Kingston Academy

FIFTY-SIX

Niven remembered the time when he asked Arien about soulmates. It wasn't just for the sake of satiating his curiosity, rather, he wanted to learn about how soulmates worked because of Theoden's immediate love for Roselia.

When they were children and before Niven had been engaged to the princess, Roselia had wandered off by herself with only a few maids into the streets of the empire since she grew frustrated at being locked up in the palace for too long. During her time playing outside, she eventually met the young Theoden who had been caught and detained as a slave.

He had no previous record of any family and was thought to have been an orphan so no one went looking for him.

Roselia rescued him of course and was kind enough to let him stay with her inside the palace, but the empress and the royal consorts were hesitant to allow a beastman near the crown princess. They first had another lion beastman come inside the palace, hoping he'd be able to properly train Theoden so the boy wouldn't rely on his animalistic instincts.

Around that time, Niven had come to visit Roselia. He was also nervous about hearing Roselia excitedly tell him of her adventures of sneaking outside of the palace and nearly passed out from fright when she introduced Niven to the lion beastman. The boy was quite different from him and hadn't really seen a beastman before.

As the three of them eventually grew closer, that was also the time Theoden bluntly revealed how he claimed Roselia to be his intended heart-mate. Lion beastmen were more or less able to figure out who their actual mates were with a special type of bond, not just because of their instincts. So Theoden took the thought of having Roselia as a mate very seriously even if he didn't fully understand the concept of soulmates.

As a beastman, soulmates were an important existence to have. He didn't doubt Roselia was his mate and it wasn't very long until the girl was also convinced. They were with each other every second of the day and she already formed a connection with him even if she didn't know what it was.

So Theoden didn't really get why Niven and Roselia grew pale from shock. Theoden figured they'd be happy and the crown princess would accept him, but he was utterly crushed when Niven revealed Roselia couldn't marry him.

Roselia was born of the highest pedigree in the imperial family. She was the first girl born in the last few hundred years and was gifted with innate talent and beauty. Her long lineage was traced back to the very first emperor and was even related to a powerful witch so she inherited a majority of the witch's powers. From a young age, she had been taught by the empress how to properly use her power as the crown princess and received lessons from well-respected magicians and other masters to ensure her own safety.

Someone like Roselia was out of Theoden's reach even if they were soulmates. Theoden had nothing and his status was just a slave.

Because of that fact, it didn't take very long for the three of them to understand how Roselia might be married off to another empire or someone of the same status to ensure the royal bloodline. Since she was the only female in the imperial family, there wasn't a doubt the emperor and empress would set up multiple candidates and pick a handful of consorts for Roselia to marry as soon as she grew up.

Roselia refused to marry anyone else and told Niven she'd rather marry Theoden alone. But there wasn't much she could do to prevent her family from marrying her off. Roselia was the only one capable of giving birth since none of her brothers were able to like Empress Lysander, and Alessio hadn't begun to look for a fiancé during that time so it was critical for the imperial family to look for someone to be engaged with Roselia.

So Niven suggested something. The boy merely went on a whim and offered to get engaged to Roselia himself while Theoden uses that time to hone his own abilities, but it turns out the children took Niven's words very seriously and thought to follow what he said.