Raya's eyes slowly opened amidst the sounds of roosters crowing. Her eyes remained half opened but in a daze she was thinking of something. Why is she laying so close to Alea? Caressing her foot around the bed behind her she was sure that it was her who had moved closer but she thought this was strange. Although she said she was willimg to trust her, she's still only a stranger that she's met just a few times, and a very large alpha on top of that. She cursed her unreliable sleeping self in her mind and carefully raised her head to see if Alea had noticed her temporary transgression. Thankfully she saw Alea's eyes were still shut and calm breaths exhaled from her nose in a regular manner. She took the chance to gently slide back into the inner side of the bed pretending that she had been there the whole night.
Unfortunately for her Alea had been awake the whole time. She has always been a light sleeper and when Raya first snuggled up to her side she immediately woke up. Seeing that she was sleeping so peacefully, Alea decided to just let her be. She tried her best to go back to sleep but knowing someone was so close to her made those little triggers in her mind constantly go off. So she just decided to think about the next step of her plan.
Now that she's married she'll definitely have a tough decision ahead. As an alpha it is expected of her to choose a suitable career path, but the issue she has is what path she should choose. She could choose to try out business, but doing so might arouse the suspicion of Azer as the heir to the family,and she thought it wasn't worth making him an enemy for something she didn't know would be successful or not.
Next would be going the scholarly route. Although she has received a modern education and is definitely more knowledgeable about some aspects than that of these ancient scholars, she doesn't think she's omnipotent. A quote she has seen before is that you should "Never underestimate the ancients" which she is also a firm advocate for.
She doesn't believe that they are fools, not only could they lead society in the direction that would eventually lead to the modern era but they also lived in a society where the main purpose was to survive. This is far different from the modern era. In the modern era most societies have evolved enough to allow their respective countries the ability to no longer worry about having enough food, and having suitable shelter and clothing all the year round.
This is vastly different compared to this society. In survival type societies you have to be crueller and more cunning then everyone around you. The law of survival has always been that "the strong eat the week". This rule hasn't changed in the modern era and it's even more fundamental in this time period.
When deciding between the choices Alea found there were too many risks involved in pursuing the imperial examination. She isn't confident enough that her knowledge can encompass the broad amount of subjects needed for the scholars to learn. Calligraphy is one, poetry another. She was given the basic education and then joined the army the first chance she had. Where was the time to practice these useless subjects at the time!?
Her last reasonable choice was the army, but again although she had a foundation in a modern army. It doesn't mean that it correlates well enough to an ancient army. Don't talk about how the army itself runs, but even the type of combat is completely different. On a modern battlefield you don't even see your enemy. They're hundreds of meters away. The only indication that you're even in battle are the bullets flying past you and the muzzle flashes in the distance.
Ancient battle consists of a far more brutal method of close quarter combat. Armies line up against each other holding formations using simple outflanking methods to try break the enemy's formation. Ancient battle is gruesome and barbaric. She is worried that a sword with no eyes will directly end this second chance given to her.
These thoughts plagued her until she felt the omega next to her start to become restless. Knowing it was a sign that she was about to wake up, Alea closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. She didn't know why she did this, probably to avoid the awkward conversation they'd have if their eyes met. However soon after she felt the body around her start to move away as quietly as possible. She wanted to laugh inexplicably, feeling that her new bride was quite cute.
After giving Raya ample time to return to her side of the bed she started to shift around, as if she was just waking up. When opening her eyes she saw that Raya was making an exaggerated yawn while propping herself up. The urge to laugh hit her again, but she managed to quell it in time.
"Good morning, how was your rest?" Alea asked.
"Good morning" she echoed "it was quite pleasant".
As if hesitating, Raya asked "How about you? were you able to sleep well?"
Alea thought about it, and decided she'd tease Raya "I slept very well, though I felt it was much warmer than usual. Perhaps the summer season will start early this year".
Alea turned to stand up with a sly smile where Raya couldn't see. Not that she was looking, she was too busy coverimg the blush that spread from her cheeks to the tips of her ears.
At that moment, in the official hall of the palace there was a strange silence wafting throughout the room. The officials standing on the two sides respectively all were awaiting the decision of the emperor sitting on the throne.
It was so silent they could hear their own hearts beating, that was until a calm and majestic voice spoke the words they were waiting for.
"Very well. Begin the conscription".