The Monstrous Grand Duke's Fake Lady

The time she spent with her child had eventually made her forget her past. When she held the ever so small child in her arms while patting her back, the child’s soft cheeks brushed against her. Even with that only, Vivian could fight against the hustle and bustle.

At first, she didn’t straight away welcome the child’s presence. In fact, it wasn’t just once or twice that she thought it would be better off if only the child wasn’t there. On top of that, she was sad about the fact that she had to conceal the child’s presence for all eternity.

However, as she slowly bought things for her child while her stomach gradually grew bigger, she began to feel some sort of an affection towards the child.

For her, who had already lost all of her family, the child was no different than a new member of the family. Perhaps she, who had lived alone all these times, finally felt like was now attaining another blood relative by her side. Vivian then slowly began to accept the child in her belly, who had been a stranger, as her own family.

Nevertheless, just because she had accepted the child, it never meant that the situation gradually became better.

She was fine while working busily in the day, but at night, Vivian would weep for a long time while stroking her stomach. Nothing happened, but the fact that she was carrying a child had made her sad somehow.

When she saw a young couple in the village, she wiped away her tears once again. All of this was her own decision, but there was absolutely nothing she could’ve done to the feelings of sorrow. She thought that she might even shed more tears after delivering the child as well.

After she had given birth to the child, the tears that had always been bursting out eventually decreased a little. She learned how to swallow those tears and cry silently, instead of sobbing out loud. Sometimes, she would hide within the cries of her child before bursting into tears herself.

But when the sun rose in the sky, Vivian acted as if nothing had transpired at all. She opened the windows of the inn and greeted the staff—as she continued the day as usual.

In retrospect, her life wasn’t so bad anymore nowadays. Perhaps she was actually living the best days of this life she had ever lived. Now that she had a decent house, it was more of a blessing when she looked back on the old days when she had freeload in someone else’s house. But still, it was rather too much for him to bring her over here—right at the opposite side of the Empire.

The Seirart Empire was quite large. It was huge enough to divide the area into four regions with the Imperial City located right in the middle of the continent, acting as the base.

And among them, it was said that the barren area, which had been the northern terrain, maintained its frozen land. The Grand Duchy was built right at the border, so it wasn’t strange for the trees to be bare over there.

In the south, there was the continuity of sunny days—unlike in the north. Sometimes, there was a series of stinging sunlight or even torrents of rain, but it was worth living here if one could just endure them all. The warm temperature was good for a child and it was even better for mothers who had just given birth.

Even so, it wasn’t the same weather at the vacation house, which she had gone with the Grand Duke previously. Unlike that place where it was full of warmth, this place was overflowing with sunshine.

In addition, this village that Vivian had taken as a place of residence wasn’t that big. Considering the surroundings of the County that was always busy with people back then, this place was very quiet.

This was the reason why she could carry on with only an employee managing the inn. There weren’t that many customers, so she could easily continue working at the inn while still taking care of her child.

Even the number of travelers passing by the village were only a few, therefore, there were only the regular villagers or those who came by to relax stayed here. Thanks to this, it wasn’t extremely onerous for her to make much money, but it was still worth living on.

Except for the eccentric person who came by recently.

“He came again, ma’am.”

Ez, the employee who approached Vivian in a hurry, slowly whispered. His face was full with interest as if that had eventually sparked his heart into thumping fiercely in this village without any gossip.

Vivian turned her gaze and looked at the person who was sitting near the counter.

Despite the village being quite hot, the man was donned in a black robe. Since he had his face covered meticulously, she only knew that he had a rather large build.

“Who is he perhaps? A traveler? Don’t you think he comes to this village a little too often for that, ma’am?”

She agreed to some extent. For a traveler who just passed through this nothing-to-see village, he had been visiting every day as of recently.

Not only that, he had never stayed before, but he always reserved a room that she almost had a designated room ready for him.