May Every Wound Be Fatal - vanish into fiction

“Aellin.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Did you call me?”

“I need to check on Karla.”

Seeing that Karla was alright made Reyna feel that everything could be overcome.

***

When Reyna went to see Karla again, she found her lying weakly on the bed, just as she had been the last time.

“Karla…”

At that time, Karla’s belly was so swollen that it would not have been strange if labor started immediately. She struggled to even stand alone and had to lie down nearly all day.

Naturally, she was in no condition to serve Reyna.

“I am sorry, Your Highness.”

Karla looked up at Reyna with furrowed brows, frustrated that her body would not move as she wished.

Reyna gently leaned against the edge of the bed and smiled at her.

“It’s alright.”

Then, with a tender hand, she stroked Karla’s hair while continuing to whisper.

“Do not worry about anything. Just focus on your child.”

Karla nodded, her expression complicated but clearly relieved. The other attendants in the Queen’s Palace felt the same. Terrified as they had been, they now saw hope that they could survive.

‘Even if I do not understand Elizer’s intentions, isn’t this enough?’

Reyna willingly went along with Elizer’s lie.

Of course, the lie that she was pregnant would not last long. If her belly did not grow, it would eventually be discovered.

But as long as the lie went unnoticed, she would not be executed. Time had been bought.

Perhaps half a year at most.

‘If during that time Karla can safely give birth and I can gradually send my people out of the palace…’

“That would be enough,” Reyna quietly soothed her growing anxiety.

Her worry must have been evident. Karla, who had been staring silently at Reyna, whispered.

“How is your body feeling?”

“I am… quite healthy.”

“You are far too thin. You must eat well for the baby.”

Even Karla, who had watched Reyna her entire life, did not seem to doubt that her pregnancy was real.

And that was natural. No one could imagine the king orchestrating such a lie. Reyna subtly avoided answering directly.

“Do not worry about me. Focus only on yourself and your child.”

“I am the queen’s most cherished maid, after all.”

Karla said that with a smile, and Reyna was able to truly smile for the first time in a long while. She held Karla’s swollen hands firmly and said.

“Yes. So you must safely give birth.”

“Yes.”

“Everything will be fine.”

Surely, nothing worse could happen. It would be too cruel otherwise. She silently prayed that nothing else would occur.

That night, Karla went into labor.

“Ahh!”

The sharp cries that echoed through the Queen’s Palace continued into the next day. Yet there was still no sign that the baby would come.

The labor was taking too long. Exhausted, Karla seemed unable even to moan.

Even healthy mothers often died during childbirth. When Reyna could no longer sense Karla inside the closed room, fear seized her.

In the instant that her mind went blank, the door suddenly opened. A maid wearing a blue skirt, drenched in blood, rushed out. Reyna grabbed her immediately and asked.

“What happened?”

“There is no time.”

The maid mumbled something unintelligible, struggled to pull away from the queen’s hand, and ran off hurriedly.

Reyna could not know what was happening inside, but she knew for certain that Karla was in danger. Frozen with unfamiliar fear, she could not move.

‘If something happens to Karla too, what will I do? If I am completely alone…’

A second felt like a thousand years.

Unable to wait any longer, Reyna was about to enter the room herself when the maid returned, this time accompanied by someone else. Reyna assumed it was the scholar, but it was another maid, wearing a white head covering.

The two women lowered their heads to Reyna and passed by. Reyna, who had instinctively looked at the new maid, almost reflexively blocked her path.

“How….”