I had a lot of trouble deciding who to include on this list. Since all women love me, it’s hard to say that no one is welcome. Although, there are some that I would have a hard time understanding them. Like Cindra for example. She’s got so much behind her that it’s a real shame her attitude is that terrible. Maybe she wants the same kind of treatment in return? Eh, she’s got a bunch of political baggage too, so it would never work out. While we nobles and royals are superior, my goal is to improve the kingdom for everybody, not just us.
Anyway, there were so many that I had trouble choosing. But I managed to get ten candidates here, in brief. I considered their looks and family politics when ranking them, so this should be good. Let’s start with Number Ten and work our way to Number One! I’ll make sure to more fully explain each choice to Wyen when I tell him.
Before that, an honorable mention: Lady Adelade Ghele. I think this goes without saying really. Unfortunately, with the way Count Ghele is, she’ll never be mine.
10. Felicia Graywolf.
Okay, so Felicia wasn’t actually at the party. Since she is the baroness of the Graywolf territory, or rather will be, she has to remain there until she can secure her control. But she is cute and such. Plus she helped us as best she could while we were there. I may have a spot for her since she is the first noble I’ve installed.
9. Layla Wavecrest
Layla is a seal beastfolk and her family controls a port town and the area around it on our northern coast. It’s really close to the capital as well, so the hero is probably going to pass through the Wavecrest territory at some point. The Wavecrest port also serves as a naval base, so they are close to the Crown and are members of the Loyalists.
Layla herself has athletic legs and arms, but like all seal beastfolk has a cutesy round torso. Her height, when compared to a human at least, does leave a little to be desired, making her look like she’s perhaps twelve or thirteen. She is seventeen though! Perfectly of age here in Sengar. She has a soft, white fur coat as well.
8. Allannia Slyph
Allannia is an elf, though according to her there is a little bit of fairy in her bloodline. She definitely is enchanting like the fairies are supposed to be. Makes me wonder how exactly that sort of pairing works...
Anyway, she’s associated with the Magus Guild, and not a noble in any way. So politically she’s not much of a liability. The nobles would probably protest though if she were to be the queen, so that’s why she’s so low on my list here.
She had dark brown hair that she was wearing in a braid at the party. Unlike the more puffy dresses like Adelade was wearing, she was definitely trying to be noticed with that curve hugging dress. WOW!
7. Ashley Mason
Human girl affiliated with one of the churches. Like Allannia, she doesn’t carry a lot of political risk. Instead her risk factors come from apparent favoritism of one of the gods or goddesses over the others. That’s why she isn’t much higher on the list.
There was definitely something alluring about the lack of skin she was showing at the party. I only saw her hands and face because of the religious garb she had going. But that beautiful tanned color was seductive, and the look in her brown eyes draws me in.
6. Nicole Arcan
The Arcan family is a little strange, since they weren’t always known by that name. I think it was ten or so generations back from my father when the family was inducted into the nobility, and they were called Brindle at the time. However, the family changed over time and they adopted a new name after they became the family in charge of the Royal Academy. Since they basically control the education of the nobility in the entire country, they have a lot of influence. However, they are part of the Nationalist faction, so there is that against them.
Nicole herself is incredibly intelligent. She’s a couple years older than I am, so I didn’t compete with her directly, but she did boast numerous top scores across classes at the Academy before Wyen and I showed up. Suffice to say she could be an important member of my government in the future, even if she’s not a queen.
Nicole somewhat lacks in desirable physical assets compared to the other women on my list, but that doesn’t matter to me so much.
5. Inace Shadowprice Moonlight
Inace is a dark elf woman, so she is unique in that aspect. However, her last name is clearly a fake. I didn’t pry into that, but I did learn she’s the daughter of a merchant. She wanted me to guess which company her father ran, but that wasn’t terribly interesting to me. Only certain ones received invites to the party. Not much in the way politically, but noble complaints and such prevent her from being higher on the list.
She probably would have been better off trying the same style as Allannia, but she was clearly trying to imitate the noble style of excess and went too far. Maybe she looks good under… everything… but I couldn’t really tell much. It was mostly her face that got her this high on the list.
*NOTE: Wyen told me as I was telling them all that it was the Moonlight Trading Network, so her name is Moonlight.
4. Jessica Yewlon
Jessica is human and frankly I can only describe her as average when I look at her. While nothing about her appearance stands out considerably, she also isn't unpleasant to the eye.
Instead, the reason Jessica is so high on this list is from the political influence her family holds in the kingdom. The Viscount Yewlon may only be a middling nobleman, but he is a strategic genius. Every war game exercise he participates in, his side is victorious. As such, he holds a position as the commander of our military. The only reason the Yewlons are stuck at Viscount is because there haven't been any wars since Jessica's father became head of the house. They are Loyalists, and that's about it.
3. Misty Spiritclaw
Misty is in third place! She's a cat beastfolk, so those ears and tail are very expressive. It means she's also pretty limber and light on her feet, which I can confirm from dancing with her. Having a beastfolk in the royal family, especially as queen, would likely improve our overall reputation with our beastfolk population.
Downside to Misty is that, somewhat like Ashley, she's religious. While not a part of one of the churches, Misty is a spiritualist shaman and thus is said to commune with spirits. Considering that spirit worship is popular with elves as well, she has even more potential for making the royal family look good among our non-human population. She isn't nobility, but the beastfolk tribe she is a part of is of the Nationalist faction.
2. Rena Forgefire
Rena gets to be the only dwarf to make the list. I know she's older than me, but the child-like size of dwarves is difficult to reconcile with. She's cute, sure, but at a glance I don't want misunderstandings about her age.
The Forgefire clan has something of an inside track, since some ancestor of mine married into the family several generations back. It technically means the Rena and I are related, though the blood distance is enough that it shouldn't cause issues.
1. Hannah Serbine
What can I say about Hannah that does her justice. Such magnificent beauty can hardly be described. And yet I…
(The text here has been scratched out and overwritten by another writer so as to make it illegible to any reader. Given the slight damage to the parchment which this list is on, it is the same parchment that was taken from Quinn and was subsequently marked. This illegible text seems to have been at least three paragraphs in length.)
… and that's just her appearance!
The Serbines are not much politically, but they are well respected since their territory, like the Graywolf territory, serves as part of our land border. They control one of the two roads, and so make a lot of money on land based trade. Being a border territory is a risk since they have to hold out as long as possible while the rest of the military comes to their aid in the event of invasion. Taking Hannah would mean potentially showing favoritism over the other border territories, but I have the Graywolfs on our side now and the Lersets are part of the Household faction anyway.
The Serbines are borderline Nationalists, but they often favor Loyalist policies. Tightening our relations with them could sway more Nationalists to side with the Loyalists and put more pressure on the Households at the same time.
So there it is, my list of the ten candidates for queen if I fail to get the hero to fall for me. Or as I like to think of this, the list of my first secondary queens.