“For the Alliance” is no Longer a Slogan (Part 16)
Though it was the only chance that the continent would be united, the meeting was actually incredibly boring. As the three leaders of each respected region, neither the Queen of elves, Empress of humanity or me uttered a word. The two just sat at their tables and silently watched. I refrained from acting, as well, obviously. I sat at the table and kept my eyes on Freya, the humans and elves loudly debating with each other down below.
I could tell that, while it was very tiring to deal with elves and humans simultaneously – since Freya was struggling to keep up with hearing the elven language, and then suddenly humanity’s language – I still managed to catch the fact that Freya found pleasure in it. Though her face was flush with struggle, she wore a satisfied smile on her face. To make an analogy, it was the same as Nier’s keen expression that she wore when she got to fight against a strong opponent despite being married. As an intelligent girl, Freya enjoyed competing with other smart individuals.
Vyvyan, Elizabeth and I never said a word. On one hand, we were worried we’d say something wrong, which would end up being something for another party to leverage. On the other hand, none of us were thinking about what to discuss. We had no interest for whose face would be printed on the coins, which nation’s road dimensions we’d adapt and so forth, because it was already listed on the draft. Neither Elizabeth nor Vyvyan were establishing the alliance for those things. They just kept their gazes fixed on me. Hence, a week of the people’s intense debates couldn’t hold a candle to the progress between me and my moms in my room for one night.
I really wanted to laugh at the diplomats who were down there arguing until they were red in the face and eager to get physical. I also understood why there was only ever one personal servant. The people looked as though they desperately wanted to prove themselves, but they didn’t even know what their monarch wanted. What they desperately tried to argue for wasn’t important.
The North should’ve been the weakest party in the alliance. Up until then, the North still didn’t have a complete military. Furthermore, had Dragon Mom not provided me with financial funding, the North would be broke. However, you could say that I leveraged my two moms love for me to seize the initiative.
I knew my two moms could accept the majority of my requests as long as they weren’t outrageous requests. Therefore, the draft had essentially passed. Once I unified the finance system, there wouldn’t be anybody’s face printed on the coins. Instead, I planned to use the sun, Earth and wind as symbols on the coins. Wherever one may be or what race they belong to, the sun, Earth and wind everybody saw was the same. Everyone could see the three and feel their blessings. It was, therefore, the most appropriate idea for an alliance pursuing fairness. Of course, there was much, much more.
I was very careful. I didn’t ask for the North to be given vast land, territory or more influence. In essence, I did my best to avoid arbitrarily involving settings of each of the three parties. As such, my two moms didn’t have any objections. As long as neither of my moms spoke, the conclusion wouldn’t be affected regardless of how much those below argued.
Mommy Vyvyan sat on my left hand side. She kept a happy smile on the entire time. She didn’t place her hands on the table. Instead, she kept touching my thigh underneath the table. On the other side was Mommy Elizabeth, who threw etiquette straight out the window and generously angled her chair to sit with one leg over the other. Interestingly, she didn’t lean toward her human servant; instead, she leaned toward me. She looked at my face with her gentle eyes; she looked as though she could never get tired of seeing it. I was more important than the debate to her.
The three of us didn’t care in the least. The people below were trying, nonetheless. I didn’t care about the matter, but I didn’t want Freya to turn around and see me looking bored. That would upset her. After all, she viewed the merger with great importance.
We had the national banquet at night, which I assumed was what my two moms care about more. The afternoon was over. I didn’t put elves with humans. I, instead, arranged for them to be on two sides behind the palace. I allowed them to have free time in the afternoon. In other words, that was when my three moms had afternoon tea together and met for the first time. However, there wasn’t just the three of them. I knew the Valkyrie and imperial guards weren’t comfortable around another hostile monarch. They were likely hidden somewhere they weren’t easily noticed, though.
Elizabeth placed her teacup down. She narrowed her eyes and ran her gaze over Dragon Mom: “This is our first time meeting, but I would assume you already know me.”
Dragon Mom nodded, “Uhm, this is our first time meeting. He mentioned you and my son, but this is my first time seeing you in person. I thought I would see you there.”
“Unfortunately, I was heading back to Hilles City, so I wasn’t there.”
“I previously worried we would not get along when we met, but looking at it now, you are not a bad person.”
Dragon Mom looked at Elizabeth without any concern for mannerisms. Elizabeth wore a very indifferent expression. She was very unapproachable with her Empress expression. She hadn’t worn on her mask. In spite of that, I admired Dragon Mom’s courage to say that upon her first meeting with Elizabeth. I was nervous and unbecoming the first time I met Mommy Elizabeth despite being her son, yet Dragon Mom didn’t show any surprise.
“I won’t be angry about what happened ten years ago now. Moreover, what I want now isn’t Inard. You could say my story with Inard ended the moment I left, so what he did after my departure is of no concern, and neither do I care who he got with.” Elizabeth was surprisingly forthright considering the entire fiasco. It was the first time she openly expressed her feelings for Inard, I believe… She glanced at Vyvyan out of the corner of her eyes and then continued, “To me, he already betrayed me, not because he got with another woman, as I don’t care, but he gave my most treasured son, who’s most important to me, to this woman and nearly got him killed. I can’t forgive him for that.”
I had my eyes bulging, thinking, “Hey, hey, hey, that’s not what you said before, is it?! I don’t remember you saying that before! Didn’t you really care about Inard before?! Didn’t you continue to yearn for him?! How did you give up on him so quickly?!”
I looked at Mommy Elizabeth with a dumbfounded look. Elizabeth winked at me but didn’t say anything.
Vyvyan snickered: “I’m amazed you dare bring it up. If he was your most treasured and beloved son, how could you have beared to leave him behind, alone? The child you left is dead. He is my son. I gave birth to him. He has nothing to do with you.”
Vyvyan and Elizabeth metaphorically had their swords drawn and were confrontational. Puzzled, Dragon Mom titled head and turned to me: “Are these two usually, like this?”
I looked at the two in front of me and smiled helplessly, “I guess so. Usually, they’re very close, and they were good friends in the past, too. As long as I’m not their topic of discussion, the two of them won’t have such a poor relationship.”
Dragon Mom’s gaze darted back and forth. She then slammed the table, startling the two. They looked at her with stupefied expressions. I noticed Mommy Elizabeth had already grabbed her sword handle, while Mommy Vyvyan had collected a massive amount of elements. The two of them were actually very afraid of Dragon Mom. They were ready to fight if she showed any oddities. Dragon Mom ignored their reactions. Instead, she excitedly asked, “I get it! I get it now!! You two, you two should be good friends, right?!”
“I guess…” Vyvyan looked at Dragon Mom and then Elizabeth. She hesitated for a moment before saying, “If this woman can be reasonable, I guess we’re good friends.”
“If she could stop living in self-denial, I would consider Vyvyan a decent elf.”
Dragon Mom excitedly watch the two and then enthusiastically exclaimed, “See?! See?! I knew you two were friendly! How nice! How nice! I’ve never had a friend, so I really paid attention to you two. Therefore, let me help you. You are arguing who my son should belong to, right? You have no need to argue that. You just have to consider him my son! Problem solved, no?!”
The two of them blankly looked at Dragon Mom, who was proud with herself. Even I figuratively had my jaws gaping. Doubt crept into my mind. Though Dragon Mom had spoken for thousands of years, it seemed her intelligence hadn’t improved…. Dragon Mom laid eggs, so her IQ was inferior to us breastfed species…
Since your argument is, “Who’s his mother?” you just have to give your son to me. You’ll be able to be friends without him, so just give up on him, was essentially Dragon Mom’s logic.
“Don’t worry, I love my son, so entrust him to me. You two should not ruin your friendship over this.”
“Pfft!” Vyvyan couldn’t help but laugh. She covered her mouth and burst into laughter.
Mommy Elizabeth chuckled, and then turned her head away to mutter under her breath, “Idiot.”
There was no way those two would hand me over. That was impossible. Unless they both died, that was never going to happen. The reason they didn’t say anything to Dragon Mom was because… they both considered her to be an idiot…
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