I felt something continuously nudging my leg, as if an animal was beside me and trying to get my attention. Groaning at the feeling, I slowly opened my eyes, blinking at the light hitting my face.

Where was I even?

“Finally.” Immediately, my head turned to my side to see the redheaded woman sitting beside me. As I looked away from her and at my surroundings, I realized that we were in a carriage which was moving.

“I have so many questions.”

“You have questions.”

“Are you reading my mind now?!” I looked at her with a frown as she stared at me with a serious expression. “You said that out loud.”

“Oh.” Looking down and away from her, my eyes fell to the hand, which was pushing away my knee. “Sorry.” Immediately sitting up properly in the seat, I collected both my legs and kept them away from the Queen, who was barely showing any emotions.

“You fainted after our marriage ceremony.” That was barely a ceremony and I thought it was a dream. An actively real and vivid dream. “It wasn’t a dream.” My eyes widened when she raised an eyebrow at me. She could hear my thoughts; I was sure of it. There was no other way she’d be able to know what I was thinking about.

“You’re a King now. I hope you got what you wanted.” The way she said that made me look like someone who had forced this entire situation on her, with her head turned to look out of the carriage window. That wasn’t the case at all! She was the one who was prepared to abandon all logic and marry me as if it was something that had happened before.

Feeling the bitterness rise inside of me, I grabbed at her arm, turning her towards me. “I didn’t ask for this and I’m not the one who dragged both of us into this fake marriage.”

The redheaded woman raised an eyebrow of amusement before she snatched her arm away from me. This time, glaring in my direction, she leaned forwards and pushed at my shoulder. “You kept saying that I wasn’t going to keep my word. I did only what I had promised to do, which was marry the winner. It doesn’t matter to me who you are or not.”

Her eyes held anger and I couldn’t help but to feel small in her presence, but if she thought I was going to let her get away with being horrible to me; she had something else coming. Pushing her hand away, I shoved her against the seat of the carriage, not realizing how my hands held more power than hers.

“Hey!” The carriage rattled since I had been a bit harsher than she had been with me. Instantly realizing my mistake, I backed away, but not before she had pushed me. I frowned before pushing her again. And with this, initiated a battle of shoving each other until the carriage stopped and we were both panting from the useless exertion.

“Your h-highness? I-Is everything alright?” The stuttered voice of the driver came from outside and Amelia glared at me before turning away and answering. “Everything is fine. Have we reached the castle?”

I only watched her with a glare as the driver’s voice drifted into the carriage again. “Y-Yes, your majesty.”

As the information was shared, I was quick to slam open my side of the door and leave the carriage. I didn’t want to be in the same space as the stupid Queen for any more time than I should’ve been. As I walked around the carriage, I noticed her with her side of the door open as well.

I heard a throat clearing as she looked at me with a certain look in her eyes. She was still inside of the carriage but wasn’t getting out. I frowned at her in confusion, but she remained watching me.

And while we were both staring at one another, the driver stepped forward. “S-Should I help you out, y-your Highness?”

“My King can do it.” I stopped myself from snorting in amusement. I was not going to do any such thing. I wasn’t her assistant or servant. She could get out by herself.

Crossing my arms in front of me, I stared at her with narrowed eyes, challenging her to make me do anything I didn’t want to do. Her eyes were extremely intense and dark, as if she was burrowing into my soul. My arms slowly uncrossed as I began to feel uncomfortable.

“Quickly now, my King.” Her voice was sickeningly sweet for some reason which brought me more discomfort. The driver remained watching us as if there was a play happening in front of him.

Feeling the pressure from the Queen’s eyes and the discomfort from the driver mixed with mine, I relented. Useless me.

“Fine.” Stepping forward, I extended a hand for the Queen to take. She smiled widely with satisfaction, and I suddenly felt the need to punch her. But I had to control my violent urges because she was the Queen, and I was someone that could easily be sent to death for harming her.

She grabbed a hold of my hand and finally exited the carriage with the smile still on her face. Somehow, her smile was dazzling which was exactly why the driver remained rooted to his place beside the carriage even when we walked past him towards the castle doors.

There were several guards standing by the door, welcoming us with bows. Not the bow you’d expect.

“Are they all archers?” I asked in confusion as I looked from one guard to another. You’d think that guards at the front of the castle would be donning swords or spears. Not bows and arrows.

“They also have swords.” That was her simple answer as if my question was dumb and not her guards’ choice of primary weaponry.

Rolling my eyes, I simply followed her, feeling her hand still being in my own. Well, I wanted to let it go but she had held on for some reason. I didn’t mind much since I still felt a little light-headed and I was somehow scared.

This was not a part of my plan, and I didn’t know what was going to happen now. I couldn’t even talk to the old man for the final time. He had to get me out of this situation but even I wasn’t certain how he could actually do that.

We walked past the guards and entered the castle easily without having anyone approach us. And as we found ourselves inside of the place, immediately, the Queen’s advisor was in our face.

Well, not hers. Just mine.

“Can you stand a little away?” I grumbled as I pushed him away. Sensing my discomfort now, the Queen also looked at the old advisor with a certain stare. He was immediately stepping backwards and giving me space, but not before glaring at me as if I had gotten him into trouble. “I want to clear things up for our new King.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You are not to believe that you are important. You are just here to care for the Queen as a spouse and not as a true ruler of this Kingdom.” I didn’t really think about ruling this horrible kingdom either way. So, that was going to be easy. “You are not to attend court or talk to any of the nobles unless addressed. You are not to make any important decisions without the Queen’s approval either.” Alright, those weren’t difficult tasks either.

“Also,” Oh no, there was more. Elric looked at the Queen before he turned to me, but not before glancing down at our forcibly conjoined hands. “You will only initiate contact with the Queen if and when she allows it herself.”

I felt the Queen let go of my hand, which I was glad for. Plus, she could’ve easily told me all of this herself instead of Elric, who was looking at me like I was a damned criminal.

“Elric, calm down.”

“I am calm, your highness.” If he called that calm, then I’d like to see him when he loses his shit.

“I’ll believe you, Elric.” I snorted despite controlling myself. Of course, she also saw his lie from right beside me. My actions had immediate consequences since Elric threw me a hateful glare despite looking embarrassed from the Queen’s sarcastic reply.

But before he could say anything else, Queen Amelia chose to become the peacekeeper. “I will tell her about the other rules in our chamber.”

Our chamber. Sounded extremely intimate as well as like a torture chamber. Maybe it was reserved for when she’d secretly torture me. Not like being with her in a relationship like this wasn’t a torment of its own.

“Yes, your highness.” Elric bowed his head before stepping to the side. I wanted to smirk at him, but he wasn’t looking at us anymore. Suddenly, I felt my hand being grasped onto again, which brought a shiver of dislike to my body. I wanted to take it away from her, but her hold was tight and strong. Who would have expected such strength from such a weak looking person?

As I struggled in her hold, she glanced at me coldly, and I was behaving like an obedient child immediately.

“We’ll be going to our chamber now.” Elric bowed further and finally she began to walk and drag me along with her. It wasn’t a good feeling, but it didn’t matter since she clearly didn’t care how I felt.

We walked past several maids and guards, and all of them bowed their heads in respect. But I could see their glances towards me and then at our conjoined hands specifically. For the Queen to have just met me, she had quite easily performed the marriage ceremony with me in front of almost the entire kingdom, and now she was walking in her castle with her hand grasping onto mine tightly.

It brought an odd sensation to me, and I didn’t understand how she could be so aloof about this entire situation.

Only two answers came to my mind about that. One was that she didn’t care whoever sat on the throne beside her, and the other was that she was probably glad to marry a woman because that meant nobody would boss her around.

A male King would’ve probably asked her for more power in the kingdom, but a woman wouldn’t particularly want that. I knew for sure that I didn’t want it at all. But then again, I also didn’t want to let the Queen off so easily.

As we finally stopped in front of a door, the Queen regarded the two guards with her chin held high in the air. “You both can leave for the day.”

My eyes widened when they bowed further and then left to go off somewhere. Even when I was feeling terrified for some reason, I remained quiet while she opened the door. Entering inside of the room, she pulled me along with her and slammed the door shut.

“Finally.” Her eyes immediately changed colour. Well, not the actual colour of her irises, but more like they became brighter for some reason. A wide smile also graced her lips, and I frowned in genuine confusion. What was all this about now?

“You don’t know how much you’ve helped me out today!” My eyes narrowed as she flipped strands of hair from over her shoulder before going to sit on her fluffy looking bed. “What do you mean?” I asked up with hesitation since I didn’t want to offend her like I had inside of the carriage. I wanted to take my revenge and ruin her life, but not at the cost of being killed off for being mean to the Queen.

I was in her castle anyway. This was her domain, and I was just a guest, for now.

“I didn’t want to marry a man, and you’re not a man.” Her eyes bore into mine as she smiled at me. Her nonchalant tone of voice brought further unease and confusion to me since I hadn’t expected her to say something like that. “That’s a strange thing to say, aren’t we all supposed to marry men?”

I mean, I didn’t want to marry anyone, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.

She looked at me before chuckling. Standing up from the bed again, she walked closer to me. “As someone who looks almost like a man – I wasn’t expecting such an ignorant question.” Her words brought me more confusion but even before I could voice out more questions, she turned around.

“Anyway, all the rules that Elric told you before are to be followed.” I watched her as she went to remove her mantle. Moving to hang it properly over the hooks on the wall beside the bed, she turned to look at me. “But only because we must keep up appearances. If it were up to me, I would’ve liked help in managing this kingdom.”

My eyebrow raised in amusement. So, she’s lazy and wants help in ruling the kingdom. Maybe being married to her could bring me closer to ruining her once and for all. Perhaps I could just pretend to be kind to her and get her to speak more about her life and then use all that information to my advantage.

“There’s also something you must know before we are to move forward with our relationship.” I frowned at how she emphasized the word but chose to swallow down the distaste. She continued, “I have a cousin who is of royal birth. His mother, however, is a noblewoman.”

I didn’t know why she was suddenly mentioning her cousin and his family background. Why were we even discussing that? But as she continued, I realized why she felt the need to mention that to me. “My aunt wanted me to marry him so to make things easier for me, but I would’ve rather taken up a peasant than to marry him.” She looked at me before widening her eyes and adding in. “N-Not that there’s anything wrong with being an ordinary person!”

Hm, that was a terrible save on her part, but I wasn’t going to fall from her good books. I was going to be the kindest, most generous spouse there could ever be.

Stretching my lips into a smile, I shook my head. “No offense taken, your highness.”

One of her eyebrows raised up in curiosity, probably because we both had been pushing each other like toddlers inside of the carriage before, and now I was being nice to her. Thankfully, she didn’t mention it as she chose to continue what she was saying.

“I don’t want you to feel threatened by him if ever he comes around for a visit. I plan to remain married to you for as long as I live.” I swallowed hard at that information. That was a horrible plan on her end, and I didn’t plan to do any such thing, but she didn’t look like someone I could persuade.

Shaking her head as if to rid herself of some thoughts, she chose to smile in my direction which caused me to subtly wince at how bright it was.

“You can call me Amelia from now on, and I’ll call you Bran.”

“Of course.” I smiled back at her, not really liking the way she was speaking out my name, but I couldn’t help it.

“I have some court matters to attend but I will be sure to join you for dinner.” She walked towards me before placing her hand over my arm. “Make yourself at home, my King. This is your castle as well from now on.” My eyes widened when she leaned forwards and right into my personal space. I felt her breath on my cheek before feeling her soft lips.

She said nothing more or did anything else as she stepped backwards from me. Just the smile on her face was enough to make me shiver, which was also the last thing she sent over to me before leaving the chamber.

I felt conflicted and stupefied.

What was I supposed to do now after she kissed my cheek?

Wash my cheek with water and soap, or cut it right off with a cleaver?