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The King looked awfully weaker than yesterday. His eyes were swelling, he was breathing laboriously, and the night robe that he was wearing looked wet due to excessive sweating.

“Why haven’t you changed his clothes yet?” Everard glared at the nurses and scolded them.

He went and stood by his father’s side. He gently held his father’s palm; the temperature was way too cold for a werewolf.

He glared back at the nurses, who were now rushing towards a drawer, and then chastised them some more, “He is already suffering from cold, and yet, you two keep him in his wet clothes instead of keeping him warm?”

“Don’t scold them too hard, Everard.” Alfred slightly tightened his grip on Everard’s palm and spoke while taking the nurses’ side, “I was asleep until I heard you at the door. Maybe they didn’t want to disturb my sleep, that’s why they didn’t wake me up to change my clothes.”

However, Everard wasn’t going to take that as an excuse. He kept on shouting at those poor nurses, “Do you two have any idea what you should and what you shouldn’t do? You two are supposed to be the nurses. Should I be the one to teach you how you are supposed to take care of your patient?”

Both of the nurses bowed their heads in an apologetic manner. And one of them apologized to the furious Crown Prince, “We are extremely sorry, Your Highness. We will change his clothes right away.”

Everard’s brows knitted in tune when he noticed that one of the nurses was someone new.

.....

“Where’s the other nurse? The one with the unibrow?” Everard asked the nurse whose face he was familiar with.

That nurse gave a polite bow and then replied to the Prince, “She resigned from her position yesterday evening, Your Highness. She said she had some personal matters to take care of.”

Everard gave a nod and didn’t dwell much upon it. He stepped aside from his father’s bed and said, “Well, go on then. Change his robe.”

The nurses immediately sprinted towards the King’s bed, pulled the curtains, and then began to do their job.

Everard and Jerome silently waited for the nurses to finish their task.

After the nurses opened the curtains again, Everard ordered them, “You may leave us alone for a while.”

The nurses gave a polite bow and walked out of the room as ordered.

Everard went and sat down on the edge of his father’s bed while Jerome stood by Everard’s side.

“What is it?” King Alfred looked at his son even though his vision was a little blurry, and he asked, “You two were mumbling about something... Sire, was it?”

Everard was a little happy to know that his father’s hearing was still as sharp as ever. He pulled the blanket over his father’s chest and properly tucked him in.

He didn’t know how to break the information to his father so he glanced at Jerome for help.

Jerome took a step closer to the King and started, “Your Majesty, it seems like our Crown Prince got a special blessing from the Moon Goddess.”

“Special blessing?” the King asked with a bated breath.

Jerome then recounted everything that he had heard from the Crown Prince, from how he had his first transformation in Sorvando, to how he could create werewolves, and how he had accidentally created one.

When Jerome said that Everard had turned Ruby into a werewolf, Everard was worried that his father would be mad at him.

However, unlike what he had thought, his father held his hand with a wide smile on his face.

“My dear son! You have no idea how special you are... You have the power of the Moon Goddess.” Alfred looked at his son with pride. He gently patted his son’s hand and said, “But you have to make sure to use your power wisely – only when there’s a dire need for it.”

Everard glanced at his father’s pitiable face and said, “I will do that, father.”

Jerome didn’t want to interrupt the father and son’s bonding moment. However, he wanted to ask a few questions to the King. So, he went ahead with it.

“Your Majesty, do you know anything about how the sire bond actually works?” Jerome wanted to know that because when he heard how Everard felt about Ruby, he couldn’t help but feel that it was the mate bond rather than the sire bond.

The King thought for a while and then answered, “I had once found an interesting manuscript. It said that the sire bond is as sacred as the bond between family members. The sired are completely loyal to their sire and will do anything to show their loyalty. They will follow each and every order from the one who sired them and will even die for their sire if the situation arises.”

Everard widened his eyes a little. He could now understand why Ruby kept on following him around and agreeing to almost everything that he asked of her.

‘But that’s so messed up... Does that mean she doesn’t have her free will now?’ he thought to himself, feeling a little bad for Ruby.

He even felt a little saddened thinking that every little thing that Ruby did for him, she did it because of that weird bond between them rather than out of her heart.

“And what about the sire?” Jerome asked again. “How will they feel towards the ones they sired?”

“They will feel the need to protect them,” the King replied in a brief sentence.

Jerome was not satisfied with the answer. The mates felt the same way towards each other. So, he asked again, “Will the sire also fight with their life if the lives of their sired ones are in danger?”

He asked this because he had seen that fire in the Crown Prince’s eyes when he came to Ruby’s rescue on the day of their arrival. He could feel that if he had put a scratch on Ruby, the Crown Prince would have put a hole in his body in return.

The King breathed in laboriously and replied, “I don’t think the sired will ever put their sire in that situation in the first place.”

Jerome’s question wasn’t answered yet. So, he went in to ask again, “But what if-”

However, the Crown Prince raised his hand and stopped Jerome. “I think that is enough for today, Jerome. Father needs to rest.”

He could see that his father’s skin was getting clammy and cold. He was having great difficulty in breathing, and his heartbeat was very weak.

Everard glanced at a bucket that was kept by the King’s bedside. It was giving off the subtle smell of vomit.

Everard glanced at Jerome and asked, “Why is his condition getting worse? He only had a bad cold and heartburn until yesterday. But what is all this?”

He suddenly got this feeling in his gut that something was awfully wrong, but he couldn’t point out exactly what was wrong.

He furrowed his brows and asked in confusion, “How come so many other things are happening to him today? Aren’t the doctors administering the medicines properly?”