Tyranny of Steel

After arriving in the castle with a new, young, beautiful woman tied around his arm, Linde was unhappy, to say the least; she could not take her eyes off of Berengar for a single moment without him chasing after the next prettiest girl in the room.

Before Berengar even explained the situation to her, he had himself, Honoria, and Linde sit down at the dining table, where the best food in Kufstein was prepared for them. While they waited, Linde stared furiously at Berengar, and this did not go unnoticed by Honoria.

However, Honoria saw Linde as competition in the war for Berengar's affection; the only question on her mind was whether or not Linde was Berengar's fiancee or his mistress. As such, she casually approached the conversation by complimenting Linde to Berengar.

"Your Grace, your wife is lovely; you must be quite proud."

Linde was no fool; she immediately understood Honoria intended to inquire about her identity, and thus she responded on Berengar's behalf, like a lioness protecting her alpha from an unknown stray.

"Our marriage is a happy one; we even have a child together, a beautiful baby boy named Hans!"

After hearing about Hans, Honoria instantly knew Linde's identity; she was the lover Arethas had told her about. However, she was confused about why she lied and said they were married when they weren't. As such, she posed the question to Berengar.

"I am sorry, I heard you were engaged, but I did not know you were married; when did you two get married?"

Knowing that Linde was the lover and not the fiancee, Honoria felt she had a greater chance of securing a spot in Berengar's heart and quickly shot back at Linde's bluff. Which caused Linde to be visibly outraged. She thought to herself

'Whoever this bitch is, she has done her homework.'

Berengar instantly knew that the two girls were fighting, but there was not a whole lot he could do to stop it, and thus the best thing a man should do in this scenario was clarify the issue at hand before it spiraled further out of control, while at the same time placating his lover with affection.

"Linde is not officially my wife, but if I could have two wives, she would be one of them. She is my lover, the mother of my child, and my partner. We consider ourselves bound by our souls, so in a way, you could say that we are married right honey?"

Linde instantly rolled her eyes at Berengar; he was not usually the diplomatic type, the fact that he was approaching this little feud as a mediator meant he had some interest in the girl, or so she thought.

Honoria, on the other hand, acted as if she was shocked about the news. Though she knew Berengar had two women in his life, she felt the need to criticize him; if his fiancee was as beautiful as Linde, wasn't he just being a bit too selfish? As such, she let her jabs fly. Of course, it was all dealt with a sultry smile and a seducing voice.

"Why Berengar? I did not know you were that kind of man? Tell me, if you already have two women, then why not three? or four?"

To this, Berengar scoffed as he quickly drank from his skull chalice. He was well aware of the glares he was receiving from Linde at this moment, and thus he decided to approach this landmine without setting it off.

"My love life is already complicated enough... The only way I would entertain adding a third woman into my life would be if she was a Princess of a powerful foreign Kingdom. That way, I could gain something from the massive headache I would receive, such as a political alliance."

With this, Honoria instantly realized why Berengar stopped looking at her with passion when she told him she wasn't a princess. She could only imagine the trouble he must have by making two women happy. A third would be a nightmare, but she was undeterred; after all, she was, in fact, a princess.

Heraclius heard this and started cawing in a manner that resembled laughter. He did this while giving Honoria a gaze that displayed his thoughts for everyone to see. Those being something along the lines of

'See! You should have been honest from the start!'

However, Honoria would not so quickly reveal her status as a princess. Instead, she inquired about Berengar's intentions and thus asked him another question.

"I have a hypothetical question for you. If you don't mind answering?"

To this, Berengar merely nodded his head before replying.

"Go ahead, as long as it is not something too personal, I do not mind answering your questions, Valeria."

With this, Honoria put on a pretty smile and rested her gorgeous face in the palm of her hand while staring at Berengar with a longing gaze.

"Suppose a Princess runs away from her marriage and shows up on your doorstep because she had heard legends about you and was fascinated with the idea of being with you instead of her pillow-biter of a fiance. What would you do?"

To this, Berengar chuckled and responded with a sly response of his own

"This pillow-biter wouldn't happen to be the Crown Prince of France, would he?"

Honoria's surprised expression told Berengar all he needed to know about the identity of this girl. After all, he had a conversation with Arethas about Honoria being upset because she had a gay fiancee.

Now Berengar had not suspected Honoria until the moment she brought up this hypothetical. The reason it so quickly clicked in his mind was twofold. One, he seriously doubted there were more than a single openly homosexual prince in all of Europe.

Secondly, he had heard from Arethas that Honoria was a beauty no less gorgeous than Linde. Considering Linde was in the top one percent of women he had seen in the entirety of his two lives, he felt it was improbable that this woman would bring up a hypothetical that so perfectly described Honoria's situation while being as beautiful as the princess was said to be.

At the moment, it was only a suspicion, and Berengar had no definitive proof that the young girl in front of him was Princess Honoria, but all signs pointed to it. She was roughly the same age as Honoria; she came from the Byzantine Empire, she was as beautiful as Honoria was said to be, and she just so happened to describe a so-called hypothetical that matched Honoria's situation perfectly.

Then again, as far as Berengar knew, Honoria was still within the Empire, thus unless he could confirm her disappearance, he would not be able to say with certainty that the woman before him was Princess Honoria.

So rather than out the girl, he merely responded with a non-answer. As such, he put a sly smile on his face before answering Honoria's question.

"That would depend."

Honoria was still recovering from her shock that Berengar knew about her engagement, so it took her a few moments to adequately address Berengar's statement.

"Depend on what?"

To this question, Berengar took a drink from his skull chalice before responding.

"It depends on whether or not I live up to the hype. So let me ask you a hypothetical question of my own. Let's say you are this hypothetical princess who has run away from her marriage and her home to come to visit me to see if I am her dearest Prince-Charming. From what you have observed about me until now, do I match the image you had in your head?"

In response to this question, Honoria quickly drank from her chalice before answering Berengar's question.

"It is too early to tell..."

To this, Berengar merely chuckled while Linde eyed Berengar and Honoria's actions closely. She could easily tell what mind games Berengar was playing with this so-called Valeria Zonara. After all, Linde had a mind for intrigue, and if Berengar could guess her identity so too could Linde; she was also privy to the conversation with Arethas about Honoria's dissatisfaction with her betrothal.

This created a deep sense of worry in Linde's heart, not because Berengar might fall for the princess, she was already willing to share with Adela, and a third girl wouldn't hurt. It was because if this girl was Princess Honoria, then she had just brought trouble to their doorstep. The kind of trouble that Berengar might not be able to get out of, and nothing worried Linde more than her lover and her son's safety.

Linde knew she would have to investigate the real identity of this young woman who presented herself as Valeria Zonara, though it would be difficult. After all, Her intelligence network did not reach the Byzantine Empire, and if Honoria indeed ran away from home, it would be a tight-lipped secret.

The damage such a scandal would cause to the prestige of the Emperor, and his Dynasty was no laughing matter. If the Emperor could not properly control his own family, how could he possibly control an Empire with any degree of competency?

Of course, Honoria had no way of knowing that Berengar and Linde would dig into her background, it might take some time and effort, but with enough elbow grease, they could very well find out the truth of the matter, and when they did; hopefully Honoria had entrenched herself into Berengar's heart by then. Else she would be shipped back to the Empire to await her fate.

Thus the conversation at Lunch would continue for some time; after all, they had only just begun to break the ice with one another.