Sigrid chose her words carefully, one; she made everyone aware that the king would rather go for a picnic than handle important matters of state. Two; she used doris because king Raff detested emperor Galathor of doris, after suffering one defeat at his hands when he intervened in the war between Eldoria and Nemoris, the kingdom to the south of Eldoria.
At the ti, king Raff wanted to conquer Nemoris and expand Eldoria to the size of an empire. If he had won the war, he would be called emperor, not king and he would be rembered as a conqueror.
Raff Maximus wanted to go down in history as the greatest ruler Eldoria had ever seen. If Nemoris had not run to doris for help and beco a tributary kingdom prompting doris to send their armies to defend it, Eldoria would have won the war.
To this day, it was like a fresh wound in Raff’s heart and Sigrid’s words were equal to salt being poured on that wound.
It worked to her advantage however, the king forgot all about the picnic, he wanted to beat doris even if it was just sothing as small as a marriage law.
While he had been thinking, the lords in the court had held their breath or whispered about Sigrid’s daring nature. How could she challenge the king so openly? Even if she was a crown princess, she needed to know her limits.
Many of them looked at duke Thorin, wondering what was going through his mind but the duke kept his eyes forward and his nose up as if he looked down on the rest of them.
His loyal followers in the court maintained the sa attitude, looking like a group of proud unbothered peacocks.
Everybody waited to see what was to co, the queen and Lord Benwick were literally on the edges of their seats. Rina was seething, hoping that king Raff would order for Sigrid to be thrown into a dungeon for speaking out of turn.
"What did you say about standards?" the king asked Sigrid.
She bowed slightly, pretending to be respectful and polite. "That you the king should set the standards and others will follow. As long as you turn Eldoria into a paradise on earth, we will be the best empire on the continent, not doris."
In her mind, she heard Cosmos making gagging sounds, it seed as if he wanted to vomit and she knew why, it was because she sounded like an ass kisser. But, to accomplish her goals, she had to comnd the king, praise him and puff him up like a pastry.
Again, it worked, king Raff laughed boisterously with great volu.
"Alright, I should set the standards, by the ti I am done all the princesses of other empires and kingdoms will be begging to marry my sons. Foreign won will flock to Eldoria seeking refuge, when we beco an empire, we will be incomparable."
Sigrid lowered her gaze and the corners of her mouth adjusted upwards slightly, she could see why Rina led the king around by the nose. A few words of flattery was all it took to please him.
"What are you suggesting Lord Bailey?" King Raff asked.
Lord Bailey eagerly moved forward. "The age restriction should be removed completely."
"Done, pass the law." King Raff said jovially.
Lord Bailey was prepared to say more in defense of his proposed new law but those words were all caught in his throat because with a few words, the crown princess had accomplished what would have taken the court at least three hours to decide.
Murmurs rose from all around, many of the lords did not even know what the law was about let alone how it would affect them.
"Your highness..." Lord Ye started.
"As expected of the wisest king that has ever ruled Eldoria, your wisdom allows you to see far more than the rest of your humble subjects." Sigrid cut lord Ye off and she lavished more praise on the king.
King Raff puffed his chest up like a proud alpha gorilla.
"While we are on the subject of changing laws on marriage might I suggest that we broaden the scope your highness. As you are aware, I opened a little food establishnt nad little Thorin, many foreign rchants flock to it because of the novelty when it cos to food.
Recently, I managed to overhear a few female silk rchants discussing the laws of divorce on Eldoria, I regret to say that they had nothing good to say.
They called Eldorian won weak and foolish, they had so not so nice things to say about the queen and secondary consort, words I cannot repeat but words that would make anyone think that they have failed in their support and leadership of won." She sighed exasperatedly.
The lords reacted as she expected by loudly expressing their displeasure, the one thing they all had in common was their sense of patriotism, they could not tolerate insults to Eldoria.
The queen certainly looked like she was ready to throttle whoever had said sothing negative about her.
Sigrid raised her voice, "In light of these troubling assumptions, I would like to propose that the office of marriages makes divorce legal for both n and won. In the old Eldorian book of law, it is legal anyway but sowhere along the way we stopped respecting the old laws and forgot them."
Once again, murmurs, whispers and loud objections filled the hall, so lords that were clearly against a law allowing won to divorce voice their disagreent loudly.
"It is simply scandalous, a woman divorcing a man will be deaning to the man."
"Your highness, you cannot accept this."
"Why not? If a man can divorce his wife then why can’t she do the sa if the marriage is an unhappy one?"
"Won don’t have the right to leave no matter how unhappy they are, they depend on their husbands financially anyway."
"Yes, who will feed them should they divorce?"
"They can get jobs."
"What jobs, with the exception of tailoring, playing music instrunts and whoring there are no jobs for won."
Sensible and silly argunts were traded back and forth, duke Thorin’s side was clearly in support of Sigrid, they were the ones making sensible argunts.
It beca louder and more personal as the lords took shots at each other.
"You are just afraid of this law because no woman will stay with you willingly Lord Becker, your face is extrely unpleasant."
"At least I don’t beat my wives." Lord Becker responded.
"Quiet, quiet, quiet..." the herald banged a gavel down but it did not achieve the desired effect, the noise rather multiplied.
"Hush." the king commanded.
His knights drew swords, and this achieved what the herald failed to do with his gavel, silence reigned in the hall however, silent anger and tension was palpable.
Sigrid poked her head out and cleared her throat. "While we are it, I am going to suggest that spring cleaning be declared illegal, the Nemorians say that Eldorian won are no better than cattle, the old are slaughtered to make way for fresher, younger ones. All the n here...." she looked around. "Most of you are fathers, do you consider your daughters to be cattle?"
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