Chapter 376: A Small Inconvenience

Mary was kneeling behind him on the mattress, her white hair slightly tousled and a small smile on her lips.

She wore that tight mesh outfit she usually favored, a fabric that at that moment did absolutely nothing to hide the obvious.

Her belly.

Round, prominent, and impossible to ignore.

Mary rested both hands on her stomach and gave him the most mischievous smile he had ever seen on her.

"Surprise."

Mark stayed sitting on the edge of the bed, turned toward her, unable to take his eyes off her belly.

He opened his mouth a couple of times to say something, but nothing coherent came out.

Too many questions were fighting to get out at once, and none of them could quite win.

"What’s wrong, darling?" Mary said with a mocking smile.

"How is it possible that you’re already... like this?" he replied, pointing at her belly.

"...Are you calling me fat?"

"You know perfectly well that’s not what I meant."

Mary let out a small giggle and then looked at him with a mix of tenderness and disappointment.

"Have you already forgotten that in my dream world, time passes however I want it to?"

Mark understood at once. If Mary had been able to turn a week in there into seven months in the real world, nothing stopped her from doing exactly the opposite.

All she had to do was speed up time enough that a few weeks outside became entire months for her.

"Was it really necessary to do that? We don’t know if it could affect your pregnancy in some way."

"Don’t worry, everything’s fine," Mary replied, lowering her gaze to her belly. "Besides, I haven’t gone back into the dream world in days."

She let out a heavy sigh.

"My plan was to stay inside until I gave birth there, and then appear in front of you with our child already in my arms."

"..."

"I’d spent weeks imagining the face you’d make."

"And what went wrong?"

"Well... let’s just say the fruit of our love turned out to be quite demanding and needs far more mana than I expected."

Mark looked at her, somewhat confused, so she ended up explaining that the baby had been draining her power practically since the beginning of the pregnancy.

At first, Mary had barely noticed the difference. She got tired a little faster, slept more, and now and then felt her reserves dip without having done anything, but considering the absurd amount of mana she had, she never thought it would become a problem.

Until the baby began to grow.

Every week it consumed more.

And more.

Mary started waking up some mornings with her reserves practically empty.

That would have been annoying for anyone.

But for her, keeping an entire dream world running, it was a disaster.

The sky, the house, the landscape, and the time difference between the two worlds all depended constantly on her mana, so as soon as her reserves began to fall, everything started to fail.

Until finally the dream world stopped working.

She hadn’t been able to return since.

That was also the first time in centuries her summons had seen her truly vulnerable.

Mary talked about it with a smile, but Mark could perfectly imagine what it must have meant to creatures who, for three hundred years, had known her only as someone invincible.

According to her, the reaction had been immediate.

Her smartest subordinates tried to organize shifts to look after her. The others simply refused to stray too far.

Now they hardly ever left her alone.

There was always someone near her room, someone accompanying her when she walked, and for some reason one of her summons had decided its new mission was making sure she never skipped a meal.

"They drive me crazy, but... I can’t get angry at them," Mary said, sighing. "I know they do it because they’re worried about me."

Mark didn’t know whether to laugh or worry more, so he ended up doing a bit of each.

But then something made him frown.

"Wait, if you’re so low on mana that you couldn’t even maintain your world, how did you get here?"

He reacted at once. He took her by the shoulders and gently made her look at him.

"Why would you do something so risky? You barely have any mana left. What if someone attacks us now? What would you defend yourself with? I don’t even know if you could teleport back to your dungeon."

"I’d been watching you all morning... I saw you alone, pacing back and forth, trying not to let it show how scared you were."

Mark loosened his hands a little on her shoulders.

"And when I heard you wish I were by your side... I just couldn’t keep watching from afar anymore."

Before Mark could answer, Mary leaned toward him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled him to her.

He hugged her back, carefully, wrapping his arms around her back and taking care not to squeeze her belly.

"You’re fucking crazy...," Mark murmured against her hair.

"That’s no way to talk to your pregnant wife," Mary protested without letting go. "Besides, I know perfectly well I’m not in danger."

"And why is that?"

Mary pulled back slightly and looked straight at him.

"Because if anyone tried to hurt us, I know you’d protect us."

Mark stayed silent for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"Of course I would. But that doesn’t make what you just did any less irresponsible, so don’t risk yourself like that again."

Mary smiled as if she had gotten exactly the answer she wanted and, without saying anything more, took Mark’s hands and brought them to her belly.

He felt the warmth under his palms and, an instant later, a small movement from inside.

Mark’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

Another kick followed the first.

Unable to help himself, he leaned toward Mary’s belly and stroked it tenderly.

"Hello, little one. I’m your dad."

He gave it a soft kiss before continuing.

"And you don’t have to worry about anything. As long as I’m here, nobody will hurt you. Not you, and not your mother. No matter who comes or what they want. If anyone tries to touch a single hair on your heads, I’ll end them."

When he straightened up again, Mary no longer wore that usual mocking smile.

She looked at him with a strangely fragile expression and moist eyes, as if she hadn’t known how much she needed to hear something like that until this moment.

Then she smiled again, but in a much softer way.

"You should be more careful what you say, darling," she murmured, leaning closer. "Because if you keep saying such sweet things, all you’ll accomplish is making me even more obsessed with you."

"I think I can handle it."

Mary let out a small laugh and held Mark’s face between her hands. Then she slowly drew him toward her and kissed him.