Then she turned her head and looked him straight in the eyes with an expression that was half surprise and half amusement.

"Oops... I think I said too much," she said with a mischievous smile, licking her lips one last time.

She looked at him with that playful grin, knowing she had said something she shouldn’t have.

"..."

After Luna dropped that bombshell so casually, Mark turned the matter over in silence.

His first instinct was distrust.

’What if she’s just playing with me?’ he thought, watching Luna out of the corner of his eye as she lazily got up from the bed. ’It wouldn’t surprise me at all... It’s exactly the kind of thing she’d do just to see my reaction.’

And the truth was that, knowing the princess, that possibility made a lot of sense.

She was a woman who enjoyed provoking, who said scandalous things just to watch other people’s faces fall apart, and who treated others’ confusion as a form of personal entertainment.

But the more he thought about it, the less that idea held up.

Because what would she gain from lying about something like that? It made no sense.

It wasn’t a lie that gave her any advantage, or that benefited her in any way.

And above all, she had let it slip by accident, in the middle of a comment about herself, not as a premeditated provocation.

So no.

She wasn’t lying.

And that was precisely what troubled Mark most.

Because if Luna was telling the truth, then there were several things that simply didn’t add up.

’But... Emilia told me an elf and a human couldn’t have children...’ Mark thought, frowning.

He could remember it with complete clarity.

She had told him the first time they had sex, that night after the speech.

’You don’t have to worry about anything... I’m an elf and you’re a human... it’s impossible for us to have children,’ Mark recalled the words Emilia had said to him right before he came inside her.

Mark let out a sigh.

"So how is it possible that she’s pregnant now?... Did she lie to me?... Or is there something even she didn’t know?" he murmured to himself.

But that wasn’t the only thing he couldn’t make sense of.

There was something else, perhaps even more puzzling than the first.

"How the hell does Luna know that when she’s barely spent any time with Emilia?" he said, confused by the situation. "They were together... what? A couple of hours at most?"

The questions piled on top of each other, tangling together, none of them with a clear answer.

"Hey, darling," the princess’s voice snapped him abruptly out of his thoughts. "It was a lovely night, truly, but... it’s time I returned to my room."

Mark looked up only to realize she was already standing by the exit, fully dressed with the door ajar.

"Sweet dreams..." she added with a wink. "See you tomorrow."

"Wait," Mark said, getting up from the bed. "About Emilia, I need you to expl—"

But Luna ignored him and stepped out of the room.

And by the time Mark finished his sentence, she had slipped out the door with surprising speed, closing it behind her with a soft click and leaving him with the words still on his lips.

He stared at the closed door for a second.

"Of course... she drops the biggest bombshell of the night and leaves before I can ask anything," he muttered, dropping onto his back on the bed with a sigh. "Very typical of her."

Then he lay back on the bed and stayed stretched out, staring at the room’s ceiling with his arms at his sides.

The adrenaline and distraction of the past few moments had faded, and now, in the silence of the early morning hours and the solitude of the room, all that remained was the weight of everything that had happened that night.

And above all else, one question that kept nagging at him.

’...Why didn’t she tell me anything?’

That was the part that really hurt Mark.

The pregnancy itself didn’t, in fact, it was good news, or at least it should have been.

He had believed that things between them had finally been set right.

After that difficult morning in her chambers, after she had cried clinging to his back begging him not to leave her alone, after he had promised her he wouldn’t... Mark had believed they had crossed some kind of line.

That they were no longer just two strangers pretending at a marriage in front of a kingdom, but something more real.

Something where there was, at least, trust.

And yet, she had hidden something this important from him.

’If she really is pregnant, that puts her in the same place as Rose,’ Mark thought, running a hand over his face. ’It would no longer just be a political alliance or a marriage of convenience... she would be the mother of one of my children and, at the same time, my family.’

And that was precisely why he found it hard to understand Emilia’s silence on the matter.

Was she afraid of his reaction?

Did she think he would be angry?

Or was there something more behind it?

He recalled again that conversation before departing.

How she had clung to him, how she had begged him not to go, how her voice had cracked in a way he hadn’t fully known how to read at the time.

In that moment he had attributed it to simple insecurity, to wanting to spend the night together.

But now, with this new information, everything took on a different hue.

’She knew... that’s why she was acting so strange,’ Mark realized, recalling what had happened. ’She knew, and she couldn’t find a way to tell me... or simply didn’t want to.’

Mark let out a long sigh.

There was no point in keep turning it over, at least not for now.

He was several days’ travel away from Emilia, in the middle of nowhere, with no way to talk to her or clear anything up.

No matter how much he thought about it, he wouldn’t reach any useful conclusion, and all he’d accomplish was robbing himself of what little sleep he had left.

So there was nothing left to do but wait.

Wait to get back, sit down with her, and talk it out face to face.

Ask her why she hadn’t told him, listen to what she had to say, and from there finally clear things up between them once and for all.

And then a thought crossed Mark’s mind.

’...Yuki,’ he called through the mental link.

’Yes, Master?’ the assassin’s voice replied almost immediately.

’Come here for a moment, please.’

It was barely a few seconds before Yuki materialized standing beside the bed, emerging from the room’s shadows without the slightest sound, with her usual neutral expression.

"What is it, Master?" she asked, looking at him from the side of the bed.

Mark propped himself up slightly, resting on his elbows.

"A little while ago, when the princess and I were together... did you hear what she said?"

"Nope," she replied without hesitating.

Mark looked at her for a second.

"Yuki... you don’t have to lie to me," he said in a calm tone. "I know you take looking after me seriously, so if you did hear something, it’s fine, I just... need to know."

"I’m not lying to you, Master," she replied, looking slightly to one side. "When you’re having sex with any of the others, I prefer to step back and give you privacy."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," she replied, nodding slightly. "And while I stay close enough to intervene if a real danger comes up, I don’t like to listen to what they say or watch what they do... mostly because it doesn’t feel right."

"..."

There was something strangely sweet and considerate about the way Yuki, the coldest and quietest of them all, drew that line for herself.

"I see..." he said finally. "Thank you."

Yuki nodded slightly.

But then, after a brief silence, it was she who asked.

"What did the princess say, Master?"

"..."

Mark was aware that he could trust Yuki.

He knew that if he asked her not to tell the others, she would take it to her grave without even questioning it.

And while he wanted to tell her about Emilia’s pregnancy, to get it off his chest, even just a little.

In the end he decided not to.

Not because he doubted her, but because he felt that subject wasn’t something he should share with anyone else, at least not for now.

If Emilia had decided to keep it to herself, for whatever reason, the least Mark could do was not go spreading it around before he had even cleared things up with her.

"It’s nothing..." Mark said, lying back down. "Just princess things, you know how she is... Forget it."

Yuki watched him for a moment longer, not quite convinced.

But in the end she decided not to press.

If her Master didn’t want to tell her, it wasn’t her place to push.

"Understood..." she said, not looking away from him. "In that case I’ll continue keeping watch."

And with that, her figure faded back into the shadows, leaving Mark alone again in the silent room.

Mark closed his eyes and settled in to sleep again.

"Best to think about all this tomorrow..." he murmured, his voice already heavy with exhaustion. "Right now my head can’t take any more."

The exhaustion of an impossibly long day, first the journey, then the Demon Lord’s visit, then Luna, and now all this business with the pregnancy, had finally taken its toll.

His thoughts began to slow and blur as sleep gradually pulled him toward unconsciousness.

’Emilia...’ he thought, before finally drifting off.