The Romantic Trials Of A Transmigrated Empress
Chapter 164: To save or not to save?

Chapter 164: To save or not to save?

Watching television with the Thorin’s was always a fun experience for Roland, it involved a lot of screams, questions and other dramatic behaviors mostly exhibited by Lady Iryne.

Like now, they were only five minutes into the The Courtesan’s Dilemma and she had already paused the show to ask a question. She stood at the front and faced everyone as the question was a general one.

"Why was a king allowed to have a harem?"

Elowin was like the eager student in class, his hand was the first to go up. "Political alliances mother, its the same reason why the king is allowed to have two wives."

"I feel like this question was meant for Roland." General Paxton said.

Roland shrugged, "Why me?"

"You are the prince here." The general answered in a way that was obvious.

"Every man in Eldoria is allowed to marry two wives if he wishes, can we not make this a royal family thing." Roland dived back into his food, preferring that the matter be sealed and they go back to watching the series.

"It is the culture of that kingdom in the series, can we move on?" John inquired.

"Next question." Lady Iryne declared to which some people groaned.

Sigrid decided to save everyone from her mother and she used magic to press play. The series picked up from where it had stopped, new concubines were arriving in the royal palace to join the king’s harem.

Ten minutes later, Lady Iryne was back on her feet with own dilemma that needed solving.

"I am sorry but I need to understand this or I won’t be able to sleep." She moved her hands around in a very unladylike manner, and they ended up at the sides of her waist. "So, the queen killed two concubines because they were pregnant with male children. The king was aware and he did nothing because those two concubines came from weaker families. Two days after they died, there was a draft in the palace and three new concubines joined the harem."

"Uh-huh." Sigrid confirmed through a closed mouth as she was eating her dinner.

Lady Iryne raised her hands to the sky. "Are they crazy? Is the whole world crazy? How and why do the officials keep sending their daughters to marry the king not knowing if they will suffer the same fate as the dead concubines? Why are beautiful young women competing to marry an aging king with wrinkled skin."

"For the same reason over one hundred young beautiful titled women from noble families attended the late consort’s funeral dressed like butterflies with faces caked full of make-up. Can we move on?" Elowin answered and sighed. "If you keep doing this mother, I will take back my crystal."

Lady Iryne was not satisfied, but she sat down anyway. The rest of the episodes were watched without interruptions and for that, no one was more grateful than the butler, Jesting.

The elderly man was already composing his thoughts on the series, unfortunately all he could compose was short criticism of Lady Iryne’s less than enjoyable TV habits.

He was thrilled by the series however and he could not wait to see more. They had left off at a part where a concubine had secretly given birth to a male child in the palace. At the same time, the queen had given birth to a son as well. There was no telling what was going to happen next.

Sigrid knew what was going to happen next, a baby swap! She could not wait to see the expressions on the faces of Eldorians after they watched it.

Jesting approached Roland as they evacuated the theater. "Your highness, can I get a few minutes of your time?"

"Do you want to discuss the consort’s dilemma?" Roland took a wild guess and asked.

"So much." Jesting expelled a breath. He had been holding it in for so long.

The two men disappeared into Roland’s study. Sigrid took this opportunity to pull her father side. She also had something to discuss. They went all the way to the empty chapel which was attached to the castle and sat down on a wooden bench.

"To bring me this far, you must have something important to discuss." Lord Paxton Thorin’s voice was weary both from the long day and anxiety over what Sigrid had to say. It had to be serious if she was acting like this.

Sigrid looked around first, ensuring that they had absolute privacy and said to him, "Its about Lord Ellas Shadowmere, the marquess of Greystone. There are some parts of my dream that I never shared before because they were of no concern to our family. However, the knowledge troubles me."

Lord Paxton crossed one leg over the other and looked at his daughter keenly, The word trouble made him uneasy. "I know Lord Gold Shadowmere, he is a good friend of mine. He is the son of the marquess, if there is trouble in their family I believe that we should extend a helping hand. Many times when I was in trouble myself, Gold did not hesitate to come to my aid."

"But they are undecided." Sigrid shared what troubled her, why she had hesitated to intervene in their affairs. "They have abundant naval strength, it a sore in the side of many but they remain untouched because they are rich and do not favor politics. They are loyal enough to the king but do not go out of their way to bend over for him. They have never expressed any interest in associating with any of the prince’s and choosing a side."

She was only interested in the ones that had allied themselves with them. As for the rest, whatever happened to them was of no concern to her.

"Not everything is about choosing sides Sigrid." Lord Paxton stretched his hand and touched his daughter’s hair. "Besides, when you are fighting any war, big or small it is always best if you have more allies than foes. If you extend a helping hand to the Shadowmere’s they will owe you a favor.

Someday, maybe you will use that favor to save yourself, your husband, the kingdom, your children. Your dream covered less than ten years of the future so you don’t actually know what will happen twenty or thirty years from now.

There is no such thing as permanent allies or foes among the nobles especially when it comes to royalty. Those who support you today might not support your son and support Galen or Benjamin’s child to succeed Roland.

Do not discard others easily just because you cannot use them for the moment."

She nodded along to her father’s words slowly and realized that she had been too short sighted. All of her focus was on Emmah and the families which supported Emmah but they made up less that ten percent of the noble families in the kingdom.

"It seems that my thinking has been wrong all along, it was shallow." she said slowly. No wonder Cosmos had once told her that she would not make a good empress.

Lord Paxton smiled, "Tell me then, what happened to the Shadowmere’s and how can we stop it?"

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