Chapter 54 - Archduke Evenhart
“Rich? I hadn’t even thought about it. Don’t we already have enough wealth in the Duchy? Why would we want more money?”
Margaery let out a small laugh.
“You really haven’t given this much thought, have you?” she asked.
“No… I’d rather forget about it,” I said, filling my wine glass.
She laughed again.
“An Elven Archduke managed the wealth of all the Duchies in the Elven Kingdom. The guy earned a cut from everything the kingdom sold because he was the intermediary between the Duchies and the Royal Family. And on top of that, he was part of a race that lived for centuries, completely dedicated to his work. When I mentioned wealth, Katie, I meant real wealth. I’m talking about inheriting all the businesses and properties of an Elven Archduke who had inherited everything from his ancestors. We’re talking about unique mineral mines, valuable properties, lands, lakes with rare fish, and a lot more…”
“The fortune of our duchy is also substantial,” I said.
“We’re rich, but we’re just one duchy. The Elven Archduke possessed the wealth of an entire kingdom.”
Margaery went on listing everything we could potentially inherit, and my head started to ache from listening to it all. She thought about these things because of her responsibilities to the territory.
“There’s something else you haven’t realized…” she said.
“What?”
“If the Archduke has died… who will take over his duties?” she asked with a grin.
I froze as the implication hit me.
“They’ll probably appoint someone to act temporarily, but eventually… the role will have to return to a member of the royal family. Guess who could inherit the position of being the second most important person in that kingdom after the king?” she said.
“Nathan…” I murmured in shock.
“Now you see why Lady Adrihna insisted on secrecy? We need to follow her advice, not that I was ever against it. We’re still recovering from a major issue, and until my nephew is ready, I at least need to sort things out. But now, he has even more responsibilities. As members of the royal family, you should be protected around the clock… not that you weren’t already, but if this gets out… things could get complicated. This situation has to remain a secret between us two.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Are you sure we should keep this hidden from the Royal Family of this Kingdom? I don’t like them either, but this is a diplomatic matter beyond our control,” I said.
“If Lady Adrihna says the Elven Royal Family requested to keep their new heirs hidden until they’re a bit older, I’ll gladly follow her suggestion. There are also diplomatic laws regarding your existence. Unless you want to inform them and be forced to move to that Elven Kingdom and take on responsibilities sooner than expected.”
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“Of course not. I want to keep my son as far away from these things as possible.”
I sat down in the armchair, placed my hand on my face, and took a deep breath.
What did I do to deserve all this? All I wanted was to stay in that little house in Detthos village…
“It’s okay, Katie. You and my nephew don’t need to worry. No one will find out, and we’ll keep it confidential. If this gets out… we’ll have something much worse to deal with.”
I looked at her with a confused expression.
“What do you mean, something much worse?”
The way Margaery said that felt ominous.
"Aside from all the potential laws being violated since that high elf was royalty and decided to start a family in another kingdom, which is considered a diplomatic crime... What do you think would happen if they found out there’s an ‘easily accessible’ member of the Elven royal family who’s only eight years old?"
“No... You can't be saying what I think you're saying.”
She let out a laugh.
“I absolutely am, my dear friend. There would be a mad scramble among the nobility to marry Nathan, and I wouldn’t be surprised if even our human king tried to arrange a marriage between someone from the royal family and Nathan to forge a powerful alliance between kingdoms, even if it meant bending a few rules,” she said, laughing.
“Stop, Margie... stop speculating... I’m getting a headache.”
“My job is to think ahead for you, and I’m telling you, imagine if they found out a potential Archduke, just eight years old, is living in this kingdom? Someone from the royal family would jump at the chance to marry their child to him and secure an alliance with your other Elven relatives.”
I’m in serious trouble...
“Nathan already has a fiancée... I never thought that might actually save me from some kind of engagement war over him.”
She laughed.
“The king of this kingdom has three wives, and the Founding Emperor had at least a hundred. Do you think a single engagement would stop them? Haha, I managed to calm down the lower nobility, but for the higher nobility, it’s common to have more than one wife…”
“Margie…”
“Get ready to handle countless marriage proposals once this gets out,” she said, laughing.
“We’ll keep it secret!”
“Of course, we will. That’s one of the reasons Lady Adrihna asked for discretion. The future of the Archduke’s heir affects them too, which is why they don’t want the vultures circling.”
“And how do we keep the vultures away?” I asked, desperate.
“The same way we kept ours at bay in the past. There would have to be some sort of marriage with a high-ranking noble from the Elven kingdom to silence everyone, especially the people in this human kingdom.”
I thought about her words.
“Marry Nathan to an elf? I don’t want that! I don’t want to put my son into another arranged engagement just to marry off to some random elf to shut the other nobles up…”
“Some random elf? You’re thinking too small, Katie. It wouldn’t be just any elf; it would have to be one with enough power to silence even the opposition in that kingdom.”
I gave her a confused look.
“I don’t get it... so who would he have to marry?”
She laughed.
“If I thought of uniting the two branches of the Evenhart family in a never-before-seen union... what do you think the members of the Elven royal family would come up with?” she said, laughing while sipping her wine.
“You can’t be suggesting that…”
“I doubt it would happen. It would have to be a crazy scenario, but like I said, my job is to think ahead for you, especially in crazy scenarios that might arise.”
She ignored me and went back to her drink.
“Margie, don’t dodge the question. If that crazy scenario were to happen... who would they marry Nathan to!?”
She shrugged.
“Just some random elf...” she said, turning her face away.
“WHO!?” I asked, irritated.
“The crown princess of the Elven Kingdom.”