Emmelyn tilted her head to show her respect to the mayor. "Good evening, Lord Marius."

"Well, good evening, my lady," Lord Marius replied respectfully. He took off his hat and nodded at Emmelyn. Then, he bowed down to the king and greeted him, "I trust that your journey went well, Your Majesty."

"Yes, it was," Loriel replied. "Have all my men come here?"

"Yes, they are waiting for you in my residence. Do you want to rest and have dinner and see them after? Or would you like to summon them right away?"

Loriel waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "There is no need for that. I will rest with my group here and see them in the morning."

"Very well, Your Majesty," Lord Marius got back on his horse and waited until Loriel and Emmelyn rode past him before he followed them from behind.

The mayor took Loriel, Emmelyn, and Kira toward his residence and gave them the best chambers to rest in the main building. When Emmelyn entered the mayor's palace compound, she immediately admired the huge garden in the middle of the palace's walls.

There were so many flowers in the garden and Emmelyn was fascinated by the view from her chamber. Ahh.. it's been a long time since she saw and stayed at a proper palace.

Seeing how luxurious the mayor's palace here in Belem was, she was wondering how much more beautiful the royal palace in Castilse was. It must be amazing.

Maxim never told her anything about his home when they were still traveling together. He kept saying his hometown was boring and there was nothing interesting there.

Ugh... that liar.

Emmelyn pressed her temple as she sat on the windowsill and watched the garden with interest. It was just right after sunset and she could still the view well. In fact, the sunset light looked really nice on the plants and flowers blooming in the garden.

This reminded Emmelyn a little bit about Queen Elara's garden. It always bloomed with flowers even in autumn. It showed that the garden was well cared for and maintained with special treatment to enable the plants to keep growing like it was in spring or summer.

Ahh.. how Emmelyn missed their tea together and talk over it. Sipping tea while looking at the beautiful garden and chatted with Queen Elara was one of the simple things in her life that made her happy.

She missed those days so badly. Emmelyn took out the scarf from her coat pocket and looked at it like it was a good luck charm. She did feel lucky in Atlantea that unexpectedly she could even meet Raphael who decided to help her.

Ah, Emmelyn should thank Mrs. Adler for her kindness in gifting her the snake pendant. It must be really precious that Raphael accepted it in return for his help to revive Queen Elara. Hopefully, they could meet again someday so Emmelyn could thank her properly.

And if this scarf really worked, Emmelyn would also find a way to thank Raphael again. She thought just the snake pendant wasn't enough.

Maybe she could send some expensive gifts to Mount Tempest, at least to show that she was grateful.

KNOCK

KNOCK

Emmelyn was moved from her reverie when she heard the knocks on the door. Then, she heard Maxim's voice from outside her door.

"Emmelyn, can we talk?"

Emmelyn's heart suddenly fluttered. She remembered she and Maxim had an unfinished conversation. Both didn't want to talk about their private matters around Kira and Lysander.

There were soooo many things that she wanted to ask Maxim. The man already promised to answer whatever burning questions she had about him and Summeria.

So, maybe it was good that they finally arrived in Belem, so they could rest well and talked in private.

"Come in," Emmelyn replied. She opened the door and welcomed Maxim to enter. "Are we having dinner soon that you are coming here to get me?"

She knew he came to talk, but she decided to tease him to make the atmosphere lighter.

Maxim smiled and replied, "They are preparing the feast and we will eat shortly. I came here to talk."

Emmelyn motioned Maxim to come in and sit on a chair by the window. There were five candles lit by the servant earlier and the chamber looked bright and warm.

"The servant just delivered tea for me. Would you like a cup?" Emmelyn asked Maxim while raising the tea pot. "It's good to talk over tea."

She actually missed having tea with Queen Elara while talking about whatever and watched her flowers in the garden.

"Sure," Maxim rose from his chair and took over the teapot from Emmelyn's hand. "Let me pour the tea, I am the host in this country."

Emmelyn shook her head but she gave him the teapot. Maxim poured tea for both of them into two cups and gave one of them to Emmelyn.

They sat with their tea and didn't say anything for a few moments. Emmelyn looked at Maxim intently and waited for him to talk.

"I'm sorry for lying to you about who I am," Maxim finally found his voice. "I really enjoyed our friendship and I didn't want you to treat me differently just because I am royalty. So, I didn't say anything. Of course, at that time I also didn't know you are a princess."

"How did you find out about my real identity?" Emmelyn asked Maxim. She had heard how this man had been looking for her for a long time. She wondered how he could find out who she was and then decided to set the bounty.

"Oh... I asked around and I also exerted my people to find you and search all information we could get about you," Maxim explained. "When I heard about your family, I was devastated. I am also very angry for you."

Emmelyn felt touched by the man's words. Maxim obviously cared a lot about her.

"I told myself, I will do anything to get Wintermere back from your enemy," Maxim continued. "I will give it back to you. I know I couldn't bring back your parents and siblings, but I can give you Wintermere."

Emmelyn held her breath when she heard this statement that somehow sounded a lot like an indirect love confession.

.

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From the author:

I am still trying to meet my personal target of publishing 3 chapters today.. ahahaha. Crossing fingers I can publish the 3rd chapter later.

By the way, I am picking up a new hobby from last week, which is editing and creating pictures with Ibis Paint app and it's taking a lot of my time. It's relaxing to do, so I spend so much time there.

It's so much fun and I do it to destress. The current cover is one of the results. I also created many images of other characters including Emmelyn. You can check them out on my Instagram and Facebook Page, both under @missrealitybites.

I attached one picture in the comment.