The kingdom of Noivern was a large country directly south of us. It bordered the region entirely and was ruled by a monarchy. Due to proximity to the north, while abolishing slavery, it did have to disenfranchise laws against minorities.
I was sitting on my throne in the reception hall of the Princess’s mansion. The former mayor, who I knew as Albert the former mayor. A craftsman made my throne, it was a simple wooden chair with velvet upholstery. I adopted red as my official color so it matched me well. I was wearing my formal wear, which consisted of a satin mage cape and leather boots, all matched with a hand-tailored tunic. I looked like a wealthy mage, while it was acceptable for a female in a profession (like an adventure) to dress in traditional male wear, wealthy or influential females were still expected to wear dresses and other feminine wear.
I had refused to. I hated dresses more than anything, and as I was a mage (A powerful one at that) I felt it appropriate to wear mage clothing. I had my staff next to me. The rest of the hall was populated by Razana, my Prime minister, and other important bureaucrats.
We were waiting for my meeting with the delegation from Noivern. Suddenly, the doors flew open. There was an armored man, probably two years younger than me at 17 wearing a large sword walking with a lot of clout. He was followed by a skinnier, handsome man a year younger than him and several other retainers.
“Well well well, are you the Champion of Garentouress?” The armored man boomed.
Razana looked at me, “This is the Crown Princess of the Principality of Tephit, Silviphiette Tephit.” She announced.
The armored man threw back his head and laughed, “I am Robert Noivern, Second Prince of the Kingdom of Noivern!”
“Second Prince… I thought we were receiving the third prince.” Razana asked.
“Ha ha ha, your perceptive woman!” Robert Noivern said.
“If you’re looking for the third prince, that would be me.” The skinny man next to Robert said.
“This here is my younger brother,” The second prince said, slapping him on the back, “He’s not good for much, but he can write, that’s why he sent you a letter.”
“Oh,” Razana said.
“So,” The second prince said, walking up the throne, “You're the woman who thought they could just waltz in here and say they’re the leader of this area huh?”
I nodded. I immediately knew what he was going to say next. For a long time, the region didn’t have any kingdom declaring it part of their territory. A hundred years ago in a war between the north and south, the region was declared unclaimable by any northern or southern power and existed to serve as a buffer between them. The region itself went from the mountain range that split the continent in half to the eastern seaboard. Half of the region, from the mountains to halfway to the sea was part of my domain. But a long time ago, the region was part of the kingdom of Noivern. The kingdom had made several attempts to secure the territory, but it had always been repelled by the northern governments and the merchant’s influence. The merchants knew the value of having a lawless area where they could freely trade slaves and other goods tax and regulation-free.
Now that those merchants lost most of their power in the region, the Kingdom wanted to secure the area. I was merely a provisional ruler in their eyes, keeping the peace until they could swoop in.
Predictably, the Second Prince said, “This land was once part of Noivern, as the prince of Noivern, I demand you return the land to its rightful owner! We thank you for watching over the land, but it’s time to give back what is due.”
The room was silent. Suddenly a bureaucrat laughed. She was a former receptionist that I hired as the minister of communications. Soon other bureaucrats started to laugh as well, even Razana joined in. I won’t lie, I chuckled a bit.
The prince was bewildered. “Robert…” The third prince said, “That’s a bit…”
“What!” The second prince yelled, “I am offering you a place in my kingdom”
“Haha!” Razana said, “As if!”
The prince was still shocked. “Robert, it’s obvious they’d give this answer.” The third prince said.
“The principality was neglected by all governments, they have asked us for assistance many times, monster attacks, slavery, all of it we neglected. Now they have a champion who drove all of those problems away, they would want to stand with her.”
“But, but, she’s just a woman! Why would anyone follow a woman when they could join us?” The second prince yelled.
The hall fell silent. Unbeknownst to the prince, most of the bureaucrats present were female. The receptionists for the guild were all literate, so I employed them in high positions. These receptionists were all female.
The murderous glares stared at the prince as if lasers would shoot out of them and burn him to crisp.
I spoke for the first time, “As the leader of my people, I can not have someone who disrespects half of my population enter my hall and demand the audience, leave!”
“What?” The prince yelled.
The guards grabbed him by the arms. Luckily he had enough common sense not to fight back. “Come with me sir,” They said.
“Hey, get your hands off me! Do you know who I am!” He screamed as he was dragged back. Most of his servants followed, all that was left was the third prince.
He immediately bowed, “Please your majesty, forgive my insolent brother, he is terrible, I shudder to think he represents my country.”
I stared at him. “Go on,” I said.
“Pardon me, I am the third prince of Noivern, James Noivern. You may call me Jamie.”
“Despite how my brother acted, the truth is in his words, if you do not swear allegiance to Noivern, he will resort to military action.”
“I trust that you want to avoid that,” I asked.
He nodded, “Despite being a prince, I have no love for my country or their ways.”
I was surprised, he actively said he hated his country
“I came with my brother just to observe this place. In the two months, you had to rebuild, I have seen things that people in Noivern would only dream of. You truly are as good of a leader as the singer's praise.”
“You flatter me,” I said.
“Seeing this, I have made my decision.” He said, “The kingdom will use military force, when that happens I want to be on the right side, please will you accept me as a retainer?”
I raised my eyebrows, I was not expecting this. “Even if I do, the kingdom will frame it as kidnapping, doesn’t it give them more of an incentive to fight?”
“Perhaps, but they will attack anyway, if you have me on your side, it will raise your chances of winning.”
“So you’re saying that by taking you, we will help ourselves win.”
“Precisely your majesty, as a prince I have received a good education, my older brothers kept me from doing much in my country, but this place looks like it doesn’t discriminate. If you use me, you will not be helping me, but I will finally be able to do good in the world.”
“I see, you’re doing this for yourself as well.”
“Yes, your Majesty,”
“Very well, I shall accept you if you swear loyalty to me and the nation.”
“Of course, I swear to do my best to support the people of this country and your reign.”
“I accept your declaration. I would advise you to go talk to your brother. I shall provide you with an armed escort.”
He bowed, “Thank you, your majesty, I humbly accept.”
I smiled, “I look forward to what we can do together.”
Jamie went off to find his brother, and I heard he gave a great fit. Luckily he had enough common sense to not attack anyone and left town for his own country.
We were just about to get wrapped up for the night when Razana asked me, “Can we trust him?”
“Hmm? Jamie? Probably,”
“Why though?”
“Simple, I detected no lie when he said he hated his country, and he backed up his reasons for switching loyalties quickly. You could say that he came here and served us to eventually betray us for favor in his own country, but he’s too smart for that, he knew that I’d see through any plans to sabotage us, and even if he did betray us, there’s no guarantee he’d be able to do what he wanted in his own country. He said his older brothers kept him from passing reforms, and I could tell by his eyes that he was passionate about helping the common citizen. He has everything to gain by joining us.”
Razana bowed her head, “I see…”
Jamie turned out to be a big help, he was good with numbers and had amassed a lot of knowledge. I appointed him minister of education and left him to teach the general populace some important skills, such as reading, writing, and doing arithmetic. He held weekly lectures in the town square, and people got to know him a little better that way. I also established a school. It was public and held in an old manor abandoned by its owner. Jamie and other literates regularly held sessions for the children, and the adults. But education wasn’t his only job, he also helped us with details on the Noivern military, and we devised a plan to deal with them when the time came.
It was three months after I was crowned, and I decided to get some fresh air. I was just about to leave my office when someone knocked and Razana came in.
“Hey, I was just about to leave…” I started.
“Wait, before you go, I need you to review the budget.”
“Um, okay.”
I looked at the budget in front of me. It was a sheet of paper, with departments, and various subgroups of people all laid out with amount totals on a separate column.
I looked at all of it when suddenly I came upon a row that said, ‘The Princess’s Salary’
Next to that, it said 1000 gold coins a month.
My eyes went wide, “Razana! What’s this about my salary! Who in their right mind would pay out 1000 gold coins per month!”
Razana feigned surprise, “But you are royalty, royalty deserves a certain amount of compensation…”
“Sure I do! I’ve been working my ass off the past few months! But 1000 gold coins? That’s way too much.”
“Oh, dear….”
“Here, I’m making a proclamation, I won’t take over 100 gold coins per month, that’s my limit, put that money elsewhere where it will be put for better use!”
She bowed, “Very well,”
“Oh, and cut the bowing, it’s getting a little weird…”
I left Razana for the training yard. After my work, I typically found time to train and hone up my magical skills. On top of that, Herbert’s been teaching me how to use a sword. It was good to have a backup melee weapon in case things went south.
My mentor was Traya, she was a dualcaster (a mage who can use two elements) and from the very tip of the south end of the continent. With brown skin and green eyes, she was a very mature-looking mage of 21. Today she was showing earth magic.
“Earth magic comes from the core of the mage. It is the strongest and the most physical of all types of magic. That’s why it is used for construction and the like… as you have shown me it can.”
I smiled. Together we used a wall spell. Come forth earth! Earthen Wall! We yelled, and a great wall of dirt rose in front of us. It was immediately apparent which one was superior, mine reached about three meters while hers peaked at two.
Admiring my wall, she looked at me. “Silvi… your magic continues to impress. I can only dream of doing such great feats!”
I blushed deeply, “Uh yeah sure… I may have a large mana capacity, but your technique and skill are way beyond me.”
“Nonsense, with this sort of pace, you’ll catch up to me and grow to be better than me in no time.”
“Well, then I better have you around to help me reach that goal.”
“Your Majesty!”
“Huh,” I said, turning
I saw Razana barreling headfirst toward me. “Take a look at this, see my masterful work!”
She bounded up and stopped right in front of me. Falling to her knees she presented a piece of paper. As flattered as I was for Razana running up to me, Razana could do a little better with the execution.
Sighing I said, “Okay I’ll take a look at this,”
I picked up the piece of paper and saw it was a budgetary report. It seemed as if Razana had reworked the budget. I groaned when I saw that she had still allocated 100 gold coins per month for me, but knowing her I knew she wouldn’t budge anymore.
At first, I thought Razana to be a smart, well-collected individual. Now that I had worked with her for some time… I found her to be more… a needy individual?
Seriously, she needed to get a grip. It was common for her to rush into my office with a stack of completed papers and demand praise. It was getting annoying.
Razana stared at me with puppy eyes, “You see! I followed your guidelines! Did I do good? Praise me!”
“Uh…. okay?” I said, “Good job!”
She jumped for joy.
All the while, Traya kept staring at us, “Pardon me, but Silvi, is Razana like your girlfriend?”
“What? Oh no you got it all wrong, we’re good friends that’s all, and she’s my prime minister.”
“Oh, okay,” Traya said, was I imagining it, or was she looking relieved?
Razana looked at Traya up and down, “So what if she was? How is it your business?” She asked haughtily.
“Whoa there Razana, chill out. It was an innocent question…” I butted in.
“Hmph!” Razana turned around and left.
I stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. Then I sighed and said, “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“It’s okay, she was just jealous that’s all,” Traya replied.
“Of what?”
“Ya know, she came here all like: I did something great and expected you to be more enthusiastic. But then she found your reaction a bit lackluster and then saw me and was like…”
“I’m not following…”
Traya sighed, “Never mind…. It’s okay, I gained something out of this conversation anyway.” She elbowed me. “Wanna grab a bite to eat?”
“Uh, sure,”
“Great let’s go.”
In the hurry to eat, I had yet to find a pair of murderous eyes glaring at us313Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBSKG0u8y1b
