A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
The princess was slowly transforming, Percy thought. A few days of nutritious food, rest, and medicine had helped transform the shadow of a person into a brighter and healthier image. Her hollow cheeks were slowly being filled out and her physicians were getting her to gain some weight. Still, she looked like she could be blown over by a simple breeze.
She was doing well in her studies, though her etiquette teachers noted that her skills starting out were those of a beginner. As expected of someone who had never been taught the etiquette of a noble from birth. Yet this frail looking woman was smiling and extending her hand out as though she was the strongest knight in the world.
"You're quite audacious, Princess." Percy finally said.
Behind the princess, her maid, Lucy, looked nervous. Perhaps she thought that the king was displeased and her new mistress was in trouble.
"But I like bold people." Percy finished. "I'm a person who holds grudges as well. We are alike in that aspect."
He dropped his teacup in its fine porcelain saucer with clink sound that made Lucy flinch. But the princess remained unwavering.
"But has the princess ever thought that if she were to hold hands with this king, that she may be the one to be dragged to hell with me?"
The princess' smile didn't change, as though she had expected it.
"I wouldn't have offered this deal without knowing the risks, Your Majesty."
Percy reached over and placed his hand in hers. Her hand felt delicate in his larger and calloused hand but she shook his hand with a firmness unlike her feeble appearance.
"Then I hope we shall be good partners," Princess Annabeth said lightly.
Surprisingly, the princess wanted a written contract in addition to their verbal agreement.
"It's not that I don't trust the king's words. I just think a written contract will help us remember every detailed condition we have for each other." The princess's grey eyes shone innocently.
Percy just shook his head and chuckled. He was used to having people be afraid of him so the princess' reaction was rather...refreshing. And so the conditions were carefully listed.
The eldest Kiran princess would have Percy's help in keeping the Kirans from assassinating her. In return, the princess, acting as the Eldoris Queen, would not only manage the internal palace affairs properly, but also help root out the dowager queen's hold on the influence while blocking other noble Eldoris families who may want to insert their daughters or sisters for the position of the king's mistress. He was definitely the one earning more of the bargain on this deal, unless the princess was holding something back.
"You know, I don't really care if you have a lover or two, Your Majesty. As long as my conditions are met."
Percy frowned. It was strange for the main wife to push her husband towards other women. The princess' words truly indicated the shallow depths of her feelings towards him.
Even his father, King Poseidon, had only eyes for Percy's mother when she was queen and had never taken another concubine. It was only under Lady Amphitrite's family's political pressure and that Lady Amphitrite had a passing resemblance to Percy's mother that Poseidon had remarried. But King Poseidon had always reinforced the principle of not having more than one wife for familial relations would be messy.
For Percy to take on concubines would mean his enemies would have more opportunities to place spies right inside his very domain. He wasn't a particularly lusty person in the first place, nor did he even have any woman in his past life since fighting a war took precedence.
"You don't really have to worry about that, even if you don't care. I won't have any mistresses," he said firmly.
Princess Annabeth stared curiously at his resolute words but didn't press him.
"Did you want to be the Queen of Kiran yourself?" Percy asked, changing the subject.
The princess shook her head. "I was thinking of installing someone better fitted to rule Kiran. Otherwise, you can absorb Kiran into Eldoris. I don't really care either way."
Princess Annabeth sounded like she had already given up on Kiran.
"Ah, I also want to put in a clause for divorce."
Percy raised his eyebrow.
"Divorce?"
The princess nodded resolutely. "When all this is done, I would like to quietly divorce."
Percy was silent for a while, pondering her words and perhaps trying to see what her strategy was. What queen was willing to divorce? He wasn't a bad husband when they hadn't even gotten married, was he?
But Princess Annabeth didn't care. This was her backup plan. Unbeknownst to Percy, she was thinking that when the hunt was over, who would be targeted next? It would be the hunting dogs, and Princess Annabeth didn't care to be targeted next in case the tyrant king felt she was encroaching on his power. Besides, she needed time and the connections she would gather in this time to figure out how to escape this storyland.
"What would you do after this divorce? And did you want part of the kingdom or money and riches, perhaps?" Percy questioned. "All of these, you would naturally have as queen of Eldoris."
"I was...thinking of travelling," the princess said. "I don't want a kingdom. Maybe just enough money to travel about the lands quietly. I've only ever been inside Kiran until now, and even then it was only inside the palace."
Percy thought about the condition some more. For the life of him, he couldn't understand why. Travelling as queen would be difficult, but it wasn't impossible.
Even if Princess Annabeth didn't want to be queen, there would always be nobles who wanted to fill in the position of being the king's bed warmer. A lot of political power could shift just from simple pillow talk. Even the neutral faction in his court was not to be trifled with. In terms of a queen unattached to Eldoris, the Kiran princess was still the best option.
"Then, I, too, would like the addition of a clause for an heir."
"An heir? Oh, you can choose whomever you want as heir, whether that's a distant relative of yours or a child of you and your lover. I'm not going to protest." She said uncaringly, reaching for a new cup of tea.
"I'm glad you said 'whomever' I want, Princess, because I'd like an heir born from you and I."
Annabeth coughed as she choked on her tea. The king handed her a handkerchief nonchalantly as she glared at him.
Was he crazy? She? Give birth? Did that make any sense?
She could almost laugh if she didn't know the king was being serious. Once again, Annabeth thought she was going to throttle Clarisse whenever she made it back to the modern world.
"I don't mind whatever gender the baby is." The king continued as though Annabeth hadn't choked. "I would like my heir to be free of any shackles to the nobility of Eldroris, and you've already declared that you would be cutting off any relations to Kiran."
"No." Annabeth flat out refused.
Both Lucy and Sir Grover stiffened at her refusal.
"How resolute of you. I thought you said marriage to you involved compromise on both sides. Then I'm afraid divorce is off the table." The king returned the innocent smiles Annabeth had been sending.
Annabeth managed to keep a frown off of her face. He was really making things hard for her. Unfortunately, what he wanted was logical in a historical time period where she didn't have an equal hand in power. She cursed the unfairness of this story. If she was to be an insignificant supporting character who just had a cameo, why couldn't she have transmigrated into a commoner who's preparing to become a scholar or something?
"I'll think about it." Annabeth replied shortly.
"Then likewise, I'll think about the divorce portion. Don't worry, I won't force you to do anything physical. The princess' health hasn't completely recovered, after all, and now is not the right time for an heir. We are still young, after all."
Annabeth nearly spat out her tea. With the conditions being written, she had to give birth in return for divorce. She had never thought about being a mother, but she certainly wasn't the type to just leave her own child behind, even if this was just story land.
But his last words made her think of something. She could just pretend to never be fully recovered. The king would eventually be pressured to have someone else be the mother of his child or adopt a relative once she left, wouldn't he?
She cackled on the inside but lowered her eyes demurely as though she agreed to table this discussion another day.
The conditions were more or less concluded for that day. Both Lucy and Sir Grover who had been silently sweating buckets held a little more respect towards the Kiran princess who had dared to butt heads with the Eldoris king despite not having an equal hand. They thought that perhaps the king was holding the princess in higher regard. From that day on, the word had silently spread throughout the palace to serve the future queen carefully in case of arousing the king's wrath.
A few days later, Annabeth was strolling through the gardens for her physician recommended daily walk when she neared upon the training grounds for the royal knights. It was a rather warm spring day, yet the knights were training so diligently in such balmy weather.
She didn't want to disturb them so she and Lucy quietly sat in a corner to observe. Annabeth was a black belt in taekwondo but she knew nothing about sword fighting. It appeared that they were training the newest of the knight recruits.
"Are they testing their strengths?" Annabeth asked the personal knight assigned to her.
Sir Nico looked for a brief moment at the training ground. "Yes. After seeing which knights have aptitude in certain weapons, the knights will be assigned as archers or swordsmen. Then the category of swordsmen is split even further. Some knights are agile while others have strong power. Those who are faster are taught sword techniques that involve speed while others will be taught to use overwhelming offensive power. The strongest of them all will eventually develop a swordsmanship aura, though it is rare."
Annabeth thought of the king who wielded both a sword and used hydrokinesis. "Besides the king, are there others who have similar powers?"
"Usually only the royal families of countries such as Eldoris, Tynan, and Kiran do, as these powers are passed through blood. For Eldoris, the throne is passed on to the family member who expresses hydrokinesis. The crown prince of Tynan currently possesses aerokinesis, or the ability to manipulate wind. Very rarely do powers exist in the general population," Sir Nico explained.
The knight didn't have to say anything more, but Annabeth knew that he was thinking about Princess Alana, the family member who had inherited the power of lumokinesis, with the ability to enchant and heal others. Annabeth wondered if she herself had inherited lumokinesis, would the Kiran royal family have thrown away the original Princess Annabeth?
"Sometimes there will be a few people across the lands who have such rare abilities. For example, the daughter of Count McLean has lumokinesis. In fact, Eldoris is quite proud of Lady McLean as she reportedly rivals Princess Alana in beauty and power." Sir Nico paled, remembering that Annabeth was the sister of Alana. He had praised the future queen's sister instead of the future queen, hearing that these two were at odds. "I apologize for my transgression."
Annabeth waved his apology off, not at all offended. But she did file the information of what Sir Nico said for later. She also recalled that the wizard lord was also someone who could manipulate shadow energy. Still, if the majority of people didn't have powers, this fantasy manuscript that Clarisse had created wasn't completely full of magic and monsters. She might be able to survive without any abilities.
As they watched the new knights take a break, Annabeth spotted a familiar figure approach.
"Sir Rachel," Annabeth greeted.
"I greet Your Highness."
"We haven't interacted much yet, but His Majesty sings high praises of you. To have someone so capable helping His Majesty, I am relieved."
"Percy, ah, pardon me. I am grateful that I can be helpful to His Majesty."
Annabeth smiled gently, as though she hadn't known why Sir Rachel would mention the Eldoris king's nickname. Call it woman's intuition, but Annabeth had a feeling that this female knight before her had feelings for the king.
To be honest, Annabeth quite admired this female knight. She had learned from her studies of the Eldoris nobility that Sir Rachel was the sole daughter of Marquis Thomas Dare. The marquis had doted on his daughter ever since his wife died, yet also placed high importance on this daughter's achievements. There had been many arguments between the pair when Sir Rachel wanted to become a knight. Sir Rachel had then proved her abilities in becoming the top ranked female knight.
Sir Rachel and King Perseus were childhood friends, so Annabeth was sure they had a close relationship, at least on the outside. While studying, Annabeth had noted that this Marquis Dare had placed under the pile filed under noble families who wanted to send their daughters into the royal palace for the queen's position. So it was Sir Rachel that this marquis wanted to send?
How unfortunate that the Eldoris King did not seem to have his childhood friend in mind. They would have been a cute couple, Annabeth mused. No, scratch that. Perhaps Annabeth was still miffed at the king from their negotiation talk yesterday, but she felt Sir Rachel would have been too good for the tyrant king. A person of Sir Rachel's ambition, beauty, and talents would be weighed down by an annoying man such as the king. Pity that Sir Rachel's love was already destined for heartbreak. In the story, the Eldoris king had never been mentioned with another woman.
Good luck, Sir Rachel! Annabeth would have to cheer her on the sidelines.
As Sir Rachel and Annabeth made some small talk about the knights' training, Annabeth observed that while Sir Rachel was cordial in her conversation, Sir Rachel seemed to be a little down.
"Is everything all right, Sir Rachel?" Annabeth questioned.
"Oh, yes, Your Highness. Thank you for your concern." Sir Rachel smiled, but she had paused just a split second before answering.
Annabeth didn't probe any more. The knights began training again so Sir Rachel went back to overseeing the knights. Annabeth studied her a little more. She hadn't seen much of Sir Rachel since the king had first introduced the female knight.
Surprisingly, the king seemed to have Sir Grover by his side more than Sir Rachel, especially when interacting with Annabeth. Was this a hint that the childhood friend of his was not as trusted as one would think?
A/N: People be expecting Annabeth and Rachel to fight because of jealousy, meanwhile Annabeth is thinking: ah yes, I ship these two. Rachel's a better female lead than Alana.
To SOMYA: I think I have maybe around half of the novel planned, so I definitely do not have 60% of this story done lol. I don't know how long this story will be, but it will be the most ambitious project I have undertaken. 60+ chapters maybe? But I will make sure each chapter is enjoyable!
To Percabeth4eva: Yup, slow burn story here. Trust takes time to build just like in a realistic relationship!
To guest who asked about dyslexia: The Eldoris king does indeed have dyslexia. As to whether this condition and ADHD are recognized in this historical world, I'm not going to delve there. I've only got three brains cells, and two of them are focused on kpop and my family lol. Dyslexia was first formally described(?) in 1870s and ADHD in early 1900s so they would be relatively late to be added in this historical world, if that makes sense. I mean, dyslexia and ADHD all existed since a very long time in history, just that no one formally put a name to the conditions until late 1800s and early 1900s. IDK. My last brain cell is too overworked to incorporate these diagnoses properly lol. Forgive me for that.
To Red Jana: I'm putting Taming of a Beast on hold so I can finish this story first. Will I finish my hiatus stories, probably not... Bride of the Sea God probably has the highest chance of being worked on, but not in the next 4 years cause med school and now that I've grown up I know how problematic Usui from Maid Sama is. Will Annabeth go back to her own world, I think someone asked this last chapter, so continue reading this story and find out! Telling you would be spoilers :P I will say most isekai stories have the MC stay in the world, but that's because their original bodies died. Most common causes are that they got hit by trucks or got overworked. I think only Kill the Villainess had the female lead go back to modern Korea, despite being in love with the male lead and the male lead helps her get back. Ah, a tearjerker that one.
I also can't tell you all how this story ends, like whether its a happy ending or not, because again, spoilers! Hehe, you'll have to read on to find out!
Thank you for the support, everyone. As always, see you all next chapter on Sunday!