Savage Forest - Chapter 115.2

“To be honest, I suspected it from the moment I first saw you in the cave. But then I was interrupted by Servia, and once we arrived in Nirvana and you were busy adapting to the forest, I had no time to follow up. Afterward, when your left foot miraculously healed, I completely forgot about it.”

Silanda murmured meaningfully, gazing upstream of the river.

“Just before we encountered the skull spider earlier, I knew that the monster reacted strongly to pregnant women. That’s when I was certain that my suspicions were correct.”

“Tha, that’s impossible…”

Even after the explanation, Enya couldn’t bring herself to accept it. She staggered and finally collapsed onto the ground.

Rayhald, who was standing nearby, scratched his chin. He looked more confused than Enya.

Silanda sighed heavily.

Enya covered her face with her hands.

‘…Pregnant.’

Enya had never suspected that she could be pregnant, not even once.

Since the miscarriage, things had been this way. Before losing the child, her menstrual cycle had been regular, and although she had frequent miscarriages, she had generally been able to conceive. She thought it was just a matter of her constitution and believed that, eventually, she would give birth to a healthy child if she continued trying.

However, after that day, her periods had ceased completely, and she had never been pregnant again.

Unconsciously, Enya had believed that becoming pregnant again was impossible for her. After the death of her child, both her body and mind never fully recovered, even after years had passed, leading her to think that it was simply hopeless.

‘Why didn’t I realize this sooner?’

She remembered focusing solely on Tarhan’s departure right after he went off to war, to the point she was nearly starving herself. She recalled feeling nauseous, constantly weak, and exhausted.

She had never considered these symptoms as morning sickness.

‘It must be that, as Silanda said, I was too busy and preoccupied to notice any signs.’

Her life had been different from the time she was confined to waiting for Tarhan’s return, always stuck at home. She had been working outside, keeping herself busy to forget her worries and concerns about him. That must have been why she didn’t recognize the signs of pregnancy.

Even after meeting Senu’s group, she had been so focused on the present reality that she couldn’t have any other possibilities.

‘It must be because my body started becoming healthier than before after I entered the Nervana Forest.’

During her previous pregnancies, Enya felt as though she was being drained of life itself as if the baby inside her was sapping all her vitality. At that time, she had hoped that despite losing all her strength and vitality, the baby would still survive.

Things were different now.

Enya unconsciously wrapped her arms around her abdomen.

She felt no discomfort. Her body was still healthy. There was no endless nausea, and she didn’t feel the exhaustion that had once made her feel as though she was merging with the ground. On the contrary, she felt energetic and full of vitality.

She had believed she was perfectly infertile.

To discover she was already pregnant was a shock.

As she pondered, she thought the reaction of the skull spider began to make sense.

Fiarca had said that if they found the skull spider, they should try to establish communication, but the monster had attacked as soon as it saw Enya. The daughter of the forest, Enya, had become a favorite prey for the skull spider due to her ‘pregnancy.’

Thinking about the skull spider, Enya was completely stunned.

Rayhald approached her slowly.

“E, Enya?”

His voice was filled with fear as he called out to her, but Enya could not respond.

She spoke to Silanda in a trembling voice.

“I, I really didn’t know. I had no symptoms, and it had been a long time since my periods stopped… Of course, it wasn’t entirely impossible, but…”

She felt utterly frustrated and helpless.

“It’s over now. The skull spider will never be swayed by the daughter of the forest who is pregnant. The plan is completely ruined.”

Enya whispered in despair.

She wanted nothing more than to sit down and cry. Tears welled up and spilled over.

She thought of Tarhan, the father of her child, and it was unbearable. In the forest, their group often faced hunger. They had suffered from insect bites they had never seen before in their lives. They had wandered the forest paths without a drop of water to drink.

Enya looked at her own emaciated body. Her limbs were withered and thin, and her face was likely pale from lack of food.

She wondered if the baby, who had been attached to such a body, would be alright.

Although she felt self-loathing and sadness, she couldn’t let herself be consumed by despair and lose focus on what needed to be done.

Enya lifted her head.

She recalled how she had once pressed the midwife for details about her deceased son, painting a mental picture of him even though she had never seen him in person.

She had been told that he resembled Tarhan, with dark eyebrows and hair, and that he would have grown into a very tall child.

In her dreams, she had repeatedly imagined the appearance of the baby.

When Tarhan had cradled their dead child, she had wondered how he had lifted the tiny baby in his hands, how he had touched the eyelids he had never seen open to the world, and how he had held the baby against his chest while speaking softly.

And she had pondered how he must have felt burying the child in the ground.

At this moment, she was at a loss about what to do.