The night continued and a conversation started elsewhere…

  “I mean it! You know it has to happen! I can’t see anyone else that has more potential than you!” Nate stated.

  He was a bit drunk but knew what he was talking about! The only other person that he had to worry about was this young boy here! What he was saying, pretty much, was that the whole thing was a choice between just himself and Austin and that they’d have to have some type of standoff against each other in the end.

  Austin kept a straight face and said, “It may also be just your opinion.”

  Nate scoffed, “Please! Everyone knows, by now, that it’s only you or me!”

  Austin did not lose his composure and then looked at Matilda, “We have not been able to show ourselves in a fight, but will there be an elimination process at all anyway?”

  Matilda looked at him for a moment and then shrugged, “Elimination isn’t something we’ve really talking about. Do the emperor’s wish to do some type of elimination process?” She asked.

  The way she spoke was quite informal but that was how it was at night…It seemed that by now, being the fourth day, they had gotten used to it a bit, whether they liked it or not!

  “It might be easier, especially if we are using resources on people that haven’t even got one person behind them.”

  Matilda frowned to that, he seemed so harsh! Ouch!

  God, if I were doing this…I’d probably be casted out, right?

  Matilda then wondered for a moment and changed her mind!

  Nah, I’d get a least one! The blue haven emperor loves me! But…

  Through that thought, Matilda found something that could work, “What if we write down…Anonymously, who we are happy with so far on a piece of paper and…I’ll collect them from you…Perhaps let some go if they haven’t a vote at all?”

  She wasn’t sure if that was a question or not…

  “Write anyone, more than one?” Someone asked.

  Matilda nodded, “Yes, and…Any of the golden heirs that have not one emperor…Dam that seems so harsh!”

  Feeling a bit of sorrow for the golden heirs who might be casted away, Matilda started to shake her head…Were all those tv shows that did this kind of thing always like this!?

  Probably not, I’m sure they got some votes, they just didn’t get enough…

  “Maybe we could do that after fighting each other!” A golden heir stated happily. If there was one challenge he wanted to do, it was this one! If he had to leave before being able to fight at least one of them, then all this felt like such a waste of time!

  “My dear, perhaps we could talk about it more when everyone is together?” Matthew asked.

  It was true, a few had gone elsewhere or to bed by this time at night…

  “We will talk about both the fighting and perhaps an elimination process tomorrow then!” Matilda happily excimed to whoever was listening.

  “Very well.”

  …There was indeed a couple that had escaped without anyone noticing…And it was a night to be had indeed!

  ***

  The next morning felt like any other morning for the st few days, except for two particur people.

  The Red Haven King had woken up earlier but not moved from his bed.

  A certain little woman was curled into him, and he was fighting with himself upon staying or leaving.

  This little woman had shown him another side to kissing, flirting and…Another way in bed!

  On the previous night they had not gone all the way, and he couldn’t believe that not only was he able to show that much constraint but also had such a good night!

  Feeling her naked body next to him, he felt her move when he went to kiss her neck and smiled.

  It almost felt like they had indeed gone as far as they could!

  Madeline moaned, turning around and looked at him bnkly.

  He covered her mouth with a hand in amusement and hit her forehead with his, “You said you’d remember.”

  Pulling back, he saw her eyes change and then saw her pull for the sheet and covered herself.

  Oh dear…

  Pulling her to him, sheet and all, he put his hands all over her and she even started to giggle.

  She was indeed shy, never having woken up to a man before, let alone naked but…She also remembered that they had shared something…She didn’t even know how to expin it!

  “Did we have sex?” She asked, pulling down her sheet.

  She was sure that she knew all about it because of her mother and father! Her mother and father had made noises like they had st night. She was sure too that being naked was also part of the process!

  Was she this man’s woman now!?

  Surprise…That was all the red haven emperor felt…

  Perhaps it was better that they had not gone further…Suddenly, he was reminded of her father…A man that he swore he overheard to be at least at the rank of ten in his cultivation! It was higher than ten, he was sure of it!

  Groaning and once again putting his forehead to hers, he said, “No, that wasn’t sex, but that is something a dy can lose her reputation for.”

  Madeline was the one in surprise then, “We didn’t!? That wasn’t sex!?”

  Her voice was loud, and the red haven emperor sighed, if they didn’t know he was in the room with a woman before, they probably knew now. They had tried to be quiet st night, but he was sure someone had seen them come in!

  Besides, he was still a bit fbbergasted himself…Why had he struggled so much to hold back when she seemed upset that she hadn’t had sex!?

  He knows…It was because she wasn’t completely sober and well, after that, that’s it! If she changed her mind now, and decided not to be with him then she could still be found a virgin and be with another man…

  Why did I have to care so much!?

  “Can we do it then?” She asked, making things even harder for the man beside her.

  “You are…”

  Madeline pouted, “I’m what? Annoying!? Austin says that to me!”

  The red haven emperor could only pull away from her and look into her eyes, “What a woman and man do together is…Well, it’s…”

  “Marriage?”

  “Yes, Marriage…”

  Madeline interrupted him, “Then marry me! I’m apparently too old now to find someone else…Father tried to find someone for me but I liked An too much and so I never married anyone.”

  …What?

  So much of that stunned the red haven emperor into silence! Never had he been proposed to before! Never did he feel like he was almost like the st alternative! Then…An!?

  “An?”

  Nodding, Madeline continued, not knowing that the finger she absentmindedly lightly stroked on his bare chest with was not only helping him get over what she had just said but it started to drive him crazy!

  “Madeline…”

  “What is your name anyway? What do I call you when I’m yelling out in pleasure!”

  What the hell! Was she some type of virgin seductress!

  “How can you speak this way when you are a virgin?” He suddenly asked, much to the surprise of both of them. Had she worked at a brothel before!?

  Madeline put her bottom lip between her teeth and then looked down, pying with the bed beneath her.

  The Red Haven King could only sigh and then rubbed her back, “Leo…Leonard…”

  Madeline smiled and then looked back at him, “Leo…”

  He smiled, “Mmm.”

  She then stopped and become serious, “I sort of bme my cultivation…And who I am…”

  Leonard narrowed his eyes slightly to being a bit confused.

  Madeline sighed and id back onto her back, “I’m a true golden heir and we have golden dantains. We seem to each have an extra type of cultivation that we can do that no one else can. My eldest brother can use his to bring forth a sword, like the st golden emperor, and with that sword leave behind a golden trail that can be used as extra defence. My brother’s son can change his weapon at random and me…Well, I can make my dantian seek another’s…Passion or desire…Or something. Somehow, my strange, extra cultivation has more to do with the mind…I tried many times to do this with An, but it never really worked in my favor! I tried it with a few others and that’s how I found out that it’s what I can do but I stopped trying to get too close to males because it was scary at first. Many men don’t want to stop when they see that their desire is within their grasp…And most of the time, their desire is the act of sex.”

  Leonard didn’t know what to think of this. He was a bit…Worried?

  If this is her sort of ‘talent’ then, is their retionship even real? Is she just trying to win him over by giving him what he apparently desires? It wouldn’t be the first time that a woman tried to become his…He does have female maids after all…

  Madeline had looked at Leonard but looked away, seeing him like this…It wasn’t the first time that she saw this type of face.

  “People have different wants and desires…Passions…”

  Putting her legs over the side of the bed, Madeline looked around for her clothes, “Matilda desires to stop a circle, Matthew desires Matilda. The Green Haven Emperor desires power…Again…My father desires my mother and my mother desires happiness for everyone she loves…”

  Leonard went to her, pulling her half-dressed body to him and said, “What does Madeline desire?”

  It was strange because it wouldn’t have been long ago that Madeline had said ‘An’, without a second thought…But now, the one that suddenly was thinking that she’d want ‘An’ wasn’t her, but Leonard.

  Letting out a big breath, Leonard looked up at her and dropped his arms.

  Madeline put a leg on one side of him on the bed and sat on him, feeling something between them. Last night she was brought to light upon what that was!

  Leonard didn’t know how to look at her, didn’t know what it was that was written on his face. She was still flirting with him!

  “You seem to like me flirting with you. Touching you…” A finger slid down his chest once again and he put a hand around her lower half.

  Madeline looked right at him then, “I like it that you just like what I like. My father didn’t like me the way I was, I was a girl that would lose her reputation if I were a noble in a big city and…I think he is right. But the men I had spent some time with, for a short time, they all wanted something else from me! They never cared who I was as a person! They didn’t care about anything else but…”

  Leonard put a hand to her face then and put her hair behind her ear.

  “I don’t like people. They mostly disgust me. Their desires…Disgust me!”

  That was completely out of Leonard’s expectations!

  Could he bme her though? If he had that kind of talent…

  “Is the meditation something in your control?” He asked, worried that she would feel other’s desires at all times.

  Madeline shook her head, “I wouldn’t be able to cope if I was like that, as it was, I nearly killed myself a few times.”

  “Oh god…” Leonard took her into him for a hug and kissed her head.

  This girl…Woman…She…

  “I’m gd you didn’t.” It wasn’t like he was being cheesy or anything, he just wanted to state that but…

  Madeline suddenly felt like crying!

  It wasn’t just a tear or two, she let out sobs and held him tight, just like a child would.

  Oh dear…What have I done?

  ***