A month later
The new queen was busy attending her classes. Not to mention she hated all of them.
Walking through the corridor to her room Lily was feeling exhausted. She actually intended to just go take a shower and directly go to sleep afterwards.
The servants waiting for her in the room didn't waste time to take her clothes off, bring her to the bathroom and wash her clean the second she entered the chamber.
What was going on? She was confused.
They styled her hair, did her makeup and put in revealing clothes. Slowly but surely she started noticing what was about to happen.
Minutes later the emperor entered the room, and everyone bowed. Ciel approached her quietly, his eyes focused on her and nothing else. Her Skin was glowing, while her eyes sparkled with a rare green... And of course, Lily was in another world full of brutal imagination, and her face revealed her situation as it showed all the expressions of embarrassment and fear together.
She felt his body getting close enough to her, then she felt the coldness of his hand that landed on her cheek, holding her, and the other pulling her hair away from her face. A voice came out saying: "Leave me and my queen alone."
Everyone smiled and some laughed as they left knowing what would happen here.
Meanwhile, Lily was praying to the gods in heavens, but she returned to reality when she felt a cold breeze coming to her as Ciel's body moved away from her. Lily fluttered her eyes open to find Ciel smirking.
A knowing and self-satisfied smirk.
He looked at her from a distance. "Sleep and rest, my queen," he said maliciously and went out to the balcony. Was she sad that he rejected her? No, of course not, she quickly turned toward the bed, laid on it while adjusting herself in the silk sheets, trying to sleep, though her body was still in a state of tremble.
She hated him.
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The next day Lily woke up to the news that her mother-in-law, Alinora, wanted to see her.
She was living here for over a month and only now did she want to meet her.
Lily started getting ready, or more like they started torturing her like they did yesterday.
As she entered the large room where Alinora was sitting drinking her tea, she bowed her head. "Good morning your majesty" she said softly.
Lily regrated talking to her cheekily at the wedding.
"My dear, how are you?" her voice was high peached.
"Fine your majesty."
"And when will you bring the good news to the kingdom."
"Which news my queen" Lily was baffled.
"Every queen has to bring the kingdom an heir, my child, to assure her place."
Lily didn't care about this position, but being passively there was not going to help. You will never survive in a royal family without asserting yourself.
She needed the crown prince, she needed the power, the child will assure her that.
"To be honest, the minute I saw you in front of me for the first time, I knew that I would get tired again. I don't like your innocence at all. You're weak even in your personality. How will you win Ciel's admiration? Have you thought about that? How are you going to make him fall for you?" Alinora remained silent, focusing her full attention on Lily.
"Really, how would you do that?"
"I... I-I don't know."
"Do you want me to help you.?"
She knew this woman was a devil, but she would rather make a pact with the devil than dying.
"Yes" she said with a forced smile.
After a long talk Lily exited the room with a headache.
Then she completed her tour of the royal palace.... According to what she remembered from her lessons, she must leave a good impression in the eyes of the servants, so she has been spreading warm smiles since she woke up. This is despite her extreme annoyance at the dresses of the maids and some of the concubines that she encounters in the corridors of the palace. It was late autumn, and the dress code surely wasn't meant for this weather.
Once again it shows her the clear resembles between her father and her husband. In their eyes women were just creature for display, like some kind of dolls.
Little did she knew that the inner court was managed by Alinora and the king had no say in that.
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"Long live the king," all the soldiers shouted as they were lined up in straight rows, their bodies oriented so that they could easily see the king in front of them.
The king applauded the brave soldiers of the barrack and gestured with his hand to start distributing some money to the soldiers as a gift from the king on the occasion of his marriage. That was Ciel's favorite habit when visiting the military barrack. This is how he entertained himself.
You must have a strong and faithful military to be a king.
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Weeks passed by and her so-called husband was still ignoring her. How is she supposed to get pregnant?
She had enough of playing the good obedient princess.
"I'm not attending this class anymore" Lily rushed out of the room.
This woman was making a joke out of her.
"But you can't just disobey the king" Asena walked behind her.
"I can and I will" she fumed in rage.
Holding her dress high she ran though the corridor and then out of the castle. She ran so fast it felt like flying.
The wind was hitting her face and hair, that came out of the hurtful bun on her head.
"My lady, I beg you to stop" Asena panted.
Lily stopped.
"Isn't it great?" holding her knees breathing fast she chuckled like child.
"What my lady?" Asena was holding her waist, her breath shaking.
"Being free" Lily laughed. Her eyes shining like emeralds under the sunlight.
Asena had to admit, Lily was really pretty.
Suddenly they heard a weak meow.
Asena jumped in fear.
"We should go back" she hurried holding Lily's arm.
"It's a cat Asena, she won't kill us."
"Where is she" Lily looked around.
They were standing in a middle of a forest.
"My lady please, let's just go back."
"No, I'm searching for her" she insisted.
"My lady did you know that lions, tigers, jaguars could meow too."
"What?" Lily was shocked of how dump this kid was.
"Where did you hear that?"
"All of them belong to Feliformia" Asena said confidently.
"I have no words" she shook her head in disbelieve.
Another meow was heard, and Lily followed the sound.
"Oh, there you are" she mumbled.
The cat was on a high tree.
"We should help her" Lily added.
"The only thing we should do now is to go back to the castle before the king finds out that we ran away and send solders behind us" Asena begged.
"I'm good at climbing trees."
"Oh no my lady you're not going to do that, it's going to ruin your dress" Asena was about to have a mental breakdown.
Lily just ignored her and started to climb the tree.
Asena covering her face with her hands.
Halfway through Lily heard Asena's panicking voice.
"Oh my god, they are coming."
Looking behind while trying to reach the cat she lost her balance.
BOOM
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Silence roamed the empress's velvet champer, and the gazes of those present moved from one to another. Lily was completely stiff like she always was when Ciel was around, and now he was sitting on the edge of the bed while she was lying flat on it.
"So, you got injured by falling out of a tree while trying to save a cat?" Ciel asked.
"Yes, that's what happened," she replied after a series of stuttering.
Ciel looked at her for a long time, causing her anxiety to raise and her to feel suffocated when he lifted her dress up in the presence of everyone, where the wound on her tightly wrapped knee became clear to him. He gently placed his hand on it and then looked up to her.
"You should be more careful next time, my queen."
She nodded absently, is he worried about her?
The only thing Ciel wanted to do right now is to break some bones and torture her damned guards. How on earth could they allow this to happen to their queen?
She did not come from the northern to his lands in order to be harmed in this way. She came to be his queen and to be protected.
However, what burned inside him the most was Rawon.
Rawon is the assassin who was tasked with protecting Lily and reporting every event to Ciel.
He was also the one, who carried her to the chamber.
He certainly didn't want to exaggerate, but the feeling inside him caused him distress and discomfort about it.
Ciel suddenly stood up, causing everyone to panic.
"I'm sorry, my queen, but I postponed the ministers' meeting long enough today. I have to go. Be well." He spoke as he was about to leave, but he noticed Rawon at the end of the room and went towards him.
"We need to talk later" he ordered coldly throwing his death stare at him.
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After the king went out everybody let a sigh out. Lily wanted to laugh.
Looking around she noticed Rawon.
A slim, tall boy with golden hair and icy blue eyes.
They exchanged looks and she motioned for him to come to her. His cheeks went red, and he walked towards her.
"I want to talk to ..." she looked at him "Rawon, my name is Rawon" he muttered.
"I want to talk to Rawon alone" she continued and minutes later nobody was inside beside her and Rawon.
"Tell me ..." she took a breath "did the king appoint you to observe me?"
"NO" he screamed unintentionally "I'm sorry my lady, no he didn't."
Lily gave him a side-eye "why didn't he make it obvious then?"
"He didn't want you to feel pressured."
"He noticed that you have nobody here and Asena is an easy-talk-to person that's why he hired her to be with you but I'm there to protect you" he responded in a rush.
"What a good person he is, he considers my feelings" she taunted.
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At the ministers' meeting
"The issue of Chanper is, that the big part of the population there are farmers. They have a very important role for providing three of its neighboring provinces with supplies of wheat annually. We have been informed for some time that the local population, basically peasants, are holding demonstrations in order to reopen the dam due to the drought that the region suffered from, and the harvests declined. His highnesses father had stopped repairing the dam before his death due to the high expenses. What should we do, my lord?"
Ciel was listening intently the whole time, eyeing the lengthwise wide hall with many windows, sitting on his throne, wearing his golden crown studded with precious stones. He loved this time of the day, the time when he listened to his people's complaints through their ambassadors, but he got bored the longer it took. The council is attended by representatives of the church and all ministers.
To his right was Caelum and to his left sits the clerk of decisions lower than him. There are also a number of guards around him, in addition to some servants who are allowed to enter this place.
"How much will the restoration cost?" He looked at the minister in charge of reparation, "Fifty thousand gold rubles."
He turned his gaze to the treasurer, "What is the impact on the treasury?"
"His highness will be providing Chanper with six months of daily income in order to compensate for the risky amount, but he will do anything that contradicts what his father did during his previous term in order to prove to his people that he is the right decision and the appropriate king who does not resemble his father."
"I do not think it is a good decision, Your Majesty, the Kingdom cannot bear the expenses and the situation will get worse. I suggest that the restoration be postponed until a later time and the farmers will manage their affairs as they are doing now" one of the clergymen said.
"What do you think about sitting on this throne and wearing this crown as well?" the king answered.
The clergymen was pissing him off.
To make better decisions Ciel wanted to visit it personally to see how the situation really was.
Chanper was a beautiful city, and they had a castle there. Maybe he would also take Lily since she till now saw nothing in his Kingdom.
