Once Lilly finished her speech she did something that no royal had ever done.. She bowed to the people of Veiltest. Shocking everyone, one by one they bowed to her. "You are more than my people, you're a part of my home, my family.. You are my future and I swear to do right by you. This is my humble oath to you." Lilly said touching everyone in Veiltest. It was then they realized it was time to heal and move forward, with a new promise and a new light to follow. Lilly lifted herself and walked towards her father, taking him by the arm. He walked with her back inside the castle and Lilly felt a weight lift off of her chest. "You did amazing and your mother would be proud. I know I am." King Nathaniel said beaming with pride. "Thank you, Father! Your legacy is indeed a miraculous one. All your children wound up Kings and Queens after all." Lilly said giggling. "Definitely not something that happens often but when it came to you and your sisters we tried to play it smart. Your brother is the firstborn so he will be King, You are a Queen of this Kingdom and soon a future Queen of another of Prince Brandon have anything to do with it." King Nathaniel said.
King Nathaniel cupped Lilly's face and kissed her head. "Go get rest kiddo, your mother and your Prince will be here in a couple of days." Lille nodded tiredly at her father's advice. "Father, can you and Mom stay in a room closer to me?" Lilly asked with tired puppy dog eyes. "Of course. go get some sleep Sunshine." He replied to his daughter. Lilly walked away and went to the temporary room she chose, took her makeup off, and dressed down for a nap." Several hours passed by the time she woke up, the sun was no longer in the sky, and the moon was shining. Everything was peaceful for the first time since she's been here. She couldn't believe she was successful in taking over Zeal's kingdom. She became the Queen through marriage and now she is the Queen through conquer.
Lilly had so much work ahead of her, but the child inside her was starting to make life more difficult. She was so tired and, her stomach, feet and, back hurt from the swelling her child was causing. Her emotions and sickness was getting worse and now she was getting dizzy spells. She was already over being pregnant. Her stomach was beginning to show her pregnant state. She was emotional about her clothes getting bigger, her feet swelling making it uncomfortable to wear shoes. Overall she felt uncomfortable in her own body. Like there wasn't enough room, she just wanted to take her stomach off and have a break if that were ever possible. Or at least cut a hole in the mattress for her stomach. If Lilly felt like this when she was just starting to show how was she going to feel the rest of her pregnancy?
Lilly walked down to the library to start reading up on the history of her new kingdom, she made sure to look at all the financial statements, the pretty large territory the types of resources the kingdom offered, and more. She spent the whole night educating herself and even coming up with a list of Kingdoms she wanted to be allied with. The Northern Kingdom Maybelle was at the top of her list, followed by the Southern Kingdom Aurielia, Prince Brandon's Kingdom a couple of central Kingdoms named, Kenwood Kingdom, Whitewog Kingdom, Silverveil Kingdom, and Sevede Kingdom. Plenty of Middle Eastern kingdoms, Payabolu Kingdom, Zairdaha Kingdom, and Sirghardaha Kingdom just to name a few. Lilly was planning on being allies with anyone that were allied with Maybelle. She also threw in a few that weren't allied with Maybelle, they weren't enemies either.
Lilly finally passed out when the sun rose, her father was nice enough to carry her to her bed. He himself already read up and studied the history of Veiltest and knew mostly everything about the royal family. He already had a game plan that would greatly benefit his daughter and her role as Veiltest's new Queen, their first female ruler to be exact. He knew she was on the right path and believed in her, after all, she was his daughter. She was a natural-born leader with royalty through her veins. King Nathaniel laid the young Queen down in her bed and tucked her in. "Just a little longer and your mother and Prince will be here." He said softly to his daughter. He silently walked out of her room to go and roam the kingdom.
His plan was to get intel on what the people were living like and to hear their voices on what needed to be fixed. He knew there were probably families without jobs. Because it was a well-known fact that Zeal closed the port, this meant fishermen couldn't fish, voyagers couldn't go and trade, bringing money and items back to sell. Nothing was being imported. That would be a dent of jobless families struggling to feed their loved ones. He wanted to get to the bottom of everything to help his daughter improve the lives of these poor people. He began to walk into town and it didn't take long to hear passersby's conversations and complaints. "What do you think our new Queen is up to?" "I don't know, I want to know how long it will take to see improvement or if she just spoke pretty words." two women spoke while passing the Queen's father. "Do you think we will stop starving soon?" an old man spoke to another older man while sitting on some wooden boxes. "I just want to provide for my family." the other man replied. King Nathaniel listened intently to the issues, on his walk he saw many of the buildings and houses all needed to be fixed and almost all the citizens lived on the streets. "I wish we had doctors but they all got killed. Now we're struggling to keep our wounded, sickly, and elderly alive. Do you think she will even notice?" An older woman said to whom looked to be her son.
"This kingdom is in dire need of rescue." King Nathaniel said to himself. He decided to go ahead and head back to his daughter, on his way he found the farmers weren't doing too well. The crops weren't growing and the houses were completely crumbled. "I need to get back to Lilly." King Nathaniel thought to himself. He went as fast as he could to report back to his daughter. While roaming he walked the dirt road through the countryside and all the way straight to the castle. While getting closer to his destination he found people straggling along trying to hunt what they could to eat. His heart broke and made him walk faster to reach his daughter. "Lilly, these people believe in you..Help them heal." He said out loud.
King Nathaniel finally arrived back at the castle, he ran to Lilly who was sitting at her desk making lists of what she wanted to fix to improve the kingdom. "Poverty, broken buildings, port closed, no jobs, no doctors, no farms, injured and sick people." Her father blurted out as he was walking into her bedroom. Lilly froze for a moment slightly startled pausing with the pen in her hand and eyes widely at her father. "Alright..So ports opened, get buildings all rebuilt, fix the farmlands, and build alliances. From there I'll see about reaching out to doctors and asking for help." Lilly replied in a single breath. "Good start sooner the better." Her father replied, "Let's start now I'll make the announcement." Lilly said
Lilly finished writing and her father took her announcement and gave it to the Kingdom's messenger. "Everything seems to be moving so fast, seems like the more I sleep the faster time goes," Lilly said to her father. "Unfortunately the older you get the faster it goes." Her father responded sadly. "Thank you again for being here for me," Lilly said with a gentle smile trying to lighten the mood, King Nathaniel smiled beaming ear to ear. "Of course, that's what fathers are for kiddo." The king couldn't contain the pride he had for his little girl, when did she grow so much?
"Alright kiddo let's get to work, this one is financial aid for the hospital and orphanages, this is the Kingdom's budget left behind by the tyrant." King Nathaniel said while handing over documentation to Lilly. "Woah this Kingdom has more than enough money to support itself, why was he withholding funds? So much could be done with plenty left over!" Lilly said angrily her blood boiled as she remembered how cruel that man was. "Whatever the hospitals and orphanages are asking for we will double it," Lilly said determined. "The hospitals are asking for a total of 10,000 while the orphanages are asking for roughly 20,000 since they have so many more orphans thanks to Zeal's reign of terror." Her father replied. "Good double it," Lilly said still determined. Her father smiled pleased with his daughter.
King Nathaniel and Queen Lilly push through over 200 petitions, financial aids, and royal decrees before finally calling it quits for the night. They stop for dinner and head to bed, Lilly feeling super drained. She wondered how much longer it would be for her mother and Prince Brandon to arrive. She heard news that even her siblings were making the voyage to her. She was so eager to see everyone again.