The Cursed Prince

Emmelyn cleared her throat before she replied to his question.

"What do you think? Of course, I would try to quickly finish our agreement as soon as possible. I thought the only way I could keep my end of the deal fast is by giving birth to multiple babies," she said honestly. "We were not in love back then. So, I just wanted to be out of here..."

Mars massaged his temple. "Don't you know how dangerous it is to give birth to multiple babies? One of my cousins' wife had twins and it almost cost her her life. And you want three in one go?"

Emmelyn pursed her lips. She had heard how giving birth was painful. That was actually one of the reasons why she preferred to do it once instead of thrice.

Better to get it over with as quickly as possible.

"Giving birth is a life and death experience," Mars added. "I can't believe you value your life so little by wanting to take that huge risk."

He didn't blame Emmelyn for wanting to see their agreement end as soon as possible by giving birth to twins or triplets.

She was a scheming woman and would use any means necessary to get what she wanted. Mars had his own plans too.

Mars wanted to do the opposite, but actually, he was also scheming. Mars wanted to trick Emmelyn into staying by avoiding getting her pregnant for the third time after they had two children.

He wouldn't want to be a pot calling the kettle black, in this case. However, he was terrified to think that she tried to conceive multiple babies. Didn't she know how dangerous it was???

"So, did it work?" He asked her with concern. "Did she give you such potion?"

Emmelyn shook her head. "No, she said there is no such thing. The rumors I heard that she could help people to conceive twins are simply not true."

"Oh, thank God..." The prince breathed out a sigh of relief. "Okay.. so, you came to her because you wanted the potion, but she couldn't give it to you. And then what happened? What's bad luck have to do with her?"

Emmelyn sighed. "This has been bothering me for a long time."

"Please tell me..." Mars pulled her closer to him and held her hands in his. "Tell me all your troubles and everything that makes you upset. I want to know."

Emmelyn remembered the prophecy and everything Mrs. Adler had told her about Emmelyn being bad luck. She felt hurt, being accused of such a thing.

Now, she hated herself for believing Mrs. Adler's words for a while that she actually wanted to leave Mars and her baby.

Even though Emmelyn thought Mrs. Adler didn't mean her any harm, but the witch might unintentionally have said things that were not true and made Emmelyn upset.

She might be a witch, but Mrs. Adler was still human after all. She could make mistakes.

Mrs. Adler might misunderstand the vision she saw in her Divination Window. This made her share the wrong prophecy.

Emmelyn finally recounted what she had heard from Mrs. Adler. Just like what Mars had shared about Ellena, she didn't add nor omit anything.

"She said I had this really dark aura. This was the first thing she noticed about me when she saw me," Emmelyn explained. "She told me I was surrounded by blood and I will be the cause of a great war."

"A great war?" Mars furrowed his brows.

He didn't immediately dismiss her claim. Mars remembered his father also mentioned a war in the past. King Jared had a nightmare every night for one whole year about a war in the future between Draec and a very powerful kingdom.

Those dreams were the reason why Draec was so aggressive with their conquest. King Jared wanted his kingdom to be stronger and able to face any enemy, no matter how big and powerful.

His decision had made Draec the empire it was today. Mars understood what his father wanted.

King Jared wanted to unite the whole continent. Mars had also taken part in his father's dream and led their invasions since ten years ago.

Now, this could be a coincidence, or there might be some truth behind it. How could his father dream of a great war, and a village witch also mention something similar to Emmelyn?

This was suspicious. Did the village witch have anything to do with his father's dream?

Mars had heard rumors that some witches could cast a spell to attack people in their sleep.

"I have traveled quite a bit and saw many kingdoms, but none of the big countries I visited had the colors Mrs. Adler mentioned. So, now I'm thinking that it might not be real. It is possible that she really saw something but it's not what she thought it was. Those countries don't even exist." Emmelyn said.

"What makes you say that?" Mars asked in a probing tone.

Now he remembered Emmelyn mentioned that the colors were different when Mars told her about his father's dream, that Draec would be involved in a great war.

At that time, Emmelyn lied and told him she only heard rumors. Now, Mars knew that Emmelyn actually heard the same prophecy.

He wanted to know the details, so he could compare them with his father's dream.

"Mrs. Adler said the source of my bad luck is in Draec. She said, if I stayed, I will cause a great war," Emmelyn explained. She sounded depressed and tired just by remembering the darn prophecy. "She also said I will bring bad luck to you if I didn't leave immediately."

"That's impossible. You can't possibly bring me bad luck," Mars looked irritated that Emmelyn would trust such a rubbish prophecy.

He believed with his kingdom's power, there was nothing that could hurt him. The Strongmoors and Draec were simply too powerful, especially now that he was no longer cursed.

"I didn't know what to believe, okay?" Emmelyn was now in tears. "She didn't seem to be lying. Mrs. Adler was from Wintermere and she is so kind to me. I honestly believe she was just trying to help me as a fellow Wintermerian."

"Tell me what she saw in her so-called 'Divination Window'?" Mars asked again. He decided that he needed to get to the bottom of this.

"She saw a battle between two armies. One army had banners and uniforms with black and red colors, and the other army had silver and green," Emmelyn said. "I was standing in front of a palace that was engulfed with fire, and behind me, the two armies were fighting violently."

"It sounded so specific, yet it doesn't necessarily mean that it's true," Mars said. "I agree with you. She might see something but it was not what she thought it was."

Emmelyn nodded. "That's what I think now. But it was bothering me so much for days and I tried not to think about it. I don't have any troops to go to war, and I also don't have any enemies, other than Draec. So... now, I am thinking that it doesn't mean anything."

 "Our colors in Draec are black and grey, not red, silver, nor green. So it's definitely not us," Mars replied. "Grey is my mother's favorite color. That's the reason why we started using black and grey in our military uniforms after my parents ascended the throne. Black is for my father."

This last piece of information made an impression on Emmelyn. She knew the king loved his wife so much, but she didn't know he would even change the colors of his country for her.