Try Begging - Chapter 173.1

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She was completely ready to leave. That was why she had planned to give away the child she had been holding onto.

It was clear where she was headed.

This was likely her last chance to catch a passenger ship to Columbia this year. The only way to get from the kingdom to the port was by train.

The train station… Grace must have gone to the train station.

As Leon was about to step outside, he quickly turned back to the butler.

“Also, call in the security team.”

His personal bodyguards gathered in the central hall in an instant.

“Spread out to all train stations in the kingdom and look for a young woman with a black stroller or a baby around six months old. The woman is in her late twenties with turquoise eyes and wearing a red hat. It’s likely she’ll take the southbound train, so search thoroughly and ask around. Now.”

As soon as he issued the command, Leon hopped into the waiting car. His heart raced as he scanned the outside, searching for the image of Grace from moments before.

He had seen her.

Although he couldn’t even see her face from afar, it felt like she had appeared before him after almost a year.

D*mn it. He should have trusted his instincts.

Amidst his regrets, Leon felt a flicker of joy. Grace had gone back for the child. While it was disappointing not to have seen the baby, it was comforting to know she couldn’t let go of his child.

At least one of his many wishes concerning her was coming true.

As he continued scanning the area outside, his eyes suddenly narrowed sharply. Why was she coming this way? This direction wouldn’t lead to the central station. While it made sense to think she was headed to the southern station since this route led south, that only raised more questions.

What could be the reason for going to a farther place when the central station was so close?

º º º

At 8 a.m., as the workday began, the security guard unlocked the front door of the registration office, only to be taken aback. The moment he turned the key, the door swung wide open.

“Good, good morning.”

Caught off guard, he stepped back as a young woman entered, pushing a black stroller. She had a determined look on her face.

The guard’s assumption was correct. Grace had indeed come to the registration office to report her daughter’s birth with a determined resolve.

“I’m here to register a birth. What do I need to do?”

She approached a middle-aged woman at the counter, who looked somewhat less stern than the others. The woman, sipping her coffee, leaned over the counter and, upon noticing the baby in the stroller, broke into a radiant smile and exclaimed.

“Oh, how beautiful!”

With the weight of her worries lifted, Grace returned the smile proudly. However, as the woman shifted her gaze back to Grace, her expression became serious and professional.

“Do you have your marriage certificate?”

“Um… I don’t have that.”

Her only prior experience at the registration office had been when she pretended to be a cleaner in order to steal items needed to create a fake ID, so she had no idea what was required for birth registration.

At her response, the woman blinked in disbelief as if to say, ‘What nonsense is this?’

Realizing she needed to come up with an excuse quickly, Grace improvised one on the spot.

“We had our wedding in the countryside, and the pastor didn’t give us any paperwork.”

Perhaps finding her excuse plausible, the woman sighed deeply and muttered about the inefficiencies of rural administration.

“Well… that means we can’t register the birth…”

Grace drooped her eyebrows and picked up her daughter, who was playing happily by herself.

“Oh no, baby. They can’t register you. I really wanted to get it done today.”

She hugged the bewildered baby tightly and sniffled. Noticing the discomfort on the employee’s face, Grace quickly launched into a complaint about a nonexistent husband—something any middle-aged married woman would sympathize with.

“That lazy man hasn’t registered our daughter’s birth even after eight months!”

“Oh dear, men really are lazy about things like this. Yet when they run out of beer, they complain that we’re the lazy ones.”

“Exactly! Who drank all that beer, anyway?”

“Right?”

“That man assured me he had registered the birth, and I was completely fooled until I found out just yesterday.”

“Oh my, even lying…”

“I’m really at a loss for what kind of father exists in this world. Why did I marry such an irresponsible man…? No, baby. I’m still glad to have you.”