Doubts

Dominic flinched, his head turning to Grayson with a smile. "It seems like you have something to comment on about my relationship with Princess Claudia?"

Grayson grinned, revealing a charming smile. "Why of course not, your highness," he chuckled, his laughter reducing to a smirk, "I'm simply voicing the opinion the council has gathered on your marriage with her. It's quite... fascinating really."

Dominic's eyebrows raised, leaning back in his chair. "Really? Care to continue with those observations?"

Grayson and Dominic remained in eye contact for a moment, tension filling the room slowly. Grayson smiled, nodding his head at Dominic. "Of course, your highness."

Grayson sat up and cleared his throat, his voice the only thing to be heard in the room. "This is all said with no means to upset his highness, of course, and simply the ideas of the previous King's advisor's voicing themselves."

Dominic smiling, his head tilting to the side. "Of course, continue," he nodded. Boris glanced down at Dominic's head, concern building up in him. He turned to Grayson, his eyes glinting with annoyance. 

"It's a bit absurd to look at, your highness, the way you interact with Princess Claudia I mean," Grayson began, "did you not meet her merely a week ago?"

"So your issue is with how close I am with my fiance?" Dominic asked, a smirk growing on his face, "are you concerned I will be so caught up in her that I won't allow a lady from your family to be my concubine?"

Grayson flinched, his eye twitched. "Of course not your highness! I will not dare concern you with matters as trivial at those but rather concern you with how infatuated you are with the queen to be."

Grayson's arm raises and curves around, showing all the members at the table. "I cannot, and the others of the King's advisors, be the only ones that notice how wrapped up you are in Princess Claudia. Not a day has passed that you have no spent in her presence. Whether than be walking in the hallways, holding her hand, or spending time with her at an event in which you are poisoned," Grayson pressed, "with all due respect, your highness, you seem to be wrapped around her finger."

"So you'd rather I toss her aside until I become king and pick her back up again like she's a hobby?" Dominic asked, his voice rather steady to Boris' surprise.

"No. I'm saying you are too reliant on her. So reliant that you haven't been able to accomplish your job anymore, my prince," Grayson snapped, his voice dropping a level in tone, "The hours you spent by her side is the times you could have spent in your office, working, fulfilling the tasks a future king should have done! Instead, you spent it frolicking around the palace with the princess."

Dominic didn't utter a word. Grayson's voice lingered in the air for seconds before he continued.

"You seem to have come to the meeting with demands that have already been circulating in your mind for a while. You could have come earlier. You could have been beside us and working to heal the kingdom again quicker than you did," Grayson muttered, his voice growing harsher, "While you were busy spending time with the princess, the kingdom was suffering. Your kingdom. You should know well that the wrong decisions can lead to the worst for the kingdom. I'd hate it to be by your hands, your highness."

"Really?" Dominic chuckled, his laugh hallow and heavy on the mood. "So you doubt the decision-making skills of the next king?"

Grayson froze for a moment, an apologetic smile forming on his face. "I don't mean for you to take it so harshly, your highness. But in simpler terms, yes," Grayson nodded, his eyes locking with Dominic's "Yes, we do."

Dominic didn't react to Grayson's comment. Boris glanced down at him again, a certain feeling pinching at him. He didn't get it. He didn't get why Dominic wasn't reacting yet. 

His hands clench into a fist as he looked up at Grayson. It was obvious that he didn't mean any of the 'pardon my word' that he liked to mention before he threw another insult at Dominic. It was as clear as day to him, so it should have been for Dominic too. 'But he isn't reacting...' Boris thought to himself as he turned back to Dominic, 'surely he's not planning to take all of the critics nicely and ignore them? He's a royal, he has to stick up for himself when his subjects speak rashly of him.'

"In fact, it seems like her effect has been taking toll on you already," Grayson sighed, leaning back in his chair. 

Dominic simply tilted his head back to a straight position, allowing Grayson to continue further. "We cannot be blind for much longer. You didn't interact with anyone but her for these past two weeks and it's my first time seeing you in weeks since I saw you yesterday. I'm sure it's the same for all of us here," Grayson commented, his eyes drawing to Kalmin and then crept up to Boris, locking eyes with him for a brief moment. "Well... most of us."

Boris' jaw clenched in anger. It was starting to dig at him now, its lips quivering from holding back.

"Then we have your irresponsibility in handling kingdom matters, looking after the guards after they died and even taking a tour of the kingdom to see the damage done," Grayson pressed, "It's been two weeks since the passing of the King, your highness, shouldn't you have things together for your coronation by now? Why is it tak-"

Boris rolled his eyes. "So you are aware of the death of the king," he muttered. 

Grayson flinched, his words cutting off at his eyes dart to Boris'. Everyone in the room's gaze follows. "Excuse me?" he spat, his words thrown out so harshly and angrily that everyone felt the tremor in the room.

Boris turned to Grayson, his golden eyes peering down at him. "Oh, pardon me, sir, I'm afraid my thoughts slipped through my mouth."

Grayson stared at Boris in disbelief for a moment. He leaned back in his chair, a brief but loud laugh rolled out of his mouth. 

Boris peered at him for a moment, contemplating being quiet. He looked down at Dominic and his jaw clenched again, he chose to continue.

"I do find it amusing though," Boris chuckled, Grayson's grey eyes immediately locking on him when he spoke up. 

"What?" Grayson growled.

"How you speak with such eloquence as if you'd care for the prince and then slam him with comments that say otherwise," Boris smiled, his eyes piercing into Grayson's, "if you did care about his highness as you say you do, then you would understand the actions he had taken."

Boris looked down at Dominic again, his fist tightening. "You say the king's passing so easily like it is a matter of the past. It is the reality his highness is dealing with as of right now, the passing of his king, like the kingdom, but even more so, the passing of his father," Boris continued, "while you sit here condemning him and accusing him of incompetence with pretty words when just a week ago, while he was dealing with the loss, not a single one of you dared to come up to him to give comfort."

Grayson's lips pressed against each other tightly. 

"Now you sit here, talking about his irresponsibility after a week of avoiding him while he was mourning," Boris snapped. "Do you dare think you have the right to raise your mouth to his highness after not even fulfilling your own job of advisors of helping him mourn while keeping the kingdom going. It's like you were waiting while he was recovering, waiting for the chance to blame him for the chaos you could have fixed when he was down. Then, you take advantage of the only person that granted him comfort, making her seem like a bad influence on him when it was due to your own incompetence."

Boris chuckled with a glare so harsh that he pointed at Grayson. "And you call yourselves advisors... are you mocking the prince?"

Boris' voice rang out in the room for a moment, his words settling into the heads of his advisors. 

Dominic turned to him, immediately pulling Boris' gaze to his. Boris flinched, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion when he looked into Dominic's eyes. It was anger. 

"How dare?" Grayson muttered, drawing all eyes back to him, "a scrap mentions the words 'how dare' to a superior?"

Tension grasped at the necks of those in the room. 

"A rat picked up the street and dressed in fine clothing and fed with the finest dishes comes to think he's a human," Grayson chuckled, "have you lost your mind? WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO RAISE YOUR VOICE AT A TABLE WITH HIS HIGHNESS AND HIS NOBLE SUBJECTS!"

Grayson's lips curled up into a scowl. "I was wondering whom you are for the prince to bring you to the meeting. I had heard rumors of a scrap being brought into the palace but I did not expect to see such a dirty animal before me that would raise its scornful mouth to speak to me," he spat, his words slamming into Boris like bullets, "it seems like a tighter leash hasn't been kept on you. Only brainless animals like you would think to bark back at people when its master doesn't tie it down to a tree."

Boris's jaw clenched, Grayson's word repeating in his head. This was the reaction he had expected from nobles in his presence. Those slurs, that jarring gaze, that demeaning tone, those were the words he had expected to hear from nobles. He thought he was prepared to hear them, fortified his mind to accept those cruel words. Instead, he was far from ready, his guard had been lowered, his mind had fallen to believe nobles around him wouldn't spew such degrading insults.

Dominic looked up at Boris, a sigh leaving his lips. Those were the words he had tried to protect him from.

"Your highness, it seems that you haven't managed to train that beast well enough," Grayson chuckled, "a rat should know how to hide in the sight of humans, a dog should now how to bow in the sight of his master."

Dominic closed his eyes, sucking in a deep breath. 

"You should hand him over to me," Grayson suggested, "I'll make sure to train him so he will crawl befor-"

"Grayson, care to remind me of your position in this council?' Dominic asked, his eyes remaining closed as he let out a deep breath. He sucked in another, and let out another. It wasn't working, his anger wasn't calming.

"The second War advisor, your highness," Grayson immediately replied.

Dominic nodded, a smile forming on his face. "Right, the second War advisor, previously the first for the king," Dominic chuckled, his eyes opening and locking on Grayson immediately. They gleamed. "You were also the 5th in ranking with the king. Now you are the 14th."

Grayson flinched, his hands twitching when he locked eyes with Dominic. His heart skipped a beat and the room turned cold. It was clear. As clear as a raging pit of fire, as clear as the roar of the ocean in a storm, his anger blazed in his eyes, washing the entire room over with an aura that paralyzed them, a gaze that petrified them. 

"With a level like that do you think you have the permission to refer to me with the words, 'you'?" Dominic muttered, his voice low and quiet, like the steps of a panther creeping onto his prey. "In fact, with a level like that, do you think you have the power to raise your eyes to mine?"

Grayson flinched, his gaze wavering. "No..."

Dominic tilted his head to the side, his smile growing brighter. "Right, but with a rank like that, don't you know how hard it is to keep it up?" Dominic asked, "to my father you may have been a valuable addition to his advisors but to me, you're like an add-on. A bonus I didn't ask for, a bonus I allowed simply because of pity. Yet... you seem to have forgotten how low you are in the council, and even more so, how quickly I can have your name ripped out of the book of councils, strip you of your power, and throw you out of the palace."

Grayson shuddered, Dominic's words piercing his mind. 

"I gave you the permission to speak before me, the permission to even hold a hand up to me, the permission to be in my presence, and the permission to take care of me. Since when have you gotten the permission to punish another on my behalf, to rant about my faults with a mocking tone, and to DARE TO DEMEAN ANOTHER IN MY PRESENCE?!" Dominic snapped, the room shuddering at the raise in his voice. "You condemn another for raising their voice before me but do the same in the process, you demean another for saying insults in my presence but say five times worse on your own...."

Dominic chuckled, his eyes shutting and hands running through his hair. He looked down at Grayson, the edges of his lips curled up into a smile. "It seems there are many others I have forgotten to keep a tighter lease on. Others I let believe, in the days of my absence, that they can openly speak bad words about me with a light tone and expect to get away with it simply because of the fact that they are a noble."

Dominic leaned forward, his elbow resting on the table as his eyes pushed further into Grayson. "Tell me, oh-so-entitled, do you think being a noble gives you an edge in my sight? Shouldn't you be more concerned of the fact that I have chosen to raise a being you call a rat over granting you more power in the council?" Dominic smiled, "you put your mouth in my marriage, demean my wife and then think you have the right to question my judgments. How far will your arrogance run? How much longer will you continue to delusionize yourself into thinking your words have power?"

Grayson's lips quivered. Everyone's lips quivered. His words, though directed at one person seemed to bounce at the others, shrinking them to tiny ants. 

"You seem to have forgotten, so let me remind you," Dominic chuckled, release a beaming smile so fake, his rage being blatantly shown in his gaze. "Commoner, noble, or rat, younger or older. You are all the same to me," he grinned, his eyes opening to look around the table, "you are all people below me. Whether you're further down the ladder or higher, drowning your pitiful selves in money to console and quench your thirst for power, you are all my subjects. Each and every one of you as disposable as the last so don't let what you have now get into your head. I'll gladly take it away and give it to another who is more deserving."

Dominic's smile faded away immediately, his eyes glance at those at the table before locking on Grayson's. His head tilted to the side, his lips in a thin line. "Understood?"

Silence sat heavily in the room as all grimly nodded. Including Boris, his head moving before he could notice.

Dominic turned to Feline, who jumped immediately, trembling and lowering her eyes in Dominic's gaze. "My plans I mentioned at the beginning of this meeting. I trust they have all been written down so I do not have to repeat myself," Dominic stated, "in the future, I will be scheduling more meetings so keep in touch with Kalmin in order to stay updated. I see no need for any of you to personally reach out to me anymore."

"Y-yes, your highness," Feline trembled, her hands shakily scribbling on the sheets of paper before her. 

Dominic stood up from his seat, peering down at those below. His eyes glowed with a gaze describable in four words. Disappointment, disgust, rage, and distrust. "Regarding my marriage with Princess Claudia, I will put the ceremony on hold. Along with my coronation. There are more pressing matters to attend to," he muttered, stepping away from the table, "I'm sure I will not be seeing any of your faces for the rest of today as you will all be busy with tasks. I look forward to your reports at the end of the week for progress.

He turned to Helen who immediately sat up straight, her eyes facing her papers. "I expect summaries of the plans for the changes in finances by the end of the day. The same for rebuilding plans," Dominic ordered, "The rest of you who have no tasks shall wait for my command."

Dominic began his walk to the door, his aura overwhelmingly strong as he walked, his steps heavy and purposeful. He paused, the entire room freezing. "One more thing," he called out, his voice sending tremors through the council members and Boris, "I will be dropping the use of your titles when I address you indefinitely, just as I address my maids. A restructure of attitude has been called to my attention so I will see to it that it is fixed."

He continued his walk to the door, his steps stopping right in front of it. Kalmin stood up from his seat immediately, packed up his materials, running to the door milliseconds later, and pulled open the door for Dominic. 

Boris hurriedly followed Kalmin's steps, making sure to stop feet behind Dominic. 

Dominic's eyes turned back to the council members who flinched at his gaze. He turned back forward and stepped out of the room. "Meeting adjourned."

Kalmin and Boris step out of the room seconds after Dominic began walking down the hallway, their eyes glued to the ground. 

Slow creaks echoed through the halls as the doors begin to close. With a heavy thud, they slam shut.