RETURN OF THE FEMALE KNIGHT

151. Starting The War

The next time Lalisa opened her eyes again, she was in a dark jail cell with only one window the size of a hand span. Her prison did not have open iron bars, but was completely closed off cell with solid metal doors. Her stomach gave an unpleasant rumble, and she pressed her hand to it.

'...Baby.'

She had not eaten properly in some time, and because she was beaten harshly by Namgil, she was also in pain. She feared a potential miscarriage. Fortunately, she did not find any traces of blood on her lower body. Of course, she couldn't confirm that her baby was alright based on this alone, but she felt instinctively that her child was still alive.

'Did you endure it too? My amazing child.'

Tears formed in her eyes as she cradled her stomach. She wished she could see her baby so she could shower it with praise, but there was no other way to express her feelings. If she were alone, would she know? If the child was safe, she absolutely could not give up. Even if she faced the most severe torture, she had to endure the best she could.

"...Ugh."

Lalisa raised herself up and gave an involuntary groan of pain. She spied a bowl of thick porridge sitting in front of the tightly closed iron date. There was no warm steam coming from it and seemed to have been neglected for a long time, but that didn't matter to her at the moment. She picked up the bowl and hungrily scarfed down its contents. A short time later, it occurred to her that the food might be poisoned, but that didn't seem likely.

'If he wanted to kill me, he wouldn't have locked me up like this.'

She tried to eat more, but swallowing proved difficult. Her stomach seemed unused to taking food after a long time, but she had to eat to survive. Long-term starvation during pregnancy was dangerous, and if the chance to escape came, she had to be in the best physical shape possible.

Lalisa forced herself to steadily eat the porridge, when—

"Eub!"

Her stomach turned, and she clapped one hand over her mouth.

'...If they see I have morning sickness, they might think it's strange.'

Lalisa had not been aware she was with child in the early stages of her pregnancy, but now that she was captured, she did not know what would happen. Jungkook was the new Emperor of the Ruford Empire now, and this child was the only one to continue his bloodline. Namgil might use it as his own pawn. In the worst-case scenario, he might allow Lalisa to give birth to her child and then take it away. He may raise the child in opposition to Jungkook and use it as a puppet until it had the power to seize the throne.

And even if Namgil didn't remove Jungkook, the child was the natural successor to the Empire. Lalisa's capture while she was pregnant was Jungkook's biggest weakness.

Taat.

Lalisa set the now-empty bowl back in front of the iron door. As she sat on the cold stone floor, the memories of her last life flashed in her mind. Somehow, this felt just like the days when she was deeply lonely.

'The past several months feel like a dream.'

Her loneliness gnawed at her heart, and the happy days after she returned to the past felt like a dream from long ago. It was a miracle for her to see her dead family again and to be so deeply loved by Jungkook. Living such a happy time made her too selfish.

"...In the beginning, my only wish was to save the Blaise family."

A self-mocking smile drew on her lips. Then at some point, she dreamed of a rosy future where she lived happily with Jungkook and their child by their side. Before, as long as just her family was safe, she would easily throw away her life.