"Anything?" Maxim's eyes glead in excitent. He patted Emlyn's back and said, "Be careful with your words. Don't promise sothing to other people so easily. What if they take advantage of you?"
Emlyn looked at Maxim deeply and replied, "Would you take advantage of , Max?"
The man went silent. He looked at her and saw such a deep trust, that he would feel embarrassed if he betrayed her and took advantage of her situation to get his own benefit.
"No. I would never take advantage of you," he uttered his words like a sincere vow.
"I know you can trust you. That's why I feel comfortable enough to grant you whatever you ask of in exchange for helping so much," Emlyn explained. "I think it's only fair."
"Okay, if you think so." Maxim smiled reassuringly. "Then, I will think carefully about what I want from you - not that I am doing things for you because I want sothing in return."
"Great!" Emlyn was glad that Maxim accepted her request. "So... can you talk to Renwyck to lend one of his dragons to bring Edgar ho? I will feel very grateful."
"Yeah. I will do that." Maxim nodded. "So, that ans... we both will share a dragon?"
Emlyn nodded. "You said it's okay if two people ride the dragon leisurely, right? Maybe we can do it that way. I an... I am not in a rush anyway."
"Ahh... sounds fun," Maxim smiled so broadly. He could already imagine the romantic journey with the two of them on Aslain's back. "Then, I will summon Renwyck to co to the palace after we go to Archelius Library."
"Can't you do it sooner?" Emlyn asked. "I an... what if Edgar imdiately went ho? It will? be too late..."
"Hmm... okay. Then, I will talk to Renwyck as soon as possible and inform your friend to co here tomorrow morning so he can go with a? dragon."
"Thank you."? Emlyn gave Maxim a quick hug to show her gratitude and then she cleared her throat. "Then, maybe we should go to Archelius Library tomorrow since you have to see Renwyck and do other things today. What? do you think?"
"Yes. I will send Lysander to go with you and Kira to show around. We can et again later for? dinner."
"Sounds good."
Emlyn decided to take his leave and returned to her chamber. She wanted to see if Kira had eaten lunch and she enjoyed her ti in Castilse.
She was the reason that Kira ended up in this city anyway. So, she felt responsible to ensure Kira's wellbeing while the pirate princess was with her.
Maxim, on the other hand, decided to go call Renwyck from his residence on top of one of the mountains to the south of Castilse. He sent a pigeon to the wizard and told him that his presence was expected at the royal palace as soon as possible.
While waiting for Renwyck's arrival, Maxim decided to check on his mother. He wanted to know if his mother was really unwell and ask Zaff, the royal physician to co with him. Also, he had a suspicion that his mother was hiding sothing when they were talking with Emlyn during lunch.
Maxim wanted to know what it was. So, he went toward Queen Maude's chamber and knocked on the door. "Mother. Can I co in?"
"Yes."
When he heard his mother's response, Maxim entered his mother's chamber and walked inside. He saw the mother he loved so much was sitting on her windowsill and watching the scene outside. He knew the windows show the view of the lake.
"Are you still unwell?" Maxim ca to his mother and held her arm. "I already sent soone to get Zaff."
Queen Maude turned to Maxim and looked at the man seriously. "Do you rember the ti when I took you to Myreen? You were very little back then."
Maxim shook his head. "I am sorry. I don't rember anything. Emlyn asked the sa thing earlier and I suddenly rembered that you did take there many, many years ago. I think I was four of five at that ti?"
"We went there several tis," Queen Maude nodded. "The last ti was when you were six. I was too heartbroken to co back there after Aunt Catalina passed away. So, I never returned."
Maxim let out a long sigh. He knew how close his mother was to that woman nad Catalina, but Queen Maude rarely talked about her. He was hoping that as ti went by, her sadness would be dissipated and she would be able to talk about Aunt Catalina more and let her go.
"You never really talk about Aunt Catalina and Myreen, Mother. So, I didn't rember much or know anything." Maxim sat beside his mother and rubbed her arm. He looked at his mother deeply and asked that important question. "Is there sothing that you want to tell that you couldn't say around Emlyn?"
"Max..." Queen Maude took a deep breath and replied to her son's question with a question of her own. "I was wrong about Emlyn. She is a good woman. But isn't she married? She has a child who needs her. You do know that, right? What are you doing with her?"
"I t her first. She was supposed to be mine," Maxim insisted. His voice sounded bitter when he explained his reasons. "She was trapped to be with him and didn't have a choice. At that ti, the choice was either to give birth to that other man's child or lose her head. I can never forgive him for what he did to Emlyn."
Even though Emlyn's and Mars's relationship grew into real love, Maxim could never brush off the fact that Mars forced Emlyn to be with him. He was also the one responsible for the death of everyone in her family.
Even if Emlyn could finally forgive Mars and moved on, Maxim couldn't. He briefly explained to his mother what happened to Emlyn after she arrived in Draec with the intention to get her revenge, and how she ended up fleeing Draec for her life.
Maxim intentionally omitted his own suspicion that Mars secretly set a second bounty to get Emlyn back. When he was done, he was happy to see the expression of horror on his mother's face.
"Oh gosh... poor girl..." Queen Maude pressed her lips in shock. She had heard briefly from Emlyn that she was cursed with bad luck, but the queen didn't know the gravity of the curse and how much she had suffered all this ti.
"Yeah... I feel really sorry for her. That's why I will protect her and do anything to make her happy. She deserves to be happy after everything that happened," he said. "As for her child, I am not a petty man. I will accept her daughter and raise her as my own."
"No... Max," Queen Maude started sobbing. "I think you really have to let her go. If you love her... you have to let her go. You have to stop loving her. I know she is an amazing woman, but if you insist to love her, she will just suffer more. And in the end, you will suffer too because the woman you love is in so much pain and grief."
"Huh?" Maxim furrowed his brows. "I don't understand."
Queen Maude's voice was hoarse when she explained what she ant. "Aunt Catalina and I promised our son and daughter in marriage. You are already betrothed to her daughter."
"Mother.. please, not again..." Maxim squeezed his mother's hand in frustration. "I can never marry a woman I don't love. I already told you that five years ago. I thought you have accepted the fact."
He added, "I can't leave again to make my point because I am now the king. I have responsibilities to my people. But please... please don't make agree to it. I only love Emlyn. I cannot marry another woman."
"Do you know what's Emlyn connection to Myreen?" Queen Maude asked Maxim. "Do you have any idea why she was suddenly cursed?"
"I don't know..." Maxim admitted. "I also thought it was quite random..."
Suddenly the man halted his words.
Realization slowly dawned on him. HE was the only connection between Emlyn to Myreen.
Even though he didn't rember anything about his visits there, the fact remained that Emlyn had never been to Myreen and couldn't possibly offend anyone from that kingdom to deserve the curse.
Did her curse have anything to do.... with him?
He looked at his mother in horror as he uttered his next question. "Was Aunt Catalina... a Leoralei?"
Queen Maude nodded weakly. "Yes. And she was probably the person responsible for Emlyn's curse."
Maxim couldn't believe his hearing. So... all this ti, his mother was connected to the royal family of Myreen? Aunt Catalina was... the queen of Myreen herself?
This new piece of information suddenly opened his mind as Maxim realized how his mother was right.
Since the Leoraleis was a powerful wizard family... this ans, Aunt Catalina was a powerful witch and she... she might have done sothing to secure the betrothal between her daughter and Maxim.
The king bit his lip in frustration. This hurt so badly.
Maxim turned to his mother and asked her bitterly, "Do you think... Aunt Catalina put a spell on so I can never love another woman but her daughter?"
Queen Maude nodded. "I am sorry. I don't know for sure... but I believe that's what happened."
BANG!
Maxim got up angrily. His chest was filled with so much emotion that he suddenly punched the wall in anger.
"How could you both do this to ???" His eyes were bloodshot and his voice was filled with resentnt. "Do you think I don't have feelings? Am I just a doll to you that you can play around and matchmake all you want? Don't I deserve to be happy??"
.
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Hooray! for the 500th chapter!
Since this chapter is quite special, I decided to make it long and reveal the most important part of this story: the origin of Emlyn's curse.
To be honest, TCP is the longest story I have written to date with 596k words per this chapter, or if you compare that to "The Great Gatsby" (47k words), you have read almost 13 copies of "The Great Gatsby".
My other book, "The Alchemists" has around 1.7 million words, but it consists of 5 different stories, so only 300k-400k words per story. TCP is also my first successful book.
To be honest, I don't know what makes people co and read this book because I didn't really do anything different except maybe the title is clickbaity and it has 'baby making' on the tagline.
Could you please share with your opinion on this matter? What made you click on this book and continue reading? It will help understand what I should do better in the future when writing a new book.
To celebrate TCP's 500th chapter, I will throw a quiz on Instagram tomorrow. I will give so questions about the book and the first 10 readers who can answer all questions correctly will get vouchers to redeem 100 Webnovel coins. I know it's not much... ahaha, but please see the thought behind it. xx
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