Chapter 34: Chapter 34

Mrs. McCanna, who finally understood what Kalia was saying, held her stomach with mirth.

Laughter pleasantly resonated around the kitchen. As time went by, the blush on Kalia’s face deepened. She had never felt such a level of embarrassment.

Mrs. McCanna, who was still laughing, wiped away a few tears, before nodding. Her voice laced with laughter, “Well, I hear you often have these kinds of dreams. When I was pregnant with my first and second, I think I had quite a few. I’ve heard a lot of my friends had similar experiences.”

Surprise flashed across Kalia’s face.

So it was quite common to dream like this!

Somehow amazed, Kalia thought pregnancy was a really mysterious thing. Who knew!

Mrs. McCanna’s expression softened a little at Kalia’s astonished expression. As if to console Kalia, she kindly told her, “Well, it’s not like that for everyone but it’s a perfectly normal occurrence.  Just another side effect of pregnancy.”

“Oh, I see,” Kalia breathed a sigh of relief at Mrs. McCanna’s reply.

The dream had been very realistic so it was comforting to hear that it was just a dream and that, in fact, it was a common thing. Her guilt was finally relieved. She recalled last night’s dream, calmly thought about it again and felt that the sensations weren’t necessarily bad.

That night1Cough, talking about her and Simon’s one night stand….was so amazing.  Though it was her first time, it was also her last, so she was a little regretful…. But she was able to relive that experience thanks to her dream.

‘….Well, it’s pretty clear now that I’m not trash.’

After finding out the truth, Kalia accepted it rather calmly, albeit a bit embarrassed.

Someone had once told her: “Sex is nothing to be ashamed of. Rather, it was a sacred and beautiful thing that gives birth to life and completes love, so you should never be ashamed of it”

‘By the way, who was the one that told me that? Oh, that was Simon.’

She recalled the mischievous golden eyes that had danced with mirth and couldn’t help grinning a little.

At the same time, Kalia hurriedly shook away the images of Simon’s face from last night’s dream from her mind. She couldn’t figure out why she kept thinking of him, even though they were so far apart.

“But if you dream about it a lot, your uterine contractions will also occur more often. Those can cause cramping so please be careful and try not to overwork or stress your stomach with cramps. I know you’re doing well and you have Allen around to take care of you but please, always be careful.”

Kalia was a little embarrassed by the little smile Mrs. McCanna gave her, as if marvelling at how cute Kalia was.

These days, many people would send her looks that seemed to say, ‘How small, cute and fragile’ and every time it happened, though she felt embarrassed, her heart was tickled.

‘Would they look at me like that if they knew I could break an ogre’s forearm with my bare hands?’ She was suddenly curious but reigned in her thoughts.

“Now then, shall I make breakfast? It’s almost time for Humming and Allen to wake up.”

Under the kind gaze of Mrs. McCanna, Kalia nodded lightly. Mrs. McCanna’s warm hand lovingly patted Kalia’s shoulder.

For the time being, she thought it would be okay to just live as the small, cute and fragile Lia Rayman.

***

After starting off the morning with Mrs. McCanna’s healthy breakfast, Kalia went to get a regular check-up with Allen.

In a room, darkened by heavy blackout curtains, Kalia laid on a bed.

The growth of the baby could be seen through a device that scanned the lower abdomen and uterus using mana. The device directed the flow of mana to penetrate her stomach and captured the baby like a picture on the wall.

The device illuminated a round kidney-sized figure. The once bean-like shape was starting to become more human-like.

Kalia’s eyes were overflowing with affection as she watched her baby curl up into a ball and wiggled their small hands and feet.

Even though the projected image was only black and white, the cuteness and loveliness of her baby seemed to come alive in the image.

How can her baby look so pretty curled up like that?

“This is Shasha’s head and this is their leg. Now, as you can see. Here. Between the legs…”

A small laser dot moved to exactly where Allen was indicating, pinpointing the place between her baby’s thighs.

She could feel the baby’s movement through the walls of her stomach as the child shook their legs.

The shift allowed them to see a round and cute protrusion2I kid you not, the raws said (주머니) which really means pocket… what a way to describe it. Obviously, I had to change it to something else between the legs.

A small, cute and round shape.

He showed off his presence by spreading his legs wide open as if the child knew his mother was watching. Of course that was not what really happened but it was how Kalia interpreted the baby’s movements.

“See this round thing?” Allen circled said thing with his laser.

Kalia nodded actively.

She could see it very clearly.

This thing was precisely what told them the gender of her baby.

‘….My God. My baby is too cute. Cute! So cute!!’ She clenched her jaw tightly, trying hard to stop herself from gushing about Shasha.

“It’s a baby boy. It’s undeniably clear.”

“Yeah, it’s really clear. My Shasha is really…”

Kalia bit her lips as if swallowing her emotions but couldn’t hold back a few words of admiration, and said with a quick sigh, “He’s so dainty and cute.”

“What?”

“He’s so dainty and cute. Ha, damn it. I’m going crazy.”

His hands, feets and thighs. They were all so so small. It was absolutely adorable. It seemed that the smaller something was, the cuter it got.

Kalia looked at Allen excitedly, her cheeks flushed, “I can’t believe I can see Shasha already. I thought I wouldn’t be able to see him until he was born but…my baby is amazing. Oh my god, look at that posture. Why are you so confident? You’re in my stomach! Crazy. If this isn’t the cutest thing in the world, I don’t know what is. He’s on a different level. In a different dimension, really. A divine realm.”

“…um, Kalia?”

“Allen, I can see him. Isn’t Sasha so cute? If he’s like this now, how cute will he be when he’s born? You know, I’m so excited that I’m going crazy. He’s so cute. This is crazy. What should I do?”

In her excitement, Kalia had started shouting without her even realizing. Suddenly, she felt her stomach tightening in response to her excessive excitement which prompted her to suddenly cut her rambling short.

The feeling of her child wiggling around and the slight pressure on her uterus was a little uncomfortable.

“Is your stomach clenching? You shouldn’t get too excited. Breathe out slowly,” Allen advised.

Kalia laughed a little in response as if it was no big deal but Allen’s eyes grew rather strict.

It was Kalia who had been saying that her stomach was often tight these days.

Allen speculated that if she continued to feel discomfort then, even with her insensitive body,  her contractions will be stronger than normal and she would experience pain.

“Hey, it doesn’t hurt,” she reassured, seeing how serious his eyes had grown.

“You can’t get sick,” Allen sighed softly, feeling helpless to stop her. He laid Kalia back in the seat and looked at her cramping stomach.

After examining the extent and power of the cramp, he finally diagnosed it as a temporary cramp, and wasn’t too agitated.

Nevertheless, he wasn’t reassured.

No matter how careful one was, there was no shortage of things to look out for in pregnancy and childbirth. There were just too many things that could go wrong. As miraculous and joyous creating a new life was, it was still a strain on the body. It was something Allen had witnessed before. It was also the cause of his wife’s devastating death.

“I know you’re tired of it3Tired of it = tired of always being cautious, but I hope you’ll always be careful. Shasha’s development is above average. In 9 months, he’d already grown 3.7 to 3.8 kg which is a very dangerous weight. At this rate, he could weigh nearly 5kg on the day of birth. You have to know that if the child is too big, it places the mother at risk.”

“I’m proud he’s growing up,” Kalia smiled and spoke freely, indifferent to Allen’s precarious words.

She couldn’t be afraid of having a baby after having experienced her limbs had been cut off.

In Allen’s head, he understood where Kalia was coming from but he was still worried nonetheless. Thus, he had no choice but to constantly nag her, something he didn’t want to do but hoped that his worries would get through Kalia’s skull with enough repetition. However, his expression was a little stiffer than usual.

“Kalia. I know you have a much healthier and stronger body than others. In fact, the mortality rate of knights due to childbirth is low. However, even if you have monster-like stamina and body, your uterus can collapse if you give birth to a huge baby. It could also lead to excessive bleeding. If the bleeding continues, it won’t matter if your body is like a rock or not.”

Allen’s expression basically seemed to say that giving birth to a big baby was ”the same as dying’. Truthfully, he seemed a little angry.

But what could Allen be mad at me for?4Kalia…… I’m worried for you jesus

From the time she was handed the fairy tale book last night to today at breakfast, there weren’t many changes. He was the same as usual, until just a second ago.

Allen once again spoke to Kalia in a stern voice, “…and Shasha’s not the only one who has grown. Kalia, you gained more than 14kg. You know that, right? It’s not good for your health to have this drastic increase in muscle mass within such a short span of time. I said that last month that your weight could grow from week to week.”

“….no matter how I look at it, I think there’s an edge in the way you’re talking right now. What is it?”

“Reduce sweets. They’re prohibited for the time being. Adjust the amount of food you eat as well.”

“What?” Kalia exclaimed in surprise.

Her big, round eyes widened in anxiety, hastily looking at him, trying to see if he was lying but Allen just repeated what he said again without even blinking his eyes,

“No sweets okay? I’ll let Humming know about this change as well.”

‘…..damn it.’ Kalia shut her mouth, and sat stubbornly giving him a reluctant look.

She couldn’t refute his orders because everything he said was correct. Nevertheless, his words banning her from eating sweets were just too harsh.

The baby’s kick in her stomach was so lovely that Kalia purposefully looked for sweets to eat. This was because eating sweets made the baby more active. It seemed that the child, connected with her through the umbilical cord, was sensitive to sugar. Just like eating sweets made her feel good, it also seemed to make the baby feel good.

“…okay, got it,” Kalia, who had deliberately eaten sweets for the joy of feeling her child wiggling in her stomach everyday, replied sullenly.

When you’re pregnant, the doctor’s words were absolute, so you had to follow them. Her face, rubbing her round belly, was very sad as if she’d been wronged.

Allen sighed as he looked at Kalia, who was now drooping sullenly, with complex eyes.

He continued to advise her, the expression on his face saying that he couldn’t help it, “…. I’m only allowing you to eat sweets during this festival. You really need to cut back after that.”

At his words, Kalia’s head whipped up. She made eye contact with him and burst out into relieved laughter.

Allen also had no choice but to laugh at her expression, nodding his head in understanding.

Kalia was almost 35 weeks along, just shy of two weeks from the village festival. Currently, mother and child have safely made it to 33 weeks together.