Then she ran past them again.
By now, it was beginning to look strange.
Because it was very cold outside, and nobody with sense would keep going in and out like that unless there was a good reason. Also, the direction she was running toward was very obvious.
It was the common toilet area used by the others in the palace.
For the royal side, things were different. Isabella and the people closest to her had their own private area, still simple and primitive in many ways, yes, but cleaner and better arranged and not ant for everyone else.
So seeing this healer run to the public toilet once was one thing.
Twice was another thing.
But this?
This was starting to beco funny.
At first, Isabella only pressed her lips together.
Then she looked away.
Then she looked down.
Then her shoulders shook.
Cyrus imdiately noticed.
Because he always noticed.
He turned to her and saw that she was trying very hard not to laugh, and that alone made him interested at once.
"What is it?" he asked softly.
Isabella looked at him.
That was a mistake.
Because the mont their eyes t, she rembered again what was happening, and she almost burst.
She covered her mouth quickly, but the laugh still escaped.
Then another one followed.
Then another.
Soon she was laughing so hard that she had to hold her stomach a little because she was pregnant and laughing too much like that really did shake her whole body.
Cyrus looked at her in confusion.
Then, because her laugh was bright and full and so rare like this lately, he started laughing too.
He did not know why he was laughing.
He truly did not.
He only knew that Isabella looked so cute and so happy while laughing that his own mouth curved at once and the sound followed naturally.
Zyran opened both eyes now and turned his panther head toward them.
"What is funny?" he asked. "I also want to laugh."
Cyrus looked at him and admitted with total honesty, "I don’t know."
Zyran stared at him.
"You don’t know?"
Cyrus shook his head, smiling helplessly. "She looks too cute laughing, so I started laughing too."
For one brief mont, even Zyran had no answer.
Then he looked at Isabella, who was still trying to stop laughing and failing badly, and he clicked his tongue.
"That is ridiculous," he said.
But his own mouth had already started curving too.
Osiris looked from one person to another as if the whole group had suddenly beco possessed.
"What is happening?" he asked.
Nobody answered him properly.
Because by then, Isabella had finally cald down.
She wiped at the corner of her eye and breathed out, thinking she had won.
Then Zara ran past again.
The second Isabella saw her, the whole thing returned at once.
This ti she truly lost it.
Her laugh ca out louder and longer, and because she was trying to hold her stomach and also breathe and also stop herself, the whole thing looked even more foolish.
That made Cyrus laugh harder too.
Then Zyran started laughing because the two of them were already laughing and it was too stupid to resist.
Osiris still did not understand anything, but after staring for one second at all of them losing control, he also began laughing, though his laugh sounded more confused than amused.
Even Kian looked over fully now.
He had been trying to continue whatever official matter was being handled, but at this point it had beco impossible because half the area was laughing like fools.
He saw Isabella sitting there, wrapped in fur and shaking with laughter, one hand on her stomach, face red, trying and failing to calm down.
And because that sight was so rare and so ridiculous and so alive, even the stern line of his mouth softened.
The man reporting to him had already fallen silent, because clearly no one was getting any serious work done now.
"What is funny?" Kian finally asked.
Cyrus, who was still smiling, answered honestly, "I don’t know."
Zyran imdiately turned and stared at him like he had lost his mind. "Why would you admit that so proudly?"
Cyrus actually looked innocent. "Because it’s true."
That made Osiris laugh harder.
And the fact that Osiris was laughing while still not understanding anything made Ophelia start laughing from inside too. Shelia looked at all of them, then at Isabella, then at Cyrus, then at Zyran, and finally even she had to smile because the whole thing had beco too silly.
By the ti Zara ca back again, the sound of laughter was already in the air.
She slowed a little this ti.
Because now she could hear them.
They were laughing.
And Isabella was laughing the most.
Zara froze for the smallest mont.
The urge in her stomach was still there. In fact, it had beco worse. Her whole insides felt like they were at war with her, and she had already made too many trips to the toilet in too little ti. The cold air made the whole thing even more miserable, and each ti she ran out and back, she felt less like a person and more like a joke the heavens were telling badly.
At first, she had only been confused.
Then she had been annoyed.
Now, finally, it hit her.
She was the reason they were laughing.
No.
More accurately, she was the one being laughed at.
And the mont that thought entered her mind, the blood rushed to her face.
Because how was she so stupid?
She was the only one who had been running back and forth like this.
The only one.
Of course people would notice.
Of course they would think sothing.
Of course Isabella, that hateful woman, was laughing.
The urge in Zara’s stomach twisted again, and the humiliation of standing there while everybody laughed made her whole body feel hot despite the cold weather. She wanted to deny it. She wanted to act as if nothing was wrong. She wanted to tell herself that perhaps they were laughing at sothing else.
But then Isabella looked over, saw her again, and imdiately started laughing even harder.
That was the end of every excuse.
Zara’s eyes widened.
Then slowly, painfully, another thought entered her mind.
This must have been Isabella’s doing.
It had to be.
Who else could it be?
Who else would dare?
But the thought made no sense.
Isabella did not know who she was.
Nobody knew who she was.
So why would Isabella target her like this?
That confusion only made Zara angrier.
Because if she could not understand it, then she also could not accuse her openly.
She could hardly point at the ruler of this place and say, "You made run to the toilet until my dignity died."
That would be madness.
Still, the anger rising in her chest was too much.
She had already been humiliated enough.
Her stomach cramped again.
Her face burned.
And seeing Isabella still laughing there, looking pretty and warm and wrapped properly while all the n stayed near her like guard dogs around a treasure, made Zara’s self-control snap.
So she stepped toward Isabella.
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