Special Story 3.1
Lee-Jae actually had a worry.
The Cayenne Royal family was short-handed.
Not many people used the Blake castle name.
In life, you meet people who pick apart your personal situation to attack you. But once you look back, those people rarely have much genuine affection or lasting interest in your life.
Lee-Jae understood this well and knew she shouldn’t be swayed by it, yet she hated the idea of someone speaking ill about the King.
There were surely many who whispered and fussed about the succession issue, but the King showed no sign of it to her.
“Why isn’t there a child yet?”
It seemed about time. She had even carefully calculated the most likely dates.
She was almost at the point of wanting to ask her grandmother’s god—the one who grants children—for the reason.
In the end, after much thought, she brought it up to the King first.
“Roderick.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Don’t you want to have a child?”
The King, who had been preparing for something, paused and looked at her.
He cautiously asked,
“Why? Do you want many children?”
“I guess so. But honestly, I don’t really know.”
Of course, there was hope.
But to be honest, Lee-Jae was also a little scared.
She had no memories of her own parents, so she lacked confidence.
And she was afraid the child might have the same eyes as hers.
It wasn’t something she could control, but if the child ended up sad because of those eyes, wouldn’t that ultimately be her fault?
“Why did this come up all of a sudden?”
“Sudden? Don’t they talk about succession stuff at meetings?”
The King frowned slightly at that.
He guessed the reason for the worried look on his wife’s face.
In a cold voice, almost spitting out the words, he asked,
“Who said that to you?”
“Huh?”
“Who whispered that to you?”
“No one like that…”
Lee-Jae denied it, but he was certain she had heard something somewhere.
Because nobles often brought up such topics even early in the Royal marriage.
After he had put his foot down once, the topic had quieted down, but it seemed the arrows were now aimed gently at his wife.
He wondered if he should check the visitor logs again, or ask the Head maid, but irritation was already growing inside him.
For now, he said to his wife, “Wife, not everyone talks after worrying like you do. If someone talks nonsense, just think they’re a miserable person and ignore them.”
“……”
“Or just say they lack empathy. Haven’t you met stupid people like that? There must have been quite a few.”
“Why are you so angry all of a sudden? We’re supposed to discuss this kind of thing, right? I’m even worried there might be something wrong with me…”
Lee-Jae gently stroked the King’s wrinkled face, and he sighed deeply.
Of course, he wasn’t angry at her.
Succession was important to the royal family, almost a duty.
But the King also felt an urge to smash the reception hall to pieces.
It hurt him to see his wife gloomy and anxious over such things.
Though the Crown Prince was executed by law for treason, there were other relatives holding the Blake name. There were many ways to manage the succession.
“That’s not something we can control just by worrying about it. If you stew over it tonight, of course I’ll be in a bad mood too.”
“……”
“Do you think I live with you just because I need an heir?”
“……”
“If you had no child, would you not live with me?”
“I know what you mean so stop it and let’s sleep.”
“You sure fall asleep easily.”
The King said gruffly, but pulled Lee-Jae closer and began to gently pat her back.
As if to say, “I’m here, so don’t worry and sleep.”
Lee-Jae buried her face in his chest and smiled quietly.
Hearing her husband speak as if it was no big deal made her feel much more at ease.
In fact, it made her feel reassured.
She rubbed her face against his chest, and his soothing hands grew even more tender.
Lee-Jae wasn’t really the type to visit doctors often.
Except for exorcisms, she hadn’t been seriously ill.
Moreover, she was better at understanding her own body condition than most people.
Someone who practiced energy cultivation every day couldn’t help but look deeply into every corner of their body.
Sitting cross-legged, Lee-Jae once again circulated the energy within her body.
Then she tilted her head slightly.
“It definitely feels different from usual.”
She couldn’t explain it exactly, but she had been sensing a subtle, strange energy since a while ago.
It was clearly a different kind of energy from what she normally possessed.
Small, but with a presence that couldn’t be ignored.
She circulated the energy inside her body several times while continuing to ponder.
Then her eyes lit up as if she had realized something.
“Could it be that a child is coming?”
Lee-Jae’s pupils began to fill with half expectation and half anxiety.
At the same time, her husband was in the study.
The King’s attendants wore expressions of embarrassment and confusion.
The King’s pattern was different from usual.
In the early days of their marriage, thanks to the Queen’s superhuman sleep ability, the King would nap briefly on the sofa or in Arthur’s Forest.
He would fall asleep anywhere as long as the Queen’s lap was available.
He was so sleep-deprived and desperate that he could nap anywhere.
But now that was a thing of the past.
Since his sleep rhythm had fully stabilized, he no longer took naps during the day.
He always rested at night in his wife’s bedroom, maintaining a regular schedule.
So when the King suddenly stretched out on the sofa in the study, the head attendant cautiously suggested,
“Your Majesty, since you are resting, would you not be more comfortable resting in your chambers? Her Majesty the Queen is there now as well.”
“I’ll just close my eyes briefly and get up soon. Don’t worry.”
But the brief rest gradually extended.
Eventually, it became embarrassing to even call it a nap, and the attendants started exchanging glances.
“Did His Majesty not sleep well last night? The Queen also seemed tired today.”
“They still seem… ah, no, nothing.”
The commander of the knights also looked at the King’s deep sleep with a somewhat peculiar gaze.
Jade, who had come to report, lowered his voice when the chamberlain shook his head and looked around.
“Is His Majesty asleep right now?”
“Yes, for quite some time already.”
“It’s been a long while since I’ve seen him sleep like that.”
“Indeed.”
Eventually, like the other attendants, Jade stood by the wall, waiting for the King to wake up.
Though he had a full schedule afterward, he dared not disturb the King.
The room was so quiet it felt peaceful.
They say sleep moves around.
Even the attendants on standby had heavy eyelids that afternoon.
The peaceful silence was broken when the King let out a low groan.
“Ugh…”
Dozens of eyes turned toward the King at once, and his handsome face was furrowed in his sleep.
Everyone held their breath, silently watching the King.
The King became quiet again for a while.
People thought he wouldn’t wake and looked away, but from time to time, he groaned softly again.
His breathing and the occasional voice became rougher and rougher.
In fact, this was something ordinary people usually experienced in bed.
However, palace people, especially those assisting the King, were very sensitive about this.
Because they had come to realize that most of the King’s problems were related to sleep or nighttime.
Jade was ready to run to the Queen’s chambers and carry her if necessary.
At that moment, the King was actually having a strange dream.
He was walking around the castle with his beloved wife when a giant lion the size of a house leisurely passed through the castle gate.
Roderick carefully observed the beast, but strangely, he didn’t feel the urge to draw his sword.
But from that moment, the lion began running around wildly, tearing the castle apart.
It grabbed onto a tree too small for its size, and the tree cracked and broke with a loud snap.
After destroying several trees like that, the lion splashed into the lake.
The squirrels living nearby scurried away in a flash.
Finally, when the lion struck the ancient statue in the center of the castle with its paw, Roderick frowned.
“It’s completely wrecking the castle.”
There was no other way to describe it but as wanton destruction.
However, what really startled Roderick, who had only been watching, was what came next.
He saw the lion’s bright yellow eyes, which had been scanning around, fix precisely on the Queen.
As the lion charged toward her at a terrifying speed, the King quickly shielded her behind his back.
“No. Don’t touch my wife.”
“Absolutely not.”
The lion tried to leap at the King, who was blocking its way.
At that moment, a faint voice whispered in the king’s ear.
It felt as if someone was stirring his body, trying to pull him out of unconsciousness.
“Your Majesty? Your Majesty?”
Roderick frowned and struggled to open his eyes.
What he saw was not the lion, but a familiar face.
The commander of the knights looked at him with deep concern.
“Are you alright?”
“………”
“Forgive my rudeness, but I thought you might be having a bad dream, so I woke you.”
When the King remained silent, Jade cautiously asked,
“Shall I bring Her Majesty the Queen to you?”
“No, it’s fine. It’s nothing.”
The King’s voice was much hoarser than usual.
He looked around.
All the attendants were watching him with startled faces.
The King sighed but soon drifted into thought.
It had been a long time since he had such a dream, but it was hard to dismiss it as a mere nightmare, and it was unusually vivid for a dream.
“What is this strange dream?”
Habitually brushing back his bangs, he realized cold sweat had formed on his forehead.
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suguzzy
The mischievous lion child is coming 😆