**Olliver Yuwen**
There was so much to do and consider concerning the coming mission to retrieve the priest that I had to work even during the festival. Ever since the Letter from Aldmoor arrived requesting aid two days ago, there has been no free time. I woke up at dawn, sliding out of Julia’s embrace, making sure not to wake her up in the process, got dressed, and then spent the rest of my day in my office. Much to the dissatisfaction of,
Julia would use every opportunity she could get to spend time with me. She would bring me my meals instead of the maids and would visit me for every little thing. For example, the cook’s cat got pregnant, and Fiona asked if she could keep one of the kittens. Or she would come to me and tell me about the last date that Averell spent with Juliet. But I never sent her away because, despite the stress, or more likely because of it, I welcomed her quest for attention. Despite having four wives, she was the only one who still loved me.
My other wives either didn’t care or would rather be seen dead than serve my meals or casually talk about our children.
Olivia wouldn’t even talk to me unless it concerned an important decision about Janus or her stepchildren. Usually, she would spend her day taking care of the estate, Janus, her stepchildren, gardening, and tending to the grave in her rose garden with her maids and Sir Rodrick, her personal knight. But Sir Rodrick was currently occupied with the priest in Aldmoor, being part of the original escort mission. Therefore, it was just her and her maid trimming flowers while gossiping.
Maya spends her days reading book after book, only looking up from them when it’s time to eat or sleep. Back when we met, I had welcomed her quiet personality after getting my ear chewed out by Anna every day. But sadly, despite having four children and a grandchild in the form of Jack and William, Martha and Emilia, and Emilia’s daughter Margret, she never cared much for her offspring and just saw them as annoying. She never even meets her granddaughter and is only interested in books, books, and even more books. Every time I saw little Maggie, she would always ask if she could meet her granny, breaking my heart in the process. If there hadn’t been a lot of books in my family’s library, she probably would have never even considered marrying me.
Anna would also only visit for Joel’s sake or if she needed more money. There was never a moment in my life where I regretted any of my 8 children. But the same couldn’t be said about Joel’s mother, my wife, Anna. No matter what I do, it is never enough. Olivia, Maya, and Julia never requested an increase in their budget. They understand that, even though our family is wealthy due to the Crown’s support and that of our vassals, we can’t simply use all our funds for dresses, jewelry, and books. We had a duty for the realm to protect Amantians from an Ibasan Invasion. And sadly, equipment, food, and soldiers cost money. When we married, I was at my lowest point in life. I would have taken anyone’s hand, but why did it have to be Anna’s? But thankfully, except during the time Joel was punished for his behavior towards Ruby, she has been calm for the last few months.
Well, except for Today.
I was currently in my office again together with my Commanders and the kingdom’s own, among them the completely hungover old Donald Breesby, deciding who would accompany Janus and Joel on their mission on the second day of the festival.
When we heard a knock on the door. And Collins’s voice, the same voice that had asked if Ruby was allowed entry when she made her offer, sounded tired through the still-closed door.
“Me, Lords, Lady Anna Yuwen requests an audience with her Husband, Olliver Yuwen.”
Instantly, there was silence in the room. All eyes are on me.
Sigh, why?
“Tell her I will talk to her later.”
At my response, everyone could hear an enraged, animalistic flurry of words drumming through the keyhole.
“My… My lord, she insists.”
SIGH,
“Let her in.”
Anna Yuwen stepped over the doorstep in a gold-trimmed red dress with a long and deep V cut exposing her clavicle and inner side boob, amplifying her voluptuous breast, fire in her green eyes, holding a silk fan in her hand, busily flapping air to her face.
“Could you leave us alone for a minute?”
Within seconds, the room cleared out, and only Anna and I remained. And right after the door closed behind her, it started. With a beautiful and calm face pushing her chest that could ruin kingdoms up, she bellowed demandingly.
“You have to…”
But today, she wouldn’t have her way.
“No.”
“What!?” she asked, her brow furrowing into deep canyons.
“I said no. Have your ears gone bad?” At the implication of her declining health due to advancing age, the canyons were accompanied by inflating nostrils resembling a pig. And her tone became sharper.
“You dare? You haven’t even heard why I came all the way to...”
Sigh, It’s always the same with her.
“I don’t need to because I already know. You want to ask me not to send Joel on this mission, don’t you?”
I have hit the nail on its head. The Canyons and pig nose flatten out, and only her fiery green eyes remain.
“You know how the last mission ended. They went on together. You couldn’t possibly have forgotten about it.”
How could I after she reminds me about it every time I see her? During the mission, Joel and Janus started to argue and ended up having a screaming match with each other. They attracted the Ibasans towards their position, and I had to personally intervene and send a rescue party to save them.
“That’s exactly the reason why they must go. They must make up with each other, or They will never be able to become my successors.”
But despite knowing I was right, she couldn’t let it go.
“The Mission is too important to leave it to chance.”
I stand up, hitting the desk with the palms of my hands, and declare,
“It’s not chance. They have changed, and I trust them. Maybe you should also trust your son, like I do, to make the right decision. They will go on the mission, and that’s my last word.”
“You always put Janus over him. Janus is always the one getting the easy jobs and attention while my poor Joel is forced to scrub toiletries and…”
“That was his own fault, and you know it. We need Ruby’s support, or we will be left without a healer. I needed to set an appropriate punishment for him for ending his mission prematurely and for parading Ruby naked through the Fort. Many would say scrubbing a few latrines wasn’t enough of a punishment.”
“She is just an Ibasan slave. Why are you going so far for that Whore? Ten gold a month is way too much.”
Finally, she reveals her true colors, the real reason she has come to my office today. But did she really have to use such foul language to her son and stepson’s savior?
“Whore? Do I have to remind you that she regenerated Averell’s hand and saved Joel from the Breesby boy and his two thugs?”
She continues to stare at me defiantly, but I just got an idea. Hiding a smirk, I continue with,
“But you are right. Ten gold isn’t appropriate. Instead, from the next month onward, Ruby will receive fourteen gold per month out of your estate.”
That’s when the flapping of her fan stopped for the first time during our argument. She folded it down, pressing her slim, gold-ringed fingers around the fan until they were as white as its ivory frame. The deep Canyons and pig nose returned, accompanied by venom spitting from her mouth and green flames licking through her eyes.
“You! You can’t treat me like this! Have you forgotten who I am!? I am your WIFE!”
She screamed the last word so loud that everyone still waiting outside the office, as well as Olivia in her rose garden through the open office window, could hear her screaming.
Unimpressed, I just sat down again and calmly replied,
“I Can, and I will, and have you really forgotten who you really are? You are just the thrown-out second wife from some backwater barony.”
Usually, I wouldn’t care about someone’s origin, but at this moment, I couldn’t resist.
All color drained from her face only to return tenfold right after. But I had enough of her for one day. I point towards the door and command,
“Leave, or I will have Collin drag you out.” Before she could even attempt to shatter my eardrums with her voice.
*Crunch*
The ivory-framed silk fan breaks in two, and Anna storms out, smashing the door shut behind her with such vigor that dust begins to fall from the ceiling, leaving a stunned crowd of onlookers who have diligently waited in front of the office behind her. And a thin and small maid was seen hurrying after the fleeting silhouette of her lady.
