Duty

"This is just entirely ridiculous," Prince Qui groaned once they were finally outside of the house. The wedding celebration was still rampant so there was a temporary market inside the palace walls.

Her mother immediately swatted him with the fan that she was holding. "Stop contradicting me and be a good husband to your wife! You married her out of her will. The least thing that you can do is give her something nice. Now, tell me about her."

"She also married me out of my will. She didn't get me a present."

Her mother's nails dug on his arms for a second and he hid a wince. "Tell. Me. Something. Nice. About. Her," his mother said in a threatening voice.

"Alright, alright. Heavens," he said. He was more than sure that his face looked annoyed. He didn't care to fix it. People already see him as someone who was to be scared of.

"You're thinking for far too long," his mother said impatiently.

"I can't think of a single nice thing about her. I've only known her for a few days."

"You have known her for years. She had been under your watch for a lot of hours in the recent days. That should be enough."

"Just get her something nice to wear. A new gown perhaps. A piece of jewelry," he suggested.

His mother sighed and opened her fan as they continued to walk. People bowed down as they passed and his mother gave her beautiful smile to every citizen. "Son, you are going to be the worst husband in the world."

"Huh, someone to replace father then."

"Keep your voice down!"

Prince Qui internally screamed. "I just don't see the point of giving presents to her."

"That's one of the ways that you would be able to make up to her."

Prince Qui did not make a comment about his mother's lifestyle. She was in the palace grounds because the emperor thought that he could be kind enough to give a property and endless presents to the woman who gave him another son to make up for the attention and marriage he refused to give her just because she was low-born.

"I have nothing to make up for," Prince Qui said. "We've been married a day."

"You know, son… you could be the smartest general in the ranks but you could also be stupid and naive at times."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you really think that your father would allow you to divorce her?"

Prince Qui looked away and had the urge to suck on his teeth. He didn't want to show his annoyance as this would only give his mother more bullets to tease him with. "Of course, why wouldn't he?"

"Son, Princess Yingyue would be placed in shame if you divorced her. Just how do you think her family would react if they found out that you divorced her and that the emperor permitted it? They might pull out their support for us."

"I have no problems if she would marry Xiaodan as soon as the divorce is granted."

"Yes, you might not have a problem with that but the state will. You're a prince before you're a general, Yang Qui. The best interests of your people will always come first before you. We never know, your divorce might lead the Shanmai Empire to end us once and for all."

Prince Qui also had a fleeting moment thinking about this last night. He didn't want to think about the negative sides of this divorce talk because deep down he knew that the chance of his father rejecting it was far higher than him approving of it.

"So you think he's not going to agree with me?" Prince Qui asked.

His mother gave him a glance which had been her answer. "Don't get your hopes up. And stop trying to run away from this marriage. She's your wife. You've done Heping a lot of good by marrying her. That's duty, son."

Duty…. Duty… he was so tired of it. As if all the years that he had spent outside of the walls did not count. Surely, in the history books, he would be remembered as the person who had married the princess of the great Shanmai Empire which had been the way for the two empires to finally reconcile.

Pathetic, he thought. Since he was younger, all he wanted was to be remembered as the general that he was. He knew what he could do in the battlefield. It was why he was still alive until today.

"Enough with that," his mother said. "We're here to choose a present for your wife. What would it be? Tell me a story."

He hardly saw the princess while they were in the middle of the woods. She was just mainly annoying the life out of him. The only thing that was the silver lining everyday there was when the princess was asleep! She was quiet and they were not constantly thinking about what they should offer to make her more comfortable.

"Ah," Prince Qui smiled. He didn't think it was possible that he actually thought of something to give her. "I know something that would be useful."

His mother gave him a doubtful glance. "Make sure that it's a good gift. You've got that look in your face when you're thinking about doing something stupid."

"I don't do stupid, Mother. Trust me on this one." He grinned. "I think she's going to like it.