Protector Of The Empress (GxG)

Six

The next day Catherine was asked to speak to Queen Mari. They were seated in a lounge where Catherine was offered tea and pastries. She didn't enjoy sweet food as much as she wanted to, her tea was bitter, she liked it that way while the other woman had put a couple of sugar cubes in her own. They were of similar age yet had little in common so it was only natural that their conversation would die out quickly, Catherine was not the chatty type.

"Where are your knights from? They have some rather...exotic features." The blonde woman raised an eyebrow at her choice of words but replied with where they were from. She wanted to know more about the place Hyeon was from, it was a tropical land, so far from where her kingdom was. "I haven't heard of that place before, I suppose it is in a warm climate."

"It is," Catherine replied while taking a sip of her bitter tea that had started to go cold. Their conversation died out once again and they were left with awkward silence. The other woman, however, was trying hard to keep it going, she was uncomfortable with silence, that is what Catherine had observed. "Where is your knight now?"

"Why have you taken such an interest in my knight?" The empress asked, she was visibly irritated.

"I was simply curious..." Mari mumbled.

"Be curious about something else will you?" she huffed and crossed her arms. The clock in front of her never seem to move, everything was going slow when she was there. She wanted to go home and paint or draw, It was the only thing keeping her from going insane, speaking with Anja was also a way of making time go faster, but Anja had gotten a cold and was now being tended by other maids.

"My tea has grown cold, I suppose it is time for me to take my leave." She moved the chair she sat on and walked out of the room. She had left a bad impression on the queen, but she did not care. If the royal couple refused their alliance proposal they would automatically become enemies and the empress knew Kristoph would never do that. No one dared to go against the powerful couple seeing as they were the rules over multiple kingdoms, they had a strong and big army. Only the resistance was brave enough for that.

Hyeon as proposed stood waiting outside the room, she had listened in on Catherine and Mari's discussion, it was not on purpose she just had good hearing, The knight followed Catherine and made sure to walk beside her.

At dinner, things were a little awkward. Of course, it would be, Mari and Catherine had quite an unpleasant conversation and they had accused the king of poisoning their drinks. Small talk was made once in a while. "I hope you don't have a child in that stomach of yours Empress Catherine, I heard you took a bottle of wine with you last evening." Catherine's body froze, why did he have to bring up pregnancy?

"No child whatsoever, We opened the bottle to see what the smell was, we figured out the smell was from the leaves of the poisonous flower death Lily, It was all a big misunderstanding." She forced a smile, hoping the king would leave the mention of pregnancy altogether.

"That is good to hear, are you two not planning on conceiving? Is there a reason why you do not have children?" Catherine and Arthur looked at each other, neither wanted to tell them what was going on so then Catherine lied.

"We are planning, It has just been a difficult time lately."

"You have had years to do so, me and my wife conceived on our wedding night. I am surprised you two have not done that."

"King Kristoph, I would like to discuss something else other than conceiving, we are taking our time you see." Arthur went in. Catherine nodded. After that, he didn't speak nor ask about it which was a relief to both of the rulers.