<Chapter 132>
#15. Epidemic (6)
“This is quite strange.”
At the muttered words spoken with a profound expression and head tilted to one side, Malek’s face turned serious. Melty, who was secretly lifting his head to look at Malek, also swallowed dryly and looked at the person before him.
The place Malek had brought Melty, saying it was somewhere he absolutely wanted to go together, was in front of a physician. Because he couldn’t trust the physician at the Padrian mansion, he wanted Melty to receive treatment outside, right before his eyes.
Melty had argued that it made no sense to receive treatment just for increased sleep, but Malek wouldn’t back down at all. Melty’s assertion that there was no way his increased sleep hours could be connected to a serious illness did not convince Malek at all.
– Constantly feeling sleepy could be a sign that something’s wrong with your body.
Recently, Calix had also been frequently suggesting that he get an examination. With Malek joining in, Melty chose to get examined with a feeling of surrender. But when the physician put on a serious face, Melty’s heart began to pound with anxiety.
“I-is it that serious? I haven’t felt anything particularly strange or painful.”
“…I’m not sure how you’ll take what I have to say.”
At the sight of the physician scratching his chin with a deep sigh, Melty looked dejected. Malek, who put an arm around Melty’s shoulder to protect him, opened his mouth with a serious face.
“Don’t beat around the bush, just tell us directly. Is it a serious illness?”
The physician, looking back and forth between Melty’s frightened face and Malek’s serious expression, swallowed dryly and opened his mouth.
“He’s pregnant.”
“…Eh?”
“What?!”
The expressions of the two brothers became grotesque at the statement that popped out of the physician’s mouth. Especially when the physician recognized that Malek’s gaze had changed to look at him as if he were a madman, he could not hide his embarrassment as he waved his hands frantically.
“My brother is a male brother! What nonsense are you talking about? Do you want to put down what’s on your neck because it’s too much for you?”
“Ugh! I checked several times because I found it strange too! The pregnancy is certain.”
Malek growled as he grabbed the physician by the collar. Terrified by Malek’s appearance, which looked like he might harvest the physician’s neck at any moment, the physician desperately shouted. As Malek glared at his pale face, contemplating whether to kill him or not, Melty’s dazed voice sounded from behind.
“P-pregnant? But, but we haven’t even done it 100 times yet?!”
“……”
Unlike the voice filled with confusion, the type of answer was different. Unlike the physician and Malek, who were shocked that a man was pregnant, Melty didn’t have any particular reaction to that part. As if the notion of himself being pregnant wasn’t strange at all, Malek’s hand suddenly lost all strength at this implication.
The physician, who had managed to save his collar from Malek’s grasp, fell to the floor with a thud. Malek didn’t even give a glance to the loud noise as he turned to look at Melty.
He felt like he shouldn’t ask, but he couldn’t not ask either.
“…What do you mean by 100 times…?”
“W-well…”
At Malek’s question, Melty made a shy and embarrassed expression, fidgeting with his two index fingers pressed together. After sneaking a look at his brother, Melty mumbled with reddened cheeks.
“M-making a baby…”
Simultaneously, Malek could understand what it meant to feel like his skull had flown off.
***
“Ha…”
With his throbbing forehead in his grasp, Malek exhaled a heavy sigh. Melty, who was secretly watching him, sipped the drink clasped between his hands instead of adding any words.
Contrary to the examination, it was Melty who guided the dazed and stupefied Malek to a nearby shop. Fortunately, there was a dessert shop nearby that he had been wanting to visit. Despite its high popularity, there was exactly one empty spot, as if it had been tailored for them. Even after quickly taking a seat, Malek’s expression hadn’t improved at all.
“So your blessing was ‘Fertility’?”
“Y-yeah.”
At the sight of Melty vigorously nodding his tiny head, Malek fell silent again. The shock was greater because he had thought his brother had received a blessing similar to Health since he hadn’t been severely ill after his coming-of-age ceremony. Not only was receiving the blessing of Fertility rare in itself, but it was the first time he had heard of a man receiving the blessing of Fertility.
“…Does that bastard know about this too?”
At Malek’s question, Melty shook his head vigorously. Malek, who was watching him from the corner of his eye, let out a heavy sigh.
“Why didn’t you tell your family in advance? You should have at least told me!”
“B-but…”
Melty’s lips, which had been mumbling as he opened his mouth, closed tightly. Many emotions were contained in his quivering lips. He would have spoken calmly under normal circumstances, but somehow Malek’s question didn’t feel kind. With his eyes becoming moist following the surge of emotions, Melty answered in a mumble.
“All my b-brothers and sisters… They all have such cool blessings, but me…, for me as a man to say my blessing is fertility… It was e-embarrassing…”
Malek’s body stiffened at the sound of sniffling. Removing the hand that had been pressing his forehead, Malek hurriedly moved to his side. Lowering his posture to meet Melty’s eyes, Malek reached out to wipe away the tears wetting his cheeks.
“I’m sorry. I’m not angry. I was just too surprised.”
Malek berated himself as he pulled Melty into his arms and patted his back. After all, revealing one’s blessing was a personal choice. Even among family, it wasn’t something that had to be shared. Moreover, as Melty said, it would have been difficult to casually talk about receiving the blessing of Fertility.
‘Everyone in the family believed it would be Health, and they had high expectations because of that…’
Thinking carefully, on the day Melty returned from the temple, all family members surrounded him and expressed their expectations about his blessing. It was understandable that it would have been difficult for Melty to reveal the blessing of “Fertility” in such an atmosphere.
‘This isn’t my brother’s fault to begin with.’
The face of someone who was close to a public enemy clearly appeared in his mind. He was well aware that the bastard had laid hands on his brother before marriage, but pregnancy was a different weight altogether.
‘I never once thought about my brother being pregnant, but…’
In retrospect, the increased appetite and sleep were precursors to pregnancy. He had witnessed this when his nephews and nieces were born, yet he hadn’t even considered the possibility because Melty was his brother.
“So what’s this about 100 times?”
After waiting until the emotionally unstable Melty calmed down, Malek asked carefully. At his question, Melty blinked, shaking off the remnants of tears in his eyes, and answered slowly.
“To make a baby, you need to have relations about 100 times…”
“…Who told you that?”
“My eldest brother.”
Melty mumbled as he sipped the warm tea Malek had handed him. Unlike his warm gaze at his now-calmed brother, in Malek’s mind, he was imagining beating up his playboy eldest brother.
‘That eldest brother bastard. I’m going to kill him.’
Malek’s anger flared up against his eldest brother, who had taught strange things to Melty, whom he loved dearly. Seeing Melty placing his hands on his slightly bulging belly, Malek calmed his anger and asked carefully.
“So, are you okay with this?”
“…U-um?”
“The pregnancy, I mean.”
Melty remained silent at Malek’s question.
“…I’m not sure. It doesn’t even feel real yet.”
With his head bowed, Melty continued to touch his belly, which was only slightly bulging. Even when he received the blessing of Fertility, he had never thought of such a situation. A feeling he had never considered before wouldn’t suddenly spring up just because he unexpectedly heard words like “You’re pregnant.”
“Brother. After I started working at Padrian, snakes kept appearing in my dreams.”
“Yes.”
“It was even smaller than Naru, but it was being affectionate.”
Naru, who was neatly wrapped around Melty’s neck, lifted its head. Melty smiled slightly as he turned his head slightly to meet Naru’s eyes. Though it was a story he brought up suddenly, the more he retraced that dream and continued speaking, the more his complicated mind seemed to clear.
“It was so cute, and when I was trying my hardest to reach up and eat the delicious fruit hanging high on a large tree, before I knew it, that snake had grown enormously and was coiled tightly around my body.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. At first, I was really scared thinking it was trying to eat me, but lately, in my dreams, that snake gives me the fruit.”
A smile blossomed on Melty’s lips as he talked about his dream. While easily picking a fruit so large it needed both hands to hold, the snake always tilted its head. Melty liked the blend of affection in those movements.
“Despite its size, it seemed to be acting spoiled, asking to be petted.”
By the time he opened his mouth wide to bite into the fruit, that large snake had become Melty’s haven. It offered its body to support his buttocks and back, making it comfortable to sit, while occasionally extending its head to where Melty’s hands were.
“But, I think the baby will be like that.”
“……”
“A very good, beautiful, and cute child, I mean.”
With both hands on his belly, Melty looked up at Malek and smiled brightly. He seemed much calmer in his emotions and thoughts as he spoke. Seeing Melty like this, Malek made a deflating sound and laughed, carefully stroking Melty’s belly.
“If it’s my brother’s child, it’s bound to be cute.”
“Yes!”
Relief appeared in Malek’s eyes as he confirmed that the anxiety that had clouded the warm brown eyes had disappeared. It was then, as Malek was gently rubbing his brother’s head.
The small bell sound that rang whenever the shop’s door opened sounded. Although it was a sound insignificant enough to ignore, strangely, their heads automatically turned in the direction of the sound.
“…this guy…haa…”
The voice of the person standing wrapped in a dark-colored robe was eerie. Though they were short words, the rough, hissing breath was audible. Muttering in an unpleasant voice tangled with phlegm, he dragged one leg and positioned himself in the center of the shop before finally pulling back his robe.
“Brother. That person seems a bit strange…”
And with his revealed appearance, people screamed. On his neck, face, and hands were large, bumpy growths resembling lumps. Moreover, the largest lump located near his neck was bulging and growing in size.
“…I, I… *shriek*, won’t die, alone.”
