CHAPTER 158 **Has that Changed?**

After another half an hour went by, with the small laughter that filled the room because of the Second Prince’s first child, it looked like the little man couldn’t take it anymore and started to cry so hard that it scared half the room.

Sahara spread out her spiritual essence, when she thought it was time for her son to be returned to her, and upon receiving the boy in her arms, he had stopped crying and was smelling her bosom. “Forgive me, father, it’s time for feeding…Are you returning home, Big Man?”

The General looked back at Sahara and was still for a moment, “Oh, yes yes. But first, here Your Majesty.”

It was a note that Joshua had written. He does this often, just in case the General forgets what he’s supposed to say, and in this case, he needed it!

Sahara then smiled at the Emperor, but Matthew beat Sahara to talking, and said, “Imperial father, we’ll be taking our leave.”

“Yes, yes, this father is busy! You may go!”

He really was busy, and now taking quite some time off to…Have cuddles with the cute, little grandson, he was now running behind schedule!

“Bye, father!” Sahara said happily and then eight beings disappeared, reappearing at the General’s estate…

It wasn’t long after that that the Emperor was forced to remember the empress’s condition and to do something about it…

Even with the ministers there, the Emperor went directly towards the empress’s quarters and was able to see her last half an hour before dying.

He wasn’t completely unfeeling, but when the empress had her finally breath, the Emperor only stood there for a couple of minutes before leaving.

It was obviously murder, and the Emperor knew the culprit. It had been Matthew and Sahara but…

…All this was giving him a headache, especially when he wanted to do the right thing!

The problem was, the empress had taken this on herself, and Sahara had already brought her back from death!

It really was a hopeless case and the Emperor decided that her death was instead done by her old injuries which had ‘flared up’ again.

Getting a couple of Bands to keep an eye upon rumors or secrets getting out, they had orders to detain a person that would be spreading them. It would only be a lost cause if someone wanted revenge for the fallen empress. Whatever she had done, the Emperor was sure that if she hadn’t done it in the first place, she’d probably still be alive. The best idea was to stop any information from going out that she had instead been killed, so that he didn’t have to waste his time upon people wanting to investigate and bring up unnecessary news of what had happened to Sahara.

With that done, the Emperor went back to the ministers to spread the sad news of the empress’s death and since they knew that something had been going on, it wasn’t surprising, especially when she had been extremely ill just days ago.

Not wanting to stop his work at this point, to start the mourning process for his empress, the Emperor took his work to his personal study and continued it with the help of his nanny and eunuch being there to wait on him.

The ministers went home and spread the news themselves, doing what was to be done upon a royal dying and changing their residence to state that they were also in morning.

Sadly, for the Empress, her death was not surprising, and people took it in as though it had been bound to happen. No one questioned her death but neither did they have bad words of her.

She was…A part of history now. She had been an Empress that held together the inner Palace, and for a while there had been no problems with Consorts or children of the Emperor…

What happened behind the scenes, with her poisoning and threatening others was still in the dark and perhaps it was her good luck to be looked upon well, even after death…

***

“My boy, did you come here to fight?”

Sahara shook her head and turned to go into the stable, it was feeding time…Except…

Turning around once again, Sahara instead choose to go inside the house, where it wasn’t so dirty. She had to be careful with a newborn, premature baby! Besides, Kin deserved better than being fed in a stable!

And with one person leaving, everyone else followed behind, each of them trying to talk the General out of fighting someone…

Since the General had appeared last night, to see his wife, his wife wasn’t surprised at seeing him once again. But when she saw the rest of the people coming, “Oh dear…Jean…Jean! Go…Go and tell the cooks that we have more for dinner, hurry!”

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“Oh, wife, look!” The General ran up to his beloved wife and pointed, “I brought friends!”

She laughed and nodded, turning to ‘his friends’, “My dear…Your Highness, nice to see you again! Pr…Princess!”

Sahara didn’t pay a lot of attention, as the little man was very unhappy now, and spiritual essence was no longer soothing him at all!

Looking up, Sahara quickly said, “I just need a room to feed him…In a hurry.”

“Oh, yes, of course! Follow me, dear, in this room, it hasn’t anyone living here, please take your time…Jean?”

As Sahara was guided to an area that looked like part of the main house, she never thought that she would be given such curtesy to have such a nice room when there were many others that lived in the area now. She had never had the chance to look around, but the General’s residence had some slight changes since her last visit and one of those changes was another whole area had been built and was now lived in…

“Madam, she isn’t back yet.”

Another maid stood in front of the General’s wife, and she gave off a small laugh, “Right, yes, can you please tend to the Princess, anything she needs, do your utmost to accomplish it for her!”

“Yes, Madam!”

“Wife, wife, can we eat?” The General asked.

It was still another hour or two before dinner time!

But for the wife of the General…This was pretty normal!

“No, not yet. You will just have to entertain your visitors until dinner time and then we can all sit together and enjoy a meal!”

“…But I’m hungry!” The General pouted.

“No matter, my dear husband, you will wait!” She pulled at his nose and smiled.

He smiled back and took her in for a hug, placing a hand on her growing belly.

Their hug wasn’t for long, and he let her go, turning back to where Matthew was supposed to be, “Okay…Oh, my boy, since we can’t eat, did you want…To fight!?”

Matthew had already disappeared, making the General look around for him, not finding him anywhere!

He was inside the room with Sahara, watching his boy drink hungrily. Steven was outside the room, waiting for Sahara to finish, not game enough at all to go into the room beforehand…

So…

Steven ended up being the next solution for ‘entertaining the guests’ for the General, as even Band One and Band Two had completely disappeared!

“Golden eyes! Let’s fight! Come on, let’s go!” The General walked off and Steven looked at the door, hoping he could get away.

“Oi, come here, or I’ll attack you right now!”

Steven sighed and started to walk back the way they had come, seeing Naruto running around like crazy…

Watching as Naruto seemed completely puffed out, yet still on some kind of drug that makes him unable to stop moving, Steven started to worry for his friend.

Without worrying about the General, who was just about ready to fight, Steven chased after Naruto and it seemed to have become some kind of big game for the General, and he did the same…

The first person to catch the fox, wins!

…Sadly, it wasn’t a small matter…

By the time Steven held the fox in his arms, the fox went completely still, and he was worried that the fox was dying!

Running back to Sahara, Steven barged in and yelled out, “Something is wrong with him!”

Both Sahara and Matthew looked down at the limp fox and Sahara raced over.

Picking up the fox in her arms, the men watched as she closed her eyes and after a while sighed…

“What’s wrong with him?”

Sahara opened her eyes and patted the fox, “He was just too excited. Steven, I think it’s best to keep him close to Kin for a while. I’m worried if he’s too far away, he might do this all over again!”

Sahara turned and put Naruto next to the sleeping, tiny baby upon the bed and Naruto awoke for short amount of time to get closer to Kin and curled up next to him.

Steven was still not sure if this would be enough but…It seemed fine now…And it seemed to make sense…But…

“I think Naruto had a vague idea of Kin before he was born. It looks like he’s loyalty has completely changed, the little bastard has fallen in love with my son!”

Silence enveloped the room, as all of them saw the obvious but couldn’t believe it…

Since Sahara had finished feeding her son and now had changed him, she then picked him up and gave him to Matthew. “I will teleport him soon to see his great grandmother, but he needs burping.”

“Then…You’re going alone? Why?” Matthew asked, glaring at her.

It wasn’t safe!

Sahara smiled at him and then sighed, “When I teleport him, I’ll teleport you as well, how about that?”

“No, just teleport all of us if you’re going to do it!”

Letting out a laugh and peeking him on the lips, Sahara then disappeared, leaving Matthew with a sleeping child and a fox that woke up and slowly crept towards Matthew…

Seeing the Empress Dowager in front of her, Sahara was unsure of what to expect. The last time that they had talked, was when they were still in Purple Haven.

“Grandmother.”

Seeing the Empress Dowager turn to see her, she looked away briefly and stated a quick noise to state that she had recognized her.

Bowing in front of her, Sahara stayed that way, knowing she really shouldn’t move until she was told that she could by the Empress Dowager.

“…You…”

Hearing her thoughts through the spiritual essence, Sahara didn’t look up but said, “Yes, I have returned. I was…”

“The child! The child is gone!”

Sahara was glad that something was finally seen, and then she continued, “Yes, Grandmother, they cut out my child and left me to die…”

“What!?”

Her yell was startling, and Sahara nearly lifted her head to hearing her sound so shocked.

Didn’t she want me dead anyway?

But Sahara had forgotten that she had slept for a number of days, when the Empress Dowager has had time to think this through, so yes, of course she was shocked that this…Granddaughter of hers had nearly died!

“Rise, come, come and tell this old lady what happened! Where is…Where is…”

Knowing that the Empress Dowager was scared that her little man had died, Sahara quickly got up and went towards her, “He is fine, I will bring him shortly. I…Wanted to quickly speak with you about…”

Sahara stopped, seeing that the Empress Dowager was not wanting to do anything else but wanting to see her great grandchild…Making Sahara sigh.

She thinks blood is thicker…Yet…Matthew isn’t even her real grandson…

In no time, two people and…A fox, was teleported to be in front of the Empress Dowager and the little bundle of joy could hardly be seen yet still brought a smile to the old woman’s face.

“Let…Let this one see!”

Reaching out her hands, Matthew gave the small boy to her, only after seeing me nod.

Not letting Naruto follow the child, Matthew gave the fox to me, and I patted him, as he watched the boy with sleepy but keen eyes.

This was going to be a problem!

“Oh, he is handsome like you, my dear Matthew! Look, look he has your lips!”

The Empress Dowager let out a little laugh and Matthew took Sahara’s free hand in his, smiling proudly.

“What have you named him?”

Not looking up, still fixated on the tiny boy in her arms, Matthew answered, “Kin. His name is Kin, Grandmother.”

“…Kin?”

“Yes, Grandmother.”

“Very well. Kin it is. First son of the Second Prince! What a lovely boy!”

The elderly lady cooed at the baby and Sahara and Matthew stayed silent, wondering what the old lady will still want to do with their child.

The last thoughts of this child, was that the Empress Dowager thought of putting him into the care of one of Matthew’s other wives…Has that changed?