The Romantic Trials Of A Transmigrated Empress
Chapter 80: The spider strikes.

Chapter 80: The spider strikes.

Silence enveloped the room, so much so that you could hear a tiny pin drop on the floor. Not a single fork or spoon was moving, every eye was looking at either the grand duke, Sigrid, the king or the crown prince.

The grand duke’s face paled in fright, he seemed to realize what he had just said, and how his words belittled the king and the crown prince. While he could look down on Sigrid’s family because they were less powerful than he was, the king was different.

Everybody knew, there was nothing king Raff hated more than being looked down on. They held their breath, waiting for him to explode as he usually did in such situations. To their surprise, the king wiped his hands with a towel and then cleaned his mouth and stood up.

"Dinner is over, you can all leave." he declared in a grave voice.

"Your highness..." Donald Silberuss, the grand dukes third son stood up and called out to the king desperately. He wanted to explain that his father’s words should not be blown out of context.

However, it was too late, the king did not turn back, he just continued on his way.

Prince Galen raised a wine glass and toasted at Sigrid, he nodded once and then laughed.

Roland meanwhile mimicked his father’s actions, cleaning his hands and mouth as he spoke slowly. "A lot of people seem to be under the impression that I cannot protect my wife, it seems like I must work harder as her husband and the crown prince of Eldoria to dispel such misgivings." He stood up and bowed his head to the queen. "We will be taking our leave now, mother."

The queen nodded and she gave Sigrid a once over before standing up and leaving as well.

"Well, goodnight everyone." Sigrid stood up slowly, she waved and followed out of the dining room.

Within a minute, everyone started to disperse, leaving behind barely touched plates of food and glasses filled with juice and wine. The dinner had started awkwardly and ended in uncertainty.

"Well at least no blood was shed." Prince Galen laughed and said loudly as he caught up to Roland and Sigrid. "Believe it or not, this is one of the best family dinners we have ever had."

She raised her eyes and slowed her steps to walk with him. "You must be the fun brother, I am married to the temperamental one, the third prince is the charming one and the others are still young so I cannot describe their character accurately."

Galen laughed boldly and put an arm on Sigrid’s shoulder which Roland quickly pushed away with a dark scowl on his face.

"Try not be handsy with my wife Galen." he growled out softly.

Galen responded by laughing lightly, "You are using your words and not your fists, oh wow, you surprise me brother. Since when were you this tame? Marriage is doing wonders in you."

Roland glared at him and his lips thinned, Galen his younger brother was annoying just as he had always been. "What do you want Galen?"

"An invitation to the Vale, world peace, vast wealth, an island where I can live with my family away from this mess we call a family, a father who is not afraid that his sons are plotting to kill him to take the throne, a mother that smiles." he went on and on.

"Therapy." Sigrid mumbled.

Both brothers looked at her and she shrugged, they did not know what therapy was but in her opinion, they needed it because their parents had obviously screwed up their childhood.

"We did not get to finish our food, it’s too bad because I heard the kitchen had some blueberry cheese cake and I for one was hoping to enjoy it." Galen rubbed his belly and looked around. "You know what, let me pass by the kitchen and see if they have it. Bye Sigrid, it was a pleasure."

He broke away and run back in the direction they were coming from.

"Send some to the Vale if you find it." Sigrid turned around and shouted loudly.

Roland spun her around, took her hand and walked her towards their carriage. He was hungry and angry, the dinner had gone as he expected; bad.

**********************

As the carriages pulled away from the royal castle, the king was already meeting with his sister Romilda, his strategist or the spider as Mauve had called her. They met in a dimly lit war room where the king planned his wars and take downs of families that were becoming too powerful beyond his control.

Bright light from torches with light crystals flickered, the air was ripe with angst and a faint scent of incense. Romilda was looking at a realistic map of Eldoria on the table, scanning over the various markers that represented various noble houses, battalions and strongholds.

The wall slid open and third figure joined them, it was a man in a dark cloak with a hood which he let down.

"You are late Lord Benwick." Romilda said, without raising her head.

"My apologies, but as you know I am not supposed to be in the royal castle at this time of the night or the queen’s spies will notice and say something. Why did you send for me?" He responded.

"Karlton Silberuss," she begun, her voice commanding, "It seems that our granduncle’s family is beginning to get a little too comfortable. If we allow them to continue building their power, they will become a threat to our reign. His sons and grandsons have all joined the royal armies or trained as reserve knights.

Most of them are leaders of minor battalions, they do not take up major positions to avoid drawing our suspicion but they are making moves, garnering support amongst the noble houses."

King Raff’s jaw clenched, the muscles in his face tensing. "How dare he say in my presence that I cannot protect the crown princess? Does he think that I am not aware of his treacherous schemes, I should have killed the whole lot of them as soon as I buried my father."

The arch duke Karlton had been the rightful heir to the throne but he was born with a defect, one leg was crippled, shorter and smaller than the other. A king was not supposed to have physical disabilities, at least not before his crowning. The only case that was permitted was an injury sustained in war.

For this reason, the throne was passed to the king’s second son at the time, Raff’s grandfather. This created tension between the brothers however, the arch duke saved his brother the crown prince from being killed by a tiger on a hunting trip, earning himself the title of arch duke.

His family was made to change their name from Maximus to Silberuss, his mother’s maiden name and they were given many privileges, equal to those of the king himself in many ways. They were practically untouchable in Eldoria.

None of this erased Karlton’s bitterness because he should have been the king, not his brother.

Romilda’s lips curled into a knowing smile as she reached for a scroll hidden beneath her cloak. She unfurled it, revealing a detailed map of the Silberuss duchy.

"I managed to have one of my people infiltrate the crown princess’s restaurant. She is right, the place is gold mine for information because many foreign merchants and servants of noble houses flock to it. My spy heard that the Windrider’s are hiding another map so is our dearest grand uncle. Why would a member of the royal family hide a map showing the location of the Eclipsion sword?"

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