The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

43 - Fragile Situations - Part 2

We are finally let through the mostly meaningless gate and towards the palace courtyard.

We've been here multiple times before, but always for tea parties, which are never held in the courtroom, so something like this is much more tense and formal. We are heading for the throne room itself, and if I am right, it will be quite a show. The throne room will likely be stuffed to the brink with curious onlookers... and I will have to stand there as 'Augustus'. I mustn't be found out as Lily, but, I cannot lie.

I... cannot lie. My honor won't allow it, as such I cannot even declare my own name.

Ugh.

I hate this.

I cannot stand this, but if I do not...

It will be worse than if I do not.

I promised I wouldn't bring shame to my new family. So, I have to swallow to pride and honor a bit. Ugh... Augustus... as I thought... I just can't say it.

I glance to Father and Eric. They look calm and collected. Surprisingly even Eric is calm, I hadn't expected that at all. To think that I am the only one feeling uncomfortable.

Well, I am the only one cross-dressing.

As you may have noticed Mother isn't here. My guess is that she wasn't brought along since this is a military affair, however, isn't it just a celebration of sorts? I do suppose she was feeling unwell the morning we left, but I don't think that would be enough to explain it.

The carriage finally stops in front of the steps to the palace doors, and I gaze up to estimate their height. I'd say the doors themselves are about two, maybe two and a half stories tall. I can only imagine the weight of the doors as four men move to open them, two on each side. They actually appear to be struggling. I bet the hinges of the doors need to be fixed once a year just from the unbalanced weight.

I suppose they do reek of grandeur. Though, they are purposeless other than that. It would be easy to chop or ram through them, as they've been made thinner than a usual gate door, to move them more easily.

Well... to sum it up, the palace is not built for war, but for court.

Considering the amount of war I assume our country has gone through, and the frequent attacks on our Eastern Border, I feel like this is a reckless action. To be this unguarded when every border is heavily fortified... I mean... it is an incredibly important place, so at least build a wall around the palace... preferably the city too.

...

I got distracted again.

Excuse me.

It is merely that these things irritate me. By the standards of my former life, anything without basic defense, couldn't be called a city. The capital has nothing. Not even a little.

Do bandits give up on raiding here?

---*---

Stepping through the front doors we arrive into the waiting room. What? You thought it would open right up to the throne room? No no no, that would be bad design for everything else than visits to the throne room, and you would have visitors standing outside in rain or snow.

The walls have multiple Corinthian pillars spaced about a couples meters from the walls of the room. Their second purpose, other than supporting the ceiling, is to support the balcony between the pillars and the wall.

Interestingly, to accent the shape of the pillar, they've used spiral fluting to accentuate the feeling of plant life. Because of the three story high ceiling, it looks as though climbing plants swirled around each other in an attempt to reach heaven. From the top of these plant like pillars the supporting arcs crawl over the inside of the ceiling, appearing like branches of these spiral like trees. Between the branches of the trees spreads countless of paintings of legends and fairy-tales, all based upon a gentle blue color like sky. My guess is that it's visual entertainment for the guests.