My Harem of Dangerous and Crazy Women as a Reincarnated Necromancer

And as she spoke, Emilia began to pull away.

Subtly, still smiling, sliding her hands off his shoulders and taking a small step back to put distance between them.

But Mark didn’t let go.

His hands, which until then had rested gently on her waist, closed firmly, holding her in place.

”What’s wrong?” she said, somewhat nervous.

”Emilia, I know you’re pregnant.”

”...”

After that, neither of them said anything.

She simply stayed in his arms while the smile she had tried to hold onto slowly faded from her face.

”Is it true or not?” Mark pressed.

Emilia tried to answer, though she quickly understood any excuse would be useless.

Little by little, she ended up lowering her head, unable to keep looking him in the eyes.

”...Yes,” she murmured. ”It’s true.”

”I see, so what Luna said was true.”

”So that’s how you found out...” She swallowed, still staring at the floor, and began speaking in a trembling voice. ”Listen to me, there are things I need to explain to you... things I did that you don’t—”

Emilia couldn’t finish.

Before she could keep talking, Mark wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him.

”You have no idea how happy I am,” Mark whispered against her hair. ”Truly... you have no idea.”

”...What?”

”That I’m happy, Emilia,” he repeated with a smile. ”We’re going to have a child. How could I not be?”

She stayed frozen, eyes wide, arms pinned to her body, too stunned to react.

”...You’re not upset with me?” she asked finally, her voice barely a thread.

”Upset?” he said, pulling back slightly to look at her. ”Why the hell would I be upset?”

Emilia just stared at him in silence.

There was no anger, disappointment, or the slightest trace of reproach on his face.

Only genuine confusion, as if he truly didn’t understand why she expected him to be angry.

”Because I lied to you!”

Emilia pushed him, pulling away abruptly, stepping back until she bumped into the armchair.

”Do you remember what I told you that night?” she said, her voice breaking. ”That a human and an elf couldn’t have children together?”

A bitter smile formed on her lips.

”It was a lie”

”Okay, and?”

”...What do you mean, ’and’?”

”Yes, you lied to me,” Mark replied with a shrug. ”I’m not going to pretend it was fine, but... it’s already happened.”

”...’It’s already happened’?!”

”Emilia—”

”ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!”

Emilia could no longer keep up the pretense.

The calm, dignified queen vanished at once, swept away by all the emotions she had spent weeks trying to hide.

”You don’t understand anything! It wasn’t just one lie!” she said as tears began streaming down her face without her making the slightest effort to stop them. ”It was everything! Absolutely everything I did from the day you arrived!”

”Emilia, please calm down—”

”Why the hell do you think I handed you my kingdom?!” she continued, speaking faster and faster, as if she needed to get it all out before she lost her nerve. ”Because I trusted you? Of course not!”

She shook her head hard, unable to stop.

”I did it because I had no other option! Because without you, my people were doomed!” she confessed with desperation. ”I made you our king because I needed you to protect us! Because I needed a shield!”

”...”

”And that wasn’t even the worst part!” Emilia continued, her voice shaking. ”Do you remember our first night together? Do you remember how I ended up crying in front of you? How I broke down and begged you not to leave me alone?”

”...Yeah.”

”I planned all of it!” she screamed, striking her chest with an open palm. ”I took advantage of your compassion! I knew that if you saw me cry you wouldn’t be able to turn your back on me! And it worked!”

Emilia brought her hands to her face, trembling from head to toe.

”I even used a fertility spell to make sure everything went according to plan...” she confessed between sobs, her voice fading. ”Because if it hadn’t worked that night, I might never have gotten another chance.”

She looked at him, her face soaked, her eyes red.

”So yes... I let myself get pregnant to make sure you could never leave us,” she murmured in a broken voice. ”That’s what this baby meant to me... I wasn’t even able to see it as... as my child... I only saw it as a chain to keep you bound to us.”

”...”

Emilia was breathing raggedly, trembling, her arms hanging at her sides as if she no longer had the strength even to hold them up.

”Do you understand now...? In the end... I’m nothing but a monster.”

After that outburst, the room fell into a heavy silence, and Emilia kept her head down, not daring to look at him.

If Mark decided to turn his back on her, to abandon her forever, or even if he tried to end her life, part of her thought she wouldn’t have the right to complain.

Then he began walking toward her in silence.

Emilia squeezed her eyes shut and flinched by reflex, bracing for the punishment she believed she deserved after confessing all of that.

But instead, she felt arms wrap around her.

His arms closed around her, pulling her against his chest and holding her with a warm firmness that had absolutely nothing to do with the punishment she was expecting.

”There now... it’s alright,” Mark said quietly. ”You don’t have to keep tormenting yourself over this anymore.”

Emilia froze in his arms.

”What... what the hell are you doing?” she stammered, unable to believe Mark’s calm. ”Didn’t you hear anything I just told you?”

”I heard all of it.”

”Then why the hell are you hugging me?”

”Because I don’t like seeing you cry,” he replied with complete simplicity.

And that was what finally broke her.

Emilia let out a choked sob, and all the trembling she had been holding back burst out at once.

She grabbed onto Mark’s shirt with both fists and buried her face against his chest, crying in a way she probably hadn’t allowed herself to in years.

It was a completely inconsolable cry.

Mark held her without saying anything, letting her get it out.

”Listen to me,” he said when the crying began to ease, speaking calmly against her ear. ”Do you really think you’re telling me something I didn’t already know?”

Emilia lifted her head, her face devastated.

”Huh?”

”Emilia, I’m not an idiot...” Mark said with a tired half smile. ”I knew from the very first day why you handed me the crown.”

He shrugged.

”You needed power to protect your people, and I needed control of your kingdom,” he continued. ”It wasn’t that one of us took advantage of the other; we simply made a deal where we both gained something.”

”But I—”

”You just did what you had to do,” Mark cut her off. ”You were trying to save your people and you used the only tools you had. That doesn’t make you a monster... that makes you a good queen.”

”...Shut up.”

”It’s the truth.”

”This is different!” she insisted with desperation, clinging to her guilt like a lifeline. ”I tried to use our future child as nothing more than a tool! How can you look at me and say that’s alright?!”

Mark took her face in both hands, gently forcing her to look at him.

”Tell me something,” he said, looking into her eyes. ”When you found out you were pregnant. In that exact moment. What did you feel?”

”...”

”Answer me,” he pressed gently. ”Did you feel like you’d won a game? That you’d gotten your golden ticket? Or did you feel something else?”

Emilia’s eyes filled with tears again.

”I felt fear... a horrible fear,” she confessed in a thread of a voice. ”And then... then I felt something I didn’t deserve to feel... I felt happy... I was so happy that I hated myself for it.”

”There you go,” Mark said gently.

”There I go what?”

”There’s your answer,” he replied with a calm smile. ”If that baby were still just a tool to you, you never would have felt happy learning it existed.”

Emilia looked at him, not knowing what to say.

Her lips parted a couple of times, but no words came out as she desperately tried to sort through the whirlwind of thoughts in her head.

”...I don’t deserve your forgiveness,” she whispered finally, her voice trembling as fresh tears slid down her cheeks. ”I deserve for you to hate me... And honestly, I think it would be so much easier for both of us if you did.”

”Maybe,” Mark conceded. ”But you know what? I have a small problem with that.”

”Which is?”

”You’re going to be the mother of one of my children,” he replied tenderly. ”How the hell am I supposed to hate the mother of one of my children?... That would be pretty awkward at family dinners, don’t you think?”

And against all odds, a small laugh escaped Emilia’s lips.

It was weak, broken, still soaked with tears, more like a sob than a real laugh.

”I hate you...” she murmured.

”You know perfectly well that’s not true.”

Emilia stayed looking at him for a long moment, unable to look away.

And little by little, the tension that had kept her body rigid throughout the entire conversation began to fade.

In the end, a small trembling smile appeared on her lips, and without thinking twice, she leaned in to kiss him.