Council Meeting-1
BAAM BAAM… BAAM BAAM BAAM BAAM… BAAM BAAM…
Charlotte's jabs on the stone hedge echoed in the empty training hall, they were so powerful that they created gusts of wind every time her hands made contact with the stone. She loved the distinct smell of blood and sweat in the air, and she misses it dearly as well. She became the queen of this accursed kingdom a few years ago, and she hated every single part of this job, she was a warrior, she belonged on a battlefield, but now she was stuck here.
Her husband was one of the Dukes of the kingdom, but that bastard died on her soon after her lovely son was born. She inherited the title of Duke, like her husband, and was just living a good life in her territory. But then the old Gorgon king died, and the responsibility of his office fell on the lap of the strongest of all nobles, her.
It had been 8 years since she came to the royal palace. Since then her life has been about fancy parties, tea parties, afternoon parties, and tourneys. And in every official event playboys and knights are trying to seduce her, trying to get inside her bloomers. The small amount of energy that she has left gets spent in the council meetings.
She hates her life. She only keeps going because of her son, becoming a queen was never her dream, but seeing her son become a king is…
BAAM BAAM… BAAM BAAM BAAM BAAM… BAAM BAAM…
Her arms ached after her bout, but she loved that pain, to catch her breath and drink some water, she turned and went to the corner of a ginormous hall. Her servants had put freshly squeezed orange juice there, and seeing the crystal jug full of juice, she became reminiscent of her past, she didn't have enough money to buy a single orange, but now she could afford a farm of it.
While drinking, she glanced at the body-sized mirror in the corner, as a woman in her late sixties, she looked quite young, her mana had done a pretty good job in making her look so youthful, but her martial body had deteriorated.
She no longer has defined muscles, which she cultivated through blood and sweat, her skin of soft now, and her hand which used to be full of calluses is now soft as a bunny's hide.
But she looked beautiful, more womanly, everything on her body was fully stacked and in shape.
No wonder I have so many admirers.
Thinking of admirers, she couldn't help but wonder whether she would ever be able to find a man again. She loved her husband and she loved her son, but in politics and ruling the kingdom, she had become lonely.
Most of the men that do approach her are the people who just want her money and power, and she knows that perfectly well. Seeing that she wonders sometimes, if would she find love again, which makes her remember a line that was once his husband recited for her from his favorite poet.
"Life is a sentence that is too long to suffer alone." It was written by some estranged author that no one knows about, but it fits in her life perfectly.
"What are you thinking?" She was startled, she looked back and saw her son standing not too far away from her.
Her son was a handsome man, standing high with a height of 6 feet, he had black hair like her and lilac eyes like his father. He likes to train as well, it could be seen by the way his muscles were peeking from his clothes, the bushy beard though made him look very old for his age, and despite that, he was still quite dashing.
"Thinking, what should I do? I am losing my mind here." He chuckled at her response. "Are you losing your mind, because I was able to sneak up on you?"
"Oh please, you're 100 years too young to sneak up on me." There was no way she was admitting that he really was able to sneak up on her. She was really losing her edge.
"Really? I thought I really surprised you over there." She shakes her head. "No, you didn't. Now, how can I help my dear son this morning."
"Council meeting. Me and the General had something to discuss with you. So I took the liberty of scheduling a meeting after breakfast."
She groaned in frustration "You should have asked me first."
"No can do, I have to go meet some friends tonight, so I needed this meeting to be over as soon as possible. "
"So you threw me under the foot of mammoth so that you could have dinner with some of your friends?" She was annoyed.
With a big smile on his face, he replied. "Yup. Now go change, we have some work to do."
Rupert is a smart kid, based on his potential there might come a day when he would have to sit on the throne and command the office of the king. That is why she decided that it would be for the best to teach him everything she knew about the ruling, she gave him the role of her personal adviser and made him sit through most of her council sessions.
She thought that it would be a good idea, he would learn to run a kingdom as well as she would be able to spend some time with her son, little did she know at the time that decision would come to bite her in the ass.
***
As the gates of the meeting hall were opened, everyone present stood up, her mother and the queen, Charlotte Gorgon was there. Rupert also showed common aristocratic courtesy and got up as well. He felt weird that he have to do all of this for her mother, but he didn't complain.
Sitting just beside him was General Tarrain, he is an old man with a balding head and a long white beard. He is the head of the Royal Army as well as the strategic advisor to the crown. Just beside him was a small scrawny middle-aged man, he is Howard, he oversees the Royal treasury…
Like always, after pulling her chair from the round table, his mother greeted everyone, and then all of them sat down.
"What is the important thing because of which I had to leave my workout early?" she asked Rupert.
"We are here to talk about Gizelle Salvatore,"
Both Charlotte and Howard's raised their eyebrows with confusion, they knew about her, but didn't know the reason for their recent interest in her."The young mage that completed her first ring? Why do we have to talk about her?" Howard asked
Rupert turned towards General. "You want to take it from here General?" The old man nodded. "Sure"
The old man then continued. "We have to talk about her, because not only she complete her ring recently, but is also mingling a lot with Duke Fraser. His eldest son and she are having an affair from our intel."
"So why does this concern us?" Charlotte asked.
"The affair or whatever they have, doesn't concern us, but Gizelle had done something very suspicious stuff recently, that is what made us interested in her," General said.
"Like?" Queen asked, interested in the matter