SPELLBOUND

After the serious discussions and strategizing about the upcoming war, Gavriel was about to end the meeting when the Duke of Dacria raised a new topic.

"I believe this is a crucial concern we must address immediately, Your Highness."

"Are you saying that this other topic of yours is as vital as the upcoming war? Duke Henry?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

Everyone who had finally relaxed their tensed shoulders after the bloody simulations and discussions, straightened their shoulders once again, as though to brace themselves for this other major problem they had to deal with. Just what kind of problem was it that it was as important as the war that's looming over everyone's heads?

Gavriel sat back. Though his face remained relaxed, he looked at the Duke with curiosity. He made sure to find out every major problem that they needed to address and he didn't find anything that was as crucial as this coming war. Had he or his men miss something important? That was impossible… even if he had missed it, his men, especially Zolan wouldn't.

"Alright, state it Duke Henry." Gavriel said and the Duke immediately began.

"Your Highness, we are aware of your power and abilities. You are definitely strong and powerful –"

"Please get to the point Duke." The prince cut him off, causing the Duke to sigh and then looked at him with all seriousness.

"We wanted you to sire an heir, Your Highness." The Duke said and everyone, except Gavriel's men, looked at the prince with a severe and almost pleading gazes. "You are the only true royalty left. And now you're going off to war… if something happens to you –"

"Nothing will happen to me." Gavriel said. The curiosity and interest in his eyes were gone. He was obviously disappointed that this was the crucial problem the Duke was talking about.

"Your Highness, we need the reassurance. You know how important this is. Please take this seriously. It's your bloodline that we need to protect most right now. Not this city, not us. You don't know how hard it was for us to accept back then that the royal bloodline was completely annihilated. Many of the ancient vampires killed themselves because they refused to serve a fake ruler. There were some who killed themselves for failing to save the royal bloodline. So please listen to us, we've been begging

Everyone agreed with the Duke and they all moved and pleaded with him, causing Gavriel to close his eyes and lean against the back of his chair, fully aware where their pleas were coming from.

"I strongly suggest that you take a couple of noble women or more to make sure –"

"I already have a wife." Gavriel's voice suddenly turned hard and as sharp as flint that the atmosphere immediately became a little tensed. But the Duke was determined.

"But Your Highness, she's a human, you know how rare it is for a human and vampire to have a child." Duke Henry argued. It was common knowledge that it was extremely rare for a half vampire to be born. That was why despite the rampant slavery and the fact that many vampires were using human women to quench their sexual desires, the number of half vampires didn't even cross the number of four yet ever since the first half vampire was born.

Those half-vampires were strong creatures. For still unknown reasons, these half-bloods that were born tend to be much stronger than pure blooded vampires that they were considered special – a prime creature. Upon the birth of the halfblooded vampire, no matter which family he came from, he and his family will be promoted to nobles and he will be given an important role in the empire once he grew up. The strength and power of a half-blood was just too incredible that the vampires began to desire to sire such a special child. Even the previous emperor and the current one had blatantly desired to have their own half-blooded child. And this was the main reason why many of these greedy vampires have a large number of human concubines.

"We are begging you, Your Highness. We know you are an honorable man so we will never dare to ask you to have more than one wife. We only want you to have them as your mistresses until one of them sire you a child. So please, Your Highness. This is for the sake of the royal bloodline as much as for the entire empire. And besides, we know about the deal of your marriage with your wife, that you're not even allowed to touch her without her permission –"

"Enough!" Gavriel's voice thundered as he stood.

Everyone was stunned and stiffened in their spot as this was the first time they had seen their prince raise his voice this loudly and coldly in a meeting.

"This meeting is over." He declared, a cold icy aura flaring out and his face as dark as thunder clouds when he turned to look at Samuel. "Gather everyone, I will meet the soldiers now." He ordered and Samuel bowed before he left.

Once Gavriel and his men were gone, the Duke and the other officials all sighed. Some shaking their heads in disappointment because of how the prince had reacted.

"This is not good. I don't think His Highness have the luxury to object with this issue right now. He knows what is at stake here himself more than anyone else. Heavens! Just why the hell is His Highness so against this?"

"No. This is not acceptable. We can't just sit here, just twiddling our thumbs."

"Yes, something needs to be done as soon as possible. It is imperative that His Highness sire a babe before the war against the emperor starts. That's the only way all of us can breathe a sigh of relief."

"But how can we convince him? He's strongly against it and you know it's easier to move a mountain with spoon than change his mind!"

"Still… there must be something that we can do!"

"Yes, there must be something. We just need to think hard enough. We cannot just sit back and hope on His Highness and his wife conceiving a rare half-blood which we all know might never happen."

"Yes. No matter what, His Highness must sire a child as soon as possible. I don't care if His Highness will end up hating me for this, but I will do anything to make it happen." The Duke said and everyone nodded their agreement.

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[[AN: only few of you came to the FB group so I put the map of Lirea on the comment box. Check it out and tell me what you think ^^]]