Mars could only keep his envy to himself when he met Lily, his cousin's wife who was holding their new baby boy.
Athos named his youngest son Jorei. His other two sons were already five and three years old. His first child, Prince Louis, looked so much like Lily and his second child, Prince Loran, seemed to take after him.
Athos Greenan was appointed by King Jared Strongmoor to be the governor of Southberry. The Governor of a province under Draec was basically the same as being the king of a small kingdom, that was why his sons all got the title of a prince.
Mars could imagine that in the future after the three little Greenan princes became adults, they would also be sent to lead the other various small kingdoms under Draec on the continent of Terra.
Meanwhile, the successor at the central level, in Draec, was still unclear because the crown prince had not gotten a wife and produced any heirs.
Mars felt the increasing pressure to have children after, one by one, his cousins got married and had children. He almost didn't want to keep in contact with them because he started feeling resentful toward his unfortunate life.
The good thing was his childhood friends were still single for one reason or another.
Edgar said he was not yet interested in getting married because he was not the eldest son in his family, who had to inherit his father, Lord Chaucer's role and title. Edgar preferred to focus his life on the military and spent most of his time on the battlefield.
Edgar's older brother had fulfilled his duty to his family by marrying the daughter of a certain Duke and uniting their power and family property. The Chaucers were now one of the wealthiest families in the capital.
As for Gewen, although he was the eldest child and only son of the Athibaud family, he had absolutely no interest in getting married.
The man seemed to want to taste all women under the sky before he would decide to settle down with only one girl. And as Mars discovered last week, it turned out that all this time Gewen had been using him as an excuse not to get married.
Gewen boldly said that he would only marry and have children if the crown prince himself, had done so.
"What a beautiful child..." Mars commented when he saw the Athos' new baby. This child was only four months old and was very small. However, for such a small baby, he looked very expressive.
When Jorei saw the arrival of three men that he had never seen before, the baby made cooing sounds and he wiggled his arms, trying to touch them.
"He wants to take a closer look at you," Lily explained. She looked at Mars and smiled happily. "Baby's peripheral vision is still very limited. Right now, he is looking at you with blurred vision. You need to come closer."
"Oh, is that so?" Mars asked. He nodded in understanding and then brought his face closer to Jorei.
He stroked the baby's soft hair with amazement. When doing so, Mars was careful not to touch Lily.
The crown prince's face was immediately decorated with a broad smile when he heard Jorei's voice laugh out loud. He looked up and said to Athos, "Ah .. he is so cute. His laugh is the best thing I've ever heard..."
"Would you like to carry him?" Lily asked Mars with a sweet smile.
Mars gasped. "What?"
"Would you like to try to carry him?" Lily repeated her question.
"May I?" Mars asked doubtfully. Lily smiled and nodded. She then gave a sign to her husband and Athos immediately came and took Jorei from Lily's hands, before he gave the baby to his cousin.
Mars was stunned for a moment, but then he immediately greeted Jorei with a happy smile. His chest was pounding. He had never held a baby before. He only carried Athos' other sons when they were older.
"Gosh ... this baby is so light ... like a feather," Mars commented. At first, he was very worried that he would hold Jorei too tightly and crush his bones. However, once the tiny baby was in his arms, Mars could naturally control his strength when he hugged the baby.
Ahh ... the distinct smell of a baby and Jorei's really soft skin touching by his hand made Mars look dumbfounded. He didn't know holding a baby could invoke so much emotion in his heart.
It was now filled with warmth to the brim.
Prince Mars Strongmoor's thoughts immediately drifted to Emmlyn in his castle.
Ahh ... when on earth Emmelyn would get pregnant?
He wanted so badly to cuddle a baby like this ... His own baby.
Later, if he and Emmelyn had their first child, he was wondering who the baby would take after? Would it look like him or Emmelyn? He couldn't wait to find out!
Even if it was a girl, Mars would love it with all his heart. He would find a good man to marry her and protect her. And they might even inherit his throne.
If it was a boy, Mars hoped he would be a good and strong king.
Mars was really excited. His mind was filled with dreams for the future.
Meanwhile, Gewen and Edgar, who saw Mars's beaming face when he was carrying his nephew, could only exchange glances with meaningful smiles.
Both of them still thought Mars was into men. They could only feel sorry for their friend. Even though Mars seemed to want children, the prince would not be able to have any if he kept sleeping with men, that's what they both thought in unison.
"You're so lucky," Mars said to Athos, returning Jorei after he was satisfied holding the baby. "All your sons are healthy and adorable."
"Ahahaha .. thank you. You will also have your own children someday after you— ouch..!" Athos's face suddenly turned red when his wife pinched his arm and gave him a side-eye.
Athos just remembered that he had spoken carelessly. Mars and his heirs were a sensitive topic. Athos knew that this cousin of his could not touch women because of the curse.
So, how could he have children if he couldn't even sleep with women?
Now, Athos felt like kicking himself on the head for talking without thinking.
Ahh .. his poor cousin... Athos could see how Mars seemed to really want his own children from the way he treated Jorei just now.
Athos cleared his throat and hurriedly corrected his words. "Eh ... what the hell was I talking about? Sorry, I was talking shit earlier. Hahaha ... you are lucky that you don't have any children. It's really hard to raise them. They take up so much of your time and energy. During the first two years, they also cannot do anything. So, they are really boring and troublesome. After the baby was born, we also could hardly sleep because he was always crying for food or pooping ... "
Mars understood why his cousin suddenly acted like that. He appreciated that Athos cared about his feelings and quickly mentioned all the hassles of raising children because he still thought that Mars could not have children.
Athos didn't know about Emmelyn yet. If he knew that now Mars could touch a woman, who happened to be very beautiful and adorable .. and now Mars was waiting for children to be born from her womb, surely Athos would be happy for him.
However, Mars decided not to say anything to his cousin. One, he didn't want to jinx it by telling other people before he and Emmelyn managed to conceive.
Two, Gewen and Edgar were around. His two friends still thought he was into men. Ha.
If Mars told Athos about Emmelyn right now in front of them, Gewen might slip and say that Mars was lying because he knew Mars had a young lord from Glendale's as his bedwarmer.
Better not take the risk, thought Mars.
He smiled broadly and nodded to Athos. "It's okay. I don't mind all the troubles. I hope one day I can experience it."
Mars then patted his cousin's shoulder and excused himself. "It's late. I want to rest now. Tomorrow we will start our war games, so I need to be ready and alert."
"Very well. Good night, and see you tomorrow," said Athos.
Gewen and Edgar also excused themselves and went into their respective rooms to rest.
***
It's been five days since Mars went with his army. Every day, when Emmelyn sat by her window, reading a book or sewing, she didn't see the army train for combat or archery.
Somehow her day felt incomplete. Apparently, Emmelyn had gotten used to watching them train from her chamber. She liked watching them led by Mars who would stand tall among his soldiers and shouted orders.
Now, Mars wasn't around, and the army wasn't there either, Emmelyn felt a bit lonely. On the first day, she didn't really feel it because she went to Bydell Village to see the witch.
On the second day, she was feeling upset all day, thinking about Mrs. Adler's words. So, she didn't miss their training as usual.
However, now slowly she began to feel lonely. Emmelyn counted the days on her fingers and frowned. It's been five days. That meant the war games were over and Mars would soon be making his way home with his army.
If there were no problems, then Mars would come back here in two days.
Ahh ... What should Emmelyn do during these two days? She was bored to death.
Lady Athibaud sent a messenger two days ago to apologize because she had to cancel the invitation for Emmelyn to meet her daughters. Apparently, one of the girls had a fever and had to rest.
Emmelyn was really bored. What should she do?
.
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>>>>>
From the author:
What should Emmelyn do while waiting for the prince? hehehe...
By the way, sorry for publishing a bit late. I have been doing work for my client since Tuesday and didn't have ample time to write. I hope to catch up on Weekend and stockpile some chapters so I can add more chapters for the privilege.
Having said that, I have an announcement to make regarding privilege since February is approaching.
I would like to announce that from February 1, I will add a new tier for the Privilege. As usual, IT'S NOT MANDATORY TO SUBSCRIBE TO PRIVILEGE.
Only do it if you like the story and want to support the book and me to make extra income.
If you bought Privilege in January and don't want to renew the privilege next month (February), it's okay too.
You can just wait for the chapters in the privilege to come out and become regular chapters. However, if you wish to stay ahead of the regular readers, you can renew it, and I would feel so grateful for your support.
I decided to add a discount on the higher privilege tiers, to show my gratitude for your support and to give you an added value by subscribing to my privilege. So, these are the new tiers in February:
* Tier 1 - is 1 coin for 2 advanced chapters
* Tier 2 - is 200 coins for 5 advanced chapters
* Tier 3 - is 400 coins for 10 advanced chapters + 25% discount for unlocking chapters (that means for every chapter that costs 8 coins you only need to pay 6 coins)
* Tier 4 - is 1000 coins for 20 advanced chapters + 99% discount for unlocking chapters (that means for every chapter no matter how expensive it is, you only need to pay 1 coin)
That means, if you are now under privilege Tier 3 (costs 400 coins or $8 of which I get to keep $2.6) and you want to renew it in February, you will get that 25% discount.
If you wish to support me and this book by purchasing the higher tier of 1000 coins (or $20 of which I get to keep $6), you will get the 20 advance chapters and 99% disc for unlocking chapters.
By 20 advanced chapters here, it means 20 chapters AHEAD OF REGULAR READERS.
If you upgraded from the 10 advanced chapters (Tier-3) to 20 advanced chapters (Tier-4), you will get an additional 10 and become 10 chapters AHEAD OF TIER-3, or 20 chapters AHEAD OF REGULAR READERS.
I am also committed to publishing 2 chapters per day in February. So, I hope I can give you more content next month.
Before this month ends, I would like to say, THANK YOU so much for reading this book and supporting me this far. I am humbled and touched. I will work harder and do better in my writing. xx
PS: As usual, this note is added after I published the chapter, so it won't affect the price of this chapter.