Chapter 17: Conquered Kingdom

"Isn't young love so beautiful?" The queen of Yashta asked as she and her husband viewed their daughter speaking with Prince Yonji through a curtain. "It's so romantic that he's been able to think of nothing but Clarisse since they met."

The king made a noncommittal noise in his throat. He thought his wife was being overly optimistic. He imagined the Germa prince was drawn far more by Yashta's wealth than by Clarisse's beauty, but that didn't mean this would be a bad match. Prince Yonji had just proved that Yashta kingdom's famous defenses could be breached. It would benefit the whole country if they had the protection of the Germa Kingdom.

Kingdoms throughout North Blue were clamoring to have their daughters married off to one of the Germa's princes in order to protect their country from King Judge's mad scramble to conquer every last country in the area. And here he had one of the princes on his doorstep asking to marry his daughter. Regardless of Yonji's motives, the king would be a fool to refuse his proposal to Princess Clarisse.

~.~

"I knew you must have felt something just as I did," Princess Clarisse said, fluttering her eyelashes. "Though I didn't expect you to come back so soon." She giggled, her cheeks flushing.

What was with the fluttering eyelashes? Was there some etiquette teacher somewhere teaching princesses that fluttering their eyelashes made them look desirable? He thought it made them look like they had something stuck in their eye. If not for the reward waiting him at the end of this, presenting his father with a wealthy country that he'd conquered without his brothers, he never could have stomached this meeting.

"What you said about having a home to go back to really struck me," Yonji lied, taking the princess's hand. Her eyes widened as her gaze stuck on that point of contact. He struggled not to roll his eyes. From the strength of her reaction, you'd think he'd kissed her. Nami had reacted a great deal less to him picking her up and holding her close. Admittedly, the circumstances hadn't been romantic, but still. Nami would never behave this ridiculously.

"I'm so happy," Clarisse said, gripping his hand in return and scooting closer to him. "I know you'll have to leave a lot, but I'll be here waiting for your return every time."

"That's all I can ask for," Yonji said, smiling. Though he suspected his smile was for very different reasons than the answering smile Clarisse gave him.

~.~

The next day was a flurry of activity as things were prepared for the 'wedding.' The king of Yashta seemed as eager for the wedding to happen as Yonji was pretending to be.

That night, Prince Yonji's men slowly infiltrated Yashta's harbor, escaping notice as they moved in perfectly trained formation in the dark. Before the first light of the morning, he gave the signal for them to move. They struck silently and efficiently, wiping out most of Yashta's unorganized army before they even realized they were under attack.

By dawn, Yashta's flag flying from the top of the castle was replaced by Germa 66's flag. Yonji never even bothered explaining things to Yashta's royal family as they were thrown into their own prison. If they were too pathetic to suspect him and too weak to muster any fight against his forces, they weren't worth his time. Though he did appreciate how easy they made the takeover.

~.~

"You will be staying here to ensure Germ 66 remains in power," Yonji informed the soldiers trained to act as reagents while the Germa rulers were busy taking over the rest of North Blue. Who better to leave ruling in your place than someone literally created to follow your orders? "I will leave you enough forces to maintain this area in case anyone tries to rebel."

The soldiers saluted, showing their understanding of their orders.

"I'm taking as much gold as we can carry," Yonji informed them over his shoulder as he walked away. With all the soldiers they were leaving behind, they would be able to bring back quite the haul. His men had already started transferring the gold and jewels onto his ships. He couldn't wait to see the look on his father's face when he beheld Yonji's success and the wealth he'd returned with.

Making his way to the former Yashta Kingdom's treasure room, he surveyed the vast contents. The room was crawling with soldiers packing up containers and wheel barrows with gold. Not only was Yashta's wealth plentiful, but of high quality as well. He walked farther into the room, searching for something in particular.

He smiled when he found what he wanted, a delicate gold chain with teardrop jewels the same red as the dress Nami was wearing when they first met.

~.~

Nami was lounging on her bed when Yonji suddenly appeared in her doorway without bothering to knock.

"Hey!" She cried indigently before she could help herself. Swallowing the rest of what she wanted to say, she asked, "Is there something I can help you with?" She couldn't imagine what it might be. They were already to the country and her maps had gotten them there without a problem.

"No, we're done here," Yonji said.

His words gave her pause. Already? They'd already conquered Yashta's forces? Did that mean Yashta was incredibly weak or Germa 66 was just that strong? She knew Yonji had expected this to be quick, but she hadn't expected that to mean two days. She really hoped the short amount of time meant the takeover took meant there had been few casualties.

"We still have a few more things to pack up before we leave, but I wanted to bring you a gift." He held up something that dangled from his hand and glinted in the light. Slowly, she made her way to him, then inhaled sharply when she saw what he held. The necklace was beautiful and had to be worth a few hundred thousand berries.

"It's for you," Yonji said. "Why don't I put it on for you?" Without waiting for a word from her, he slipped behind her and brushed her hair out of the way.

Despite the beauty and costliness of the jewelry, unease churned in her gut. This necklace was won, was taken, through military might and had belonged to someone else. Possibly the princess who had been so enamored with Yonji. Of course, there was a good chance that if Nami was still living her old life she would have stolen such a necklace from some royal poof, but stealing jewelry and taking over an entire kingdom weren't really comparable actions.

But still, was accepting the necklace under these conditions really so different from what she herself would have done? It wasn't as though the former owner would have any use for the necklace now, and the Germa Kingdom undoubtedly planned to use the wealth of the Yashta Kingdom to add to their military might. Whether Germa had it or Nami had it, it wouldn't be with the former owner either way. At least with her it wasn't being used to buy up more weapons.

Yonji's fingers brushed her neck as he set the clasp on the necklace and another thought occurred to her.

"Why?" She asked.

"Why?" He repeated. "Why what?"

"Why give me this necklace?"

"Because I wanted to." His simple response had her turning to look at him.

"Are you sure a commoner is deserving of jewelry that once belonged to royalty?" She was relieved when he grinned rather than got angry. Something about the Vinsmoke brothers made it difficult for her to control her tongue around them. Probably their arrogant and grating personalities. Ichiji could give Arlong a run for his money over who was the most prideful over the blood running through their veins.

"Have I ever expressed a problem with your lineage?" Not by words, but he had by action when he'd condoned Ichiji attacking her because of the way she, a commoner, had spoken to him. "Besides, you'll be marrying a prince and will be a royal soon enough. Shouldn't you have some jewelry worthy of your new title of princess?"

For some reason, his words reminded her of Reiju's claim that a man should buy jewelry for his woman. It was a ridiculous thought to begin with and even more ridiculous for her to be thinking of it now in regards to Yonji.

"Well, it's lovely," she said, touching the largest ruby dangling at the center of the necklace. "Thank you."

Yonji's grin widened and he placed his hands on her shoulders. "My pleasure, Nami."

~.~

Yonji felt great glee as he witnessed his father's expression as Judge looked over the treasure he'd gained.

"You took over Yashta in just two days?" Judge asked.

"I knew my plan was good," Yonji said, justifiably smug. "And Nami's maps and navigational skills were perfect. There was nothing about the campaign that could have possibly gone better." He paused before adding, "The navigator and I work very well together."

"Good," Judge said, his attention still on the piles of gold in front of him. "I want all of you to work well with Nami. Your brothers and Reiju must learn to do the same."

Yonji gritted his teeth, irritated at his father's response. "As Germa 66's navigator, it's important that we all work well with her," Yonji admitted. "But would it be a bad idea for one of us to work better with her than the others? Maybe it would be best if she always, or, at least, usually worked with someone who was the best combination with her. After all, we should try for anything that might get us all of North Blue faster, shouldn't we?"

Those words were finally enough to get Judge's attention off the gold and on to Yonji. "You do have a point. What the two of you accomplished was impressive, even better than I was expecting. Still, the navigator must work more with each of you before I can determine if there is a best combination between her and one of my children."

"Of course," Yonji forced himself to agree, wanting to stab something. He'd taken over a country in two days. Two days. How was that not proof that he and Nami were the best combination? What more would he have to do to convince his father? Whatever it was, he would need to do it fast.