Chapter 25- Dethronement of the Illegitimate Queen

The grand hallways were bustling in the afternoons, but everyone made way for Iris. She had just finished her important meeting and was on the way to Selina's room.

Her return to the castle this time had mostly been for that meeting. She and many other important nobles discussed the cooperation. As the monarch she needed support and it would be easiest if she could simply convince them with words.

However, a majority of the nobles in that meeting were very resistant to her, they heavily disdained her. She couldn't change their minds easily, and the chances of them banding together weren't low. But she didn't have time to gradually whittle away their power till they weren't a threat. She needs to have a more stable position, but she likely couldn't accomplish that before they would act against her. Thankfully, their defiance didn't bother her, she already had anticipated this. 

When Iris reached the tall and ornate doors that belonged to her Netras mother's room, she was informed by a guard on standby that Salina was still sleeping.

When she pushed open the doors, Iris was met with the sight of a pitiful Salina. Her straight strawberry-blonde hair had taken upon the texture of straw, and the circles under her eyes were far darker than the makeup of this age could cover. Her collarbone jutted out from her delicate body, she had obviously lost weight. Iris would need to hurry and get information from her, Salina's body wouldn't hold up for much longer. 

"Salina-" Iris stopped herself with a frown.

"Mother, I wanted to discuss something with you." 

At Iris's voice, Salina slowly roused, her nest of hair falling to her back when she woke. 

"Netra! What happened?" Salina sat up, panicked. Her memory was obviously starting to fail her, she hadn't caught Iris knocking her out.

"You suddenly passed out, you need to get more rest." Iris said flatly, not even attempting to sell the act.

"Is that so…Makes sense, I've been exhausted. But more importantly!" Salina suddenly sprang from the bed and grasped Iris's hand.

"We need to meet with your father, the situation in the castle is getting critical! Because of your stupidity, Reis has improved his political position. There are nobles who are seriously considering him as a contender to our throne!" Salina seemed to have a vague understanding of the political situation, but didn't have a deeper nuance of Iris's place in it. She just thought her 'daughter' had made a stupid mistake. 

"I should have seen this coming. He's like his mother, I shouldn't have let him near you. He's clouded your judgment, but it's fine. Your father will be able to solve this, he has been making preparations recently."

What did making preparations mean? What exactly were Selina and Netra's father planning? Iris once again resented not having Netra's memories. It made it increasingly difficult. 

"You! Are you listening!"Salina suddenly snapped at Iris.

Iris stared at her with slanted eyes. She was losing her already little patience for Salina. But she wanted to meet with Netra's father.

"You don't even care about your mother anymore! How ungrateful, I do all of this for you!"

"What's his address?" Iris attempted to interrupt Salina's rant.

"Huh? You forgot? You see, this is why you need this. How can you properly be a monarch on your own." Salina continued despite Iris's interruption.

"His address. So I can send an invite." Iris rudely said, her patience visibly slipping away.

"What! How can you suggest such a thing?! We'll be caught! We'll meet at the safehouse like we always have."

Iris wanted to meet on her own terms, and she wanted to know his location. She intended to search his house, and Salina was the only one who knew his location at the moment.

"I have no time to go somewhere else. Besides, they would never suspect he's my father." Iris said with no room for discussion.

Salina frowned for a moment but eventually gave in, her reason had deteriorated.

"...Alright."

As soon as Iris got her answer, she immediately wrote down the address. 

"We'll meet in a couple of weeks."

"So late?"

"I will be out of the castle again tomorrow and won't be back for a while."

Salina seemed angered by this, but Iris left before she had to endure any more tirades. 

-

Iris was writing correspondents when Reis walked through the study room doors. 

She gave him a quick glance before resuming attention to the matter at hand. There were some details to deal with before meeting with Netra's father and before she left the castle for a while again. 

However, her focus was broken by the man standing in front of her desk, waiting. She glanced at him questioningly. His dark brown hair had grown out a bit, it relaxed around his ears. His usually flat and scheming eyes were glaring at her in annoyance, his long eyelashes were casting a shadow over his dark, coffee-colored eyes. 

"What? What do you want?" Iri didn't want anything to do with him after their last interaction. Her absence was necessary for her task and convenient for avoiding him. She still had more she wanted to find out from him, but perhaps it was best to attempt that from a distance. 

"Where have you been?... Your majesty." Reis attempted to hide his rudeness. He had every intention to forget their strange interaction and perform well as her assistant. However, after finding out she was poisoned, he found that his motives were different. Something about the Queen now got under her skin, I'm a different way than before. 

After a while, he steeled himself to start looking at her differently, after all, she was going to die soon. When it came to the throne, he was fighting a battle he would win when he faced Iris. There was no point in being her adversary anymore. But after all of his psychological construction, she disappeared.

"Attending to the kingdom." 

"And that can't be done from your office? It's not safe to be outside the castle alone." Especially in your state, he thought.

Iris frowned at Reis's confrontational attitude. But where she would usually feel annoyance, she felt something else. Something peculiar. 

"It's nothing you need to manage."

 "I'm your assistant! You gave me that position yourself, in case you forgot. And you're the Queen! Why don't you act like it!" Reis thought of the wounds he knew still littered her body. Queens don't get themselves hurt without healing themselves.

"You do plenty acting like the monarch in my stead." Iris felt petulant for some reason. She didn't understand why he was yelling at her. They didn't have any sort of relationship where he could care about her.

Reis felt Iris's words sting. While Iris was away he had acted as a sort of monarch by proxy. Not only was he the prince, the next in line, but he was also her assistant. While she was off god knows where, he managed what work she left at the castle. 

He looked at the ground. His stoic appearance cracking. In this time the way he thought of her had shifted. The Queen in front of him had completely overturned what he thought of her. 

Because she was poisoned, Reis genuinely hadn't thought about dethroning her. He decided he would help her as her assistant until the poison overcame her. But right now, he realized she completely thought he was still trying to undermine her. The thought put a bitter taste in his mouth. 

Iris saw Reis's low mood but said nothing. She'd kill him soon enough. He was simply a novel character. And if he had something to do with Leon, then he might have bad intentions for her. 

"Leave. I want to study by myself." Iris felt like she was putting a guillotine over Reis's head as she said the words. 

Reis had more he wanted to say, but the lump in his throat made him feel like he couldn't speak. 

"...Alright. Goodbye, Your Majesty." 

Iris returned to her work, but her eyes were distracted as the slam of the door reverberated through the room.