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“Sire?”

“At ease, Gideon,” Darius curtly nodded, leaning against the nearest wall as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m simply here for a chat. And perhaps a drink, seeing as you two obviously stowed a crate of the stuff with you.”

“Well, nobody’s drinking the cheap stuff back in the dining room,” Gideon chuckled as he reached down the crate of wine and grabbed an unopened bottle. “It’d be a waste if we just let these things go down into the ground, no?”

With a grunt, Darius nodded as Gideon tossed the bottle in his direction. Grabbing it out of the air, the king casually popped the cork off with his thumb, immediately taking a swig of the wine without so much as a care in the world.

“Drinking out of the bottle, eh,” Bartos scoffed. “Such lack of manners is unbefitting for a monarch.”

“Bah, nobody’s watching anyway,” Darius rolled his eyes. “And since when did you start cracking jokes, Bartos?”

“Ever since he and his mate started getting along rather well,” Gideon chucklingly lamented.

“Oh?” Darius breathed. Right, Bartos’s mate was Jayra. Gideon telepathically informed him of the good news at Ebodia Encampment.

“Him and Jayra are getting on like they’ve been dating for months already,” Gideon explained to their king with a scoff. “Honestly… To think that Bartos of all people has the most progress in wooing their mate. And here I thought I was the more sociable out of all of us.”

“He’s simply fortunate to have such an understanding woman as his mate,” Darius faintly smiled as he took another sip. “Frankly, I’m jealous that Jayra is making your life easier by being so open-minded.”

“…I suppose I’m lucky in that regard, my King,” Bartos meekly grunted. “Truly, her openness to having a relationship with me is a boon that I’ll never take for granted.”

Darius could only nod in agreement as he took yet another big swig of his wine bottle. There was no point in him trying to save his drink, seeing as there was still a crateful of the stuff just lying in the corner.

“Still, it kind of feels like I’m being left behind now,” Gideon chuckled against his own drink. “The king has his mate, and Bartos luckily found his mate soon after. When will my chance come, you think?”

“Come now. Your mate will come to you soon enough,” Darius reassuringly scoffed. “Besides, you’re still young. We all are.”

“I agree,” Bartos nodded, nursing his own drink in his hands. “I simply got lucky with my own mate. I’m sure that once you find yours, your relationship will progress even easier than ours might get.”

“Heh, thanks for the encouragement,” Gideon gratefully smiled. “I… well… I kind of needed that, I think.”

“Nonsense,” Darius snorted. “You’re more than capable of moving forward without a mate if needed. You’re just being melodramatic.”

“M-My King? I’m not being melodramatic,” Gideon weakly laughed.

“Heh. Isn’t this you counting as melodramatic?” Bartos teased further, supporting his liege’s efforts as he chuckled. “To think that you of all people would be this worried about not having a mate.”

“Hey, it’s not that I’m worried,” Gideon quickly defended himself. “Like I said, it’s just that I’m feeling left behind when compared to you two. I mean, what if you two have kids and I’m still mateless?”

At his words, the two men that had mates promptly spat out their respective drinks. Giving Gideon a look, the two both looked equal parts excited and horrified at the prospect of having children with their mates.

“You’re thinking too far ahead,” Darius stoically waved his words off, hiding his own insecurities in favor of turning the tide of teasing. “At that point, you might’ve already had kids of your own.”

“I-I agree,” Bartos shakily nodded. “You’re more than capable of finding a mate before either of us get settled down. Maybe even before this war ends, you might already have children running about your feet.”

As if sensing his own momentum, Gideon simply smirked as he countered, “Ah, but Darius is probably the first to have children between the three of us. After all, the Kingdom needs an heir to stabilize the succession line, even if they still need to fight for said right.”

At Gideon’s words, Darius suddenly found himself imagining what it would be like to have children of his own. Even now, the thought of Xen’s belly swelling with life, of his seed taking root within her… it only made his earlier heat come back even harder as he began sweating again.

“We should leave this topic of discussion for later,” Darius swiftly worded out. “Right now, we have a war to win. And that’s on top of the Five Trials taking place after Xen and I’s wedding.”

“A-Ah right,” Gideon coughed into his fist. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Hmph,” Bartos scoffed. “One would think that Xen wouldn’t even survive the first trial, let alone the fifth one.”

“And that’s exactly what I’m worried about,” Darius pondered. “Clara will surely take part in it as well. And while I wouldn’t truly mind her winning, I still need Xen to win.”

“Hey, maybe Clara might concede herself?” Gideon jokingly suggested. “She and Xen did hit it off during their drinking session together. And while there might be some bad blood between them in the near future, I don’t see their newly formed bond breaking that easily.”

“I agree,” Bartos inferred with a nod. “Bonds forged in the fires of drunkenness can be hard to shake off.”

“Fair enough,” Darius nodded. “However, Xen’s survival isn’t guaranteed, and I don’t know if she’ll even agree to let me use my influence and call off the trials.”

The three men settled into a pensive silence as they thought about future events to come. Perhaps there will be a way for Xen to complete the trials alive. Perhaps she could win it all… She had to…