The Mind-Reading Mate: Why Is the Lycan King So Obsessed With Me?!

Primrose leaned against the one window that hadn't been shattered, watching Edmund and Leofric play an intense game of chase for over fifteen minutes.

Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised if they kept it up for more than an hour, unless one of them finally ran out of energy.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, both of them seemed to have endless stamina. Especially the mighty Lycan King, who was rumored to have once fought for an entire week without a wink of sleep.

"Y-Your Majesty …." Callen finally approached, looking like a man walking toward his own execution. Primrose found it a little funny because it had taken him fifteen whole minutes to snap out of his thoughts. "D-Do you plan to fire me after this?"

Primrose turned to him immediately. "Why would I fire you?"

[Why is Her Majesty even asking? It's obvious I've constantly failed at my duties as her royal knight!]

[I couldn't protect her in Moonshadow, and now I didn't even realize she was in danger!]

[I was only a few meters away from her and still couldn't protect her?! Maybe it would've been better if I'd been killed by the intruders instead of living as a useless man!]

Primrose twitched the corner of her eyes, fascinated yet again by how beasts always seemed to jump straight to "I should die" the moment they made a mistake.

Honestly, she wondered where they got that kind of mindset, and how it had managed to survive in their heads for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.

"I have failed you, Your Majesty," Callen said aloud, lowering his head. "I'm still not sure I'm strong enough to be your royal knight. If Sir Leofric hadn't come to save you, maybe you … you wouldn't have survived."

Oh, so Callen clearly didn't know the full story of what had happened earlier.

He probably assumed Leofric had been the one to save her, and since he was drowning in guilt, he hadn't even stopped to wonder why Edmund had been so ready to kill Leofric right then and there.

"Do you know how old His Majesty and Sir Leofric are?" she asked suddenly.

Callen lifted his head, clearly confused by the question. "I-I don't understa—"

"My husband is thirty-five," Primrose cut in. "And Leofric … I'm not sure of his exact age, but he's definitely older." She tilted her head at him. "How about you? I don't think I've ever asked your age."

Callen hesitated before answering. "T-Twenty-three."

She nodded. "Right. You're only a year older than me, so of course you don't have decades of battle experience yet." Primrose's lips curved into a small grin. "Trust me, even the great Sir Leofric must've tripped over his own sword once or twice when he was starting out."

She went on, "Sir Callen, no one in this world becomes an expert without going through a beginner stage. Even my husband and Sir Leofric weren't this strong when they started."

Though, in her heart, she wasn't entirely convinced.

She didn't know much about Leofric yet, but as for Edmund … Well, as far as she knew, he'd been born with an incredible power inside him, enough that his own parents had seen him as a threat, a monster.

Still, she was certain it had taken him years to truly control that power. The Edmund in his mid-twenties and the Edmund standing outside now were probably very different men.

The older palace maids had told her that back then, Edmund had a severe bad temper. They said there hadn't been a single day where he didn't get angry over something small.

Still, Primrose thought that was understandable because back then, the political situation in the beast kingdom had been extremely tense. There were always beast tribes rebelling because they refused to submit to rules they felt stripped them of their identity as beasts.

More than that, the politics between the beast kingdom and the human kingdom were a complete mess, so it was no surprise Edmund used to be cranky almost every single day.

Even so, he slowly got better, and the turning point was after Primrose came to the palace. From then on, no one ever saw the Lycan King lose his temper in his office again.

Now that she thought about it, Primrose realized that even in her first life, she had rarely seen Edmund lose his temper in front of her. Well, yeah, he looked so grumpy and sounded mean, but honestly, he never slammed the table in front of her.

Oh, but who cared about the past anymore? What mattered now was that Edmund had truly become calmer and smiled so much that the maids and soldiers nearly had heart attacks every time they saw it.

Her eyes wandered to the broken library windows, and she let out a sigh. Well … maybe today was the first time in months the mighty Lycan King had truly lost his temper in the palace.

"But they already have talent." Callen's voice snapped her focus back to him just in time to hear him say, "I'm nothing compared to them, Your Majesty."

Primrose took a deep breath and patted his shoulder gently. "You'll never know how far your talent can take you if you give up before you even try." She continued, "The mind is the strongest weapon a person has. If it's filled with negativity every day, it can destroy your entire life."

She leaned in slightly, her gaze steady. "But if you believe in yourself, you can achieve things you never thought possible. You may be weak now, Sir Callen, but I believe in your potential."

Primrose wasn't an expert at judging a person's combat skills, but she was good at reading someone's heart and mind now. She knew Callen had the heart of someone worth keeping. With the right guidance, he could become one of her greatest assets.

Even if he never reached Leofric or Edmund's level, his loyalty alone was priceless, and that was exactly what she needed most.

Besides, she honestly didn't believe Callen was truly as weak as he thought.

Even Edmund hadn't made much of a fuss when she chose Callen as her personal guard. Sure, her husband might have doubted him at first, but over time, he had never once suggested that Callen was unfit for the role.

Maybe Edmund had seen that Callen would be a great companion for his wife or maybe he already knew Callen could become someone extraordinary in the future.