Over by the door, he saw Saki suddenly press her lips into a thin, straight line. She seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh. “If it’s of any assistance, Your Majesty,” she spoke up suddenly, “there’s another couple in the palace who might be interested in getting married at the Festival ofthe Goddess. The young lady is about Chie’s size, and I’m sure her dress would fit with only a few small adjustments.”
It was impossible to tell what Elise thought of the idea. She turned to Saki with a smile that was clearly forced. “Oh, really? And who would this young lady be?”
“She’s a housekeeper in the guards’ cottages. Her soulmate got a job here as a gardener about six months ago. They’re both betas, if that makes any difference. I’ve already overheard them planning to get married, so they’d probably be quite willing to slot into the available places at the Festival.”
“A gardener and a housekeeper,” the queen said, her voice sounding odd. “Well, I… I suppose that’s better than nothing.” After his father’s comments on not having enough nobility in the wedding ceremony, he suspected the change in arrangements was not anywhere close to an ideal solution for his mother. But even she seemed to realise she’d been backed into a corner. “There’s hardly any time left, and they’ll have to be fully prepared for the ceremony. Come with me, Saki, and point out this young woman to me. We can’t very well have the Festival ruined by these last minute changes in plans.” There was a wealth of censure in her voice, aimed squarely at Chie, but the young woman seemed to simply brush off the criticism as she would have done a comment on the weather. Elise swept dramatically out of the room, leaving a swirling cloud of perfume in her wake.
CHAPTER EIGHT
By the time Thursday night came around, Ryu was exhausted. His mathematics exam was over, high school was finished, and two nights of sleeplessness were catching up with him in a big way.
Unfortunately, rest was not to be had. Earlier that day, the Crown Princess of Iderheil had arrived, along with her aunt and her cousin, in preparation for the Festival of the Goddess, and such distinguished guests at the palace meant a full formal dinner was required in the evening. The entire Amagarda family had also been invited, along with Ryu’s aunt, Princess Yuko, her husband Prince Kei, and her three children.
Having been caught up in his final exam all afternoon, Ryu had missed the excitement of their arrival, but as he and his parents had prepared for the dinner, his mother hadn’t stopped gushing about how beautiful the Princess had become in the last few years. Jasmine was an omega, like her mother, and it was only an odd twist of fate that had led to an omega queen sitting the throne of the small island nation. Jasmine’s last visit to Galandeen had been when Ryu was only eleven, and truth be told, he didn’t remember a great deal about the then-thirteen-year-old girl. She’d been polite and a little shy, with her mother spending long hours in diplomatic talks with his parents while Ryu had concentrated on his school work and tried to hide his boredom.
Now, he followed the king and queen into the dining hall, remembering to stand up straight, even as he wilted with tiredness. He was wearing a beige suit – a colour he hated – but his mother had insisted, declaring that the navy blue suit he would have chosen for himself was ‘too sombre for such a festive event’.
“There she is,” Elise said, the instant they walked through the door. “Oh, doesn’t she look marvellous!”
Princess Jasmine was easy to spot, a bright blue gown contrasting with her dark skin, her hair adorned with white ribbons. Iderhean dress was traditionally far more colourful than Galandeen’s more subdued fashions, and beside her, her aunt was wearing a dress of deep crimson, while her cousin, a beta male, wore a suit of dark lilac.
Elise all but floated across the floor, interrupting the Princess’s conversation with Emica with a delicate clearing of her throat.
“I’m so sorry to interrupt. Emica, you look gorgeous,” she added, while Emica forced a smile. She was wearing a dress, dark blue and nicely understated, but Ryu knew she’d much prefer to have been allowed to wear trousers and a blouse. Emica had hated wearing skirts from the time she was a mere seven years old.
“Your Highness,” Elise said, with formality but also warmth. “May I introduce His Highness Prince Ryu.” She stood back beaming, while Ryu forced a smile of his own.
“It’s a pleasure to see you again,” he said, offering a bow while Jasmine curtseyed. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to meet you when you arrived.” No doubt his parents had already offered copious apologies for his absence, but protocol dictated he repeat the apology himself. “I trust the journey here went smoothly?” Such was the life of a royal, he thought, feeling a desperate urge to get the hell out of there. It was all just meaningless small talk and gentle concern designed to disguise their opulent wealth. He knew for a fact that Jasmine had come here in a private jet, so even on a bad day she would get to avoid the common irritations most people experienced when flying; lost luggage, noisy passengers, errors on boarding passes. What followed would be fifteen minutes of praise about the preparations for the Festival, combined with vacuous congratulations for Ryu on completing his exams. Boring.
But it seemed that Jasmine hadn’t read the script for the evening. She let out a tinkling laugh. “Smooth? You mean boring? Some days I could do with a little excitement. Speaking of which, I heard a rumour you were nearly kidnapped a few days ago.” She gave him a wink, totally ignoring both his mother and her aunt, standing only metres away. “Some days I wish someone would kidnapme.”
Elise was quick to jump in, no doubt trying to steer the conversation back to safer ground. “Captain Landis has been absolutely wonderful on that particular issue,” she said. “In fact, the last members of the rouge group were arrested today! Just in time for the Festival.”
“Oh, that is a relief,” Jasmine’s aunt joined in. “You’ve put so much effort into it, it would have been such a shame for it to be spoilt by such callous interruptions.”
“It’s an interesting point, though,” Ryu said, suddenly deciding to follow Jasmine’s lead. “They were a pro-democracy group. Iderheil began the slowmove towards democracy some twenty years ago. I’m curious as to the benefits of allowing our citizens more of a say in our political processes.”
He had no idea what Jasmine actually thought of Iderheil’s political situation. After all, her own powers had been sharply curtailed as a result of her mother’s decisions, and she was likely to lose even more of her privilege as time went on. But what he actually expected was for his mother to shut down that line of questioning before either Iderhean princess could answer.
“How interesting!” Jasmine’s aunt piped up immediately. “I had no idea Galandeen was considering introducing democracy.”
“There are no formal plans at this stage,” Elise assured her hastily. But what she said next just about blew Ryu away. “However, it’s always a worthwhile exercise to question the possibilities. If only from an intellectual perspective.”
What the heck? Shouldn’t she be defending her husband’s honour and declaring the idea of democracy out of the question?
“Even with all our progress, there are still factions pushing for greater powers for the parliament,” Jasmine said. “The queen still has the final say in passing any new laws, and there was a time about five years ago when she came very close to sacking the parliament. They were unable to pass a realistic budget for the year, and the ongoing infighting was threatening to destabilise the economy. Thankfully, the respective parties managed to reach an agreement in the end. But it was enough to prove her right in insisting the move towards democracy happen slowly. Look at Arctesia, for example. They went from a monarchy to a democracy almost overnight, after the revolution, and the most recent President of Arctesia has taken far more liberties with his position than could be considered healthy. A few of the comments he’s made recently suggest he’d very much like to set himself up as Emperor, if he could get away with it.”
“What are your views on democracy as a whole?” Ryu asked, amazed that he’d been allowed to get this far, and willing to push the subject a bit further, if he could get away with it. “Is a country more stable with an elected government, or an inherited monarchy?”
“The media in Iderheil ask me that all the time,” Jasmine said, with a knowing smirk. “They think I’m going to be upset about not inheriting all that money and power.” She said it with a deliberately wide-eyed look of greed. The look was gone a moment later, replaced by easy laughter. “To be honest, I’m looking forward to the day when I can just take a walk down the street without fourteen cameras being shoved in my face and a bodyguard tailing my every move. Oh! Speaking of bodyguards,” she added, glancing at something on the far side of the room. She gave Ryu’s arm a gentle nudge. “Here comes yours. And I must say, maybe I wouldn’t mind having one so much if he looked like that!”
Ryu turned around, seeing Danag and Kentario enter the room. Emica and Cael were already here, talking to Ryu’s cousins, but presumably the two elder Amagardas had been caught up in official business before breaking away to attend the dinner.
He felt his heart skip a beat as he took in the sight of his bodyguard. Both the formal Guard uniform and his customary black leather had been abandoned for the evening, and instead, Kentario was dressed in a formal suit in light grey, with an emerald-green tie. Even though Ryu knew he hated wearing suits, this one fitted him like a glove. But despite the formal outfit, with his ponytail and goatee, he still looked more suited to being a pirate than a noble lord.
“My, my, he is quite the dish,” Jasmine murmured in Ryu’s ear, and he jumped a fraction, not having noticed her step quite so close. As with the touch on his arm, her move was not quite adhering to formal protocol, though not so outrageous for her to get in any serious trouble. “I bet he gets all the attention from the ladies.”
It was half true. “Most women are too scared of him to try flirting,” Ryu said. But that didn’t stop them tittering about him behind his back. Not that Kentario gave a damn, but given his position as one more eligible noble without a soulmate, there was a regular circuit of omegas just dying to be seen on the arm of an Amagarda.
