The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 37

 The Counselor Concubine
Kairen was glaring at his mother, visibly annoyed by her words. Cassandra, however, was hesitating. She was reluctant to part from Kairen, but for the sake of their baby, wouldn’t it be better for her to stay here? How was the Concubine Mother so sure she would be safer in the Diamond Palace instead of the Onyx Castle?
Seeing her uncertainty, Kareen rolled her eyes.
“Enough! I haven’t seen my children in a while. All three of you will stay here for a few days and I am not asking! Krai too.”
Hearing its name, the dragon turned its head to the Concubine Mother and purred softly in her direction as she smiled.
“That’s right, I missed you too, little one.”
Cassandra wondered if Krai’s attitude towards her meant Kairen loved his mother more than he let on. The Imperial Concubine turned to Cassandra again, frowning as she looked at her slave collar. She pointed it out with her finger, displeased.
“This! We need to get rid of this as well when we go to the Imperial Palace for the New Year celebration.”
Hearing this, Shareen almost choked on her wine. Kairen seemed shocked too.
“Mother, you will be going back? To see Father?”
“Who said anything about seeing that old man? I am going there to attend the celebrations, and to show off my future grandchild to all those whores at the Imperial Palace.”
“As if,” said Shareen. “If you show up without going to see Father, he’d send the entire army to fetch you!”
Her mother shrugged, not phased at all. Cassandra was speechless! Their mother was so strong-willed, she would even dare to ignore the Emperor himself! She then instructed them to eat, essentially closing the topic. While eating her little bites, Cassandra tried to remember how much longer until the New Year celebrations. She felt like her time at the camp had been months, longer than the couple of weeks it actually was. As she took the time to count exactly how many days had passed, she realized the celebrations would be held only two months from now. How big would her baby be in two months? And the dragon’s egg? Cassandra wondered if the Baby Dragon would look like a miniature Krai.
As they ate silently, Cassandra felt a bit more at ease. The Concubine Mother was a very strong-willed woman, scolding her children for bad posture, and was cold towards the servants. She was nice to Cassandra though, as if she respected her from the start, and ignored her slave status completely. She urged Cassandra to eat more though; insisting she consume more of the dry fruits as they were, according to Kareen, very nutritious for babies.
“Don’t Southerners eat meat?” she asked, noticing Cassandra had barely touched it.
“No, Concubine Mother. I’m more used to eating fish…In small quantities, though.”
“Hmpf. That explains your good skin, thin build, and character. It is said eating fish helps with all those. Too much meat makes children stubborn. Just look at these two.”
Right as she said that, both Kairen and Shareen, who happened to have meat in their hand or mouth, sent glares back to their mother.
Kareen sighed. “Anyhow, just let me know what you want to eat, I’ll have servants go fetch it for you.”
“Actually…could I go buy it myself?” asked Cassandra, a bit embarrassed.
The Concubine Mother looked at her, confused.
“Why?”
“I just…I like going to the markets. Looking at the stalls, and all.*
After a few seconds of contemplation, Kareen chuckled.
“You really are a new kind of concubine, aren’t you? Fine, we’ll go later. A little outing will do me some good as well. But first, dessert!”
Cassandra wondered exactly how much she was expected to eat! More delicious food was brought out – so many fruits, nuts and cakes that she had to drink some tea to help it all go down. She would definitely get plump if she spent her pregnancy in the Diamond Castle!
After she was done eating, Concubine Kareen stood up, elegantly wiped her lips, and turned to her children.
“I’m going to take a walk in my garden. Don’t any of you even think of leaving. And anyway, I’ll be taking Krai with me.”
Under Cassandra’s surprised eyes, Kareen walked over to Krai’s head, caressing its snout. The dragon closed its eyes, growling softly like it usually did with Cassandra. It really seemed to like the Concubine Mother. She walked out of the Garden, using an opening between the stones to meet with the Dragon behind the wall. Though she couldn’t see Kareen anymore, Cassandra watched Krai as it bounded down from the wall, its big back turning around to follow her.
“This place is so boring,” sighed Shareen. “I’m going to take a nap in my room until Mother comes back.”
They watched as Shareen retired, leaving Cassandra alone with her Prince. So they couldn’t take the egg and leave while she was away, Kareen had locked it in the chest and had the servants take it back inside while they were dining.
Cassandra walked up to Kairen, who pulled her down to sit on his leg.
“We will get it back soon,” said the Prince, holding her by her waist.
“It’s okay. As long as it’s safe with Concubine Mother.”
Kairen nodded, caressing her long hair down her back.
“Do you want to stay here?” he asked softly.
“I’m not sure. I want to stay here, for our baby’s safety, but… I also want to take care of the hospital, and I know I’ll miss the girls at the Onyx Castle.”
He didn’t reply to that and instead gently kissed her shoulder, lost in his own thoughts. Since his mother had insisted that they stay a while, they could always decide later. She wouldn’t be able to keep Kairen here much longer and Cassandra would have to make her decision before then.
They stayed like this for a while, gently caressing and holding each other, lost in their own little world. Kairen seemed gentler and more caring since her pregnancy had been announced, and Cassandra was feeling a bit more confident too. She even wondered if she could find people to teach medicine to here.
“Were you here often?” she asked, looking at the garden around them.
“When I was younger… My father gifted it to my mother after my birth.”
“This castle?”
“This city. It’s the place where she was born.”
The Imperial Family’s standards were truly too extravagant for her to grasp! Cassandra was once again speechless. So not just a castle, but a whole city was their mother’s? Shareen and Kairen had probably spent most of their childhoods here in that case.
“How did your mother become a concubine?”
“She worked as a servant for one of my father’s counselors. He noticed her. She was smarter than most, and not afraid to voice her opinion. She actually became his counselor for a while, before becoming his concubine.”
Cassandra nodded. The story suited his mother’s impressive character and also explained why she didn’t care much about Cassandra’s slave status, since she had been a servant herself. She truly was an admirable woman.
“Can we take a walk? I’d like to see the rest of the Castle.”
Kairen silently agreed and stood up, still holding her around her waist. Cassandra ventured back into the Castle, noticing two female servants silently following them from a few steps back. Had Kareen given instructions for the pair to attend to them? They strolled around for a while and the more Cassandra saw, the more she liked it. She had thought upon their arrival that it felt like this place had been abandoned for years and left to the wild. Few rooms were entirely enclosed and most had spaces where stones in the walls were missing or parts of the roof were open so that they were bright and airy. Ivy ran through the walls freely and trees grew up against the walls, their branches replacing missing sections of roof to provide some shade. Unlike the Imperial Palace, there weren’t many signs of wealth, except for a few richly decorated rooms. There was nothing else on display and even the furniture was very basic, made of just wood and comfortable fabrics.
To Cassandra’s surprise, Kairen pushed a large door open and they walked in.
“This is my room.”
It was rather empty despite all the available space, but had a large bath carved out in a corner with a fountain that had dried up. Kairen’s old bed was very much like the one at the Onyx Castle, large and with furs on it.
In another corner was what looked like a very large nest that was well worn out and tattered, and Cassandra guessed that this might have been Krai’s bed when he was younger…and smaller. Aside from those, there was only a wardrobe and a chest on a carpet in the other corner. It was even emptier than his bedroom in the Onyx Castle.
Cassandra ventured further inside, still more curious, while Kairen stayed a few steps back, watching her.
“So this is…where you grew up?”
“I liked it better than the Palace.”
“Why?” she asked inquisitively.
“Less people. Only Mother and us.”
She could easily picture how different from the Imperial Palace this place was. Less people also meant less danger for the Imperial Children.
Cassandra turned around and walked back to the War God. He put his hands on her shoulders, feeling her skin was a bit colder than usual.
“Don’t get sick.”
“I won’t.”
Kairen pulled her into his embrace, warming her up instantly. Cassandra laid her head against him, closing her eyes and tenderly holding on to her Prince.
“I wish our child could come into this world safely,” she sighed.
Unknown to her, Kairen frowned. Cassandra rarely opened up about her insecurities like this, but if she was already concerned about their child coming into the world… He held her a bit tighter. He would definitely make sure both of them were all right.