Hi, everyone! It's another long chapter today. I put a lot of effort into the world building, so I hope you guys will like it. Enjoy:
January 23, 171 A.E.
Entry #27
Yesterday, Mother woke me up very early in the morning. She wanted to take me to the meeting so I could listen in on what they were talking about. I readily agreed. I did not want to spend the entire week just wandering around the mansion.
The meeting room was surprisingly small and snug. There was a long rectangular table with about twenty chairs-twenty six-Mother said. Mother sat at one end of the table and made me sit at the other. There was one empty seat to my right. I realized who used to sit at that chair and the one I was sitting in and pushed the thought away. It would just make me sad, and I did not want to cry in front of all these adults.
The meeting started quickly with Lord Von Salamancer and Mother both making an introduction speech. The representatives agreed to make announcements to the kingdom about Father and Toriel's Mother in a week.
"We need to make a truce with the European humans," Lord Von Salamancer said, "This war is hurting trade. The businesses in the kingdom are losing all their human customers in Paz's alliances because of the war. The kingdom is losing too much money."
"You mean your business is losing all its human customers because of the war," General Ephyra said, "The only monster industry humans really use is the fuel industry you're running with the Ashburn Fire Elementals. Your family and Lord Heatsman keeps most of the money the business makes on exports, anyway. It doesn't hurt the kingdom at all either way."
"Actually, the mines are losing money, too," the head of the Earth Elementals spoke, "We always mine more metals than the kingdom needs, so we sell most of that to the humans in Paz's tribes, who then trades it with some of the Europeans, anyway. The European humans are interested in these materials, so why not trade with them? Paz's humans would not trade with us anymore, so we're losing money. Some of the monsters in my town are barely getting by."
"M-maybe you should lower the prices of food, then," the chief of Wimsung said quietly, "We don't make the food that expensive when we sell it to other towns in the kingdom, and I'm sure the Froggits don't, either. There's no need to raise the prices so much when you resell it."
"Our cloth mills are suffering," Mayor Nita of Narfolk said, "My bunnies used to sell so much cloth to the humans, and it was a third of their income, too. But now the humans stopped buying, no matter how cold it gets in this area. Narfolk is far to the north of the farms, so we have to ask a Riverperson to send food all the way here. You know they can only hold so much in one boat. It's expensive for us to ship the food here. We still have to make a profit."
""The European humans won't buy your textiles," Mayor Avenir said. I remembered seeing him in Aiphuoxbone, although we never interacted much except for a curt nod on my way to school one day. "They've come as far north as Aiphuoxbone to trade with Paz's allies and enemies alike. If they were interested in monster made cloths, they would have tried to buy it already. They're only interested in animal furs."
"We could introduce it to them," Mayor Nita said, her ears drooping to her neck. "The Europeans just don't know how useful our good could be."
"They'll never listen to us," Mayor Avenir said, "They hate monsters even more than Paz's people do. Crossing paths with Europeans end in lost souls most of the time."
"Then perhaps we should do as Lord Von Salamancer said," Lady Cordiway said, adjusting her hat, which was decorated with a garden of flowers and more veil than Narfolk would make in a year. "We should send our diplomats out to make an alliance with the Europeans. Right now they're staying neutral on this war, but they have to pick a side eventually if they're going to stay here. We've fought wars with them. We've seen how powerful their weapons are, combined with their strong souls. Do we really want to be on the wrong side of the war when they start fighting?"
"Exactly," Lord Von Salamancer gestured to Lady Cordiway, who had gone back to studying her perfectly manicured nails. "Your Majesty," he turned to Mother, "You can clearly see the benefits of allying ourselves with the European humans. What is your verdict on this?"
Mother looked like she was deep in thought. "My verdict on this matter is that we will not be pursuing this alliance. No matter what the European humans do, at the end of the day, they are still humans. I trusted humans once, and it ended with the death of my husband and my best friend. I won't make the same mistake again."
Lord Von Salamancer gritted his teeth. "What about you, Prince Asgore?" he asked, "What do you think of this decision?"
"Do not drag my son into this matter," Mother said curtly, "He is only here to watch. He will not have any votes in the council until he is king."
I frowned. I wanted to take part in the discussion too. Monsters making friends with the Europeans would be a wonderful idea. Paz's tribe's relationships with some of the Europeans are bad, but she is also good friends with a few European groups. Maybe if we make friends with those humans, they can help us stop Paz's war.
"Very well, your majesty," Lord Von Salamancer said, "You're right. When Asgore becomes king he'll help us make decisions. But for now, I request that the council puts it to a vote."
"Alright," Mother said, "Those in favor of forming the alliance, raise your hand." Lord Von Salamancer, Lady Cordiway, Mayor Nita, and most of the other leaders raised their hands. I wanted to raise my hand too, but I had a feeling that Mother and several of the other adults would disapprove.
"Those against?" Mother said, raising her hand. General Ephyra, Mayor Avenir, and six other leaders raised their hands. "It's official, then," Mother said, "We will not be forming an alliance."
I waved my hand in the air. "Wait!" I said, "Fifteen people voted for it but only nine voted against!" All of a sudden, twenty four heads turned my direction. I blushed and put my hand down.
Lord Von Salamancer chuckled, "I suppose you don't know how the voting system in the council works, Prince Asgore," he said, "Everyone has one vote in the council except for the king, queen and the royal advisor. The king and queen both have seven votes, and the royal advisor has five. If the vote is a tie, then the ruling monarch, who is the queen at the moment, gets to decide the final result."
"Now that we've cleared that up," General Ephyra said, "We can safely say that this case is closed."
"Yes it is," Lord Von Salamancer agreed, "And I have another matter that I feel the council needs to discuss, about our young prince."
"Me?" I said, "What is it?"
"Well," Lord Von Salamancer said, "you will be king soon, my prince, so you have to consider-who will be the queen?"
My face turned hot. "W-what?"
"No monster rules alone, your majesty," Lady Cordiway said, "Every ruler of the Monster Kingdom is expected to have a spouse when they come onto the throne."
"Of course," Mayor Nita said, "No one's pressuring you to have a queen. The last two kings had queens, but it wouldn't be uncommon at all if you took a king or a ruler. Most royals marry almost as soon as they become of age."
"But Asgore wouldn't be of age for another seven years," Chief Hylidae of the Froggits croaked, "Wouldn't it be a bit early for him to start thinking about this?"
"No," Mother said, "Amynos and I started dating when we were fourteen. Asgore is reaching that age in a little more than a year. It's time he starts thinking about it."
"Now, you're not in a hurry to find anyone yet, love," Lady Cordiway said, "But do you think you might have someone in mind? Traditionally, your spouse must be a boss monster, although boss monster genes are dominant, so your children will be a boss monster either way. You can really just marry anyone you want-and anyone that will have you, of course, but who wouldn't have the future king of the monster?"
I thought about it. I did not realize that being king mean I also have to find another king or queen or ruler. But I suppose I would not bear the weight of ruling alone, either. It sounds tiring even if I just think about it. I wonder how tired Mother feels right now?
But Father had talked, again and again, about how important a good leader is. He was a good leader. Mother is a good leader. My grandparents were good leaders. But I do not think I will be a good leader on my own. Whoever I marry must be a good leader that I can trust to run the kingdom with me. And no matter how hard I thought about it, there was really only one monster I trusted.
"I know who I want to marry," I said. Mother raised her eyebrow in surprise. "I want to marry Toriel."
Lord Von Salamancer's face fell. "No," he said, "You can marry whoever will marry you, Asgore, but you are not allowed to marry Toriel."
"Why?" I asked, outraged. They said whoever I want, so why not Toriel? Who else would be as smart and kind and compassionate and beautiful as her?
"Toriel is going to be the royal advisor," Mother said, "The positions of the royal advisor and the queen are two different jobs. They cannot be done by the same person."
"If the previous advisor had more than one child," General Ephyra said, "then we would have no problem with Toriel being queen because the other child would be the royal advisor. But she only had one child, so Toriel is the only one who can inherit the position of royal advisor."
I did not notice I had stood up. Quietly, I sank back into my seat. Mother quickly reassured me that I did not have to immediately start thinking of whom I wanted to marry, and that I still had plenty of time. I sulked for the rest of the meeting. I did not think I missed much-the rest of the stuff they discussed all seemed boring and I was not allowed to vote anyway.
Mother must have noticed how bored I was during the meeting, because the today she told me to just "go and play with Carys." I quickly found her in the dining hall eating pie with Sedna. They took me to the Von Salamancer garden.
We have a garden in our courtyard, but that is mostly for me to play around in. I planted a few uneven rows of flowers and there was a gardener that maintained them when I wanted to do something else. The empty space in our courtyard is mostly a grass field and some combat dummies for training the militia.
The Von Salamancer garden is a lush place filled with stone statues and flowers and trees. Carys said that some of the plants were brought here from other parts of the world. I stared at the rows of blue and pink and orange flowers. I did not doubt that they were from some other land. I had never seen some of them before.
"Oh!" Carys said, "Hang on, there's a weed," She crouched down and plucked a small yellow flower from the ground.
"That is just a buttercup," I said, "It is harmless."
"Actually, buttercups are poisonous to eat," Carys replied, "It's also growing in the wrong place. It'll make the garden look bad." She pointed her finger at the remaining stem and shot a small beam of electricity at it. "There," she said as the stem wilted. I felt bad. It was not the buttercup's fault that it was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
"So my mom was talking about how you were complaining yesterday because they didn't want you to smooch your girlfriend." Sedna sat down on the grass and smirked at me. "Is that true?"
I could physically feel my face turn a shade of bright red. "It was just a suggestion!" I squeaked, sitting down beside her. "I was going to be king and they said I am supposed to marry someone and they asked me for a suggestion so I gave them one! Toriel is not my girlfriend!"
Carys chuckled silently, "Okay," she said, "But I know how it feels. My Lord says I should get married in the future since I'm supposed to inherit his spot in the Monarch's Council and Dalelry's business when he's gone. He says I 'need to produce my own heir.'"
"I know who I want to marry," Sedna said, "I want to marry my girlfriend! She's the best person in the world! Mom says I'm too young to know about this stuff but I'm thirteen so I'm not too young. What does she know?"
"Yeah," Carys said, "I know who I want to marry, but I don't think it'll work out." Her eyes flicked to Sedna, then to the yellow flower in her hand.
"Aw, come on," Sedna said, putting a hand on Carys's shoulder, "I'm sure whoever it is, you two will figure it out." Carys smiled and blushed.
I stared at the neat rows of pink flowers-tulips-and flopped onto the soft blades of grass. I knew who I wanted to marry, too, but it would not work out, either.
Sometimes I wished I was not the prince.
~Asgore
So I haven't been getting a lot of reviews lately, and I've been having a hard time writing this story because of it. It's hard to find motivation to write if no one tells you that they want more chapters. Remember that if I get fifteen or more reviews on a new chapter, I will post two chapters on the next update.
Remember that an oligarchy isn't necessarily better than an absolute monarchy. It just makes it harder to find the source of corruption.
Review!
~Pandora