“It was a wedding worth seeing. Actually, I didn’t stand up before I left… I was worried I’d hear something like “The representative of Aether is a young prince?” but even the princess of Haband wasn’t in a position to say anything. I was worried that Lord Kalion would be crushed to death under that royal girl on the first night.”
“They’re young, yeah?”
“Indeed. At fifteen years old you have loads of fun.”
The vulgar chit-chat between the knights prolonged. Ruben, while tuned to the conversation, thought that he was lucky to not have gone to Hessenguard.
Actually, King Aether had asked him before sending Kalion, “By chance are you thinking about going?
Ruben immediately rejected the proposal.
A sigh came from him when he thought about having to go to a foreign country and marrying some unknown woman. After hearing the knights’ conversation, he thought he was even luckier to have rejected the king’s proposal.
Now, however, as he looked at Erna Hessenguard, who didn’t spare him a glance, he regretted the decision he’d made that time.
No, the regret was hiding under the name Abel from the first time he’d seen her.
Who would have thought ten years ago that Hessenguard would recover and Erna Hessenguard would turn out like this?
Ruben’s thoughts drifted to Kalion.
When he’d gotten poisoned for the first time, he was persistently attached to his life, and now he had the grand duke’s position in a rich land and a beautiful wife by his side.
Even while knowing it was useless, Ruben imagined what would have happened if he had accepted the king’s proposal ten years ago.
As he was about to venture deeper into delusion, Erna put down her pen. Ruben came back to earth at that sound.
“Sorry for making you wait so long.” Erna said, loosening her hair as she stood. Her golden locks fluttered over her shoulders. Ruben felt the shine from it—despite it being nighttime—and blinked. He squeezed the ends of his sleeves as he watched her coming toward him.
What am I thinking? She had invited him here alone at a time like this without the company of her aide. On top of that, she let her hair flow down comfortably as if not caring about etiquette. But is she purposely doing this? Ruben looked suspiciously at Erna, who was seated next to him. What a cliche seduction.
While thinking this was too blatant of a provocation, Ruben’s eyes scanned around Erna’s bre*sts. She was not wearing a loose outfit, rather a tight one that outlined the curves of her body.
Despite knowing he had to bring himself back to earth in order to survive, his mind kept going haywire. He couldn’t tell what in the hell Erna Hessenguard wanted from him. Is she telling me to spill the truth?
Was she trying to figure him out because his sudden request for asylum was suspicious? However, it would have been better to secretly take care of it in the basement of the knights’ building.
When Ruben was getting the ball rolling in his head, Erna sat with her legs crossed. Then, she rested her elbows on her knees and cupped her chin.
Her exposed legs—making Ruben dizzy—were white and thin. Her breasts shook as she leaned her body, and Ruben cursed his body for reacting even though he knew it was an obvious trick.
“I know you have an illegitimate child, Prince Ruben. Is that correct?” Erna said, interrupting his trance.
“…that is correct.”
A common woman of outstanding beauty had been his early lover. They’d been together for so long that they even had a child. He had told him to go far away from Aether, but she might have already been captured and killed. She hadn’t been very exciting to Ruben anyway.
More than that, he had no idea why Erna was suddenly bringing that up.
“If so, then you must have no virility problems. ”
Ruben coughed at the random embarrassing topic.
“Lady Erna. Why in the world are—”
“As you know, Kalion and I have no children,” Erna began, “But I need one now. I’m sure you’re guessing it, but I don’t think I’m going back to Haband. So, these days we’ve made lots of efforts.”
That was a fact Ruben knew well. It wasn’t a secret that Erna and Kalion had started sharing a bedroom after the two countries’ notice.
“But there is no payoff. And the reason is…” Erna turned her head to the window for a moment and sucked her teeth as if speaking further was too pathetic. “Even if you have a field, what can you do? You need the proper seeds for it to flourish.”
Ruben was stunned again by her blatant remark. Still, he couldn’t wipe off the grin on his face. Kalion—that guy who acted as if he grew up well is impotent? Ruben shrugged his shoulders. It felt as if he had suddenly become superior.
But unbeknownst to him, Erna yelled to herself as she watched Ruben play the male in the situation. I apologize, Kalion. I’ve made you infertile. It was obvious that if he knew of what she’d said, he would prove that he was not, but she couldn’t help it.
She knew Ruben Aether would doubt her. Even if she tried to convince him in one way or another, he would continue to suspect her schemes. If so… It’s better to go wild with one more lie.
So, Erna spoke to Ruben again.
“You look just like Kalion Hessenguard. So much that I’ll be mistaken if I see you in the dark.”
Unless he was a damn fool, every man in the world would know what she was proposing. And just as expected, Ruben Aether’s face could be seen burning crimson beyond the curtain of dark light.
