Sigh. The king was sad when he thought there were literally hundreds of beautiful and eligible princesses in their country, either from their distant relatives in Draec, or those princesses from their colonies who had sworn loyalty to them for decades.

However, his son chose another woman who was suspicious and would even bring him bad luck of all women!

King Jared remembered the letter of objection delivered by their envoys years ago. The offer for peace and cooperation with Wintermere was rejected flatly by the king.

It was quite surprising because Wintermere was such a small country and many other countries around it had sworn loyalty to Draec.

They knew better than to challenge the much bigger empire in open war.

However, that was exactly what King Rosehill did. He stubbornly refused to concede defeat and instead, he welcomed the war. A war that everybody knew would end tragically on their part.

Some people were so stupid and thought their pride was everything.

"You know what? I think I would like to excuse myself and Princess Emmelyn. We need to catch up on the baby and prepare a place for her to stay after Mars leaves for Wintermere." Suddenly, the queen rose from her seat and approached Emmelyn.

She reached out her hand and smiled at the girl. "Would you like to see Mars' old chamber? I am asking the servants to prepare it for you. But maybe you can check the progress and tell them if you need anything added or redesigned."

Emmelyn was stunned to see the queen's hand reached out to her. She quickly realized what the queen wanted to do. So, she smiled back and took Queen Elara's hand. "I'd love that, Your Majesty."

"Queen Mother..." Queen Elara corrected her. "You should call me Queen Mother, or Mother, not Your Majesty."

"Ah.. thank you, I would love to see the chamber, Queen Mother," Emmelyn nodded. She rose from her seat and took the queen's hand. She turned to Mars and whispered, "I should go."

Mars smiled and squeezed her hand gently to show approval. He was relieved because his mother was an understanding woman who could read the situation.

Queen Elara intentionally took Emmelyn with her, so she wouldn't hear the men discuss her homeland.  No matter what, she was a princess from Wintermere who lost her family and home because of the invasion. 

Even though Emmelyn was now part of their family and she had moved on from her revenge, the fact remained that Emmelyn lost everything because of them.

Talking about Wintermere in a negative way would only tear open the old wounds that she was trying to heal.

That's why, Queen Elara intentionally distracted her by taking her out of the hall to see her new place to stay, after her husband left.

"It's really nice to see you today, Elmer. When do you plan to go?" Queen Elara asked before left the hall.

Elmer looked at Mars and Bruinen and then answered the queen. "We will leave in two days, Your Majesty."

"Ah, okay. So you will be here tomorrow, right? Please come and have dinner with us in the palace. I would love to hear your stories."

"That will be an honor, Your Majesty," Elmer was elated when he received the invitation. He rose from his seat and bowed down to Queen Elara.

The queen smiled sweetly and waved at them. "Well then, I will leave you gentlemen to your mission. I will have my talk with my daughter-in-law."

All the men rose from their seat and waited until Queen Elara and Emmelyn was out of sight before they sat again.

The men now felt more at ease to discuss Wintermere and the witch because Emmelyn was no longer there. Mars felt sorry for his wife because she had to listen to this conversation about her homeland.

It must be hard, staying with the enemy who most likely had this discussion when they were planning on the attack on Wintermere, and now witnessed them having similar talks when they tried to catch their mortal enemy who might be related to her in some ways.

So, he was glad that his mother took swift action and removed Emmelyn and herself from the meeting hall.

"I will bring only twenty of my best men," Mars said. "I think it's enough for protection on the road. What do you think?"

"Will you bring Edgar and Gewen with you?" The king asked his son. "They are very reliable."

"Well..." Mars furrowed his brows, trying to decide which man should go with him. "I don't want to bring both because I need at least one of them here."

"Why?" King Jared asked. "The capital is safe. We have General Frey and his Golden Knights. We also have tens of thousands of soldiers."

"It's not it. I'd like to keep one foot here while I am away," Mars explained. "They know me better than anyone else. If anything happened, they can immediately know what to do on my behalf."

What he meant was, he wanted to have one of his best friends protect Emmelyn while he was away. He couldn't bear leaving Emmelyn alone without protection. However, bringing her with him was not an option.

So, the question would be Edgar or Gewen.

Mars knew he could trust both, however, in a situation like this, maybe Edgar would be a better choice than Gewen. He was more cool-headed and he was not a womanizer who might be distracted from his job when he was with some pretty court ladies.

"I think, I will bring Gewen with me, Father. He is good at surveillance and he can protect me from afar with his archery skills." Mars finally decided. "I have heard from Ellena that the gatekeeper kept several monsters that we need to kill. Some of them are dangerous hawks. I will need Gewen to take care of them."

The king nodded. "Okay, sounds good."

"Once we get to Shadowend and meet the witch, I can handle her," Elmer said. "Your Majesty don't need to worry about it. I will punish her for her crimes and make her pay for all the blood that has been shed because of her."

Sixteen people had died because they touched him when he was a baby, and another ten died because they touched him accidentally. Then... his four siblings who died in infancy or stillborn.

That was a total of thirty lives.

Soon, they would make her pay for all her sins.

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