Chapter Fifty-Eight: Husband Material
1429 Words
“Have him come in.”
The Empress yelled, turning to the door.
The double doors of the parlour room creaked open, and a tall, well-dressed and built man with golden hair walked in.
‘Leon?’
“This is… my son’s former knight. Sir Leon Tagen of the fallen Tagen household. He is my gift to you.”
‘Hold up, gift?’
Leon was no more a gift than he was a discarded assent.
In the game, Leon is gifted to Regina after her relationship with Étienne grew. He was basically to act as the Empress’s informant, but he goes and falls in love with her.
In the end, or if his route isn’t played, he sacrifices himself so that she can escape the Empress’s clutches.
All in all, very romantic, if not stupid.
Why would you sacrifice yourself without telling the other party the danger? Not that Regina would garner prowess as a skilled leader or manipulator overnight, but the loss should have made her want to change…only it doesn’t because the ‘sacrificed’ wasn’t on her radar.
All she does is dress in black, cry, then vow vengeance only to forget and settle for the marriage life.
The game ends after the first heir is born; never since his death was he mentioned again.
I saved Leon last time, but what did that get me?
Another i***t to spit on my cell with poetic nonsense on the results of my greed.
Well, that’s the developer’s problem, not mine.
Still, how in the hell would it serve me to harbour a spy?
He may have fallen for Regina, but he did play the role of a faithful spy before then.
‘Should…should I kill him?’
“You are gifting me a knight?”
“Yes, I am aware that your knighting ceremony is tomorrow. I know that you will be given a military squad to take to Clay, but, as per my husband, you are to get the...deficient ones, for lack of a better word; if you put Leon, an experienced knight with combat training, in charge of your troops, then matters should be easier for you.”
‘Of course, I get shitty troops…the Emperor must really…’
“Still, a knight is too much.”
“Accept it graciously. Humility is such a curse.”
It took too long for the spy to fall for the damsel. There is no implacable way for him to turn his attentions to me.
‘I should kill him.’
*
*
*
I sighed deeply in the bathroom mirror as water ran down my face and words of today's meeting with the Empress washed over me.
‘God knows we do not need a p********e's child; I mean your lineage….’
I closed the running tap.
‘Don’t you feel it should just…you know…end with you?’
Bitter laughter escaped my lips.
I could hardly recognise myself in the mirror. It did not make it easy that I thought the same as the Empress, not in terms of my blood but...
“Seriously…I'm so tired.’
*
*
*
The next day’s morning was a blur; Leon was given two days to pack, after which he would follow me to Clay.
To make matters more frustrating, a moody Emperor conducted my Knighting ceremony.
The ceremony was brief to the point that it was apparent I had no royal favour from him, especially after I refused his command. However, more than that, I was still expected to keep in mind that I had three wars to participate in with the shitty knights handed to me.
‘I barely have any mana, and now this?’
“Countess!”
Harell called over my sigh.
“Are you okay?”
“Oh, my apologies, my mind seems to have wandered from me.”
“It has been a full day for you. I am sure this date cannot be easy.”
“Is that what this is, a date?”
Harell lifted his blue gaze then sputtered his tea clumsily back into its cup.
“Is..is it not? Mother said that I shou-.. oh dear.”
‘Cute’
Harell is handsome, boyishly so, with thick russet hair and deep blue eyes that much resembled what I assume would be a younger version of the Emperor, only he did not carry his cynicism.
Rather, he was the most generic form of a good boy, or should I say a ‘mama’s boy’.
I can't pinpoint anything wrong with him per se other than that he is…boring? No…that’s not it; he carried the hollowness of a puppet.
“I was under the impression that a first date would be in a restaurant that harbours such a mood, not in the palace gardens, as beautiful as they are, sipping tea that the wind has already blown warm. This feels more like a tea party, not a date.”
“You are absolutely right.”
He once again threw me a charming smile.
“How about we do this? Let us discuss our terms in the arrangement should it go forward; then, we can meet for a real date tonight. That way, rather than count this as a date, we can call it a business meeting.”
“Oh…? I like the sound of that.”
I leaned forward, placed my gloved hands on the table, then put my chin over them.
“Where will we go?”
“That will be a surprise. But dress formally, I shall pick you up from your hotel, say eight?”
“Okay, okay, that definitely rules out hiking.”
Harell let out a soft chuckle that, for some reason, melted my heart.
Perhaps it was the long-awaited simplicity that stirred me.
‘When this is done, should I date a commoner away from the plot or…oh, right Étienne.’
‘When this is done…I will be done here.’
‘ Seriously though…’
‘Do the Gods hate me so much that they would bless him with the recollection of the past? Or do they simply not exist to hear my cries?’
‘No…no, I don’t have time to think about that, just…just move.’
“So, let us get into the ‘what if’ conditions of our partnership.”
I introduced to silence the thundering chatter in my brain.
“‘What if’? is it because I screwed up our date that you are not certain whether you will agree to marry me?”
I smiled.
“Not only that, but….”
“But? There is more?”
‘Fun’
“Alright, the first condition.”
I began, cutting the confusion-inducing humour from the conversation.
“I will not sire nor be expected to give birth to an heir.”
“You…you do not want children?”
‘Correction, I cannot sire a child with a human.’
But what use is extra information in this context?
“That’s your response? I figured it would be similar to her majesty’s.”
“What did mother say to that?”
“First of all, she said that it would be okay if we were to get divorced after your enthronement, so she was not invested in the idea of children.”
“But if you…if you can help me get the throne, doesn’t that mean that you can keep helping me, I don’t know, manage it?”
‘That’s your mother’s job.’
“Do you not want us to divorce?”
“No, I would rather you remain my companion even after.”
“Won’t you take a concubine?”
His expression turned sullen.
“I…truthfully, feel I have already met the woman of my dreams. But alas, circumstances do not allow us to be together. Saintesses cannot become concubines, so you are all that I will need.”
‘He has already met Riette.’
“I will let you meet with her if you wish. I will neither claim your heart nor your bed.”
“Then…you are certain on the matter of heirs?”
He is frank, honest and to the point.
But I do not doubt that if the Empress were to tell him to leave me behind, he would, at the drop of a hat.
“You can have concubines, and I want the same privilege.”
“To have…male concubines?”
“Yes.”
“What...what if you sire their children?”
“Then they will inherit Clay.”
“You do not want us to merge our-.”
“No. Merge nothing; yours is yours, and mine shall remain mine.”
- Writer
