Chapter 177: Blessing

While walking down the flight of stairs, the space around them resonates like the ocean trapped inside a seashell. The stairs glow blue, radiating just enough light to help them distinguish the shapes and depth of the stairs.

Once in the most bottom level, Kyrie arrives at a dark atrium where the blue light on the floor reflects onto the walls. The blue reflection swims like fishes hovering towards the surface of water shimmering under the sun. 

In the dark, Kyrie starts to look at the people walking near him, but because it is too dark, he can only distinguish the basic human figure of others. He wants to call Ian, but he hesitates since he doesn't want to show weakness. 

[Ian should be next to me, right?]

He reaches out towards the hand of the person next to him. However, his hand gets wrapped around first. Kyrie smiles, and his mood turns better as he walks towards the light at the end of the atrium. The Fae Kingdom is now a few steps away.

When he walks through the invisible separation of light and darkness, he senses the rush of wind pushing him a step back. After adjusting to the light, he opens his eyes and sees the entire Fae Kingdom from where he stands. The Fae Kingdom looks otherworldly, separate from the surface he came from. 

They have walked out a temple-like building carved out from the mountain even though the entrance to the Fae Kingdom is in the giant tree he saw in the White Forest. 

The Fae Kingdom is nothing like the upper world, where the major cities are built to uphold the image of glory and prosperity. Instead, it is rather humble, graced by the beauty of nature. The Fae Kingdom is the size of a capital city from a prospering nation. 

Around the city, a thousand miles of cherry blossoms bloom like they are seasonless. And the city has well-maintained wooden architecture without a corner that shows the disparity between the wealthy and the poor. The stone paths are without weeds, and greenery is plenty through every street. The air smells like freshly brewed tea.

Kyrie turns to his side in hopes of sharing his admiration for the aesthetics, but his entire body turns to stone as soon as he looks at who is right next to him.

Imogen smirks at Kyrie in the process of eroding, "Cockroach… How cute… Afraid of the dark?"

Kyrie's soul travels out of his mouth as the words 'how cute' echo in his mind, suffering the ultimate final boss blow. Kyrie's soul rushes back to his body when he notices that he is still holding onto the hand! 

He looks down and almost faints. He has been holding a black severed hand!!!

He bumps on Ian's body when he staggers back. The severed hand turns to liquid and drops to the floor, turning into a shadow. Sweat starts to flow down his face as he looks back at Ian, shaking. 

Kyrie opens his eyes wide, trying to act cute. Crocodile tears are accumulated in his eyes while Kyrie pouts like an innocent kitten suffering from the slap of his stepmother's bribe money. He uses mana to make light particles shine in his surroundings for extra effect.

"I thought you were always by my side, Ian…."

Ian narrows his eyes as he feels the pain of his heart stopping. He totally falls for it and smiles.

Deep within, Kyrie screaming: [PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!!! GODDAMN IMOGEN!!!!! GODDAMN MYSELF! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO REACH OUT TO THAT HAND! SO EMBARRASSING!!!]

Ian cups Kyrie's face, "I am sorry I wasn't there walking by your side."

Then, he takes Kyrie's hand and starts to walk toward the city.

The rest of the people surrounding them look like they have eaten a slice of lemon. They are full from all that unsolicited dog food. The couples are literally shining while getting surrounded by happy energy.

---

While walking on the streets, fairies would stop by to greet the queen with familiarity. They are all excited to see her walking on the city streets. The fairies are a bit cautious of the humans, but soon, they welcome Kyrie and the others with flower crowns and necklaces.

"Kyrie…" Federline walks to Kyrie, with a face filled with worry, "Lemuel does not look very good. He is ghostly pale. I think we need to find a medic fast!"

When Kyrie checks on Lemuel, he finds that Federline is not one bit exaggerating. If he ignores that Lemuel is breathing, he would think that he is facing a corpse. 

He reaches to his dimensional pouch to take a mana stone. Then, he uses light magic to see if it works on Lemuel. 

[It's not working. Lemuel did not suffer from injury, but rather, he suffered from getting too much energy drawn out of his body. He can recuperate with rest. Just that... his complexion looks awful.]

"Child," The queen turns back and sees Kyrie using light magic, "You can only use mana?"

Kyrie quickly glances at Imogen, who is nearby, and the queen takes the sign that Phanes's reserves are still a secret.  So, the queen stops talking about it and fastens her pace to the palace to take Lemuel to a medic.

Inside a guest room, everyone surrounds the bed where Lemuel lays unconscious. The fairy examining Lemuel looks confused.

The queen picks up the unease from the fairy and asks, "How is he?"

"He needs a lot of rest and a concoction to replenish his energy, my queen. Just that…"

"What is it?"

"My queen… I beg your forgiveness for this servant's inexperience. I am sensing a weird pulse from this man. I have never heard of such a pulse in a man!"

Kyrie frowns since that is the same thing that Celine said. 

"You say that the pulse should not appear in a man," Kyrie directs his questioning to the fairy, "What do you mean by that?"

"Sir… I have only sensed this kind of pulse on pregnant women. I…"

Kyrie staggers back as if he has been smashed by tons of bricks. 

[Wait… Hold on… There must be a mistake!]

Kyrie remembers back the Grand Duchess Halinas's warning about Lemuel's unique constitution, and he feels as if another invisible blow just hit him in the guts. 

[I am sorry, Grand Duchess… My bastard subordinate just… just…]

Since Kyrie is so shocked by the news, the expression on his face looks distorted by many emotions - surprise, anger, guilt... 

The Queen places her fingers on her chin as she looks at Lemuel and recognizes why she is sensing some familiarity from Lemuel. She also knew someone with similar constitutions a long time ago.

"He must be a Halinas, then," concludes the queen. 

The temperature around Kyrie lowers to near freezing, and he turns to the clueless Federline. He grabs on Federline's collar, shocking everyone in the room. Even Imogen lifts her eyebrows in surprise when Kyrie almost jumps on Federline.

"Kyrie?"

"You bastard!!!" Kyrie yells while crying internally.

"How dare you lay hands on a prince of two nations! You don't even have a house, a car, and a stable job! Since when can a toad taste swan meat!?!?!"

Everyone except Imogen blurts out in confusion, "Car?"

Kyrie shakes the poor Federline while tightening his collar. 

While everyone is in deep confusion, Laurel's light bulb lights up, and she covers her mouth in shock.

She blurts, "Omg! He is pregnant?!?!?"

Soon, everyone else starts to catch on, and their eyes look like they will roll out of their eye sockets. Federline stops breathing as soon as he hears it.

Ian grabs onto Kyrie, who looks like he is going to murder Federline.

"No way… I am going to be a dad?" Federline's legs turn into jelly, and he falls on his bump. 

He looks up at Kyrie, who Ian restrains.

"What? You think people get pregnant by staring?!?!"

Federline crawls and nearly trips while getting up on his feet. He kneels next to Lemuel and takes Lemuel's hand. He blinks his reddening eyes to hold his tears as he still tries to process the news. 

Watching Federline's face filled with bewilderment and fear, Kyrie lets out a sigh of defeat. He leans on Ian's chest and lets Ian tighten his arms around him. 

"We should congratulate them," Ian whispers in Kyrie's ear, and Kyrie nods in agreement while observing Federline.

Kyrie is rather baffled. A man who loves sweets and lazing around is going to be a father soon. The pregnancy has come to Kyrie like a punch in the guts. Even as a spectator, he feels the thrill and fear of the situation. 

"Here," The fairy gives Federline a bottle of the energy replenisher.

To give the couple more privacy, everyone decides to leave the room. Federline thanks the queen and the fairy for the treatment and checks Kyrie to see if he has put out his anger. After the doorknob clicks close, he turns back to look at Lemuel.

While trying to tame his nerves, Federline gently holds Lemuel up and, little by little, feeds him the concoction. He focuses on treating Lemuel as if he is now the most precious and fragile person he has ever held.

After feeding Lemuel, he gently puts Lemuel back on the bed. The colors on Lemuel's face return, helping Federline to calm some of his nerves. He puts his head on the bed while gazing at Lemuel, and his hand slides on top of Lemuel's belly. 

"There would be a miniature size of us…." Federline whispers as his heart races.

Tears start to flow down from Federline's eyes as he whimpers, "I guess this is a sign that I should stay alive for you and this child. I will have to stay to see this child grow into the best human being."

Federline kisses Lemuel's hand, "How can such a blessing be given to someone like me?"