One month later.

The Empress Dowager’s Palace.

"Good morning, my dearest Aster darling, how do you feel today? Are you feeling happy?"

The Empress Dowager woke up early and rushed into her bedroom, showing her the utmost solicitude, in a very dramatic way.

However, having lived here for a month, Aster had had a deep understanding of this Empress Dowager’s impressive ways of doing things, quite the opposite of his son’s. The dowager definitely liked her flamboyant ways and styles, but she was also definitely the nicest.

"Mother, I feel good, really."

"Good good, it’s good that you feel well now, you should keep the good mood. Do it with me now, breath in, and out... and in again..."

"..."

What is all this?

"Well...um, Aster darling, today is the day when we worship our royal ancestors, you have to come with me back to the king’s palace to worship our ancestors." What the queen mother meant was that they would see Adalwolf again, so she had to keep her good mood now.

Aster did suddenly became on the tenterhooks hearing this, but she thought that it was fucking time. She had had a whole month of carefree life, which left only two months for her. If she kept avoiding him and not trying anything else, everything would be revealed and over!

"Yes mother, I will keep the good mood, it’s alright."

Seeing her sweet and clever daughter-in-law, the Dowager sighed instantly, "sometime I feel sorry for you, well, it was my fault that I only gave birth to one son, with such bad disposition..."

"..."

Surely Adalwolf was not her mother’s favorite...

Soon after a short preparation, the mother and daughter started directly off to the Delmont Palace.

There is a reason why there were no vehicles in the monsters world, because some of them just appeared and disappeared all by themselves, and some of them in the meanwhile, kept super awesome monster mounts.

The Empress Dowager kept a three-headed phoenix, named Deuphanus.

The seats were right on the back of Deuphanus, so Aster just scooched on her. Though Deuphanus had three heads, she looked extremely gorgeous, and was also fast.

A while later they had found themselves in the Delmont Palace.

The moment they landed, Aster felt the scale and solemnity of the royal ancestors worship ceremony.

When she got off from the back of the phoenix, Aster almost believed that Deuphanus had landed in the wrong place. Because the whole Delmont Palace, inside and out, was decorated in two colors of black and red. You could see the totem of wolf everywhere, fierce and commanding, powerful and domineering.

And there was a team of more than one thousand little monsters standing in formation, each with a flag in their hands, looking all grave and solemn, which was totally different from what she use to see them, laughing and joking.

This must be the honor guards heading for the royal mausoleum.

"Mother, are we setting off to the royal mausoleum later?"

"Not after the rituals in the palace are finished. We would set off at eleven at night."

Worshiping ancestors in the middle of the night...

Aster was kind of shocked, but what was more shocking awaited ahead.

The Empress Dowager covered her mouth and coughed at this moment, and said to Aster, "well Aster Darling, you are the queen now, according to the traditional rules by the ancestors, you and that jerk Adalwolf shall bathe and purify yourselves together before going to the mausoleum."

Bathe...and purify...together?!

Aster was almost choked by her own saliva, while at the moment Herald just popped out of nowhere with his red hair and answered for Aster in excitement, "this has always been the tradition of the Delmont royalty, the queen will definitely finish the great task of worship with his majesty together!"

What-the-fuck!

Could that fool be more obvious about what he is up to!

Is is even appropriate to think about such thing on such serious occasion of ancestors worship?

However, to put all the pickings an bitchings aside, it was something she must do! Then Aster replied to the Empress Dowager, "mother, you rest assured, I promise I will keep my good mood."

"Good good, the whole process of bathing and purifying would took an entire day, I have prepared tranquilizer pills for my Aster darling, just take one each time you feel not good, the effect can last as long as four hours!" she took out one small sachet of pills as she was saying and put it in Aster’s hand.

Aster was speechless.

It surely has made the old lady worried!

What bath is it anyway, for an entire day, wouldn’t it make the skin crinkle?

So Aster was escorted to a magnificent audience hall where she’d never been, with the Empress Dowager following now, and they came across Adalwolf walking towards them far from the other end of the audience hall.

At the moment the little monsters opened the closed door in the audience hall, and the Empress Dowager waved at her, smiling, "you go first, Aster darling, I have some words to say with this jackass."

"Sure, mother." Still, Aster dared not to see his face, and went in at once as she was told.

She didn’t walked around after she went in, and just heard the voice of the Empress Dowager at the other side of the door as high as the night queen in the Magic Flute, coming through the wooden door into her ears, "I am warning you, boy! Aster is with child now, don’t you dare even touch her, do you hear me?"

"..."

"Speak, you bastard, why do get vexed every time I see you?!"

Then she slapped him on the shoulder twice, "it hurt my hand to beat you, ungrateful child! Answer me right now!"

"Mother!" echoed the exasperated voice of Adalwolf, "how can I!"

"Well, you are my child, I can see right through you! Anyway, men will always be men! They don’t always do as they say when they are met with the temptation! Just remember! If you dare to do anything dangerous to my grandson, I will... I will..."

Then it went into silence...

Aster stood against the door and swallowed, panicked in her heart.

My queen mother! Don’t scold him! You should let him actually!

Otherwise, you wouldn’t have a grandson!

The door creaked open.

Adalwolf came in.

"Your majesty, my queen, this way, you should undress yourselves and immerse in the sell of incense."

"OK."

He answered in a cold voice and didn’t even give her a look, and followed the little monsters.

Aster suddenly felt defeated, and disappointed.

Mother, you must have thought too much, he didn’t even have any such interest!

Aster was upset about it as she was undressed by the little monsters. She didn’t realize it until she was left with only one uncomfortable shabby knicker she made herself and a belly band around her breasts, she had tried making

bras but they were harder to make. Bralessness

made her feel insecure.

"Wait! Do... do I have to be fully undressed?"

She got nervous when she realized the little monsters started to untie her belly band.

However, the little monsters looked at her like "of course, how do you take the bath then if you don’t fully undress yourself", and they turned to nod a signal at the king aside.