While Edwin was cheerfully waiting for a positive reply from Queen Maureen. His concubine Duchess Rania Teresa Alumet Vidfamne was having a hard time on her end.
Upon arriving at the border city in Highland, everything seemed normal. However, when she went inland it all changed. Spirit trains, spirit TVs, amazing food she had never seen before, among which were cakes and sweets that she and Shelley Lancaster fell in love with.
High-rise buildings, beast-less carriages, long smooth black roads were among the many things that caught her attention.
She could hardly believe what she was experiencing.
Shelley was even more amazed.
"This is a dream, right duchess? This can't be real. This place is like heaven."
"This is a nightmare…"
"Eh… How could you say such a thing?"
"Don't you get it, if I never get to become someone important to Edwin and Highland, we will become nothing more than some backwaters village compared to them..."
Vidfamne was a kingdom whose cities would not fall far behind that of the empires but compared to Highland, even the empire's cities look like slums in her eyes.
The escorts were explaining everything they could as she asked question after question.
Although she was a concubine, Edwin had no official wife, therefore Duchess Rania Teresa was being treated with the highest respect. However, she knew that once a wife was chosen and if she remained nothing more than a concubine, that treatment would not continue. That is just how it worked in the lives of the nobility.
"Commoners have water in their houses, education, and health care at affordable prices. The empires would have a heart attack if they saw what Highland had become."
"Agreed. This place is like a fantasy come true. Furthermore, the abolition of slavery… I can't believe there is a place that actually did such a thing."
Having been a former slave herself, Shelley couldn't help but hate slavery, however, the duchess couldn't do such a thing as abolish it as traders would cause an uproar.
Highland that had cut off trades with its neighbors and did not need to worry about such matters.
As they both stared at the passing scenery through the window of the spirit train, Duchess Rania Teresa prayed with all her heart, that things would work out with Highland.
***
"I see. So the hero has demon blood in him."
"Yes. Shelley here confirmed this with her own eyes."
Duchess Rania Teresa Alumet Vidfamne and Shelley Lancaster had arrived at the Highland castle and were having a meeting with Queen Madeline and Prime Minister Clark Herman
"This is a troubling development," Clark uttered
"We believe that the Hero and elves might be trying to lead the gathered force to a one-sided defeat." Duchess Rania concluded. This was based on all the information she had gathered on their movements as well as her own intuition and it was spot on. "What do we do know?"
"We have to wait for his majesty to return from the island of the laminas before proceeding with anything."
"What did you say?"
"Ah… We never informed Vidfamne of this, but his majesty seeks to bring the four clans under Highland."
"How does he intend to do such a thing? The four clans would never agree to such a thing…"
"He intends to take the Queen of the laminas as a secondary Queen." Queen Madeline butted in.
"EEEEEEEEHHH" both Duchess Rania Teresa and Shelley said out loud.
"Is that even possible?" Shelley asked
"It is. First of all, Edwin is the last survivor of the Highland royal blood, so, understandably, he would take multiple wives."
"But she can't have children."
"It doesn't matter. The whole point of this union is to allow the four clans the right to return to the continent in exchange for them adding their fighting power to Highlands. Child making has nothing to do with it."
"It can't be." Duchess Rania said with a pale expression on her face.
"Duchess…" Shelley cried out as she went to her duchess side.
"Rest assured duchess. Edwin will ensure the safety of…"
"That is not the reason she is pale, Prime Minister Clerk."
"It's not?" he asked the queen who corrected his assumptions
"I always told you that you overthink things sometimes, didn't I Rania-chan. You always thought that if you had enough influence you could persuade the other powerful kingdoms to allow the four clans to return. You never considered the possibility of a loophole such as marriage…. Hmm… Maybe you did?"
"There was no royalty that was willing to accept such an arrangement?" she replied with her head downcast.
"I see. You never asked Highland."
Duchess Rania Teresa had indeed pursued such an arrangement but no royalty was willing to take a member of the four clans as a wife. This was only natural as such an arrangement would most likely be opposed by the nobles and the citizens, but Highland would have been the exception.
The citizens were a mixture of demi-humans and humans who lived together. The number of human and demi marriages was higher than the number of human to human and demi to demi marriages. That just showed how much the two groups interacted.
The only obstacle would have been the nobles who hated the royal family but with her level of influence and power, it would not have been hard for her to aid the highland royal family into silencing them.
Realizing this Duchess Rania Teresa could only hang her head. Had she not looked down on Highland, she could have resolved the issue that tormented her mind all these years.
"Rania! Prepare yourself… I am sending you to the laminas island immediately…" Queen Madeline uttered with a serious expression.
"What! Why? Has something happened there?" Prime Minister Clark Herman asked with a troubled expression
"It seems the demons are making another move."