The Cursed Prince

"I see," Maxim nodded in satisfaction. He could accept that Edgar was Emmelyn's friend, even though he was a little bit irked that she had another male friend.

However,  knowing that she wanted to send Edgar so far away, back to Draec, he was more than happy to find the man.

"Can you do that?" Emmelyn asked Maxim with her big eyes. "I need to find him as soon as we arrive in Castilse."

"Of course. Leave it to me."

"Please don't hurt him. He is a friend, a good one. I only want to talk to him and give this scarf," Emmelyn said again.

"Huh? Why would I hurt him? He is your friend." Maxim furrowed his brows.

"No, I mean, if you sent people to find him, please talk to him nicely. Don't force him to come. He is a strong man and might not take it too well being summoned by strangers," Emmelyn explained. "Please treat him well."

"Oh, I see what you mean. I will have my people track him down and then invite him to my palace when we arrive in Castilse. Is that okay?"

"Yes, that will be perfect." Emmelyn felt so relieved. It's so good having Maxim by her side. She didn't have to do the hard work by herself. She could share the burden with her friend. Ahh.. truly, she felt so lucky to have him with her.

"Consider it done." Maxim patted his chest smugly. "I will not let you down."

"Thank you so much, Max."

"Okay, so, let me take this picture and talk to my men," Maxim took the sketch and rolled it up. "Is there anything else you need?"

"No, nothing. Thank you."

"Very well. Then I hope you can rest well and we will see each other again tomorrow."

"Have a good night, Maxim."

"You too, Em."

After Maxim left, Emmelyn took another cup of wine and sat on the windowsill, sipping her drink. She missed Southberry wine, but this one was good too.

She looked at the garden outside and admire the flowers, thinking about Queen Elara. In summer, the sun went down a bit late so she could still see the beauty.

When it was completely dark, she finally went to sleep.

*** 

"I bought several bracelets from the market," said Kira when she saw Emmelyn in the dining room for breakfast. She took out two sets of bracelets from her pocket and gave one to Emmelyn. "This is for you."

It was a simple leather woven bracelet but it looked extremely nice on the wrist. The color was light blue and dark blue.

"For me?" Emmelyn didn't expect Kira to buy her one.

"Yes." Kira smiled. "I saw the bracelets and remember you don't have any more accessories after you gave your snake pendant to that ice monster. So, I figured I want to give you one. And since it looks nice, I got one for myself too."

Emmelyn's brows twitched when she heard Kira refer to Raphael as ice monster. She wanted to laugh at Kira's obvious dislike for the man.

She understood why Kira felt that way though. However, she couldn't help but actually feel sorry for Raphael. To spend his years growing up in a snowy mountain, away from other people, it must be extremely lonely.

Maybe that was the reason why his songs were heartwrenching.

"This is so lovely," Emmelyn smiled and took the bracelet from Kira. "Thank you so much."

Maxim looked at the scene and realized it's true that Emmelyn didn't have any jewelry. Maybe she had to leave all her jewelry behind in order to disguise herself on her travel, or her husband was just too stingy to give her nice things.

Maxim made a mental note to get some jewelry for Emmelyn once they arrived in Castilse. The capital city of Summeria housed so many talented artisans who could make beautiful accessories, the best in the world.

"You're welcome," said Kira with a big smile. She was in a good mood today. She had her bag and was ready to go after they had breakfast.

"Come, eat good food before you continue your trip," Lady Marius open her arms and welcome everyone to sit at the dining table and enjoy the food provided by their servants.

Kira gushed about how beautiful Belem was and said she would come back here someday with her ship just to sightsee again, after her adventure with Emmelyn ended.

"Oh, you have a ship?" Lady Marius was very interested in knowing more since Belem was a port city. "Where are you from?"

Emmelyn's eyes widened and she coughed violently. Gosh... Kira shouldn't have said anything about her ship since it would raise more questions from their hosts. If they knew she was part of a pirate gang, they might be shocked and scared.

"Oh... it's a small ship, actually." Kira noticed Emmelyn's discomfort and waved her hand nonchalantly. "My father works in a ship and sometimes I went onboard."

"Oh... so, he is a sailor?" Lady Marius asked again.

Emmelyn didn't want to hear Kira's reply and decided to change the subject. "The bread is really nice. Can we have some for the journey? It's difficult to find good bread these days."

Lady Marius was happy to hear the compliment. She smiled from ear to ear. "Really? I will ask my servant to pack some for you, Lady Emmelyn."

"Thank you! That is so lovely." Emmelyn pointed at the wine jug. "What about the wine? Can we have some for the road too?"

"Absolutely!"

"I mean, I am from Terra and over there we have really good wine from a region called Southberry. I have been missing Southberry wine all these months. Only here in Belem I finally found the wine of the same level or maybe even higher quality than Southberry wine," she added. "I love it!"

Maxim understood what Emmelyn was trying to do and he nodded too. "Yes. I would like to bring this wine with us. It's good."

"Definitely!" Lady Marius's face beamed in happiness. She was happy that the king needed something from them. "I will have our servant prepare the logistics for you, Your Majesty. Bread and wine. Noted."

The conversation shifted to all types of good wine and they no longer talked about Kira's ship.

.

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From the author:

Speaking of friendship bracelets, I have a friend who uses bracelets to remember important people or moments in his life. His name is Pablo from Spain.

He would wear all bracelets and never took them off for years until they snapped/broke on their own, and then he would store them in his wooden box.

He said he loved having those bracelets on his wrist because looking at them would remind him of the friends and the memory they have together. I think it's very simple but meaningful.

PS: He is a very manly man but the many friendship bracelets look nice on his wrist ^^

PPS: Did you ever have one when you were younger?

PPPS: Kelly Goodwin, thank you so much for all the massage chairs, luxury cars, and dragons! OMG