When morning came, Annabeth was surprised to find that the king was there in bed for once. He was already awake, as evidenced by his hand soothingly patting her shoulders.
"Awake, my queen?" A deep voice called.
The king was sitting up in bed, one hand stroking her shoulder, the other holding some documents to read. He was already dressed up.
Annabeth blinked the drowsiness out of her eyes and slowly sat up. The king helped her, pulling her so she was leaning against his body.
"Good morning," he said with a soft smile.
"Good morning," she returned, looking down from his face as she was a little shy from last night.
All she could think of right now was "WTF, Clarisse." Of course, the novel had some very explicit scenes, but never had Annabeth expected that she herself would be starring as the main participant. How did Clarisse have the power to make every male lead, even the villain, be as experienced as they were?
Her voice was a little hoarse, probably because she had cried out a little too much last night. The king handed her a cup of water and she gratefully drank it to quench her thirst. Thankfully, she wasn't too sore as the king had fed her a stamina potion last night or else she might not have the energy to get out of bed all day. The king, however, had looked rather refreshed after he had bedded her.
The king sighed and pressed a few kisses on her forehead. "I can understand why the philosophers once said that a lover could be the downfall of a kingdom. I don't really want to go to court right now."
He nuzzled her cheeks, fully content after eating her up yesterday. Annabeth wiggled in his arms as his hands were beginning to be naughty again. Give a man an inch, and he would want a mile. She would forgive him this once, since she couldn't deny it felt good. Last night was like a hot and erotic dream that would be imprinted in her mind forever. She doubted that she could ever find another lover as skilled as the one sharing her bed now.
"I'm flattered but you can't neglect your kingdom, Your Majesty," she lightly reprimanded him, though her own hand temptingly explored his chest.
She really liked feeling up his firm muscles. There were a few pink marks from where she had kissed his skin from last night.
"I don't want to neglect the queen, either," he said with a lascivious grin. "But I suppose I do have a lot of work piled up."
He threw her a look full of regret that hinted that had there not been the unpleasant obstacle of work, he would have gladly tumbled her in the sheets for a few more rounds.
The work for the Festival of Bounty truly began to start. Annabeth looked over the grounds where the equestrian and horse polo competitions were to be held, then ordered any repairs. Then, she had to allocate the lodgings for any foreign dignitaries invited to the festival. Prince Jason was on the list, much to Lady Piper's joy.
Both she and the king were running here and there to prepare for the festival, as well as alleviate any problems the Eldoris citizens encountered. Annabeth cursed the king all day as she worked through her sore waist and thighs.
After that explosive and passionate night, the king didn't ask for another round of love-making. There had been a drought in three counties of Eldoris, so the king would travel to those regions and use his hydrokinesis to relieve some of the drought impacting the agricultural fields before he came back to the palaces. Annabeth had been woken up sometimes as the king crawled into bed with her, held her in his arms and slept before waking up early once more and leaving to tend to another area affected by drought. She would be lying if she said she didn't want to experience the mind-numbing sex from before, but both she and the king were too drained to do more than a few chaste kisses before sleeping.
Annabeth continued her schedules of swordsmanship and equestrian lessons, and then focused on managing the palaces and prepping for the festival. Fortunately, after throwing out the servants who weren't doing their jobs properly, the rest of the staff were on their toes to keep their jobs.
But it wasn't as if there weren't any incidents.
Piper, Lucy, and even Sir Nico who hated being outside in the sun, got together to force Annabeth to take a break before her workaholic habits caught up with her.
Annabeth ended up being gently but firmly kicked out of her study for an hour to wander in the gardens. The gardeners were refreshing every royal garden, planting new heat and drought resistant plants and cleaning up the marble statues. So at first, Annabeth didn't think much of the young girl digging holes for some new dahlia plants and geraniums.
Annabeth paused. "Hello," she greeted with a warm smile.
The gardener looked up, startled as she dropped the gloves she was taking off. "Y-Your Majesty."
Annabeth didn't look that scary, did she? As queen, she was wearing a blue silk dress with her hair braided with gold thread and a coronet on her head. Though Annabeth's attire was simple, there was no doubt that she was the queen.
Almost, that is.
Annabeth observed what she was planting. "How long have you been working as a gardener?" She asked the nervous young woman.
"Three days, Your Majesty."
The young woman bowed her head, exposing a soft nape. Her dress was slightly pulled open at the collar, exposing a hint of her ample bosom. She looked to be about eighteen or nineteen. Sitting there among the red flowers with her blonde hair, she looked like a pure girl wearing white.
A pity that her intended audience was not here.
"And before then?" Annabeth continued the small talk.
"Pardon me, Your Majesty?"
"Before you worked as a gardener, where did you work before?"
The young woman looked up, clear confusion in her grey eyes. "I-I worked in a tavern as a barmaid."
Strike one.
"Is that so?" Annabeth smiled gently.
She looked at the dirty gardening gloves that the woman had dropped, exposing her pale hands without any blemish on them. Annabeth's eyes lowered onto the girl's pretty leather shoes, now stained with water and mud. Strikes two and three.
Annabeth reached out and held the girl's hands and stroked the soft skin. "What pretty hands you have," she said. "And a set of striking eyes as well."
The girl shuddered. Behind the queen, Sir Nico put his hands on his sheathed sword.
Annabeth dropped the girl's hands and smiled. When she left the garden, her smile dropped.
"Find out where that girl has been for the past three days. Dig up all the areas where she was planting. And find out what the head gardener has to say about this."
She felt that the people here didn't seem to exercise their brains much, only performing variations of the same trickery yet never covering up their flaws.
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Sir Nico had the girl sent for questioning. Sir Grover soon overtook the case and had the young gardener taken away. Whenever that happened, the knights knew when to look the other way.
Within three hours, the young woman was lying bound in her cell in the secret dungeon, no longer looking like the pure girl she tried to portray. Her dress was stained red from bearing over twenty whip lashes and her wheat colored hair lay plastered to her face from sweat. Still, she had the energy to glare with venomous grey eyes when Grover stepped inside the cell.
A cloth covered bundle was dropped onto the floor. A voodoo doll with yellow yarn for hair and several muddy roots fell out. Seeing this, the bound woman shuddered. She was finished for sure.
"H-how?" The woman coughed out, a little blood staining her pale lips. "How did she know?"
Those items were buried underneath several dahlia plants she had potted a couple days ago.
Grover curled his lips in disgust, not bothering to answer. The queen had an eagle eye.
There were so many mistakes made by this young woman he wouldn't even know where to begin. What kind of gardener wore white clothing that was easily stained by mud and had hands not marred from hard work? Even his beloved Juniper had to use expensive lotion to keep her hands from being calloused from working in the gardens.
Even the young woman's answer that she had worked as a barmaid before working in the palace was flawed. A barmaid working in a tavern would have rough hands as well from sweeping the floors and cleaning tables after customers. She could not have afforded the expensive lotions that kept her hands soft and white on a barmaid's salary.
Clearly, her unblemished skin indicated that this person had never done a single bit of hard work in her life. Not to mention, anyone experienced with working in the fields would not have worn expensive leather shoes to be stained with mud and water. She was not a barmaid, nor was she a gardener.
Whoever inserted this person here did not think far enough. Did they think that just because someone looked similar to the queen, they would be able to stir the king's interest? Merely looking like the queen was not enough.
There were many beauties out there, all with their unique points. Princess Alana of Kiran was famed for her golden beauty. Then there was the now Crown Princess Reyna of Barinia with her striking features. Lady Silena Beareugard still turned men with her glamorous beauty and figure despite being engaged, and Sir Rachel was like a warrior princess described in legends past with her flame-haired beauty. And the queen of Eldoris even dared to have the lovely Lady Piper McLean by her side and the king of Eldoris wasn't even tempted one bit.
The culprit behind this didn't seem to understand what kind of man King Perseus was. He was not a lusty man who was content with empty headed women due to his background and parental influences. The queen of Eldoris had an unique flavor with her intelligence and fiery personality that suited the king very much. Grover had never seen the king in a bad mood after spending time with the queen.
Grover stepped closer to the despondent woman. He was quite pissed off, especially as Juniper was the head gardener and had almost gotten in trouble because an undesirable weed had sneaked in and dared to call itself a flower.
"Who is the one behind you?"
The woman spat out blood and saliva, the liquids landing pitifully far from Grover.
"So this is how the king dares to be? Coward, show yourself!"
Grover sighed. He didn't have time for this, but neither did Percy. In fact, Grover being here was already merciful enough. The king would have already had her fingernails pried off or dumped her entire whipped and bruised body into lemon juice. But to have the king show up in front of her was a privilege she didn't have.
"Give her ten more lashes to see if she wakes up to reality," Grover said.
The guard was startled. Normally, Sir Grover hated seeing bloodshed. Today, he was different.
Grover was already overworked with helping to manage the drought situation. Then his lover was dragged into this mess. When he thought of Juniper's tears, Grover snapped. Even he was surprised he hadn't gone crazy earlier yet. It was probably an effect of seeing all the atrocities the king had faced and had to commit in order to keep everyone's heads on their shoulders.
The whip was raised high in the air. Outside of the secret dungeon, no one heard the pleas of mercy.
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Annabeth looked over the report that evening. Voodoo doll? Frankly she didn't believe in them, but this world did have magic after all. Lord Christopher had secretly looked at the doll and confirmed while there was no dark magic, the doll had been soaked in a poisonous liquid. The roots were from some sort of belladonna plant and would eventually leak a substance in the air that could produce infertility.
Annabeth felt like she was in the midst of some television palace drama or something. She had thought that the young girl was certainly suspicious and was trying to aim for the king. Who knew that she had tried to get two birds in the bush by trying to hurt Annabeth as well? Appearances truly were deceiving. A girl barely eighteen had agreed to do such a vile act of attempting to murder.
Physicians immediately came in to give her a check up, and thankfully, neither of the objects had been there long enough to cause any harm.
A hint of a sardonic smile left her lips. She didn't have to order anything, but Annabeth was aware that the young woman's fate was already sealed.
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Alana looked at the letter sent back from Tynan and slammed it on her desk. That bastard crown prince of Tynan had said no to her marriage proposal. Of course, the talks of an alliance between Kiran and Tynan had already stalled, but now Crown Prince Jason had now formally declined marriage politely saying that he was not worthy of her hand.
Not worthy of her hand? Clearly, he didn't want to marry her and thought her not worthy of him!
"Please calm your anger, Princess," pleaded Sir Luke.
He didn't know what was in the letter that made her so angry, but he felt that whoever or what had made his secret first love angry deserved the worst. Besides, every time she was angry, her body would start coughing up blood. He quickly brought her a new cup of medicinal tea.
Alana barely cast a glance at her personal knight. For once, his handsome face, full of concern for her, did little to assuage her anger.
What now?
The king of Kiran was now more inclined to listen to the words of Prime Minister Alexander. That son of a bitch minister had even suggested that Alana marry a duke from Kiran should an alliance with Tynan now work out. As if Alana didn't know that this duke was a distant relative of the prime minister.
And now the Barinia prince was trying to connect with her. Seriously? The prince hadn't been even been selected as the crown prince of his country. What did Barinia think they were? They weren't even the size of Tynan and didn't have the same abundance of resources.
Alana needed to think and cool her head.
"Luke, attend me."
She threw some of her light magic at the knight, not bothering to restrain the amount of magic that she used. Luke's blue eyes glazed over for a few seconds.
"Yes, my princess."
"It's Your Highness, or Princess Alana to you," Alana snapped. She grabbed Luke's chin and forced him to look in her eyes. "I am not yours. Now come and serve me in bed."
When Luke was fully unclothed, Alana pushed him onto her bed, not bothering to take off her dress. She gave his length a few pumps with her hand, then sank herself down on his half hardened cock. At least the handsome knight was good for one thing since he had no political power to help her ambitions.
The room began to fill with moans. Luke's face contorted in pleasure and pain as Alana's hands clutched at his throat.
Alana's mind was clear. There had been a point in her plans where everything went astray.
Annabeth.
Everything went wrong the moment that half-peasant stayed alive. Annabeth had to die.
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A/N: As always, see you all next chapter!