!!!THIS IS NOT A COPY OF THE SAME STORY
THE AUTHOR IS ONE AND THE SAME!!!
They promised me a title I don't want, in a world I want to escape from.
The Continent of the Gods, they call it. They came and left hundreds of years ago and we still wo...
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I start to walk to the house, but not before seeing the frightened look on his face. Oh, my friend! I try not to cringe at the thought.
"What's in it for you?", I stop in my track when I hear him ask from behind me.
*** *** *** ***
I turn around slowly and give him a questioning glance.
"You said it yourself: I can look for another, there are a lot of women in this kingdom, no matter the amount of time it'll take to find a suitable one", he says. "And I got your opinion of me. In your eyes, I'm just another king that is not going to act on the role. That I care only about my species, and yours not."
Well, he said it. I only pointed out his actions, the way he interpreted them is his doing. But it is true.
Leena's father owns a farm. When I was 17, there was a whole month of drought, and his grain production dried up and died. He went to the castle to tell the king his problem and the fact that he wouldn't be able to give them their part that year.
It was already Darius's second year as king. He didn't want to listen to it. He said that Leena's father was making up a story to get away with his laziness. He didn't want the others to know that the kingdom of water was struggling with droughts. So he made him pay in gold for all the grain bags he didn't provide that year. They almost went bankrupt.
On the same day, right after Leena's father, in came a nymph. She said that the stream near her house was draughting. It was a similar story said from different people. And the king, what did he do? He promised to go the next day himself and inspect the matter and even gave her twenty golds for the inconvenience.
And now he doesn't like the person I painted from my perspective? He did it himself.
"All that shows that this", he gestured between us, "is not entirely what you want. It feels like you are being forced to even try. There has to be something for you to gain out of it."
He's shrewd, I'll give him that.
"Who said I have a personal reason? What if I do it because I want to change things once I'm queen?", I ask back.
"No one would do anything only from the goodness of their heart", he throws back.
He doesn't really think I would tell him, does he?
"Your brother said there will be a reward", I say. "Does that count as a personal reason?", and with that, I leave him there.
I can't stay there any longer. If we continue playing mouse and cat I would eventually come to spill the tea and I can't have him knowing. I don't want him to know. Because if I have to tell him about the blackmail aunt Clarissa used to get me in this position, then he will want to know more.
