Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress-Chapter 694: To Get Stronger as Preparation for War

Arabella gestured for Rendell to simply ignore it. She did not want to cause a commotion especially since she had just been attending the Court Sessions for several days.

Thus, Rendell simply gave another warning glare to Frieda’s older brother and they returned to the throne room.

Almost everyone was back inside as Arabella met up with Ferdinand who was formerly speaking with the Great Elders.

The Court Session proceeded successfully until the afternoon.

Thankfully, it ended earlier than expected so Arabella and Ferdinand managed to have dinner together. But soon after, they proceeded to their own offices to work on documents that needed their attention.

Only after they were done with their work did Ferdinand and Arabella get the chance to finally spend some time with each other.

"It was such a long day," Ferdinand complained as he embraced her from behind and buried his face in her hair.

Arabella chuckled lightly and agreed, "Indeed."

It always felt nice to be held by him like this. Firm and tight but comfortable and warm. It felt so safe and reassuring. It was akin to a reward after a long day of work.

It was already deep into the night but they were still grateful they managed to have some time just with each other.

"Humans have short lives but you do so much in a day," Ferdinand further complained because she agreed with him. "No wonder human civilization changes too quickly."

Ferdinand talked like he had seen too many civilizations pass that it became tiring to him.

"Haha. What did you do most of the time then?" Arabella inquired as she rested her hands on his.

"Sleep. I spent 99% of my life asleep," Ferdinand replied matter-of-factly that Arabella had to turn around just to ensure he was not kidding her.

"Seriously?!" she inquired and gawked when her husband nodded. "You only spent 1% of your life awake?"

"Yes. There was nothing much to do after trying everything I was interested in," Ferdinand suddenly felt embarrassed because of the look Arabella was giving him.

"But isn’t just 1% a bit much?" Arabella could still not believe it was just that small percentage that Ferdinand had spent awake.

"It is not. Don’t misunderstand. I was not being lazy. It’s because I have lived for too long. I sleep in one era and wake up in another. That became the norm for me and my fellow primordials the longer we lived," Ferdinand quickly clarified.

"Oh, I see... It wasn’t just you," Arabella slowly nodded her head.

"Of course not," Ferdinand pouted and made it seem like she was judging him.

"I wasn’t trying to say you are lazing around. I was just surprised," Arabella quickly explained herself.

Thankfully, Ferdinand eyed her and knew she was not lying so he relented.

Arabella was curious about something though so she asked, "Then, what did you spend that 1% on?"

"All sorts of things. It might seem like a bit but as I have said, I have lived for too long. That 1% is still a lot of time. I learned all sorts of things like battle and magic. I also observed other races and tried living among them. My time living in Estrella these past millennia is just a small part of that 1%," Ferdinand explained.

"Just a small fraction?" Arabella was once again reminded that her husband was yeah, aged.

She had already asked several times but he still refused to say how old he was exactly. Now, she was once again curious about how old he was. She eyed him and he knew exactly what she was curious about and shook his head.

"Not a chance. You won’t know even if you try to read my mind," Ferdinand chuckled.

"Come on...Pretty please..." Arabella pouted and acted all cutesy but it didn’t work this time. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"No. That’s not something I will let you know," Ferdinand still kept it a secret.

"Tsk. Why? What did you do? It’s just some years. Why would you try to hide it that much? I already told you I don’t mind," Arabella reminded.

"Then, don’t ask and stop trying to learn about it," Ferdinand still refused to reveal it.

"Being curious and wanting to know more about you is different from not minding your age. I want to know but I won’t mind the age gap is what I meant," Arabella clarified but her husband still shook her head.

"I won’t ever tell you. It’s just a number anyway. And as I have said, I spent most of it asleep," Ferdinand dismissed it.

"Tsk. Fine," Arabella relented since he was so set on hiding it. He said it was just a number but he could not tell her about it, embarrassed because of their crazy age gap.

"You’re so adorable even when you speak that way," Ferdinand changed the topic.

"Hmmp," Arabella did not let him sweet-talk her either since he did not let her effort to act all cute work.

"Haha," Ferdinand chuckled at her response. He cupped her cheek and said, "See, you’re still so adorable."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Arabella ignored the compliments since there was something else they needed to talk about. "More importantly, Elder Brother said you already know why he did his prank this morning."

"Oh, that..." Ferdinand scratched the back of his head.

Ferdinand explained that it was about their talks while Arabella and her younger siblings were in Lei’s room. Ferdinand and Benjamin also had their conversation about things they could not discuss while other people were around.

Since war with Fynnia might erupt in the future, the two had agreed to have some of their knights train together as part of the alliance between Lobelius and Valeria.

Ferdinand noticed that Benjamin wanted to visit the said training often so that the latter could try sparring with Valerian knights and even train with them as well.

However, Ferdinand disagreed and said he would prohibit his knights from ever sparring with Benjamin because of the possibility of conflict in case they accidentally hurt Benjamin.

But due to the possible war, Benjamin was insistent because he wanted to get stronger. He ensured Ferdinand it would be done somewhere private.