The Duty of a Secret Regent

Chapter 5

Not long after that, I, the "King Miron", with the help of Konstantin, checked over Miron's documents, learning royal duties and wise ruling from him. He even managed to bring out King Leonard's written constitution which finally eased my heart a lot. It was clearly the only copy left with him as the deceased king had ordered to burn all evidences of the past dynasty out of maniacal jealousy.

The soldiers seemed to be terrified of me, and after reading the documents, understanding everything about the state of  the affairs, I realized there were hundreds of plans to do away with countless opposing lords throughout the country. My family was merely the first of the opposing families he would have gotten rid of had I not stepped up just in time.

With the help of Konstantin, I gathered all the death decrees from among the parchments, and walked out of the tent with my new ally at my tow, where the soldiers sat around the fire, toasting themselves after a tiring day. Clearing my throat, I asked a captain to come forward in a deep enough masculine voice. Miron's tenor voice didn't take long for me to copy with Konstantin's help because of two reasons: firstly, my own voice was deep for a woman, and secondly, to hide his tenor voice and appear more masculine, Miron never spoke in a loud tone. His voice was always succinct and low, thus easy to hide.

The captain in question, a man in his 30s bowed deeply, fearing for his life as he waited for my order. 

I walked to him and gave the whole pile of documents, which bore the death sentences of countless army chiefs and noble families and announced nonchalantly, "Use these to feed the fire this evening." 

From the rookies to the captains knew what the documents had in store, and they simply stared at me in mute horror, processing the information I just spew. "S-Sire are you speaking about these...?" The poor captain stared at me blankly. 

"Are you deaf or blind or both?" I asked, in a challenging tone, with an arched eyebrow to show my authority and immediately the man was down in his knees. 

To maintain my authority as a tyrant ruler I scoffed in feigned annoyance and turned my back to them, intending to walk off from there, "They better be destroyed by tonight without leaving a trace, or you may kiss your life goodbye tomorrow." 

The captain was even more panicked now, and he roughly hurled them all in the fire, with a few of his subordinates poking them aggressively under the flames on hearing my order, and within moments, before my own eyes I saw all the death contracts being burned to black ashes which would have claimed thousands of innocent patriotic lives throughout the kingdom. 

I sighed and looked up at the sky, who was I kidding? Miroslava Volkova is officially dead now. Were my brother, my parents and my grandparents looking down at me from there agreeing to my action of tonight? I could only wonder... 

Soon I returned to my tent where Konstantin waited for me. 

"My lord?" He could see the tension raging inside me, and came to stand in front of me.

"Konsta..." I tried to smile but ended up grimacing instead, "I wonder if- I wonder if I did a good start..."

"You have done excellently, sire." He encouraged me with a smile, "We finally achieved the first step in freeing the country of a tyrant." 

"But Konsta..." I muttered, as I slumped down on my working desk, "What if they realize some day how I duped them? They would tear me down to pieces quicker than famished hyenas."   

"It would never come to it sire. Under my command, no soldier would ever dare revolt against you." He assured me, "But for that, you need to do a bit of cleaning up. That will make your consolidation easier." 

"Cleaning up? What do you mean?" I enquired sharply, "I'm tired of killing people Konstantin. I've never harmed a single soul yet my hand is bloodied already, by the stain of that tyrant." 

"Sire, as a king, and as King Miron, you must do it the Miron way to not divulge any suspicions." The butler elaborated, "Slowly you may revert back to your true self but for now you need to do everything his way." 

I looked at Konstantin, his silhouette in the candlelight exuded a strangely comforting aura even with his frightful words and resigned myself to the fate, "What must I do?" 

"You need to get rid of the royal harem." His voice was lucid and crisp against my ears. 

"Royal-WHAT NOW?!" I almost screeched in horror and utter disgust, spitting on the ground in rage, "Oh that lecherous excuse of an abominable beast!" 

Konstantin merely regarded me carefully, "It worries me how much of a sheltered life you led, my lord." 

"Why ever for?!" I sharply turned at him, pacing up and down the room aggressively.

"It is clear you were never allowed to experience the true reality of our society. All royalties had harems my lord. Not just Miron, he was no different to them. He simply collected the princesses of whatever states he captured as spoils of war and dumped them in his harem." Konstantin calmly stated. 

I rubbed my temples, having still not been able to digest the information.  My parents and grandparents had always sheltered me, always telling me the world was not ready to accept someone as me, so I had to stay indoors, away from people's prying eyes. When I asked, the only answers I ever got were, they saw women as disposable and inferior and will never be able to bear my superiority. The true reality was never really informed to me, since the situation was never like this during the era of the previous dynasty. And now that the reality knocked at my doorsteps, I fell extremely misplaced and hopeless. I could not even believe how disgusting the society can be. 

I sighed and looked at my lord-in-waiting and declared, "Konsta, I will say this once and for all. I will abolish this disgusting practice with the harshest punishment for the defaulters or die trying it." 

My butler seemed to be completely expecting this from me, as he smiled cryptically, regarding me with a warm gaze. 

"Why do you think of yourself as so easily disposable to be ready to die at the slightest notion? It beats me, dear Mira." 

"What is it to you, pervert?" I asked with mild annoyance.

"Pervert?" He arched an eyebrow at me, still smiling in mirth at me. 

"Yes!" I crossed my arms, "Even after knowing I'm a woman you still insist in being my lord-in-waiting." 

Konstantin grinned mischievously at me, "And you tell me, milord, have I ever touched you or even looked at your direction when you were cleaning up, even once? I merely wish to be your sole knight and bodyguard, your permanent companion from here on." 

He laughed in a good-natured manner at me, who was huffing in anger before bowing, still grinning ear to ear, "I give my hearty obeisance to the king of Winterfrost. Indeed I did not make an error to choose you, your majesty." 

"Get lost, you oaf!" I threw a crumpled piece of paper at him in utter irritation, which he caught mid-air and sauntered out of the tent still laughing, visibly satisfied with himself for riling me up so.