Eli was shocked by the Prince's standpoint. She was not expecting that the Prince would remain firm with his decision in marrying her.
She was a woman before she was a mother.
For her, marriage was no joke. It was something that she viewed sacred, especially that she was born out of an extramarital affair. She saw the advantage of being legally married and the ugly side of it, when infidelity comes.
She was left in deep thinking, how to protect Little Han from this? Elise had also reminded her to live for herself. The guardian Celeste advised her to take the risk that is worth taking.
Eli looked towards the prince, her face serious but uncertain, "Your Highness, I understand your concern but I have my own…"
"Please do voice it out, I need to hear yours. Marriage requires consent of both parties. That, I fully understand." The prince replied earnestly.
"Then pardon my impudence, Your Highness. But I don't think I am ready for this. Putting aside the dangers regarding my identity, it has something to do with my personal take in marriage."
"Your highness, it may be an unpopular opinion, but I view marriage as a union of two people romantically committed with each other. They are not binded my political agenda nor moral responsibility."
"Between the two of us, there was no love in between."
"Apologies if I may look a bit ambitious, but I too want to experience love." She said sincerely.
"If I choose to accept your proposal then what if the time comes that Your Highness and I found the ones who we really love? I hate to be subjected to infidelity. I stand by it."
"Between us there is only Little Han and nothing more. It is best to be friends and co-parents to him. Rest assured that I won't take away your rights to be a father to Little Han."
"So please forgive me, but I could only respectfully decline your proposal."
'Friends? Co-parents?' The prince was confused, he had never heard of couples who had been expecting a child not to be bound by marriage.
Be it the legal wife or a concubine, they must commit to some kind of intimate relationship such as this. Unless, the woman runs away to have a peaceful life, to the point that their existence would never be remembered.
Insisting to be friends and co-parents was never an option. It was unheard of! The prince furrowed his eyebrows in deep thinking.
What he wanted was to be part of the family.
What she wanted was a family bound by love.
Both were hard to reach, but aren't impossible.
He looked towards Eli and remembered that 'she' actually had only lived for four years in the real world. It was normal for her to dream of experiencing a lot of things.
'Well, I too hadn't experienced a lot even in my almost thirty years of living,' he thought mockingly. 'Then, why not give it a try now?'
A glow appeared in his eyes. Romantic love, he wonders how that feels. Being a father, being a husband. An overflowing excitement made his chest warm.
Leon looked towards Eli with his crystal blue eyes glowing and a subtle excitement in his dead cold face, he said,
"A marriage with love... Let's do it!"
"Ehh? Your Highness, didn't you hear what I said earlier? There is no love between us.." Eli was flabbergasted but still tried to reason out with the prince due to respect.
"Yes, so we will put love in between!" The prince declared straightforwardly, as if it was a matter of fact.
"P-putting love between us? How would that even work?" Eli was now stressed as she massaged her temples in distress.
"You said we will become friends first, then what's next.. Oh! We become lovers, then we become husband and wife! Easy!" The prince said, with all seriousness in his face.
Eli couldn't even connect the stubborn prince in front of her to the same man that gave Elise the kindness and security, that fateful night, nor to his reputation as a Barbaric Blood Prince.
"But Your Highness, how about the dangers from the Spectre, from the Empire?" Eli didn't want to relent that easy.
She decided to still follow Celeste's advice. Were the risks in having a marital relationship with the prince worth taking?
The prince took a sudden pause, his frigid demeanor came back as he said in deep thinking,
"First, I must help you train your summoner skills, the elders were right. I will not always be by your side. So you need to have strength to protect yourself. I, myself, will teach you."
"Next, is to think of a way to try to distract the Spectre in focusing their resources in finding you. But as of this moment, I have yet to think of any other ways except to target their sources of income which were the illegal black markets happening in the borders of Seirende."
"Last, is to temporarily hide your identity, but only until I fully destroy the Spectre and eliminate the dangers around you and our Little Han. This one... my heart aches, for I now know how suffocating it is to live hiding who you really are."
Even with his frigid and serious demeanor, sadness could be seen on Leon's crystal blue eyes. He too had to hide the fact that he was a person with high aptitude.
When Eli heard of the prince's plan, gave a nod of confirmation as she could also only think of these things. But one thing interested her the most,
"To distract the Spectre.. Hmmm.. it might sound ridiculous but I have an idea. However, I would really need Grandpa Ben and Grandpa Andi in this matter." Eli said in contemplation.
"You called us~~~?" Two teasing voices were heard towards the door, surprising the two youngsters.
"Ehh?! I thought that this array does not allow eavesdropping?" Eli blurted out in shock. She casted a questioning look towards the prince.
Seeing Eli with an innocent and dumbfounded expression Leon couldn't help but chuckle. He found it cute to still see a childish side of 'her' as she had always been showing a demeanor of an independent mature woman ever since yesterday.
"Indeed, one couldn't, but not the makers of the array." He said with a faint smile on his face.
"Ohh.. I see, I see. Then maybe we can call them.. Only if you don't mind?" Eli suggested.
"I don't mind, for I have already said my heart out." the Prince said meaningfully.
Eli couldn't help but take a gulp as she could feel the Prince's stubbornness about the marriage.
To ease herself, she decided to call her ultimate anti-prince shields.
"Grandpas you can come in.."
Immediately the door opened, the two grandpas' heads peaked from the outside. "Do you need us?" They said in a playful tone.
Eli with her brows twitching answered, "Yes grandpas, it's about dealing with those forces."
"Oh!!!" Hearing that it was about The Spectre, the two grandpas became serious and attentive. They hastily entered the room.
"Let's hear what this is about.." They said with their game faces on.
"It's like this, I have communicated with Lady Elise about how to deal with the dangers should we push the marriage between us…" Leon took the initiative to explain the ideas he had to the two grandmasters.
Seeing the grandmasters nod in approval, Leon felt relief, and continued, "Lady Eli was also about to propose an idea that greatly needs your participation."
"Ohhh! What do you have in mind, young Eli?" The two grandpas asked in unison, their faces glowing in excitement as they expected another out of this world idea come out of Eli's proposal.
Eli didn't mind the agitation of the two grandpas, however, she still proposed her idea with great uncertainty,
"I am not actually sure if it will distract The Specter.. It is more likely to confuse them.."
She looked towards the three men who had their attentions focused on her, as she hesitantly continued,
"It is to normalize having black hair. We will launch the first ever black hair industry..."
The three men froze with wide eyes, "B-black hair industry? Normalizing black hair?!"
"Young Lass, H-how will we even do that? If anyone wanted to change their hair color they could just use magic,"
Grandpa Ben said in uncertainty. It was yet again an out of this world idea. However, if one would want to change their hair color, one would just use magic.
"Indeed, and also I have not heard of black hair being a trend." Grandpa Andi, the business man in the group, also voiced his concern.
"That's exactly what I wanted to target. Changing natural hair color without the use of magical items.. Our target market is the middle class and the lower nobles." Eli explained her standpoint.
"The middle class and the lower nobles wouldn't want to spend lots of Shinies just to have their hair color or appearance change. That is why we offer to them a natural way to do it. It is perfect for just attending balls and banquets." She continued.
"As for starting the trend for black hair, this is the hardest part. We need to market it to people who are popular enough to start the trend. Most preferably, they must be a fashion icon." Eli uttered in contemplation.
"We first need someone to establish that having black hair is also beautiful.."
The three men were shocked upon the details of Eli's proposal.
Indeed, middle class and lower nobles would be the perfect target market for the hair color industry. The higher nobles and royals wouldn't mind buying lots of magical items to enhance their appearances, but the middle and lower class would!
"I understand, but how do we make the human hair black?" Grandpa Andi asked in curiosity.
"Hehehehe," Eli let out an evil laugh, she picked up a certain 'book' from her space pouch then opened it.
She seemed to pause in the table of contents page trying to locate the exact page she wanted. Then she opened a certain page from the 'book' and showed it to the men.
"These two plants are what we need. We are going to create a natural hair dye!" Eli said proudly.
The tree men examined the contents of the page. It showed two plants and its properties.
"Henna and Indigo?" Grandpa Ben was shocked.
These two plants were just considered as common shrubs in Prasinos! Who would have thought that it could be used to change hair color?!
"But Lady Elise, if this would be released in the Empire it would only let the Spectre know that this is a scheme to provoke them." Leon commented on the idea with worry.
The two grandpas also took a sudden pause. It was as the prince said. This would definitely provoke the Spectre to concentrate their hard search within the Empire. The three men looked towards Eli seeing if she was discouraged.
Contrary to what they expected, what they saw was an evil smile and schemeful expression on Eli's beautiful face while she was saying,
"Who said that it will be released in Seirende?! We will release it from the far east! Slowly spreading to the nearby empires, until it reached Seirende, up to the west! Hehehe..."
The grandpas and the prince were shocked at Eli's declaration.
Her expression was like she was scheming on spreading some kind of epidemic throughout the whole Prasinos. At this moment they only thought of one thing, right now Eli is definitely,
"Scary!"
