Chapter 268 "You just rejected my request..."
Hyabbenot, the Elf King, looked much younger. He had shaved his head, had fewer crow's feet around his eyes, and his face was smoother. His bare arms and calves were covered in tattoos, giving him a rather unique look. However, he had gained a lot of weight, and coupled with his short stature, he looked round and chubby, like an old spinning top.
"Hey, superpowered woman, what kind of medicine did you take? You look so young!" he exclaimed casually.
I didn't answer, I just smiled and invited him to sit down.
He didn't stand on ceremony, plopped down, picked up the tea beside him and was about to drink when he asked, "This isn't poisoned, is it?"
"How could that be?" I smiled and took a sip of what I was holding.
He put down his cup and said with a grin, "It's been a long time. What we eat and drink is secondary; what we talk about is more important."
"Oh, what do you want to talk about?"
"We can talk about anything: the weather, the capital, war, women, and men." His voice was quite ambiguous.
I laughed again. "You're joking. You came all this way just to talk about this?"
“We’re not far apart, I live right next door.” He suddenly moved closer to me, his voice becoming more suggestive. “Call me anytime, and I’ll come anytime.”
I smiled and pushed the teacup toward him. "Drink it, it's not poisoned."
“I’m serious,” he winked at me, “Let’s get married!”
I laughed out loud, "How many grandchildren do you have? And you're still thinking about getting married?"
“I’m not kidding,” he said, a little annoyed. “Look at those guys you’ve refused to meet, aren’t they all trying to propose to you?”
"They weren't proposing; they wanted me to be their mistress."
"You signed a marriage contract with the Elf King, making you his second wife, but it's now just a piece of paper," Hya chuckled. "You didn't spend a single day together after signing the contract, and after ten years, the contract was null and void. But the Elf King didn't sign the contract to give you a legitimate status; he did it to legitimize your illegitimate child. He didn't have a son then, and when you gave birth to one, he was overjoyed and did everything in his power to make him his legitimate son."
"How many sons does he have now?" I asked.
“Five.” He held up five fingers. “Including yours. To have a son, he divorced his former queen, married another, and had one. You ran away for ten years, and he married a new queen and had another. There are also two illegitimate children.”
“That’s quite a lot,” I said.
“Too few.” He drawled out the word, then added, “I have ten illegitimate children, Bernard has more than a dozen, and Mamboya has more than a dozen. He only has five. Isn’t that too few?”
“Yes, it’s too little,” I said.
“But I have an advantage over them.” He added in an ambiguous tone, “I don’t have any children born out of wedlock, so maybe you could have one for me.”
I laughed and said, "I'm not so lucky! Your wife must come from a prestigious family."
“If I were ten years younger, I would care about this, but right now, all I want is the offspring of the superpowered woman.” He moved closer to me again, and I subtly moved away.
“The offspring of women with superpowers aren’t necessarily good either,” I said sincerely, “They’re no different from the offspring of other people.”
“I wanted to marry you when I was young, and I still do now,” he said, seemingly sincerely.
I laughed out loud, "I'm not good enough for you! I wasn't good enough for you when I was young, and now that I'm older, I'm even less good enough for you!"
After some back and forth, he left looking displeased.
I laughed coldly. How could I possibly be with a domestic abuser? I'm already being kind by not bringing up old grievances and exposing his past.
I asked Aurora how many mistresses had died at his hands. Aurora didn't answer directly, but simply said, "Which person in power doesn't have blood on their hands?"
“He was incredibly bloodthirsty even when he wasn’t in power,” I said coldly.
Aurora was clearly not interested in this and changed the subject, saying, "Would you like to grant King Bernard's invitation to visit?"
“I don’t want to see him,” I said coldly.
“Mother, King Bernot’s help was invaluable in retaking the capital, and I cannot refuse him.”
"That's your problem," I said, even colder.
However, I overlooked Aurora's self-serving approach as a female politician. When she left with a sigh, I assumed she had given up, but two days later I met with Bernard.
He appeared in the garden. I was strolling in the garden, enjoying the snow view, when I unexpectedly encountered him.
He was exactly the same as in my dream. Just as old, just as strong, just as with the same eyes.
I looked around, intending to find someone to drive them away, but all the maids around me had disappeared.
He suddenly hugged me tightly, with tremendous force, and I couldn't break free at all.
Then he kissed me, it was a completely forceful kiss.
The kiss was so deep, so intense, so forceful.
My lips ached from the kiss, and my head was spinning.
My body went limp, and his arms wrapped tightly around my waist, preventing me from sinking further.
"Don't go anymore." He whispered in my ear, low, hoarse, and ambiguous.
“I can’t lose you again,” he said, kneeling down on one knee before me. “I’m proposing to you, please say yes.”
I struggled to stand. "Don't you have a wife?"
"I have already discussed it with Nora. I will marry you as my second wife, and your rights will be equal to those of my first wife."
I stood in the snow, speechless for a long time, an indescribable sadness welling up in my heart.
"Perhaps my standards are too high," I said slowly and deliberately. "I only believe in the kind of relationship where one person is with another for life."
"You're too stubborn. You're bound by your own rules and regulations. Just be happy. Why think too much? Thinking too much will only make you unhappy."
"Is this your principle in love? When desire arises, you just go for it and worry about the rest later."
"This is not my principle of love, but a universal principle of love. Love is unrestrained and uncontrollable. If you try to control it, you will only cause yourself pain."
"I'd rather suffer."
"You're asking for trouble."
"It's none of your business."
"How can I not care? You will cause me pain too."
I looked at myself coldly, "We broke up eight hundred years ago, there's no way we'll get back together."
Not to mention marriage.
"Why? Because I'm only marrying you as my second wife?"
"You are sincere towards me, but that sincerity is limited to the premise of not jeopardizing your interests. I want too much, which means we are destined not to be together."
"Isn't your love for me also based on the premise of not hindering your interests, especially your inner interests?"
"Since we can't reach an agreement on our interests, then let's just forget about it. We actually let it go many years ago."
Before he could say anything more, I had already turned and left.
The wind was strong and the snow was heavy at night. I sat in front of the fireplace and told Asmin, Jacob and Mia my stories from the modern era.
Mia's eyes widened with longing. "The modern world sounds like so much fun."
Jacob, however, looked dismissive.
Asmin remained expressionless. In fact, she had maintained this expression the entire way from the North to here.
“Modern life is fun, but it can get boring after a while. On the contrary, life here…” I pondered for a moment and said, “It’s full of ups and downs.”
"I don't want a life full of ups and downs; I want a life where girls can go out freely, try different jobs, and study at school," Mia said longingly.
"That depends on your fate," I said with a smile. "Maybe one day you'll be able to experience that kind of life."
As night deepened, a maid came to invite Mia to bed, and Mia reluctantly left. With Mia gone, the large living room felt somewhat empty, and without her voice, there seemed to be an awkward silence.
I told Jacob and Asmin to go back to sleep too.
The deserted, open corridor was filled with swirling snowflakes. I wrapped my thick coat tighter around myself and walked with my head down. Returning to this other world didn't bring the happy reunion I'd imagined; instead, family ties had grown distant. Asmin remained distant, Jacob was indifferent, Mia was younger and a little closer to me, and Aurora's enthusiasm was merely polite formality.
I felt somewhat helpless, but there was nothing I could do.
I have several children I haven't met yet, and they'll probably be indifferent to me.
A tall figure was following me. When I walked fast, he walked fast; when I walked slow, he walked slow. I turned around in surprise.
Bernard was right behind me. I was surprised; I thought he had already left the capital. In fact, Aurora had also told me that he had left.
Bernard immediately approached me and draped his black fox fur cloak over my shoulders.
I didn't say anything.
He smiled and said, “Look at this corridor, doesn’t it remind you of the corridor in the wilderness back then? You became me then, and you walked with your arm around me in this corridor. You were so weak, and I was shivering from the cold. I hated you so much for being so frail. I’ve never been so afraid of the cold before. I think you’re still as afraid of the cold now. I wonder if this cloak is enough?”
I didn't refuse and just kept walking. Because I knew that refusing would only spur him on.
He followed behind me, still smiling, saying, "You should at least say thank you."
I still ignored him.
"I had already left, but I didn't go far and then I didn't want to leave anymore. There's no reason, I just don't want to go. I want to see you again, even if you reject me a thousand times or ten thousand times, I still want to see you."
He quickened his pace to walk alongside me, smiling at me. "You only rejected my proposal, but you can't reject my thoughts."
I frowned slightly, not quite understanding what he meant.
"What I mean is, I'm going to live here from today onwards, and you can't get rid of me no matter what."
I quickened my pace, and he quickened his pace too, but compared to my anxiety, he walked with composure. "You rejected my proposal, but you can't reject my companionship. I may leave occasionally, but I will come back soon. I will never leave you again."
From that day on, he really did live here. He even moved into the room opposite mine, which made me miserable. How old is he? Why does he act like a child?
He maintained his habits from the East, getting up early to exercise, very early, before dawn. At this time, I was still sleeping. After waking up, washing up, and having breakfast, I had just sat down at the table when he arrived. He ate breakfast with me and my children without any awkwardness, appearing calm, composed, and even a little dignified.
I could sense that the children were very nervous, including Aurora. Even though Aurora was the owner here, she seemed somewhat apprehensive in his presence.
Asumi sat upright and meticulously, without making a single mistake, as if she were facing her own father.
Jacob and Mia, on the other hand, "escaped" far away and somehow ended up sitting at the very end of the table, in the most inconspicuous seats, as if trying to minimize their attention.
I said to Bernard with a cold laugh, "Look what you've done to the children."
Bernard held the delicate wine glass with three fingers. "No, I've been very kind."
I later had the opportunity to attend their family gathering and was surprised to find that whenever Bernard appeared, everyone at the large table would become extremely nervous, immediately sitting up straight and not daring to make a single mistake, and the air above the table would become stagnant.
—The feeling of a true emperor descending!
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Author's note: I only suddenly felt love while writing this. What about you? [Cracks] Is it true love? Or just desire? I don't know.
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