“Firanna!? You can’t be serious! She hates me!”

“She hates Amelia,” the king corrected me. “And something tells me she’ll be quite happy to stay by your side, so long as a certain blonde knight sticks close by.”

“You… Are you seriously trying to set her up with me and Bridgette in the same breath?” I demanded.

“Why not?” he asked, in turn. “It’s quite common for the members of arranged marriages to take a lover or two. I would hardly expect you to remain loyal to her, either, after being forced into this. Besides, whether Firanna appreciates it or not, it’s a far better fate than she expected to befall her. Up until this point, it seemed likely I’d be marrying her to an out-of-country prince or some such. It’s doubtful Bridgette would have agreed to go with her in such a case.”

“You… you can’t really expect me to go through with this, can you?”

“I can, and I do,” the king said, his voice firm and his eyes cold once more. “You refused me once, Amy, and I allowed it - but don’t think you can get away with defying me twice.”

“I… I get that you want me to be tied to this kingdom, but surely there has to be another way? Couldn’t you… I don’t know, adopt me or something?”

“I considered it,” the king admitted, before shaking his head. “But based on what I’ve seen so far, can we be absolutely sure that Amelia is gone for good? That the demon won’t put her back in your body on a whim?”

“I…” I hesitated, glancing at the truthstone on the table. With my own recent doubts, there was no way I could convince myself, let alone him, that the possibility wasn’t there.

“Engagements can be cancelled. Adoptions are a much trickier matter, once finalized.”

“That’s… I don’t even like her…”

“I think we’ve already established that there’s no need for such things in an arranged marriage,” the king chided me, his voice gentle but firm. “Please - make this easy on both of us and agree? It’s not as if you’ll necessarily have to go through with the wedding, in any case.”

“What… what do you mean?” I asked, instinctively attempting to cling to this new hope he was offering me.

“I said earlier that engagements can be cancelled, can they not?” the king reminded me. “The engagement will start out a secret - something written on paper, that I can use against you if need be, but which needn’t be pulled out so long as you remain loyal to the crown. Ideally, you would accomplish something worthy of a title, before I even thought of making it public - but, depending on the title earned, and the services rendered, it might be that the marriage isn’t even important, in the end. In such a case, the engagement could be annulled without anyone knowing the better.”

“That.. makes sense,” I replied, my own tone cautious. He hadn’t lied. I was sure of that… but something about the way he’d spoken still put me on edge… Still, if this was truly the only way forward… “I want a stipend.”

“A stipend?” the king asked, frowning.

“Yes. Something I can spend on food, and clothes, and cores and the like.”

“Food and clothes, yes,” the king agreed. “But cores might remain outside your budget, even with a royal stipend, I fear. They’re too useful to be sold cheap.”

“Then I guess mana potions are also off the table?” I asked, already ready to heave a sigh.

“A commoner’s potions would be fine, but I’ve heard from Professor Devulchas already about your problem - you need high grade mana potions, and a large supply at that.”

“Are you saying the king can’t afford to supply me with mana potions?” I demanded.

He shook his head. “No. I’m saying that supplying you long term would be a considerable investment - one that you haven’t proven yourself worthy of yet. Perhaps once we’ve gotten things set up so that you can produce truthstones, it’ll be different, but for now I’d rather keep that ability of yours a secret…”

“A secret?” I asked. “Just like the engagement… is there a reason you don’t want to be officially tied to me?”

“Other than the optics of overturning a conviction and marrying a commoner in the body of an aristocrat to my own daughter in the same breath? I suppose there’s also the fact that the main value of truthstones is how rare the talent required to make them is - there are plenty in the school who would seek to turn you towards their own gain, and plenty outside the school that would see you ended before you could devalue their claims in such a market. But also, I just think you deserve to learn a little about this world you’re in, and settle in, before we even consider announcing the production of truthstones in this area.”

“I… guess that makes sense,” I confessed. It sounded sensible, at least. “Then… there’s truly no way out of this?”

“You speak as if being married to my daughter is the worst fate possible.”

“No. That would be marrying Prince Henry…”

The king laughed. 

I didn’t.

***

In the end, I was forced to accept the king’s proposal. At least he promised to personally handle telling Firanna about it - a duty I very much did not envy.

As it was, I still had to tell Bridgette and Clara. I left out the bit about Firanna’s interest in Bridgette, figuring that it really wasn’t my place to intercede there. As it was, though, neither my maid nor knight took it very well.

“So he’s forcing Firanna to marry you?” Bridgette asked, for the umpteenth time. “That doesn’t seem very fair to either of you…”

“I mean, there might not even be a wedding in the end!” I pointed out. “That’s what the king said… and he wasn’t lying, I know that much.”

“But did he ever make any concrete promises?” Clara asked. “From the way you speak of it, it seems to me he mostly kept to hypotheticals.”

“Yes, well… maybe?” I confessed. “I’m not really sure… but it’s a chance, and I have to take it! For everyone’s sake!”

“Yeah!” Bridgette agreed. “I mean, there’s no way I’m okay with my two friends getting married! Not when you don’t even like each other!”

“Wait, two friends?” I asked. “You consider me a friend?”

“Well… yeah?” Bridgette replied, rubbing the back of her neck. “I mean, I guess? You’re someone I’m trying to keep safe, anyway… and you’re kinda fun to talk to? In a really annoying way that somehow always makes me want to come back for more.”

“Annoying!? If anyone here gets on the nerves, I’d argue it’s you!” I protested.

“See? This is exactly what I mean!” Bridgette complained, throwing her arms up. “I can’t even pay you a compliment without it turning into a whole thing.”

“Which part of any of that was complimentary!?”

“If I may?” Clara interrupted. “It would seem to me that a proper friend wouldn’t be reporting back to the king behind their friend’s back.”

“Urk…” Bridgette looked a bit sick at that. “You’re… probably right. But it’s my duty as a knight!”

“A knight in training,” Clara replied. “One who might very well need to decide who her loyalty truly lies with, and soon.”

“I mean, it’s not like any of you are actually planning to move against the crown, right?” she pointed out. “So there’s not really a conflict of interest!”

“Perhaps not,” I admitted. “But it certainly makes it difficult to trust you with anything, knowing we can’t truly trust you to keep your mouth shut.”

“That’s… fair, I guess,” she muttered, crossing her arms. “And now Firanna’s getting thrown into this mess, too, huh?”

“As if things weren’t already enough of a mess,” I sighed. “And I couldn’t even get that stingy king to promise me mana potions…”

“I mean, they are pretty expensive,” Bridgette replied. “Anything made with a beast core will be…”

“But so expensive a king cannot afford them?” Clara asked. “No, I do not believe that for an instant. It’s almost as if he wants you to earn them yourself, for some reason…”

“Well, the only way that’s happening is if I become an adventurer, apparently,” I grumbled. 

“An adventurer?” Clara asked, her lips twisting with distaste.

“Be careful bandying that term around,” Bridgette warned me. “A lot of people consider it an insult - especially coming from a noble.”

“Why would it be an insult?” I asked, blinking in surprise. I didn’t recall writing anything like that.

“Because adventurers ‘venture out’ to make their fortunes, in the words of nobles,” Clara informed me. “That’s why nobles refer to them as such to begin with…”

“So, what do they call themselves?” I asked.

“Some of them do call themselves that,” Clara replied. “Apparently it’s different coming from their own lips… but most would prefer to tell you their specific job in The Guild.”

“The Guild? Like… the… well, I guess they wouldn’t call it an adventurer’s guild, huh?”

“Officially, it’s the Hunter Gatherer Healer Freelancing Guild - but most just refer to it as ‘The Guild’ for brevity’s sake.”

“And because everybody has an opinion on which of those words should have come first,” Bridgette interjected, with a smug smile that practically screamed, ‘Look at me! I know stuff too.’ “I heard it started out as a whole bunch of individual guilds, but they were all so interdependent on each other that they just sorta started merging.”

“Really?” I asked. “Hunting and gathering seem rather distinct - and I can only see the former really requiring healing on the regular.”

“What are you talking about?” Bridgette asked, giving me a puzzled look. “There’s no way any gatherers would be dumb enough to enter dangerous forests and the like without some form of protection from monsters. And the hunters usually like taking in some extra revenue from magic plants when they’re in the area anyway, so they usually want to party with gatherers. Best case scenario, they get to ride along as free protection without even doing anything… which sometimes led to gatherers not wanting to pay them. That’s one of the problems that combining it all into one guild was meant to solve, I think?”

“Your education on it apparently surpasses mine,” Clara confessed, shaking her head. “I can imagine that anyone who risked their lives outside the gate would occasionally find themselves in need of a healer, though.”

“Yeah!” Bridgette confirmed. “Sometimes, people even form parties with them - though there’s actually still a dedicated healer’s guild out there, so most of the really talented ones tend to go there instead of joining ‘The Guild.’ Still, any healing is better than none when you’re on the road!”

“You say that almost as if you’ve experienced it,” Clara remarked, causing Bridgette to blush.

“I haven’t,” she confessed, “but… if I hadn’t lucked into becoming a knight, for real, I probably would have had to join The Guild, you know? It was sort of my backup dream, I guess you could say…”

“And so you learned a lot about it, I suppose?” Clara asked.

Bridgette nodded. “Yeah… though uh… I’ve gotta admit, I still have no idea how freelancers worked themselves into the mix… maybe The Guild was just already such a mishmash that people kept coming to them for various things anyway?”

“Or they wanted freelancers to do stuff that involved leaving the cities?” I suggested.

“Not that it really matters,” Clara remarked, “but… I personally think they must have come up with the idea, in the first place. It’s the only reason I can think of.”

“Either way,” Bridgette said , “you might want to give The Guild a visit yourself, Amy. Especially if you want to hunt monsters for their cores.”

“Shouldn’t I learn to fight, first?” I asked. “Professor Devulchas said there’s classes I could take for combat?”

“Those are classes on how to fight humans for the most part,” Bridgette replied. “In case you’re ever called upon to defend yourself, or your country. You’ll want the lessons they give at The Guild itself - and the books they have, for members. Though I suppose the library here might have some good stuff, too?”

“Maybe…” I agreed. “I’ll have to visit both, I guess?” Hopefully I’d have time for both within the next week - assuming Firanna didn’t disrupt my life too badly.

In the end, Amy accepted my proposal - much to my own relief. Not so much to the relief of my daughter, who glared daggers at me for even thinking of using Bridgette as a bargaining chip… not that it stopped her from taking the offer, in the end. She knew she’d get none better.

As for myself? I held only a simple wish - that the prophecy would complete in my favor… 

“A shadow born of shadow, with flesh born from duke and duchess, shall make the kingdom right and whole or else see it burned to ashes.”

~~~
Author's Notes

I wrote this chapter while dealing with depression, and only my friend Sammy's approval convinced me it was decent enough to post at the time...

I'm still not sure it was a good idea to do that bit from the King's perspective - I initially worried people would call the king's actions out as unrealistic or something if I didn't explain a bit better, but now.... I don't know. Done is done, though, and I don't hate it.

Currently doing a bit better, depression wise? Though I kinda spent the entirety of yesterday in bed (only getting up long enough to feed my pet and her food) and today all my limbs feel like noodles... Still, I managed to write two things today, so that's a win in my book! (There might be a third thing coming, in terms of bonus content for the $5+ patrons, but we'll see how that goes...)

Planning to work on Naughty Magic next, if anyone's curious, meaning there won't be another chapter of MOV until at least Friday (possibly not until Sunday, since I do need to get some editing done Fri and Sat is my next day off... We'll see how it goes.)

Of course, if you're in a hurry to read ahead, you can read five chapters on Patreon for as little as $1~! You'll also get two bonus chapters of Naughty Magic, and Hatching a Heroine (which just updated today) while you're at it.

PS: Went and wrote that bonus chapter for $5 plus patrons... It's a completely skippable somewhat steamy scene that'll be made available for $1 patrons on 8/01. It won't be coming to the public, though, since I want the public releases to remain purely SFW.