The Royal Hearts

Chapter 22

Ben

Hadie stayed in the room playing video games, but I came back to my office with Beatrice, because Mal had texted me saying Camelot royal family would be coming to speak to me. Beatrice was sound asleep after her bottle so I could have left her with Hadie, but I saw the look on his face when I suggested that, and it was a face of complete fear, it's funny to see how pre-teens sometimes have such a big fear to be left alone with babies, anyway, with that I brought the baby with me to my office.

Looking over my window I could see the car arriving, I picked up the phone and called Lumiére telling him to let Hades know Hadie was in the gaming room and to tell Mal to come up to the office with Arthur, Guinevere, and Archie.

"Of course, I'll let them know your majesty."

"Thank you, Lumiére."

After a little while, there was a knock on my door, and Mal came in followed by Arthur, Guinevere, and Archie.

"Hi, honey." She said greeting me with a soft kiss on my cheek, going then straight to the bassinet where Beatrice was asleep. "Oh, hello my little dragon, having a nice nap I see, there's someone we would like you to meet."

"Welcome King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Archie, it's nice to have you here with us again." I said.

"Your majesty, thank you so much for all the efforts." King Arthur said.

"It's our duty to protect all of Auradon, and of course that includes Camelot. There are some things I would like to discuss with you, but first, let us introduce you to Princess Beatrice Evelyn." I said while I opened the way for the three of them to get closer to the bassinet.

"Oh, your majesties, she is truly precious." Queen Guinevere said.

"She will be a very beautiful queen to be." King Arthur said.

"Thank you." Mal and I said.

"Will she have a christening?" Queen Guinevere asked.

"It's scheduled to be in 2 and a half weeks. Invitations are to be sent next week."

"We'll look forward to it." King Arthur said.

"Let's seat now." I said.

Mal sat down on the lounge chair next to the bassinet, King Arthur and Queen Guinevere sat down in the chairs in front of my desk, and Archie sat down on the couch behind his parents.

The first matter of business I had to discuss with them was the dark magic situation and even though we weren't out of the woods yet, the situation was controlled due to Merlin's sacrifice, which led me to the second matter I had to discuss with them. I had a speech all ready written, about Merlin's sacrifice and with the blessing of Arthur and Guinevere, to have a plaza named in honor of him.

"Here's the speech I have written, for you to read and to approve." I said, passing the paper to them.

"Your majesty, that's not necessary."

"Yes, it is. It happened to you and I want to have your approval."

"Consider it approved, your majesty. Where you the plaza be?" King Arthur said.

"We thought in Camelot." Mal said.

"We do have the Main Plaza, we can change it to Merlin's Plaza, like their majesties are saying." Queen Guinevere said.

"Perfect." King Arthur said.

After the meeting ended and Arthur, Guinevere and Archie left, I scheduled everything for tomorrow. In the morning I would go to the conference room and give my statement, then in the afternoon, we would be going to Audrey's estate for her ceremony.

For the rest of the day, Mal and I decided to go to the beach right outside the castle and enjoy the sunset with Beatrice.

"Mal, honey let's go or we'll miss it."

"Just a second!"

"What are you doing?"

"Putting sunscreen on Beatrice, even with so little sunlight she needs protection."

"Alright honey, you're the boss."

"Indeed I am, and I'm done, let's go."

Mal put Beatrice on her stroller, and we went outside. I took the stroller while Mal had the bag with some snacks and a picnic towel. We got there just in time, Mal extended the towel on the sand, I took the seat from the stroller and put it in between Mal and myself, then I opened the bag and took the box of strawberries I had brought.

"My favorites." Mal said, winking at me at the same time as she took a bite on one strawberry.

We ate the whole box before the sun started to set, once the sun was setting Mal took Beatrice out of the baby seat and held her in her arms. I took my phone and took hundreds of pictures of the two of them, there would never be too many pictures of my perfect beautiful girls.

"Take a picture with us, honey." She said, and I obeyed.

"Selfie time." I said.

"Your first sunset Bee." Mal said.

"The first in many." I said.

"This moment right here, I love it, I want it to last forever."

"Same. I love you, Mal."

"I love you, Ben, I love us."

"I love us so much. We're a family."

"My perfect family." Mal said giving me a kiss.

We packed everything up and went back inside, the rest of the day was as normal as it always was, dinner with my folks, then taking care of Beatrice, and quiet time. During the night the baby only woke up 1 time and as I was getting up to soothe her, she soothed herself to sleep, I was so surprised, my little girl was growing up so fast before my eyes. I silently went back to bed and back to sleep until morning.

Next morning in the conference room

I got in the conference room, and all the reporters were already there waiting like starved hyenas.

"Good morning everyone, and good morning to all of Auradon. Today I come here bringing to you, sad news. For the past 3 and a half weeks we have dealt with a serious problem, Camelot was attacked by dark magic that was coming from the well which leads to Obsidian, the dark dimension. To protect the rest of Auradon Merlin and Nimue spelled Camelot with a cloak, so the dark magic couldn't escape, finally yesterday my wife, your Queen, Jane, Tinker Bell, and Hades were able to lift this cloak. The reason why the cloak could be lifted was that Merlin sacrificed himself and went to Obsidian to close the portal from the inside. In honor of his sacrifice and heroic act to all of us, joining with King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Prince Archie, the Queen and I will honor Merlin with a plaza in Camelot. Furthermore, it is not clear we are out of the woods, but just know that we will be on top of every single case of dark magic and will do whatever it takes to protect the people of Auradon. Thank you."

"Your majesty, would you answer some questions?" all the reporters screamed at the same time, Cogsworth was my conference moderator.

"His majesty will answer to a few questions, please raise your hand." Cogsworth said and then pointed at one of the reporters in the front.

"Good morning your majesty, Eliza Tellington from Diary of Auradon, my question for you is simple, do you have already plan to, if necessary, evacuate Auradon?"

"No, there isn't any plan of the kind, if necessary, we would firstly evacuate Camelot and put up a protection spell around Camelot."

"Thank you, your majesty." The reporter said, sitting back down. Cogsworth pointed at another reporter.

"Good morning your majesty, my question is what are the Queen's thoughts on the dark magic coming out?"

"Speaking on behalf of my wife, her thoughts are the same as my own, we are concerned about it but will take care of it and protect our people and of course protect our daughter."

I answered some more questions and then finished the conference and went back inside, to my family. We had some time before we had to leave for Audrey's ceremony, so we rested for that time.