Bridge 39 (IF ONE MORE PERSON!)

After the king’s little declaration, I got caught up with everything happening. The Prince was arguing with his father with everything he had. There was something going on there. The boy was no arguing like he was offended at some low-born fool marrying his sister. No, he was arguing like I was about to chop off his arm and the king was the one commanding it.

The panic and sheer desperation coming off of him overriding any sense of arrogance he had before. The King was taking the bombardment of words being thrown at him with stoicism while the Queen was rubbing her temple.

The princess took the opportunity to slink her way down towards me. She started talking to me as I kind of watched what was going on in numb shock. Before I knew it she had charmed her way into getting what she wanted. Which was apparently me sitting down in the tea room to have a nice discussion.

I was honestly not even sure how I got here. One moment I was watching the dumb Prince throw outlandish arguments the next I was seated and sipping tea. Ringo was standing beside me no longer belting out a laugh but back to snickering.

The Princess was seated in front of me sipping her tea with that amused smile dancing across her face. Seeing this moment for what it was I put down the cup and gave the Princess a polite smile.

“So we can dance around the topic with flowery language and veiled comments but I would prefer knowing exactly what is going on here?” I asked with that polite smile on my face. The grin on her face became just a bit wider at that.

I had a general sense of why the King would want to marry me to her. The claim they had of being superior to even their fellow Nobles was becoming weaker and weaker with every generation.

Then a child comes along with a title very similar to their ancestor and with a rather ludicrous amount of power for his age. Getting my bloodline to mix with theirs should give them more time on top. While my bloodline might now awaken the same blessing as they once had but power was power.

He was also marrying me to his daughter which he already told me had the blessing of the Sun God. Maybe he hoped that the synergistic nature of the Sun and Moon would provide truly powerful children that were not quite as relevant to the Divine blood in them.

The Royal family was coasting by on just a couple of individuals being blessed by the sun but the rest of them still had power full blessings. Usually of the flame variety. So in the king’s mind blessings from sun-related protections and moon-related protections would catapult his family further along.

“Do I really have to explain something so simply?” She asked with a mocking glint in her eyes and an amused smile on her face. I felt my eye twitch from the look but I took a calming breath.

“I have a handle on it but clearly you have more details and you have an angle to play here,” I spoke out flatly and the smile on her face became just a bit sharper.

“I don’t know what you mean. I’m just doing my duty and getting to know my betrothed.” She let out idly and I rolled my eyes. She was not even trying to hide her motives right now. She just enjoyed dangling them above my head for some reason.

“If that is the case then I’ll have to take my leave. This whole day has been a bit…much. So giving me some time to acclimate to the coming changes would be appreciated.” I spoke out with a polite smile as I got up to leave. Seeing that she let a dramatic sigh and gestured for me to sit back down.

“Fine, fine you win. We will skip the games for now.” She spoke out as she set down her own tea cup.

“My father is selling me like a prized breeding mare and obviously you are the bull he has his eyes locked onto.” She shot out with an amused smile back on her face. I gave her a flat look as that was clear already and she knew that.

“Which you have agreed with for some reason. I saw him looking for your opinion on me and you clearly gave him a signal.” I shot out as I rolled my eyes. The sharp smile on her face returned and the glint in her eyes focused in on me. She honestly felt like a hawk eyeing its prey in the moment but those golden orbs were rather intimidating.

They looked like molten flames ready to burn me to cinders.

“Well, I have been raised under the expectation that I would be wed to the most powerful mate my father could find. The blessings I carry on my veins are too valuable for our family as you no doubt know.” She shot out with a small shrug and a calm look on her face.

I let out a sigh as that sounded like something nobility would do. Especially nobility that relies on inherent magic to rule over the rest of the plebians.

“So why is your brother throwing a fit then?” I asked trying to piece together the dynamic that was being built. She let out a scoff and rolled her eyes at the mention of her brother.

“He takes his position as the crown prince very seriously despite him bemoaning the restrictions that come with it. He had always known that I would be married to some powerful man but you represent something far more than that.” She spoke out slowly like a cat playing with its prey. I blinked at her words and let out another sigh.

“Dare I ask why that is?” I questioned and poked Ringo in the side as her snickers got louder. The Princess looked like she was going to mess around with me again so I gave her a flat look. That had her rolling her eyes and letting out a small huff.

“You are not Nobility.” She spoke out with a focus unlike anything I had seen from her before. I frowned at her words but before I could say anything she continued.

“ You are certainly educated and you hold yourself well but our spells have confirmed that you are not a Noble. You clearly have some sort of standing behind you but as long as you are not a Noble you are a problem to him.” She spoke out the intense focus fading for a moment but a calculating glint replaced it. Again I froze at her words. Of course, a world like this would have a nonsensical spell that would determine that.

I could argue that the Blessing of the Moon gave me a concealment skill but that was kind of pointless.

“So he is outraged at a commoner marrying his Sister? That can’t be right, he sounds like he has something on the line here.” I spoke out with a frown and the smile returned to her face. She reached over and patted my head which had me squawking outraged.

I was younger than her but not that much!

“Good, you're not a hopeless case but you miss twenty points for not connecting the dots. Since you are a commoner I would not be marrying into your family but you would be marrying into mine. Considering my blessing and your own it would be likely that his position as the next king would be in danger.” She spoke out with a dry tone and a bored look on her face. I blinked at her words and a frown spread across my face.

“But your children would be too valuable to marry you into a different family. So were you not always going to have your husband marry into the Royal family even if they were a noble?” I asked in confusion. The King clearly cared quite a bit about his bloodline. So letting any royal blood slip out of their control would be out of the question.

“You are right. Well for the most part. My father was having a difficult time finding a proper candidate before. Most of the powerful men were heirs to their families and they were not in a position to drop that. So my dear brother has been coasting off of that fact. Hoping desperately that no one could come along to change that.” She explained with a smirk on her face as if imagining the sour face on her brother,

“Considering how much importance your father places on the bloodline I imagine that as soon as you find a candidate your Brother loses his qualification of being the crown prince,” I spoke out with a sigh. The smirk that spread across her face was all I needed to know.

I went to go say something but she beat me to it.

“I can see that you are not exactly thrilled about this but why not? You get a devastatingly beautiful wife and an entire kingdom at your beck and call.” She spoke out with a sultry smile on her face that reminded me of Tsuyukoi. She was now looking at me like prey in a completely different sense.

I opened up my mouth to reply but closed it. Why was I against this? It was not like I thought that I would only marry out of true love. I was not against marrying for other reasons. She was certainly attractive. A blazing flower that would consume anything that it touched but would fascinate anyone watching.

I was not even outraged at being sold like a bull. She was also rather interesting even if her brother was a pain in the ass. So why bother holding back?

I looked over at Ringo but she was just snickering at the situation. I felt a certain way about her but it was not a fairy tale sort of love. I just liked her personality and found her hot. It was not like she was torn up about this prospect. She had made it clear she was going to dedicate everything she had to me so future lovers were in the cards for her considering her words and actions but she was not holding me back from going after others.

I think she was planning on pushing me to do this anyway to get resources and she found it amusing.

“I guess I don’t have a reason to deny this. So happy engagement I guess.” I spoke out with a questioning tone as I still felt kind of unreal about all of this.

She just smiled like a smug cat before going back to sipping her tea. As she did that I realized she did not introduce herself. WHY DOES NO ONE INTRODUCE THEMSELVES TO ME! IS IT A CURSE! FUCK I’M LITERALLY ENGAGED TO HER AND I DON'T KNOW HER NAME.

God fucking damnit. I should be able to snoop around and find out what it is pretty quickly but this really is becoming a strange fucking occurrence.

I thought over my sudden engagement for a moment before snorting. Amy was going to have a field day when she discovered that the hidden route she was going after was the fiance of the Princess. It would probably fuel her delusions even further.