“You want to join your mother and me for tea?” asked Emmelyn in surprise. “Are you serious??”

Mars nodded vigorously. “I haven’t had tea with my mother in a while. I want to come with you.”

The man had decided to go. If he prevented Emmelyn from leaving, of course, the girl would be suspicious, and his mother would also wonder why Emmelyn didn’t come to see her at the palace.

That’s why Mars decided that the best step was for him to come to the palace to accompany Emmelyn so that he could monitor everything and prevent unwanted things from happening.

Emmelyn looked at Mars in disbelief. She repeated her question. “You … really want to join us for tea with the ladies?”

Mars nodded. “You make it sound so sexist. I suppose everyone can drink tea.”

Emmelyn shook her head in disbelief. “Well.. up to you.”

This guy was really weird, she thought. He liked staying in her feminine chamber, and now he was so excited about going to the afternoon tea with the queen and her ladies in waiting?

The more she thought about it, the more she thought the man was weird.

Finally, Emmelyn just let Mars did what he wanted. She actually thought it would be good to face the queen for the first time with a company.

“Good. I want to go,” Mars confirmed.

“Hmm…” Emmelyn let go of her hand from the man’s and decided to go to the dining room and eat. The whole incident made her so hungry. She would need her energy to think about how she could face the queen.

Mars, who still felt a massive headache, could only follow the girl while massaging his forehead.

They both ate breakfast slash early lunch with raging thoughts in their minds. Emmelyn was thinking about the embarrassing incident earlier, and Mars was thinking about how he could make sure Emmelyn wouldn’t carry any weapon to the palace without making the girl suspicious.

“I need to check my soldiers’ training. I will be back at 3 pm to join you for the tea,” Mars said after they finished their meal. “What do you want to do in the meantime?”

Emmelyn replied, “Uhm.. didn’t you say I can train today too? Of course, I want to go there with you…”

“Oh…” Mars furrowed his brows and thought about something. “They will be suspicious if they saw us come together. I will go there first and you can join us later. I’ll tell people you visited your relative in the palace all morning.”

“Hmm…”

When Mars left the castle to check his men, Emmelyn went back to her chamber and changed into a man’s outfit. She waited for 15 minutes before she joined the training.

***

“Where is Lord Aldrich?” Gewen asked Mars when he saw the prince came to the field to check his soldiers on training.

“He went to the palace to do something,” Mars replied. He had to give Gewen and Edgar an excuse why ‘Lord Aldrich’ didn’t join the training this morning while Mars was still sleeping in his chamber. He must not let them feel suspicious because Lord Aldrich and he were not there at the same time.

“Oh, is he going to train today?” asked Gewen again. “Oh, by the way, I saw my mother and the queen come here looking for you earlier, but since you were not around, your mother looked into your chamber. Did you see her?”

Mars suddenly coughed when he heard Gewen’s question. Ugh … He really hoped his mother wouldn’t tell Lady Athibaud about what happened in his chamber earlier.

If Lady Athibaud found out and gossiped about it to Gewen … uff. His friend would never let him forget about it his whole life.

“I did. I’m going to the palace to visit my mother later,” said Mars. “I will leave the training to you and Edgar when I go.”

“All right,” Gewen nodded.

“Good.” Mars tapped his friend’s shoulder and then went to see Edgar and discussed their strategy for Southberry.

Gewen looked around as Mars left him to talk to Edgar. He then cast his gaze towards the stable direction and he happened to see the figure of Emmelyn coming with her sword, under the guise of young Lord Aldrich. 

The handsome general smiled happily. He raised his hand and greeted Emmelyn enthusiastically.

“Hey, good afternoon, Lord Aldrich. I heard you visited the palace this morning? How was it?” he chirped.

Emmelyn nodded hastily. “Oh, good day, Lord Gewen. I had to see a palace staff who is an old relative of mine. It went well.”

“Ahh … Glad you’re back. Do you want to practice archery again with me?” asked Gewen. He raised his hand, and a soldier swiftly brought a new bow to him. Gewen took it from his officer and smiled broadly. “I brought a special bow for you today, Lord Aldrich. This is for you.”

He raised the bow in his hand and gestured for Emmelyn to come closer. The girl walked over to Gewen and received the new bow. She studied it with interest. 

“How is this different from yesterday?” She looked up and stared at Gewen.

“Ah .. this one is a special gift from me. You can see the initial here. It’s ‘G’, for Gewen, not ‘R’ for the ‘Rose’ team. I only give this to the people I like,” said Gewen, smiling broadly. “Every time you use this bow, you will remember me.”

Emmelyn was stunned by Gewen’s words. Her lips pursed as she stared at Gewen with an astonished look. Somehow she felt that Gewen was flirting with her. But.. she was currently ‘a man’.

Was Gewen into men? Emmelyn was wondering about it. She thought Gewen was so shameless, not much different from his friend, the prince.

[Does this guy like men? Gosh.. no wonder. He does look the part.]

Gewen was very handsome. He had an androgynous appearance that made him look arguably more beautiful than a woman. He was also gentle, not like most soldiers who were rude or harsh.

Were those actually signs that he was into men?

Then what about all the rumors about him being a womanizer? Could it be that he fanned all the gossip to cover up his true sexuality?