LATER THAT DAY

"Oh my god...." Maxim sighed and massaged his temple. "What are we going to do with this?"

"She was too excited because a king needed something from her family," Emmelyn commented with a chuckle. "You should have said three jugs of wine is enough."

Maxim, Kira, and Emmelyn were standing outside of the mayor's residence, facing a huge wagon with barrels and barrels of wine and two big baskets of bread.

The wine could last them two weeks if they drank it twice or three times a day with their meals. If bread could last longer, probably Lady Marius would have given them another wagon full of bread too.

"We could open a shop with this," Maxim commented. He shook his head and sighed. "Now, what should we do with this much wine? I don't want my people to drink a lot during the trip."

"Well..." Emmelyn rubbed her chin and looked at their surroundings. "It's rude to return this to them. You did ask her for the logistics."

"Yeah..." Maxim pursed his lips. "I did it for you."

"We cannot throw it away. It's such good wine," Emmelyn added.

"That's true. Never waste good wine." Maxim agreed. "But if we brought this wagon, it will just slow us down."

"It's okay though. Maybe we can get rid of the wine later," Emmelyn suggested. "But we definitely have to at least bring them out of Belem."

"Are you sure? We could lose time."

"How far is the next town?" Emmelyn asked Maxim. She thought of an idea.

"It's half a day away if we take this wagon with us since we will be slower. Why?"

"We can sell this wine in the next town and make money..." Emmelyn laughed. "Just like you said. We can open a shop."

Maxim looked at the woman and had to hold back his laugh. Emmelyn was reminding him of their shenanigans in the past, one of which included them stealing two barrels of expensive wine from an evil merchant and sold them for money.

"Come on..." Maxim shook his head. "It was a long time ago. I did it because we needed money for food."

"You NEVER needed money, ish..." Emmelyn hit him on the shoulder. "I am sure you were loaded with gold back then. You were the crown prince, for heaven's sake. You just love the thrills."

Maxim shook his head innocently, "No, I was really broke back then."

"Yeah, right." Emmelyn laughed at the man's insistence. "Anyway, remember we sold the wine per cup for cheap in the middle of the market? We made good money."

"Yes, we did..." Maxim smiled. "It was a good memory."

"We should do it again. For old time's sake," said Emmelyn, sounding nostalgic. "It was fun. I don't know if we would ever have that much fun again."

She was referring to the fact that Maxim was now a king. He wouldn't have time to go out on adventures like he was in the past. He had his kingdom as his responsibility.

Maxim sighed and looked away. He felt the same way. This might be the last time he would have this much fun with Emmelyn.

Besides, wasn't she rushing before? The reason why they traveled with horses almost day in and day out was because she wanted to immediately reach Castilse and later Myreen.

However, today she decided that they could do it a bit more slowly and even enjoyed some fun before they continued their trip. Of course, Maxim was only happy to oblige.

He missed those days too. And it would be good to have Emmelyn by his side longer as 'commoners' before they reached his hometown and they had to act like noblemen again.

The king looked at the wine wagon and chuckled. "Yeah, you are right. Let's do it."

He waved at Lysander and the commander of his king's guards who were standing by the gate with two dozens of other knights. When they came, Maxim explained to the commander that he and Emmelyn would take the wagon and traveled slower than planned.

"We will go to Lindstadt and do something there. You and the others don't have to tag along this time. Let's just meet there," he said. "You can bring our horses and give us two men to go with us. I can have Lysander and another one."

Even though he was baffled by the sudden change of plan, the commander didn't dare question his king's decision. His eyes caught sight of the wine wagon and he was wondering what the king was planning to do with it.

"Noted, Your Majesty." He turned to Lysander and motioned him to follow Maxim and his little group. "Help His Majesty with the wine."

"Yes, my lord," said Lysander happily. He was glad to be part of the king's group again.

Maxim turned to Emmelyn and smiled broadly. "I guess we will be wine merchant again."

"You do look like a wine merchant." Emmelyn laughed.

She looked so much happier than she was weeks ago and this made Kira smile. When she met Emmelyn for the first time, the woman was quiet and sad. Now, she looked more carefree and happy.

It seemed like she was really happy these days, Kira concluded.

Was it because of Maxim or because she was already getting closer to Myreen... Kira didn't really know.

***

MEANWHILE, IN DRAEC'S CAPITAL:

"Your Majesty, the little princess has been crying all morning," John the butler reported to the king in his study. His face looked worried and helpless. "I have called the physician, Mr. Vitas, and he already gave little princess some potion, but she keeps crying. Mr. Vitas said she is having colic."

"Oh no..!" Mars immediately stopped everything that he was doing and walked out of his study to the east wing of the palace, his private residence.

He was very busy this morning and didn't want to bring his daughter everywhere, so he left Harlow with her wet nurse. The king immediately regretted this decision because, apparently, Harlow became unwell. Gosh...

As soon as he stepped inside his residence, he heard the pitiful cry of his baby and his heart immediately ached.

"Oh, Harlow sweetheart..." Mars pressed his chest and walked faster to find Harlow. The closer he got to the source of her cry, the fainter he heard the pitiful cry because it slowly turned into sobs.

It looked like Harlow was being pacified by something or someone and she slowly stopped crying. Mars felt a slight relief. Maybe Mr. Vitas' potion started working, he thought.

Well, he thought wrong.

When Mars entered the big airy chamber where Harlow usually slept, he saw a big man standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows with Harlow in his arms and he made cooing sounds to soothe the baby.

Whether it was the cooling breeze or Gewen's silly voice, Harlow's cries slowly turned into soft sobs and finally stopped. Mars stood rooted at the doorway, watching the scene, feeling astonished.

Never in a million years he thought he would see Gewen coaxing a baby to stop crying. Perhaps the womanizer did have the charm that even Harlow couldn't resist.

"Don't cry, cutie pie, your father is busy. I am just as good as him. Right? See, my arms are strong and comfy," Gewen coaxed the little princess dotingly. "Uncle Gewen is the best."

.

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From this author:

So, maybe this is the moment where Gewen started mending his bad relationship with the Little Bear... HAHAHAHA.

You can see how he truly doted on his niece. ^^

PS: This chapter is dedicated to you, Harriet Moskowitz. Thank you so much for gifting a dragon to this book.

Initially, Webnovel wanted to announce all the big gifts site-wide, to show appreciation for the generous readers who gifted dragons and magic castles to the books they love.

However, they didn't expect there will be wayyyyy too many readers gifting dragons and castles to books on this platform. We could get 20 announcements per hour. It became too frequent and annoying to most readers.

So, WN turned off the announcement and now only announce magic castle gifts, since it's quite rare.

However, I would like to kindly acknowledge all the big gifts that this book receives, to show you how much I appreciate them because the gifts give more golden tickets that will boost The Cursed Prince's Golden Ranking.

I have written many books on this platform and only found success after I write "The Cursed Prince". It moved me so much to finally understand how it feels... to have a book that sells, to achieve a high ranking, to be loved and supported by so many amazing readers.

So, thank you so much for making my dream to become an accomplished author come true. All your comments, your votes, your ice colas, pizzas, inspiration pills, massage chairs, luxury cars, dragons, make me feel loved and inspired.

I actually have been wanting to write more because of the overwhelming support, but I am very giddy and nervous today. I will be hosting a seminar on writing romance novels in two hours and I am having stage fright.

After the seminar ends, I hope I can write more. I will make up for the chapters yesterday (we only had one). Btw, once the seminar is turned into a podcast, I will let you know so you can listen to it on Spotify or YouTube.

PS: the comic artist is finally ready to start "The Cursed Prince" comic. I posted the character visual in the comment.