Eren POV
The guards flanked their little group.
There couldn't be more than ten of them and even that small amount seemed to be too much in Eren's eyes.
He doubted that the Queen saw a genuine threat in him and Mikasa so he wondered why the Queen had taken all those guard with her.
Said Queen was walking next to him, her dress grazing the bushes beneath her ankles and taking leaves and dirt with every small step of the delicate woman.
"I am deeply sorry for what happened to Shiganshina."
Eren flinched, his mouth a thin line at the memories of burning houses and corpses lining the streets.
"What are you apologizing for, Your Majesty?", he asked as nonchalant as he could manage with his thumping heart. "It's not your fault after all."
She glanced at him, interest glittering in her eyes but not as much surprise as he would have expected there.
Historia turned her head away before he could read any more of the sincere remorse showing on her face.
"So you know the truth behind the attack."
It wasn't a question.
He huffed.
Mikasa strode behind them, her hands holding on to the reigns of her horse.
"Do you know who was behind this massacre?", she asked, her voice nothing but stern and cold.
They shared the pictures in their minds.
The picture of their dead mother.
Of her grave.
The picture of dirt beneath their nails after having to bury her with nothing but their hands.
"I fear not.", the Queen spoke, not minding Mikasa who snarled lowly when the woman didn't face her for even a second. "We have only been informed of the attack when Eldia's forces marched into our lands and accused me of starting a war between our kingdoms."
Her anger was restrained enough to stay off her face but the gritting of her teeth hint enough.
Eren watched an owl flying through the woods, the soft rustling of leaves and the hushed voices of the animals a sound he had missed a lot since their last night out in the woods.
Just like he missed Jean and Ymir.
"I would love to say that my father isn't smart enough to tell different forces apart.", Eren pondered with furrowed brows. "But sadly enough he is quite capable of using every situation in his favor."
"You mean, he knew that we weren't the ones at fault?", Historia hissed, annoyance and anger pushing through her facade.
Eren nodded pensively and crossed his arms behind his back while tilting his head back to observe the blanket of branches and leaves above his head.
"I can't say for certain."
"I don't care. If it is his own son's guess then I will trust your knowledge."
He made a disapproved noise with his tongue.
"He is no father of mine. But I sure know that he doesn't have a conscience and he had already been looking for an excuse to exterminate you and your people."
Historia was listening intently to his words just like her guards. Eren felt their gazes on him, especially the gaze of a smaller one, his eyes twitching nervously when Eren nodded gently at him.
Mikasa eyed the gesture wearily but didn't comment on it. Eren was thankful that she stayed behind so much and kept quiet although he knew she would have a lot to say as well.
And he would make sure to question her on her views of the situation.
But first he had to ask the question that had been burning under his nails since his mother had renweded his memory of the forgotten times.
"Which bargain caused the War of Blood?"
- - -
The guards noticeably tensed at the question and shared unsure looks only to wait for their Queen's answer.
She sighed, her hands folded in front of her lap and her steps ceased, the whole procession coming to a sudden halt.
"Why do you mention this, Your Highness?"
"Because it is necessary for me to know everything about our pasts so I can change our futures."
Histiria smiled sadly, turning to face him fully.
"Beautiful words in such an ungly world." Her chuckle resounded in the woods. "Very well. I owe you that much, don't I?"
The question didn't request an answer so Eren stayed silent, waiting for an explanation that could help them taking the first steps together in this war.
"I was a very young queen. And not even the first one in the royal bloodline. My mother was a whore and my father the late King of Marley. She hated me and didn't dance around her resentment towards me."
Historia traced some lonely leaves that she kept in her hands, watching them while telling him her story with strangely soft words.
"I wanted to get her attention so badly that one day I followed her to a meeting with my father. That's when he knew why she had stopped seeing him for so many months all those years ago. That's when he knew he had a daughter."
The slight pain on the edge of her words met Eren's heart harder than he would have thought.
He didn't pity the girl for her fate, for hers wasn't an uncommon one when you hadn't been born into a royal or upper family.
She looked over to him, her conflicted eyes meeting his in the dark and he tilted his head, urging her quietly on to continue.
She inhaled once, gathering enough strength for her story to be told out loud.
Her guards didn't dare to move any more than necessary and Eren knew that they were enraptured in their Queen's rather sad past.
The cold met Eren's skin but he kept from wrapping his arms around him for his pride wouldn't let him.
"Of course my father was...surprised." She laughed humorlessly. "No one would have out it past him if he had decided to get rid of me. To get rid of the threat to his power. But he astonished me when he gave me the chance to live as a maid in his household."
"Why would you serve your own father?", Mikasa asked from behind them.
Eren didn't wait for her to answer and said with a steady voice: "You weren't the innocent child he thought you to be. And you used his mindset to get what you wanted."
The Queen waited for him to continue and crossed her arms in front of her chest, an encouraging smile dancing on her lips.
Eren lifted his chin.
He appreciated an opponent and companion of an admirable intelect.
"You were willing to serve him so you could get yourself the live your mother would have wanted for herself."
"She wanted to be rich. She wanted to be Queen.", Historia spat, the noise ugly in contrast to the loving person she portrayed in all the stories and in every part of her appearance. "Of course I did everything to get her there. And my father was a stupid drunkard. His advisors didn't even try to get him successful as a king or father. They watched as he gave the command to kill the legitimate and illegitimate children of his that could have cost him the crown."
"Why didn't he kill you?", Eren mused. "You wouldn't have been the first woman to become Queen in Marley."
"He didn't see me as a threat.", she explained with a shrug of her shoulders. "I was beautiful, small and knew how to play my cards. One can learn a lot when living with a whore."
The utter hate and disregard that poisened her words impressed Eren and he kept quiet, still wondering how all of this was connected with the War of Blood.
"I got rid of him as easily as expected and got rid of those useless advisors hungry for power and a comfortable life. I changed Marley for the better and my mother didn't see the smallest bits of gold after I realized how she had always mistreated me."
Her face was grim, the shadows on her cheeks decorating it eerily.
"Me. Her own daughter. Who didn't ask to be born. And I was still punished for something out of my control." She breathed through her nose, gathering herself before continuing. "I became Queen. And met King Grisha. Back then he had just lost his first wife, Dina."
She smiled apologetically at him.
But Eren was fast to say: "Dina was Zeke's mother. Not mine. I never knew her."
Historia nodded in understanding.
"I was a child. A teenager. To young to be taken seriously and a woman in an man's world. For everything I achieved I had to fight tooth and nails."
She sighed and gestured him to continue their walk through the night. He stayed a bit behind her, gave her enough space.
She watched the moon with narrowed eyes.
"At first your father didn't want to have any contact with me. I wasn't worth it in his eyes. But when he learned of how I became Queen, of the boundaries I was ready to cross, he suddenly wanted to make a bargain with me."
The Queen, mighty and her aura filled with the power she had fought for so hard, met Eren's gaze with anger blazing in her eyes.
"He already had Zeke, a healthy heir to the throne. But he was still in search of a second wife."
Oh god....
Please not....
Historia wasn't a person to show her cruel side to the world.
But her next words were filled with the pure hatred for the one person responsible for all of their pain.
"The King of Eldia, your father, asked me to marry him. And when he told me about the second part of the bargain - my only answer was war."
(What could Grisha have told her that was worth the death of so many people? What do you think?
Hope you liked it and I'm splitting the Historia part in so many prices because there is quite a lot of information to take in so feel free to stop reading for a moment at any time.
See you soooonnn❣️)