Modern Princess

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Ren's POV

I woke up with a smile on my face and it has never really left since. A smile. That was the last thing I though would be on face, maybe some drool, but a smile. Not today.

For some reason, thinking about my night out with Isaac put the smile on my face. Or maybe it was just thinking about Isaac...

No. Definitely not. It was just last night that made me happy and he just happened to be there.

"Wouldn't you agree Princess Renoford?"

My father's voice jolted me out of my trance and as I looked over to him, I saw he asked me this question on purpose.

His eyes were completely locked on mine and they read 'pay attention'.

I gulped and answered with a smile and a steady voice.

I received a minute nod from my father's advisor, telling me my answer was suitable, then the debate continued.

Today was the first day that I would shadow my dad in all of his kingly duties. I was a little nervous considering he had a meeting with parliament today, but it wasn't anything I hadn't learned to mask years ago.

I discreetly shifted in my seat to try and get more comfortable. After two hours of sitting in this cushioned chair, the cushion starts to lose it's comfort.

Finally, with the slam of a gavel and declaration of competence, the meeting ended. Without meaning to, I let out a sigh of relief and received a chuckle from the man sitting to my right.

I ducked my head in embarrassment and did my best to follow my father out of the stuffy room since we were the first to leave.

"What did you think," Dad asked as we walked down the never ending corridor to get back to the palace. He held out his arm for me to loop mine through.

"It was pretty boring, but some good points were made. It's interesting to see all the different perspectives on the issues here. Are they always that long?"

"Oh definitely not.That was just the condensed version of Kedudien's problems," my dad smiled.

"Is Kedudien doing that bad," I asked, thinking about the two rebels last night and their conversation.

"No," Father shook his head, "It's just the normal problems that every kingdom has. How do we help the poor? How can we more effectively get rid of certain diseases? Is our financial situation where we want to be? And so forth."

"Can't you delegate some of those problems to other people? I mean, is Parliament in charge of fixing every problem the kingdom runs across?"

"The issues are delegated to people and companies, but ultimately, when something goes wrong who are our people going to blame?"

"Us," I mumbled, finally starting to understand the need for a strong parliament. I suppose I always just assumed that Parliament just sat around passed assignments out to people lower than them. I really had a lot to learn.

"So you see, we do like to convene to discuss what is being done to solve these problems and then we see if there is something we can do to help the efforts. Normally, as you saw, we sit there for hours throwing around ideas and then, if we're lucky we come to a decision. If not, we think about it over for a few days and meet again to discuss our decisions. This can go on for weeks, but we try to make a swift and effective decision to avoid fatigue of the mind."

I walked in awe as I listened to my father's job and, soon to be, mine. He did so much more than I ever could have imagined, yet, I complained when he couldn't make a dinner date.