The Villain Is Pregnant with My Baby - Chapter 3

Why Ian was there mattered less than the wounds covering him.

Too weak to maintain human form, he reverted while unconscious into a pale yellow seahorse. In one of the author’s little indulgences, every important male character was much larger than the rest of his species, so lifting him was no easy task for a background octopus like me.

I pressed one tentacle over his bleeding wound, coiled the others around him, and balanced him on my head as I swam toward Atlantis.

Yes, there was more trash on the surface. Yes, I had lost a tentacle. But I had also picked up a Chief Diplomat rich enough to rival a nation.

Imagining the enormous reward Ian would give his savior, I decided the trip had been worth it.

Because he was a public figure, I hired a private physician known for discretion. On his way out, the pleasantly smiling doctor even asked, “Would you like me to treat your arm as well?”

“No need. Tentacles grow back. I’ll put some medicine on it myself.”

I shut the door awkwardly. The truth was, I could not afford a second treatment.

Ian had occupied the only bed, leaving me to doze on the sofa.

In the original story, he first appeared when Aylor presented Bai Xiaohua to the king. Ian fell in love with the innocent human girl at first sight, imprisoned her while Aylor was away, and subjected her to experiments in anatomy too explicit to describe. From then on, Ian and Aylor fought viciously over her.

Ian eventually decided that if he could not have her, no one would. He destroyed the protective dome, annihilating Atlantis, and sank into an eternal sleep among its ruins. Aylor took Bai Xiaohua and the survivors elsewhere, founded a new kingdom, and lived happily—and shamelessly—ever after.

Yes. It was a trashy reverse-harem novel written for the smut and forced into a happy ending. The fact I enjoyed it probably meant I was as twisted as the author.

Ian woke before I did. When I rolled off the sofa, he even reached out to catch me.

He had returned to human form, all austere elegance and restraint. He was so handsome I seriously wondered whether Bai Xiaohua had let him imprison her willingly.

“You saved me?”

I nodded eagerly. “Don’t worry. I hired a private doctor. No one knows you were here.”

Now write your competent savior a check. I wanted my new house!

Ian searched the many tears in his coat. And searched. He found nothing.

We stared at each other in awkward silence. At last, clearly reluctant, he removed an unassuming silver ring from his finger.

“Thank you. Take this ring to the central bank and you will be rewarded. In return, tell no one you met me.”

I became even more certain he had been carrying out some secret mission. Not that it had anything to do with a nobody like me.

After seeing him off, I inventoried the furniture in my rental. I could finally move!

Handing over my job took several more days. By the time I finished packing and reached the central bank, a week had passed.

I showed the ring to the teller and waited eagerly for her to produce a check. Instead, her expression changed. Pointing at me, she shouted, “She’s the woman the Chief Diplomat ordered us to capture!”