Chapter 134 - A Busy Capital

Chapter 134: 134 - A Busy Capital

- Margaret’s POV -

Valebrand had been unusually busy for the last several days.

Margaret sat on the wide windowsill of her room with both feet against the frame, looking down over one of the inner courtyards of the royal castle. Nimbus lay stretched across her lap, entirely unbothered by the constant movement below.

Messengers came and went through the gates. Crown officers crossed the courtyards carrying sealed documents while servants moved between wings of the castle at a pace that had turned normal lately. Margaret ran one hand slowly over Nimbus’s back as another carriage rolled in through the eastern gate.

’It has been a few days already. I wonder what Adrien is doing.’

Her thoughts had gone back to him several times since their meeting near Clairmont territory. Adrien was strange, though not in a bad way.

Wherever he went something happened around him: the Arquenay conflict, the situation in Elyndor, the mercenaries she had collected only days ago.

Even when Margaret ran into him by coincidence there was usually something worth remembering afterward, which made him more interesting than most of the people circling her inside the castle.

Life here had always felt suffocating. Too many people watched what she did, who she spoke to and where she went. Every conversation carried a second meaning, and every noble who approached wanted something from the Third Princess rather than from Margaret herself.

Recently, at least, that had changed. She had returned to the capital not long ago, after several days spent close to Montferrand territory helping with an operation she never expected to take part in, one led by her brother. Margaret’s expression cooled at the thought, because she did not like Aurelian.

It was not hatred exactly, since hatred required a closeness the two of them had never had.

He had never truly been there for her, and Margaret could not recall a single stretch of her life when she looked at him as an older brother rather than another person living behind the same palace walls.

They shared blood, half of it at least, and past that Aurelian was practically a stranger.

’I hope helping him was the right decision.’

That was the part she still could not answer.

She had agreed to cooperate because leaving their father in control of the Crown grew more dangerous every year.

King Osric was technically still the ruler of Valleroy, yet Margaret had watched enough from inside the castle to know how little he actually controlled.

Great Houses were drifting away from royal authority. Some ignored duties their families had honoured for generations, while others had grown comfortable acting alone because they had learned that consequences rarely arrived. Montferrand had been one of them. Arquenay had been another.

Margaret held little affection for her father either. Whether Osric stayed in Valebrand as King or ended his life isolated somewhere far from the capital, she doubted it would change much for her.

Aurelian was different, and that was precisely what worried her.

Her brother was unpredictable, eccentric and far too certain of his own judgment, with an ego large enough to fill several rooms of the palace and no interest in pretending otherwise.

If he eventually took the throne, Margaret had no idea what he would become as King. She knew one thing, though. He would not be Osric.

Aurelian would never let the kingdom reach a point where powerful families drifted openly out of his control while he sat in the castle pretending nothing was wrong.

Anything that threatened his authority would be handled long before it grew large enough to threaten the stability of the kingdom itself. That did not make him safe. It made him capable, and Margaret was not sure whether the distinction would comfort her or frighten her more later on.

Nimbus shifted against her before opening one eye. Margaret glanced down at the cat, then returned to the courtyard, where she could see much of what had been happening since her return.

Members of Montferrand’s secondary branch were staying in Valebrand at the moment. Some had arrived the previous evening, others entered the capital that morning under Crown escort.

They were not prisoners, not exactly, though they had been summoned to give statements about the crimes committed by the former main branch and to hand over whatever information the Crown still wanted.

The old leadership was finished. The secondary branch would take the name, whatever authority remained and most of the responsibilities of being one of Valleroy’s Great Houses. Before any of that happened, the Crown intended to have every detail documented properly.

Margaret watched another group cross the courtyard below, two men carrying locked cases between them with several officers walking alongside. More records.

There had been an endless amount of paperwork since the investigation turned public, with accounts, correspondence, land registries, military orders and documents seized from Montferrand estates moving through the castle without pause.

Representatives from other branches had arrived as well, and so had people from families with no connection to Montferrand at all. Everyone wanted to know what was happening.

’The last few months have turned this place upside down.’

Margaret did not entirely dislike it. Part of that chaos traced back to the Clairmonts, since Adrien’s return to relevance had helped expose Arquenay, and that had begun shifting the political air of the whole kingdom.

Now Montferrand had followed.

There was more work, more movement and far more uncertainty than before, yet strangely Margaret felt less trapped.

People were too busy to track everything she did. She had been able to leave the capital more often, take part in Crown affairs outside the castle and spend days away without every absence turning into a topic of discussion. For once, Valebrand was interesting.

Margaret swung her legs away from the window. Nimbus lifted his head at once, understood she was moving and dropped from her lap to the floor, landing without a sound before padding to the bed and curling beside one of its posts.

Margaret stood and straightened her coat. Her day was nowhere near finished. She still had to meet Aurelian before the afternoon proceedings began, and afterward she was expected to attend while Montferrand’s secondary branch was formally recognised as the new ruling line of the family.

There would be Crown officials, witnesses and enough nobles in one room to make the ceremony painfully long.

Margaret glanced once more toward the courtyard, where another messenger had just arrived. She exhaled quietly and turned toward the door.

’It’s going to be a long day.’