A resplendent, gigantic chamber came into view as I walked inside. The entire building seemed to be U-shaped, with multiple levels ascending to the top. Starting from the bottom, was the ballroom itself, the dance floor, if you will. It was a glistening marble floor surrounded by a uniform red carpet, adorning the edges of the floor and providing a clear separation between the chairs and tables, all of which had snacks and wine on them. To the north was an entrance between two gigantic windows, like the type you'd see in a particularly rich cathedral, the crystal, multicoloured glass being an artwork in its own right, seemingly representing heroic figures of some kind. The walls were also lined with similar artwork, from the busts of beautiful people to the many, many portraits of unknown individuals. Something that struck me was that none of the portraits, nor the busts, represented myself or my father and I was definitely expecting to see a lot of the latter.
To the south, was a staircase that lead up to the second floor, which was a platform overlooking the dance floor in the middle. On each uppermost edge of the U-shape was a pianist, playing a piano seemingly sculpted out of the marble walls, positioned between two pillars that held the upper floors which were made out of an unfamiliar crimson stone. It reminded me of painted slate, but I wasn't sure from this far. Each end also had a door to the outside, likely leading to a balcony to allow the guests some fresh air. Much like the floor below, the second was also filled to the brim with tables and chairs to accommodate the attendees, with the same kind of uniform carpet being placed in the middle of the walkway, though this one was blue. The guests were seated up front rather than at the edges here, separated from the first floor by a carved, marble fence which felt cool to the touch. This floor was also separated by its left and right wing, with each wing having a door from which servants poured in and out of the building. On the left, one could find the extensive royal kitchen while on the right seemed to be the servants communal quarters, a place to rest and recuperate from the terribly straining job of serving one's betters, no doubt.
The third, and final, floor, was where I ended up at as I entered. Much like the floor below, this one also had two wings. To the left was a pathway into one of the guard's towers, beneath which lied the barracks while the right lead into what I assumed was an unused, old tower, though now it strikes me that it may simply be used for royal get-a-ways. Unlike the lower floors, the only table here was in the middle, which was raised up higher than the rest and had to be reached by a small flight of stairs. This table was several meters long and seemingly crafted out of lean, expensive-looking wood, inlaid with silver on its edges and gold in the middle. There were two large chairs in the middle of the table which were also inlaid with gold, followed by an onset of silvery chairs on either side, about ten of them on each. Looking at the two royal chairs made me smile because I knew that I'd have both of them to myself tonight. Several people were already seated on the right and left part of the table.
From what I could see, the people that were seated separated themselves not by class or rank specifically, but by faction and ambition. Good, that makes things easier for me. On the right side were; William, Sebastian, Katrin, Fibrus, Percival, Harrowfield, Rex and three other people I didn't recognize.
On the left, well, I only knew Lawrence, with the other nine people being completely unfamiliar to me. "Took you quite a bit to arrive, fatso." Sebastian quipped at me with a snort and a smirk as he poured himself some wine. Shrugging at him, I approached the table and took my seat with a grin as I noticed the beautiful assortment of food that awaited me: chicken breast roast, pork tenderloin and perfectly done beefsteak, with each plate soaking in its own deliciously smelling juices as well as an assortment of chosen veggies, the majority of which were potatoes because, lets face it, potatoes possess everything a beautiful body requires.
"I beg your forgiveness, Sebas~." Letting out a laugh, I promptly poured myself a drink of specifically prepared sugar water, which caused quite a few eyes to turn in my direction with quirked eyebrows. "I was unfortunately accosted by your darling sister, as well as previously distracted by a certain lady."
Sebastian, to his credit, merely blinked once before turning his head back around. "Sure. I'll forgive ya, your majesty." His reaction made me snort and chuckle.
What an arrogant boy, though I suppose that too has its charms. Once I was finally relaxed, I looked to my right and noticed William staring at me with an incredulous expression. "Ah, marshal. Long time no see." His expression twisted itself comically, somehow managing to become even more confused that before. "Eh? Ah?.. what are you spouting about now, boy? We saw each other in court a day ago!"
Katrin let out a light laugh at this. "Please, forgive my father, your majesty. He is not the best at 'catching phrases', if you will." A nod was her answer as I quirked an eyebrow at her, then turned my attention back towards the old man, who appeared lightly embarrassed from the minor event. "Don't worry, its nothing much. Still, you were looking at me like you wanted to say something, William. I would be happy to hear you out."
"I wished to talk about matters of military, your majesty." Throwing a quick look around, he seemed to grimace at something, or someone, before continuing. "Particularly, I wished your help in addressing one of the many problems concerning troop supply. Currently, our troops are responsible for nearly every piece of their own equipment and receive only some fish, ship-bread and pottage as a form of rations... that is, if they are lucky to receive all three before supply runs out."
My eyes went wide in surprise and anger as I stared at the man with clear disbelief. "Marshal... why has this been brought to my attention only now?" He let out a sigh and nodded, seemingly in defeat. "The fault for this is mine, your majesty. I .. am not a very social person. In fact, I much prefer killing people rather than listening to them speak. You, are merely someone whose words I have come to respect in the short span we have known each other."
Well, at least he isn't blaming me for not knowing it already in the first place. "Bah! Stop bothering his glorious majesty with such trivialities on this special day! It is time for celebration and joy, not one to ponder or care for how many filthy peasants starve while on duty." Another elderly voice echoed from my other side, which is to say, the left.
I turned myself around to throw a look at this offending fool, only to find a man of greying hair, dressed in a long, browish-black overcoat with one too many medals stamped onto the suit itself. Clearly, this was someone very proud of his military 'achievements', so much so that he had to present them wherever he goes, like some kind of soldiers wife. The sight of it honestly made me groan. "And who might you be?"
"Reginald Yor'n Bracchus, high lord of the east!" He harrumphed with an eye roll, then threw me a look full of spite. "I am one of your marshals as well, you brainless oaf. Don't bother trying to sell that idiotic 'memory loss' story to me, boy. I've hammered enough fools to know what true brainlessness looks like and you certainly do not look the part!"
"Enough! You are seated at your lord's table and you will act accordingly, Reginald!" William rose from his seat in anger, furiously pointing at the other old man, who snorted at him and replied. "And who are you to speak of mannerisms to me, Terreltait? Why, just a few weeks ago, reports of your inevitable rebellion kept on pouring in. In fact, I was so happy to see you gathering your armies. I even prepared a nice spot for your skull on my night-stand!"
Quirking an eyebrow at them both, I coughed into my fist, which was enough to William to sit back down in shame. "So I'll assume that you also do not believe the trail of corpses I've left behind me these past two weeks?" Lawrence shifted with such discomfort that the creaking of his chair could be heard from here, despite the music, though the young man said nothing. Reginald, on the other hand, seemed to become seriously infuriated by something. "What?! I expose Williams treachery and you wilfully ignore it?! Lawrence was right, you have become truly foolish, Klaus!" He bellowed out a laugh from deep within, causing a vein to pop on my forehead.
Offering the man a sinister smile, I promptly flicked my right hands fingers as I rose it before joining both hands under my chin and looking at the old man, cruel sadism etching itself clearly on my expression. "I do believe its time to teach you a lesson, Reginald."
The old man blinked and turned towards me with a questioning glance, but once he finally opened his mouth, what came out from it were not words, but blood. He grasped his heart and began to choke, breathing with extreme difficulty as the entire hall turned to look at what was going on. "P-poison?! But I - Uhg- I-aaah! I didn't e-even drink a-aurgh!"
"Drink? Oh. So you truly didn't believe the tyranny I have shown these past two weeks." His attendants rushed towards him, but stopped once they found the blades of Katrin and Sebastian right at the edge of their throats. What a wonderful pair of dogs! Too bad one of them wants to fuck me.
... well, thinking on it now, Sebastian is being pretty tsundere-ish himself, what with his mean demeanour combined with instantly rushing to my defence, so they both might want to fuck me. "Eua-aargh! W-wh- is this -m-ARGH! Magic?!" He managed to gutter out as my cruel smile intensified. The old man kicked himself off of the table, his chair falling downwards and causing him to hit the back of his head with a loud thud, then turn around and vomit a lot of blood. "Hmm... I wonder what would happen if I-" Suddenly, my right hand was grabbed from behind as I turned to see William shaking his head in negative at me. "Huh?"
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"I'm sorry, your majesty. Please, forgive that old fools lack of manners. Shitty as he is, we do need him alive." With that word of advice given, William let go of my hand as I took a deep look into the old man's eyes, then relented with a nod. "As you wish, marshal. Quite honourable of you to desire mercy for one whom seems to be your rival and foe."
"We were friends, once. Then he started preferring whores and wine over blood and glory." William sighed heavily and sat back down as I turned back towards Reginald, promptly releasing from my spell. "Clean yourself up and do not appear before me again unless you're ready to act as you should before your rightful king."
"H-hah! R-rightful, my ass! Your throne is blessed, not earned. And while this may give you the loyalty of the faithful, it won't buy you anyone else's favour, ... my king." His maids wiped him clean of his own blood, getting roughly pushed away as soon as they were done. Taking a deep breath, Reginald promptly reset his chair and sat back down. "In any case, your tyranny being truthful or not, I still stand by my words. This is not a time to discuss matters of state, your majesty." He turned his head around and leaned backwards to expose the first person next in line after him.
A woman. A remarkably beautiful woman in a crimson dress, with so much makeup on her that it legitimately made me think that it was just her skin being naturally pearly. Her eyebrows rose with a glistening black and her lips were a seductive pink. Her eyes were practically glowing golden and her hair was an exquisite, raven black.
Closing my eyes and shaking my head, I could already feel my fury returning, though for an entirely different reason. "She's cute. What of it?" Rolling my eyes at her and then turning back around towards my food, as well as William, I asked. "So, you were saying something about rations, right? How do you think we could improve this situation?"
William threw me a look of complete disbelief and almost seemed to start sweating. The old man to my left began to fume with rage, but was apparently stopped as a calm hand was placed on his shoulder, a velvet glove pressing into his elderly flesh with no small amount of force. "Father. Switch with me." Good lord, even her voice sounded sultry. It was honestly starting to grate on my nerves. Heavily, that is.
Reginald looked at his partner with disbelief and shock, before smirking and nodding. "As you wish, my dear beloved daughter."
Dear and beloved? Holy shit. Villainess detected?
Her dress swayed exotically as she took her seat, infuriatingly close to me. Thankfully, we still had quite a bit of distance between us due to the empty chair belonging to my future queen. "The name is Aberra Yor'n." She smirked and calmly took a glass into her lithe hands, pouring herself some red wine before sipping it."Aberra?" I blinked as I turned towards her with a grimace. What the hell kind of name is Aberra?
"You must be thinking about how strange my name is." She pointed out with a chuckle and smirked as she closed her eyes while shrugging. "Don't worry, my liege. Everyone has that same line of thought when they hear it first."
"I see." My eyes narrowed at her as I stifled my own heart with magic. Whatever this woman's power, it surely wasn't natural. Hell, she isn't even my type and my heart's fucking racing! Her double d cup isn't helping, either. "It certainly is a strange name, though it is not the name which I am curious about."
"Oh? And what are you curious about, your majesty?" She offered me a knowing smirk, as if she thought she had me dancing in the palm of her hand, the arrogance of which I could certainly appreciate, had I not been previously infuriated. So I turned around and offered her a smile of my own, one equally as sadistic as the one I showed to her father. "I'm just wondering why you're wasting my time and not stating your intentions plainly. It seems as if you didn't get the memo from seeing your father nearly die in front of you that I do not take kindly to intrigue."
Shrugging again and sipping some more of her wine. "That is because my intentions should be obvious, your majesty." She pointed towards the queen's chair with her thumb without even looking at it. "See, that part I can understand, I just don't see how exactly you're planning on achieving the right to sit there."
Appearing only slightly offended, but more amused than anything else, the woman before me let out a sigh. "Are you saying that I'm not beautiful enough for it? Such a shame, but it is nice to see that your majesty at least has some taste."
"I'm afraid that you are as far away from my tastes in women as you could possibly be, Aberra." This caused her to rise an eyebrow, alongside pretty much everyone else seated at the table as I finally felt myself relax and lean back into my chair, looking onto the festivities below and tuning myself to the music. "Oh? So what kind of woman do you prefer?"
"Same as any other man should; submissive, generally obedient and healthy." She calmly drank some more of her wine, twirling the remainder in her glass before replying. "So, you want a whore, then? How very, very disappointing." Her tone was low and indicative of her seemingly pointing something out, which in turn caused me to quirk an eyebrow at her. "A whore? No. I want a mother. More specifically, I want a woman whom I can trust to raise our children without having to fear that she may end up murdering one of them out of some base, ridiculous need for attention."
Aberra blinked with surprise, then her lips curled upwards into a smile as she put her glass of wine down and leaned forward, toward me, thusly exposing quite a lot of her cleavage. "And you think that I would not make for a great mother, your majesty?"
I swear I could almost hear Katrin tsking from behind me. A quick look allowed me to catch pretty much the entire right side of the table staring at Aberra's magnificent bust, including the supposedly angered Katrin, which was something that caused me to sigh and put a hand on my forehead. "Makeup."
She blinked again and tilted her head in confusion. "Huh?.. makeup?"
"Yes, makeup." Leaning back into my chair, I let out a massive sigh. "You're wearing so much of it that its bound to eventually poison your body. Not only that, wearing so much of it just gives me the impression that you are addicted to your own personal beauty, which thusly means that you are interested solely in yourself as a person and would not give enough of your time to our children."
"Okay, first of all, your majesty, royal children are taken care of by maids who are specifically taught and trained to do as much. Secondly, while I am surprised that a man such as yourself knows even the slightest bit about the potential dangers of makeup, it is nowhere near as horrible as you make it seem. Thirdly, so what if I am selfish and focused on myself? I am a noble, for heavens sake!" She kept her tone linear and low, all the way up till that last sentence.
I let out another massive sigh and closed my eyes, my head already showing the beginnings of an upcoming migraine. "Alright, lets say I agree with your statements so far. You want to become a queen, yes? Why exactly do you think that you qualify for this role? Because, if its only your beauty that comes to mind, you've already failed."
A resounding che flowed out of her as she crossed her arms in a way that further accentuated her giant breasts before eventually replying. "How childish. My beauty is important to me, as if should be to any woman sane of her mind!.. however, I do understand your question." She seemed to calm down and take up her glass of wine again, twirling it some more.
It would seem that this is a form of contemplative twitch for her. "What I have to offer as a queen... well, you seem to be intent on becoming a tyrant, yes? You'll need someone to clean up the filth gathering at court while you are away." She smirked as she threw me a look of sadism that matched mine from before, which caused me to quick an interested eyebrow at her. "And I am very, very good at 'housekeeping', if I may say so myself, your majesty."
"Oh?" My annoyed expression twisted into a smirk. "Is that so? Well, I'll admit that this part sounds alluring, but on its own, it really just isn't enough for me. Besides, I could have you do some 'housekeeping' for me even without marrying you."
She tilted her head around a bit before nodding in approval. "This is true. If you were to order it and grant me the powers required to do so, I would gladly help keep your court clean of weakness, your majesty." Then her lips curled upwards with a smile. "However, I would be far more inclined to do so if I the home I was protecting was my own, wouldn't you agree?"
"Hmph." A chuckle escaped me as my smile relaxed into a normal one. Fine, I'll admit it, there does seem to be more to this woman than meets the eye.
Or.. perhaps, it would be better to say, that one needs to ensure they're focused on the whole of her rather than just one specifically eye-catching part in order to notice. "You speak the truth, Lady Aberra. I'll keep it in mind for the future." She threw me a knowing grin and nodded, returning her focus to the festivities around us. "Then I shall consider myself properly introduced and take not a second more of your time, your majesty. After all, quite a number of fair ladies have arrived in hopes of catching thine eye, your lordship. I shan't dare to deny them a chance of this any more~."
She promptly stood up and walked back to her original seat, causing me to nearly call out to her in order to make her stay, but I caught myself in the act before it could happen. I'm quite certain that she caught me in the attempt, though, which is likely why she winked at me before she sat down. "Curious, but quite deadly, isn't she..."
"Indeed. And more beautiful than any other in the entirety of this nation!" Her own father boasted as soon as he returned, making me chuckle and snort. "On the outside, sure. She is quite exotic, indeed... but on the inside..." I mused mostly to myself as one eye turned towards her to see Aberra listening in with a keen ear. ".. A truly dangerous cobra seems to be hiding."
Now, I don't know if she took being called a cobra an insult or if something else I said was particularly offensive, but the beatific woman shook and shuddered as soon as that word left my mouth, though I did my best to pretend not to notice as I continued to smirk and returned my attention fully towards my food. There was absolutely no reason to waste this perfect feast, now was there~?
"C-c-cobra?! A-ah, you have a good sense of h-humour, your m-majesty!" Her father's stammering caught my attention as I quirked an eyebrow at him. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"Your majesty, there is a powerful criminal syndicate whose actions are very well known within the kingdom. They are known to be lead by a female figure called the 'Covetous Cobra'." Katrin explained with a casual tone as she coughed into her fist in an attempt to dispel the suddenly uncomfortable atmosphere.
I blinked and shook my head. "My apologies, Lady Aberra, I had no idea that this was the case, nor had I any intent to insinuate anything apart from the obvious." She calmly nodded and let out a breath of relief. "I accept your apology, your majesty. It is a relief that you do not think of me as someone so.. vile." Her blank expression betrayed her inner panic as I did my best to prevent laughing hard.
Oh come on! Could you be any less obvious?!
...
Then again, would the leader of a supposedly powerful criminal organization truly crack so easily?...
Hmmm, perhaps our friend Aberra is just a spy, the minion of the real thing, rather than the Cobra herself. Oh well, either way, this just got a ton more interesting, indeed!