King Pepin heaved a sigh of relief as an audience finally reached its conclusion, he had been adamant to allow anyone to ask for an audience with himself but it definitely had its drawbacks, he had to settle meaningless dispute way too often.
"Who is next?" he asked to Castille who was standing to the side of his throne.
"Hmm, Venec" spoke the advisor, making the king sink in his seat as if he had been turned into a slime.
"Let's proceed I gess" he spoke against his own will as the guards let the man in.
"Venec, I thought I had made it clear that I didn't want you around here when I kicked you out the moment I got this crown, what do you want this time?" calmly said the king as he saw the smiling man.
"Well, I was orchestrating some dog fights and-"
"No dog fights in this castle" replied the king flatly.
"But they are making some real good money, with some richer audience, I-" attemtped to argue the bandit but his efforts were for naught.
"No is no Venec, next!" spoke the king as the clean shaved criminal was dragged away as per usual.
"The next person is..." Castille stopped himself and brought the paper closer to his face.
"What's the matter?" wondered the king.
The advisor handed him the paper with the list of people and the king searched through the crossed off names before arriving to the current one.
"..."
"Envy? Envy asked for an audience and someone put her on the goddamned list? Let her in" Pepin rubbed the bridge of his nose, he had a hard time believing that this was something that could actually happen.
Sins were supposed to be treated like emissaries, she most likely was here for something important too, he would have to look into this later.
The cardinal sin walked in sheepishly, her eyes covered by her hair as she moved as if worried of breaking something.
"He-Helloo-" she forced out awkwardly.
"Greetings Envy, what may be the reason of your visit? Also, I apologise for the delay, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again" spoke the king, not fazed by the presence of a sin like Castille was.
"Oh, hum, it's alright, it's nothing official actually, it's more of a personal request..." she revealed with her hand on her nape.
"What is your request then?" spoke the king after Envy stayed silent a bit too long.
"Well, I was wondering if there were any mansions or the likes available..." asked the sin as she looked away.
"Those? There are a ton that are empty, after the revolution, the number of nobles never came back to normal, not in the least and we didn't bother with the buildings left behind, there is a wide selection to choose from" spoke the king with a smile as he grabbed his advisor and pulled him closer.
"Castille will tell you all about them" uttered the king.
"What? I mean, of course, please follow me miss Envy" Castille had no choice, so he braved his heart and went through with his instructions.
Pepin snatched the list from him and looked at it once his guest and advisor were no longer in sight.
'Ah, only one left for toda-' his smile was gone once he read who it was, even people with no need for it asked for audiences, in this case, it was because the king wouldn't miss any of them.
He cleared his throat, adjusted the crown on his head, took a deep breath in and held his scepter as if he was going to knock someone out with it.
He put on his best poker face and waited until she entered the throne room.
"Pepin! My husband, what a coin-ci-dence to find you here" spoke Alga, the queen.
Pepin hadn't believed he would ever regret this arranged marriage as much as he does now, she was much more stressful to deal with that any of the sins.
"My queen... What brings you here? There is no need to ask for an audience with me, we share the same bedroom after all..." he said as he stood up.
"Don't even try to mess with me, you have kept on avoiding me lately, I am busy this and I am busy that, are you afraid of me or something, I am as gentle as an angel, don't be scared" she said as she slowly inched closer to him.
"Hey, hey, hey, stop moving, stay right where you are woman, I am avoiding you because everytime I have tried to sleep in the same bed as you, I haven't slept at all, I need to run a country, you freaking succubus!" he pointed his royal scepter at her.
"You have been nothing but a ravenous beast lately, is something else the matter perhaps?" he then asked as he increased the distance between himself and his wife.
"I can't believe what I am hearing, a man complaining that his wife wants too much sex, I was just feeling like it alright?" she responded, her usage of the past tense not going unnoticed.
"Was? Are you no longer a devil of the night?" asked the king with a straight face.
"Yes, no need to avoid me anymore, I'll be more reasonable, just normal intercourse, no night long assaults, I don't know what got into me"
"Very well, I'll believe that, as dubious as it sounds, I don't have much to do tomorrow anyways" he responded as stopped holding his scepter like club.
"Ah, but that wasn't what I meant to tell you today though" suddenly exclaimed Alga.
"What was it?" wondered the king, dropping his guard a bit as he noticed her gaze grow softer, unusual since she always looked like a predator on the hunt.
"I am pregnant" she dropped the info on him very casually.
"I see" he said as he almost fell over.
"For real?!" he loudly exclaimed as he managed to fully digest the information.
"Yeah, the mages all said that a clump of life was forming in my belly" Pepin was about to celebrate but suddenly turned around to look through the window.
'Hold on, how does one raise a prince or princess? How does one raise a child in general?' he thought back to his own parents, it was a good thing to remember what not to do.