"Your majesty, Prince Lennox, is requesting a meeting." Katherine looked above from the files she was reading and placed them back on the table.
"Yes, I asked him to come here instead of the meeting room, I still have files to complete." The maid nodded and left the room and soon a young boy with golden hair and blue eyes that matched hers entered the room.
"May the blessings of the goddess always be on you, your majesty. I am thankful that you accepted my sudden request." The boy whose face should have been filled with innocence looked no less than a mature adult in his 30s.
His fair face and arched eyebrows, sharp and pointed nose and pointed chin was the split image of the emperor and her husband.
The man who had married her only to forget about her after completing his duties.
She had never seen him personally or went to his room after they had spent the obligatory first night.
She was lucky that she could have Lucio with that one intimate moment or she would have been discarded like his other lovers.
That was also the reason she was cold to Lennox. His presence reminded him of the betrayal and coolness of his father.
She was a fool to think that he had proposed to her because he fell in love with her at first like she fell in love with him.
If only she would have denied, she would have been living far happier.
"Your majesty!" The boy raised his head and looked at her with some hesitation as if he knew why she was not talking to him.
"Yes, you may sit." she pointed at the chair near her table when she noticed that he was still sitting.
As a prince, he had the authority to sit even when she was the empress, since he was going to be emperor soon and then his position would be stronger than her.
"What brought you here, Lennox?" though she knew that he must be suspicious of her actions but she feigned ignorance.
Opening the file again in her hands, she signed it and then turned to look at her since he was still silent.
"I apologize for disturbing you in your work. I know that you are busy with your tasks as an empress and a mage.
That was why I was surprised when you offered to renovate my palace and increase the knights that serve me.
You do not need to trouble yourself. I have been living in the palace for 7 years and I have renovated the palace from time to time.
And as long as it is about the knights, I did not go out of the palace except a few formal occasions I attended in the central palace. So, i do not think that i should use the qualified knights time when i already have half a dozen knights serving me already!" like a speech, he had memorised, he spoke all that at once. But his facial expressions stayed calm and his eyes stayed blank without a hint of emotion in them.
He was getting trained well. For a second she felt proud of him. If only her son would have worked hard like Lennox then she would have never needed to punish him in the first place.
The thought was enough to annoy her when the boy flinched a bit. He tried his best to maintain eye contact, yet she could feel the slight trembling of his body that he was trying to hide.
Just how much was he afraid of her?
"The file is troubling me, not you!" the boy blinked and then nodded his head.
Though his expression did not change, she felt his body relaxing a bit and nodded back in satisfaction.
"Well, I know that I have not completed my duties as your mother in the past few years and if I would say that I was busy handling the duties of an empress, then it would only be an excuse." She took a pause so that her words sunk in his mind but he did not give any reaction, neither consoled her that it was fine and he did not need her in the first place. Nor he complained that she never wanted to be his mother in the first place but the most powerful woman of the empire.
"I visited your place yesterday. Only then did I notice that it still has those obscene statues from the past. I found them not befitting for a young boy. That was why I offered to renovate them.
Or are you trying to say that you kept them since you like to see them like your father!" the eyes of the young boy cracked hard as astonishment filled his face.
His face turned deep red as if blood would start dripping out of it any moment.
"That.. that was not what i meant!" his head lowered with embarrassment as he felt himself short of words.
What if she would think that he was a pervert or rotten adult who likes watching nude women. It was just that he had grown up with them so he never cared about their presence after such a long while.
"Hmm, then why do you not want me to take all of them out. If you are enjoying it, then I can do nothing but only give up." with a soft sigh that shows disappointment she shrugged her shoulders and started to work on the files again when the boy stood up abruptly.
"I said, that is not it. I swear that I have never stared at any of the statues even when I am alone. I am not like anyone you say. So, you can do as you seem fit!"
"Good, then I will fix the date of renovation."
'Was he tricked?'
[ I am a new writer who did not have any experience. Please leave a few suggestions and comments for motivation. thank you.]