Nadia raised an eyebrow. Even framed as passively as he put it, it still sounded like an achievement.
But she believed him. She could see it in his eyes—the genuine struggle, the darkness he was hinting at.
He had been going through something. Something bad enough to drive him away from the family, to make him lose himself in women and travel and revolution.
This was his embarrassing past, she realized. His version of the awkward teenage phase where boys posted cringy things online and regretted it years later.
Only Mika's version involved bedding the daughters of powerful officials across multiple realms.
'If any of the other man had heard him regret such things.' Nadia thought. 'They would have the urge to beat him up on the spot. Any other man would have died for even one night of the opportunities he had been given.'
'Yet here he was, feeling sad over it.'
