#120
“Enough. Go inside quickly and sleep it off.”
Enrique said irritably, gesturing behind him. The waiting servants rushed forward to support Julian.
“Tell me what kind of man you like. Tall, good body, and good in bed are the basics of basics! What else, what else do you need?”
Julian continued talking as he was practically carried away by the servants. Enrique chuckled and leaned back deeply in his chair. Then he started drinking wine again.
After Julian disappeared, the reception room became quiet. Enrique savored that silence along with his wine.
Come to think of it, Julian had a point.
Although there was no chance of a heat coming now after giving birth, in about a year, the heats would start to return. Enrique had no more marriage plans. However, he would need someone to spend his heats with.
In fact… Enrique had thought about love, at least once. It’s just that the country came first. In planning his three marriages and divorces, he didn’t include anything like love. He had only briefly thought that after all of that was over, he might be able to spend his life with someone, sharing feelings like love. Even if not love, he thought it would be nice to have a man with whom he could maintain a good relationship, sharing at least a small part of life.
But now, he had no emotional capacity left to maintain good feelings with another man, let alone love. Enrique’s heart was already saturated. There was no room to let anyone in, not even a single step. If that was the case, what remained was a dry relationship of only physical exchange.
“Yes. I suppose I’ll have to find someone.”
Enrique muttered quietly. And then, as he had done before, he calculated coldly. A plain man who would perform his duties without expecting any emotional exchange, just for an appropriate reward, be it a title or territory.
He wouldn’t even need to go looking for one himself. Whether his father found someone, or Julian did, or someone came to him of their own accord. There were many ways to find a man.
Coincidentally, the timing of his divorce from Anture almost perfectly matched when his heats would return. Enrique thought this timing was quite fateful.
“Yes. Just until then.”
Enrique murmured softly. And he thought.
Yes. Let’s keep the place beside me empty just until then. Since the marriage would still be maintained until then, it would be good to keep up appearances until that time.
Enrique gazed out the window at the falling darkness, holding his wine glass. No, he looked beyond it.
By now, Anture and Ruslan would have arrived at the imperial palace in Ruben and be settling in. Being a precious superior alpha, there was no way Ruslan would be mistreated in the Ruben Empire. Rather, they would raise him carefully, treating him like a fragile treasure. Since he had hair and eyes that were the spitting image of himself, Anture would also cherish Ruslan a lot. Thinking about that was a great comfort.
He couldn’t remember when he had fallen asleep or how he had been moved to his bedroom; the memory was completely gone.
When Enrique opened his eyes, he groaned, clutching his head. His head was splitting with pain from excessive drinking. As he was groaning and holding his head, Pol approached with medicine and water. Even the sight of water made him feel like vomiting, but he needed to do something about the headache first. Enrique quickly swallowed the medicine and water, then flopped back onto the bed, clutching his head and moaning. He felt like he was about to die.
It was well past noon, in the early afternoon, when Enrique and Julian met in the dining room. As Enrique staggered into the dining room, he saw Julian sitting there, looking almost dead.
“Are you alive?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Barely…”
They exchanged this brief conversation, having no energy to talk, and immediately started eating.
The day after drinking, one tends to be extremely hungry. They silently ate endlessly. After eating frantically for a long time until their stomachs were full, they finally felt a bit better.
“Whew…”
Enrique sighed, leaning his head back on the chair while holding his full stomach. Julian wasn’t much different.
Having suppressed their hangovers with overeating, the two sprawled in the reception room, exchanging idle conversation before parting to their respective bedrooms. They had made a promise to go hunting the next day.
The next day, they rode horses and hunted freely in the forest. Enrique caught a deer first. Julian, his competitiveness aroused, searched for bigger game but had no luck. Enrique snickered at the sight of rabbits and squirrels dangling from Julian’s saddle.
Several days passed like that, without plans, thoughts, or worries. During those days, Enrique felt that he had stabilized a lot. Except for the day he vomited from the hangover, he no longer had unexpected bouts of nausea. He could feel Pol noticeably relaxing.
Enrique was honestly relieved too. He was to govern the country in the future. He needed to maintain a strong state, both mentally and physically, at all times.
The two only set out for the royal castle after idling away about a week. Enrique silently patted Julian’s shoulder lightly as they rode side by side at a slow pace. It was his way of saying thanks. Julian smiled as if he understood completely. After resting thoroughly, Enrique was able to return to the royal castle having shed a considerable amount of his emotional burden.
*
After finishing his postpartum recovery and resting at the Jares estate, Enrique immediately plunged into state affairs. The King of Shamier had now grown quite old. The head servant secretly tipped off that the king had been noticeably struggling when handling work for long periods. Enrique forcibly took over a large portion of his father’s workload. Work and sword training, work and walks, work and light horseback riding. This became Enrique’s daily routine.
About a month passed like this.
“Your Highness!”
Pol burst into the office, almost running.
“What’s the matter?”
Enrique asked, frowning.
“The, the Crown Prince…”
“Crown Prince?”
Enrique murmured softly, thinking. So Anture has finally been appointed Crown Prince.
“There’s going to be a Crown Prince appointment ceremony in the Ruben Empire!”
“…I see. We should write a congratulatory letter and send an envoy.”
Enrique said with a calm face. Pol strode up to the desk and shook his head.
“No, Your Highness. You’re being appointed as Crown Prince!”
“I heard you the first time?”
Enrique’s voice was tinged with irritation as Pol kept repeating the same thing. Pol beat his chest with his fist as if frustrated with Enrique. Then he shouted in an excited, flushed voice.
“Young Master Ruslan is being appointed as the Crown Prince of the Ruben Empire!”
“…What?”
Enrique blinked stupidly and barely managed to utter a single word.
“Young Master Ruslan is being appointed as the Crown Prince of the Ruben Empire!”
Pol shouted, repeating the same words again.
Enrique felt his face slowly contorting.
“What… nonsense is that?”
The words that finally came out after a long silence were quite harsh.
Enrique abruptly stood up.
“What about Anture, and they’re appointing Ruslan as Crown Prince?!”
Fiery anger surged in his chest.
It was all Anture’s achievement – conquering Baron and Monta, obtaining a superior alpha heir. And yet, they were skipping over Anture just because Ruslan was a superior alpha. This was too unfair and insulting. It was completely unacceptable.
“Who is it! Bring in the person who brought this news!”
Enrique shouted, thoroughly enraged. Surely Ruben would have sent an envoy to inform them. Enrique intended to grab the envoy first and give him a thrashing.
“Well…”
Pol trailed off with an ambiguous expression.
Bang!
Uncharacteristically enraged, Enrique slammed his fist on the desk and shouted again.
“I said bring him in immediately!”
The shout was so infused with intense anger that even Pol flinched for a moment.
At that moment, the office door opened. Enrique watched with angry eyes as the door behind Pol’s back opened. He felt the urge to write a letter of protest to the Ruben Emperor and shove it down the envoy’s throat.
As he glared fiercely, trying to see the envoy’s face, the door finally opened completely and a man walked in.
The tall man was wearing a black cloak elaborately embroidered with gold thread, covering even his head. The moment Enrique saw him, his breath caught. The man raised his large hand and pulled back the cloak covering his face. Sleek black hair hidden under the cloak was revealed. Enrique’s face contorted as he saw the man smiling faintly.
“You…”
As Enrique couldn’t continue speaking and tightly closed his mouth, the man, Anture, quickly approached with large strides. Then he stretched out both arms and embraced Enrique tightly.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
