The Crown's Seduction
Chapter 94: The Braun Clan and The Wagner Clan

Chapter 94: The Braun Clan and The Wagner Clan

"It’s snowing..."

Mineah hummed to herself as she opened her palm up to the sky, feeling the icy snow drops falling from the sky. She was currently on the balcony of her throne room as she waited for the arrival of the next clan who was scheduled to pay their respects to her: the Braun Clan.

"It’s time, milady," Dani called out from behind her.

Nodding, Mineah turned around and walked back inside the throne room with Dani. There was more work to be done, and if she recalled correctly, the Braun Clan was like the Ichor Clan. They had many humans and Melds in their numbers. As such, she prepared a feast for them during the gathering.

Taking her seat in her throne, Mineah watched as the guards began announcing the arrival of each member of the clan including their titles. As expected, everyone greeted her with a curt bow of respect.

"Long live, Her Majesty!" all of them shouted as one before bowing and kneeling in front of her.

Seeing their greetings, Mineah smiled. "Please rise, everyone," she stated. "Get a comfortable seat to your liking and enjoy the meals we have prepared for everyone."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," they answered in chorus.

Humming, Mineah’s smile widened as she saw little kids playing around the hall. It would seem that everyone was in attendance including the little ones.

"You... Come here and behave," a servant called out to a little boy who ran towards Mineah.

Still smiling, she signaled to the servant that it was alright and leaned down to the boy. "Hello," she greeted him. "What’s your name? How old are you?"

"I’m Marcial and I’m seven, Your Majesty," the boy proudly declared. "You’re so beautiful. When I grow up, I want to marry a woman as beautiful as you."

"Marcial!" Leona, who was the Exordium and head of Braun Clan, scolded. "I told you to behave!" She then looked at Mineah with a curt bow and said, "I apologize, Your Majesty. This grandson of mine is quite a handful."

"It’s of no consequence," Mineah insisted with a smile before pointing at the baby cooing in Leona’s arms. "And this little baby?"

"Ah, she’s Marcial’s sister, Aurora" Leona answered with a smile. "Both are Milo’s children."

"I see," Mineah hummed. "Can I carry the Minister’s daughter?"

While it was unfortunate that the Minister of Personnel wasn’t present in the gathering, Nikolai had a task for the man in the provinces of Valcrez. And besides, his human wife was there sitting not far from them as his representative, nursing two more sons in her arms that were younger than Macial.

"Yes, of course," Leona nodded with a smile.

Eagerly, Mineah gently grabbed the baby from the woman’s arms. "She looks so lovely," she cooed.

"Yes, indeed," Leona hummed in agreement. "You seem to love children, Your Majesty. I’m sure you and His Majesty will have beautiful babies as soon as the Midnight Sun Waiting is over."

Mineah immediately blushed at Leona’s teasing. Still, she couldn’t help but like the woman because of her genuine tone. She was like Aunt Alexa in that way, she supposed.

"Thank you, Lady Leona," Mineah whispered with a sweet smile.

As if surprised, Leona blinked at her and remarked, "I don’t quite understand why you’re thanking me, Your Majesty."

"Thank you for your support for Nikolai, and thank you for being a good leader and example to the Clan," Mineah explained. "I’ve heard a lot of great things about you. It’s nice to know that Nikolai has the support of someone like you..."

"Oh. that. Hmm... I’ve witnessed how Nikolai grew up and saw the potential in him. There were ups and downs, but I believe there’s no other person deserving to rule our kingdom other than him," Leona wistfully explained.

"I can see how much he genuinely cares for the Valcrezians and the Kingdom. He’s not selfish and eager for power, but instead, he just wants to do things that can make our Kingdom persevere as a whole."

Mineah nodded. It really seemed that this woman was a staunch ally of her husband.

"If you need anything, don’t hesitate to approach me anytime, Your Majesty," Leona offered.

"I’ll keep that in mind," Mineah gratefully nodded before turning her attention back to the kids playing around them. She really adored seeing them like this, and she couldn’t help but imagine herself having one with Nikolai.

’I must break the curse no matter what...’ she inwardly thought with determination as she stared at the adorable baby in her arms.

***

Another day passed for Mineah, and it was the Wagner Clan’s turn to visit her. This time, the set-up of the throne was the same as with the Ivanov Clan wherein they had to serve animal and human blood to their guests.

The time for the gathering then came, and surprisingly, it didn’t take long since most of them quickly left as soon as they said their greetings and gave her their so-called presents.

"They seem to be in a hurry to leave," Dani snorted as she stood beside her watching the last member of the clan walk out of the throne room.

"It’s better this way. At least we won’t be wasting our precious time exchanging fake smiles with them," Zaila mumbled, her nostrils flaring. "It’s so obvious that they didn’t want to be here and was simply doing this out of duty."

Mineah chuckled. There was truth to that assumption after all. She even stopped reading their minds after a while since all of them had the same thought... They hated bowing before a human like her, and that seemed to be the end of the discussion.

With her duties over for the day, Mineah hummed in relief as she made her way back to her bedchamber. Doing the same thing over and over again for days was getting tiresome and boring. "I want to take a bath."

"Ah, just one more day!" Zaila cheered as if she had just read her thoughts. "Doing this every day is just dull."

"One more day and we can finally be free from the throne room," Mineah chuckled.

While they were walking through the hallways, Mineah blinked as a sudden message popped up in her head.

[Mine, what are you doing?] Nikolai suddenly asked through their bond.

[Thinking of you,] she shamelessly replied.

"Your cheeks are blushing milady. And why are you smiling on your own?" Zaila teased. "Are you perhaps doing your usual telepathic flirting with His Majesty?"

Mineah only chuckled as she raised her palms to touch her cheeks. They didn’t have to hear her state the obvious anyway.

"It must be nice to have this kind of telepathic connection with your partner," Krisha snorted.

"Jealous? Go get a werewolf or a vampire as your partner if you want this kind of bond then," Zaila said with a grin.

Mineah smiled at her shadow maiden’s bantering.

[Did I make your heart flutter?] she asked as Nikolai remained silent despite her previous reply.

[You... You’re making me want to break tradition and just sneak into wherever you are...] Nikolai mumbled.

[Days can pass by so quickly, you know,] Mineah pointed out. [The Midnight Sun might come earlier than we expected. Just be patient. I’m sure we’ll get to meet sooner or later.]

[Mine, days can pass by so slowly for me,] he grumbled. [My patience is running really low.]

[Well, too bad. It’s not like I wanted it to be a tradition in the first place,] Mineah chuckled. She then took on a sultry tone as she teased, [I’ll be getting myself cleaned up now, Lai. I’m going to take a bath. Too bad you can’t join me.]

[Mine, don’t tease me like,] Nikolai complained. [It’s torture.]

[Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you when the time comes...] Mineah replied with a giggle.

She couldn’t help but smile as the blush on her face never left her cheeks. She loved her simple interactions with Nikolai like this. It was a breather for a tiring day, and she couldn’t wait until she could finally actually see her husband face to face.

She honestly found herself always looking forward to being with him physically. She released a sigh as she mused, ’Looks like I’m falling in love with him first.’ She couldn’t help but wonder how her way into his heart was doing now at this rate.

*****

AN: How do you think Mineah is doing in Nikolai’s heart? Keep voting please on Golden Tickets and Powerstones for more extra/bonus Chapters... Thank you so much for all the support *Kisses and hugs*

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