Two months have already passed since that day.

“… I must have gone crazy, really.”

My face still flushed just thinking about Jade.

“Young miss, please have some cake.”

“This smells strange.”

The cake’s scent was particularly nauseating today. My stomach churned, and I couldn’t bear to eat it.

‘It’s not summer, but winter. Has the cream gone bad?’

I plugged my nose and pushed the plate away.

“Mary. Take this away.”

“Young miss. Your face is even paler than before, are you alright?”

“Ugh…”

Another wave of nausea came over me. My head ached too. The headache had persisted since last night, and my overall condition was at its worst.

‘Who could it be?’

A polite knock sounded twice in succession.

“Open it, Mary.”

Mary opened the door, and the family doctor entered.

“I’m here to see young miss Larien.”

I looked at Mary, as I hadn’t called for the doctor.

“Mary, did you call him?”

“Young miss. You’ve been complaining of a headache since earlier, haven’t you?”

Mary furrowed her brows in concern.

‘Even so, it’s probably nothing…’

Though Mary’s worry seemed excessive for a simple headache, I appreciated her thoughtfulness.

“I’ve had a bit of a headache since morning, please take a look.”

Not wanting to disregard Mary’s kindness, I spoke to the doctor.

“Understood, young miss.”

The doctor approached and took my pulse. His expression grew more serious as time passed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Young miss, I apologize, but would it be alright if I took a small blood sample? I need to run some tests to make a more accurate diagnosis.”

I nodded to the doctor seeking permission, and he took out a sharp needle from his medical bag.

The doctor sterilized the needle with an alcohol swab. He pricked my wrist with it to draw a small amount of blood.

He dropped a few drops of blood into a glass vial containing a thin liquid.

“Um, young miss…”

The liquid and blood mixed together, and the doctor tensed up.

“It seems you are… pregnant.”

“…Pregnant?”

“Yes. You are carrying a child.”

Pregnant.

At that word, my mouth fell open. Jade had been the first and only person I’d ever been intimate with.

So I could hardly believe that I was pregnant.

‘Jade is a wolf, and I’m a sparrow.’

Unlike Jade, who was a wolf shifter, I was a sparrow shifter.

The setting that different species couldn’t conceive together was written in the first chapter of the original work.

‘Am I really pregnant…?’

I felt dejected that such an important plot point preventing Jade from ending up with the female lead had changed so easily.

‘And with Jade’s child at that?’

If the pregnancy was discovered, Duke Belaste would certainly not stand idle. In the worst case, I would surely die.

‘I don’t want to die in winter again.’

Looking out the window at the fierce blizzard, I felt even less inclined to die.

‘Okay, think. There must be a way.’

Only these two people here knew about the pregnancy.

The family doctor who had treated me since childhood and Mary, my devoted personal maid.

“P-p-preg-nan-t…”

“Mary, you’ll choke. Calm down.”

I patted Mary’s back as she sputtered, forgetting how to breathe.

“Young miss, may I ask what you plan to do going forward?”

To keep the pregnancy secret from Duke Belaste, I had to silence the doctor.

“I’d like you to keep it confidential.”

“Young miss. You know you can’t hide it forever, don’t you?”

The doctor replied with a regretful tone.

“I know, but my situation isn’t exactly good.”

I kept stroking my belly, feeling sorry for the baby.

Before my possession, I was an orphan, and even after becoming Larien Belaste, I considered myself as good as parentless.

I always wondered what kind of love family members shared, what having a family was truly like.

If I had a child, I thought I would raise them giving all the love I never received.

I didn’t want to pass on the loneliness I had experienced.

A caring father. A gentle mother.

I wanted the child to grow up in a perfect family environment, but I had already given them an unblessed situation before birth.

“Young miss, you know that once your examination is over, the Duke will summon me to his office.”

“You can just tell him it was because of a headache.”

I already knew that Duke Belaste received all examination results through the doctor.

Not out of concern for me, but because he was invested in the health of the daughter he intended to use advantageously in marriage.

“Give me just one week. Whether to have the baby or not… Once I decide, I’ll tell him myself.”

I took off the diamond necklace I was wearing and held it out to the doctor.

“Young miss, why are you…”

“Your son is about to enter the academy, isn’t he? It must be difficult to cover the tuition. Take it.”

The doctor’s hands trembled as he accepted the diamond necklace.

“If you report my pregnancy to the Duke, I’ll make sure you can’t afford that cost.”

“Young miss, that’s…!”

“No matter how the Duke treats me, the fact that I’m the only daughter of House Belaste won’t change.”

I wanted to protect the baby, even if it meant resorting to such underhanded threats.

If Duke Belaste found out I was pregnant, he would never allow me to keep it.

An illegitimate child of an unmarried daughter.

For the perfectionist Duke Belaste, it would be a target for immediate elimination.

I couldn’t expect any familial affection from him.

“I-I’ll return in a week, young miss. Please have a decision by then.”

The doctor left the room, pocketing the diamond necklace.

I bit my lip, swallowing dryly.

“Mary. What should I do now?”

I had no intention of giving up the baby in my womb, but the obstacles ahead seemed insurmountable.

“It-it’s okay, young miss. For now, how about seeking help from the baby’s father? Who is he?”

Mary held my hand and suggested one option.

“…It’s Jade.”

“Young miss. Stop joking. Marquis Rowe is a wolf, isn’t he? And you’re a sparrow.”

Mary waved her hand and laughed.

“Right. He’s a mammal and I’m a bird.”

“Young miss, you’re not having some kind of memory error, are you…?”

Mary’s face hardened when I didn’t laugh along.

“I wish that were true too. But it really is Jade.”

“Ah, young miss!”

Mary suddenly pointed below the window.

Shifting my gaze outside, I saw Jade getting out of a carriage that had stopped.

He brushed snow off his shoulders as he went inside.

‘Don’t avoid me anymore.’

‘…Alright.’

‘If you break your promise again, I won’t let it slide.’

I couldn’t turn Jade away because of the promise I had made to him.

Faced with the situation of having to meet him, I made a grimace.

“To think the baby’s father is really Marquis Rowe…”

Mary hugged me tightly, trying to calm me down.

“Don’t worry, young miss. When he finds out about the baby, Marquis Rowe might help. He might even be happy about it.”

“Do you think Jade will be happy?”

“Of course! It may be sudden and unbelievable, but how long have you and the Marquis known each other?”

If it was Jade, who had blindly followed me since childhood, he might indeed be happy.

Having regained my composure, I let out a resolute breath.

“For now, Mary. Tell Jade to wait in the first-floor reception room. Act normal, like you always do. Understand?”

“Don’t worry, young miss.”

Mary left confidently, as if telling me to trust her.

Still not reassured, I paced back and forth, biting my nails.

‘I’m dizzy.’

It felt like the baby was signaling me to stop moving around.

“…Baby.”

I placed my hand on my still-flat belly.

It was amazing to think there was a new life there.

“Baby. Will you give mommy some courage?”

I took a deep breath and slowly went downstairs to meet Jade.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Marquis Rowe. Shall I bring your usual tea?”

“Not necessary. Where’s Larien?”

“The young miss will be here shortly. Please wait a moment.”

“When is she coming?”

I could hear Mary and Jade conversing inside the reception room.

As Mary had predicted, Jade didn’t seem to be in a particularly good mood today either.

My heart was pounding loudly, and I felt like I was going crazy from nervousness.

‘It’s okay. It’ll be fine. Jade may have a nasty temperament, but he’s not a bad person.’

I grasped my dress and took a step forward.

“Mary. You may leave now.”

“Yes, young miss.”

As I sat down opposite him, Jade leaned back comfortably on the sofa and crossed one leg over the other.

“…Jade.”

I kept staring at Jade, unsure how to tell him about the pregnancy.

“Larien. Do you have something to say? You’ve been staring intently since earlier. It’s not like you.”

From his aloof response, it was clear that Jade was indeed a predatory wolf.

Wolf.

I recalled the background from the original story explaining why Jade had become an ill-tempered villain.

To determine if their offspring had the ability to lead the family, wolves would abandon their newborns on snowy mountains.

Most died in the process.

Even if they barely managed to survive by successfully shifting, harsh training bordering on abuse would follow.

‘If the baby dies on the snowy mountain…’

I might not remember everything, but the memory of dying from the cold in my past life was utterly horrifying.

It was enough that I alone had experienced losing consciousness with no one around.

I realized how naive my intention to reveal the pregnancy to Jade had been.

It wasn’t certain whether the baby would manifest as a wolf when the time came for it to become a shifter.

There was also a possibility it could be a sparrow like me.

Still, being born of Jade’s bloodline meant it would have to be raised as a Rowe.

‘In House Rowe, they have to go through many trials.’

It would surely have to fight against the collateral lines while bearing the label of an outsider with a mother of a different species.

Jade himself had narrowly escaped countless assassination attempts by collateral family members.

As I pondered what to do, Jade’s red eyes pierced through me.

“Larien. I’m getting engaged to the Winst Count’s daughter soon.”