Pampered by the Villainous Tyrant King

Chapter 11

A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!

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Annabeth thought that she would eventually have to meet the dowager queen no matter how much the Eldoris king tried to protect her. Still, she had thought that she would meet the dowager queen at the wedding at the earliest. Yet the fates had decreed that today she would have the misfortune of stumbling upon the dowager queen while strolling through the gardens.

"Oh, my, is this the famed beautiful Princess Alana of Kiran I have been hearing much about?"

The dowager queen Amphitrite was still a beauty, though her coldness and shrewd glint in her eye diminished her beauty somewhat. When standing next to the still recovering but Princess Annabeth, the dowager queen seemed to be playing the role of the witch's shadow next to a fairy's sunlight.

The dowager queen clearly knew that the Kiran had not sent Princess Alana. Her dark green eyes flickered over Annabeth, as if provoking her.

Annabeth smiled. What kind of role should she play to such a dowager queen? She could go the route of daughter-in-law being bullied by the future mother-in-law which would have been in line with her still frail and ill image. But that just might give the dowager queen the reasoning to interfere with managing the palace affairs.

Hmm, though the dowager queen might have put on a false front of caring for her stepson, judging by the dowager queen's current attitude, she had dropped all pretense.

"Princess Annabeth greets the dowager queen." Annabeth ignored what the dowager queen said about Alana and instead gave a cordial smile. "Seeing the dowager queen in person has really opened my eyes to what true beauty really is."

Of course, her words were saying the dowager queen wasn't shit.

Annabeth had a feeling that the former second queen of Eldoris was inspecting her from her clothing to the guards behind to see how the future queen was being treated. Even the jeweled hairpin the king had sent her was not looked over in the dowager queen's scrutiny.

Amphitrite had been given information about the eldest Kiran princess, denoting that Princess Annabeth was of a soft and weak personality. Naturally, the dowager queen thought that she could exert some control over this weak princess. But when Princess Annabeth had smiled at her greetings, Amphitrite felt that those grey eyes contained some sardonic laughter as though Amphitrite was nothing more than a disobedient child acting up.

"So it is Princess Annabeth, is it? I have heard so much about Princess Alana yet I have not heard much about you. What a shame, or else I would have met such a young lady as you much earlier." The dowager queen said, flicking her fan open.

Did the former queen think she could rile up Annabeth with those words?

"It is also a shame for me that I have not met a beautiful woman as the dowager queen." Annabeth returned the veiled vitriol with compliments. "I have no idea what the dowager queen has heard and from where, so do forgive me for not understanding your words."

Those words were said in a gentle tone but pointed out that the dowager queen seemed to have spies in the palaces gathering information and was intruding. Naturally, the dowager queen's complexion darkened.

"I have ill health from the long journey to Eldoris. I was afraid that my illness would mar the good fortune of the dowager queen and so have not been able to meet with you properly. But thankfully, His Majesty has been quite attentive and I am on the road to recovery. If the dowager queen is worried about my duties as queen, there is no need to worry. I will make sure to manage the palace attentively. Well then, once a proper appointment time is made, I will meet with the dowager queen again."