Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Checkmate: Royal Aquisition ❯ Battle of Wills ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10: Battle of Wills

 

“WHAT?” Tokio squeaked, nearly knocking over the Senryaku board on the table. Saitou had long since diverted his attention from the game.

“You heard me. I receive reports that my nobles are finding themselves replaced by younger, incompetent fools, forced into retirement in the countryside.”

“They leave without so much as a by your leave!” Tokio retorted. “What am I supposed to do, drag them back here kicking and screaming? I'd rather have a hundred old farts too set in their ways than to have to spend five more minutes with that room full of peacocks!”

“And what of this Lord Hiraki?” he asked icily.

“What of him?” She was genuinely confused.

“Designs towards marriage to a wealthy family? Or is it just that you can manipulate him?”

Now Tokio was extremely confused. Manipulate Hiraki? Only if he'd go far far away and never bother her again! Marriage? Why would she want to get married?

“Slow down,” she said, sitting back down. “Wherever you are is ten million leagues out of my understanding. What the devil are you talking about?”

“I am talking about you being influenced by young members of the court for their own twisted schemes.” Oh. Well, that was blunt.

“And just when I have I been influenced by them?” she challenged. “As I recall I haven't signed a thing without your explicit permission. And I'm the one who gets a god damn headache from them everyday.”

“Magic keeps that away,” he said casually.

“Did you forget? I don't have any!” she snapped. “I am as plain and human as they come, oh mighty one. No magic, no experience, no ties. Nothing. I have absolutely nothing to lose or gain….except my life.” She looked down at her board and glanced at his pieces, even though she could not see his side. “And perhaps this game….you've gotten good. Have you been practicing?”

“Yes. It's called war. Only this time the people are real,” he said. Tokio sighed, her temper dieing down. He was obviously angry about something and it really didn't have anything to do with her.

“Can you for ten minutes aim your anger elsewhere? I'm not Okita. I can't absorb your vicious diatribes.” Her eyes met his, pleading for him to yield. For a second he looked as if he would throw it back in her face. Then the harsh plains of his face softened, revealing a weary man.

“How is your cousin?” he asked, looking down at his board.

“Do you really care?” she asked, a corner of her mouth lifting in amusement. His lifted as well.

“No.”

“Prince Sanosuke is here.”

“I know.”

“May he stay?” she asked.

“That moron? Whatever for?”

“For Megumi,” she said quietly. “She's not been well….suicidal at times. He seems to care for her a great deal….and she won't push him away like she did me.”

“Great good it does him. She's been rejecting him for years.”

“They're only teenagers….as am I,” she finished softly. Her shoulders sank; weary of the burden she'd been carrying. He felt like a beast. Princesses were supposed to be spoiled, coddled, paraded around and have excessive amounts of praise lavished upon them.

Not made a prisoner of war and forced to take over a country not their own with no previous experience.

“So what news have I missed since the last report?” he asked, leaning back in his chair. Tokio's stomach rumbled. One of his eyes peeked open as she looked up sheepishly. “First go fetch us dinner. I can't have you pass out from hunger halfway through a report.”

Tokio hurried off to the dinning area where the servants were busy making preparations for a huge feast in their king's honor. Grabbing a large serving platter she pulled tons of food from all over onto it, rushing off before anyone could say anything.

“Guess we should start cleaning up,” a servant said to Saori with a sigh. “I don't know why we bother to try.”

 

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“Marriage? Oh god, not again,” Saitou said with a groan.

“They only let me out when I proposed a list be made of potential candidates and that all the council members go over it.”

“That still doesn't buy me much time. You've put me between a rock and a hard place,” he growled, pulling turkey off the bone. How he managed to eat neatly with his hands was something that never ceased to amaze her.

“But Fujita has strict marriage laws,” Tokio said, jumping up and pulling down copies scribes had made for her earlier. “Look here. You can't marry anyone who is related within fifteen generations on either side of your family. At that rate you're probably related to half the country. You also can't marry anyone lower than the rank of duchess or daughter of such, the usual. Nobles hate it when peasants get one up on them. You can't marry anyone under the age of 18 unless you are also that young. And…..hmm, that's interesting.”

“What?”

“You cannot marry a foreign woman if her country's laws would counteract yours. Guess that's to prevent a government split if the two countries ended up combined. Those are the major laws. There are various small additions and amendments. You can marry a woman of no wealth so long as her family can be traced to a noble one, legitimately or not. These are utterly fascinating!” she said, taking a chunk out of her drumstick as she began to absorb the information.

“Are you going to quote my own laws to me now?” he mocked.

“Give me a month or two,” she replied in all seriousness. “I'm only on book 3.”

Saitou shook his head in disbelief, finishing his meal. Maybe he wasn't in such a bad position. If there was a law that would get him out of a marriage she would find it.

That reminded him. Now that he was back he could continue to look through Kyoto's laws. For now he knew what she did not. The council's intent. For some reason they had gotten it into their heads that this prisoner princess would be the perfect Queen.

He briefly entertained the thought, glancing in her direction. She was bent over a scroll, eyes narrowed as she absently munched on a drumstick, her still dirty feet curled up on his rug. Hardly Queen material. She certainly wasn't entertaining the idea. Women who wanted something always presented themselves well. Dirty feet, eating with your hands and wiping them on your vest was not good presentation. Not to mention her attention had been easily diverted.

“Stop staring at me!” she demanded, looking up in annoyance. “Men!” she grumbled, bending back over her food.

Nope, definitely not an idea rolling around in her head. So just what did the council seek to gain by this? Or was it they disliked her so much they wanted another woman to oust her current power?

 

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“Why are you here?” Megumi asked Sano as they sat in the sunshine of the horse pasture. More than a dozen guards were around, ensuring she did not escape. He pulled her back to lean against his chest, warm arms wrapped around her.

“You need someone, Kitsune, whether you want to admit it or not. You can't just leave all of this bottled up. You can't go home, obviously, so I tried to bring some of home to you.”

“What…took you so long?” she asked in a hushed whisper. He almost didn't hear it.

“My father ordered me home, demanding I stay out of the war. It took me four months to convince him to let me leave. He agreed only if I had King Saitou's royal permission, officially. So I wrote to him. He, of course, did not reply. So I wrote again. And again. I wrote every week for two months, then every day. After six months he finally sent me a reply that told me Tokio was in charge of his castle and he didn't give a damn. So here I am! Look, I never was able to get the ink from under my finger nails,” he said, showing her his hand. Megumi sniffled. She was crying again. Sano held her close, wrapping his arms around her in a protective fashion. No harm would come to her while he had anything to say about it.

 

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Interesting. Very interesting.

Saitou was sitting in his bed, several candles burning on his nightstand as a great book of Kyoto law concerning royalty lay open in his lap.

Royals taken by force shall not be compromised into marriage and subsequent offspring from such a coupling are to be eliminated.

Rather harsh on the poor girl. First raped, then a forced abortion. Kyoto didn't want its daughters to suffer kidnapping and forced alliances.

In the event that a royal willingly couples with a suitably ranked individual and no other laws prohibit the union of the two, they shall be wed with or without the consent of either party's legal guardian(s). All children of the union are to be considered legitimate in both countries and may be considered suitable heirs to the throne.

So princesses that had little tumbles didn't just get to toss the poor noble overboard and get away scott free.

All daughters of the king shall be spelled upon birth so as not to fall under the temptation of men. Loss of virginity or ascension to the throne will subsequently dissolve the spell.

Now that was an odd law. Keep your daughters ignorant so they don't go running off with the first courtier who catches their eye? It made sense, but at the same time made them incredibly naïve. It did explain Tokio's lack of knowledge in the department, that was for sure.

Saitou frowned, deep in thought. His council would, no doubt, be constantly pressuring him for an heir, which inevitably meant a queen. But who was a suitable candidate. It was a small list.

Lady Yura was at the top. He could safely say his family had absolutely no relation to her and she was a duchess in her own right, well over 18. He'd slit his throat before marrying her. The damn woman was grasping, overambitious, devious and downright deceitful. Not good Queen material. Good assassin material, yes, but not Queen.

Lord Kigon had a sister, the bright and overly charming young Midori. A girl as gentle as a lamb, as quiet as a whisper and as delicate as a cloud. She was also easily influenced by her younger brother and entirely too fixated on hunting. He'd be lucky if he could keep her off a horse even while she was pregnant.

Those were the only two women of rank he knew of within his own country. The princess of Edo was well under 18 and would be for years, not to mention she seemed very stubborn during her father's visit over a treaty. Last thing he needed was a stubborn foreign chit with as much baggage as she had. Unless the king remarried that princess had an entire kingdom attached to her marriage contract. Edo was a good ally and well off country, but the fact that they were the only boundary between the deadly demon infested lands of the Empire meant he was less than thrilled at taking up that responsibility. Besides, he didn't really like blue eyes.

Lady Megumi was a duchess…..and she would either try to murder or castrate him in his sleep. Not to mention Prince Sanosuke might do something drastic that caused King Sagara to be forced to go to war against him. And the damn woman was entirely too emotional. Then there was the whole fact he killed her brother. Women tended to hold grudges about that sort of thing.

That left Tokio. Except she was only 17.

`Soon to be 18,' he reminded himself. `Intelligent, without the baggage of an entire kingdom, competent…..'

`Whoa…wait a minute. Did I just admit someone was competent? I must be getting old.'

. She was just the right age. Trustworthy. Loyal. Competent. And perfectly willing to challenge him when he was being pig-headed and stubborn. From his reports it was obvious the people in general liked her….with the exception of the council. Meanwhile it would be the perfect revenge against Kenshin, marrying his step-sister. It seemed all too perfect. There layin the problem. It was too perfect. And that made him extremely cautious to make any sort of a decision. After all, would she even accept him?

Then again, according to her laws she would have to…as long as she was willing.

How did one seduce an ignorant woman?