Side Story 04. [After Story] Evangeline
Imperial Year 657.
Five years after the final battle against the monsters.
Southern Empire. Crossroad. Lord’s Manor Drawing Room.
“Congratulations. You’re pregnant.”
The visiting priest, Zenis, announced.
Sitting side by side in front of him, Evangeline and Lucas’s mouths fell open at the same time.
“What the…”
“Wha—”
Zenis, taken aback by their reactions, asked in disbelief.“Look, her belly has already started to swell. How could you not notice?”
“Well… she’s always had a bit of a belly, so…”
“Shut it! That’s all abs! Or at least it was abs!”
As Evangeline delivered a sharp shoulder strike, Lucas let out a yelp and rolled to the side.
Chuckling softly at the spectacle, Zenis resumed speaking.
“It seems to have been at least four months. Haven’t you noticed you haven’t had your period?”
“Ah… Now that you mention it, yeah, it hasn’t come.”
As Lucas and Zenis squinted at her with suspicion, Evangeline growled.
“I’ve been so busy with lordly duties that I didn’t have time to think about it! And I don’t really have a tough time with it when it happens, so I didn’t notice.” ℝἈNỐꞖÊṡ
“Still, even so…”
“You’re surprisingly oblivious, my lady.”
Evangeline was about to glare daggers at him, but Zenis skillfully redirected the criticism toward Lucas with a polite cough.
“Sir Lucas, isn’t it a bit negligent of you? How could you not notice your wife was pregnant for several months?”
“Well… I was away for a while, so…”
“That’s not an excuse, Sir Lucas.”
“Exactly! No excuse at all!”
Evangeline, clearly enjoying this, chimed in with Zenis’s scolding.
Lucas wanted to argue, but a sharp intuition warned him that doing so would lead to a lifetime of regret.
“It’s all my fault…”
In the end, Lucas resigned himself to quietly enduring the criticism. Evangeline, meanwhile, playfully jabbed at his side with her fists, pretending to scold him.
Watching the two, Zenis nodded.
“From now on, please visit home more often. And if possible, stay by your wife’s side.”
“Stay by me! Stay by me!”
“I’ll… do my best…”
With that, the checkup concluded.
“…By the way, congratulations on the pregnancy.”
Zenis said, furrowing his brow slightly.
“But why did you call me of all people?”
Evangeline and Lucas both blinked in surprise.
“Aren’t you the continent’s best midwife, Zenis?”
“You’re renowned for successfully delivering one of those rare half-blood babies! We called you because you happened to be nearby.”
“That… happened by coincidence! I didn’t become a midwife on purpose!”
Zenis sighed and rubbed his temples, wondering how he had ended up being treated as a professional midwife.
‘Is this my karma…?’
After the final battle against the monsters, Zenis had lived as a wandering priest.
He traveled freely across the continent, offering help wherever it was needed. Zenis’s expertise in field medicine made him an invaluable figure.
Although he felt it would be arrogant to call himself an expert, in a world where divine healing powers had disappeared, his medical knowledge and experience as a healing priest were extremely valuable.
Even though the monsters were gone, there were always people suffering everywhere.
Zenis roamed the land, seeking to heal the weak and the sick. His recent visit near Crossroad was to treat patients in the area.
‘But why… why is this region more interested in me as a midwife…?’
As Zenis reflected on his past, Evangeline’s eyes sparkled as she asked,
“So, Zenis! Do you have any tips for prenatal care or some useful tricks? Spill the secrets!”
“Why do I feel like I’m being treated more like someone who’s already had a child rather than a midwife…”
“Isn’t it the same thing? You’re basically Hannibal’s dad, right?”
“I didn’t birth him! I just helped deliver him!”
Despite grumbling, Zenis rattled off various tips for prenatal care and childbirth, even jotting them down for Evangeline.
They also exchanged updates on their lives and news of their old comrades.
As the conversation wound down, Zenis rose to his feet.
“Well then, I’m glad I stopped by and got to hear such good news. Congratulations again.”
“Thank you, Zenis.”
“Thanks! I’ll deliver safely! Come visit often!”
As Zenis stepped out of the manor with Lucas and Evangeline seeing him off, he suddenly stopped and turned around.
“By the way, what will you name the baby?”
Lucas and Evangeline froze, letting out startled noises as they looked at each other.
“Right, the name!”
“What should we name them?!”
“No need to rush. For now, just come up with a nickname. Something simple and cute works, or even something silly is fine. There’s an old saying that the simpler or rougher the nickname, the more it wards off illness and bad luck.”
Leaving them with one final piece of midwife-like advice, Zenis waved and departed for real.
Lucas and Evangeline, having seen him off to the end, looked at each other.
“Hey.”
Lucas extended his hand first.
“Hey yourself.”
Evangeline smacked her hand firmly into his with a resounding slap.
It was a glorious high-five.
The two then linked arms and started spinning in place together.
“We did it! We really did it!”
“This is definitely worth celebrating with music!”
“Time to rejoice, time to rejoice!”
“Well done, Lucas!”
“You’re amazing, Evangeline!”
The two continued their self-praise until they suddenly turned to each other and shouted at the same time:
“I hope it’s a handsome son who takes after me!”
“I hope it’s a beautiful daughter who takes after me!”
And then, silence.
“…”
“…”
Lucas and Evangeline narrowed their eyes at each other, a tension-filled stare-off beginning between the young couple. A frosty silence settled over the room.
That night.
The atmosphere was much more peaceful than the night before.
Lucas, having just finished his preparations for bed, was about to lie down when he heard Evangeline’s sly voice.
“Honey~”
“Gah!”
Startled, Lucas flinched and turned to look beside him. There was Evangeline, her chin propped up on her hands, smiling sweetly.
“W-What? What is it? Did something happen?”
“Hehehe…”
Evangeline let out a low chuckle and started stroking her belly.
“Suddenly~ our baby is craving toast, you know~?”
“What…? Toast?”
“You know, that toast Ash made for us a long, long time ago. The one you really liked too. Remember?”
Lucas blinked in disbelief at the oddly specific request, muttering with suspicion.
“Are you sure it’s the baby craving it and not just you being hungry…”
“Huh?”
Evangeline’s face darkened instantly, her expression turning fierce as she growled.
“What did you just say? Care to repeat that? Think carefully, because our baby is listening too. Now, try again!”
“…Wait a second. I’ll go make it right now.”
Lucas immediately got out of bed and headed to the kitchen. He had heard far too many cautionary tales from his predecessors about the dangers of ignoring the cravings of a pregnant wife.
Sizzle…
Sweating profusely, Lucas stood in the kitchen late at night, making toast.
Evangeline, who had quietly followed him downstairs, peeked at him from behind, a wide grin spreading across her face as she watched her husband work.
And so, with the invincible logic of pregnancy on her side and a husband who did as he was told, Evangeline’s food adventures began.
“Steak!”
“Pizza!”
“Lobster au gratin!”
“Fried squid!”
“Fried squid that looks just like you, honey! Squi~i~i~d!”
By the end, she even started singing.
It was obvious these were all foods Evangeline enjoyed eating even before the pregnancy, but she insisted it was for the baby too (which was partly true).
After all, it was for his wife and child, so Lucas couldn’t refuse. Throughout his vacation, he had to cater to Evangeline’s every craving.
Interestingly enough, her tastes started to change in unexpected ways.
“Bean rice cake.”
“Bean rice cake.”
“Bean rice cake!”
With her mouth covered in bean powder, Evangeline exclaimed in shock.
“Why does bean rice cake taste so ridiculously good?!”
The “bean rice cake” was a humble local treat made of flour covered in bean powder, more like a type of bread. It was a snack common in the southern frontier like Crossroad.
As a teenager, Evangeline had thought it was too rustic and had avoided it. Even after returning from the Imperial Capital, she barely touched it.
But now? It was addictively delicious. Evangeline spent entire days with bean rice cakes practically glued to her mouth.
Lucas, unable to watch any longer, finally commented.
“If you keep eating bean rice cakes, the baby’s going to turn into one.”
Evangeline’s eyes widened, and she clapped her hands together in excitement.
“That’s it!”
“What… is it now…?”
“The baby’s nickname!”
Lucas blinked in confusion, but Evangeline had already made up her mind.
“We’ll call the baby ‘Bean Rice Cake’!” (TL Note: In Korean it’s 콩떡 [kong-tteok])
Lucas was about to protest but stopped, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
The nickname “Bean Rice Cake” actually fit most of the criteria Zenis had mentioned for a good prenatal nickname. It was simple, a little silly, and even kind of cute…
Sigh.
Lucas let out a small sigh before pressing his forehead against Evangeline’s round belly and murmuring softly.
“Just be healthy, okay…”
“Are you talking to our little Bean Rice Cake?”
“To both of you…”
Evangeline smiled quietly and wrapped her arms around Lucas’s head, pulling him close.
Of course, just because Evangeline was obsessed with bean rice cakes didn’t mean she ignored all other food.
If bean rice cakes were the baby’s cravings, then every other dish in existence was Evangeline’s.
As a busy lord, Evangeline worked tirelessly, but now she was also pregnant.
To work hard, she needed to eat well.
And to nurture the baby, she needed to eat even better.
So Evangeline ate.
She ate a lot.
Often too busy to leave her office, she would eat while working, quill in hand, surrounded by piles of documents.
Lucas personally brought meals up from the kitchen to her office.
“At this rate, I should just open a food alley!”
Lucas groaned dramatically as he served yet another platter of dishes.
Evangeline burst out laughing and joked back.
“How did you know? I was just thinking about setting one up—”
Evangeline suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
In front of her were sheets of paper where she’d been drafting her plans for Crossroad’s tourism initiatives.
“…Wait a minute. A food alley?”
“Huh?”
“Why didn’t I think of this before?”
“What are you plotting with that serious face again…?”
Lucas asked, looking somewhat terrified.
But Evangeline simply nodded brightly.
“Thank you, honey! I think I’ve just found a key piece for Crossroad’s tourism plan!”
“You’re really going to make a food alley…?”
“Yes, gastronomy is the foundation of it all. If we develop unique specialty dishes exclusive to Crossroad and promote them…”
Evangeline trailed off mid-sentence and suddenly turned to look beside her.
A plate with bean rice cakes was sitting nearby.
“Yes, bean rice cakes…! If we experiment with different variations of this local southern frontier treat…”
“…”
“Let’s start with product development. Maybe I’ll try adding cream first…!”
Evangeline was utterly serious, but—
‘Isn’t this just… you trying all the things you want to eat?’
To Lucas, it seemed suspiciously like she was disguising her cravings as brilliant business ideas.
“Bean Rice Cake~ Bean Rice Cake~ You’re truly a little treasure. Thanks to you, Mommy’s brimming with ideas!”
Jotting down her ideas in a flurry of excitement, Evangeline shouted enthusiastically.
“Good! Let’s grow Bean Rice Cake! Let’s create the food alley!”
“…”
“Come on, say it with me, honey! One more time!”
Stretching her arms upward with vigor, Evangeline exclaimed. Lucas hesitated but eventually muttered along, somewhat awkwardly and shyly.
“Let’s grow Bean Rice Cake… Let’s create the food alley…”
“Ohhh, ohhh~!”
At the time, no one knew.
That this small idea would go on to change the fate of Crossroad.
–TL Notes–
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