The Alpha Prince's Purchased Maid
Chapter 312: Selfless Love

Chapter 312: Selfless Love

I wasn’t certain if she was telling me that it was something normal or expected for the king to love many women at the same time. For some reason, that thought weighed heavily on my mind and in my heart. After allowing a short moment of silence for me to take it in, the duchess continued with her explanation.

“At the same time, I think he was just doing his job of making sure that the royal blood line is secure by producing more than one Ultimate Alpha heir. I didn’t know this before until I went through it myself, but it is extremely difficult to conceive an Ultimate Alpha and the pregnancy journey is usually difficult and not at all smooth. Because of that the king probably expected that he could only get one Ultimate Alpha heir at most from each of his lover and he ended up being right...” she explained patiently.

“Oh...” I murmured in slight surprise.

“As you can see from the results, we all somehow managed to give birth to one Ultimate Alpha. None of us were blessed with a second child and it would be fair to say that we tried quite hard. Then there are countless women who have mated with the king without any results at all. In terms of ensuring the continuity of the royal blood line, having more than one heir is necessary. I mean, things can happen that are out of our control...” she said before shrugging her shoulders.

She gave me a ‘you know’ look without going into the details of describing the death of the chosen heir. I knew that accidents or sickness could happen, and it was always better to have second or even third choices for the heir to take over the throne.

But still...

Although I knew that the reasons seemed to make sense, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it. The duchess still managed to maintain her carefree attitude throughout our difficult conversation. I could even go as far as to say that she seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. Even though we were discussing the king and the relationship that he had with his wives, I couldn’t stop myself from projecting the scenario hypothetically to my relationship with Prince Leonard.

I wondered how I would feel if the prince had another lover. The sinking feeling in my chest and the tight knot that formed in the pit of my stomach told me that I wouldn’t like it. I partly blamed myself for getting ahead of myself because I was just his lover and not his wife although he had chosen me as his mate for now from the Sacred Chambers. The formal mating cycle happens every full moon and there is no guarantee that he would choose me as his mate for next month.

Now that I thought about it, this was another piece of information that I didn’t know about the prince. I had absolutely no idea about his relationship with other women. Before I knew it, I could feel a tightness form in between my brows and that made me realize that I had started frowning.

“Come now, Mila. The truth is you’re not truly interested in my relationship with the king, are you?” the duchess asked in a teasing tone.

“I am...” I replied as I snapped out of my gloomy thoughts, and it wasn’t a lie.

“Well, I guess you are but what you’re truly interested in is learning more about how to strengthen your bond with Prince Leonard, right?” she asked before showing me a smile that told me that she knew it all.

“I...Yes...” I replied firmly after a moment of hesitation.

There was no point in hiding it at that point. I was beginning to understand myself and my feelings more as time passed by.

“Let me ask you something in return. Do you wish to be with Prince Leonard for a long time?” she asked.

I found her question odd. Wasn’t it supposed to be obvious that I wanted to be with the prince for a long time?

“Well, I guess...” I replied but I couldn’t meet her yes because of my own embarrassment.

“I wish you would make up your mind and be firmer about this. Do you or do you not want to be with the prince for a long time?” she asked again.

To my surprise, her carefree and cheerful expression turned into a much stern and more serious one. The way her eyes stared intensely into mine as she waited for my answer told me that she was expecting me to put some thought into my next words. I wondered how long she meant when she referred to it as a ‘long time’.

Does she mean a few years or longer or for the rest of my life?

When I thought of spending my life with the prince, I wasn’t sure what picture would come to mind. I just couldn’t see that far ahead and imagine what the future would hold for us. At the same time, I was certain that I didn’t want to be apart from Prince Leonard.

“Yes...” I replied simply.

“Umm...I see. Why is that?” she asked as she continued staring at me.

“Why?” I repeated her question in surprise.

“Why do you want to be with Prince Leonard for a long time? What is that you hope to gain?” she asked.

“I’m not hoping to gain anything...” I replied immediately.

“A selfless love isn’t a bad thing...” the duchess said before giggling sweetly.

A selfless love...

I gasped when I realized that the duchess had used the word love. I had never really tried putting the emotions that I felt toward the prince into words before and because of that I was taken aback when the duchess named the emotion that I had been feeling. In summary, was I really in love with Prince Leonard?

Just hearing that word spoken out loud made my heart skip a beat and my chest clench with intense longing.

--To be continued...