Chapter 210: Back to Peace (3)

When Milton retreated, Leila got up from her seat and walked over to Bess. Then…

“Elizabeth.”

She quietly and firmly spoke her daughter’s name. 

“Wahhh! Wahhhhhh!”

Bess started crying louder when her mother began to approach her. It was as if she was trying to let the world know that she was still sad. But Leila only repeated herself firmly.

“Elizabeth.”

“Wahhh!! Mom. Dad… dad…”

Elizabeth was to tell her mom about how unfair her dad had been. How could he tell her that she had to wash up first before getting a snack? For Elizabeth, this was more than enough reason for her dad to become a villain in her world. But Leila had no intentions of indulging her tantrum and continued to speak firmly. 

“Stop crying, love.”[1]

“Waa… a…”

Her dad was a pushover, but her mom was unyielding and tantrums never worked on her. Elizabeth was beginning to lose her will to continue in the face of her mother’s firm determination. There was no lecturing, no physical discipline, and no grandfather to spoil her[2]. But Queen Leila managed to correct her daughter’s bad habit by suppressing it with her overpowering dignity. She simply waited for her daughter to stop crying. Once Bess stopped crying, Leila called over a maid.

“Wash her up and give her a snack.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

And that was the end of the situation.

Elizabeth must have been tired after crying because she quietly nestled in the maid’s arms and meekly went to get cleaned up.

Milton stared at Queen Leila in amazement.

“...How did you do that?”

He already knew that she was like a nine-tailed vixen, but he never thought it’d be helpful in parenting. If he had known it would be like this, then he’d have learned from her much sooner. Seeing him staring at her like this, Queen Leila spoke to him firmly.

“That’s because you say yes to everything and let her climb up all over you.”

“No, but…”

“I’m glad you love Bess, but if you love her, then it’s necessary to say no to her too.”

“I know that, but…”

“You can’t just ‘know that.’”

Queen Leila spent the next couple of minutes nagging at Milton about parenting. She started off by telling him that he couldn’t give Elizabeth a snack before she even had her meal and ended by telling him he wasn’t a genie in a lamp that could grant all of Elizabeth’s wishes; basically, Queen Leila pointed out all of Milton’s faults, one by one. 

“All right, I got it. I won’t do it again.”

In the end, Milton surrendered. He decided to leave most of his daughter’s education in Leila’s hands. He had realized that even if he loved her, no, because he loved her, he couldn’t just let her be raised willy-nilly. 

***

“Parenting is the real war.”

After eating dinner and Elizabeth had fallen asleep, Milton retreated to his bedroom with his beloved wife. This time, that woman was Violet.

“But, isn’t she still cute?”

“Yeah, she’s so cute I want to die.”

Milton looked happy again. Could there be anything else in the world that could make a person so happy just by thinking about it? It was amazing. 

“Ahem… But Leila is right. It doesn’t seem like it’s good to say yes to everything and pampering her.”

It seemed like Milton had learned something after getting the whole parenting experience.

Violet responded to him as she personally helped Milton out of his overcoat and hung it up.

“But I find myself being envious of Bess.”

“Huh? Why? What’re you talking about?”

“I have… never been loved like that by my father.”

At those words, Milton realized something. Violet had never been loved by her father or received any attention from him; she had only been used and taken advantage of by him.

He began to wonder whether he was hurting her by causing her to remember the emotional pain she had gone through in her childhood as she watched him pampering his daughter. When she saw Milton looking at her, Violet grinned.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m all right because…”

She pressed her face against Milton’s chest.

“I’m so happy right now. So happy I wonder if it’s okay for me to be this happy.”

Her words rang with sincerity

“Violet.”

At that moment, Milton loved her so much. He lifted her face and kissed her as hard as he could. He gently lifted her onto the bed and untied the laces of her dress. Then…

“Ah, wait. I… I have to get ready first.”

She lightly pushed him away and reached over to get something out of the drawer next to the bed.

“That’s…?”

She smiled at Milton’s question.

“The date[3] should be fine, but just in case.”

What she took out was a birth control pill.  It was something she always took before she and Milton made love to each other but this time, Milton grabbed her wrist before she could swallow it.

“You don’t have to take it. It’s okay for you to get pregnant now too, isn’t it?”

Milton knew that Violet had been deliberately avoiding pregnancy. 

While the Lester line didn’t matter since the child born from Queen Leila would become a member of the Lester Kingdom’s royal family, the heir to the title of Grand Duke Forrest would come from either Sophia or Violet, and Violet wanted Sophia’s child to have that position. 

Truthfully, Violet, as a princess of a country, had a better bloodline than Sophia, who was just a daughter of a noble family. But disregarding bloodlines, Violet had always been aware that she was Milton’s third wife. While a new rock could remove a rock that was already embedded… Violet couldn’t bear to push Sophia away like that when Sophia had been so kind to her. That was why she had been putting off her own pregnancy until Sophia had gotten pregnant and given birth to a son first.

Milton had always known Violet’s inner thoughts and had been grateful towards her. But now, Sophia had given birth to a child and that child was a son. The issue of succession was solved and there shouldn’t be any problem with Violet getting pregnant now. 

“Your child will be very adorable.”

Milton softly kissed Violet’s slender neck as he spoke. She seemed to hesitate for a moment before she pushed Milton away once again.

“I”m sorry, but not yet.”

“What?”

Milton never thought Violet would refuse.

‘Why? The issue of succession should be fine now, so why?’

Milton spoke cautiously.

“Are you waiting until William gets a bit bigger? There’s no need for that.”

“No, that’s not it. That was a concern, but it’s not just that now.”

“Then what is it?”

“I’ll tell you tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning? Why can’t you tell me now…”

“I want to show you than to tell you.”

“......”

When Milton stared at her in confusion, Violet continued to talk shyly.

“Just listen to me tonight, okay?”

She swallowed the birth control pill and untied the laces of her dress. With a rustle, the dress fell down to the floor and Violet’s pale skin was revealed...

‘Let’s think about tomorrow’s business tomorrow.’

Milton decided to push off his questions until tomorrow and focus on his beautiful wife in front of his eyes. 

***

The next morning. 

They had been passionately making love until the early hours that Milton had slept in and woken up rather late. But when he woke up, the lovely wife he should be holding in his embrace wasn’t there.

“Huh? Where’d she go?”

Just as Milton was looking for Violet, who had woken up first, a maid entered and spoke to him.

“Your Grace, Grand Duchess Violet is waiting for you. Please get ready and come with me.”

“Huh?”

Without even knowing the reason, he followed after the maid. He had been dazed in the beginning, but he quickly woke up as they continued to walk. The place they arrived at was…

“Why the training hall?”

It was Milton’s personal training hall. Violet was waiting for him there with her hair neatly tied back and in her armor. Milton was puzzled when he saw her looking completely different from the woman he shared a bed with last night; currently, she looked like she belonged on the battlefield.

“Violet, it’s the morning. What’re you doing?”

“I thought it would be better to show you in person. Will you be my opponent for a while?”

Milton wasn’t quite ready, but he still listened to her request.

‘I’m sure she has a reason for this.’

He wasn’t wearing his armor, but he picked up a sword from the side and faced her.

“It’s just sparring, but I’ll be giving it my all, so you do the same thing, okay, honey?”

“Giving it my all but… hm.”

If Milton had been troubled before, it was all gone after he saw Violet taking her stance. He realized that he couldn’t halfass it when he saw the atmosphere around her. Then…

“Whooooo…”

Violet steadied her breathing and immediately rushed forward. She didn’t broadcast her movement; it was so smooth that it was like she was gliding on ice. She went in low and swung her sword toward Milton’s ankle. He stepped back and dodged her attack, then he swung his sword down towards her. He hadn’t put in his full strength behind the attack, but his sword still slashed through the air and was falling toward Violet’s head, however… Before it could reach her, Violet’s body moved smoothly out of the way while moving her sword toward Milton’s chin.

‘Oof!’

Milton managed to dodge the blow by leaning back, but thanks to that, he was unbalanced. Without missing a beat, Princess Violet kicked Milton in the abdomen. 

SMACK!

“Keugh…”

Although he had a six-pack, Milton keenly felt his wife’s kick. He staggered back but quickly straightened out his stance. He finally realized something.

‘She got stronger, much stronger than before.’

He quickly checked her stats.

[Violet ron Florence]

Grand Duchess LV. 4

Strength - 91                 Command - 85

Intellect - 30                Politics - 20

Loyalty - 99

Special Traits - Recklessness, Fierce Combat, Commando, Intuition

Recklessness LV. 8: Able to fight while ignoring your own injuries during battle. However, your rational judgment will be greatly reduced

Fierce Combat LV. 8: Activates when you are in a precarious situation. Brings forth an ability up to 80% higher than normal

Commando LV. 9(MAX): Ability to jump into the fray against many enemies. When executed, it has a high probability of causing the opponent’s formation to break down. It also reduces the enemy’s morale. 

Intuition LV. 7: Pre-emptively sense critical situations that approach your troops 

“How… Violet?”

Milton was stunned. Violet looked at him calmly.

“I’ll really start now.”

And from her sword appeared the symbol of a Master, an Aura Blade.

“W… wait a minute.”

“Here I go.”

Milton tried to stop her, but Violet didn’t hesitate and ran forward. He had no choice but to bring forth his own Aura Blade. 

CLANGGG!

The sound that rang out was incomparable to anything before, and the two began to fight in earnest.  Having gotten rid of the idea that Violet was worse than himself, Milton began to spar with her sincerely as Violet too gave it her all without going crazy. After 200 moves were exchanged, the two separated and put away their swords before their sparring became more intense.

“Whoooo…”

Violet adjusted her breathing as she put away her sword while Milton looked at her in disbelief.

‘I knew she was a genius, but…’

He had never thought she would suddenly become a Master. He had trained Rick and Tommy hard and tossed them on the battlefield, but they were still struggling to overcome the mental wall to become a Master. They were still an intermediate Expert, yet Princess Violet had managed to get over that same wall by herself in the palace.

This wasn’t possible with just talent alone. In order to rise to the level of a Master, she must have trained and polished her skills every day without taking a single day off.  Having experienced the result of her effort, Milton looked at her with a complicated expression.  

“This is why… you said no, isn’t it?”

He understood why she was reluctant to conceive right now. Princess Violet nodded.

“The war isn’t completely over, right?”

1. The original didn’t have the word ‘love,’ but because the sentence had a softer nuance to it, I added it in because ‘stop crying’ was too hard and commanding.

2. Referring to how grandparents always try to stop their children from disciplining their grandchildren

3. Fertility date for those who didn’t get it