Chapter 55
“Royal Trouble”
Royal palace, kingdom of Balsac.
11:10 pm. The night before.
Milo Riva, chief court magician of the kingdom, and Marquis of Riva pulled back his long black hair in an elegant ribbon that matched his blue tunic. At thirty years old, he was considered one of the most influential men in the kingdom and a coveted bachelor. But despite the occasional attention the ladies gave him, he was a busy man. Or at least he used that as an excuse to turn them away along with the king’s overtures to match him. A week ago he had even hinted at marrying his new mistress Lethicia Tehro, the daughter of the Marquis of Tehro. Milo had immediately refused, much to the annoyance of the king who was beginning to suspect that his faithful servant’s sexual proclivities were towards men, and decided to let the matter rest for a while before insisting again.
Milo’s crystalline green eyes looked at the bottle of perfume his lover had given him and he hesitated.
It would be too obvious, he worried. One of the servants might recognize my scent on her, so he cast upon himself a spell to nullify any scent on his body.
And he put on his reading glasses, knowing she loved the intellectual look they gave him. And he loved the secret smile she gave him every time she took them off before closing her beautiful gray eyes and kissing him. The very memory warmed his body and his blood rushed to the south.
Milo went back to check his appearance one last time, making sure everything was in place and just before he cast the spell that would take him to a dark corner of her room, two loud knocks sounded on his bedroom door.
“Who is it?” He growled in annoyance that someone would dare disturb him just before their long-awaited date.
“The king requests your presence immediately, my lord” and Milo wanted to snarl and kill the king at that moment, but the only thing that showed his discomfort was his scowl and clenched fists, which he was quick to release.
He couldn’t damage his facade, not after how hard he had worked to get this position.
Even if the king was nothing more than a self-important asshole, more concerned with finding the next hole to dip his cock in than the welfare of the kingdom and caring for his beautiful queen.
And Milo was sure, that with all the things that were happening on the mainland, the king would end up leading the kingdom to its own destruction.
At least he still listens to my words and those of the Marquis of Allfel. Though he was beginning to doubt that would last long, especially with the way the king had lately begun to act on the whims of the Darla, one of the high priestesses of the temple of light, and the only saintess they had on the continent.
If only Queen Tathiana was the only one in power, the kingdom would be safe.
Milo checked his appearance once more in front of the mirror and pulled a thick robe over his clothes, sent two pulses of mana into the crystal of one of his left hand rings, alerting his lover that something was slowing him down, and opened the door.
“Take me there!” He ordered the servant who nodded immediately. But contrary to what Milo thought, he took him neither to the king’s office, nor to his room, but to a remote balcony in the north tower, where the royal guests were lodged, and on which an imitation of a prison had been built where the aristocrats whom the king still wanted on his side or wanted to blackmail were lodged.
Milo frowned as he walked through the half-lit corridors, sensing what the king would ask of him when he saw the location of their meeting, but he hastened to relax his expression.
“Good evening, your majesty," he greeted, bowing, which the king hastened to cut off with a wave of his hand before looking like an annoying insect at the servant he had ordered to bring him so close to midnight.
“Retreat!” he ordered with annoyance.
“Good evening, your majesty, my lord! -The young man replied with a bow before disappearing into the shadows of the hallway.
The lights of the two moons illuminated the red cloak, whose plush white edges accentuated the king’s pale silhouette.
“I’m sorry to call you so late at night, Milo. But I need you to accompany me and you are one of the few I can trust for this," the king murmured as soon as the sound of the young servant’s footsteps ceased to be heard.
In other words, he doesn’t trust the other court magicians enough for this.
“Of course, your majesty," he replied promptly.
“Then follow me," he said, and with a wave of his hand he ordered the guards to wait at the entrance to the corridor while they made their way to the staircase leading to the prisons that were in the dungeons.
A small flare of fire appeared in the palm of the king’s hand as they descended the stairs, lighting the way. And the small act of display on his part almost made Milo roll his eyes at his childish behavior. The king knew that Milo was also a fire mage, one far more powerful than he, one with a mana capacity far beyond his own.
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And yet, from time to time, the king did not hesitate to brag or remind them that he too had received the blue system from the goddess Mhiralla. Despite being only level ten despite his forty-five years.
But before they reached the guards guarding the cells, the voice of King Medhas broke the silence.
“Lethicia is pregnant, the royal physician informed me this morning that it was a boy," Milo almost stumbled upon hearing the news, immediately worrying about what Queen Tathiana would do when she heard this. But he managed to disguise his sudden awkwardness with great agility. It helped that the king was too excited about the news to pay enough attention to it. “Don’t worry, Milo, I will no longer pressure you to marry her," he assured him, turning to look him in the eye as he put his other hand on his shoulder. “Your secret is safe with me, my friend. But I recommend you get a wife even if it’s just to keep up appearances, I wouldn’t want court gossip to spread rumors about your tendencies in bed. Obviously you are not the only aristocrat with such particular tastes, but as the chief magician of the court, you must keep up appearances.”
Milo almost choked on his own saliva as he understood what the king was implying.
“What?” He whispered, his cheeks turning slightly red.
How on earth did he come to such a crazy conclusion? ... And since when are we friends? He thought, but didn’t correct him.
“As I said before, you won’t have to worry about marrying her anymore. At the party to celebrate the coming of the heroes, I’m going to announce her as my royal concubine. And a couple of weeks later, I plan to announce the birth of the future crown prince.”
“What will happen to Princess Galythe?” he asked worriedly.
“She will marry the second prince of the kingdom of Bhallys. They also succeeded with the summoning of heroes. They have agreed to strengthen a political alliance with us and we will hunt together those monsters that destroyed the kingdom of Vatha before they cross the border to ours.”
But although Milo agreed to the political alliance, it would have been better to use the second princess instead of Galythe.
When Tathiana learns that her daughter will lose the right to inherit the throne, she will be furious. Her father won’t be too happy about it either. And Milo wanted to advise him that it was a stupid move that would gain the powerful duchy of Brincy as an enemy, but he kept silent. If he can’t figure it out for himself, I won’t be the one to tell him. It is better to wait and see what he really plans to do about it. I doubt he’s going to confront them like this without having a plan or something to back him up.
“In that case, my congratulations to his majesty. You finally got the male heir you wanted so badly," he added, knowing full well that although the previous king had established a law allowing women to inherit not only the throne but also a title of the aristocracy, King Medhas was a bit more conservative with his beliefs. That was why he had murdered his older sister and stolen the crown for himself.
He is surely planning to clear the way for his only male child. So he will also get rid of the second princess. Milo thought.
Less than ten minutes later, both men had already arrived at the entrance to the cells.
“How dark it is here," whispered the king, whose mana was already running low, so he extinguished the flame in his hand and glanced sidelong at Milo, who did not hesitate to light all the torches in the neat corridor full of clean and comfortable cells with a wave of his hand.
But unlike the king he did not enter the corridor, instead he used the flames he had lit to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“Medhas! What took you so long?” Darla demanded as soon as the guard opened the grating that kept her locked in her cell, and saw the king standing in front of her and ran to embrace him. “I was beginning to think you had left me here abandoned," she said, pretending to pout.
“Of course I would do no such thing, my dear. But you went too far and upset Tathiana and now I have her breathing down my neck," he growled with annoyance and some coldness despite the hand he was caressing her cheek with.
“When will you get us out of here?” she asked instead, and at that moment as she brought her hand close to the king’s face, Milo could feel a disturbance in the mana around the king.
And he frowned.
“Right now. Milo will take you and the other priestess back to the temple." at that moment, the king’s voice sounded a little strange to the magician’s ears. “But you’ll have to keep a low profile, it’s not convenient for me to bother Tathiana with everything that’s going on, and even less so after the fiasco you got me into with the Lanish duchy” the king’s voice recovered its growl.
“Don’t be like that, you know it would have been very convenient for you if that foolish old man had agreed to marry me instead of passing the title of duke to his son.”
“But unlike before, I have no control over the current duke.”
“Have him marry one of your daughters in exchange for giving you the mana stone mine and I will give you the holy water he needs to cure his father of the poison.”
“That would practically be announcing to the world that you were behind the assassination attempt on the former duke.”
“But they have no way to prove it, otherwise they would have done it already," she assured him. And at that moment Milo felt a disturbance of mana again.
“My lord," the wizard interrupted and the strange mana fluid broke as he approached the cell. “Soon it will be time for the changing of the guard.”
He noticed a strange gleam in the king's eyes that quickly disappeared as Darla's gaze settled on him, full of disdain and distrust.
Milo returned a half-smile laden with superiority, remembering that despite being a saintess, she was but a simple country girl that the temple had picked up a few years ago.
After the guard allowed them to leave and the four of them exited through a secret door to the outside of the castle along with the two guards who were guarding the king, Darla turned to her lover.
“And what will you do with the girl who attacked Ivhana?” she asked. “I'm sure she's the one the first prophecy warned us about.”
“Don't worry about a pretty face and focus on what is really important," he scolded her. “You must increase your power within the temple or we will lose everything we have been working for.”
“But...!”
“Milo, get them out of here at once!” The king interrupted her.
And without waiting a second longer, Milo did as he was ordered.
Half an hour later, a shadowy figure materialized inside the queen's palace, in Tathiana de Balsac's room.
“It's me, my love," whispered Milo. “I'm sorry to be so late, but I'm afraid I bring you bad news.”