"The contents of this letter, are they true?" Grand Mage Archus placed his finger on his lips as he re-read the letter over and over again.
"Yes, Master. I would not dare deceive you." Willem bowed his head, but he could not hide his shaking hands.
This was the first time he had revealed the letter to anyone, but Willem trusted the Grand Mage almost blindly ever since he had a hand in helping save his friends.
"Good, I knew there was something different about you ever since that fateful day I began to teach you. My family has always believed that Humans and Magical Beings could co-exist one day, perhaps you will be the bridge that connects the two worlds." Archus carefully closed the letter and returned it to Willem.
"You do not think I am a monster?" Willem said as he accepted the letter back from Archus.
"Of course not, you are like a son to me, no matter what... Race, you may be." Archus placed his wrinkled hand on Willem's shoulder.
A vibrant warmth circulated through the Grand Mage's palm as Willem continued to hold on tightly to the letter.
"I should go, Willem. I cannot oppose the One True King like you can. I can only mislead him for so long." The Grand Mage removed his hand from Willem's shoulder and began to cast his teleportation spell.
Before long, the teleportation spell went off and Archus had disappeared, leaving behind a few sparks of mana that dwindled into nothing.
Willem went back to creating weapons and armor for the upcoming fight in his study.
As Willem spoke with Archus.
Kinsey was in the kitchen making tea for Willem and Archus when she felt a strong pain in her stomach, seemingly out of nowhere.
The tea was teleported away by Willem with impeccable timing, just as Kinsey fell to the ground clutching her stomach in distress.
Anna, whom was nearby, immediately ran to Kinsey's side upon seeing her in distress.
"Take me to the bed, please." Kinsey pleaded.
With some Spatial Manipulation Magic, Anna lifted Kinsey from the ground without touching her and gently carried her to the bed.
Kinsey gripped the hem of the skirt she was wearing as she tossed and turned in the bed. The food that she had eaten earlier was quickly thrown up into the wooden bucket kept at the side of the bed.
Anna grew increasingly concerned as Kinsey's condition worsened.
"What do I do?" Anna tore a piece of cloth and dipped it into a basin of cold water before placing it on Kinsey's forehead to combat the fever.
"When Willem is finished his work, then you can tell him. Do not disturb him until then." Kinsey held the cloth on her forehead in one hand while clutching her stomach with the other.
Anna, still unsure of what to do, watched over Kinsey with much concern.
Willem felt Anna's concern through the connection that he had with her, and looked over Kinsey's condition.
He understood immediately what ailed her, and also understood that there was not much he could do to ease her pain.
Kinsey Dragon was suffering from morning sickness.
Willem could not help but feel a mixture of pride and concern as he watched Kinsey toss and turn in pain. He had always felt that the mental fortitude of Kinsey was nothing to scoff at, even early on in their relationship.
Of course, her pregnancy was not unexpected in any way. Ever since they had begun mating, Willem and Kinsey had failed to use any sort of protection or method of prevention. Unless one of them was sterile, it was only a matter of time before she was with child.
Yet, Willem could not bring himself to look over her directly. In his mind, Kinsey was no longer a simple servant who just obeyed orders and attended to his needs.
However, she had always been contracted to him through the magical branding, and he did not know if her feelings were true because of it.
This line of thinking distracted him even while he worked on the magical enchantments to the weapons, causing them to be of lesser quality than usual.
Despite being of lesser quality, they would still be considered a force of nature compared to the abysmal weapons the Magic Academy created and gave to the Army before.
After a few rounds of sighing and pacing back and forth, Willem finally steeled his resolve and left his study room to go to Kinsey's side.
Upon arriving in the room, Willem silently moved to Kinsey's side. When Anna saw Willem, she immediately stood and bowed before leaving the room, closing the door behind herself.
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Willem held his breath as he brushed the hair away from Kinsey's face.
"Am I dying?" Kinsey asked as she tightened her grip on the cloth, a small tear flowing from her face onto the bed sheets.
"Of course not, put the very idea out of your mind." Willem placed his cold hands on Kinsey's face to cool her down.
"What is wrong with me?" Kinsey felt a little light-headed and had an increasingly hard time keeping her eyes open.
"You are with child, Kinsey." Willem placed his hand over Kinsey's stomach as he delivered the news to her.
With wide eyes, Kinsey placed her hand on top of Willem's and smiled for the first time in what seemed like a long time.
Willem took out a potion from his spatial spell and placed it at Kinsey's lips, urging her to drink it. Kinsey began to drink the weird-looking liquid without hesitation.
An immediate relief washed over Kinsey as soon as she finished drinking from the potion.
"The pain suppression elixir?" Kinsey looked at Willem with a face of relief.
"An extremely diluted mixture, meant for small wounds." Willem nodded and kissed Kinsey on the neck.
The warmth of the kiss contradicted the previous cold from his hands to create a unique feeling on Kinsey's body.
"You should rest, Anna will take over your duties." Willem placed the basin of water to within Kinsey's reach and replaced the wet cloth on her forehead.
"I can still move, I can still work..." Kinsey spoke feverishly, but she was adamant that she could still be of use to Willem.
"You can work on delivering a healthy baby. Anything you need, just tell me." Willem heated a separate wet cloth for Kinsey to use at her leisure. "Now get some rest, please."
"Okay, Master." Kinsey closed her weary eyes but continued to hold his hand in hers. A subtle warmth permeated from her hand to his, and he could feel her heart gently beating.
When Kinsey had finally fallen asleep, Willem gently removed his hand from hers and silently left the room.
Willem reached out to two maids from among the staff that Kinsey had hired and left them in charge of Kinsey's well-being during the pregnancy.
When the maids heard that Kinsey was with child, they laughed giddily to each other while preparing a proper resting area for Kinsey, fulling knowing her personality of wanting to work even when she should not.
News spread quickly thanks to the two maids, and every family within the Private Sanctum felt the need to bring some sort of gift as a representation of the auspicious occasion.
In order to not interrupt Kinsey's rest, a celebration party was planned for tomorrow night instead and the families worked together with Willem to create a Grand Hall in the Private Sanctum that would be worthy of the event.
The impending event whipped up a frenzy of buying and trading in the Bastion of Hope as various servants teleported back to town, though no one within the city knew what was happening. Seeing the servants of major families rushing around in haste to buy various goods and foreign foods caused much speculation to flow from the lips of merchants around the city.
The One True King send out spies to see what information they could gather, but the servants had kept tight lipped about the whole event for fear of revealing information they should not have. The lack of information prompted the spies to return swiftly and explain the details to the King, much to their chagrin.
As quickly as the servants flooded the markets, buying only the finest materials, they quickly vanished and no trace of their presence remained. This was incredibly unsettling to the various thieves and spies in the Bastion of Hope, whom were hoping to gain something from the influx of spending by robbing the servants before they could return to their masters.
All in all, the major families gathered a small fortune in gifts in order to shower Kinsey with the blessings and good fortune that one could hope for during childbirth.
Even Willem walked around with an unusually exuberant step, causing others around him to do the same.
Arania, whom was busy torturing the Magical Beings, was the last to receive the news of Kinsey's pregnancy.
Having been around Willem and the other servants for so long, even she was beginning to understand her role in the small matters Willem entrusted to her. All the things Willem could not do as an upstanding citizen of the Bastion of Hope, naturally fell upon Arania to accomplish.
She also understood that Willem was overly generous to those who helped him succeed, and utterly destroyed anyone who opposed him. As long as she kept her head down and assisted Willem as he saw fit, she was sure he would release her from her mortal coil in time.
Though Demons were not known for their patience, Arania was no fool, and the magical binding that both trapped her soul and inhibited her strength revealed everything to Willem as if an open book. For Arania, there was no point in hiding her true feelings, even if it was her deepest desire to do so.
When she finally heard about the pregnancy, her first thought as a Demon was to feast upon the child. However that was just her natural impulse, which was easily tempered by her current situation and willpower.
With the ability to shift into an Astral Spider at any time, Arania began interweaving thirty separate strands together from her own spinnerets to create an incredibly durable yet light spider web. She intended to use the silk aspect of her thread, but ended up using the sticky thread, as she was still not use to her new form.
It took multiple tries before she could correctly control the silk thread that she intended to craft with, and even more attempts to successfully bind multiple strands together. This caused alot of failures and half spun webs that she would later consume to re-use.
After hours of honing this particular skill, Arania was able to successfully create a strong and durable spider silk sheet or pure white to give to the new Young Master upon his arrival. She quietly tucked away her present at the bottom of a chest in the torture room and left the room, prepared to greet her Master.
In the newly built Grand Hall.
Willem was arranging the Grand Hall just as the various family head's envisioned, creating seated balconies above the main dining area for the major family elders and councilors. Since it was not Willem's forte, he would just nod to the instructions given to him by the big-breasted Lovejoy family head.
As Willem placed the finishing touches on the murals and various paintings, Arania arrived at the new Grand Hall. Willem could sense urgency emanating from her body and excused himself for a moment from the presence of the families.
"What is the matter?" Willem led Arania away from the families and into his study room nearby.
"I was able to extract some more information from the Magical Beings about Blood City, just as you asked." Arania looked at Willem triumphantly, awaiting praise.
Willem nodded his head and loosened the immense restrictions on the magical binding. He did not need to do this in order to get information from Arania, but praising good work went hand in hand with achieving good results.
"I think you will find this quite interesting, Master..." Arania's teeth clacked together as a malicious smile appeared on her face.