[Bonus chapter] remember him

"I just know the appalling nature of humans, darling. Therefore, I can speak with certainty."

'There he goes again,' Aries whispered in her head upon hearing Abel's answer. She caressed his lean cheek with her thumb gently, throwing his answer at the back of her head. Perhaps he was saying he had seen different types of people as the emperor and how people change and what they could do if a child was in the picture. 

Aries didn't even consider Abel was speaking from his own experience. She remembered he already had an heir, the crown prince who lived in that seemingly haunted mansion in the forbidden place within Haimirich's imperial palace grounds. 

"You might find this inquiry ridiculous, but what does it feel Abel?" she asked after a minute of silence. "To become a parent is what I mean."

"I have no idea."

"Why don't you know?"

"Because I never had one." He smiled, but her frown deepened.