The Crown's Entrapment

“That is pure nonsense!” Jayra suddenly blurted out, making Freya gulp that one particular group they passed directed their eyes at her friend.

From their looks alone, they were clearly frowning at Jayra, so Freya moved to pull her infuriated friend with her, but the latter kept on talking.

“Hah! Pure luck, you say? I totally disagree! I often come with my Master on his every trade mission at Ebodia Castle, and I happened to witness how the Princess would constantly have her training with her brother along with some Ebodian soldiers,” Jayra boasted aloud.

“She’s very skillful in fighting, and I even heard how she used to skip classes in etiquette just so that she could accompany her brother outside and learn more about the people, involving herself in any battle that their kingdom might go through. And not only that, she even took down a pack of rogue werewolves all on her own along with some monsters outside their kingdom to defend her people…”

“But she’s so small! How can she take down rogue werewolves when some werewolf soldiers are already having difficulties in doing so?” inquired another man, who seemed to become curious to find out more about the princess.

Seeing the interest, Jayra sat on the vacant chair and grabbed the cup of ale the nearest man was drinking. Drinking it all in one gulp, she then put the cup down on the table with a thud.

“You say small?” Jayra hissed at the man. With a smirk, she then bragged, “She’s the Princess of Ebodia. Even if they’re human, they still have skilled warriors and mages capable of fighting for their lands. Princess Xenia trained hard as a warrior, while Princess Mineah trained hard as a mage. Hah! I bet the former can even knock you down with one blow right this instant.”

She then leaned in as she continued “How about this… Let me tell you the real story about how she saved those merchants from barbarians and rogue werewolves back then… Maybe you’ll learn something.”

There was silence, indicating that everyone was willing to listen to Jayra as she spoke. Meanwhile, Freya simply sighed as she waited. She was honestly curious to hear more about this tale as well.

With a breath, Jayra began her story with how Princess Xenia ran away from her kingdom because of her arranged marriage to the Vampire King. From there, she went on to how she traveled with the merchants that were attacked by a group of barbarians and rouge werewolves.

‘So that was how the story began… how my brother met my sister-in-law who he thought was a lad before…’ Freya mused with a small giggle. ‘It’s interesting. I can’t imagine how tormented he was at seeing a lad while recognizing his mate’s scent…’

……

…

“What are you saying?! Did the Princess leave our King and escape?!” One of the women, who was serving ale, asked once the story finally reached the part where the King had lost consciousness in the river while the Princess had to pull him back to land.

“Of course, not. The Princess of Ebodia isn’t like that!” Jayra answered before she quickly continued with her story for the sake of her impatient listeners. “In fact, she saved him and even tended to him till he regained consciousness…”

Freya, who was immersed in the story, finally spotted a vacant chair and pulled it out to take a seat. She had been standing for a while now, and she finally decided to make herself comfortable as she listened.

“Ahhh! Enough with that! We’re not interested in the love story of our king!” complained the man who was hell-bent on ridiculing her sister-in-law from the start.

“What matters to us right now is whether or not the Princess is capable enough to be His Majesty’s Queen. Ruling this kingdom is very different from ruling a kingdom like Ebodia. We werewolves require a strong ruler like our King! We won’t accept a weak human as Queen, because doing so will bring misfortune to our kingdom!”

Hearing the ridicule, Freya could no longer hold herself in. This time, she was the one who spoke out in defense for Xenia.

“The Princess is a very capable woman who I strongly believe is more than capable enough to be our Queen,” Freya declared.

“Isn’t it more than enough of a proof that she wants to dedicate herself to our people by entering the Element Forest to face those trials even at the risk of her own life? Wouldn’t that be enough for her to be the Queen of this Kingdom?” she lengthily defended.

“In my opinion, she should be declared Queen once she had passed the trials inside the Element Forest. This Trial by Combat isn’t even necessary! After all, Princess Xenia is already His Majesty’s mate and wife…”

Freya truly believed that the trials inside the forest should be enough to prove a point. Her sister-in-law shouldn’t fight anymore once she succeeded in exiting the forest. Doing so was just plain overkill.

To her delight, some who heard her words nodded in agreement. Unfortunately, there were still some who were doubtful of her claims, like an old man selling some hairpins near them who said: “This is already an ancient tradition, and a lot of humans and other non-werewolf creatures who wanted to be Queen had already gone through this trials, so the Princess of Ebodia won’t be an exemption. We appreciate how much she is willing to face those trials head on, but we will only accept her if she completes those trials inside the Element Forest as well as be the last woman standing in the trial by combat against other werewolf competitors for the crown.”

“Yes! The old man’s right! The Trial by Combat will give us our Queen!” another random person spoke aloud. “His Majesty might’ve said that he won’t acknowledge any other woman as his Queen except for his mate, but we Cordonians refuse to acknowledge any woman who fails the trial by combat as Queen!”

“Aye!”

At that, the entire crowd voiced their agreement with the man’s words. Freya and Jayra’s faces soured at the reception they got, and they ended up leaving the place utterly annoyed.

Scoffing, Jayra looked at Freya and shook her head. “Sometimes, I wonder if it would’ve been better if Princess Xenia didn’t run away back then and simply married the Vampire King,” she sighed. “From the looks of it, it seems like it’s way easier to be a Queen in the Kingdom of Valcrez than to be one in here.”

Freya pouted as she hugged Jayra’s arm, pulling her forward to walk faster. “Don’t say that… Remember, you wouldn’t have met your husband if my sister-in-law hadn’t run away,” she reminded her friend.

“You’d be in a kingdom full of bloodsucking vampires who will always look at your neck as some kind of meal. Would you prefer that, my friend?” She chuckled as she added, “Besides, don’t worry too much about it. My sister-in-law will definitely prove these people wrong and slap their faces with great victory later on.”

Jayra sighed and murmured, “Right… I’ll definitely slap your people too as soon as this trial ends…”

With that last thought, the two giggled as they made their way to their next destination.