CH 293

Chapter 293: Epilogue (3)

“Was that why you decided to acknowledge our relationship and not go against it anymore?”

“That’s right. I was trying to acknowledge you two. Ria, if you truly wished that you wanted to stay behind, I was planning to leave Arundel quietly and not make any fuss. But that guy…!”

Dimitris balled up his hand into a fist and slammed it on the wall below the window. He growled with an aggravated expression.

“The moment I greeted you, he kicked me out by force and sent me back to Chrichton. He then made sure I could never enter that place ever again. Just how am I supposed to take that as!?”

“Igor didn’t know at all that you were thinking this way. He kept worrying that you would use the doc*ment that you pulled out as an excuse to take me back to Chrichton. I’m not sure whether this will help, but Igor probably wished to just toss you into the sea at that moment instead of sending you back to Chrichton.”

“Ria, are you seriously siding with him right in front of me?”

Hearing his voice filled with rage, Rihannan laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

“Don’t be angry. You know, I never actually shaved my husband’s beard like this. You’re the first person I did it to, brother.”

And with Rihannan’s kiss on the cheek, his anger immediately subsided. While he grinned like a idiot, she cleaned up the rest of his face, but had a slightly sad smile on her lips.

“But are you all right?”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about your life right now.”

3 years ago, Chrichton coronated a new king. If it was like before she became reborn, the rightful owner of the place as the king would have been Dimitris. However, in this lifetime where the future had been changed, the one who had actually became the king of Chrichton was Prince Ivan, who was the brother of the current presiding king.

After Dimitris made sure that Prince Ivan could safely anda*suredly ascend to the throne and see that Rihannan was having a happy life without any problems, he then shook his hands off of all political matters completely without any regret. He then began in earnest jumping into the world of overseas trading. To travel across the far seas, arrive at unknown nations, meeting unknown people and trading culture as well as commodities with them. That was what he had dreamt of doing since he was young. However, if the future didn’t change due to Igor and Rihannan’s input, he would have ended up sitting on the highest position possible in Chrichton. He may end up hating Rihannan if he realizes this truth.

In the meantime, Rihannan kept an eye out just how many people were aiming to sit in that position. The queen mother of Arundel, Count Clobis, the crown prince of Chrichton… All of them were blind with greed for the power in that position. Though Dimitris in the past had to become the crown prince involuntarily, it didn’t mean that she was sure that he never wanted to become the crown prince, or the king of Chrichton.

“Haven’t you ever thought… That you could have become the king of Chrichton even once?”

“What are you saying? Me, becoming a king? Even if I do have the right to ascend the throne as the descendent, my order is way later anyways.”

Rihannan lowered her eyes quietly.

“You never know with people. All those royal family members that are ahead of you in order may suddenly meet an unfortunate end at the same time…”

Dimitris laughed out loudly.

“I’m not sure why you are saying such things, but I have no interest in ascending to the throne at all. You asked how I was nowdays, right? I’m satisfied. More than satisfied. If I wasn’t, then there wouldn’t be a reason why I would sail around the seas without even bothering to marry, right? Ah, I guess there could be one good thing if I did become the king. I could show off the powers I hold in front of your husband. But since you’re living a good life, I don’t have the need to do that anymore.”

He jumped up from his chair. He then bowed his body forward slightly and pet Rihannan’s head.

“Are you worried or something? You don’t need to. He had died long ago, and there’s no longer anyone that could hurt you anymore.”

The man that Dimitris is talking about right now was about the previous crown prince of Chrichton.

5 years ago, the crown prince was found dead suddenly one day. After becoming dethroned from his position as the crown prince, he went for a hunting trip outside of the palace one day when he suffered an accident and died right there. When his body was found, it had already burnt to a crisp. There was a fire raging across the mountain area during that time, and peoplea*sumed that he couldn’t escape from the fire and ended up dying from it. Only the ring that was left on his finger indicated that the body was really the body of the previous crown prince.

And with that, his existence was quietly forgotten. But Rihannan vaguelya*sumed that Igor may have had a hand in that incident. The crown prince had died the exact way that Rihannan herself may have ended up dying. She wasn’t ignorant enough to not make the connection between the two.

“Mother!”

At that moment, Maia’s voice cried out. Rihannan and Dimitris left the room together. Maia came back inside together with Mary with baskets filled with strawberries. Just as Maia saw Rihannan, she gleefully ran towards her.

“Mother! Look at this, I picked all these strawberries myself!”

Seeing the basket filled to the brim with strawberriesa, Rihannan laughed out loudly.

“Maia, this is way too much, even if all the people in the mansion eats it everyday, it will still take some days to go through them!”

“I’ll eat all the remaining ones! I swear I can!”

Boasting about how much she could eat, Mary followed behind her.

“The princess was really amazing at how fast she could pick all those strawberries, they were all picked in just a second! If I didn’t stop her, she would have picked off every single strawberry seeds available in the fores… Oh my goodness!”

Mary turned to see Dimitris who had turned to a completely different person, and was so surprised that she had dropped the basket from her hand. DImitris swiftly moved over to catch the basket from falling onto the floor.

“My goodness, who is this? It looks like our handsome young master Dimitris had returned!”

Mary’s mouth was agape. In that time she took to go out to pick some strawberries and come back, Dimitris had turned from a hairy monkey to the handsome and sharp looking handsome man she remembered in the past. Hearing Mary’s compliment, Dimitris smiled with satisfaction, then looked towards Maia. Maia was also staring at his face intently with a slightly surprised expression.

“Maia, my princess. How do I look to you? Does uncle look more handsome now that he shaved his beard?”

Maia studied every corner of Dimitris’s face as if she was a teacher eyeing for imperfections. She then gave a quick nod.

“Hm. Much better than before at least. Don’t ever grow a beard again.”

Dimitris was almost overaught with happiness.

“Really? Then Maia, could you give your uncle a kiss on the cheek?”

“Ugh!”

Maia scolded her dimwitted uncle a whole lot before slipping away to the kitchen. Rihannan patted his dejected shoulder and comforted him.

“Don’t be so sad, Dima. One day you’ll get a kiss on the cheek from her.”

But Dimitris’s face was still very depressed.

“It looks like Maia still hates me…”

“She’s just a little difficult to please since she got that from her father. Don’t give up, Dima.”

The dessert served that dinner was overflowing with strawberries that were picked from the forest. Maia excitedly talked about all the happenings she experienced while at the forest, and the family laughed endlessly hearing her fun adventures.

When the time became late at night, Rihannan laid Maia onto the bed and lulled her to sleep. Usually she would immediately fall asleep once Rihannan pulled the blanket over her and pat her chest, but for some reason Maia didn’t seem to be able to sleep at all tonight.

“Maia, are you not sleepy?”

Maia grabbed Rihannan’s hand and pulled it over to her cheek where she rubbed her face on it.

“Yes, mother. But I think I’ll be able to sleep right away if I get to sleep together with you.”

After arriving here, Maia became much more needy and wanting of her mother’s affection. It seems that it was because while she needed to keep up an outward appearance of nobility which was a heavy burden on her back in Arundel, but in here she didn’t need to care about that at all.

Rihannan moved into Maia’s bed and laid next to her as she faced her. Her lovely daughter had the spitting image and beauty as her mother. With her shining silver hair and exceptionally white and soft skin along with her facial appearance, she was more similar looking to Rihannan than Igor.

However, it seemed to Rihannan that Maia had the deep purple eyes taken directly from her father. If she were to just stay still and stare into Maia’s eyes, she may even make the mistake of thinking she’s looking at Igor instead of Maia. Her personality also was very similar to Igor in many ways. So much so that Basil commented that Maia was just like Igor back when he was young.

“Mother, please tell me of the story of how you first met father.”

Staring at Maia’s sparkling purple eyes, Rihannan laughed.

“Again?”

“Yes, please tell me again.”

Maia had a lot of interest in the love story between her parents. Even though Rihannan particularly told her of the first time they met many times already, Maia still begged her to tell it again. Rihannan cleared her throat and began to speak.

“So, it was around the time when I was 10 years old. I was following mother and went to the royal palace for the first time. While mother was having a chat with queen mother, I was in the gardens playing alone, when…”

“That’s when you met father, right? And father was lying down in the garden at that time.”

Rihannan nodded her head. She coulnd’t understand why Maia kept asking for the story every time when she already heard everything that had happened and remembers it. For now, she just continued the story.

“That’s right. I didn’t even know your father was there, and I ended up seeing something while I was chasing around flowers and b*tterflies.”

“You mean when you saw a cat catch and eat a bird, right?”

Rihannan couldn’t help but audibly laugh, and stroked Maia’s hair. At this point, she was confused whether she was telling her the story, or just discussing the story together.

“That’s right. In the end, your father went up the tree himself and saved the small bird.”

And the story always ended at that point. Rihannan nor Igor talked about the unbelievable miracle that had happened after that moment. That was a secret that only the two knew of after all.