His Sweet Little Mate

"Former King Arthur, I wonder if you could spare me a few minutes of your time."

Abby's voice betrayed no emotion when she addressed Arthur, leaving the man in a dilemma for quite a second there.

He couldn't understand what she wanted with him, as nothing about her stance or expression gave her away. Arthur didn't answer her for a moment, and just stood there, staring at her with this deep frown between his brows. However, Abby didn't seem to find this strange, as if she expected him to feel wary of her, especially after the showdown she just subjected him through. "I really won't take too much of your time, just a couple of minutes will do." After she put it like that, Arthur couldn't reject her even if he wanted to. "You want to talk here?"

"No, all of us have things to do, I'll meet you in the old tower."

Arthur thought Abby needed to send her baby away first, and then would march to his old tower in grandiose again, but he found his own brain stuttering when the woman arrived at his study, practically alone and unprotected. "What kind of game are you playing?" The man couldn't help but ask when Abby practically shoved her way into his study, with just her baby in her arms while leaving her cold statue of a personal guard outside the door. However, Abby didn't say anything to him immediately, as she looked at Arthur with her lips pursed until the former king felt like yelling at her just to get her talking and get going.

He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard her finally speak, though. "Sir Arthur, you still haven't held your grandson."

"Wh- what?" Arthur started sweating visibly. "Wait, what are you doing?"

While the man was still processing her last sentence, the woman had already started approaching him with steady steps, her intention as clear as a day.

"Hold your grandson, Arthur." Abby said as she shoved the baby at Arthur's chest, who instinctively wanted to push her away, by extent the baby, as hesitation marred his features. "Look at him and hold him."

Abby angled Arlo in such a way, Arthur wouldn't be able to avoid looking at his adorable face, and once Arthur saw the baby, his grandson, up close, his arms stretched out of their own accord as he clutched the baby a little hesitantly. The faint smell of milk from his sleepy yet puffy breath tickled Arthur, and he was frozen in place, forced to bask in the warmth of the little fellow.

"He looks a lot like Micah." He blurted out unconsciously, as if he was in a daze until Abby had to stifle a laugh. He was so reluctant earlier, but once he relented, he couldn't deny the connection to his grandson anymore.

"Well, he is your son's bloodline after all, which makes him yours too." Abby said calmly, yet her words seemed to imply something else, and Arthur suddenly felt like he was holding a sack of hot potatoes instead of a small cuddly baby.

He was suddenly reminded of the rumors he spread all those months ago, about the child in Abby's womb being another man's, someone who wasn't Micah. He felt discombobulated, as a ball of unease made his stomach flip.

On the other hand, Abby let his guilt fester for a second as she reveled in his discomfort for a bit, after everything he put her through, this was nothing in comparison. If she wasn't pressed for time, she would have basked in his misfortune for hours. Sadly, time is of

essence now.

"But I'm not here to point out something so obvious." Abby finally put him out of his misery, and the man visibly relaxed.

But he shoved little Arlo back to Abby, and the woman didn't insist on him continuing to hold her baby. "What do you want to talk about?"

Arthur still looked skeptical of her, feeling like she would bring up the attacks and Abby had finally chosen to live up to his expectations for her.

"I don't think we should waste time by fighting over the throne."

But Arthur cut her off. "You don't even deserve to sit on it, let alone fight with me for it."

"Well, I'm not here to ask you for a chance to prove myself. So do yourself a favor and spare me your bullshit." Abby was oddly calm when she dismissed the old man's outburst. "I don't care about your opinion, but your hatred turned into something ugly until you couldn't even bother to remember your own life morale"

"What did you say?" Arthur could have shouted. He only stopped because of the sleeping baby in her arms.

"I didn't say anything wrong. I still remember what you said the first time you came to meet me after the incident with Ruby and her friends. You were disappointed in me because you deemed I'm weak, someone who couldn't protect the people of this kingdom." Abby spoke unhurriedly, her petite frame, which barely reached his shoulders, was ramrod straight but Arthur couldn't help but feel smaller and smaller in front of her with every word that left her lips.

"But what did you do? You actually let your hatred get the better of you, and harmed your own people. The very people you swore to protect from danger."Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Arthur wanted to defend himself, but what could he say? He also knew he did it out of hatred when his deep rooted prejudice toward her made him lose himself. He clenched his fists harder, unable to find an outlet for the sudden guilt that hit his stomach like a hurricane.

"So, I want to ask you, what do you want to achieve by all of that?"

He didn't have an answer to this question either. He couldn't say it was for the people's well being when he readily sacrificed those very people for his own selfish reasons.

However, Abby wasn't here to trip him into guilt, but because she wanted to make him see how he had strayed too far from his path of a protector.

"I'm not here to ask you to forget about your hatred toward me either." Abby said slowly, feeling she coerced Arthur into the right headspace to reveal the actual purpose of her request. "I want you to join hands with me." "Join hands with you?" Arthur asked, a bit dazed. He couldn't follow her line of thought at all.

"Well, isn't protecting your people what you always cared about?" Abby asked, her face still deadpan as she waited for Arthur to nod. "Then don't you think we should focus on the enemy instead of our own differences?"

She then explained how he had been wasting both his and her time by trying to make things difficult for her, when they could have been strategizing for a far better cause, like capturing Calpin.

"The real enemy was out there, waiting for a chance to strike again. And you are only making it easy for him. I wouldn't have bothered to come to you if my Arlo isn't involved. Even if you can't forget your hatred toward me, you can at least, think about your grandson, he is your kin after all. Your own bloodline."