A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
Upon hearing Grover's report, Percy had Rachel and some other aides inspect the food coming for dinner. It would not do to be poisoned again. He had guessed from Rachel's reaction that the poison three days ago had not come from her father's side. So, Rachel dutifully took on this task, forgetting that she had ever been slightly unnerved by the king personally escorting the future queen.
Percy's lips curled. In truth it was to make sure no one else would be around to know the results of the investigation.
Percy slipped into his personal office. No one but Grover knew of the secret entrance that was behind the painting of his father. It had been a rule that only the rulers of Eldoris and one trusted companion could know of the secret hallway. Percy had been lucky that he had chosen Grover to be the other companion and no one else.
Grover removed the painting, and the king pressed on a particular wood paneling to reveal a hallway behind the paneling. The king walked down the chilly stone hallway for a few minutes before arriving at a secret prison located deep within Gardenia Palace. This prison was one where if you entered, you could not walk back out on your own two feet.
In five cells of the prison were the bandits, the assassin disguised as a Kiran knight, and the woman called Dame Lune. All were looking disheveled and barely clinging onto life. It was easily seen that they had gone through some torture.
The one called Dame Lune tried to say something to Percy when he went into her cell, but her tongue was gone. Percy gripped her chin and stared at those beady eyes. In the span of a couple days, the matron had gone from a spitfire to someone much cowed and subdued. It had only taken these couple days for her to crack, but Percy felt it could not have compared to the mental and physical torture Princess Annabeth had gone through. This woman was weak in mind and body. Bullies who barked the most usually were.
"So it seems that the Kiran royalty don't really care about whether you're alive or not, now that your use to them is over. But at least you had some use to me. I thank you for that," Percy mocked.
The one knight had not cracked under pressure, but this woman untrained in military tactics had, along with the mercenaries who felt their pain and lives were not worth the loyalty to their employers. As suspected, it was someone from Kiran who had sent out the order to send the wrong princess to Eldoris and then attempt to assassinate her to spark a war. The Kiran bastards had deliberately cut off trading relations and sent out the bride as compensation as a trap for him. But the mercenaries could not say who had given them the Eldorisian weapons, only knowing that someone from Kiran had provided them the tools.
This was not enough evidence to lure out the evil doings of the dowager queen in public nor could Percy use it to demand full compensation from Kiran. Unfortunately, he had only been on the throne for half a year and thus didn't have the monetary or military support to do so. But he would wait until he baited out the vultures circling inside his own court instead of focusing on the hungry hyenas outside of his country. Otherwise, he would be stretched far too thin like in the past and lost his life as a result.
Percy clicked his tongue and a prison guard held out a water basin for him to wash his hands in after touching such dirty things.
"The ones from Kiran encountered an unfortunate attack from Kiran bandits and cannot accompany the Kiran princess as they perished from their wounds." Percy stated. "The bodies of Kiran bandits were found around the carriage of the princess, and her brave nanny gave up her own life to protect the princess."
"We hear and obey, Your Majesty."
The prison guards bowed as the king left. The prisoners in the cells who still had their tongues began to wail for mercy, begging that they had told the king everything they knew, but it was no use. If Princess Annabeth had begged for her life before them, would they have given her mercy?
Annabeth finished touring the palaces, carefully avoiding Marigold Palace's premises, and returned back to Gardenia Palace to rest. During teatime, a steward came by and whispered some news in Annabeth's ear.
A delicate golden eyebrow raised. So her nanny, Dame Lune, had passed away from an illness during the travels to Eldoris?
"Alright, I have received the news." Annabeth returned, inspecting her face for the bruise her nanny had given her. The mark still hadn't faded yet.
The steward left after a pause, but it looked like the future queen was unbothered by the death of her nanny. He shivered at the coldness of the princess's reaction. Had the tyrant King Perseus finally met his match in his future wife?
But Annabeth did not know of the steward's thoughts. Most likely Dame Lune had finally reaped her karma after years of abusing the original princess. An illness? More like she had passed away from the king's interrogation tactics. So why would Annabeth bother poking around when it was a disadvantage to her?
Soon, it was dinnertime. There was a long mahogany table in the private dining room with dinnerware set up at the head and foot of the table. The king arrived shortly after. Annabeth was about to sit at the foot of the table when the king held her back.
"Move the silverware closer."
It was only four words, but the maid who was serving at the time flinched before quickly obeying the king. Annabeth noted this down but made no reaction to it. Gathering from what she had observed from the king and the information from Lucy, the king would not appreciate her if she was frightened by him.
"How has your day been?" The king asked lightly as he pulled out the chair for her.
Annabeth sat down to the right of him.
"Quite well. Lucy has been really attentive. And I like the library the best." Annabeth answered as a light appetizer of roasted vegetables was served. It seemed that the food was prepared lighter than usual for her wounds to recover quickly.
"The library?"
Annabeth caught a flash in the king's eyes. "Well, I didn't have many opportunities to read back in Kiran, so I'm looking forward to exploring the library."
"Ah, I see. Of course as the queen, you would be able to borrow whatever books you like to. You can ask the head librarian to order any books if you find the collection lacking. Dahlia Palace has a library as well, but Gardenia Palace has the main royal library."
The suspicion in the king's eyes faded slightly, and Annabeth could breathe a sigh of relief. She had almost slipped up. The original princess was someone who could barely read or write according to her memories.
Fuck, Annabeth groaned on the inside. She was already getting a headache from trying to conceal her modern tendencies.
A little more small talk continued until the main course arrived.
"I'm quite sorry to hear about the situation of your nanny, Dame Lune." His words were apologetic but his eyes were still sharp.
Annabeth swallowed her chicken. "Yes, it is a shame. She has served me for a long time. I am sure that she is currently reaping the just rewards for her...service. But I'll be able to live on and form better memories. I'm sure it is what my nanny would have wanted for me." Finishing, Annabeth's lips curled up sarcastically.
She looked at her left hand where a small scar was barely seen. Dame Lune had once applied a hot poker to the back of her hand for not eating slowly enough. But it had been torture because the nanny and her cronies would only feed the original princess a small loaf of hard bread and water twice a day.
The king's eyes followed her grey eyes to look at the scar. Lucy had given Annabeth some creams to help diminish the look of her scars, but it would take time to heal the wounds.
"I am glad to hear that you are able to move on."
Annabeth could feel the king's cool gaze on her and wiped her lips with a linen before asking. "Is there something you wanted to say, Your Majesty?"
"You are different from what I expected." The king admitted.
"Is that so?" Well, the person inside has changed, Annabeth thought. But she was sure that with the Eldorisian king's personality, he would have already investigated what the original princess was like. "Is that a good thing?"
The king swirled the wine in his glass thoughtfully. "Perhaps. But who hasn't hid themselves in order to survive the cruelness of this world?"
"True." Annabeth put down her fork. "I wanted to ask, Your Majesty, what do you expect from me as Queen?"
"You're quite straightforward."
"I don't like to waste time, and I'm sure you're the type of person who doesn't like to waste time either, Your Majesty."
The king gave a low chuckle. "The princess is quite observant. Very well, it would be best if the princess' health recovers first. Meanwhile, I will send for some knowledgeable tutors to help the princess in managing the palace's internal affairs."
Judging by Sir Grover's slight widening of his eyes at the king's statement, the king had not planned on giving Annabeth any responsibility in the management of the palace. It seemed that he was giving her some responsibility and trust after all, albeit with several overseers.
"I appreciate Your Majesty's words of concern for my health and am grateful to have tutors. I will do my best to not let the king or Eldoris down. Likewise, I trust Your Majesty will do the same."
Each smiled at the other, secrets brimming behind veiled eyes.
When the princess left, Percy drummed his fingers thoughtfully on the table. The princess had answered that she liked the library the best, but his sources told him that the princess was illiterate as the Kiran royals had neglected her education. Lucy had reported that the princess spent the most time in Gardenia Palace's royal library, spending the most time in the history section. The princess was clearly literate somehow. But where did she learn to read? Had someone taught her in secret or had the princess taught herself?
Percy had been sure that this was truly Princess Annabeth of Kiran, having seen her body in past life. The physicians who had treated her gave him a list of every injury she had. They had matched from those he recalled from the past, with the addition of a few extra bruises. Some things had changed since he had regressed, but the person was largely the same. Still, he would have the princess be watched carefully.
A blue butterfly flew past the window as Percy watched. Well, even a small butterfly could cause big changes, and his regression would surely do the same.
"Likewise, I trust Your Majesty will do the same."
The Kiran princess, while not possessing the same light powers her younger sister did, was hinting that she was not easy to manage. She knew that he was using her and accepted what he wanted, yet she had warned him that he had better treat her well in return.
Percy let a rare smile show on his face. As suspected, it would be better for Princess Annabeth to take an active approach in weeding out the filth in the Eldoris Palace than to have her be an ornament in the palace. What a shame that the princess had passed away the first time. Surely, everything would have gone a much better route had she been alive.
There would be monumental changes in the palace soon, and he was looking forward to it.
A/N: First of all, I would like to apologize to the stepparents in the world. As I was writing this story, I realized I wasn't shedding a great light on the stepmothers of this story. I did write in the first chapter that Annabeth in the modern world truly loved her stepfamily in the modern times though. But I am sure that my readers are mature enough to realize that this is a fantasy story (and not even a great one, to be honest), and I am not trying to drag down the stepparents who have stepped up to the place and helped filled the void that biological parents may have left. Just like there are bad eggs in every nest, there are good and bad stepparents, and good and bad biological parents.
I also worried about revealing the plot twist about Circe being Alana too early, but I think instead of revealing this far into the story and then having readers go back to analyze her interactions, it would be more fun to see this character in a new lens early throughout the story. None of our main leads know this. Just the readers are privy to this piece of information. Hopefully it'll add some more tension to the story as it goes on.
Anyways, I see bets being placed on who falls first in the reviews. The majority says Percy! This is a slow burn story (94% plot, 6% hot stuff), so we shall see!
To guest reviewer Neha, your review on July 14 looks blank to me, so I'm not sure I got what you meant to say. Maybe it's a me thing, if other people can see it?
Updates again on Wednesday/Sunday on Western Hemisphere time until August. For some of you, that's Thursday/ Monday, I believe? Shoutout to all the homies on the other side of the earth except for my cousin who decides calling me at 2 am is a respectable time because it's 5 pm for her...
As always, see you all next chapter!