Chapter 394: Chapter 2.112

“His and her majesty, Charles and Lucy Worchester.” Thunderous applause echoed through the large room, filled with all the high ranking nobles fortunate enough to be in the capital city at the time of my ‘awakening’.

With his hand still on my waist, he strolled into the ballroom like some happy couple, presenting us from our best side. Waving to all the humans, I couldn’t help but to look at the striking difference between the lower nobles outside and those in the room. Nobody fell on his knees, probably pressured by the king who wasn’t so happy with the interference of the church in his matters. The high nobility couldn’t allow themselves to fall on their knees in front of me, simply because they would earn the ire of the king.

“My friends! This is a wonderful day! The first queen has awoken from her slumber! May she have blissful life! Long live the queen!” It was painfully obvious he didn’t take me for full, especially because he stole my opening statement from right underneath my nose.

“Long live the queen!” Resounded through the hall and a lot of glasses were raised into the air.

“Th-“ I stared, but the king pinched my side, forcing me to stop momentarily if I didn’t want to sound funny. He then used that opening to stop me from speaking once more.

“Lucy here is a little bit overwhelmed by everything. You must understand that this is like her first birthday. It’s a different world than two hundred years ago, and that must be quite terrifying isn’t it?” He asked loudly, earning himself the laughter of a few nobles while other looked away from us.

“Quite the contrary. It’s pleasing to see that the wealth of the nation has increased and that we have institutions taking care of those in need.” I said, clearly praising the church in this sentence, but he still managed to feel praised by me.

“If the saint says it, it must be true. Cheers on our progress!” He said, grabbed a wine glass from a nearby tray a servant had brought and raised it into the air.

“Cheers!” Once more, the nobles raised their glasses euphorically. Honestly, I felt quite sickened by all of this, but couldn’t stop smiling. More and more, I had the feeling they were celebrating my revival as if it was something they deserved and they had worked for … which couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Now, Lucy. Why don’t we go over to our seats and you let me do the talking?” Charles asked, already pushing me over to a luxurious table for two gently through the masses of nobles who all wanted to see me.

“If you truly wish to do so, but keep in mind that I will chime in if I see a reason to.” I whispered, relieved that I didn’t need to do senseless smalltalk the whole night, but also conflicted because the king tried to deny me every right I had as a queen.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He whispered back, and sat down on his luxurious chair. Following suit, I looked at the empty table in front of me and wondered why I wasn’t swarmed with nobles right away. Instead, they reluctantly seated themselves, even though I could see their desire for more in their eyes.

“By the way, we will talk to them later in a separate room.” The king said and waved towards one of the many servants, starting a wave of food being bought into the room.

“Why is that?” I asked a bit suspicious and thanked the butler who carefully placed a plate in front of me.

“I fear about your security.” I didn’t even have to look at him to smell the lie. But honestly, it didn’t matter too much for me where I met the other nobles, so I let it slide to keep the relative good mood. I couldn’t be seen bickering with the king on my very first day after all.

As soon as the dishes were served and another toast spoken, I let my gaze wander through the hall, searching for anyone I might recognise based on their description alone.

There was the duke of the north whose main mansion was occupied by the demons. Corpulent as he was, he represented everything the commoners hated about nobility. An abundance of wealth stolen from the commoners led to decadence, which in turn was followed by greed, apathy for the plight of others and most importantly, a feeling of superiority. Surely, not all nobles were like this, but these unlikable humans  were in the broad majority.

And the king stood at the top of this ladder of hyenas. Usually he was also a bit more level headed than the others as he still had to interact with his advisors and ministers on a regular basis, but that didn’t stop Charles from thinking this world belonged to him.

And in a sense, this kingdom at least did.

Poking in his half eaten meal with his fork a bit bored, he soon bought his left hand beneath the table and placed it on my thigh. Blinking a few times and thinking if he was alright in his head, he started caressing my skin through the soft fabric of my dress while I had to put up a gentle smile for the other nobles who were watching me intensely.

That bastard knew perfectly well I couldn’t do much at this moment and probably didn’t even care about my consent at all. Because why would he? He was the king and it was hard to prosecute someone who stood above the law.

Thus, all I could do was to ignore his hand for the time being and continued to eat my meal until there was nothing left of it. Only then did I brought my hands down as well, interlocked fingers with him and kept his hand in place. It didn’t take too long for him to get bored of that though, and so he quickly started the next event of the night.

“Ladies and gentlemen. It’s time for you to meet the eternal queen yourself. You will be called, so please stay seated and enjoy the music.” He said, stood up and got his hand out of its prison this way. Fully expecting him not to give me a hand, I stood up myself and walked behind him out of the room while waving towards the nobles gently.

We went directly into the next room, which had two luxurious couches in it and a lot of bookshelves which probably served more as a decoration than anything else. Reluctantly, I sat down to the kings side and crossed my legs. We didn’t have to wait long for the first guest to arrive, which surprisingly was the duke of the north.

He bowed deeply as he entered the room, and then swiftly sat down on the couch opposite of us.

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“It is a pleasure to meet you two. I’m quite envious you two get along so well right from the get go.” If he knew … “And I am glad to be given this opportunity to talk about the plight of my people. The north is a place ravaged by war, it’s people terrified that the last line of defence would fail. Unrest is sweeping through the lands, so much so that I fear for my own life.” That’s what he got from extorting his subjects … “That leads me here. Can you quell the anger of my people?” Certainly, I could try. But I didn’t see any benefit in doing so. The people would probably calm down for a while, but that would only incentivise the duke to plunder his lands even more to fund his lavish lifestyle.

“I am afraid I am not allowed to intervene in the inner workings of this kingdom.” I admitted, pushing the ball to the king easily. That was basically his demand, so I had absolutely no problem rubbing it underneath his nose.

“As the queen it is also your task to be understanding and compassionate with others.”

“I see. Then, my duke, I have to say that this is outside the realm of possibilities. I cannot leave the capital city in the near future due to my tasks as the saint, but I will look into the situation eventually.” I explained, purposefully not putting a date on when I would be able to. Because realistically, I had no plan of helping him at all.

“Thank you so much.” He still said, smiling brightly as if I had saved his day.

“You can leave now.” The king by my side said and the duke nodded swiftly. He stood up, bowed deeply and strode out of the room with light steps.

“Charles, if every meeting takes this long, we won’t be done until tomorrow night.” I explained unhappily, already wary about his hand once more.

“Don’t worry, it’s not that many.” He said, a slightly smile on his face.

“Huh?” I asked surprised. There were far too many nobles in the ballroom for one on two conversations.

“Not everyone wants to pay to speak with you?” He said, and looked at me as if I was dumb. My yaw dropped a little, but I shouldn’t be too surprised. His goal was to keep me down, and if that meant ruining my reputation as the saint, he was probably more than willing to do so.

“You … you put a price tag on this meeting?” I still asked angrily not to be informed right away.

“Actually, they bid for it.” The king explained while I already stood up carefully. Straightening my dress, I strode over back to the door, only to be stopped by his voice momentarily.

“Where are you going?” Ignoring him, I opened it and walked directly back into the ballroom, filled with confused people. The music resounding through the room stopped instantly and the dancing pairs in the middle of the room broke apart their tight embraces.

“There was apparently a slight miscommunication in between me and his majesty. It is not necessary to pay any money to speak with me and if you already handed it over, please retrieve it at a later date. Instead I will mingle among you and will make sure that I have talked to each and everyone in this room before leaving it. I hope you have a great night.” I said, curtsied deeply and turned around to take the hand of king Charles who had just stepped through the door. “On a word, Charles.” I said, pulled him towards the dance floor and placed my other hand on his left shoulder. His hand at my back, he pushed me against him a little bit and began dancing with me elegantly.

At least he knew not to trample on my feet, which was why I could speak to him calmly.

“I haven’t fallen into coma for two hundred years to be pushed around like this. I am the saint. I am on top of the church. So do not try to make me angry by asking for money to meet me or similar. That is not how I want things done. I want to prioritise those in need, not those who can pay to be heard. I may be your wife, but I am the saint of this world first and foremost. I have a proposal: I will fulfil my tasks as the first queen diligently. I will not serve you, but we can work together as equals. You will not strip me of any powers I have as a queen and in return, I will not interfere with the daily business.” I explained, dancing across the whole parquet with him while the music made it impossible for anyone else to listen in. Separating myself from him, I looked into his eyes for a few more seconds until he nodded reluctantly.

He had probably realised that this was the best offer he could get. He only had this day to make a scene and ruin my reputation and by allowing others to talk with me the whole night, I basically ruined his plans completely.

I was sure he would try silly stuff in the future as well, but at least I got him to stop working against me fully.

Turning around in a circle once, I picked out the first person I wanted to dance with, which was an old lady, dressed in a  white and light blue attire.

“Will you give me the honour of this dance?” I asked, bowing in front of her like a man would do and extending my hand to her.

“With pleasure.” She said, giggled a little bit and followed my lead back towards the parquet.

 

 

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