Note:

This chapter is dedicated to Maude Fluckiger. Thank you, thank you for gifting a magic castle to Mars and Emmelyn today. Wow! I woke up to see a castle and being #1 in Golden Ranking. It felt surreal!

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Sand spread his wings and went up to fly. Edgar bravely held on to his neck and rode the dragon like the valiant knight that he was.

Emmelyn looked up and protected her eyes from the sun as she watched the majestic animal went higher and higher in the sky and dashed to the west. After five minutes, it disappeared from view.

"What a lucky man," Kira commented. "I wish I could ride a dragon too..."

Emmelyn agreed that Edgar was lucky he was given the opportunity to ride a dragon. He had never even seen one before today, but now he was on a dragon's back, flying home gloriously.

Emmelyn hoped Edgar could arrive in Draec quickly and revive her mother-in-law. She wished she could see Queen Elara's face when she met Harlow for the first time. Ahh.. she must be really happy.

Gosh... this made Emmelyn feel sad. She missed her daughter so much. Harlow would be six months old now. Was she healthy? Was she growing well? Did Lily take care of her lovingly?

Did Mars love their daughter? Was Harlow happy?

So many questions filled her mind. At this point, she tried to get rid of the thoughts about her daughter and steeled her heart so she wouldn't look fragile and sad around other people.

"Now, what do you want to do?" Maxim asked Emmelyn. "I can be your tour guide around Castilse."

"Well... we can go to Archelius Library and see what's in there," Emmelyn said. "I have always wanted to see it."

"Very well," Maxim replied with a smile. "Your wish is my command, princess."

Emmelyn raised an eyebrow. "Using pick-up line now, are we?"

"Haha.. I'm just telling the truth," the king replied nonchalantly. Then he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Just kidding. I am not in my right mind now. I might be saying stupid things. Just bear with me."

Emmelyn nodded. She understood him. They walked together toward the main palace and got ready to go to Archelius Library.

Seeing the two friends walking together that way, Kira rolled her eyes and muttered to herself, "They should have just got married."

She walked behind them, following Maxim and Emmelyn, excited to see the legendary library.

Now that Kira had seen Edgar, and Maxim, two men that Emmelyn had told her about, she could confirm that Emmelyn had good taste.

This made Kira wonder what Emmelyn's husband looked like. If she chose that man to be her husband, surely it was because he was handsome, powerful, and charming. Right?

Kira was curious to see Mars Strongmoor.

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Mars looked up from his documents when he saw John came with Mr. Vitas. They both looked worried and this made him wonder if something bad happened.

"Do you know what happened to Gewen?" he asked Mr. Vitas. "He had to cancel the trip to Summeria to find Edgar because he was injured. Is his injury really bad? What did he tell you?"

The old physician sighed and seemed struggling to find the right words. His attitude made Mars wonder if Gewen was injured really badly. What happened to that man anyway?

Two days ago, Gewen suddenly sent his man to the royal palace to apologize that he had to rest at home and recuperate from his injuries. Mars couldn't think of a scenario where Gewen would lose a fight to anyone in their kingdom.

Was it a bar brawl? They had that when they were teenagers and often snuck out secretly to drink at taverns and the patrons there didn't know who they were, but it was a long time ago. They were past that already.

"You seem hiding something from me," Mars raised an eyebrow. He then looked at the physician with narrowed eyes. His voice sounded commanding when he ordered the old man to tell him what happened. "I will not ask twice."

Finally, Mr. Vitas cleared his throat and spoke. "Well... Lord Gewen is indeed unwell. However, it is not injuries from fighting but..."

He looked struggling.

"So... he was really injured, but...?" Mars asked again. His voice now sounded impatient.

"Lord Gewen actually caught a venereal disease." Finally, Mr. Vitas blurted the truth. "He forbade anyone from spreading this news. So, he faked the story about getting in a bar brawl and claimed he was injured from the fight."

"...."

Mars' mouth was agape but he couldn't say anything. Why did he still feel surprised? This should come as no surprise to him. Right?

With Gewen's sexual adventures with many different women, it was no brainer that sooner or later he would catch that disease. That stupid womanizer always boasted that those women only slept with him and not others.

How would he know? Ahh... so dumb, Mars could only curse inwardly. After this happened, he thought it was useless to scold Gewen and gave him advice.

Saying 'I told you' to someone who was having a tough time because of their own fault was not a good thing to do. So, Mars decided he would refrain from criticizing his friend.

The young king believed this was divine punishment for Gewen, for his lewd behavior in the past, and hoped Gewen would learn something from this.

"Yeah... so, I already gave him some herb concoction and other medicine to help him recover," Mr. Vitas explained. "I already advised him to be more careful... going forward."

"Okay," Mars sighed.

Mr. Vitas added, "Lord Gewen said he understood his mistake and he even vowed to never sleep with any woman again after he recovers."

Mars couldn't help but chuckle.

Yeah, right.

He knew Gewen.

"Very well. So, how long do you think he will need to recover?" Mars asked Mr. Vitas again. He was thinking of sending someone else as Gewen's replacement to look for Edgar.

"I hope he can recover in two weeks, Your Majesty. I told Lord Gewen to rest a lot and... avoid doing any dangerous activities..." Mr. Vitas said.

"Hmm... okay." Mars nodded. He knew it was useless to wait for Gewen. He would send General Frey or someone else to go to Atlantea and look for Edgar.

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From the author:

I can't help but write this part, to give Edgar and Gewen a chance to meet in Draec when Edgar arrived with Sand the dragon. I think we also need to see Gewen experience 'divine punishment' for his womanizing ways... hahahhaa.. Will he change, or...?

Btw, venereal disease = STD (old term).

PS: OMG OMG... I woke up to see we are on top of Golden Ranking. We are at #1 with over 500 golden tickets! I thought I was dreaming and needed some time to pull myself together. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true. It feels surreal.

So, thank you so much for your support!! I love you lots!

Okay, I still have one more bonus chapter for Sept 1, and then I will publish our regular 2 chapters. So, expect to read 3 more in the next few hours.

PPS: I got a voucher which you can redeem to get 100 coins on Webnovel app. It is only for the first 10 people. So, it works on a first-come first-served basis.

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You go to Profile page on the app, go to REDEEM tab (next to STORE tab). That's where you redeem the code. Enjoy!