirae! Where are you, Mirae!”

Christian, who had spent the entire morning searching for his daughter without glimpsing so much as a single strand of her hair, finally flung open the front gate.

“Mirae!”

“Papa!”

A delighted voice rang out from ahead, and Christian’s lips curved into a smile.

Running toward him from a distance was a black-haired girl—his beloved daughter, now six years old. Catching her as she leaped into his outstretched arms, Christian spoke.

“Mirae, how many times have I told you? You can’t go outside on days when your hair might change color.”

“But today’s Mama’s birthday! Of course, Mirae had to go wish her a happy birthday!”

“We could’ve gone together… Wait. You went all that way alone?”

“Huh? No! I went with a really nice oppa! He helped Mirae and even brought me back here!”

“A nice oppa?”

There were children Mirae’s age in the village, but no “oppa.”

Christian frowned, puzzled by his daughter’s incomprehensible chatter.

“Oppa! Over here!” Mirae suddenly called out, turning around.

Though they lived in a remote mountain village with few passersby, Christian couldn’t let someone who had helped Mirae go without thanks. He lifted his head to offer a greeting.

“Thank you for bringing my daughter home safe—”

But his words died in his throat.

Christian froze as if turned to stone, as a black-haired man approached.

Could this truly be reality?

The man, watching Christian’s once-peaceful face drain of color, came to a stop before him and flashed a grin.

“Hiding away in a damn place like this made you impossible to find. Wouldn’t you agree, Lord Baren?”