I Tamed the Monstrous Prince - Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Her husband had perished from wounds sustained in the war. The child conceived that year had to be birthed alone, after she relocated to the Asetria Empire with the former Empress Adelaide.
The baby, born prematurely, was so frail and small that doubts gnawed at her. She couldn’t comprehend if what she had delivered was even human, or if all human infants were so shriveled and insignificant.
After several days of labored breathing, the child died in her arms. Only in loss did the realization, the regret, truly strike her. A lump formed in her chest, icy as a glacier yet burning like lava.
Mercedes wept for days on end. She hadn’t even had the chance to let her child suckle. Her endless tears soaked her sleeves, and her engorged bre*sts leaked a futile milk, staining her bodice and overflowing.
‘My dear friend, Mercedes. Please become my son’s wet nurse.’
Just then, she received the request from the former Empress Adelaide to become the prince’s wet nurse. Mercedes had served Adelaide as a handmaiden since Adelaide was a princess of Isabria.
‘Such a noble position… for me?’
Adelaide, pitying Mercedes’s plight, had given birth around the same time and needed a wet nurse.
The day Mercedes first held Cesar in her arms remained vivid, as if it were yesterday. She could still recall every detail, every scent.
‘This is His Highness, Prince Cesar.’
Never having held a baby properly, her touch was clumsy. Hesitant, unsure where to place her hands, she reached out. A tiny, plump hand, smaller than a maple leaf, grasped her index finger. Though only recently born, his skin was milky white. His frame was robust, his demeanor gentle, and his spirit strong. His healthy cheeks, flushed a rosy pink and perfectly full, were a delight to behold.
Even in her barren embrace, the young prince seemed unconcerned. With a strength unbecoming of a newborn, he yawned and immediately sought her bre*st.
‘Oh, our little prince…’
Such a vigorous suckling! The strength of it made her n*pples ache. Her hands trembled; it felt as if her very life force was being drawn out. Yet, she welcomed even this exhaustion.
Cesar had already found a place deep within Mercedes’s heart. He was like her own flesh and blood.
And so, she could truly pity Adelaide. The Empress, despite wielding the greatest power in the empire, couldn’t even nurse her own child, forced to entrust him to another woman.
Prior to Cesar’s birth, Matthias, the child of Guido’s consort, Cornelia, had been born. The former Empress Adelaide, completely preoccupied with Guido’s consort’s child, had no time for Cesar. This allowed Mercedes to have Cesar all to herself. Or perhaps, it was more than that. Cesar always seemed to prefer her to his anxious and irritable birth mother. Whenever Cesar felt uneasy or lonely, Mercedes would offer him her bre*st. The little prince would cling to her, close his eyes, and find solace.
Though she hadn’t birthed the First Prince, he was her child, born of her heart.
Then, one day, Cesar changed. Naturally, Mercedes was the first to notice. He had been such a bright child. At four, he spoke the common tongue and two foreign languages. At five, his intellect astonished his tutors, who deemed him a genius. At six, he first held a sword, and his swordmaster proclaimed him a reincarnation of a war god, blessed with a divine gift. He had been so brilliant. Mercedes remembered clearly that he hadn’t always been this way.
It was an ancient curse. The deep-rooted curse that had afflicted Archanjelo de la Rosa, the Dragonlord, savior of the nation, and the first king of the Asetria Empire, the Majestic King. Few knew that he had been cursed by the Evil Dragon. Centuries ago, the Evil Dragon, Tieghrosh, had wreaked havoc. Archanjelo slew the dragon, bringing peace to the land. But in doing so, he was drenched in the beast’s dark red blood. That was the beginning. Even in death, the Evil Dragon unleashed its malice, cursing Archanjelo. The shadow of Archanjelo’s heroic deed was his own sacrifice.
