An Invitation To Love

Fifth chapter

Alinora visited Lily that day to drink tea with her and check on her since she was injured.
"I heard you fell of a tree, poor child. How did that happen?" Alinora didn't really want to know. Despite her old age, there were not many wrinkles on her face.
She was sitting in a chair beside the bed where Lily was covering her legs under the blanket. Alonira's red dress matched her white, blond hair.
"A cat was on the tree, and I wanted to help her get down" Lily tried to answer calmly.
"How heartwarming" she said unimpressed.
"I was really worried after hearing what happened" she put her hand on her chest. She sounded more mocking that worried. This woman just wanted to nag on her again.
"Now to the real conversation, did you sleep with the king?"
Did she think it was easy to impress the ice cube. Well, Lily wasn't trying, she had to admit.

"If you don't try harder, I might start to send concubines to his room again" she sipped on her tea and put the glass down calmly "we need an heir, you will surely understand that."
Lily was about to jump on this woman across the table and pop her eyes out.
"Your majesty, give me more time."

Alinora took advantage of Lily's lack of knowledge about palace matters to manipulate her.
Yes, Ciel needed a crown prince, but he would never force her and based on his background he surely didn't want his son to be from a concubine. The nobles were harsh on these people and he didn't want his son to suffer.

After Alinora went out, Lily quickly called Rawon to come in.
"Rawon I have some questions." she said in a serious manner.
"I will answer everything my lady" he responded staring deeply into her eyes.
"Why do you think the queen wants me to have an heir as soon as possible?"
"Since it's queen Alinora, who we are talking about I don't believe she is doing that for his good" he said thinking.
"Do you think she is trying to get rid of the king."
"Why would you say that?" he asked surprised.
"Well, you see, when the kingdom has a crown prince the king is practically not needed since the queen of this kingdom can be ruling till the crown prince gets old enough to be the next king" Lily looked at Rawon again and he was thinking with a frown on his face.
"Maybe I'm just paranoid" Lily laughed it off, but internally hoped that Rawon would report this to Ciel.
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Two days later
Asena stormed into the room and rushed towards Lily, who was not allowed to leave the bed because of her so-called "injury".
It was killing her staying in bed for the past two days. It was just a scratch.
Ciel who was allegedly worried about her didn't even visit her once.
"We will be going to Chanper in four days" Asena said happily.
"Really!" Lily beamed closing the book in her hands and putting it on the side table.

"Yes, the king has some work there and he wants you to come with him since the city is super beautiful" Lily could see stars in Asena's eyes and her own smile died.
The thought of going somewhere with Ciel irritated her.

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After Lily heard the news, she made her way to Ciel's office wanting to ask him about the trip preparations when she encountered a woman.
The Lady before her was indeed a very beautiful woman, with green eyes that were almost yellow, wavy red hair, a slender waist, caramel skin and tons of jewelry on her wrist and neck.

"My lady," she bowed then continued, "Are you searching for his majesty's room. You are obviously new here and I have memorized the way to his majesty's pavilion."

In short, she wanted to say that she is one of the concubines.
"What a stupid way to say that you are his slave, let me tell you something. The palace is mine, and I am able to preserve it alone myself. Save the nice action."

"Your palace? How cute you are. You don't know the dangers of living in this palace. Here, the only people in power are the king and queen Alinora. Watch out that you don't leave the land of reality and think that with your marriage you have control over anything."


Anastasia reached to one of Lily's strains and played with its curled ends while saying, "You radiate innocence and look like any spoiled princess who has never tasted the bitterness of life before. For your safety, do not enter into the competition here and stay away from the king."
„Look I really have no time for your nonsense, what do you even mean by competition? If this man was a jewelry, I would never wear him. Now pull yourself together because I'm indeed about two seconds away from ripping out your spine and using it as a decoration for my room" Lily was enraged.
Anastasia walked past Lily slamming her shoulder into hers.
Lily was clenching her fist.
She never imagined she would ever have to fight over a man. For heaven's sake she only needed a son from him.

Now that her mood was ruined, she turned back and took her leave without talking to Ciel.

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Several days later.
The servants at the exit of the palace were transporting the belongings of the queen and placing them in the carts under the observation of Rawon, who would also go as the queen's guard in addition to her servants.

Lily was inside the royal carriage, looking through the window at Ciel, who was looking outstanding in his modest clothes. His black suit with gold details showing his perfectly built body. She couldn't get her eyes off of him.

In the evening, miles away from the capital, the couple were still on their way, but with less enthusiastic faces, one worried and one angry.

They were at the entrance to the city, passing through the neighboring villages, and the situation was not as Ciel imagined. All manifestations of poverty, misery and hunger gathered here.

Women's faces depicting misery, and children in worn-out clothes chasing the carriage, chanting, "Give us food, please." They thought that the owner of the carriage was a rich nobleman and not their king himself. As for men, they did not appear in the villages, but rather in the surrounding fields, fighting the misery of living to earn money. As soon as the carriage entered the city limits, the screaming became louder, causing the frustrating man to look out the window again to find the ugliest thing a king could ever see. His people were demonstrating against him, and some soldiers were deterring them. The people of the city knew of the king's arrival, so they decided to make their voices heard to him.

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The castle of Chanper
The anger was raising in Ciel.
His ministers were useless, and he had no time to do his duty as a king and pay visits to every province in his country.

"What do you mean he flied out the city? I assigned him to take care of it; he must devote his fucking life to serve its people. He fucking knows what he did and is now running away from me. Don't show me your face before you bring him to me, Caelum" Ciel shouted in anger. The mayor of the city has fled as soon as he heard the king was coming.
Ciel's face was filled with rage his vines pupping out on his forehead. "I want him alive."

Caelum bowed down and quickly left the office. As soon as the king arrived at the palace, he locked himself in his office, destroying everything he laid his eyes on.
Distracted because of all the events that happened today he didn't hear the sound of the door being opened and Lily walking inside.

A few seconds after Caelum went out, Ciel felt a small, warm body giving him a back hug. He just noticed her presence in the room. Did she see that tantrum of his?
That was not important now.

He closed his eyes at the strange feeling of his body-strength fading and his spirit calming down. At that moment he desperately wanted to surrender his body.

The princess these days had a strong effect on him, although he would rather deny it.

Maybe because he was a man, and she was just a beautiful woman.

He turned towards her to hug her more. He felt sorry for what happened. She surely had never seen anything like that before, so she must have been afraid. As for Lily, she had finally realized what she had done and her boldness that had come from nowhere. She just thought that he was alone and sad, so her body led her toward him without her permission.

"Don't be afraid my queen, everything will be fine. Go get some rest" exhaustion could be heard from his voice.

She moved away from him a little and said, "I don't want to. I want to stay with you and help you."

"Help me? You sound nice saying that, as if you could. Politics don't suit your innocent face, so I suggest you take some rest and sleep like an angel while I cut off the heads of the scoundrels."

"I... took politics lessons." He smiled in return.
Ciel found it irresistible not kissing the dreamy childlike Lily. He started planting deep kisses on her neck and below her jaw. Why didn't he kiss her lips? Because she did not stop talking about how she was trusted in matters of politics.

After some time of him just ignoring her requests, she remained silent without completing her what she wanted to say. He was not going to listen to her. She saw how these people suffered and she wanted to help too.

On the other side he wanted to keep staying in her arms.
"Come to my room tonight." He loosened his grip, and she wasted no time to go out of his office.
Lily was a sweetheart, even if she didn't seem like it.