"What's the name of the country?" Emmelyn asked again. She wanted to know more about Maxim, her very interesting travel partner. "What about your parents?"

"Oh.. my parents are quite boring too. I have five older sisters. My father really wanted a son, so after five daughters, he decided to get a new wife to get a son since his first wife seemed to fail at the job."

"Oh..." Emmelyn paused eating her meat when she heard Maxim's explanation.

She could guess that Maxim's father remarried and get a son immediately from his second wife. Was it Maxim?

She was reminded of her own mother who gave birth seven times. It must be so tiring, she thought. But at least her mother could produce three sons from the seven births.

"So, your father married your mother to get sons?" Emmelyn could guess the answer, but she asked anyway.

Maxim nodded. "Yeah. This didn't sit well with my older sisters and their maternal family. They hate me and my mother. They blame us for our father's decision to divorce their mother and sent her away to the countryside."

"Uff.. I am sorry to hear that," Emmelyn sighed. She, too, hated the fact that many parents or, at least, fathers favored sons more than daughters. "But, your mother could have said no to your father's proposal. Didn't she feel bad about taking away another woman's husband?"

"My mother had no choice in that regard," Maxim said. "It was an arranged marriage."

Emmelyn turned to Maxim and paid more attention to the man. She thought Maxim was really smart for a regular adventurer. He might come from a wealthy family and got a good education.

Now, she thought her guess was right. Usually, only people from wealthy backgrounds would have an arranged marriage, especially to get sons. The family would want to have male heirs to inherit the family's wealth and name.

"Is your mother happy?" Emmelyn asked again. Her older sisters were arranged to be married to their husbands and they were actually happy. Their husbands were all important dukes who came from good families.

"Yeah. Maybe. My father actually treats her really well. She lacks nothing. Once she produced a son, everyone treated her as if she just saved a country," Maxim replied. This time he was laughing. "My mother likes that."

"So, do you have any more brothers?" Emmelyn asked Maxim again. She liked the fact that he started to open up to her.

They had traveled together for several weeks now but she barely knew anything about him. She only knew that he was a very smart man with so many tricks up his sleeves and a free spirit.

Seeing how Maxim could lead such a carefree life made Emmelyn feel jealous. She wished she could stay on the road and travel some more, to see the world.

She knew that after two years she would have to go back to Wintermere and lead the life that her parents had prepared for her. She might have to enter an arranged marriage like her sisters. Ahh.. she didn't want to think about it.

"I do have two younger brothers," Maxim replied. "My mother is a son-making machine. That's why my father loves her so much."

"You said it like it is a bad thing," said Emmelyn. "Don't you like to have brothers?"

"I never said I don't like having my brothers." Maxim had finished his meat and started to roast another one. "They are just so boring. I mean.. they are very young, practically babies now. I can't have a relationship with them."

Emmelyn chuckled when she heard him. Maxim kept saying everything about his life back home was boring. It was so hard to believe him.

This man was the most interesting person she had ever met in her life, yet he described his life and family to be mundane and boring.

"When was the last time you saw your family?" Emmelyn had also finished her meat and started roasting another one. 

"Uhm... last year," Maxim said. "My father tricked me to go home by making me believe that he died."

"What? He didn't die?"

"No. He did not. Imagine my shock when I went home to find him on his favorite porch drinking wine and laughing. He said my mother missed me so badly and threatened him, if he couldn't make me come home, she would leave him and take all the sons with her. So, he resorted to a lie."

Emmelyn laughed so hard that she had to hug her belly. She thought Maxim had a very interesting family. His father and mother were quite funny too.

"They did it because they miss you," Emmelyn said. "You should be happy. That means they care."

She had left Wintermere for almost eight months now but she had never received any letters from back home even though she always told her parents where she would be next.

She sent them one letter every month to let them know how she was doing and what sort of adventures she had in her travels. 

After six months, she finally stopped waiting for any letters from them. Killian was the only one who sometimes kept in touch with her since he was living in Glasswell with his fiancee's family, a kingdom by the sea in Atlantea.

"Yeah.. maybe." Maxim turned to Emmelyn. "What about you? What makes you leave your home? Did you do any crimes back home and you are avoiding the punishment? Or did your parents try to arrange your marriage to a very old and ugly nobleman and you run away from home to avoid that?"

"Whoa... no," Emmelyn laughed. "You have a lively imagination. "I am not a criminal and I don't have an old and ugly fiance waiting for me back home."

"Yeah, I do have a lively imagination." Maxim laughed too. "I just figured that you came from an affluent family because you are well educated. Usually, girls from such families have their lives planned for them."

"Oh... that's true. Usually, that's what happened." Emmelyn nodded in agreement. "However, I am not one of them."

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