The Cursed Prince

"Do you know anything about the prophecy?" Mars repeated his question. His eyes were fixed on the girl.

Did Emmelyn know about the prophecy? What did she think about it? Could she now understand the reason why his father seemed to be so 'bloodthirsty?'

Emmelyn was a quick-witted girl. She had no problems lying, even though she was offended the last time Mars accused her of lying a lot.

She believed that she shouldn't let out all her cards in the open. So, she decided to lie.

"I've heard rumors about it, but I thought it wasn't true," she said with a shrug. "I told you when I was traveling here I met all kinds of people. I heard about this from one of the people I met on the road."

At the moment, Mrs. Adler was her secret. It seemed the old woman knew so many things. Most of the things she told Emmelyn was proven to be true.

The curse on the Strongmoor family, the king's late ex-fiancee, and several other things... Mars confirmed all those. This made Emmelyn think that Mrs. Adler was the real deal!

However, Mars seemed to be less knowledgeable about several things, compared to the old witch.

Mars didn't know the reason why he could touch Emmelyn. He just thought he was lucky to have met a girl who was immune to his curse. He was even stubbornly didn't want to check whether he could now touch other women too.

While on the other hand, Mrs. Adler knew Mars could touch Emmelyn NOT because he was lucky, but because Emmelyn would bring bad luck to his life, as part of his curse.

Mrs. Adler also mentioned the great war. If she was right about all the other things, then surely she was right about that too, right?

She clearly mentioned the colors on those banners and uniforms and they were not the colors that Draec's army was using. Maybe Mars' father only got things half-right. Or maybe some evil witch planted those dreams to mess up with his decisions.

Whatever it was, Emmelyn decided she wouldn't blindly believe everything she had heard from both Mrs. Adler and Mars. She would wait and get more information before she could make a decision.

"Oh..." Mars stared at Emmelyn with a complicated look. He really couldn't tell if this girl was telling the truth or not. He knew Emmelyn could easily lie through her teeth. But, why would she lie about this thing?

"I for one, don't really believe in prophecy," Emmelyn said. "We are responsible to pave our own future. Fuck those people saying this and that. I will not change my life just because someone said A or B about my future."

For a few moments, Mars was enchanted by her words. Emmelyn looked annoyed when she was saying those, but he could tell that she meant what she said.

Now, Mars was reminded of her question earlier, whether Mars would marry one while loving another if his country required that from him, and he said yes. He didn't need to ask the same question to her to know what she would respond.

Emmelyn was not the obedient kind. She would not let anyone tell her what to do. Well... unless maybe her head was on the line. Mars remembered that Emmelyn agreed to give birth to his children because the only other option was death.

Plus, Emmelyn had admitted during her drunk confession that another reason she stayed was because she wanted to kill the king.

However, if she had the choice, she wouldn't do what other people tell her to do. This attitude of her impressed the prince greatly. He didn't know he could fall in love harder than he already had... apparently, he could.

"It wasn't my dream, so I would never know what he actually saw," Mars admitted. "Those dreams might be planted by the evil witch to influence my father in making decisions on how he would rule this country. He was very convinced that it was a premonition of what will happen in the future since he dreamed that for the entire year. So, it might also be a true prophecy."

Emmelyn crossed her arms on her chest, giving the prince a judgemental look. "I don't know your father well enough. I have never even met him. But as an outsider, I could just think that your father created that excuse for his behavior. All those wars and so many deaths... he needs to justify them. It's a possibility, right?"

Mars was silent when he heard the girl. She didn't know his father, that was true. She actually hated him for what happened to Wintermere. So, it was understandable that Emmelyn would be biased and think that everything the king did was bad.

However, Mars couldn't blame her.

"Why don't you say anything?" Emmelyn asked him again. "You think I'm right?"

"What do you want me to do?" Finally, Mars responded with a question.

It was Emmelyn's turn to be silent. She didn't know what to say. She wanted to criticize so many things about the royal family, but when Mars asked her if she had a solution, or if she wanted him to do anything about it... she was at a loss for words.

Why would he do what she wanted? She was nobody to him. So, his question was unexpected.

She took a few moments to think about her answer before she finally knew what she wanted.

"If I asked you to never go into war again, would you do that for me?" She asked earnestly.

Mars looked at her with pain in his heart. He thought he could do anything for her... He was the crown prince from the most powerful country on their continent, soon to be the king. His authority and power were unmatched.

He thought he could easily give her anything a woman could ever dream of. However, today he realized the painful truth. He couldn't. Emmelyn was not like those other women and what she dreamed of was different from what most women wanted.

She hated wars and she wanted him to stop.

However, he couldn't promise her that. He had his responsibilities to his country. He would shed his last drop of blood to protect Draec. So, if he was needed, he would be the first to go to the frontline.

"I would," said the man with a hoarse voice, "but we both know I couldn't give that to you."

Emmelyn let out a long sigh. She thought too highly of herself. Just because she warmed his bed every night and promised to bear his kids, he would do whatever she wanted from him?

She laughed at herself internally.

"Forget it." She put on a relaxed face as if their conversation earlier was a joke to her. "I know you can't. I don't even know why I asked."

She got up from the bed and went to the window, pretending to check the sky. "It's almost dark. I am hungry. Do you want to have dinner?"

She turned to him and found the man was watching her with longing in his eyes. This made her heart flutter. She never saw anyone ever looked at her this way before.

"We can eat dinner now if you are hungry," Mars answered.

Emmelyn was not hungry. She ate a big chunk of rabbit meat earlier, but she nodded vigorously. "Yes, I am very hungry."

"Okay, we can eat." Now, Mars also got up from the bed and walked out of the door.

Emmelyn cursed herself inwardly. She wasn't hungry yet, but she stupidly said she was. She was mesmerized by his gaze earlier and to cover up the flutter in her heart, she impulsively said she was starving.

She didn't know how many times she had put her foot in her mouth like this. Gosh.. maybe she was really jinxed.

The cooks quickly prepared dinner for the prince and his woman. As usual, the dining table was filled with the dishes that she liked.

Emmelyn had to give them credit for being able to make all her favorite food even though she only told them the ingredients to the best of her knowledge.?She couldn't cook even if her life depended on it.

"Come on, eat a lot." Mars immediately cut a big chunk of roast pig and put it on Emmelyn's plate. "You look really hungry. I've never met a girl who eats as much as you do, but I guess I haven't met many girls, to begin with."

He added more fruit slices on the side and some other types of meat on her plate. Emmelyn could only watch with pursed lips. She wanted to stop him, but she was worried he would call out on her lies again.

"Thank you," she said, taking one slice of fruit and ate it. "Uff... why does this fruit taste so bland?"

She spontaneously spat the fruit out.