Interlude 2 : Rulers

[Royal Capital: Arthur]

The Queen of the Hendrix Kingdom found herself pinching the bridge of her nose as she felt a migraine slowly settling in.

The queen was an enchantingly beautiful woman with fair and beautiful skin; she had vibrant, deep emerald eyes that would usually shimmer an ethereal glow in the light, but not today.

She had short, ear-length golden blonde hair, her face was beautiful and shaped more like an oval, and she had a soft-featured nose and beautifully red and naturally full lips.

Her figure was slender and lithe, and she was tall with petite breasts, The queen wore a white and gold dress that went well with her gold jewellery as she sat at her throne with confidence.

"Your majesty please understand, if I don't raise the taxes, I'll be forced to cut the pay of my Knights by a significant margin"

A handsome bearded man spoke; he was tall and attractive, but the way he spoke only made the queen more frustrated; it also didn't help that his words were directed at her husband rather than her, even though she was the one in charge of matters regarding taxes, finance and the economy of the kingdom.

"Marquis Chester, The king is not the one you speak to about such matters"

She said, her voice stern, commanding and her brows were creased. She took a glance at her husband, who was sporting a stoic expression, but she could tell he did not want to deal with all of this and would much rather be somewhere else.

It was cute how he tried to act like a King even though he despised being King.

"Excuse me my Queen but His Majesty is the ruler of the realm, while your opinion is heavily valued, decisions still rest on his shoulders"

The queen shrugged, resisting to shake her head at him, so instead, she looked at her husband.

"Darling, your thoughts on Marquis Chester's request?"

The King turned to her and raised his eyebrow, signalling to her that he wasn't paying attention and didn't know what to say. She simply smiled at him, practically telling him to say something even though he had no idea what to say.

"Ahem! Yes Marquis, your request"

He said, his voice deep like a bass.

"Hmm"

He hummed as he scratched his full beard, stalling for time, and the queen resisted the urge to giggle as she watched him struggle. He looked at her with a glance, his vibrant blue eyes asking her for help, and she moved her eyes to left and right, and he huffed in response.

"I'm afraid I have to deny it"

"But Your Majesty"

"You heard your King Marquis, not only that but you have massive wealth already, I see no reason why you would need to increase taxes for your territory, and besides all that, we'll be raising taxes in the next 2 years anyway just wait till then"

"Your–"

"Dismissed"

"But–"

"She said, Dismissed"

The marquis could only grit his teeth but had no choice but to comply; he resisted the urge to give the queen a hateful glare so he simply left the throne room.

The throne room was large and circular, with a singular rounded seat and table that circled along the wall, stopping at the throne, which was elevated above everything else. The throne room also doubled as a meeting room for the noble court.

"Ugh I hate this job"

The queen giggled, hearing the king say that; the man took his crown off his head and placed it on the arm of his chair.

"This thing is damn heavy and it hurts my head"

"Well it's unfortunate that you're stuck with it then"

She said, still giggling, amused by her husband's distaste for his birthright; when she married him, she expected something completely different, but her expectations were dashed, but in a good way, she also didn't expect to love him the way she did now.

As a daughter of the second Duke of the Hendrix Kingdom, she knew from a young age that she would never marry for love, and her opinion on who to marry was practically irrelevant and that she probably wouldn't love the person she married, but she was lucky.

"Why don't I give the crown to you then? You'd certainly do a better job than me"

"Nope, this is your birthright, love or hate it, it's yours regardless, plus I practically decide on everything so I'm the ruler already"

"Then why do I even attend these stupid meetings, you can just do everything"

The queen simply shook her head.

"Why?"

The queen did not answer but instead stood up from her seat, climbed onto his lap, snaked her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss on the lips, then the cheek, leaving behind the red mark of her lipstick.

"Because Ray, I don't want to deal with the nobles by myself too"

She informed him that, of course, it was much deeper than that; while the idea of Reniella possibly taking the throne is something that has some support from the nobles, the queen believes that is only because the nobles themselves believe someone within their own circles will become King.

The nobles that do support Reniella are only doing so because they're hoping Reniella will marry someone who will be their puppet King, even if that person won't be a King who makes decisions, as long as they can have Reniella give birth to a son then they've won.

"I suppose that makes sense, those guys are a headache"

She nodded at his words before giving him another kiss on the cheek marking him again with her lipstick.

The king picked her up as he stood from his throne and she held onto his neck as he descended the throne.

"I need something to eat first"

"We'll take a detour to the kitchen then"

He said stoically as they exited the throne room, all while he carried her; it was a good thing that she was slender. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to carry her at all.

Although he wouldn't mind if she was a bit thick either and he would have made an effort to be able to carry her anywhere she wanted regardless of her size.

"Any news from Reniella?"

She asked as they exited the throne room and began making their way to the royal kitchen.

"no, she hasn't even sent a letter about the situation. I suspect she hasn't found anything and is being thorough."

He answered.

"Are you not worried? What if she finds something she can't handle?"

"Our daughter is talented, Martha, there's nothing to worry about, her teachers assured me nothing short of 6th circle mage can beat her"

The king answered, although he understood where his wife was coming from so he couldn't fault her for any of her concerns.

"What about the sword tournament? Are we really going to let her lead the war against the demons?"

"My darling and beautiful wife, we can discuss this another time, you're starting to ruin the mood"

He expressed that he knew once they started speaking about Reniella and what she can and cannot do, the conversation would be endless, although again, her grievances against Reniella wielding Dawn and going to war with the demons were valid.

"Fine but don't fall asleep afterwards, we'll discuss this at length afterwards"

....

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter; leave a comment.