BoI II

"Phantom, you're still doing it," Queen Andromeda greeted as soon as she came inside the study room of the king and saw him again seated on his usual seat. The seat that he was taking when he was so busy with something and just doing things that he kept himself very much focused on and didn't want anyone disturbing him. "Pyro's been looking for you since this morning. You didn't eat breakfast with him, and you're not there to play with him, so he asked me to come here. What are you doing and getting yourself busy again?"

The king stopped drawing and looked up at the next people who were hindering his continuous flow of ideas once again. It wasn't like he could complain about it, he definitely couldn't when a pair of cute eyes were currently looking at him, and a small body was trying to come on his lap. "For a moment, my child. Let me just clean this. I don't want this to be ruined."

"What are you doing in the first place, Phantom? You've been staying here for three days straight, from the time we wake up until evening. We're missing you even when you're just here." The Queen walked to him and looked at the papers that the king was drawing, but he already folded them and was obviously hiding them from her.

She was kind of skeptical at the action but knowing her husband, she was sure he didn't mean any harm to his people. He was just entirely up for the whole island's welfare, so her doubts were nothing but mere trash in her mind.

"Nothing grand, honestly. I will just plan on building more establishments for our naval armies, more weapons for them to develop, and complete everything to provide them with what they need because as you may know, they are our main front liners in wars. Defense, protection, and offense are those that we need to improve so we have to focus on them. We don't know when attackers will try to get us," the king explained, initially and generally explaining his plans to his wife first before anyone else. His son was seated on his lap now, and he was playing with a wooden toy specially made by their sculptors in town in the shape of a naval army wearing its uniform.

"You're not failing your father right now. He must be happy that he knows he left with you leading the whole island. And the people, they are happy, too, with serving you. We, the people of this island, including me and your son, believe in you. We know you can lead us the best."

This is what the king loved about Queen Andromeda. The pressured king needed a supportive queen, and that was exactly what he found in Queen Andromeda's trait. They were colleagues, both were training to be a part of the naval armies, Andromeda was the daughter of General Erico, while Prince Phantom was the son of the late king, king Python.

They were both competitive, both didn't want to be left behind as they were working hard to become the top trainees for the naval armies. But the unexpected love and affection between them couldn't be helped. They were both in a young love when King Python died, and the position immediately passed on to Phantom, but he didn't leave Andromeda behind, he married her and made her his queen, in exchange for both of their dreams— being part of the naval armies.

"Nothing has been done yet, my dear. I will only accept the praises once I'm satisfied and everything's already pretty much according to my plan. I have plans, but without action, I don't think I'm a good leader, and…" His gaze turned to his son on his lap and pinched his cute chubby cheeks. "We have our future naval soldier who will fight for our country and continue our dreams. We'll have our handsome son be part of the naval armies once he's already at the right age."

They were beyond happy when they found out that Queen Andromeda was pregnant and they were going to have a child. They were over the moon when they found that the queen gave birth to a son. They had planned on having their children continue their dreams while they try to lead the whole island. They wanted to pass to them their dream of becoming a part of naval armies, and they wanted to build their little own naval armies at home, and Pyro was the start of it.

The king was so happy that they finally have their own little family, and he was giving everything to his son, while also instilling and subtly letting him choose what he wanted to become. So far, it seemed like they didn't need to exceed an effort right now because Pyro naturally liked and was fascinated by the naval armies.

"Have you had more certain plans right now? Are all of that long-term?" The queen asked, sitting on the chair in front of the table of the king as she picked up one scratched paper and opened it, finding a somewhat undefined drawing since the king just had to ruin the papers that he was disposing of to make sure that no one just had to get it when they try to peek what they were trying to draw.

"They are all long-term goals. Short goals are given to the other parts of councils, the basics and those that should be done quickly that do not need my attention," he answered, looking at his wife and taking the paper from her hands. He didn't really want them to know about his plans, but since she was his wife and she at least understood how Phantom thinks with all the years that they had been together, it was somehow a factor for him to make him trust her.

"It was just a few things. I'm planning on building a few houses that the naval armies may find helpful to them, like for example the place where we can lock up those people from the other island that we caught from attacking us. I'll have it built underground on every side of our island and I'll call it Vault Hall. There are a lot more, I'll explain it to General Erico later, so what brings you here, my queen?"

"We just want to call for your lunch, Phantom. It's been three days since the last time you ate with us, and your son does miss you a lot. He always looks for you to play. He didn't even want to listen to me whenever we're training," the queen answered, more like she was complaining to the king because there was obviously more affection for the king than for her so she couldn't help but sulk.

She also looked at her son, and Pyro, being quick-witted, jumped from his father and hugged her mother instead. Queen Andromeda laughed. "Well, say no more."

The king smiled as he watched the queen carry Pyro and rained him with kisses all over his face which ended up the whole room filled with his laughter. This was the family that the king exactly imagined when he and Andromeda were still not married and his father showed no sign of any difficulties. He imagined a loving and happy family, and this was exactly what he could see right in front of him.

He was perfect and glad for the family that was given to him, he didn't need to worry and deal with his own personal issue if it happened that he chose the wrong person back then. He was just glad that Andromeda shared the same passion as him, and she accepted him even when he took over the position of his father even when it meant that they would both leave the naval armies.

"Well, let's eat meals together before General Erico comes and discuss things amongst ourselves." The king stood up with exuding confidence and fixed the red, hot robe around his body. It was the traditional wear of the king that he needed to wear almost all of the time when he was working, he would only be freed from it once he was inside his chamber and already done with his work as the king of the whole Island of Jussey, and now a husband to his wife, and a father to his kid.

"Make sure you will be out before dinner, Phantom. We will also make sure to end our training session early in the afternoon to prepare our meals," the queen reminded and said. Pyro was already starting to train with her mother, sometimes with the king if he was less busy, but mostly, Queen Andromeda had been teaching him the things that he heads to learn in case he would want to enter the naval armies which by how he couldn't let go of the wooden toy that since given to him, he couldn't let go of it since then.

The king and the queen had come up with a unanimous decision of having their kid trained to be part of the naval armies just like how they wanted themselves to be. They were teaching him how to swim and how to combat the enemies even when he was still a kid, resulting in Prince Pyro already knowing how to swim even when he was still five years old, far more advanced than the kids of his age.

Aside from the fact that King Phantom was supposed to be one of the leaders and the leader of the north side if he was not just the king right now, which means that the king was one of the strongest contenders back in the days, and now since he couldn't use that, he was just passing them to his kid whom he was training at the moment.

On the other hand, the queen was not far from what the king could do. Queen Andromeda was supposed to be the next leader of the west side, and she would be the only woman who could do that in the history of the whole Island of Jussey. But since it was not fulfilled by her duty of being the queen and marrying Phantom that she was not regretting, she was waiting for someone who could beat the stereotype and show everyone that a woman could also be in the naval armies like how men could fight.

Andromeda, before she even became the great Queen Andromeda that she was now, was the leader and the one known for being the best in strategies and outwitting the enemies. She was the one who managed to reach the most enemy to kill without even using her hands and with just dodging and all of her mind. She was hailed as the brain of the naval armies before, and no one knew how she worked and how she was able to do all those things, but right now, she was also passing that to her kid.

She was teaching Pyro all the strategies that she could think of. Every night, whenever she couldn't sleep, she was imagining herself back on the sea and fighting for the island, she was thinking of how would she be able to dodge and solve everything if she was in this certain scenario, so as to not forget them, she was writing them in one notebook, and later on, would give and teach them all to Pyro as the execution.

Pyro was easy to teach because he also had a passion for learning. He was struggling, especially when he had to improve his physical abilities at a young age, but unlike the other kid, he never cried, he would call for a rest when he was having a hard time. They could see that he was strong, and he would become one of the best naval armies.

They wanted them to become the ones who would reach their dreams along with the knowledge that they instilled in the child. Pyro had a bright future ahead of him, that was what his parents would make sure him to have. They would make sure they would not be like what happened to them.

Pyro was fit to be the next leader of the naval armies. Both of them could foresee.