Into the Rose Garden Novel - Chapter 23.3 The little sunshine clears away dark cloud

He barely managed to open the door and enter, finding Aeroc waiting with sparkling eyes. First, he placed the meal on the table and helped him get up. After propping him up with ample pillows and cushions behind his back, he placed the feast on the bed, and Aeroc quickly picked up a spoon and started with the soup. Kloff sat at the foot of the bed, holding a sturdy mug of hot tea he had brought with him. He watched Aeroc eat the hot soup, blowing on it and gobbling it down.

“Is it that delicious?”

“Don’t talk to me.”

He had tried it a few times out of curiosity. It wasn’t completely unappetizing. Just plain and easy to eat. It wasn’t the kind of taste that would make Aeroc, who was always accustomed to lavish meals prepared with the finest ingredients by top chefs, eat like he was crazy.

After the terrible first attempt, Kloff thought Aeroc would give up, but Aeroc always sought out the rustic soup Kloff made himself. He wouldn’t even touch other food if he didn’t eat it. It wasn’t just stubbornness; he genuinely suffered from severe morning sickness and would vomit, so Kloff had no choice but to make it, albeit reluctantly. After consistently doing it for about eight months, he had reached a level where he could make it with his eyes closed.

While Kloff drank a cup of tea, Aeroc devoured all that food. Especially the soup, so cleanly that no washing was needed. Aeroc, seemingly satisfied after eating his fill, stroked his balloon-like belly and sipped apple juice. Kloff moved the much lighter bedside table aside, then massaged his legs, which were swollen from sleeping on one side all night.

“A little higher. There. Ah…”

Aeroc closed his eyes and made a pleasant sound. He had served his feet at night, but they always had this ritual in the morning too.

Aeroc, drinking apple juice and receiving a massage, closed his eyes and made pleasant rumbling sounds in his throat, then suddenly curled up with a groan.

“Surely not? Are the signs already coming?”

“What… what are you talking about? Not yet. The puppy woke up.”

“Ah.”

Unlike the Omega, who grimaced in pain, the Alpha smiled and stroked the swollen belly with his large hand. As he gently rubbed, he felt a firm kick in the center of his palm.

“Ugh.”

“Oh. That must hurt.”

“It’s not ‘must hurt,’ it really hurts.”

Aeroc grumbled, squinting his eyes. Kloff smiled, stroked his belly, and then kissed it.

“He’s definitely like an Alpha.”

“He’s an Omega. An Omega son.”

As if he had received some revelation from somewhere, Aeroc always said the child was an Omega. Even Massa, who had childbirth experience, said it looked like an Alpha based on the belly shape, but his baseless belief never changed. So all the baby items were prepared for an Omega. Kloff, however, was secretly buying Alpha items.

“An Omega is fine too. Especially if he has blond hair and sky-blue eyes, he’d be adorable.”

At that, Aeroc stared at Kloff, then smiled faintly and said,

“As you wish, he will be born with blond hair and sky-blue eyes, resembling your wife.”

Kloff laughed at his self-referential remark.

“Yes, a beautiful and lovely Omega will be born, resembling my wife.”

Ending his words, Kloff kissed his beloved wife.

Though he shouldn’t overexert himself, Massa’s advice that lying in bed all the time would harm his health and make childbirth difficult led Aeroc to take walks in the villa’s quaint garden whenever he had time in the morning and afternoon. Wearing a large maternity dress, a wide-brimmed hat, and boots, Aeroc looked like a giant child, which was amusing.

In particular, Massa insisted he wear a pink sweater so his body wouldn’t get cold. And when she tied a scarf under his hat to protect his pearl-like face, leaving only his face exposed, Kloff, watching from behind, let out a chuckle. And he was kicked in the shin by Aeroc, who was angry at his own appearance.

“Don’t laugh at me!”

“I wasn’t laughing at you, I was laughing because you’re cute.”

“Don’t call me cute either!”

Aeroc yelled, then waddled out the villa entrance. He looked like a baby bear just learning to walk, and Kloff chuckled, holding his breath.

Perhaps a walk wasn’t enough to keep him from getting bored, as Aeroc picked up a small trowel and a bucket and squatted in a corner of the garden, digging at something. It looked difficult for him to even sit, but when Kloff wondered what he was doing, he saw him skillfully tending the garden, digging up bulbs and catching insects on flowering plants, as if he had learned it somewhere.

“Where did you learn this?”

“Any cultured noble should have a basic understanding of horticulture. You, on the other hand, should learn a proper hobby instead of just playing with an abacus and numbers.”

“I just didn’t have the luxury to cultivate culture, as I had nothing and only studied.”

He just blurted it out, but for some reason, Aeroc turned his head and stared at Kloff, as if something displeased him. Kloff shrugged, thinking he might have provoked him unnecessarily, but Aeroc immediately turned his head back and started picking up bulbs.

Silence made it awkward, so Kloff subtly moved backward and belatedly offered an excuse, “Still, I can play chess.” The trowel, which had been digging up bulbs, stopped. Aeroc, who usually immersed himself in gardening to the point of needing to be stopped, stood up after only a few digs.

“Aeroc?”

“…The weather isn’t good today. It’s better to harvest the bulbs another time.”

The small bucket was not even a third full, but Aeroc put the trowel in the bucket and stood up. Kloff, who stood tall and surveyed the horizon in all directions, shrugged.

“It’s perfectly good weather, isn’t it? Clear and cool.”

“It’s going to rain.”

Even though he looked far and wide, there wasn’t a single cloud in sight, but Aeroc left Kloff and went into the villa.

Kloff didn’t know why he was sulking, but as the sinner who had impregnated him, he kept an eye on Aeroc all day. And whenever their eyes met, he smiled and mouthed “I love you,” but Aeroc would look back with a slightly awkward smile, then slowly turn his head away. He seemed terribly lonely, and Kloff couldn’t bear it anymore. He rushed over, embraced him, and kissed every exposed part of his skin.

Yet, Aeroc said nothing. He seemed a little tense and didn’t actively respond to the kisses. But he didn’t push him away either, so Kloff patiently whispered “I love you” to him again and again.

When a few marks appeared on his chapped lips, the slightly rounded chin that was once delicate, and the soft flesh around the prominent neck descending from behind his ear, Aeroc, half-buried in the Alpha’s embrace, spoke in a quiet voice.

“I love you. I love you.”

It was an unfamiliar tone, closer to a declaration than a confession. It wasn’t much different from saying “I love you” directly, but his confessions always felt a little off-kilter.

“Yes. You love me.”

When Kloff confirmed it, Aeroc nodded and leaned into him. Because the puppy had grown considerably, it was a bit difficult to hug face-to-face, so Kloff wrapped his warm body around him from behind, gently pushed up his chin with one hand to make him look back, then lowered his head and kissed him. Aeroc, finding it hard to balance, wrapped his arms around Kloff’s waist. But he didn’t feel his hands touch his back. Kloff tightened his arms around Aeroc.

Though sometimes bitter due to his stubborn silence for unknown reasons, the time generally flowed sweetly and peacefully. And when the weather turned completely cool, the signs finally came.

In the afternoon, while drinking tea and organizing documents, Aeroc, who had gone out into the garden, soon returned, dripping with cold sweat.

“Kloff, go call the doctor.”

Kloff, startled, supported him as he stumbled, sweating profusely, and asked,

“Is it real this time?”

He asked for confirmation because there had been a commotion several times when false labor pains had come. Each time, Aeroc would tell him to calm down, saying it wasn’t time yet, but Kloff wouldn’t listen.

“What do you know, you’ve never given birth, why do you keep insisting!”

He even got angry and called the doctor, but each time the doctor shook his head.

“It’s false labor. It’s still far off.”

And then Kloff would have to grovel to Aeroc, who was already irritable from the pain. But this time, it seemed to be different.

“This time it’s definite. Go call him right now!”

But he couldn’t leave Aeroc like this. At the very least, he had to seat him before leaving. As he tried to take off his dirty boots and put him on the bed, Aeroc got angry.

“Not the bed! The sofa! I’m more comfortable sitting.”

Kloff immediately seated him on the sofa as if it were an order. And he reluctantly moved his unwilling feet to go call Massa. Perhaps that was the loudest Kloff had ever shouted in his life. Massa, who was just coming out of the kitchen, looked at Kloff running down the stairs with startled eyes.

“Massa! The baby’s coming!”

“Is it real this time, not a mistake?”

“Yes! Please prepare quickly!”

Massa handed Kloff the bag with the already prepared birthing supplies and quickly began to boil hot water. When he rushed back to the room, Aeroc had already gotten off the sofa, hugging a cushion, leaning his upper body on the sofa, and spreading his legs.

He had taken off his comfortable pants and underwear at some point, and now, clutching the cushion, he buried his face in it, half-swallowing terrible sounds and breathing heavily. Massa quickly came up, checked Aeroc’s condition, opened the bag Kloff had brought, and prepared clean towels from inside.

“Don’t just stand there blankly, go call the doctor quickly!”

“Oh, ah. Right.”

Kloff, roused by Massa’s scolding, rushed out to call the doctor. He galloped like the wind, as if he had learned to ride just for this moment, but the short path to the center of the nearby village seemed three times longer than usual.

As soon as he found the doctor’s office in the center of the village, he burst through the door and looked for him, but he wasn’t there. Instead, a delivery woman, startled, said the doctor had gone on a house call to a neighboring village for a child who had broken his leg while playing. Kloff immediately threatened her to get the address, then rode his horse to the house and dragged the doctor out.

“A broken leg won’t kill you. But my wife is about to die. If you want to keep being a doctor, you’d better come quietly.”

He threw the middle-aged man onto the horse like a sack of luggage, then immediately mounted the saddle and pulled the reins. The strong horse whinnied excitedly and snorted. Kloff immediately spurred it on.

“…The cast is all on, just needs to dryyyy!”

With his hands covered in white plaster, the doctor, not only kidnapped but unable to sit properly, clung tightly to the horse’s rump and shouted to the bewildered child’s mother far away.