I disliked how heavy this woman was, and how she kept struggling in my arms as if she didn’t enjoy being carried. I snickered to myself at the sarcastic thought.

“Put me down, right now!” I rolled my eyes as she began to beat at my back, but her words went in one ear and flew right out of the other one. I was on a mission to get her back to the arena, and we were just there anyway.

Her struggles gradually stopped and right when we got back to the arena’s ground.

There were two guards standing at the entrance of the arena, and they looked at me with surprise as I just walked right through the opening. The Queen didn’t utter a single word as we passed them by, and as soon as I stepped into the open ground of the arena, I heard cheers.

“The Queen!” Multiple people were yelling out as I finally placed the royal highness onto her own two feet. She swiped the strand of hair which had fallen over one of her eyes, before she glared at me harshly.

“I present to you all, your new King!” I turned away from the redhead to look up at the platform where the Queen’s advisor was stood with a pleased smile. “Of course.” I heard a mutter from behind me but chose to ignore it since I was gearing up to give the advisor a show of my own.

But before I could take off my helmet, the advisor continued.

“The gladiator passed the test of saving our dear Queen from getting abducted!”

“Test?” I looked at the Queen who had spoken the same word in unison with me, and then sent a glare over in my direction. I didn’t like saying the same things as her either, but unfortunately for me, she couldn’t see my hateful stares. “What are you saying, Elric?!”

The arena fell quiet immediately as the Queen’s vice rang out high and mighty. I couldn’t even believe that a small and lean woman like her could have such power in her feminine voice. She still sounded sickly sweet, but her range was loud and clear.

Elric – the advisor – looked onto us before he made his way down to us from the stairs right beside the platform. Damn, how could I have not seen those before? I climbed the damned walls for no reason! While I was mentally berating myself for not using actual structural stairs, Elric had already reached us. He looked at the Queen with a smile which spoke more words than he would’ve, and the Queen finally relented with a sigh.

“Our new King!”

This was my cue.

“I have something to tell everybody here!”

Elric and the Queen looked over to my direction with bothered looks but didn’t say anything to stop me. I smirked before reaching up to grab my helmet, ultimately taking it off my head. As soon as my hair fell past my shoulders, and my face came into view – there were considerable gasps from the audience, and even from the two near me.

“I am a woman! And I won this battle fair and square! Tell me now! Would the ever benevolent and righteous Queen do what she promised and marry me!”

My words should’ve been enough to stop any kind of proceedings for a marriage, especially since two women marrying had been so unheard of in our kingdom. We had heard about it from other kingdoms, but never from our very own Geraldia.

“Such insolence!” Elric spat at me as I smirked in his direction. “You abused this fair match and your Queen’s trust!”

My eyes narrowed in disbelief. “The announcement for the battle didn’t mention that only men could compete.”

Elric raised up a shaky finger in my direction as he turned to look over to the line of guards standing by each entrance of the arena. “Guards! Seize this woman right this instance!”

“So, the Queen doesn’t actually keep her word.” I smirked knowing that this was the moment. Turning over to the audience which was still watching everything play out in silence – I began to go through with my plan – to humiliate the Queen.

“Look at this! I was promised a throne and a marriage if I won, and I’m getting neither! Is this how the Queen works for her people?! By fooling them into believing her!” I pointed at the redhead, who stood watching me with an unreadable expression on her face. Her eyes stared at me with an emotion I couldn’t decipher. “Are you a liar, Queen Amelia Goldenheart?”

It was as if I had awakened something terrifying as she looked at me with a deathly look in her eyes. “I, Amelia Goldenheart, take you as my King!”

“Your highness!”

My mouth opened in shock as I looked at her with all her seriousness, before turning towards the people in the audience. The old man didn’t tell me what to do if the Queen agreed on the marriage. His only plan was for me to humiliate her, and she would throw me in prison or something, anything to try to get rid of me just to save face.

But this woman had actually agreed to a marriage.

As I turned to look back at the Queen, she had a smirk on her face this time. I gulped, seeing the clear challenge in her eyes. “What? Were you just talking big? Did you or did you not win this battle to marry me? Or was this just a ploy for you to humiliate me?” From her words, I could tell that she had figured out my plan, which was bad.

Where was the damned old man when you needed him?

“I would understand if you backed off now. Being King is not something you could do anyway. Ruling a kingdom needs drive and intelligence. You seem to be lacking in both.” And she giggled right after saying that. Who giggles after being straight up rude to a person they barely know? Definitely, a royal bitch.

“You know what? I’ll marry you. I’ll marry you because I earned it and I’m going to be the King.”

I pointed at the redhead, who simply smirked in my direction while her advisor watched us with wide eyes and an open mouth. Neither of us knowing what had actually happened. Well, the Queen knew, because she had been the one to twist everything up into what she had wanted in the end.

“Brilliant.” She turned to the advisor immediately as I frowned. “Elric.” What just happened? “Send for the royal chalice and the 50-year wine. And bring the crown.” My eyes widened at how nonchalant she was as she directed the man to get everything we needed to get married right then and there.

“But your Highness --”

“Elric. I gave my word.”

“W-Words are easily exchanged, you k-know, you could --” My mouth shut immediately as the redhead snapped her eyes right over to me and regarded me with a serious look. “I’ll stop talking.”

Elric sighed as he looked from me to the redheaded Queen, before nodding his head and turning to walk over to one of the entrances of the arena.

As soon as he was gone, and we were the only two left, in the centre of the arena, under the eyes of, probably, most of the Kingdom – the Queen turned to me. “What is your name?” I swallowed the nervous knot in my throat before speaking. “Bran.”

Raising an eyebrow in amusement, she tilted her head slightly which I noticed for some odd reason. I had just also noticed the crown on her head which somehow hadn’t slipped from her head when I was carrying her on my shoulder.

Probably the writer’s mistake for eating up intricate details just like she eats away at her life by being useless and unproductive.

I didn’t even know where that had come from since I had just wondered about the crown. Maybe the crown fit snugly on her head or something.

But while I had absorbed myself into my head, Queen Amelia Goldenheart was completely out in the open and addressing the people before her. “Loyal people of Geraldia! I will take Bran as my rightful spouse in front of you all! I expect to receive your support in accepting our union today for Bran has earned her place here today!”

Her words were all well-spoken and everyone, including me, was listening to her without making a single sound. It was like she was hypnotizing us all. A trance which was only broken when Elric returned with the objects that the Queen had asked him to bring over.

The royal chalice, the 50-year-old wine, and the King’s crown.

“Your highness.” He presented the things to the Queen on a tray while sitting on one knee with his head bowed. I watched as she picked up the bottle of wine first. It was a round bottle with a thin neck. It looked almost like a vase, but as she poured the liquid inside of the chalice; my worries grew.

She was serious. This was happening. And I still couldn’t find the old man anywhere.

“With this chalice filled with wine made from nature’s most diverse fruit – I, Amelia Goldenheart, hope to have a sweet bond with you, Bran, just like pairs of grapes. I wish to stay rooted with you, to support you and ask of you the same unconditionally. I hope to age with you and keep this bond intact. For this lifetime and all the other lifetimes after it.”

My eyes remained watching the redhead, who had said all of that while turning to me with a darkness in her eyes. I could tell her words were empty and meaningless, but they had been beautiful, and it had led me to believe that I had to say something as well. So, I did, as she came closer to me with the chalice.

“Um, I, Bran Grine, hope the s-same as you, Amelia Goldenheart.” Nailed it.

The Queen shook her head slightly before she raised the chalice over to me. “Kings first.” Her lips stretched into a smirk as I hesitantly took the chalice from her hands. Glancing at the audience we still had, and the rows and rows of people who looked at us with already accepting gazes – I swallowed my saliva, before bringing the chalice to my lips and gulping down the liquid completely.

Drinking all the contents of the cup, I brought it away from my mouth and handed it back to the Queen, who watched me with curiosity. “We were supposed to share that.”

“O-Oh?”

Shaking her head, she went back to the tray and repeated her previous actions. “We can do this again.” Well, I felt dumb. And how was I even supposed to know that we had to share that? I thought she meant, we had to drink entire cups of the wine.

The only thing good out of my terrible mistake was the amazing wine. That was probably why they kept the wine in storage for only weddings, because it tasted so good.

“Here.” The Queen handed me the chalice again, before she continued. “This time, leave some for me as well.”

Smiling sheepishly, I drank only a mouthful of the wine this time, before returning the chalice. I watched as she looked down at the wine for a while. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking but Elric cleared his throat non-invasively which had her drinking the remaining liquid completely.

As soon as she had finished the drink, she placed the chalice onto the tray carefully. Grabbing the crown this time, Amelia Goldenheart turned to me immediately. “And with this final act of crowning you as King, I take you as my spouse wholeheartedly.”

I felt the weight of her words and the weight of the crown on my head simultaneously. It was big on my head, but her words had been incredibly heavy on my heart since I had tied myself to her without ever wanting it to happen.

It was supposed to be a plan to humiliate her. Ruin her image for the people of Geraldia, but judging from the cheers which followed my crowning; I was sure that Amelia Goldenheart had just found more appreciation.

She was going to be loved more now.

Elric looked at me pointedly as the Queen looked at me expectantly. I didn’t know what either of the two wanted but amidst the loud cheers, I heard her voice directing me clearly. Only because she wanted me to do something absolutely unthinkable.

“Kiss me.”

“W-What? No.”

She glared at me before her arms were moving to wrap around my shoulders. My eyes widened as she pulled me into her and easily claimed my lips with her own. For some reason, the cheers got louder but the noise couldn’t compare to the violent thumps of her heart and mine.

The kiss had been short, but it had been long for me. I could’ve sworn I grew a year or two in the time she had her lips on mine.

My instinctive move after she pulled away from me, was to wipe at my lips, but somehow, I had managed to keep my hands limply to my sides. Useless hands.

She looked at me for a while longer before she unwrapped her arms from around my neck and turned to the people still cheering for us. A bunch of perverts, if we’re being honest.

“Thank you for accepting this union, loyal people of Geraldia!”

“We should go, your highness.” Elric leaned forward to speak to the Queen, who nodded her head immediately. Turning to me once again, she regarded me as if being forced to. “Come along now, my King. We are going home.”

My head swam as I thought of what she was implying, and with how loud everything was around me. We had just finished drinking some incredible wine and kissed. And her hair matched the colour of the wine, and my body was exhausted from all that fighting.

It felt like I was feeling everything all at once. The fighting, the beating, the marriage and the kissing. Also, that delicious wine. Have I complimented how amazing the wine tasted? Probably not.

Maybe I should ask some more from her. I chuckled at the thought as my eyes began to close by themselves. Maybe this was all a vivid dream. I could wake up and I’d be back in the forest, practicing with that old geezer.

He trained me to fight and not lose, but he had failed to train me on how to deal with a spontaneous marriage. Oh, how dark everything looked for me? And how dark everything was getting right now.

My eyes closed as soon as I realized what was happening and everything in my body just went still.

As the darkness consumed me, I let it, since nothing could be darker than that amazing wine.