"Anything?" Maxim's eyes gleamed in excitement. He patted Emmelyn's back and said, "Be careful with your words. Don't promise something to other people so easily. What if they take advantage of you?"

Emmelyn looked at Maxim deeply and replied, "Would you take advantage of me, Max?"

The man went silent. He looked at her and saw such a deep trust, that he would feel embarrassed if he betrayed her and took advantage of her situation to get his own benefit.

"No. I would never take advantage of you," he uttered his words like a sincere vow.

"I know you can trust you. That's why I feel comfortable enough to grant you whatever you ask of me in exchange for helping me so much," Emmelyn explained. "I think it's only fair."

"Okay, if you think so." Maxim smiled reassuringly. "Then, I will think carefully about what I want from you - not that I am doing things for you because I want something in return."

"Great!" Emmelyn was glad that Maxim accepted her request. "So... can you talk to Renwyck to lend one of his dragons to bring Edgar home? I will feel very grateful."

"Yeah. I will do that." Maxim nodded. "So, that means... we both will share a dragon?"

Emmelyn nodded. "You said it's okay if two people ride the dragon leisurely, right? Maybe we can do it that way. I mean... I am not in a rush anyway."

"Ahh... sounds fun," Maxim smiled so broadly. He could already imagine the romantic journey with the two of them on Aslain's back. "Then, I will summon Renwyck to come to the palace after we go to Archelius Library."

"Can't you do it sooner?" Emmelyn asked. "I mean... what if Edgar immediately went home? It will be too late..."

"Hmm... okay. Then, I will talk to Renwyck as soon as possible and inform your friend to come here tomorrow morning so he can go with a dragon."

"Thank you." Emmelyn gave Maxim a quick hug to show her gratitude and then she cleared her throat. "Then, maybe we should go to Archelius Library tomorrow since you have to see Renwyck and do other things today. What do you think?"

"Yes. I will send Lysander to go with you and Kira to show around. We can meet again later for dinner."

"Sounds good."

Emmelyn decided to take his leave and returned to her chamber. She wanted to see if Kira had eaten lunch and she enjoyed her time in Castilse.

She was the reason that Kira ended up in this city anyway. So, she felt responsible to ensure Kira's wellbeing while the pirate princess was with her.

Maxim, on the other hand, decided to go call Renwyck from his residence on top of one of the mountains to the south of Castilse. He sent a pigeon to the wizard and told him that his presence was expected at the royal palace as soon as possible.

While waiting for Renwyck's arrival, Maxim decided to check on his mother. He wanted to know if his mother was really unwell and ask Zaff, the royal physician to come with him. Also, he had a suspicion that his mother was hiding something when they were talking with Emmelyn during lunch.

Maxim wanted to know what it was. So, he went toward Queen Maude's chamber and knocked on the door. "Mother. Can I come in?"

"Yes."

When he heard his mother's response, Maxim entered his mother's chamber and walked inside. He saw the mother he loved so much was sitting on her windowsill and watching the scene outside. He knew the windows show the view of the lake.

"Are you still unwell?" Maxim came to his mother and held her arm. "I already sent someone to get Zaff."

Queen Maude turned to Maxim and looked at the man seriously. "Do you remember the time when I took you to Myreen? You were very little back then."

Maxim shook his head. "I am sorry. I don't remember anything. Emmelyn asked me the same thing earlier and I suddenly remembered that you did take me there many, many years ago. I think I was four of five at that time?"

"We went there several times," Queen Maude nodded. "The last time was when you were six. I was too heartbroken to come back there after Aunt Catalina passed away. So, I never returned."

Maxim let out a long sigh. He knew how close his mother was to that woman named Catalina, but Queen Maude rarely talked about her. He was hoping that as time went by, her sadness would be dissipated and she would be able to talk about Aunt Catalina more and let her go.

"You never really talk about Aunt Catalina and Myreen, Mother. So, I didn't remember much or know anything." Maxim sat beside his mother and rubbed her arm. He looked at his mother deeply and asked that important question. "Is there something that you want to tell me that you couldn't say around Emmelyn?"

"Max..." Queen Maude took a deep breath and replied to her son's question with a question of her own. "I was wrong about Emmelyn. She is a good woman. But isn't she married? She has a child who needs her. You do know that, right? What are you doing with her?"

"I met her first. She was supposed to be mine," Maxim insisted. His voice sounded bitter when he explained his reasons. "She was trapped to be with him and didn't have a choice. At that time, the choice was either to give birth to that other man's child or lose her head. I can never forgive him for what he did to Emmelyn."

Even though Emmelyn's and Mars's relationship grew into real love, Maxim could never brush off the fact that Mars forced Emmelyn to be with him. He was also the one responsible for the death of everyone in her family.

Even if Emmelyn could finally forgive Mars and moved on, Maxim couldn't. He briefly explained to his mother what happened to Emmelyn after she arrived in Draec with the intention to get her revenge, and how she ended up fleeing Draec for her life.

Maxim intentionally omitted his own suspicion that Mars secretly set a second bounty to get Emmelyn back. When he was done, he was happy to see the expression of horror on his mother's face.

"Oh gosh... poor girl..." Queen Maude pressed her lips in shock. She had heard briefly from Emmelyn that she was cursed with bad luck, but the queen didn't know the gravity of the curse and how much she had suffered all this time.

"Yeah... I feel really sorry for her. That's why I will protect her and do anything to make her happy. She deserves to be happy after everything that happened," he said. "As for her child, I am not a petty man. I will accept her daughter and raise her as my own."

"No... Max," Queen Maude started sobbing. "I think you really have to let her go. If you love her... you have to let her go. You have to stop loving her. I know she is an amazing woman, but if you insist to love her, she will just suffer more. And in the end, you will suffer too because the woman you love is in so much pain and grief."

"Huh?" Maxim furrowed his brows. "I don't understand."

Queen Maude's voice was hoarse when she explained what she meant. "Aunt Catalina and I promised our son and daughter in marriage. You are already betrothed to her daughter."

"Mother.. please, not again..." Maxim squeezed his mother's hand in frustration. "I can never marry a woman I don't love. I already told you that five years ago. I thought you have accepted the fact."

He added, "I can't leave again to make my point because I am now the king. I have responsibilities to my people. But please... please don't make me agree to it. I only love Emmelyn. I cannot marry another woman."

"Do you know what's Emmelyn connection to Myreen?" Queen Maude asked Maxim. "Do you have any idea why she was suddenly cursed?"

"I don't know..." Maxim admitted. "I also thought it was quite random..."

Suddenly the man halted his words.

Realization slowly dawned on him. HE was the only connection between Emmelyn to Myreen.

Even though he didn't remember anything about his visits there, the fact remained that Emmelyn had never been to Myreen and couldn't possibly offend anyone from that kingdom to deserve the curse.

Did her curse have anything to do.... with him?

He looked at his mother in horror as he uttered his next question. "Was Aunt Catalina... a Leoralei?"

Queen Maude nodded weakly. "Yes. And she was probably the person responsible for Emmelyn's curse."

Maxim couldn't believe his hearing. So... all this time, his mother was connected to the royal family of Myreen? Aunt Catalina was... the queen of Myreen herself?

This new piece of information suddenly opened his mind as Maxim realized how his mother was right.

Since the Leoraleis was a powerful wizard family... this means, Aunt Catalina was a powerful witch and she... she might have done something to secure the betrothal between her daughter and Maxim.

The king bit his lip in frustration. This hurt so badly.

Maxim turned to his mother and asked her bitterly, "Do you think... Aunt Catalina put a spell on me so I can never love another woman but her daughter?"

Queen Maude nodded. "I am sorry. I don't know for sure... but I believe that's what happened."

BANG!

Maxim got up angrily. His chest was filled with so much emotion that he suddenly punched the wall in anger.

"How could you both do this to me???" His eyes were bloodshot and his voice was filled with resentment. "Do you think I don't have feelings? Am I just a doll to you that you can play around and matchmake all you want? Don't I deserve to be happy??"

.

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Hooray! for the 500th chapter!

Since this chapter is quite special, I decided to make it long and reveal the most important part of this story: the origin of Emmelyn's curse.

To be honest, TCP is the longest story I have written to date with 596k words per this chapter, or if you compare that to "The Great Gatsby" (47k words), you have read almost 13 copies of "The Great Gatsby".

My other book, "The Alchemists" has around 1.7 million words, but it consists of 5 different stories, so only 300k-400k words per story. TCP is also my first successful book.

To be honest, I don't know what makes people come and read this book because I didn't really do anything different except maybe the title is clickbaity and it has 'baby making' on the tagline.

Could you please share with me your opinion on this matter? What made you click on this book and continue reading? It will help me understand what I should do better in the future when writing a new book.

To celebrate TCP's 500th chapter, I will throw a quiz on Instagram tomorrow. I will give some questions about the book and the first 10 readers who can answer all questions correctly will get vouchers to redeem 100 Webnovel coins. I know it's not much... ahaha, but please see the thought behind it. xx