**"If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done." By Thomas Jefferson**
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[A/N: This chapter is a direct continuation of chapter 2 which was named, 'The meeting .' It heavily relies on the events and conversations there. You might have to give it a quick re-read to have a better reading experience if you'd like ;)]
After the meeting of the elders, where they unanimously voted for the possible queen candidate as the current princess of Fireland, they had made haste and secured a session with King Indicy but …
The meeting had ended with him bluntly refusing the match. As he left the room, Fiesty sighed and looked at the other elders, "Well, I didn't expect that" "What should we do now?!" but none had any ideas at all.
They were all quiet and deep in thoughts as they exited the royal chambers after Indicy had left.
They reconvened at the marriage committee premises to re-strategize as they could not afford to wait for another six moons for their usual session to discuss this. "Well, the meeting went unpredictably," Mathieu also echoed similar words after they had reconvened. It had now been a few hours since the meeting and the proposal of the marriage candidate to the king.
Fiesty thought the same as Mathieu and the rest of the elders in the room. He looked at the goosebumps that had appeared on his hands as he thought back to his exclamation at king Indicy. Even though Indicy treated him like a father figure, he knew that he had overstepped his bounds especially as he expressed those words in public.
"Does anyone know why he would reject this?"
"Is it the candidate? If so, then we should have a different candidate under consideration as well."
"What must we do?"
Various questions and discussions went on in the room from all corners until Fiesty raised his hand and the whole room went quiet.
He said thoughtfully, "There must be something we are overlooking here,"
"As the eighth elder suggested, do we have any other candidates to consider?"
Conrad stated rather firmly, "This maiden has all the credentials we need. Her family will benefit us very much so I think we should stick to it and do what we, the committee have always done. Besides, the Queen also approves of the candidate as I said earlier, so I rather suggest that we invite the maiden to our lands. Maybe he might agree to the match when he meets her." he added.
Fiesty frowned when he heard this. "Why would he push for this particular maiden so… Yes, the maiden is a worthy candidate, but I am sure that she is not the only worthy candidate in these lands…." He lets his thoughts trail as he studied Conrad but being the wise and meticulous elder, he was, he did not speak any out as he had to have proof and speculations could not do them any good especially when there were positive murmurs of agreement all around the room.
Finally, Fiesty exchanged a glance with Morran and as if they could understand their individual thoughts, nodded to each other. Then he addressed the room,
"Send an invite for the lady and we'll see what happens then."
[A/N~ Loctovia]
He stood up and left the room afterwards but deep down felt that this was all going to backfire because he knew his king, Indicy. Once he made up his mind, nothing could deter him. Also, he did not want to mess up still waters. But Fiesty reassured himself that since there was no promise of marriage and just an invite, nothing could go wrong.
How wrong he was in these thoughts…
*** *** ***
In Fireland, the overall land was smaller compared to the Ant Kingdom, almost about a third of its size but they had a formidable army which encouraged them to hold their head up high. In all the neighbouring lands, they were only wary of Ant Kingdom and especially their ruthless king, Indicy.
This was one of the reasons that pushed Jeer to orchestrate the pairing of his sister and their king because they could relax against their possible enemies if they were joined in marriage. Also, he really wanted to do this because his sister had asked. It felt like it had been some long years since he initiated his contact with the third elder and he always awaited the 'good news'. Jeer was a very patient man and his sister trusted him as well. Even though princess Asada never asked about the progress, he could still see questions in her eyes with the growing months.
So, when he received the letter from the elder, he was overjoyed. But became wary as he read the contents. You see, an invitation had been sent to the princess, but Conrad had sent a detailed letter detailing what she had to do as the deal was not set in stone and they needed to convince king Indicy of the match.
"That does not seem like too much. I am sure she will be able to do it!" he said to no one in particular as he was alone but at the back of his mind, Jeer was a little hesitant.
He decided to visit her himself with the invitation so that he could explain to her what she needed to do and how she needed to hold herself to win a complicated man like Indicy. Thankfully, he just needed to accept her as their customs depicted 'no love and sentiments!'
Asada was in her chambers when she received what she considered the best news ever in her life from her brother; an invitation had been sent to her from the Ant Kingdom. She did not listen to anything else her brother said after this. Jeer held her hands and had talked for a while before he realised that she wasn't listening.
"Asada? What are you murmuring about?" But she did not hear a thing!
"I will see him again, my handsome king! she muttered to herself in a way that only she heard.
She hugged king Jeer and started jumping around the room. Jeer sat calmly and watched her fondly with a small smile. "She can do it!" he assured himself.
He would give anything if his sister would smile like this daily. He knew that the match was not set in stone yet and tried again to talk to Asada, but she only said,
"Positivity! my dear brother. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step" she added and smiled broadly.
Jeer burst out laughing and wiped the tears that came out as well, he replied,
"If I knew you would become wise this quickly, then I would have done this a long time ago!" He got up and left the room while signalling Agnes, her chief attendant, to take care of the princess.
In the following weeks, a lot of preparations were done.
First, Jeer put together a small team comprising of maids, guards, and even physicians to accompany Princess Asada to the Ant Kingdom. The journey would usually take between five days to a little over a week depending on the mode of transport. However, Jeer wanted his sister to have the utmost comfort in her travels, so they had the best carriage maker visit. His job was to make one that suited the princess's taste and comfort but was largely coordinated by Agnes instead, and Jeer spared no expense on that.
Her dressmakers were summoned to give her a new wardrobe. She was on cloud nine. In all these, she had no idea what was going on in the royal court that had been brought forth by her.
*** *** ***
Jeer sat on his throne and faced his ministers who were trying hard to hide their displeasure but failed at it. Jeer was a skinny but muscular dark-skinned man. He had long hair which he kept in braids that fell to his midback and cropped close to his scalp on both sides of his head. He also had a thick beard that added to the warrior-type look he always carried.
"We cannot empty our coffers just for the princess's marriage!" the right minister almost shouted but his voice dwindled at the end but looking at the faces of almost all of them, they agreed with him but were just not brave enough to voice it out.
However, one also said, "We have to also consider the benefits here," the Left minister started which earned internal groans from the others. This minister was always trying to see the 'good' and or the 'benefits' in everything! Ignoring them, he continued,
"An alliance with the Ant Kingdom will be worth any price that we pay."
Surprisingly, he was able to sway some of the ministers with just this one statement.
These arguments went on until the sun was setting but they had reached no consensus yet.
Jeer adjourned their meeting but did not tell them that it was because princess Asada's time to leave was up.
They prepared her dowry of ten gold chests, some precious jewellery, hide of rare animals that they had cured, finest silks and many others. The carriages were loaded, and she set off with her entourage.
King Jeer obviously did not accompany his sister as he felt that she needed space and he also had his ministers to attend to. He did reassure her that he would soon follow.
He stood watching as the last of the carriages disappeared in the distance.
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