Pampered by the Villainous Tyrant King

Chapter 23

A/N: I own nothing but the plot. Enjoy!

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The dowager queen smiled darkly at the bound woman before her.

"What a pretty face you have," Amphitrite cooed.

Her red painted fingers clutched Calypso's chin as Amphitrite inspected the young woman's face. This girl was just a distant relative of Amphitrite's, from a branch of her grandfather's brother's descendant. The whole family had always viewed the weakest of them not as relatives, but as tools to gain more power and influence. Therefore, Amphitrite had no feelings for the girl lying at her feet.

Calypso whimpered, but she was gagged. Her dark eyes were now half-listless. In the beginning, those dark eyes had stared with hatred at her captors, but three weeks in dark, solitary confinement and starvation had rendered Calypso more obedient.

Amphitrite had one of her ladies-in-waiting pass her a sheathed knife. The dowager queen smiled and unsheathed the knife. Calypso's eyes tinged with fear as the dowager queen started playing with the blade of the knife against Calypso's throat. If Calypso made a single move, the blade would pierce through her tender skin.

Bored after a little while, Amphitrite dropped the knife. "You know what to do, don't you, my dear niece? Otherwise, the receiving end of this knife will be you. After I let my men play with you, what pieces of flesh would be left from your body? Would you even have a body to be buried?"

Calypso's fearful expression reflected in the dagger.

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"Your Majesty, the stewards from the household management department have come to request an audience." A maidservant announced.

"Oh?" Annabeth put down her ink pen. "Have them come in."

Five men and women came into the queen's study. As soon as they made their customary greetings, a bundle of papers were tossed at their feet by the cold-faced queen.

"Why don't you explain these discrepancies?" A lazy voice from the queen asked.

The head steward picked up the nearest document and paled. All along the neat rows of numbers were red circles and marks, carefully delineating where there were discrepancies along the financial budget. Everyone kneeled on the ground.

King Percy may have been too busy to oversee the management of the palace household budget, but she, Queen Annabeth, certainly had the time and expertise to go through the years of budgets. Perhaps Annabeth could turn a blind eye to the small embezzlement here and there of a few silver coins. Calculators and Excel hadn't been invented here after all. But when her keen eyes landed on clear holes where hundreds of gold coins disappeared without logical explanation, Annabeth had to step in.

"Tell me, how much does this cask of tea cost?"

Playing the part of very tyrannical queen, Annabeth dropped her teacup in its saucer with a very audible clink. The people shuddered at the sound.

Annabeth continued as the people kneeling didn't dare to make a peep. "A small cask of this jasmine tea is twenty gold coins? And the wood that was used to repair the stables. Why is it so expensive?"

The head steward mumbled. "Your Majesty may not know this due to being queen, but this tea is of the highest quality imported into Kiran and as a result, is twenty gold coins a cask. Normal people wouldn't even be able to taste this tea in their lifetime. The wood for the stables is sandalwood and naturally costs three gold coins a pound."