Queensmen

Chapter 92

~Accidentally~

There was an issue with the tents that made Oris contemplate whether this whole competition was for the sake of filling the harem or for the sake of entertaining bored nobles.

This 'event' happened on the third and last day of the journey, at the fourth and last stop before they finally by extension the temporary palace, and by extension, the hunting grounds.

Her tent caught on fire.

She didn't really know what 'they' wanted to happen or why they had put all their scheming for the last day but she had come out it without burning her face off, or dying, so that was a plus.

"Mistress, are you okay?"

Oris shook her head, because okay wasn't being wrapped in a sooty tarp to smother all the smouldering bits of your clothes. And she wasn't meant to be okay. She was a damsel in distress watching flames eat away her living space.

She was meant to be terrified.

The trip had been mostly uneventful. Only Lady Ria and Lady Dianne lowered themselves to interact with her, and they did so only once, on the first day.

For the rest of the trip, Oris had been able to pretend that she had been the only one involved. She stayed in her carriage unless it was absolutely necessary to leave, and chose a tent far away from all the hubbub and women who tripped over air in order to accidentally swoon into the emperor's arms.

Unfortunately for them, he was just as scarce as she was, which was impressive seeing that his tent was in the center of the camp.

He was always off doing something and she was always in her tent trying to relearn embroidery. The girls stayed with her too. There was no time to even pretend to socialize when they had two dresses to complete.

And so the inevitable happened, rumors spread that the two most scarce individuals were being scarce together, which was of course, insane. But that didn't stop maids from accidentally stumbling into her tent hoping to catch her in the act of something. What started off as terrible espionage culminated in the eruption of her tent in a blaze of glory.

And of course, she had had to save herself.

On the morning of the second day, she developed the habit of finding pieces of wood and sharpening them, just in case. The tension in the air had been palpable even then, and she had done too good of a job making enemies the first day.

She also made sure that nothing of value was ever in the tent. Andrea never took off her locket and the dresses always stayed with the carriages. Keziah thought it was a pretty good move, limiting the possibility of injury to only something that could happen within the vicinity of the tent.

If she had been walking about, who knew when a boulder would fall from the sky and crush her to death?

The moment she smelled a whiff of smoke, she had been ready to act. The fire had spread quick and the tent's inflammable material embraced it with open arms. Even with all her sharpened stakes, it had taken a while to cut her way out of it, and by then Andrea's face had already been drenched with tears.

Keziah, the only one not even remotely worried, tossed a wet tarp over her the moment she came stumbling out of the carnage. "I didn't think they'd use fire."

Neither did Oris, because it was spreading and devouring other tents. If her tent had been at the center like most of the others, more than half of the camp would have burned down before the fire could be put out.

The soldiers went to work quickly, fetching water from the nearest source and trying to douse the flames, but if she had waited for them she would have been a burnt corpse by now.