Blood Peonies (Who Made Me a Princess)

Wishes and Promises

"I hope you treasure our child like how you treasure me., Claude."

"No, please! Choose me! Don't do this to me, D---. Don't leave me, choose me, not this child who is eating away at your life!"

"Promise me, Claude."

"No... Please."

Who..?

Claude felt himself gaining consciousness, feeling confused and for some reason, his chest hurt. Am I poisoned? He thinks, his brow furrowing as he ruminates about what he had ingested today. However,t it feels different from poison. He doesn't have the dizziness and difficulty in breathing present in poisoning. He would know because he has been trained with poison in his childhood. But it was out of necessity because everyone in the palace wanted to eliminate me back then, especially Anastacius. He didn't open his eyes, still trying to cling to the last vestiges of his dream. He couldn't see the face of the woman in his dreams. Thinking about her makes his chest feel heavier.

What is this feeling?

All he could recall is her platinum blonde hair and red lips, but aside from that, he couldn't recall anything else. His memories are still hazy despite him not using black magic anymore to forget... someone. He can't remember clearly but he can hear her sweet voice. Did I make a promise to that woman? It seems like the magic is still not fully gone if I can't remember other details clearly. Her daughter...

Just thinking about her more is starting to make his head hurt, he can feel the start of a migraine forming. Claude has had attacks of migraines for years since he annihilated all those wenches in Ruby Palace. He can't even remember why he did it anyway, just that he felt so angry... and in grief? Was he grieving? But Claude had learned not to question his actions too much, just that he did it and that's that. I should stop thinking about this.

Claude opened his eyes. He stared at his ceiling, his cerulean jewel eyes glinting in the light. The marriage contract, to think that the aristocratic party will actually have the guts and audacity to have it pushed through, especially with Siodonna. They must've done it for the trade and the magicians and to have the Siodonnean princess be manipulated by these ignoramuses. From what intelligence that I've received about the princess is that she's the most powerful person in Siodonna, whether it was magical prowess or politics, it's still not clear. However, it's evident that she has the control of the kingdom's wealth, despite being not being an official duchess, but she is a princess by blood. I heard that she has not yet received her peerage because of how Siodonnean nobility works. But it's no wonder, history has proven that the lower nobility can override the monarch's reign with influence and wealth. Given that Siodonna is a matriarchal kingdom, it's of no surprise that this princess came up on top especially with how weak willed the King is, not having a queen by his side.

If Claude remembers it right, the Siodonnean King was just a puppet monarch by the Queen, but the Queen disappeared, or as rumours say, was murdered by the King in a drunken stupor. But there were neither witnesses nor evidences to support this claim, hence the case went cold. The King never became the same after that and became a weak willed ruler of Siodonna and ended up grovelling at the unofficial Siodonnean Queen's feet despite not receiving her peerage.

Claude couldn't really care less about Siodonnean affairs but it does intrigue him a bit about the princess. She wasn't really the Crown Princess of Siodonna but the King has no heirs and after the fiasco with the late Queen, everyone steered clear of the King, making him a pariah in his own kingdom. In a matriarchal society, women are the ones predominantly in power but surprisingly, their judicial system is fair and just and is one of the prides of Siodonna. The case with the Queen was never resolved and the crown immunity of the king makes things more complicated. But Siodonna can change rulers if it was proven that a royal harmed a female royal, a queen perhaps, regardless of crown immunity. They do value justice more than their royals perhaps.