Chapter 588: The Night Before the Birthday  

Two hours later, Christine was putting her clothes back as I lay on the bed and admired her perfect figure.

When she finished putting on her clothes, she looked at me with a complicated expression and a slight blush on her face.

"... Prince Claus, I hope you don’t have any strange ideas after this. I only did this to cut off any lingering affection towards Alan. This will be the only time that I do this with you."

I looked at Christine’s face and smiled.

"Well, I can’t promise you anything."

Christine snorted.

"I’m not joking. I’m not one of your girls, Prince. The only reason I’m doing this is for my revenge and to save my family. After that, I’ll disappear and you won’t see me again. No, in fact, I don’t want to have anything to do with you again."

"... It looks like you don’t like me much, sister-in-law." I smiled.

"I hate you. And don’t call me like that," Christine replied immediately.

I chuckled softly. Right, she hates me.

Even now, I could feel her resentment towards me through her aura.

Although instead of hatred, I would call her feelings dislike. She dislikes me, a lot.

Well, that is normal considering the fact that we were enemies.

In fact, I can be considered the reason why her family fell into ruin.

I looked straight into Christine’s brown eyes and smiled.

"Very well, as you want. However, remember our promise."

"I know. I won’t forget. I will do it for my family."

"Good." I nodded. "Daisy is waiting for you outside. She will show you to the exit."

Christine nodded coldly and turned around, walking towards the door with quick steps.

Before leaving, though, she looked back at me briefly with a complicated expression.

Then, she opened the door left.

I sighed softly and let out a wry chuckle.

Sigh, women.

Well, the result was better than I expected.

After all, I was not planning to sleep with my sister-in-law today.

With this, all the preparations are done.

Now, I only have to wait until the play starts.

...

The following days passed quickly.

I spend them with my different lovers, including the ones that I had not visited recently like Iris, Susan, Lluvia, Clarice, and Nana.

At the same time, I was paying attention to the happenings in the capital.

One day after my meeting with Christine, the representatives of the Beastkin Alliance arrived at the capital.

I noticed that the beastkin representatives were slightly nervous, though. They hid it very well, but it was unable to escape from my senses.

I quickly realized that it was most likely due to my ’daughter’ Emilia. She had become the ruler of the beastkin no long ago using bloody methods, but now she had mysteriously disappeared.

It would have been strange if the higher-ups of the Beastkin Alliance are not nervous.

Later that day, the representative of the daemons arrived as well.

The daemon’s representative was a prince. He was followed by several servants and one powerhouse in charge of protecting him.

I had a bit of hope about Princess E’Athar coming as the representative, even though I knew that it was very unlikely. And as I expected, she did not come.

However, one night before the emperor’s birthday, a surprising visitor came to the mansion.

Completely wrapped in a black coat, a young girl knocked on the door of my mansion and asked to see me.

When I saw her gray skin and yellow eyes, I could not help but raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"What a surprise. I was not expecting the visit of a daemon."

The girl lowered her head nervously and did not reply. She was so nervous that she seemed like a rabbit in the face of a wolf.

"What do you want, miss?" I asked, noticing that the girl was a commoner without cultivation. Probably a servant.

"Greetings, Your Highness Prince Claus. My name is Shaltore, a daemon. Her Highness Princess E’Athar sent me here."

I narrowed my eyes slightly.

Someone that E’Athar sent, huh.

"... She must trust you a lot." I said with a smile.

"S-She does. I-I was her personal servant when she was younger, and we grew together."

"Is it so?" I nodded in understanding.

Right, otherwise, she would have not told her about me.

Princess E’Athar knows how delicate her relationship with me is. It can’t be made public. Otherwise, she will be in a lot of trouble.

Mm... I should plant a suggestion in this girl’s mind before she leaves, just to make sure that she will not reveal something that she must not reveal.

Anyway, returning to the topic...

"Why did E’Athar send you here?"

The girl hesitated slightly before biting her lips.

"She told me to bring you a message, Your Highness."

"Is it so? What is it?"

"... The princess wants to tell you that she is alright and you don’t need to worry about her. Also, she told me to inform you that the Daemon Empire is getting ready for another war."

"Another war? After their last disastrous defeat?"

"Yes. They already started to gather troops."

I fell silent briefly.

This is really unnatural.

Normally, a disastrous defeat like the one that the daemons suffered in Fort Mist was enough to stop a nation’s ambitions of conquest for a while. After all, that kind of defeat has a lot of political consequences.

However, the daemons did not hesitate to go to war again.

As expected, huh. Something or someone is pushing the daemons towards war.

I chuckled softly and looked at the daemon girl in front of me.

"Anything else?"

"... Yes. I have one last message for you." The daemon girl paused briefly and looked at me with a solemn expression. "Your Highness, you should be careful of the Carmell Family."