No Regression for the Victor - Chapter 1
Not all summons are necessarily complied with
“Forgive my impertinence, Sir Isaac. Based on your symptoms, the only possible diagnosis is pregnancy.”
Isaac couldn’t believe his ears at the sentence that struck him like a bolt from the blue. That couldn’t be. Something was definitely wrong. Treating the doctor sitting before him as a charlatan, Isaac responded with a laugh.
“I’ve lived my entire life as an alpha, and now you’re saying I’m pregnant? Even if the honor of the Transis family has fallen to the point where not even a dog would pick it up, this joke has gone too far.”
Though he struggled to maintain his composure, Isaac’s hands trembled slightly as he spoke each word.
And of course, they did. What exactly had happened on that night, about two months ago, when the moon set early? All the chaos that had thrown Isaac’s life into disarray began from that moment.
Misha. The peculiar visitor who would come without fail once a month to the exile’s abode, where no one else ever visited.
Dressed in modest and plain clothes, it never once crossed Isaac’s mind that the visitor could be anything other than a watchdog sent by the imperial family. Why hadn’t he once thought to ask the visitor’s true identity? Feeling the pang of regret too late, Isaac covered his forehead with his hand.
“Do you know who the father of the child is?”
The old doctor, wearing a gentle expression, didn’t seem the least bit offended by Isaac’s rude answer, instead looking at his patient with genuine concern.
‘F**k…’
Isaac quietly swallowed a curse. He knew. Apart from that bastard, he hadn’t so much as brushed fingertips with a man or a woman in the past three years. But from this moment on, whether he knew or not, he had to act ignorant. With a deep sigh, Isaac felt as if he were sinking into a mire where he could neither move forward nor retreat.
If he said he didn’t know, it would mean that, despite having fallen from grace as a traitor, the once-noble head of the Transis family, who had once held power second only to the imperial family, had been rolling around so promiscuously that he didn’t even know the father of his own child.
But if he said he did know, the old man, still loyal enough to come to this desolate place and tend to him, would never stand idly by while Isaac raised the child alone. Not that he was sure he could even give birth in the first place.
“So you do know.”
The old man quickly read Isaac’s troubled expression and asked again.
“Who on earth could it be, that makes it so difficult for you to even speak?”
Isaac avoided the old man’s sigh-filled gaze and took a deep breath.
“I’ll take care of the child myself. Just keep this matter to yourself.”
Lowering his voice in an attempt to block the old man’s persistent questions, Isaac spoke firmly. However, the old doctor, who had watched over the young master for so long, now reduced to a fallen figure, seemed to see protecting Isaac as more important than his own safety.
“How do you intend to take care of the child! Your body and mind are not in a condition to endure pregnancy without help. If you stubbornly persist, it could cost you your life!”
His life. As if that even mattered anymore. A life that would soon end anyway due to a punishment meant to kill slowly despite there being a clear treatment. Those words didn’t even register to a condemned traitor like him.
“All the better, then. The imperial family won’t have to send anyone to check every month whether the traitor bastard is dead or alive.”
“Young Master!”
Only after the old man called him by that long-forgotten title did Isaac fall silent. The doctor seemed to give up on getting any more answers from Isaac and began rummaging through his memory. Over the past three months, only five people had entered the run-down Transis estate, far from what could be considered a noble’s residence.
One was the old man himself, and another was his daughter. Both were omegas, but the old man had long since stopped having heats, and his daughter was also an omega. Naturally, they were excluded from suspicion. The other two were the caretakers, a husband and wife, both betas unaffected by pheromones.
Then who could it be? Was there an outsider sneaking in without his knowledge? The old man, still perplexed, placed his hand on his head.
After much contemplation, the old man finally reached a conclusion. Judging by the child’s pulse, it had been just under two months since conception. What had happened two months ago? Had anyone other than the five he knew entered the estate, or had Lord Transis gone out?
‘There was.’
Although the timing didn’t quite match, it was still possible to account for the slight discrepancy since early stages of pregnancy can be hard to pinpoint.
It was the celebration of the Crown Prince’s birth. Mikhail Ivan Osbrandt, the most beautiful prince of the empire and the pride of Osbrandt.
If Isaac’s rebellion had not ended in failure, the young prince, who barely survived, would have lost his life at Isaac’s hands. Now, he had grown to become the Imperial Crown Prince.
