Chapter 217: Tianjia Prince × Mixed-Blood Military Female (4): The Prince Means He Wants to Sleep with Him

[His Highness the Prince actually seriously considered marrying Lieutenant General Caleb?]

[Does Caleb even know what he missed out on? That was his chance to rise to the top in a single step! From a commoner to a member of the Imperial Family—how many Tianjia dream of a chance to change their fate like that? It was right in front of him, and he actually failed to seize it!]

[€€, he almost got to live the good life.]

[What surprises me most is that His Majesty actually lets the Prince decide his own marriage entirely by himself and choose his own marriage partner. Something like this should normally be decided by his female relatives.]

[His Majesty really does dote on the Prince.]

[If I didn't read that wrong, didn't the book just say that the Prince was handling government affairs???]

[It also said His Majesty is pregnant. Obviously, it's a tie-in with the previous novel. It's just part of the novel, don't take it seriously.]

[I never expected to get bonus content from the previous novel in the new book. I love An-shen (heart hands).]

[Even for a novel, isn't this way too sci-fi? Who lets males handle serious business? Much less something as important as government affairs. An-shen still doesn't understand Tianjia well enough.]

[(covers mouth) Stop, stop talking. If you scare An-shen away, who's going to write bonus content for my novel?]

[It's not like this is An-shen's first day writing sci-fi. Is this your first time reading his work? Keep complaining and we'll exile you to Tianjia. Huh? You're already in Tianjia? Then scatter the ashes.]

...

[Lieutenant General Caleb was summoned by His Majesty the Emperor.

His Majesty first looked him up and down, reluctantly nodded in approval, then invited him to a combat room for a spar.

Half a star-hour later, the Tianjia Emperor, having thoroughly loosened up his muscles, felt refreshed in both body and mind. He patted Caleb on the shoulder and told him to go back and prepare for the wedding.

Caleb's breathing was still uneven after their bout, and he was in the middle of steadying it when he abruptly looked up in astonishment.

"Your Majesty?! I..."

"Hm? What?"

The Tianjia Emperor glanced sideways at him, imposing and carrying an air that brooked no refusal.

Suddenly, Ares remembered something else and said:

"Right, where are you living now? Eastern District Two? No, that won't do. The house is too small, and it's too far from the palace. I'll allocate a plot of land to you and have a new estate built. If construction starts now, it'll be finished before the wedding. Oh, right. No fountains or water features. The Prince doesn't like them."

Everything Caleb had originally wanted to say got stuck the moment he heard "the Prince."

"His Highness the Prince..." Caleb asked stiffly, "will he attend the wedding?"

Ares turned his head and looked at him for a moment before suddenly laughing. Under Caleb's bewildered gaze, he said, "Of course. It's his own wedding. Naturally, he has to attend."

"From now on, I'll entrust my Imperial Brother to your care, Caleb."

Ares gave him the solemn instruction.

Caleb walked out of the combat room in a daze, completely unaware of how he had even gotten out.

In the corridor outside the combat room, he happened to encounter the Prince hurrying toward him.

Caleb instinctively stopped.

The Prince's long golden hair gleamed beneath the sunlight. There was a hint of worried urgency in his magnificent purple eyes, and his hurried steps stirred the air around him. Dressed in immaculate white court attire, he looked as though the wind might carry him away.

When he saw Caleb, the Prince's gaze paused slightly and his steps slowed. His eyes swept over Caleb as though checking whether he had been injured.

Caleb suppressed the emotions in his heart, lowered his head, and greeted the Prince.

"Your Highness."

Prince Metis gave him a slight nod and tentatively asked whether His Majesty the Emperor had done anything to him, said anything strange, or coerced him into doing anything.

Something strange...

Did he mean their marriage?

Caleb felt a little bitter inside, but he still answered truthfully.

"His Majesty told me to go back and prepare for my marriage to you."

Just as expected.

Hearing the answer he least wanted to hear, the Prince nearly passed out from anger, but he still maintained his outward composure and calm as he said:

"Go back for now. As for this matter, just treat it as..."

"Your highest priority."

Ares emerged from the combat room and smoothly finished the sentence for him.

"You!" The Prince gritted his teeth in fury, but he could hardly openly contradict the Tianjia Emperor, so he could only send Caleb away first while he had a proper talk with the Tianjia Emperor.

Naturally, when the Prince spoke with His Majesty the Emperor, Caleb had no place standing around and listening. He obeyed, excused himself, and left, his mood somewhat heavy.

Caleb walked down the long corridor and turned the corner, but the keen hearing of a high-ranking Tianjia still allowed him to hear the Prince's voice carrying from afar.

"What exactly are you doing? You even called him into the combat room. In your condition... what if you'd gotten hurt?"

The Prince cared greatly about His Majesty and was worried that His Majesty might be injured.

Caleb lowered his head and looked at his own hand, a trace of self-mocking helplessness flashing through his eyes.

His Majesty was SS-rank. Caleb was only a near-S-rank, yet he was supposed to injure His Majesty?

Wasn't His Highness the Prince thinking far too highly of him?

As he walked farther away, every sound gradually disappeared behind him.

The last thing he vaguely heard was His Majesty the Emperor reassuring the Prince about something.

After returning home, Caleb received an order from the Tianjia Emperor.

The marriage remained unchanged, and the wedding would proceed as scheduled.

At the same time, His Majesty sent him the location where his new estate was to be constructed. It had originally been the residence of a deceased member of the Imperial Family. Its location was excellent and close to the Imperial Palace. The former owner had left no heir, so the residence had reverted to the Imperial Family. His Majesty had ordered everything there demolished, leaving nothing behind, and a completely new estate built in its place.

Even the design and construction teams had already been arranged by the palace.

All Caleb needed to do was coordinate with them and review the blueprints.

All fountains and water features were to be removed, and everything was to be designed and furnished according to the Prince's preferences.

This marriage had come far too suddenly.

His Majesty's order had already been issued, so logically speaking, the matter was settled.

But the Prince seemed to... have other ideas.

Compared with His Majesty's order, Caleb cared much more about the Prince's attitude.

After hesitating again and again, he still contacted the Prince and asked what he wanted.

"..."

Upon receiving the message, the Prince held his forehead with a headache and wanted to avoid the whole matter.

For some inexplicable reason, Ares was exceptionally insistent on this marriage. The Prince couldn't persuade him otherwise.

Because the Prince kept refusing, Ares had even said something as outrageous as, "Try it first. If you still don't like him after you're married, I'll kill him and get you another one."

The Prince nearly died of rage.

A near-S-rank female, a Lieutenant General commanding the Imperial Capital Military Region, and Ares would just kill him because he said so?

Where was his brain?

No normal ruler would ever do something that directly weakened Tianjia's military strength.

Ares also felt that might be going a little too far. He had only suggested such an extreme measure because he thought the Prince might dislike having too many females around him, but there was, of course, a somewhat better solution.

"Actually, I don't have to kill him. If you end up liking some other female, just pick him and bring him into your residence. Publicly, we'll say he's also your Female Lord. Privately, you can arrange things however you like."

The Prince: "..."

Incredible.

By marrying a male of the Imperial Family in the first place, Caleb would never be able to marry a Male Attendant in his entire life.

But after what the Tianjia Emperor had just said, forget Male Attendants—if Caleb failed to perform well enough, he might even have to share his male husband with other females.

Although arrangements with multiple females and one male were extremely common among ordinary Tianjia, about as common as taking out a mortgage to buy a house, among the upper classes, Caleb would absolutely be ridiculed for it.

The Prince rejected the proposal.

He didn't want even one Female Lord, much less several.

It made no difference that Ares's words implied those females would be there to serve him, effectively acting as his Female Attendants.

Nevertheless, the marriage was announced.

Ares was the Tianjia Emperor. If he was determined to do something, there really wasn't anything the Prince could do about it.

Faced with Caleb's inquiry, the Prince could only reply, "Do as His Majesty said."

"I'm very sorry for causing you trouble," the Prince apologized.

This wasn't trouble.

Caleb had never considered anything involving the Prince to be trouble.

"It is my honor," Caleb replied.

The Prince simply assumed it was a polite formality.

And he had even less desire to continue talking to Caleb in such an official, stiff manner.

...

The wedding took place as scheduled.

Although Tianjia males possessed no power or status, weddings involving aristocratic males were still extraordinarily grand.

Especially an Imperial wedding.

Even after the Prince did everything possible to scale it back, the wedding celebrations would still continue for an entire week, and the ceremony remained exceptionally lavish.

During the wedding ceremony, the Tianjia Emperor personally escorted the Prince by the arm and placed his hand into Lieutenant General Caleb's.

The Prince disliked occasions and ceremonies like this and only hoped everything would end as quickly as possible.

Yet when the hand beside him carefully supported him, he couldn't help turning his head and glancing at the Tianjia beside him.

Lieutenant General Caleb looked exceptionally handsome today. His black hair had been meticulously groomed without a single strand out of place, and his azure eyes resembled a lake beneath the sunlight. When he looked at the Prince, ripples seemed to stir in his eyes with the wind.

The Prince didn't like lakes, but he felt that Caleb's eyes possessed a power that could put a Tianjia at ease.

He could see hope in them.

If it was Caleb, perhaps the future wouldn't necessarily be bleak.

Caleb supported him with extraordinary care. There was almost sweat forming on the tip of his nose, as though the Prince were some precious, fragile object that had to be handled with the utmost solemnity and caution.

Perhaps this wedding wasn't quite so terrible after all.

The Prince squeezed Caleb's hand in return.

And received an utterly flattered, astonished look from the female.

They danced the first dance of their wedding.

It was the first time their bodies had been pressed together. The Prince had expected himself to feel disgusted, but perhaps Caleb behaved too much like a gentleman. The hands placed upon him merely hovered properly in support, barely exerting any pressure, and Caleb looked even more nervous than he was.

To the Prince's surprise, he didn't find it unpleasant.

It was the private time reserved for the newlyweds after the evening banquet that truly made him nervous.

The Prince knew just how disgusting that sort of thing could be.

That lunatic Chaos had once brought males before him for his own pleasure, right outside the golden birdcage, beneath the open sky, their bodies entwined while nauseating gazes freely roamed over him.

He had been forced to watch many such scenes.

Even remembering them now made him want to vomit.

He couldn't serve a female the way a male was expected to.

He wasn't sure how Caleb would react to that.

Perhaps Caleb would be dissatisfied.

Or perhaps he would simply force the matter.

And the Prince might vomit and tell him to get out.

The Prince's head throbbed painfully.

Caleb hadn't originally intended to marry, but now that they were married, the Prince couldn't expect him to keep his distance and refrain from enjoying what marriage entitled him to.

Ares clearly had no idea just how severe his aversion toward females truly was.

He thought that simply delivering Caleb into his hands would make him better.

But that would only make everything worse.

In the mere few minutes he spent waiting, the Prince was already suffering so badly that he almost felt as though he had died once.

The door opened.

Caleb returned from outside.

He seemed to have washed and changed again. Even the smell of alcohol had been cleaned away, leaving him fresh and spotless.

The moment he opened the door, he froze.

He stared blankly at the Prince and stopped in the doorway. Then, as though belatedly remembering that he was supposed to knock, he hurriedly knocked on the already-open door in complete fluster.

The Prince, who was even more nervous than Caleb, had no attention to spare for such details. He merely nodded stiffly and told him to come in.

The door was gently closed.

The black-haired female walked toward him.

The Prince had originally been sitting on a chair beside the bed. As Caleb approached, he stiffly rose to his feet.

The female was a full head taller than him. Normally, when Caleb silently stood guard over him, the Prince didn't feel anything in particular, but standing face-to-face like this made his presence extremely imposing.

The Prince's entire body tensed, his nerves stretched taut. He almost instinctively wanted to resist.

Even though the female hadn't done anything to him yet.

"Would you like to rest, Your Highness?" Caleb asked softly.

The Prince slowly nodded.

He had already changed into his nightclothes. Taking a slight detour, he climbed onto the bed from the farther side and lay down at the very edge, one hand beneath the covers curling slightly into a fist.

He couldn't bring himself to serve a female.

If Caleb wanted to enjoy him, Caleb would have to do it himself.

Caleb climbed onto the bed from the other side and lay down as well.

A vast expanse of empty space remained between them, as though an entire galaxy separated them.

Caleb secretly glanced at the Prince on the other side, experiencing the furtive delight of having stolen something he had never dared hope for.

He didn't dare look for long.

He quickly withdrew his gaze and lay properly on his back.

The Prince: "..."

Wasn't something wrong here?

He turned his head and looked at the female beside him in confusion.

Feeling his gaze, Caleb nervously looked back at him.

The Prince was so utterly baffled that he finally asked directly:

"Aren't you going to sleep?"

Sleep?

Weren't they already sleeping?

Caleb was confused.

Then, suddenly, realization struck him.

"Sleep? Sleep! Ah, I understand! Sleep, of course we'll sleep."

Caleb hurriedly got up to attend to him.

The Prince meant that he wanted to sleep with him.

His Majesty the Emperor had also specifically instructed and warned Caleb to take good care of the Prince.

Caleb had originally thought the Prince was unwilling and that he wouldn't have a chance. He hadn't expected the Prince to actually be willing to sleep with him.

Caleb was deeply grateful and treasured this opportunity.

He glanced at the Prince, who was lying quietly there watching him, rapidly considered his options, made his decision, and ducked beneath the covers.

The Prince's eyes widened at the sudden turn of events.

Completely bewildered, his face filled with panic and shock, he nervously clutched the covers and, overwhelmed by the sensation, abruptly lost his voice.

...]