Became Pregnant With the Demon King’s Child

“It’s nothing. I’m just not at the point where I can show you yet. As soon as I think it’s ready, I’ll show you right away.”
“I wonder when exactly that ‘ready’ point is going to come.”
Felix finally said something, perhaps because Lowell had been giving him the same excuse ever since he started learning how to paint. Honestly, Lowell had wanted to show him the portrait he’d been working on of Felix. If it had even reached the level of “It’s not very good, huh?”, he would have.

But at this point, even saying ‘it’s a little rough’ would be shameless—it’s that bad!
If he’d started from a low bar, it might not have been so frustrating. But it was the loss of a skill he once had that hurt Lowell’s confidence the most. He wanted to at least show Felix something that resembled a human being before revealing it.
I was worried I wouldn’t be able to show him before the baby’s born, but now that he wants to see it so badly, it’s even more awkward.

He considered just coming clean—until he imagined Felix seeing the horrifying result. That thought immediately killed any courage.
“I’ll show you someday.”
“You’re not hiding something from me on purpose, are you?”

“What could I possibly need to hide from you, Felix?”
Lowell suddenly felt wronged. Sure, the quality of the painting made it unpresentable, but the subject certainly wasn’t something he wanted to hide. On the contrary—it was something he wanted to show.
“You’re guarding it like a state secret. Makes me wonder if you’re painting that piece of trash who abandoned you or something.”

Now Lowell was past feeling wronged—he was speechless with disbelief. Felix’s face crumpled all at once, as if he believed he’d hit the mark.
“Wait… is that it? Are you really—?”
“Of course not! What on earth are you even imagining?! I barely even remember his face!”

Lowell raised his voice for the first time, flatly denying it. He’d been trying so hard to capture Felix’s face as accurately as possible, and now this? The baseless accusation infuriated him. Felix, taken aback, stared at Lowell wide-eyed.
“Did… did you just yell at me?”
“Yes! How could you say something like that to me? Would you please stop doubting me?!”

Lowell immediately clapped a hand over his mouth, startled by the volume of his own voice. He had always accepted Felix’s suspicions, understanding where they came from. He’d worked to reassure Felix emotionally, and it had never felt burdensome. He hadn’t believed it was draining him.
Why did I react like that? Am I more stressed by his suspicion than I realized? No… I always thought it was kind of cute before.
With the hormonal shifts from pregnancy, sudden mood swings and flashes of anger were to be expected. But Lowell had always considered letting his negative emotions spill over onto others to be a serious flaw. The situation felt unfamiliar and deeply uncomfortable.
“Lowell?”

Felix was just as confused. He had never seen Lowell raise his voice, and the idea that he would be the one to trigger it had never crossed his mind.
“I’m sorry. I lost control of my emotions for a ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) moment.”
Lowell drooped his head with a gloomy expression, clearly beating himself up.

“No. I’m the one who spoke without thinking.”
A heavy silence fell between them. Normally, Lowell would have said something clever to ease the mood—but now even he seemed too down to try.
“I’ll go out for a bit.”

Felix instinctively moved to follow him, but backed off when he saw how dejected Lowell looked. Whenever Lowell left his line of sight, it felt like a piece of himself had been carved out—but this time, he sensed that Lowell needed space. He also wasn’t sure how to resolve what felt like their first real argument.
“Watch him carefully.”
Felix gave the knights an unusually firm instruction. The guards, who had just witnessed their first marital spat, held back grins as they silently followed Lowell. From their perspective, it looked like a typical lovers’ quarrel—no matter how serious the two seemed to take it.

Haah…
Lowell, standing in front of the tower, gazed down at Gray as she rolled around with her kittens. He was drowning in self-reproach.
“Why did I act like that?”

He’d never fought with a lover before. He’d never dated anyone deeply enough to reach that point, and he’d always been the one to accommodate others. So there had never been a reason to fight.
“There’s no need to worry too much. I doubt His Grace was truly angry, either.”
Lowell looked at Tia with uncertain eyes, then sighed again.

“More than that, I don’t even understand why I did it. It wasn’t something worth getting that angry over.”
“It just means you two are closer now. People fight more often with the ones they’re closest to.”
Robin, as always, offered a cheerful summary. He had been surprised at Lowell’s outburst, but he’d quickly shrugged it off with a “Well, people have off days. It happens.”

“Do you really think so?”
“Of course!”
Lowell couldn’t view it that simply—but he didn’t want to keep projecting his negativity onto the people around him either. Forcing a smile, he reached down, and Gray jumped into his lap, squeezing between his arms. As he petted her, he finally started to feel a little calmer.

What should I say to Felix? Jumping straight into an apology feels weird. But brushing it off like nothing happened doesn’t feel right, either.
In his head, he knew the ideal way to handle it. But it’s always harder when it’s your problem.
First, let’s just eat dinner. No—try to break the tension during dinner.

His stomach growled without shame, and Lowell looked down at it, amused. Gray let out a few meows as Lowell stood up but soon returned to her kittens. Lowell had become so preoccupied with his fight with Felix that he didn’t even realize he’d started treating Gray like a fully domesticated house cat.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned during dinner. No matter how hard they tried, the conversation just wouldn’t flow. When Lowell tried to speak, Felix clammed up. When Felix finally opened his mouth, Lowell hesitated too long to respond. Their mutual caution made even basic conversation difficult.
“Let’s head to the tower early tonight.”

“Yes.”
In the end, that was the only exchange between them that could be considered a proper conversation.
***

“Pretty sure they had a fight, right?”
“Can’t you just tell from the way they act?”
Once the awkward atmosphere between the two lasted over a day, people in the castle began to take notice.

“Yeah, but it’s weird. Neither of them looks mad, so it doesn’t feel like a major blowout or anything.”
“They say it was over something small. But now they’re both just tiptoeing around each other.”
“What did they fight about?”

The servants fell silent the moment they saw Lowell and Felix emerge from the study.
In the end, resolving things right away is always the best.
At the time, Lowell had thought he just needed a moment to cool down. But in hindsight, he realized he’d probably been avoiding the situation because he didn’t know how to handle himself.

Well, I’ve come this far. I’ll just show him the painting and be honest. Apologize for yelling, too.
As he walked toward the tower, Lowell tried hard not to think about how awful the painting was.
Maybe I shouldn’t say it’s Felix. Should I say it’s me instead?

But the painting had too much black paint to pass for a self-portrait. Maybe if he tried to pass it off as a black slime—but even that might be pushing it.
Why did I even use paint when I can’t handle a pencil properly? No—wait, right. I had this foolish hope that maybe I’d be better with a brush.
Felix, arriving at the tower around the same time, wore a similarly resolved expression. The issue was that both of them were so wrapped up in their own thoughts, they didn’t notice the look on the other’s face.

“Lowell—”
“Felix.”
They spoke at the same time, then immediately fell silent, lowering their heads.

“You go first.”
“No, you should speak first, Felix.”
The knights watching from a distance clenched their fists, silently wishing someone—anyone—would just get the words out already. It was getting painful to watch. Among them, Lowell’s guards found it especially entertaining to see him, usually so bold and composed, hesitating over something so trivial.

“Let’s go inside and talk.”
It was Felix who finally raised the white flag. He signaled to the knights not to follow and led Lowell into the room.