The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 282: Something surreal

Joanna did not let her smile falter, particularly when Canillas’ demeanor was tense. The least she wanted was for Canillas to be more worried and flee to call a doctor to check on her health.

On the other side, Canillas was utterly worried. He truly had zero knowledge that periods could be so painful. Even in his past life, his knowledge was only limited to the normal bleeding that would occur when women were on their period.

And he first thought that Joanna’s pale complexion and sluggish-looking body were caused by fatigue due to the long trip that they had, aside from emotional strain that drained her energy. Then her period came, which caused her to lose blood.

But what he did not know was that she was enduring the pain. She looked pale and weak, which made it not hard for him to deduce how painful her stomach was at the moment. She even needed something warm to ease the pain.

Yet she still managed to heavily worry and concern her brother, even walking across the woods to look for him and ask him to do a certain task that took him by surprise, but he was unable to decline.

With a frown, Canillas touched the warm bottle that was wrapped with white cloth in her hands.

"Isn’t there something you could do to ease pain? I mean, if you don’t want a doctor to examine you, is there medicine or anything that you know to make you feel less pain?" What he meant was he knew his wife had outstanding knowledge in terms of dealing with medicinal herbs, as she knew how to cure her own body that she had hurt on purpose.

Joanna nodded her head. "I know, but I prefer to let it pass naturally. It is not a pain that will last for the long term. And to me, as long as it is still endurable, enduring it naturally is safer than taking something that I don’t know about the effects of in the future," Joanna reasoned.

Although it was painful, she always felt it was better to embrace her period, which she would say was special as it came to her irregularly in a natural way.

Hearing Joanna’s answer gave Canillas an understanding of her point of view, and he respected it. Positioning behind Joanna’s back, as she was still lying on one side of her body, Canillas placed Joanna’s head to rest on his arm before pulling up the blanket back to give warmth, particularly to her, who was prone to coldness.

Then, under the blanket, Canillas wrapped and caressed Joanna’s hands that held the warm bottle. Such an intimate indulgence, where he could hold her close to him, with her warm back pressed against his chest and her soothing scent engulfing him, had never failed to give comfort to his soul.

Canillas gave a lingering kiss on Joanna’s temple before he put his head on the pillow. "Is it always like this? I mean, the pain," Canillas then asked, wanting to know what had been passed through by his wife. He wanted to know more about her—to do the thing that he failed to do in the past.

"Not always the same," Joanna answered, adjusting the position of her head on Canillas’ arm. When she found the position comfortable, she continued saying, "It can be less or more. But as I said before, there is nothing to worry about since the pain from having a period can’t be compared to the grueling pain of giving birth." Joanna giggled lightly in the end, giving a little bit of wit to make Canillas stop worrying about her.

But soon Joanna’s countenance changed when she sensed the change in the emotion of the man who embraced her. The caressing movement on the back of one of her hands ceased, and she felt his body tense.

Before she finished wondering why the change, Joanna felt Canillas tighten his hold on her body as he pulled her in, causing her back to be pressed more against his solid, broad chest.

"Then don’t give birth." It was the words he said, breaking the silence that was left for about ten seconds.

As she heard that, Joanna was taken aback before slowly turning her head to look at Canillas.

"You said you don’t want to have kids, and you don’t want to be a mother," Canillas continued speaking when he met Joanna’s bewildered gaze. "Then don’t give birth. So you won’t feel any pain."

’Either mentally or physically, don’t experience that pain ever again.’ Canillas talked inwardly alongside the memory of the past that simultaneously echoed in his mind.

Joanna, on the other hand, felt surreal. For a man, asking a woman who had become his wife to not give birth to his child was utterly surreal. Did he not want to have an heir?

She then recalled the moment when they were in the Powel Orphanage—on the day when she declared to him the words that he just repeated and at night when he asked her to bear his child. But she refused decisively.

Since then he never brought up that topic, and she had never heard him talk about having a child anymore. Yet there was a thought in her mind that Canillas would bring up that topic one day, asking her the same request, following the fact that they had decided to be together.

But surprisingly, he did not. And surprisingly, it was because he did not want her to feel the agonizing pain.

Was it because of his love for her?

Did he really love her to the extent he did not want to see her in pain?

Did he love her that much, to the point it was better to not have an heir rather than see her tortured in pain?

Joanna’s eyelashes fluttered as her eyes lingered on Canillas’ face, which offered her a reassuring smile—a smile that was so tender yet bore thousands of indecipherable, heart-wrenching emotions.

Unable to bear to see such an indescribable affection, which to her implied an acceptance and assurance that he meant his every word to her, Joanna turned her head so that her view now changed to the sight she had before she met his eyes.

She did not see the face that stirred indecipherable emotions in her heart. She felt lost as to what to feel at the moment, for something surreal that was hard to define as real.