The King's Beloved

While Rania and Elliot continued to go through the twelve gates of the guardians, and Zeid was busy planning out his infiltration to the Floating Kingdom, Azalea and Calum suffered the irritating persistence of the noble families asking them to produce a child. A whole month had passed and there was never a day that no one asked them when were they gonna have their first child. Even on a fine morning such as this day, the king was being pestered by his officials. 

"Your highness, it\'s been a month and you have yet to consummate your marriage!" a beefy nobleman exclaimed in front of King Calum who lazily sat on his throne. They were in the throne room yet again for who knew how many times already. "If the current queen is not to your liking, perhaps we can arrange for another consort to warm your bed and produce an heir".

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"Yes, that\'s right!" agreed another nobleman with him.

"We can recommend a couple of women for you to choose from," said another.

"Malum has a great round of girls in his house".

"Satis\' house is quite good, too. Her house is filled with the most beautiful candidates. Surely, you\'d be able to pick a fair one from them".

King Calum sighed and their endless buzzing halted.

"It seems you all are in such a hurry to dethrone me," King Calum replied to them in a disdainful tone.

The noblemen jolted in their feet.

"N-no, your highness! We only meant -"

" - I\'m still so young, just 23, and you all keep on pestering me to have my own child when I don\'t want to have one yet," King Calum interrupted them. "What other reason could you possibly have? Your real intention reeks out of you".

One of them tried to pacify the king, "You\'re misunderstanding us, your highness. We just want to make sure that someone is -"

" - Someone is ready to take over the throne when you\'re done plotting to kill me?" King Calum blurted without hesitation. "Since a child is easier to manipulate than a grown man?"

"W-what atrocity?! We would never -"

" - But you did … to ME, when I was but a mere child. A child so easily deceived and manipulated," King Calum\'s voice was now furious. His bright aquamarine eyes shot death glares to each nobleman in front of him. "Don\'t you have any better tactic than this? Has old age tarnished your measly minds that you can\'t think of another way to usurp power? You bunch of greedy pests!" Alas, his patience ran out and he shouted at them. "Out of my sight! If I ever see you again, I will make sure you never see the light of day again!"

"Eeek!" the noblemen trembled in fear. They quickly bowed their heads and teleported out of the throne room. The king\'s aura spilled out due to his anger, and his concentrated spiritual energy suffocated them.

"Ughhh," King Calum sighed deeply and pressed on his forehead. "So irritating. Unless anyone has something to discuss other than consummating and bearing a child, don\'t let them come to me. Is that clear, Servus?"

"Yes, your highness," Servus, who stood beside him all this time, nodded and bowed in agreement. "They informed me beforehand that they were reporting about the obelisk crystals, hence the reason I let them inside. But it was all a lie and they ended up discussing another thing. For this, I deeply apologize, your highness".

"Excuses," King Calum rolled his eyes. "Speaking of the crystals, how are they faring?"

"According to the latest reports, we have successfully planted the obelisk crystals on the spots of the planet with the most concentrated spiritual energies. We managed to gather a lot however, due to the distance of Gaia to Earth, almost half of the spiritual energies being gathered are spilling during the transfer. Due to this, the transfer is slow. If we compare it to the ratio of energy consumption of Gaia, what we\'re getting for them is still not enough for the planet to survive continuously".

King Calum laid his back on the throne as he breathed deeply, calming himself, and stared at the ceiling. After a moment of silence, he asked, "How long do we have?"

At this question, Servus bit his lips and frowned. Closing his eyes, he answered his king, "... Minimum of 60 days, your highness … and a maximum of 70 days".

King Calum clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. He scoffed bitterly as he continued to stare at the ceiling. "All those killings, and wars, and efforts … only extended the planet for 10 days? That\'s all it could give? Huh! If the planet\'s gonna die anyways, we shouldn\'t have conquered the others in the first place! We should just let it die and live somewhere else! We should have …" His heart shattered into pieces. "All those hardships … all for nothing. We\'re all gonna die anyway. Why prolong the agony?"

Servus prostrated himself in front of the king.

"Please! Do not lose hope and falter, your highness!" he pleaded with all his might. "Surely, the Supreme won\'t let a whole planet perish like this!"

"The Supreme?" King Calum scoffed. "Where were He all these years that we\'ve suffered this catastrophe? What did He do to help us?" his tone turned colder and colder by the minute. "NOTHING! We all had to take it in our hands. If we didn\'t, all of us would have long died along with the planet!"

"Y-your highness …"

"The Supreme for me is nothing but a father who left his children on their own. So don\'t tell me He has plans or that He would save us. If He really will, He should have done it, a long time ago".

With those as his last words, King Calum stood up and teleported out of the throne room. Wanting to get some peace, he thought of Azalea and teleported to their bed chambers. Unfortunately, she wasn\'t there, so he simply laid down on the bed and shut his eyes closed, trying to get some rest. It was still early in the morning and his head was already aching badly. 

On the other hand, Azalea could be found wandering around the palace garden. She, too, experienced a bad morning, being troubled by a bunch of noblewomen, asking the same things that the noblemen asked the king. Finally able to escape them all, she decided to take refuge in her favorite place in the entire Grand Palace.

Just as she was starting to calm down and feel peace, another woman approached her.

"Azalea? I mean … Queen Azalea?" a soft, commanding voice greeted her.

Azalea turned to the woman and saw that it was Selena, the fiancée of Clavis, the Wise Judge.

"Selena, am I right?" Azalea turned to her and asked while she remembered her as the woman who almost got assaulted during the first test of the queen candidates.

"Yup, that\'s me!" Selena smiled cheekily at her. "What are you doing here? And are you okay? You seem tired".

Azalea sighed deeply and relaxed her shoulder. "Yes, this morning was indeed, a bit tiring".

Selena sat beside Azalea, on the bench near the water fountain.

"Hmm … Let me guess. You\'ve been pestered to produce a child again, right?" Selena asked bluntly, as she always had been.

Azalea chuckled. Her bluntness was cute for her.

"Yes, you guessed it right," Azalea answered. "Too bad, I\'m not ready for it yet. And I personally don\'t think that it\'s … necessary at this point of time".

"It IS not necessary," Selena agreed. "You\'re too young to have a child. Besides, even if he\'s king, and you\'re his queen, he can\'t just force you to sleep with him just because you need to produce an heir. I mean, sleeping with someone should be done out of love, right?"

"Pft! Ha ha ha ha!" Azalea bursted laughing at her.

"Huh? What\'s wrong? Why are you laughing at me?" Selena was taken aback and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. "I know it sounds cheesy but … that\'s how it should be!" She tried her best to defend her reasoning.

After a few minutes of laughing, Azalea calmed down.

"Sorry for that. I just found you adorable, for thinking that way".

"What? But it\'s the truth!"

Azalea nodded, "Yes, and you are correct. That\'s how it should be … however, not everyone marries with love in their hearts". Her face frowned at the last part. She lowered her eyes and sighed yet again.

Selena felt her sadness. She patted her back in an attempt to console her.

"You know, to be honest, I ship you with the king!"

Azalea\'s eyes widened. "Huh? S-ship?"

"Yes! You know, like romantic pairing in dramas you watch on tv?"

"I\'m sorry, I -"

"What I mean is that, you look great with the king," Selena smiled warmly at her. "You may have no love between you yet right now, but you never know, love can always blossom in places you least expect. Just like me and my husband! Well … technically, fiancé but … it\'s basically the same. We\'re just missing the ritual of marriage."

Azalea chuckled and smiled warmly back at her.

"Thank you. That means a lot. You\'re right … maybe not yet now but in the future -"

" - There is NO future!" another woman came in and interrupted them.

This time, it wasn\'t a friend …

It was … Nefastus.