565 You Are My Husband And Mate
After they talked for a while, Drayce asked Ruven, “Since you are free now, why don’t you start training with Slayer?”
Ruven immediately stiffened and stood up, his expression complicated. Drayce called for Slayer who was standing guard outside the study.
Just as the knight entered the study and bowed to the King and the Queen, he heard Drayce inform, “Take my brother to the sword training ground and have a spar to brush up his defensive skills.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Slayer agreed and he left with the sighing Ruven.
After changing into more comfortable clothes, Ruven met Slayer in the middle of the open area far from observing eyes. As Slayer was his brother’s knight and someone he was familiar with, he thought he would go easy on him. He didn’t know how wrong he could be.
“Sir Calhoun! Wait—ack!”
“Please stand up, Your Highness.”
“—it’s unfair that you tried to trip me!”
“You need to observe everything about your opponent.”
“No! Just teach me how to receive attacks!”
“Observation skills are necessary before you can think of blocking or parrying a sword.”
Slayer was strict. Not only was this the case for Ruven and the knight order under his command, Slayer never even went easy on Drayce whenever they had a spar. All the knights under him were scared of him whenever they had to train as Slayer would not spare anyone from his strict training.
Meanwhile, back in the King’s study, Ayira also left after eating about a third of the candies she received from her brother.
Only Seren and Drayce were left inside his study. Drayce patted the empty place on the couch and gestured for her to sit next to him. Being an obedient wife, she immediately stood up and sat next to Drayce.
He circled his arm around her shoulder and looked at her. “What are you thinking about, my Queen?”
“Umm…I never saw you interacting with your siblings so I didn’t know you were so close to them. I am happy to find out you have a good relationship with them.”
“Of course, they are my siblings and we are family so how can I not be close with them?”
His reply made her feel strange. From what she had read from history books before, it gave her an impression that royalty cared little for blood ties, much less when those royals are half-siblings. That was why she felt fortunate to have a brother like Cian who showed goodwill and concern for her. Except for Cian, her other siblings didn’t treat her well.
She wondered if she was close to her sisters, would they be like Drayce and his siblings, teasing and bantering with each other?
Seren then thought about something and asked, “What about the other three princesses? Are you also close with them?”
Drayce nodded. “I am. When I was still a prince, I used to even bring them out to eat and go shopping in the city in disguise. Just that my other sisters are all grown up now and only Ayira remains comfortable acting like a spoiled baby.”
“You also brought gifts for them?”
“I have already sent those to them,” Drayce replied. “And if you are curious, no, they’re not candies.”
“What about your eldest brother, Prince Keiren?” Seren was curious about how the two got along with each other. From what she heard, after Drayce became the King, the two brothers maintained nothing more but the relationship of a king and his subject.
“We have grown apart,” Drayce replied.
“Why? Because you became the king and he didn’t?”
Drayce let out a wry smile.
“He should have been the Crown Prince, as the eldest descendant of the Ivanovs. By birthright, he should have been handed the throne. Not only that, he lacked in nothing—he’s good with administration, commerce, politics, even in military strategies, and he’s popular with the nobles and the wealthy merchants.
“He’s been groomed by his mother since young to take over the crown. Imagine how heavy the expectations were for him. When my father officially announced that I’ll be the Crown Prince…my brother didn’t even get to have a fighting chance…”
A flicker of sadness flickered in his red eyes.
“If he became the king, he would have been a good king just like Father.”
“You didn’t want the throne either, right?” she said.
“Hmm, but I had to as…” Drayce stopped as he could not make himself say that his father had made a deal with the Devil and sacrificed his mother. “…I cannot let my mother’s sacrifice go to waste. She sacrificed herself to protect this kingdom so I need to protect it as well.”
Seren nodded as she understood it. She leaned closer to her husband and rested her head on his shoulder. With her hand resting on his chest, she mumbled, “You can’t even tell him why you accepted the throne.”
“Hmm,” was all Drayce could say.
“Can I ask something?” she asked, being cautious after seeing him stay quiet.
“What is it?”
Seren didn’t raise her head up to look at him as she could not ask him while looking into his eyes. What if he didn’t like to talk about it?
“Umm..that night when Erebus showed up…,” but then she stopped.
Drayce felt puzzled, wondering why she was suddenly bringing him up out of nowhere. He lowered his head to look at her, making her look back at him. “What about him?”
She cleared her throat. “About that…You once said that if he showed up and tried to hurt me, I have to call you and you will show up.”
Drayce nodded but his forehead creased. “Why? Did he appear without me knowing?”
She shook her head. “No, no, he didn’t. I simply have a question. What I want to ask you is…remember that night when he showed up recently? I was not sure what was happening as you were quiet. I called for you many times. When he was about to hurt me, even then I called you but you didn’t show up. But on our wedding night, you returned immediately when I called you. Why was it like that?”
Drayce didn’t expect her to ask him this today of all days. He thought his wife would not notice it as long as he showed up again and his dark side disappeared without harming her. He sighed inwardly as he knew he had to tell her about the deal he had made with his dark side in order to protect her from the consequences of the remnant black magic inside her body.
Drayce caressed the end of her shoulder gently. “There is something that I have not told you, my Queen.”
“What is it?” she asked, as she felt the anxiety grow inside her. The way he looked at her, she could feel that it was not something that Drayce was happy about.
Drayce fell silent for several seconds.
“You probably have little to no memories of what happened after you were abducted, but when Aureus brought you back to the Crystal Palace, your body was tainted with the remnant black magic of that witch’s spell…”
Drayce continued to tell her what happened after that and how he had made a deal with Erebus so he would agree to help her.
“…As I have given my words to him in exchange for saving you, I cannot go against it. From now on, whenever he shows up, I will give him complete rein over my body, and so even if you call for me, I won’t be able to take back control unless he gives it back of his own accord. You are his mate. That’s why—”
“Mate…?” She felt anxious hearing this word. “What do you mean by that?”
Drayce slowly twirled her hair around his fingers as he explained, “You are my wife but also my mate—to be more precise, you are the wife of Drayce and the mate of Erebus.”
Seeing her obvious confusion, he further clarified, “This is a result of my choice of preferring to live like a human. A single soul, but there are two identities within me: the human self and the dark self. I have separated my darkness from my human self, and along with that were the majority of my powers.
“So for my human side—or you can say the part of me that I inherited from my mother— takes you as my wife, while my dark side takes you as his mate.”
Seren was still mostly unfamiliar with the concepts of supernatural beings. She tried to put it into simpler terms. “Is the difference in how you address your spouse?” she asked.
Drayce nodded but then shook his head. “Similar, but that’s putting it too simply. Mates are more than a human’s concept of spouses. Where humans marry as a matter of choice or convenience, having a mate is a matter of destiny—it’s a companionship blessed by the world itself.”
“Hmm, I think I understand,” she said. “You are both my husband and mate.”