"PLEASE! I'M SORRY! PLEASE DON'T TAKE ME! PLEASE!! I'LL DO ANYTHING"
A dishevelled woman with black, dirty hair cried out,pure and raw desperation was conveyed in her screams, her eyes showed a great sadness, like she had lost her child. She used her arms to hold on to the door as hard as she could, no one was trying to pull her away, yet she hung on to it like her life depended on it.
"Got any spells for this shorty?"
a giant of a lady wearing crimson armour and a huge hammer in her shoulder questioned her short stack of a teammate, Evileye and she could only shake her Head, seeing such desperation from an individual stirred feelings or pity in her, the cynical side of her nearly suggested that they leave this woman where she was but of course they couldn't do that.
"She was the only one responsive to our arrival, the rest of them might as well be dead"
Gagaran once again spoke, her feminine yet somewhat manly voice reached the ears of her teammates, who could only silently acknowledge her words. The adventurer team Blue Rose has been doing its best to investigate the organisation that is eight fingers. It's an effort to stop the criminal organisation and protect the people of the kingdom. After the incident with the undead in E-Rantel, they quickly scrambled to search for the eight finger bases that produce the drug known as black dust, a drug so powerful that it basically robbed you of your freewill.
They arrived on this base mere hours ago, the base was disguised as a border town to ward off any suspicion, the townspeople mentioned were fed black dust and forced to work and any children were transferred somewhere else. Blue rose took care of any of the personnel from Eight fingers and told all other townspeople who were still sane to flee, while they searched the place which led them to find the storage facility that housed hundreds of live bodies, however despite being alive the bodies laid flaccid on the floor as if dead.
"Lakyus, what do we do?"
Evileye questioned their leader, however Lakyus took too much longer to respond to her as her mind was occupied by various feelings, one of pity and sadness, disgusting and most of all rage. Eight fingers as an organisation had to go down by all means, she clenched her fist hard and took a deep breath.
" If she doesn't want us to take her with us, there's nothing we can do. The only way to solve these things is to find out the locations where black dust is being kept"
She explained as she turned on her heels and walked away prompting her friends to follow behind her, despite her logic and seemingly calm outward appearance, they were aware that this would be a sleepless night for Lakyus, her heart bled too much for others.
"Tina, Tia, did you get anything useful?"
"Yes we did, fiendish boss. We also got a ton of loot"
The twins spoke in unison, something they hardly ever do. They usually prefer to speak after each other.
"Good, we'll go back to the base, process and share the information we've gathered"
"And maybe see Arthur again ey"
"What?! What are you talking"
"Oh come on, Lakyus. we've all seen how handsome the guy is, even I've wanted to hit the sack with him"
"What! No. I'm not like that, he just has some interesting stories to tell"
"Uh-huh"
Gagaran teased, causing their leader to flush and become flustered. In the past month they've seen Arthur a couple of times and had time to converse with him, with Lakyus being the one who speaks to him the most, apparently he seemed to understand the "holy Valkyrie" stuff she usually speaks about when she's by herself.
"not to mention, he's got blonde her and green eyes, you were basically made for each other"
Evileye spoke with a shrug and a shake of her head, causing Lakyus to stammer, trying to deny the allegations. While she did enjoy the fantastical tales he shared with her when they were in the Princess's chambers, their relationship was just friendly acquaintances so far.
"Fiendish boss, fight!"
"Don't give up, Fiendish boss"
The twins cheered her on, causing a deeper shade of pink to stain her cheeks, but decided to give up trying to deny their accusations as doing so seemed to make it worse.
"on a serious note, I'm glad you finally got someone to help you with the trouble with the sword, I wouldn't want it to suddenly take over you body"
Evileye mentioned, however this caused Lakyus to blush much harder than before, her whole face covered in red like a cherry tomato as she tried her best to not feel embarrassed about what was said.
"heh… yeah…"
She responded trying her hardest not to have the conversation go any further, if they ever found out that this was all just pretend, she'd die of embarrassment, not to mention they'd lose all respect they had of her.
'they'll never find out, I swear upon the holy Valkyrie'
She thought as she walked while also being embarrassed by her own thoughts.
….
[Next day]
The time of day was early afternoon, the clock had only struck twelve a few minutes ago and the king's personal office now housed two Marquis and one Margrave of the Royalty faction, as well as Gazeff who stood right next to the king who was seated on a chair behind his desk.
The three men sat on a couch that was facing towards the king and one of them, an elderly gentleman with grey hairs, drank his tea elegantly, making a point to show off his excellent manners, traditional style of drinking tea which involved keeping one's pinky finger straight as he drank. The man was Margrave Urovana. Besides him was a young, handsome man who looked to be no older than the princess, only older than her by a few years. In contrast to the Margrave, who seemed to be relaxed in the presence of the king. Marquis Pespea was slightly tense, his respect for the crown could not let him show any disrespect to the throne.
"Why exactly do you wish to push forward the date?"
"Multiple reasons your Majesty, one being the princess is now a fully grown woman, yet she still has no candidates up for marriage, no fiance or persons she is talking with, this does not reflect well on her image. As members of the noble court, it is our duty to ensure the name of the Royal family is not tarnished in any way."
Marquis Blumrush explained whilst brushing his whisky moustache with his fingers, a self grooming gesture born from the insecurity that he could not grow it any longer and that it will forever stay two patchy wisps of hair on his face.
"I understand what you're saying but Renner's marriage was pushed back because she's the one who controls it, this is the reward she asked for when her plans successfully put us through the drought 6 years ago"
King Ramposa III explained, he was very much aware that His daughter was much brighter than the average noble but unfortunately as a woman there was hardly anything she could be involved in, so she can only take the back seat in most things with some exceptions.
"your Majesty, please understand that circumstances have changed. If we don't push forward the date, the other nobles just might snatch the prize from under our noses"
Margrave Urovana spoke. While it was all well and good to keep one's promises, he understood that there are situations where one can not be expected to keep them.
"You're speaking about Sir Arthur??"
"Yes your Majesty, Marquis Bulloupe and a few others have already made their attempts to poach him from the princess, in order to prevent this we need the princess to marry that way we can block the other nobles from trying anything"
Margrave Urovana continues, when a woman with some political power/ influence or something that would most nobles would want, like land or something similar, when she marries that political power is transferred from her to her husband, this means any talks regarding that matter would need to go through her husband first, as such since Arthur is a political tool much like Gazeff, if Renner were to marry, her Husband would basically become the one who could command Arthur and any noble that wished to talk to Arthur would require permission from Renner's Husband.
"So this is more about keeping the other nobles from taking away a valuable asset than it is about Renner's marriage? I see"
The king understood, when it came to women and political power within the nobles society of the Re-estize kingdom, it would be safe to say that women didn't get much political power, their status is determined by the man they're married to and even then that only matters to other women.
There are exceptions, of course, like if her husband died and there was no male heir of age, however it's not impossible for a woman to amass political power without getting married. It just depends on where they're at in the hierarchy, like, for instance, if that woman is a princess. Although having the princess marry will take away that political power so in essence, these nobles of the Royal faction want control over Arthur and simultaneously keep the princess from gaining too much power.
"I hear what you gentlemen are saying, I'll bring this up to her when I see her again, so which candidates do you think would be suitable? Do you have any?"
"Yes we do, Your Majesty. The young Marquis Pespea is more than willing, His father, before passing, was already preparing to have talks with about pairing him with the princess"
Margrave Urovana explained, causing the young noble beside him to tense up as now the attention was on him, of course he wouldn't consider himself shy however he could not help but be nervous whenever he was before the king.
"I see. Are you willing to do this, Marquis?"
"Of course You're Majesty, Princess Renner is the jewel of the country, it would be nothing but an honour for me to not only be married to a member of the Royal family but to be married to her as well. I thank you for being willing to grant me this opportunity, and I assure you that I will do my utmost because to ensure that the Princess is not only happy but satisfied, I will endeavor ...."
The king raised his hand and forced the young Marquis to stop speaking as it seemed he was beginning to ramble.
"You've made your point, Marquis. I will have a talk with Renner and bring this matter up. She'll be angry since I will be breaking a promise, but I'm certain she'll understand."
The king said as he let out a sigh, being a good king always came before being a good father, if the world were made the way he wanted he could be the good father he wishes to be but unfortunately he couldn't.
"In the meantime—"
*Bang!!*
"Father!!! I REQUEST FOR THAT COMMONER FILTH THAT GUARDS RENNER TO BE EXECUTED"
Babro slammed the doors open with a righteous fury, interrupting the meeting. His eyes were red with anger, and his veins showed in his forehead, it was clear that something or someone had crossed him.
The words he uttered brought a thick silence into the room.
"What?!!"
Everyone in the room exclaimed in unison, completely befuddled by the nonsense that came out of Barbro's mouth.
....
A/N: Hopefully, there aren't too many grammatical errors in this chapter.
Any thoughts on the chapter? Any criticisms? Help me improve and make this a better story.