A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!

Percy used the incident of a young woman accidentally spilling wine on him to pull down her family by saying they were not careful in their conduct. Her father and cousin were coincidentally two people the dowager queen had secretly tried to insert into the department overseeing foreign affairs. Sir Grover could only shake at the misfortune of this errant family. It was only a little bit of wine.

But who had allowed the young woman to spill wine not on the king's clothes but on his shoes so the woman could look bashfully up through her eyelashes and pat his shoes dry with her handkerchief? Who had told the young woman to conveniently let her breasts spill out over the top of her dress?

And to implement this daring but brainless plan on the king's own wedding day. They had to think about who was the king, and what his personality was like. Perhaps a lesser man than the king would have fallen into the trap of a beauty. So, who else could this family blame but themselves for choosing the wrong side and planning things so hastily? Idiots, that they were.

"Your Majesty," Grover whispered to Percy's ear. "Sir Rachel took care of the assassin that her father hired."

"I see. Understood," Percy only said, watching over the banquet hall.

The dance was still going on, but no one would mind that the king and queen were absent before the banquet ended. It was the wedding night after all.

He had already known about the hired killer a long time ago and had quietly let the matter be exposed to Rachel as a test. She had taken care of the assassin, as if to prove her loyalty, but she had also tied up any loose ends leading back to her father. Was this the love of a dutiful daughter?

Percy would have to quietly observe a little more. It seemed this was not the turning point to where he had been betrayed in his past life. It was only due to Percy's and Rachel's prior friendship that Percy did not arrest Marquis Dare just yet. The marquis was only a small branch that led to the larger, festering root. Percy would pull it all out in time.

"And the dowager queen?"

"The dowager queen mentioned a headache and went back to her quarters to rest." Sir Grover replied.

Ah, yes, Percy must have caused a headache for her by eliminating some of her supporters in his court. But he was also aware that Marquis Dare was not the only one to hire an assassin tonight.

Then there was the matter of Princess Alana and Prince Jason. Unlike his past life, Prince Jason seemed to find his blue eyes wandering over to a young brunette instead. Jason's expression had not been well after Alana had asked him for his first dance. When Jason kept being Lady McLean's partner for three total dances, Alana's expression had been polite but concealed in her blue eyes was a sort of fury. It seemed Tynan and Kiran would have far less cordial ties than before, and Percy would just have to stomach his past ill feelings towards the Tynan prince. Percy would have to thank the new queen of Eldoris for the far better than expected results of her experiment.

"And my queen?"

"She has also retreated to Dahlia Palace." Sir Grover said.

Initially, Percy had wanted to keep the queen at Gardenia Palace for safety reasons. His enemies would find it harder to insert nefarious people in his palace as opposed to Dahlia Palace. But he also feared that if he kept the queen at Gardenia Palace, it would signify to the Eldoris nobles that the queen was kept under the king's thumb. Dahlia Palace was a symbol to the Eldoris people of the power of the queen as a true ruler of Eldoris. If Dahlia Palace was kept empty, too many people would have the wrong sort of thoughts. The queen needed to be on equal status as the king.

"Very well. Have the servants serve her carefully. I will be going over to Dahlia Palace in half an hour. And make sure tomorrow's flowers are prepared, too."

Sir Grover caught himself raising his eyebrows. It was still early in the night and the king wanted to head to Dahlia Palace so soon? Could it be that the king, whom Grover had never seen like a woman, was actually anticipating his wedding night?

But Percy was not so much concerned about the wedding night than he was about not having caught the little mole the dowager queen had inserted into Dahlia Palace. The earlier he went, the better chance he had of preventing any "accidents."

After a little more time overseeing the banquet, Percy left and headed towards Dahlia Palace. As he entered the queen's bedroom, a maid with her golden hair in a braid stepped forward to remove his coat.

Percy stopped her. "Go help the queen."

The queen was in the midst of removing all her accessories. The maid who had tried to help Percy earlier leaned forward to remove the diamond and pearl hairpin from the queen's hair, drawing Percy's attention. Percy snatched the wrist of the maid and held it firmly. The maid's brown eyes showed fear and pain as Percy squeezed her wrist.

"That's enough, now," he ordered.

The maid dropped the sharp hairpin, and Percy handed the jewelry to another maid. Catching Percy's eyes, Lucy quickly nodded and quietly took the maid away. Lucy was a perceptive child, which was why Percy had placed her by Annabeth's side. Still, Lucy hadn't been able to catch this little rat who had managed to hide herself well. None of the other people had seen it, but the expression on the maid's face was strange as well as the angle she was holding the hairpin at.

Percy looked down at the queen who was still sitting in front of her dresser. "You can put that away now."

"Ah."

The queen sheathed her dagger and placed the weapon on her dresser. Even if Percy hadn't arrived on time, he was relieved that at least the queen would be fine.

Percy waved the maids away and took over their job of extricating the queen's hair from her pins. The floral fragrance from her perfume was fainter than it had been this morning, but it was still pleasant.

"When did you discover that something wasn't quite right?" He asked.

"Well, I thought it was strange that she wasn't part of my regular personal maids, but it was her hands that gave it away. All the other maids' hands were really smooth but hers were much rougher. My hair was being caught in her calluses. At first I thought that perhaps she was a maid who had just been transferred from the laundry or kitchen department." The queen shrugged. "But why would a maid from there be promoted as opposed to a higher ranked maid from the tearoom or sewing department? I felt like someone was doing something behind the scenes, and you're usually too careful about these things."

"It's good that you see things clearly." Percy said.

It would have been troublesome if the queen died again and on his wedding night no less. This incident was another wake up call that there were still holes in his palace security. Even coming back to life again could not always help him prevent all the accidents in the future.

The queen looked into the mirror at her messy hair. "Do you actually know what you're doing?"

He looked down at his handiwork. "I probably wouldn't know how to do any of your hairstyles, but I am quite good at taking things apart."

The queen laughed and ran her fingers through her loosened hair. She stood up to remove her dress but then she realized where all the maids went and who was left in the room with her. The queen gave Percy a strange look.

"Do you need help?" He asked, picking up a hairbrush to tame her curls. The buttons were all on the back.

"Well…"

Percy smiled at her hesitation in amusement. It was clear that she was worried about what would happen on the wedding night. But even if he wanted to, the physicians had warned him that the queen was not fully healed.

"Are you afraid? Don't worry. I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to. You're still not properly healed yet."

Annabeth nervously bit her bottom lip. In this story's historical period, marriages weren't valid until consummation as Annabeth had been informed from Eldoris' books on history and law. Coming from modern times, having one night stands wasn't too big of a deal, so she could treat tonight as a one night stand. It wasn't as if she hadn't done it before, having had two boyfriends prior, and the king was physically attractive.

Somehow though, she was a little shy when the king brought it up. After all, it's a bit weird to do it when you don't know a person too well. Still, she was glad that the king was not someone to force women into his bed. For the king to not insist on the custom already placed him as one of the husbands with more liberal thinking in Eldoris, Annabeth bet. That or he really couldn't be bothered with certainly nightly activities at the moment. Either way, a point for him, Annabeth added.

"Won't people question whether the marriage has been consummated?" Annabeth asked in a quiet voice. She'd noticed that there was a stash of small bottles of contraception and stamina potions in the drawer by her bed.

The king's brushing paused just for a moment before continuing. For someone who had been flirting nonchalantly like a player, perhaps he was actually quite shy.

"It's fine. I'll wait until you're comfortable with it. I don't need an heir that soon." He cheekily winked.

What shyness? Annabeth took back her initial thoughts. He was still a flirt.

"But you're right about people wondering."

In response, the king took out a couple of contraception and stamina bottles and emptied the contents in a vase.

He also took a small knife and lightly cut the palm of his hand before Annabeth could protest. A few drops of blood dribbled on the middle of the bed. Annabeth winced as she saw the red stains on the white sheets. Perfectly good sheets ruined, she mourned. After living on a grad student's budget, spending money on new bed sheets was a luxury. Hopefully the laundry maids were good at getting stains out.

"Your Majesty…" Annabeth hurried to get some ointment from her dresser for his wound. "You didn't have to go that far," she reproached him. Couldn't they spill some red wine for the same effect?

"The more like the real situation, the more people will be fooled. The eyes and ears in these palaces reach far more than we can predict."

The king gave her his hand for her to wipe the healing salve on. Unfortunately, she couldn't use a bandage or else people would question why. Once they were done, Annabeth couldn't help but stifle a yawn.

"Tired?" The king asked. "It would be good to get an early night's rest. Unfortunately, we both have a long week's worth of schedules."

"Then, could you help me get out of my dress? Just the buttons on the back are fine, thank you."

The king had dismissed the maids before they had helped Annabeth out of her reception dress. Annabeth praised the invention of zippers. It had taken several minutes with three maids to button Annabeth into the dress hours before.

The king furrowed his brows lightly but obeyed. Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief as the tight bodice was finally unbuttoned and the laces were loosened. Thankfully she hadn't been forced to wear a corset. The king turned away politely as Annabeth pulled on a robe after shedding the dress.

"All done." She called.

The king nodded. "Then I'll call the maids to have the sheets changed."

"Wait," Annabeth said. "What if they think the king isn't experienced in bed?"

The king furrowed his brows.

It had only been ten minutes since the king dismissed the maids. If they called for the sheets to be changed now, wouldn't that signal that the king's abilities in the bed were a bit...lacking? Annabeth couldn't help but giggle at the king's expression as the realization dawned on him.

"Besides, the bed still smells fresh, and the sheets are unwrinkled. You won't be able to fool anyone like that," she pointed out.

The king was still slightly offended from her earlier comments. She found him slightly cute with his pouting that Annabeth laughed again.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry for teasing you." Annabeth hopped onto the bed and bounced a few times to make the sheets tussled. "Don't just stand there. Help me make the bed more messy."

"Those kinds of words can be taken another way, you know," the king complained. He threw himself onto the bed and laid on his back and winked at her like a rogue. "Given this is our marriage night, perhaps I should give you a demonstration that my stamina is no need for the queen to be worried about."

Annabeth threw a pillow at him. The king snatched it out of mid-air and childishly hit her shoulder with it.

"Oh, you're going down." Annabeth grabbed the pillow while the king reached for another in defense.

Later on in the night, the maids cleaned up the messy bed. What were the king and queen doing that night to make even the pillows burst into feathers? Quiet whispers spread throughout the whole palace staff that the king was a beast and discussions erupted whether the queen was fortunate or not to have a husband who had too much stamina…

A/N: Don't worry, the marriage night isn't over yet lol.

A guest reviewer asked me if I can mention how many chapters I have already written with each update. I don't think I can do that because the answer is most likely going to be the same lol. Before school started, I have 39 chapters in stock. After school started, I still have 39 chapters in stock... Yeah, I don't have time to write much anymore... Please bear with me! School, family, physical and mental health are first, and so fanfiction writing is unfortunately in the bottom of my priorities. This is why I prewrote so many chapters so I can release them at a steady schedule throughout the semester.

As always, stay safe and healthy, and see you all next week!