Ulsro Kingdom - Cleanup and Preparations (1)
Valdes lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, and murmured, “I should start getting ready.”
“W-what? Getting ready for what...?”
Beatris, who had been using his arm as a pillow, jolted in alarm at his words. As a woman who had once loved the Hero for years and as a queen in her own right, she felt a sudden knot of unease. He had only said that he needed to prepare, but her instincts were already sounding the alarm.
“I’m leaving. For revenge.”
“Ahh...”
A sigh escaped her before she could stop it. Her worst fears had been right.
But she couldn’t stop him. Even if she was his woman now, what right did a traitor like her—someone who had once been a target of his revenge herself—have to say anything? She understood very well what revenge meant to Valdes.
And having sworn complete obedience to him, the queen had no desire to defy him ever again. She couldn’t afford to do something stupid and lose his love.
At the tremor in Beatris’s voice, Valdes soothed her. “Don’t worry. Ulsro will be the foundation I build on, my base camp. I’ll come back often.”
“Y-yes...”
Her obedient acceptance pleased him, and his hand drifted over her old-fashioned golden hair.
“Ah, yes... ahhh...♡”
At his warm touch, the queen let out a pleased moan and pressed herself closer to Valdes.
It was morning after a night soaked in lust, yet the instant a beautiful naked woman clung to him, his lower body reacted on its own. What had merely been a physiological response hardened into real arousal, twitching and leaking pre-cum from the tip.
“Mm-hmm. Queen Bess will give you your morning service...♡”
Before Valdes could even answer, Beatris slipped down beneath the blankets. As she went, she ran her hands over his body for good measure.
No matter how many spells had been installed in the room to keep her bedroom in perfect condition, that didn’t mean the bedding soaked through with sweat, semen, and juices would somehow clean itself. Beatris paid no mind to the filthy smell or the sticky touch and soon buried her face between his thighs.
They had fallen asleep without even cleaning up, so dried semen and arousal clung to his shaft, but she was instead utterly absorbed in that obscene, rich mess.
She drew in a long breath and took the scent deep into her lungs. “Mmmhaah...♡”
With a disgustingly blissful look on her face, the queen bit down on the head of his penis.
“Hhmp, mm... suck, slrp, chubbb, chup...♥ ...ah.”
Only after a moment did she remember that Valdes liked glans kisses, and she hurriedly pulled back. Her soft lips touched the filthy tip, now made even messier by her saliva.
“Smooch, smooch, smooch, smooch—smooch—smooooch...♥”
It was the fruit of a long, hopeless one-sided love that had been impossible to realize eighteen years ago.
And as if that weren’t enough, he’d been given a body that had grown younger to suit her tastes perfectly.
A cock that large looked strangely out of place on a boy’s body, but she actually preferred it this way. No—most women would probably prefer it this way. The very imbalance of it only made it more desirable.
“Heh.”
Humming softly, the queen continued her loving service.
“Mmm, listen as I go, okay...”
“Mm-hmm, yes...”
“Our next target is the Ventorino Kingdom.”
In the queen’s mind, one man immediately came to mind: the current king of Ventorino Kingdom.
He could only swing a sword, and yet somehow, by marrying the right woman and riding the shifting tides of history, he had become king after starting as a fallen noble. Like Ulsro, Ventorino had no real target for revenge, either.
“Mmm... ahh♥ slurp, slrrp... ahh, smooch, heeb...”
“So I need you to help me with something, Bess.”
Valdes wanted her help.
Beatris’s ears, hidden beneath the blanket, pricked up.
“Ask that bastard Marc for a meeting.”
Meeting.
With just that one word, the queen understood exactly what Valdes was planning. She also understood what he meant by foundation and base camp.
Valdes seemed to be planning to pass through the various kingdoms legally, as a thoroughly cleansed man of Ulsro. In truth, that was the smartest and easiest course of action. He had already practically taken half of Ulsro; it would be foolish to start from scratch.
“As for the topic, the Dezac Empire would be best. Their schemes have been getting pretty suspicious lately, haven’t they? If they’ve been sending people to Ulsro, there’s no way they haven’t sent them to Ventorino too. He’ll probably respond well to that.”
“Mm-hmm... chuuup.”
“If there’s anything else you want to add, handle it yourself. As for the date... accounting for travel time... hmm. A month from now should be good.”
It was more muttering to himself than talking to her, but Beatris etched every word deeply into her mind.
“The rest... decide that however you like. I’m not exactly well-versed in this side of things.”
“Smooch, chup...♥ Haa... understood.”
“Then shall we collect your reward before the maids arrive?”
“Ah... yes♥”
Early that morning, another storm of pleasure swept through the queen’s bedroom.
A voice drifted out from the crystal orb.
“Oh-ho! And who might this be? Isn’t this our queen from the neighboring country?”
Beatris couldn’t help frowning at the sound.
It was the kind of voice that made one feel irritated and decadent just from hearing it.
If it hadn’t been the voice of the man she loved, she would never have bothered contacting him first. He was exactly the type of person Beatris despised most, and as a queen herself, he was an annoying counterpart to deal with.
“Well, well. This is the first time you’ve ever contacted me first... Isn’t that a little cruel of you, considering our relationship?”
She had no intention of dragging out the conversation.
“...I’d like to propose a summit between Ulsro and Ventorino.”
“Hmm? And what’s this all of a sudden?”
“A summit regarding the Dezac Empire.”
The crystal orb went silent for a moment.
“Hmm. Now that’s an interesting proposal you’ve brought me.”
The man on the other side of the crystal orb, King Marc de Ventorino, changed in an instant.
He had been born in the Dezac Empire, but he loathed that homeland with a passion. It wasn’t merely because he had once been a fallen noble. Even back when he worked as a mercenary, and later when he joined the Hero’s party, he had been treated with all manner of interference and unfairness by the Empire.
It was the result of those things piling up one after another.
As king of Ventorino Kingdom, he had no reason at all to like the Dezac Empire. For all that it was the most respectable nation around, it didn’t support him properly; instead, it used his origins to meddle in the affairs of state at every turn.
And that was before even counting the countless schemes unfolding beneath the surface.
If it hadn’t been for his wife, he would already have lost his country to the Empire—or at the very least, he would never have been able to exist as a proper king. He wasn’t wise, perhaps, but he wasn’t stupid either. He knew that much.
“So, what do you want?”
“I want us to form a united front so we can oppose the Empire together.”
“A united front already exists, doesn’t it?”
Marc was pleased by her sudden contact, but he was also suspicious.
He had been king for more than ten years now. He had never received a formal education in the art of rulership, but he’d built up plenty of experience over the years. The first thing he had learned was that in politics, there was no such thing as a proposal without motive, and no such thing as goodwill without a price.
“A united front... Hah. You’d call that a united front? A group that gets together by communication maybe once or twice a year?”
A deep sneer settled on the queen’s face.
In truth, the high-ranking figures of the kingdoms other than Dezac had often spoken through group communication. At first, it had been a secret meeting among those involved in assassinating the Hero, but after the Great Mage died, it gradually twisted into a gathering aimed at opposing the Dezac Empire.
But that was all in the past.
No one still doubted the death of Hero Pedro. And because the Dezac Empire had been surprisingly restrained in its overt moves, the whole thing was beginning to lose its meaning.
“So we should cooperate a little more closely, just between us?”
“Because the Dezac Empire is targeting our two countries first.”
After the war with the demons, Ulsro and Ventorino were the two kingdoms whose national power had been weakened the most. The Dezac Empire intended to swallow them by means other than force, and to use the strength it still had to pressure other countries where combat power remained plentiful.
As rulers of their nations, neither of them could fail to notice that.
“I see. A kind of anti-Dezac alliance, then. Not one that’s spoken of openly. Hmm... not bad.”
As expected, his response was positive.
There was no reason not to come together when they shared a common enemy.
Like the secret mission handled by Valdes and Mercede, there had also been several occasions recently when Ventorino had blocked Dezac’s schemes. That alone had sharply increased their hostility.
“As for the other kingdoms, we can draw them in slowly depending on the situation. They’re not in that much of a hurry, so for now, the two of us need to join forces and show some real results before they’ll care.”
“Right. Those old men in power always care about immediate gain and loss first.”
“I’m glad you seem positive about it.”
“Heh-heh-heh. Whose idea do you think this is?”
At his sly laugh, Beatris let out a quiet sigh to herself.
For some reason, talking to him always left her tired. Just as she was about to suggest they discuss the finer details later, Marc spoke first.
“Besides that... I’ve got another good proposal.”
“Another good proposal?”
“That’s right. A proposal that would firmly bind our two countries together.”
“Don’t tell me...”
“As expected of our queen. That’s right—a marriage alliance.”
Beatris struggled to keep her expression from twisting.
No matter how unofficial the conversation, and no matter how much she disliked the man, he was still the king of a country. An excessive reaction would be rude.
Whether he knew that or not, Marc continued speaking.
“This year, my boy turns fourteen. I’ve been meaning to find him a bride, but there just hasn’t been a girl I’ve taken a liking to. Besides, Ulsro has another daughter besides the heir, doesn’t it? And they aren’t even that far apart in age.”
Mari.
There was no way she could give her beloved second daughter to the son of that degenerate. She had only seen the boy a few times, but just knowing Marc was his father had already driven her opinion of the prince straight into the dirt.
And yet, a tiny part of her was tempted.
Valdes said he already took both Mercede and Mari’s firsts...
Valdes had told her that he had taken Mercede and Mari’s first times. In other words, her daughters were not only beloved children, but also rivals competing for one man’s love. It was true that not everyone would be chosen, but that didn’t mean every woman could receive an equal share of his affection.
No. Focus, Bess. You can’t get scolded by him over something like this.
She knew Mari would be furious if she found out her refusal was because of a man, not because of concern for her daughter. But even so, for Beatris as she was now, love came before her children.
Still, the queen decided to leave herself some room to maneuver.
“...I’m sorry, but I’d prefer my daughter to marry someone she loves. I don’t want it to be a political marriage or anything like that.”
“Hmm...”
“Let’s do it this way. This summit will be held in Ventorino. We’ll send our own envoy. I’ll include Mari as well, so try to persuade the prince—or have him try to seduce her. Of course, if you try to threaten us for political reasons...”
“Haha! Don’t worry about that. I’m absolutely not that kind of man.”
Beatris gave a small snort of laughter.
She knew that point very well indeed. But the one handling the plotting and backroom schemes in Ventorino wasn’t Marc—it was his wife, the queen.
A fallen noble by birth, yes, but also a kingmaker who had taken a mercenary from another nation and turned him into a king. In some ways, the true power behind Ventorino Kingdom might well have been her. She was that dangerous a woman.
Even so, before long, she’ll be thoroughly...Heh.
Each lost in their own thoughts, the rulers of the two countries smiled.