General Maldor looked troubled, but he held his breath and said, "Lord Ahtred has a daughter, Your Grace!"
Elio furrowed his eyebrows.
"And?"
"And the officials proposed it would be better if your highness married her as a symbol that you are really here for the interests of the Crescent people as you claim."
Elio was amused. If he didn’t have Mareen, he would have been tempted to accept. Of course, not before eting the girl and checking if she was to his taste.
However, Mareen was his queen now. He would fuck other won, that was for sure, but he would never give that title to anyone else.
Unless, of course, if he conquered another kingdom. There, then there would be soone else with that title.
In the Crescent kingdom, it was Mareen and only Mareen.
Elio reached into his McLonald’s bucket and grabbed a chicken nugget, bit a huge chunk off of it and chewed on it slowly as his gaze held General Maldor’s.
By now, one would think that General Maldor had gotten used to Elio to not get intimidated by his scrutinizing gaze, but no. The big general looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him.
"You should have told them about Mareen," said Elio, finally taking his gaze away from the general.
Queen Liza and King Kard had kept Mareen in the dungeons for years. Elio assud those officials didn’t know she survived. He surmised that revealing to them that their princess was still alive was all he needed to do to put an end to their marriage proposal attempts.
General Maldor’s next words proved Elio wrong.
"I told them about her, Your Grace!"
Elio arched his eyebrows again in another, "And?"
General Maldor kept quiet, avoiding to et Elio’s gaze despite knowing it was a taboo. When the king was talking to soone, that soone was required not to shift his or her gaze unless ordered to.
"Your king asked you a question, general," said Elio with full authority. "Should I repeat myself?"
"Forgive , Your Grace. They said things about Queen Mareen."
"Which things?"
"Things which should not be said of a lady, Your Grace!"
Elio was getting impatient. Furious.
"General, what exactly did they say about my Queen, and who exactly said it?"
"It’s Versei, Your Grace. The Master of the Coin said that Queen Mareen is a bastard, spawn from a low-born whore. He said that she can’t be the Queen of this kingdom. That she’s the reason we’re in this predicant in the first place. That if she had accepted to beco Gezen Kan’s concubine, Monol Empire would have helped us fight the monsters years ago."
Elio had frowned when General Maldor started talking, a frown that had kept getting worse the more the general’s mouth moved. He couldn’t believe anyone would gossip about his queen with such vulgarity.
Elio stopped chewing, placed the McLonald’s bucket away; his appetite had faded.
"Did he say it like that?" asked Elio.
Sweat trickled down General Maldor’s left temple. "No, Your Grace. He used a language that I cannot repeat."
Elio gritted his teeth. "And the other officials agreed with him?"
"Of course not, Your Grace! But they’re afraid of him and that’s why none of them dared oppose him when he suggested that you should marry Lord Ahtred’s daughter."
"Afraid of him?" Elio ant this to be a thought, but because of the anger boiling within him, he didn’t realize he was thinking out loud.
Of course, General Maldor thought it was a question directed to him and answered, "Master Versei’s wife is the daughter of Lord Hako, Your Grace."
Elio waited for the general to add sothing else, but the general didn’t. It was as if Elio ought to have known about Lord Hako.
He browsed through the mories of this new body he was occupying, and it didn’t take long for him to find who Lord Hako was.
There was an island so far away northwest of ldisina sea.
Called Golden City, it really was golden. It didn’t have native people. A rich rchant had sailed there 300 years ago, and ever since, more rich people had been going there.
It was the most luxurious city in the known world, the most peaceful, the richest. Everyone who wanted loans, even kings and emperors, would look nowhere else.
Currently, Lord Hako was the head of the Golden City Reserves. The rumour had it that no empire or kingdom that didn’t have a debt from him, let alone lords.
Not to ntion, the Crescent Kingdom had been going through tough tis. Their debts were unmatched. They had to lick Master Versei’s boots so he could put in a good word for them on his wife, who was her father’s representative on ldisina Island.
That’s not the only information Elio got from his mories though.
He burst out laughing, startling General Maldor, the knights and the maids who had stopped eating when Elio started questioning the general.
’So, the guy has a wife, born from a literal whore, yet he despises my Mareen for being born on a concubine?’
It was true.
Akolyna Hako was the 100th daughter of Lord Hako. Her mother had been a whore in Crescent City 21 years ago when Lord Hako stopped on ldisina island on his way to the Eastern Empires.
On his way back, after months exploring the Eastern Empires, he made another stop on the ldisina island in his way ho. He asked for the sa whore, only to learn that she was pregnant with his child.
He took the whore with him, then after the child was old enough to marry, he brought her back and married her to Master Versei so she could represent his interest on the island.
It was said that Lord Hako had sired over 400 daughters and over 250 sons from around the known world, and even though he never abandoned any of them, even though he gave them power as his ambassadors, it was known that he rarely spoke to any of them.
However, the officials in the Crescent Kingdom had reason to be afraid of Master Versei. Even though his wife didn’t talk to her father often, if not at all, she still could ruin their lives if she wanted to.
That wasn’t going to be the sa case for Elio though. The bastard had insulted his queen. If he didn’t do sothing, he would think him a coward.
Not to ntion, Master Versei was trying to dictate who he should marry. He had also tried to oppose Elio’s decisions back in the eting with the officials, claiming they shouldn’t anger the monsters.
Now Elio knew why.
With the current situation the Crescent kingdom was in, Master Versei’s wife was benefiting from high interest loans, seizing lands from the lords who failed to pay on ti, expanding her estate.
Elio had to put an end to it.
"Bring that bastard here!" ordered Elio.
"Right away, Your Grace!" said General Maldor before he turned around to leave the room.
~~~
Author’s note: Guys, I’m back! Have fun reading!
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