"Frederic Blackwell, are you very, very certain about this?" The Duke's voice echoed in the vast dining hall. There were only the 3 of them there and not a servant in sight, which made the hall felt cavernous.

"Yes Father," Frederic gave his best smile. His father only ever called him by his full name for "important" matters - guess this was one of them. "I'm very certain and I will not change my mind for anything."

His parents looked at each other, exchanging exasperated looks. This was not how it was supposed to go - their only son, their heir, was supposed to try his luck at slaying the evil demon queen to the north and return in glory, to be showered in honour and wealth from the king. He was than to restore the stature of the Blackwell house, back to its golden days, maids and butlers and cooks waiting on hand and foot. Frederic knew that - so having him return to announce his engagement to the evil demon queen was probably a slight change in plan.

The Duke tapped his fingers on the long marble dining table, disturbing a layer of dust. "I heard rumours that she's half-goblin..."

"Half-elf, actually, with twice the grace and beauty of an elf." And thrice the temper, but there was no point in revealing that. His gentle, doting mother especially did not need to know this.

"I also heard that she commands bloodthirsty orcs and ferocious ogres and cruel harpys--"

"Actually, she keeps them from killing each other, and it's the first time in centuries those races ever coexist in peace." ...by threatening to completely wipe out any race that dares to disobey, but again his parents didn't need to know that.

The Duke looked again at his wife, who smiled weakly. "You're 27 this year, and you're a mature adult... if that is what you wish... we will not stop you."

"Thank you Father, Mother."

The Duke left the dining hall then, probably to retire to the reading room to brood over this turn of event. His mother stayed behind until the Duke was out of sight. "Fred," she asked softly, "will you be happy?"

"Certainly Mother. I give you my word."

The Duchess smiled. "Then I will be happy for you too." But her eyebrows could not help but frown.

"Mother," Frederic smiled brightly, "please do not worry for me."

The Duchess sighed. "I could not help it. Whenever I think about this so called 'evil demon queen' and the rumour about all the spell she has mastery over... I worry for your well being."

Frederic placed his mother's hand in his to reassure her. "Rest easy. Remember, I have a rare talent no one else has. She can't do anything to harm me."

Frederic's so-called 'talent' had been a mixed blessing whilst he was growing up. He was impervious to magic. While it meant that healing spells had no effect on him (inconvenient, when one had to go through the knight academy), it also meant that even the highest level fire spell would not be able to harm him.

Having been reminded about his talent, the Duchess sighed in relief and nodded. And she walked away from him, pausing after a few steps. "I have just remembered... the other day when we were at the royal celebration, you spent some time chatting to the royal sorceress. I was curious as to what you were talking to her about."

"Nothing important," Frederic smiled his best, "I was merely inquiring about her travels. I heard she travelled extensively before being appointed the royal sorceress, so I asked her about the countries she'd seen."

"Ah... so... has she really travelled through the evil countries?"

"They're properly called 'aetherial' countries, Mother, and yes, she had. And not just those, she had even seen the northern kingdom that's enclosed by icy mountains, one none of us could ever approach."

"Well, I guess that's why she was appointed the royal sorceress, isn't it? Someone who has seen and knows so much would do good for the kingdom."

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***

Panic was the right word to describe what she was feeling.

The 'evil demon queen' paced around in her bedroom, biting her thumb nail. Outside, dwarf servants and elf vassals and goblin helpers scurried around shouting orders and instructions, preparing for an upcoming royal wedding - after all, their queen could have nothing less but the perfect wedding. One she accidentally started in motion.

It had started as a dare, a stupid bet - that instead of scaring the so-called 'heroes' that came to slay her with a display of power (which was what she would usually do), she was to scare them off by asking (threatening) them to marry her. She had bet that regardless of the method they would run away from her (she was the 'evil demon queen' after all), and she had not been planning to say anything serious - maybe something along the lines of "Marry me or I'll kill your horse." so that the 'hero' would have to walk home with all the humiliation associated with his defeat. But this last 'hero' - he had not even let her finish her sentence. He had shouted "I'd love to!" at the top of his lungs, and... proceeded to call in all of her vassals as eyewitnesses, and proceeded to order them to prepare for a wedding. All whilst she stood agape, realising that as her vassals had witnessed it she could not withdraw her words. She was their queen after all, and her words were absolute.

It's not that he was bad looking, quite the opposite, but he was still human. A fallen noble, her spies told her. And yet she could not see a way out, short of murdering the man while he's asleep. A little bit of dark magic, a snap of the finger at the stroke of midnight and an appropriate mourning attire for the 'love' she had just lost...

"Lucia, you're not thinking of cheating are you?"

The voice snapped her out of her reverie. "Aunt Kayla," she turned around to face the upper half of an elderly lady coming out from a full length mirror, "I asked you to tell me beforehand whenever you're visiting." By now her aunt had fully emerged from the mirror. "One of these days I'll move that mirror to the dungeons or throw it into the blood lake."

"Now now, don't be rude to your elders. Your papa's heart will break if he hears that." Aunt Kayla sat on the edge of the bed. "I rushed here to congratulate you, my precious niece. You're, what, 160 years old this year? You finally found a good man to settle down with, I don't have to nag you anymore."

Lucia scowled. "This is all because of you and your dare--"

"Regardless, you lost. Part of the dare is to accept your loss gracefully," Aunt Kayla mocked a bow with her arms, "Your Majesty."

Lucia huffed and turned around. There's really no winning against her aunt, so she decided to change topic. "I heard you had your first royal party the other day. What was it like, royal celebration in the human kingdom?"

"Rather boring, to be honest. At least here you're guaranteed to see some blood and a few limbs getting torn off. Over there everyone was just so... polite. I found a way to entertain myself though."

What Aunt Kayla considered entertaining usually entailed a lot of agony for everyone else. Despite this Lucia couldn't help but ask, "And how did you entertain yourself?"

"Do you know how naive humans can be? I was talking to this boy - well, a man, I think at that human age he shouldn't be considered a boy anymore - a sweet one by human standards I'm sure. He wanted to make his parents happy, wanted to get glory and honour and wealth and all of that, just to make his parents happy." Aunt Kayla giggled. "I decided to amuse myself. I told him that I could see the future. I told him that all of the thing he wished for would come true if he married a certain girl, that he would be very happy and that his children would one day rule the kingdom. I watched his eyes lit up. I told him her name and where to find her and watched him go off like an arrow - I wonder if he found his mark?" She chuckled.

Lucia sighed. Sometimes, she wondered how her aunt managed to pass as human day to day in the human kingdom. "Please be careful, Aunt Kayla, restrain yourself. I don't want them to find out who you are and quarter you limb to limb."

Her aunt smiled, got up and patted her head. "Don't you worry my dear, I'm very clever, just you see." With that Aunt Kayla walked towards the full length mirror and started weaving her magic on it. "I'm afraid I can't stay long, as much as I'd love to." Lucia nodded. "That's the problem with being a royal sorceress - they rarely leave me alone. It's always 'help us bring rain', 'please heal my daughter', 'I lost my royal sceptre please find it'... most of the time I don't even know how they manage to run a kingdom." The mirror was functional now, the other side showing a room that exist somewhere in the human kingdom. "Well, I'll see you soon. I don't expect an invite to the wedding, just so you know, since we're not supposed to know each other."

"Yes Aunt Kayla, please stay safe." With that her aunt disappeared and the mirror returned to being just a normal mirror. Lucia sighed. Aunt Kayla was right - she's a queen - she had to keep her words. At the very least she had to make an effort to look grand on her wedding day, so she shouted for someone to fetch the best elven tailor. Nothing beat elven tailors when it came to dresses. And next she probably needed to arrange for invites to be sent out... Lucia paused. She didn't even know his name. ...well, her spies would figure that out for her.

As for the groom himself... well, she could go through with the wedding and just cast a mind-control spell on him afterwards. Lucia had confidence in her spellcasting ability. An extra puppet to help out with chores was always a good thing - if his swordsmanship was good she might even get him to teach and spar with her guards.

As Lucia went out of her bedroom to give more instructions to the vassals her memory went back to the day of the wedding proposal. How curious, now that she thought about it. The 'hero' had greeted her by name the moment he saw her - 'Lady Lucia Greenstone', was what he called her. Her name was not known to humans - to them she was just the 'evil demon queen'. And for everyone else in her kingdom it's always "Her Majety" or "Her Highness". None of them ever dared to say her name or even address her by it. How did he find out her name? Curious indeed, but Lucia decided to ignore it - must be serendipitous coincidence. For now, there's a wedding to prepare for.