The Omega Knight's Secret Baby Daddy is A PRINCE?!

Chapter 213: That Helios...

"Auriela? As in...the concubine? Aurien’s mother?" Ezra asks, wide-eyed now, not entirely sure how to process the sudden twist in the conversation.

Kaelis laughs softly at his reaction.

"It’s quite a shock, no? As a child, I was shocked too. I almost couldn’t believe it."

"I don’t believe it at all," Ezra says immediately with a frown.

Because honestly?

It sounded ridiculous.

The queen hating Auriela because they used to be lovers sounded less like reality and more like one of those dramatic noble plays rich people cried over during festivals.

"My mother says that she hears things, and that she heard that the queen was in a relationship before, but the king took her in. Their relationship was supposed to be amicable, the same as with my mother. It was all for show." Kaelis explains as he leaned slightly back against the fountain’s stone edge.

Apparently, the queen was in a relationship with another woman, and at that time, it was heavily frowned upon."

"Well, it’s not like it’s still widely accepted now," Ezra points out quietly.

Kaelis hums slightly.

"Well, even more so that the queen was an Omega, and Auriela is also an Omega."

Ezra’s eyes widened slightly at that detail.

"My mother says that the queen didn’t even care that my father took in concubines. My mother and the queen were amicable, so they didn’t hate each other." Kaelis continues. "Though she did fear my existence mostly because she wanted Helios to be the only heir."

That at least made sense to Ezra.

The queen always favored Helios heavily.

Everyone knew that.

But the rest?

Ezra still struggled to wrap his head around it.

"What happened then?" Ezra asks slowly. "Why...is Auriela here? Why did the queen hate her so much if they were supposedly in love?"

If anything, the hatred between them was infamous within the palace.

Even Ezra knew about it growing up.

"That, she never knew," Kaelis answers honestly. "But all she said was there was a point where my father was spiraling down. He was heartbroken, he seemed...dead inside until..."

"Until?" Ezra asks quietly.

"He took in Auriela."

Ezra’s eyes widened immediately.

"Did he fall for her?"

"My mother didn’t think so." Kaelis shakes his head slowly. "She theorized that something happened with my father, and it was Auriela that pulled him out of it."

Ezra frowns slightly.

"That doesn’t make sense, because if she was the one who pulled him out of that state, doesn’t that mean she is the love of his life?" Ezra asks, tilting his head as he genuinely tried to piece it together.

Kaelis stares at Ezra after that.

Not speaking immediately.

He was thinking.

It was obvious he was thinking carefully about whatever he wanted to say next.

Hesitating even.

Which immediately made Ezra suspicious.

"What?" Ezra asks cautiously now.

"I have my own theory," Kaelis says slowly, "a theory I’ve had growing up after a lot of observation, and I need you to be open-minded about it."

Ezra already didn’t like how ominous that sounded.

"Alright...?" Ezra says cautiously. "Go ahead, Your High—Kaelis."

Kaelis looks oddly pleased at the correction again before his attention drifts back toward the fountain.

"You’ve seen Auriela," Kaelis says quietly. "Did you ever feel like she reminded you of someone you know?"

"Someone I know? Not really..." Ezra answers honestly before pausing slightly.

"Appearance wise," Kaelis clarifies. "Her eyes. Her hair color."

Ezra thinks about it properly this time.

Auriela had black hair.

Silver eyes.

He had seen many people with black hair before.

But silver eyes...

The only people Ezra personally knew with silver eyes were Auriela and—

Ezra’s breath catches slightly.

"No way." Ezra looks at Kaelis with widened eyes. "Captain Aamon?"

Kaelis whistles softly.

"Did you know that Captain Aamon used to have black hair? Before it turned white from stress. Now it’s brown mostly because he dyes it, but in his younger days, it was black."

"That’s..."

Ezra genuinely didn’t know how to process that information.

Because suddenly images started clicking together in his head too.

Aamon’s silver eyes.

Auriela’s silver eyes.

The king’s strange attachment to both of them.

And suddenly Ezra felt like he was standing in the middle of a story far messier than he ever imagined.

"Captain Aamon is my father’s closest aide, his one and only confidante, and though my father highly praises Captain Aamon, Captain Aamon always seemed to put a barrier between them," Kaelis says quietly.

"My theory is that my father loved Captain Aamon, but Captain Aamon either did not return it or...refused to return it."

Ezra stares at him in stunned silence.

"So he found peace in finding someone who looks like him?"

"Yes." Kaelis nods once. "The same black hair. The same silver eyes. And it just so happened to be the one the queen also loved."

Ezra slowly rubs a hand over his face.

"That’s a bit messed up if it’s true," Ezra says honestly.

Actually, messed up felt like an understatement.

It almost sounded unreal.

Like those dramatic stage plays filled with betrayals, forbidden love, and nobles ruining each other’s lives over obsession.

Except this wasn’t a play.

These were actual people.

People who raised Helios.

People who raised Kaelis.

People who shaped Aurien too.

"My mother believes that the reason Helios started changing his approach with me was because Queen Circe finally told him the truth about the king, and about Auriela’s betrayal," Kaelis says quietly, his gaze lowering toward the fountain water.

The earlier amusement in his voice was gone now.

"What did it have to do with you?" Ezra asks honestly.

Because it made sense for Helios to start hating Auriela.

The king too.

Even Aurien.

But Kaelis?

Kaelis was still lost somewhere in that equation.

"I was close to Aurien." Kaelis answers after a moment. "Helios tried to put me against him, but I refused."

Ezra listens carefully.

"I think..." Kaelis pauses slightly, like he was choosing his words carefully now. "Helios was angry that I chose to still see Aurien as my brother."

The fountain water trickled quietly between them as Kaelis continued.

"Helios never saw me as a threat. I think if anything, he genuinely saw me as his brother."

That part sounded painfully sincere.

"And after he realized that things that he owned could easily be taken," Kaelis says more quietly now, "and by someone who also took his mother’s happiness..."

Kaelis finally glances toward Ezra.

"He was losing a brother he grew up with, and he hated me for that."

Ezra’s chest tightens slightly at the wording.

Because Kaelis didn’t sound bitter saying it.

Just...sad.

Like he spent years trying to understand Helios instead of simply hating him back.

"That makes sense but..." Ezra furrows his eyebrows slightly. "I’m sorry to ask, and I was genuinely interested to know all of this, but what does this have to do with the truth?"

Because Ezra still felt like he was missing something important.

Something Kaelis kept carefully circling around without directly saying it yet.

"It’s important for me to tell you how Helios became Helios and why he did what he did to me when you came," Kaelis says. "Not to justify him, but so you could understand the motive clearer."

Ezra blinks slowly.

"What did he do? And what is the motive?"

Kaelis suddenly smiles at him then.

Not mockingly.

Not cruelly.

Almost fondly.

"You’re pretty dense, you know that?" Kaelis says with a soft laugh. "It’s hard for me to believe that in all these years, you never knew or felt it."

Ezra immediately frowns slightly.

"Felt what?"

Kaelis looks directly at him now.

"That Helios loves you."