Chapter Text
"YOUR HIGHNESS!!"
You gasped, scrambling to sit up in bed as you were suddenly awoken by the slam of your door against the wall and the sudden yell.
"WHAT? What's going on...?" you slurred, one eye still half shut.
Your lady in waiting, Adelaide, stood in the doorway, her breathing frantic and uneven. She clutched a paper to her chest with one hand and smoothed her hair down with the other. There was a pause while she collected herself.
"My apologies for startling you, my Lady,” she said, out of breath ”You've been betrothed. The wedding will be in eight weeks’ time."
Flopping back down into bed with a deep sigh, you turned away from Adelaide to look out the window. This again. Time and time again you had received marriage proposals, only for them all to fall through when, for one reason or another, your “husband-to-be” decided he didn’t want to marry after all. You suspect it had something to do with your running off to explore nearby dungeons to examine monsters instead of, well, activities fit for a proper lady. As routine as this proposal was for you, however, its arrival still made a cold feeling bloom in your stomach.
This worried both you and your father. You were 23 now, nearly 24. Being unmarried was borderline shameful - borderline being an understatement. Your age had long crossed over the marriage deadline, but it was being pushed back only by the power your father held. Being a large coastal kingdom has its perks, you supposed. At this point in time, though, you were worried you’d live your days out as a lonely old woman cast off to a tower to live out your days.
Silence hung heavy in your room. You turned over again, concerned at Adelaide's lack of follow-up. She was usually unstoppably chatty (not that you ever disliked it). You sat back up just in time to watch a bead of sweat fall from her brow as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. Your nerves were already shot from the sudden noise, and now her reaction was making it worse. Sure, every single proposal you ever received fell through, but she was usually encouraging when delivering the news. ‘Surely this one will work!’, or ‘He seems like a kind man!’. Now it seemed more like she was delivering news of death.
"Who is this proposal from?" you said, gripping the covers as your heart rate picked up. The paper in her hand crinkled as her grip tightened, knuckles white.
".....ouden." she whispered, draping her hand over her mouth in distress.
Your brows furrowed, frustrated. "Adelaide. Who??" you said, a sense of urgency growing in your chest.
Her head snapped up, eyes brimming with tears as she exclaimed, "King Laios Touden, devourer of all things horrible!”