The next morning, the kingdom of Palaverda hummed with an excited energy; everywhere city had a celebratory mood, and the roads were clean and filled with hawkers of different wares, showing their goods to the visiting kingdoms.
The cause of today’s ceremony was fast asleep as her guards were too far away, wandering how to wake her up to start dressing for the day.
”Nailia, the queen trusts you more.
Wake her up.” The other guard said as she pushed the task to Nalia, who had a difficult expression as she watched the queen’s sleeping form.
”You’re also the queen’s guard; if you get scared over little things, how would you slay monsters and invade the kingdom?
Now wake the queen up.” Nalia said with a high-sounding tone, her face expressionless as always.
It made the guard almost feel that she was not courageous enough, but the feeling died in the cradle when she heard her last sentence, so all these words were just to make her wake the queen up!
She shook her head at Nalia’s sachems.
Nalia tsk internally when she found her words didn’t work, then she settled for the second best thing.
She formed a whip with her magic, the red whip crept up to the queen on the bed and poked her on the shoulders.
”Your Majesty, please wake up!
Today is the ceremony!” she shouted in a loud tone from afar as she poked the queen.
The other woman nodded at her actions and looked at the queen stir.
Elora frowned, feeling something poking her; she swatted at it to stop it so she could sleep peacefully.
The both of them patted their chest in relief that they were not in close range of the hit, the hit almost destroyed the whip form, but Nalia reacted in time and added more magic energy to it.
She poked the queen again who swatted the while four more times before she opened her eyes in anger.
Elora’s eyes darted around to find the culprit but found nothing, only her guards standing at the door.
‘that thing should pray she doesn’t catch it; if she does, she would squash the life out of its feeble insect body.’ After venting her anger with her thoughts, she rubbed her eyes and yawned into her hands.
For some reason Nalia felt a shiver down her spine, her heart growing cold.
”Good morning, Your Majesty,” They both chorused, their voices trembling slightly.
”Your Majesty, should we call in the maid to dress you up from the ceremony.” The other guard, Lisa asked.
Elora’s dazed mind frowned thinking hard at Lisa’s words.
‘ceremony!
What ceremony?’ her sleep-muddled mind hadn’t woken up yet and she nodded in reply.
Nalia quickly rang the bell, and five maids entered with different things in their hands, ranging from her clothes, shoes and the rest.
They came in like a storm, ”Your majesty, have drawn a bath up.” A maid said”Your Majesty, I’m in charge of your hair and makeup.”
”Your majesty your breakfast is ready.
You have to eat before we put on the gown on you.”
”Your majesty…”
Elora’s head buzzed with too much noise, she kept hearing your majesty, your majesty.
She didn’t know how she found herself in the bath, or how her hair had been treated, with her nails being filed.
She watched herself with an out-of-body experience, how she was being prepared for the ceremony.
She finally remembered what was happening today.
As the queen went through her preparation the other castle was bought as well, her aunts and cousins all dressed like the main character today, trying to outshine the queen on her day.
Some husbands schemed for their wives to take them to the main castle.
Alden cuddled upon his wife Sharon and spoke in a soft tone.
”Your Highness, you are so beautiful, I wish I was there to see you outshine the queen on her day.” He kissed her softly in the neck, his expression filled with amazement at her beauty.
Sharon heard his words and her vanity was stroked to the extreme, she kissed him deeply on his lips her hands finding their way to his lower half as she groped him not so gently.
”mm…” Alden let out a moan she wanted to hear and she felt satisfied at her control over his body.
She released him and locked gazed with his moist eyes.
”Alright, you can follow me… but satisfy first,” she said in a tone thick with lust, bending his head over her gown without his consent like he was some cheap prostitute and not her husband.
His expression, hidden under her gown, was filled with undisguised disgust and hatred.
His head was pressed between the folds of her lower lip.
He took it in his mouth, his tongue stroking into her pink walls, as he pleasured her.
Sharon’s head was thrown back, her eyes dilated with pleasure, her breath coming out in short pants, as he stroked skillfully, his mouth sucking hard on her clit.
”hhh…mm…” moans left her lips at his action.
In another castle Aurora watched her mother brought in by the place guards, her back covered with a mess of flesh and bone, her face pale and etched with a permanent painful expression.
Aurora’s eyes widened in shock at once.
Her strong shrewd mother was reduced to this; even her magic was gone, and now she was a crippled person whose lifespan was like a normal person.
She stood there in shock as one of her fathers called for the healer, her heart chilled at the thought of meeting the culprit that reduced her mother to the pathetic form, her fist clenched on her gown as fury surged in her heart mixed with fear.
She closed her eyes to calm her beating heart, the smell of her mother’s blood wafting into her nose, making it hard for her to breathe.
She left the room, passing her sibling, who didn’t have time to put on a bothered expression.
The seven of their gaze locked briefly and Aurora sped up her pace and rushed outside.
She took deep breaths, feeling a bit calmer.
To say she was sad for her mother would have been a lie; she was angry that she had lost a backer and realised the queen was not an easy opponent as she thought before.
‘I have to win the competition and get a high-ranking mage as my teacher.
Yes, I can only trust myself now.’ She squeezed her hands feeling confident again at her magic level.
She faced in the direction of the main castle, standing high with a firm, determined gaze.