The Crown’s Entrapment

The morning after came far sooner than Xenia expected. Her memories of yesterday had been a blur. She didn’t think that she’d pass out after that test, but she supposed that even she had her limits.

She could only thank her lucky stars that Darius had been with her throughout that endeavor.

“How are you feeling, Xen?”

Waking up, she held her head as she groaned out her discomfort. It wasn’t as painful as the one time she rowed the Lucian like an idiot, but it was still considerable as she looked at her mate.

“Dreadful,” she sarcastically quipped. “What happened last night?”

Darius raised an eyebrow as he looked at her from their table. “You passed out from dehydration,” he explained, raising a cup of tea up to his lips as he continued. “You passed, of course, but you came awfully close to dying last night.”

Xenia blinked at the way her beloved delivered such news. “Well, you certainly don’t sound like I almost died.”

“It was all under control,” he replied after taking a few sips from his cup. “I gave you some of my blood, and it managed to stave off some of your worse symptoms before your body began fighting back again.”

“I see…”

Huffing out some air, Xenia gingerly picked herself out of bed, her knees almost buckling as she forced herself upright. She still felt pretty weak, but it wasn’t as bad as what she last remembered before she completely blacked out.

“Take your time, Xen. While my blood did wonders for your recovery, you still need to replace everything you lost inside that steam box,” Darius reminded. “Osman already went out to hunt us some breakfast. That should be enough of a punishment for what he planned out.”

Her ears perked up at what she just heard. “Planned?”

Darius nodded. “Apparently, he made it so that I’d go with you inside that thing. I didn’t really get what he was trying to accomplish, but the fact that he even planned something meant that he wasn’t putting your training into account.”

“Huh…”

“As a result, I decided to have him be our reluctant slave for a while,” he smugly scoffed. “We’re still on schedule anyway, and you need a considerable amount of time to recover from your ordeal.”

Xenia could only blink at Darius’s words. So Osman had planned for something to happen in that steam box? She didn’t see anything bad happening beyond Darius probably taking her right at the beginning of it. And she honestly wouldn’t have minded it either way.

Wait… “Darius, did you take your celibacy potion today?”

Darius raised an eyebrow at her even as she walked towards him. She was covered only by her sheets, and she was half-expecting him to just go ahead and peel off what little layers she had to protect herself from his amazing gaze. Still, it didn’t happen as her mate simply went about his way sipping on his tea.

“As much as the thought crossed my mind, I decided that you needed your rest today,” Darius replied. “I’m drinking it right now. I can prepare my own drinks if need be, Xen.”

“Okay then,” Xenia smiled, almost letting out a small sigh of relief as she sat on the seat opposite of him. “Just checking, is all.”

Leaning onto her seat, the princess found herself relaxing as she watched Darius stand up, preparing yet another cup of tea before returning with the cup and presenting it to her.

“Thanks,” she smiled, taking the steaming cup into her hands.

“Drink up,” he nodded. “There are a few medicinal herbs in that cup that will help you in your recovery.”

Flashing Darius a grateful wink, Xenia stared into her own reflection in the cup, the brown liquid steaming out a fragrant scent that almost scratched at the back of her head. For some reason, she had a feeling that she knew exactly what was in her cup.

“If you’re thinking about what’s in it, it’s just a bit of camomile and ginger,” Darius explained. “It’s the same as what I’m drinking right now.”

“Huh,” Xenia blinked at her drink, taking a bit of time to herself before she finally took a sip. “I didn’t think you’d be the type to drink camomile.”

Darius scoffed. “It’s one of the more common kinds of flower found near the castle. Camomile is one of the few things Cordon exports, the climate making it more than easy to grow the thing in fields.”

“I see,” Xenia hummed. “That’s a surprise. I would’ve thought that Cordonian exports would fall more along the lines of timber and building materials.”

Ebodia usually imported such things from Cordon, the trade of goods between them was limited to more vital resources to support their growing infrastructure. If she recalled correctly, they also imported stone from them, Cordonian mines offering more competitive prices when compared to their other neighboring kingdoms.

“While Cordon is more famous for its natural resources, the land is also fertile enough to support a wide array of crops. Camomile being one of them,” Darius explained. “Our economy can handle itself without such luxury trade, of course, but it still adds up year on year.”

“Fair enough,” Xenia nodded. “Even Ebodia has our fair share of luxury goods to trade with. I just didn’t expect such kind of tea here.”

“Nobody does,” he chuckled. “It’s more of a hidden economy than something that’s a major export We also have a lot of other vegetables available for trade, but we often stockpile them instead in case of early winters such as what we’re experiencing right now.”

Xenia nodded as she sipped on her tea. She never really found the economic side of running a kingdom to be stimulating, but hearing Darius explain it somehow made hearing about numbers more bearable.

“You do realize that you will also have to learn all this once you become my Queen, right?” Darius reminded. “I will delegate a few of Cordon’s vital runnings in your care once we’re a bit more settled in, so I expect you to at least be knowledgeable of how we run things.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle, “Of course, Your Majesty~”

That sounded easy enough. Somehow, the thought of running a kingdom with him only made her more giddy with marrying him. That was until she remembered that she still had to pass her trials to even get to that part in the first place…

‘Guess that’s another thing to add to the list of rewards I’ll get once I get through all this…’ she inwardly chuckled.