After saying the word magic, Fenrir almost instantaneously lurched forward a little, excited to hear where exactly this would be going.
So far, it was an enjoyable scene in his opinion, at least. She's managed to threaten a king in his own territory in front of his family without even breaking a sweat, while also being extremely disrespectful, what a treat for him to witness. Perhaps if he stuck with her more, he could see more of this side of her.
Staring at her, the king gulped as the others stared intensely, putting a smile, albeit creepy, on her face. "As far as we all know, Uriean is the only country with human magic users, with a total of seven families possessing it. If you aren't aware on what they are, I'll explain." She said, looking over at the youngest children across the table who looked like they wanted to be included despite being confused.
"The six ducal houses and the royal family of Uriean posses these, darkness, light, ice, fire, lightning, nature, wind, and water." She explained, going from the strongest to the weakest of the elements, her family controlling darkness to the royal family controlling water.
Seeing the kids nod, Estella continued on her explanation. "Typically, a human is unable to use magic. Only beastmen, demons, dragons, or other creatures may be able to do so, but for some reason these seven families in Uriean are able to do so, said to made contracts or something." Fenrir deadpanned, she really didn't know anything about her family history, and their oaths, now did she?
Taking a breath, Estella continued on sensing their confusion. "Due to the overwhelming strength us magic users have, I'd like to publicly pledge during the ceremony when I receive my new name that all heads of my house shall support the royal family of Aeziran, so long as they are not corrupt, in order to ensure that we may be trusted by all citizens of Aeziran, and the current royal family." Estella finished, making Hyre pipe up.
"You're essentially saying we can trust you and your descendants to live here without causing trouble and are telling us not to monitor you or your family, am I right?" He said, already breaking down what she had meant, causing her to nod.
Meanwhile, Aesterix was feeling proud. His sister was settling down and creating her own territory peacefully, ruling magnificently, while aiding a country that wasn't going to ruin.
Although the real reason was it made it easier for her if others weren't weary and picked fights with her just because she committed treason in her ex-country, it would also mean more people would feel safe in her territory, and she'd be able to make her harem, something very important to her. In the moment, Hyre and Fenrir shivered.
"Speaking of future heads, will your family be strictly matriarchal?" Ivonne asked, hoping Estella would say yes. Since she would possibly be handling the duties of Hyre while he went exploring with Estella, perhaps seeing a strictly matriarchal family could sway her father, she thought.
Shaking her head, Estella let out a small no before getting up, turning to her side and looking down at Ivonne. "I have no intentions of forcing any of my children to be the head, nor giving them that title due to their gender or order of birth. I will pick a worthy heir, and one that wants to be heir. All of my future heads will be chosen this way, as well. This includes any adopted or illegitimate children as well." She claimed, before turning her heels and looking at Aesterix.
"Would you go to your room? I don't want you here." Estella calmly said while the others were looking at her in awe. Protesting a little, he gave in as she pointed to the door, shooing him away.
The king and queen were quite stunned at what Estella had said, claiming that even adopted or illegitimate children were welcomed to succession in her family, truly, no one had heard of such a thing in Uriean or Aeziran.
Crossing her arms, she turned back over to the group of royals at the table. "I'd also like to mention that as matriarch, I will be taking a husband, and concubines when I am ready, though that will be the future as I haven't made my social debut, yet." This news was shocking, as if it almost wasn't an option. No one had heard of a woman taking concubines, either.
Only men could do so as the head of the family, so it was no wonder they were shocked, Estella thought. Sadly for them, her harem was the one thing she wouldn't budge on. Sure she'd leave her country, yes she'd explore a cold unknown place for a month, and yes she'd summon a demon to be lazy, but no she would not give up her harem.
"I would like to state now, any power a duke has in this country, I will have the same amount of power, if not more. You've got at most three months to plan the ceremony, good luck." With that said, she gently squeezed Ivonne's shoulder and walked off, a majestic aura surrounding her, that not even the servants in the room could take their eyes off of her.
Snickering a little, Fenrir felt proud as he followed her out, excitedly questioning her when they were alone in the hallway. "You haven't even debuted or become a duchess yet and here you are acting above the king himself!" He teased.
Rolling her eyes, she indulged in his antics a little bit. "Of course, the ruling duchess should be equal to a duke. Don't worry though, once I debut I'll allow you to be my first potential concubine." She teased back, as they made their way back into her room for the evening.
Blushing, he hissed "I told you I'm not into younger women! I know I'm good-looking at powerful and probably the best option but you need to find someone else!" He not so humbly bragged.
After spending a few days with Fenrir, she finally understood him. He reminded her of a cat, he hissed, wanted affection only at certain times, believed himself to be better than literally any human on this earth, picks fights with other animals, curious, and a little mean.
"Why do cats always act better than everyone, and end up being demons?" She muttered, picking up a book she asked one of her maids to leave on the table.
"Cats? What does that have to do with demons?" He said, looking over her shoulder as she read her book.
Oh how she wished she could say everything, cats can be cute or they could be demonic murderers who leave you to rot without a second thought, but it would be too troublesome to explain to him.
Shaking her head she yawned a little and began to discuss her upcoming plans with him during their stay. "We're only here for about one more week, there are a few things I'd like to accomplish." She told, getting a headache just thinking about it herself.
There was so much to do until she was ready to live an ideal life, but she supposed it was better than reincarnating in a world that was very developed, making her think harder than she already had.
"Fenrir, while we're here I'd like to take a look around the capital, accompany me. I'd like to take a look at Aezirian architecture, the sizes of buildings, and their currency. Since I'll be in the north for a whole month, I won't have the luxury of this later. Once I've explored my territory, I just want to settle down." She explained, taking advantage of her stay.
Nodding, he took a seat. "The fashion of humans is shit so I'll just design the knights uniform without reference. What's my budget?" He asked, knowing that it wasn't going to be an issue in the slightest.
"I don't have a size estimate of how many men since I don't think anyone at home wants to become my knight and follow me other than Aesterix, but for now there are two knights, both of you need different uniforms." She said, thinking back to an anime she watched that had knights in it.
Tilting his head, he allowed her to continue. "I want two different knight groups, Aesterix will be the captain of the first. You'll be my personal knight, so you both will have different uniforms. The captain position of the second group is empty, though. You'll have to design about two different group uniforms, two captains uniform, and your own." She finished telling him how many different designs she had wanted, a total of five.
Although it was a lot, he seemed more excited than anything, she guessed he really like designing clothes, or something. "That's a lot for a regular person, but I can handle it. What's my budget? Also what's the need for two groups?" He asked quickly, one question after the other.
"Just use however much money you need, when I go back home I'll take some money for the new duchy. No matter how much you spend you can't put a dent in our assets." Saying that, she thought about how her family was committing treason too, basically stealing the royal family's money, too. It'll be like they never even lost money in the first place.
Flipping the page of her book, her eyes landed on the large beasts on the centre of the page, a hog like creature with multiple horns, and giant teeth.
"I need a first group for expeditions, as the north is dangerous. The second group will protect the people of my house, using magic." She smiled.