Chained to old wounds

CH103

Tsunea

He flinched, clearly surprised that I knew his name

Eventually, he shuffled forward, nodding and bowing his head. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Do you know why her lunch is late? He hesitated, glancing between me and the woman. ‘Do not fear telling the truth.”

“Lady Maro has requested that she have lunch alone, earlier than the others, on the opposite side of the palace in a private parlor and has required a special menu. I cocked an eyebrow. “We have had problems procuring the ingredients for it.

I scoffed. “And the rest of you?”

“Our meals are late as well!” They said.

1 scoffed. Let me guess. They have much of the same requests?”

Gen ducked his head. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“And what is this request?”

“Star Fruit Pastries.”

I shook my head. Star Fruit has been out of season for months.

Tarofu laughed from the back of their minds. It seems they are trying to gain your father’s favor.

What does that mean?

He snickered. Star Fruit is known to make a woman more desirable, more lovely, and more alluring as it gives them a sweet scent… and makes them more adventurous in the bedroom.

He cackled, and I rubbed my head. He showed me an image of it and it took everything in me not to flush.

My mother had often been seen with the fruit in hand, snacking on it randomly, and my father had always looked at her with a knowing smile. I suppose I am grateful that I didn’t know exactly what they were doing when I was younger.

How often did my mother flirt with my father in plain sight aside from almost exclusively wearing

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CH103

his robes? I had to remember to somehow procure Star Fruit for Morgan though I didn’t need to make her smell any more lovely than the already dd Restraint was already font enough

hand

It grows in the garden around the Pools. No worries. He chuckled. I have a feeling that my Pyra is imparting all sorts of tips to your wife.

I could only hope

“Let it be known, you will not be allowed to overbunden the staff with your ridiculous requests. don’t care if none of you like each other. I don’t care if you don’t want to share a meal together. I don’t care if one person wants one thing and somebody else wants something else. You will not burden the staff with your squabbles,”

“I am the first concubine

“The only person who may burden the staff with her whims is the queen, and you are not her, nor

will YOU ever be.” She flushed. I turned to Gen. “You can have them all served in the common room

area of the harem if they will not take meals in the dining hall. I will allow for them to eat

separately in their own rooms or if they are dining with my father, their children, or each other, but none of these separate parlors or randomly across the palace arrangements any longer. Whatever modifications you have done to the parlors they have been using as their own personal dining rooms, I need a tally of them and to get them to me as quickly as possible. In addition, they will all be served the same meal as the rest of the palace.”

Short of a health need, there is no reason that any of them should need any special accommodations.” I glanced over them. “If you have personal servants or a relationship with staff member who can and is willing to make you whatever specialty thing from your home region, that is something different, but you will not make yourselves, your whims, nuisances. And it will come out of your personal budgets.”

Their jaws dropped.

“Go from me,” I said. “I imagine you’re famished.”

They grumbled, glaring. “Wait until His Majesty hears about this.”

“I doubt you will like the outcome.

They stomped off, growling and grumbling. I turned to the servants, who were watching me with at mixture of relief and gratitude.

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“For as long as my wife is healing, I will be running this side of the palace as well. Bring your concerns and outrageous requests to my attention and do not fear retaliation, I said, my voice filled with a sense of reassurance. They will suffer much more for the attempt than you ever will at their hands.

The servants nodded, their eyes filled with a mixture of hope and gratitude.

“Now, let’s get to the kitchens.”

We got to the kitchens and 1 shared the decree with the entire staff. They looked like I had taken all of their burdens away with such a simple decree. I could only imagine how stressful dealing with the concubines was without my mother’s presence and with Morgan still just starting to figure out her place in the palace.

I left them to finish making lunch and headed to the main dining hall. I entered with steady, deliberate steps, my eyes scanning the long table where members of the royal family were seated. The air was thick with tension. Most of my siblings, who generally avoided me, looked stiff in their seats as if they were afraid of offending me and ending up like Keiji and his sister. It was a good fear to have, considering their ambitions. As I walked to my seat, I felt their eyes on me–the unease, the quiet fear–and yet it didn’t stir a single emotion in me.

Fear me, a deep, dark part of me said. Fear me.

Is that you? I asked, prodding at Tarofu.

Do not blame me for your resentment towards these people. Tarofu sighed. Making them all human wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I scoffed at that and headed toward my seat. My father wasn’t here, not that I expected him to. Morgan’s seat was still empty, as was my mother’s. At the far end of the table, several other seats were conspicuously empty. Father’s concubines, most of them anyway, had chosen to make their absence a statement. I wasn’t surprised. My orders had cut through their petty games with one another.

Better passive defiance than antagonizing me with their idiocy while I ate. I suppose they thought it might rattle me, or that I would care.

A few of the more calculating ones were here, though, sitting primly in their places, offering me furtive glances, no doubt hoping to stay in my good graces. Their smiles were thin, their attempts at conversation with others strained, but they wouldn’t dare speak to me directly.

Good, I didn’t want to have to deal with them either.

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CH103

I took my seat in my seunt erat, noticing the chift in the atmosphere. My other siblings

tank,

were here too, scattered along the long, ornate each one of them avoiding my ge. They had never liked me. How could they? They had pected Keil or one of my other brothers t inherit the throne, but Father had made it clear that

that was not a good idea.

workely going to inherit, even if knew

Eh, Tarofu said. We could rule for a few centuries. That should be long enough for Haruka to have another child.