Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Reason vs feelings ❯ A marriage of convenience ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

On my planet, marriage had always been regarded as the achievement of a woman's life, as her ultimate goal. And, until this crucial event, we only lived to get ready for it. Now, after having visited so many different places, I know it was a very old-fashioned and sexist cultural point of view.

But, at the time, when I reached the age for marriage, I thought like any other girl in Tekriehl and only dreamed about my wedding day. The new life beginning after the ceremony didn't count in my mind, only mattered to fulfill this utopian aspiration. Besides, I already knew the ideal person with whom I wanted to be joined : Yamcha, my secret boyfriend since three years.

Of course, as I could experiment several times afterwards, things never take place as we want. Still, I never saw the changes coming. I should have been more suspicious. My father's situation should have upset me more than it did back at the moment.

We used to be a very old and famous aristocrat family, until Frieza's arrival at least. But, due to the war against the Ice-jin, we lost all our fortune, wholly invested in the alliance concluded with the Saya-jins to overcome the tyrant, letting us with only the title from our previous greatness.

However, I was too young and carefree and, more relevant, in love for the very first time. And Yamcha's proximity used to make my head turn, to make my heart beat fast and wildly. My infatuation obnubilated my mind to an edge where no one else existed but my beloved. It changed my sight of the world, the way I perceived it. I couldn't keep my thoughts straight, completely losing the concept of everything surrounding my life. I wasn't able to see what happened around, what peoples close to me thought or did because nothing was important but the person I loved.

Thus, this kind of behavior left me totally disarmed and helpless regarding to the crucial turn taken by my life when my father, a month after my 18th birthday, informed me that I was going to become Prince Vegeta's wife.

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I stare at my father with an insistence almost disrespectful. His solemn look is starting to worry me and I cannot help but squirm. For some time now, I've the blatant impression that something is bugging him and his peculiar behavior tonight only strengthens this idea.

Regardless of the respectful and harmonious front, I had never been close to my father. Some times, I think he unconsciously blames me for my mother's death, who died giving me birth. Still, meals had always been the only privileged moment I could share with him, far from the constraints and protocols imposed by our royal status. Besides, he often profits of those encounters to find out what's new in his only child's life.

But, this evening, he hasn't pronounced a single word, only opening his mouth to swallow his meal. He didn't even bother to admonish me with the usual old tune about my bad habits with food when I returned a half filled dish to the maid.

My intense glare finally seems to put him out of his trance as he turns his gaze on me, unwavering determination displayed across his features, causing me to regret his previous indifference. The last time I saw this look on his features he was announcing the incoming war against Ice-jins.

- "Bulma, we need to discuss some things" he says.

- "All right" I mutter for the sake of form, sitting on the straight-back chair's extreme edge. I rise my eyes to another examination of my father's expression

I look at him with confusion, my brain still processing this strange sentence seeming to come out of nowhere and whose only goal appears to be to disturb me deeply, something superbly accomplished as a matter of fact.

- "I know you are still young and won't probably understand my motivations before long. But I cannot wait longer"

Like any well mannered girl, I keep quite, understanding that we aren't having a meaningless conversation. Of course, impatience already erodes me internally but I can only wait until he decides to finally reveal this news which, by the way he is introducing it, doesn't foresee anything good.

- "Naturally, as every young person of your age, you must have already planned some aspects of your life, in particular those of emotional nature. However, I'm sure you are aware that, people of our social status, must constantly be able to adapt in front of adversity"

This enigmatic tirade does nothing but fan my concern, which has never ceased to grow since the beginning of his monologue. And I seriously start to wonder whether he will stop beating around the bush and finally spit it out.

He must have felt my agitation because, after pushing a long sigh, he declares "My daughter, from now, you are officially engaged to King Vegeta's son, Prince Vegeta, heir to the Saya-jin Empire. I don't expect you to eagerly agree but you will do your duty as a princess."

I stop all my movements. I swear I even stop breathing as wind seems to have been knocked out of me. A long string of emotions seizes all my being while confusion crashes down on my brain like a deafening storm. Engaged. This concept seems as foreign as the man to whom I'm committed.

A moment later, I lay, with difficulty, my trembling hands flat on the table and uses them as a lever to stand up into a gesture of rage, my chair screeching behind me. And, with the same trouble, I articulate the only thought which succeeded in cutting its path through my mind "Never"

This single word resounds loudly in the immense and ancestral dining room and, out of the corner of my eyes, I clearly perceive the servants stop in astonishment. But, it doesn't have any effect on my father, who remains calm and rather indifferent, obviously prepared to my gushy reaction. Thus, it's with the same apparent serenity that he announces, in a barely recognizable voice, what feels like a death sentence to me.

- "Then, it seems like you are going to have a little problem here, young lady. Because, the last time I checked, I was still the king and you, one of my subjects. And, if I remember well our planet's laws, the decision of the sovereign cannot be contested by his people, even by his own daughter... "

I sit down, desperation warring with rage on my face.

- "Besides, it's common for princesses, and princes as a matter of fact, to be betrothed in arranged marriges to benefit their kingdom" he says shortly.

I blink, knowing he's right but it doens't help me to feel enraged by such predicatment and worst, to feel betrayed by his decision.

- An arranged marriage, father? I didn't even know you could consider one. I can't believe you hate me to the point of entertaining such idea. It's... it's so cruel" I almost yel, lacking of a better word to express the horror it brings on me to think I will have to spent my life with someone I never meet before.

This time, he's the one standing up. I observe him as he starts to pace up and down, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if he was actually the most perturbed by the whole ordeal.

- "Listen, Bulma. You better keep in mind that my decision is irrevocable and get used to it. You have a duty to your people and will carry it out no matter how you feel."

His undertone leaves no room to discussion, there's nothing to be done. I know with inborn certainty that no amount of pleading will alter his ultimate decision. So, I watch him through hatefull eyes stands up and walks across the room , carrying in his wake the pieces of my broken heart.

Suddenly, he stops and seems to think. As soon, hope fills me again. Maybe he's going to tell me that all this conversation was only a huge bad joke... or that he changed his mind and doesn't want to inflict me such a wrong union. But what comes out of his mouth if far away from my wishes.

- "If it can be of any comfort, I'm not the instigator of this arrangement. It was King Vegeta's idea. Still, for several reasons which you wouldn't be able to understand and, more important, for our planet's sake, I couldn't refute his demand. I may be the King but I'm, first and foremost, the handmaiden of my people"

In this last sentence, I recognize perfectly my father. He has always intermingled an unsurpassable kindness towards his people with a surprising coldness towards his family, specially me. But it doesn't prevent the storm of emotions from breaking out inside me.

Then, all of sudden, a though hits me out of the blue. I beat my lashes and fiercely focus on my father, a frozen smile played on my face.

- "So, you are telling me that, in fact, we exchanged a tyrant for another? That we wasted all our treasure to get slaved again?"

My incredulity starts to overwhelm my mind. How could have he been so blind and stupid?

- "No, my child. I'm telling you that we exchanged a tyrant... for a new empire in which we are going to have a primordial and active place"

Is words still echoing in the vastness of the room, he disappears through the majestic brown and gilded ornamented door. And, as I slide down my chair in despair, I can't stop wondering what I had done to deserve such punishment.