Chapter 517: Lilian’s Maternal Love

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It was only normal for Roel Ascart to be worried about Lilian Ackermann’s plight.

As the only two awakeners of the Kingmaker Bloodline left on the Sia Continent, Lilian was in a similar position as Roel.
The Fallens and the Saints Convocation were constantly after her life lest she stood in the way of their goals.

Even when disregarding the threat posed by the evil cultists, Lilian was still in her toughest predicament ever.

Her soft attitude toward Roel had incurred the suspicion of Emperor Lukas Ackermann.
Due to that, she was deprived of the chance to attend the International Crisis Management Symposium and even dispatched straight to the frontline.

To add fuel to the fire, the Austine Empire wasn’t well-liked by the other countries.

The Rosa Merchant Confederacy had a bone to pick with them.
The Saint Mesit Theocracy were at loggerheads with them.
The founders of Knight Kingdom Pendor were from the Second Epoch’s Twilight Sages Assembly, and there was no way they would be favorable toward the Ackermanns after the latter backstabbed the Ardes in their time of need.

The Country of Scholars was the only one that took a neutral stance toward the Austine Empire, but it hardly mattered since they didn’t have many troops on the frontlines.

With Lilian’s ‘Exiled’ status debuff compromising her authority with her military commanders and the enmity coming from allied armies, she couldn’t have been in a comfortable position.

But while Roel couldn’t help but be worried for Lilian, he didn’t think that she would fare badly.
He knew better than anyone else just how powerful she was.
Both her summoned troops and Ten Fortresses were menaces that could easily turn the tides of a battle.

Not to mention, she was an Origin Level 2 transcendent and a successor of the Kingmaker Bloodline.
There was no one who could match Lilian in terms of prowess other than the few Origin Level 1 transcendents on the frontlines.

And there was nothing more efficient than absolute strength when it came to building credibility on the battlefield.

With such thoughts in mind, Roel began browsing through the supplementary report compiled by the Sorofyas’ scouts.

From it, he learned that Lilian was stationed in one of the Austine Empire’s key fortresses, which had been through a couple of difficult battles in the past few months.
However, just as he had expected, Lilian’s involvement allowed them to clinch decisive victories in the end.

However, he couldn’t help but notice that while the other frontline armies had launched minor counterattacks as the deviants lowered their aggression following the onset of winter, Lilian had refrained from dispatching her troops.
Instead, she requested more defensive fortress weapons.

It was a common military tactic for those in a defensive position to launch small counterattacks in winter, particularly because it was a low-risk, high-return maneuver.
It was a good opportunity to build military merit.

Lilian was a princess who had been exiled after falling out of favor with the emperor.
If she wished to turn things around, she would have to accrue as much military merit as she could.
That wouldn’t have been a difficult feat for her.
With her abilities, it was even possible for her to pull off a zero-casualty miracle.

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That would have won her substantial support with the military.

Yet, she actually allowed such a precious opportunity to slip past her fingers.
Roel truly couldn’t understand the rationale behind that.

Is there something else to the situation that we’re unaware of? Or could it be that… Lilian is injured?

Roel frowned.

He browsed through the document once more, but he was unable to find any clues as to what could have prompted Lilian’s strategic decision.
Eventually, he had no choice but to let the matter go.
He knew that he mustn’t come into contact with Lilian now no matter how worried he was, or else it would worsen her position.

All he could do right now was to solemnly pray for her safety.

Heaving a deep sigh, he put down the document in his hand and looked at the clear sky outside the window.
Little did he know that a black-haired woman in the distant eastern border was also facing a dilemma as well.

…

The Austine Empire’s Noyce Fortress was known as the ‘Flesh Grinder’ by soldiers stationed at the eastern border, and there was a good reason behind that.

The stretch of land that the Austine Empire guarded along the eastern border was an ordinary hilly terrain, which was the type of geographical terrain that was generally disadvantageous to the defending side.

To make things worse, Noyce Fortress was located in a position that stuck out from humankind’s defense line, which made it highly vulnerable to enemy attacks.
There were multiple occasions in history where Noyce Fortress had been overrun, and the aftermath of that were mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.

That was also where the name, ‘Flesh Grinder’, came about.

Due to that, the soldiers stationed in Noyce Fortress were always the tensest whenever a war broke out with the deviants.
How could they not feel heavy-hearted when the shadow of death was constantly looming above them?

However, the situation started improving when a newly-appointed chief commander arrived half a year ago.

It would have been perfectly understandable if an individual hadn’t been able to bring about significant improvements within the short span of six months, but that had not been the case for Imperial Princess Lilian Ackermann.
On the contrary, her presence had brought about sweeping changes.

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From early spring, the deviants had launched a series of furious attacks on Noyce Fortress, resulting in a sharp decline in the troops’ morale.
The veteran commanders in the fortress knew from convention that the upper echelons would dispatch a new chief commander to rekindle confidence, but they didn’t bear much hope for that.

How much could a talented commander do with the odds stacked against them?

Yet, under Lilian’s leadership, the casualties had been reduced to a tenth of their predictions, and they had achieved resounding victory in every battle they fought in ever since her takeover.

Similar to how merchants were willing to sell their souls for a threefold profit, the sharp reduction in the casualties and the consecutive string of victories were more than enough to send Noyce’s soldiers into a frenzy, compelling them to pledge their loyalty to Lilian.

With Lilian fighting alongside them at the frontlines despite her high standing as the imperial princess, as well as the overwhelming prowess she displayed through her summons and Ten Fortresses, even the grumpiest of soldiers would have been won over by her charisma.

On top of that, they could see with their own eyes how Lilian was slowly growing thinner as she diligently dealt with all sorts of administrative work.
It was rare to encounter a chief commander as hardworking as she was, especially in a place as damned as Noyce Fortress.
Her devotion to her work touched many of the soldiers.

Soldiers could be seen diligently patrolling the city walls in high spirits, a stark contrast to the tense and pessimistic atmosphere that had loomed over the fortress before.
It could be said that the troops were more united than ever after the last few battles they had.
They were motivated to do whatever they could to reduce Lilian’s burden, even by just a bit.

However, what the soldiers didn’t know was that while Lilian had indeed been tiring herself over managing the fortress, that wasn’t the cause behind her gradual thinning.

On the highest point of the fortress, in an exquisite room decorated in a vintage style, Lilian sat on her chair and wordlessly stared at the food placed in front of her.
It was hard to tell what she was thinking through her pensive amethyst eyes.

The head maid, Audrey, nervously stared at her master as she waited for the latter to make a move.
Her hands were already clenched up before she knew it.

To be clear, there was nothing wrong with the food.

It had been personally prepared by Audrey, whose culinary skill was on par with top chefs.
This was the flavor Lilian had grown accustomed to from a young age.
Audrey wouldn’t have been that nervous had it been like the past, but things were different now.

What had changed here was not the food but Lilian’s condition.

A long time later, Lilian finally moved.
She slowly picked up the cutlery placed in front of her and gracefully sliced the meat in her plate.
However, she didn’t consume it right away.
Instead, she took in a deep breath before she delivered the juicy meat into her mouth.

“!”

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Her body shuddered the moment her meat entered her mouth.
Her face scrunched into a frown.
Her hand shot straight to her mouth, a reflex that indicated that she was about to spit out the meat.

Alarmed, Audrey quickly picked up a nearby plate and offered it to her.

“Your Highness! You should…”

Lilian raised her other hand to indicate that she was fine.
Her body continued to tremble as she forced herself to swallow the meat.

Audrey frowned at that sight.

Lilian had been growing thinner ever since her arrival at Noyce Fortress.
Most people had attributed it to her overworking herself while trying to manage the fortress, but that was hardly the truth at all.

The true reason behind her gradual thinning was that she was simply unable to eat.

Be it the most perfectly roasted meat, the freshest vegetable, or the finest fruits, Lilian found herself unable to swallow any of those at all.
This was a natural reflex that every mother suffered in the early stages of their pregnancy—morning sickness.

Indeed, Lilian was pregnant.

Half a year ago, Audrey was in the midst of managing Lilian’s faction in the Austine Empire when she suddenly received an urgent order from her master to head to the frontlines.

It had been a baffling order for her as she had been managing her master’s connections.
Her absence from the capital could potentially lead to the nobles’ erosion of support for Lilian, and that would have been extremely disadvantageous for the latter, especially now that she had fallen out of favor with Emperor Lukas.

What Audrey encountered after rushing to the eastern border at the fastest speed possible changed her mind.
Even the support of the nobles didn’t seem much compared to the severity of this matter.
There was nothing more dangerous than the revelation that the unwedded imperial princess of the Austine Empire had gotten pregnant.

This came as a huge shock to Audrey.

She had always seen Lilian as a lofty and unreachable existence who harbored not the slightest interest in any men.
Yet, the perfect imperial princess in her eyes actually skipped the courtship and engagement phase and dove straight into having a child.

Audrey felt the world spinning around her when she learned of the matter.
Thinking that Lilian had been duped by a bad person due to her lack of romantic experience, she began making preparations for a thorough abortion spell.

She was well-versed in such magic as it was one of the responsibilities of a personal maid to resolve their master’s scandals—and such incidents weren’t that rare in the circle of nobility.

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Yet, to Audrey’s astonishment, Lilian requested the fetal stabilization spell instead.

The fetal stabilization spell was a convoluted spell was used to pause a fetus’ development during the early stages of pregnancy for up to three years, similar to a temporal spell.
Usually, it was cast on female transcendents who were in precarious situations and needed to delay their pregnancy for them and their child’s safety.

Frankly speaking, Audrey couldn’t comprehend why Lilian was so determined to hold onto the child.
She knew that no mother in the world could easily abort their child, but the risks were too huge here!

If Lilian obstinately chose to keep her child, it might lead to a massive scandal that spelled not just the end of Lilian’s political career but also her life.
On the other hand, while it might pain her to abort her child now, she could always have another child once things settled down.

Audrey didn’t think that it was rational for Lilian to be so fixated over an unborn child.

She tried to persuade Lilian otherwise, but when she saw the blissful smile on Lilian’s face as she rubbed her womb, she swiftly dropped the idea.
It dawned on her that Lilian wouldn’t be persuaded regardless of what she said.

The expression that Lilian was showing was none other than maternal love.
She truly loved the child she had with that unknown man.
There was no way she would abort the child under such circumstances.

Having understood the situation, Audrey could only obey Lilian’s order and cast the fetal stabilization spell on Lilian.
An unfortunate outcome of the spell was the extension of Lilian’s awful morning sickness, which had tortured her for half a year since then.

It pained Audrey to see her regal master forcing herself to eat with trembling hands despite her strong urge to retch.
She couldn’t help but try to persuade her otherwise.

“Your Highness, why don’t we just go with the usual honeyed water?”

“No,” Lilian firmly rejected the proposal.

Looking at her own slender wrists and flat stomach, her eyes firmed up with rekindled determination.

“… I have to eat.
My child will be danger if I grow any thinner,” Lilian calmly replied.

She slowly sliced the meat into small bite-sized pieces and swallowed them one by one despite the intense nausea compelling her to gag.
It took her three whole hours to finish the meal, and she was already exhausted by the end of it.

She had to take a brief rest afterward to recover some energy, but her eyes looked much more reassured when she glanced at her own womb.
She spent a moment in contemplation before posing a question to Audrey.

“Is there any news on the Theocracy’s Ascart Marquess?”