Published at 29th of October 2020 06:32:54 PM
Chapter 1
Chapter 1: The secret talk with my father .
"It has been decided that a bride, from our family, will be sent to the palace . Bertha, I would like you to go . "
My father called me up and told me so in a straightforward manner .
It wasn't exactly a surprise that came out of nowhere .
There had been rumors, for several years already, that the Kasha clan would produce a Queen, and her father, as well as the rest of her family were rather enthusiastic about it .
What surprised Berta was that she was the one chosen .
Compared to her sisters, she was not exactly the most beautiful, and in addition, Berta was already "too old" to marry, by the standards of the country .
To this day, she had no doubt that she would remain single, live in the territory, and support her family as the heiress until her younger brother, who was still too young, could follow in his father's footsteps and become the head of the clan .
"Well, don't say that . This is a formal proposal from His Majesty the King . Even I cannot refuse it on my own . "
"That's not what I'm talking about . If someone should enter the inner palace, my younger and more beautiful sisters would be more suitable . I don't think I'm cut out to be a glittering queen . "
She remembers the faces of her lovely sisters and doesn't think her father should choose Bertha over those girls, that wouldn't be wise in her opinion .
"To me, you're a lovely girl too"
"Huh . Thank you father . But I'm speaking objectively . "
Her father no matter how many concubines he has, he especially loves his first wife, Berta's mother .
So he treats Berta, who is very much like her birth mother, like the jewel of the house .
But the tall, skinny Berta did not, no matter how she looks at it, fit the requirements of the country's beauty .
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After Berta criticized herself, her father suddenly changed his expression to a very serious one .
"Objectively speaking, I want you to go . Do you think youth and beauty matter when it comes to choose a queen? Do you think your father is sending a consort to please His Majesty and gain his favor?"
Berta's also stopped being sarcastic and asked back seriously . Even if can be considered rude, she can't worry about that .
What is being decided now is an important part of her life .
"Exactly . It doesn't matter who you send in the first place, it doesn't matter if you play favorites or not . The King has been politically motivated to take a Queen from Petra into his court . "
The royal family and other great nobles in the royal capital dislike "new nobles" like the Kasha clan .
The Kasha family are the great lords who seized the trading base of all the Kingdom, and the largest estate on the frontiers .
They have real power that can control even the decisions of the dukes of the region .
But even so, according to the royal aristocrats, Kasha and others Petran clans are mere "rich merchants" .
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"How long has it been since we, the 'natives', have risen over the "conquerors"? It's been a hundred years since the first ancestor of the Kasha family was just a peddler . It is no longer possible for those nobles to ignore us . No royal family can continue to ignore the Petran, who make up the majority of the population . "
Her head is starting to hurt .
Is Bertha going to be sent to the royal capital inner palace, the most important palace of all, which is thus the most old-fashioned and with a sense of duty to discriminate those with not ancient aristocratic blood?
"It was decided that the bride from Kasha would be given the title of Second Queen, that is the arrangement we reached with the faction of the Capital . For the first time in the history of the royal family!! Don't you understand? You will be the first native Queen of Petra to be recognized by the royal family! You, Bertha!!"
In short, at this moment, Berta is a woman who would go down in history, whether she wanted to or not .
"This role is indeed too much for any of my daughters, except you . "
"Well that's probably true . "
In truth, even Berta would like to say that it's too much, but the pride of having been raised as a legitimate daughter of the family dissuades her from doing so .
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Understatement . . . He knows her weaknesses, Berta reminds herself .
"The first thing you need to know is that you don't have to do anything . You just need to stay in the inner palace, like a stone! The power structure of the dynasty, which was founded by foreigners, will start to change . A single consort will do the work of a hundred outstanding diplomats!"
"That 'do nothing' will be the hardest thing to do . You know what I mean, father . I'm a complete outsider in the royal palace, and for everybody's eyes, I'll become the evil woman who comes between the King and his rightful wife . "
How hard it is to live a life of seemingly 'doing nothing' when there's the Queen Margarita, of venerable nobleman's origins, and the mistresses of His Majesty the King, who are only lovers chosen by the Queen to give birth to his sons .
This is far "too unworthy" of a responsibility to be borne just by her pride of being raised as a legitimate daughter of the Kasha family .
The merchant blood of her distant ancestor, flowing through Berta's veins, is clamoring for her to negotiate .
"Father . I have a proposal to make you, if you accept my condition, I'll accept your petition . "
Berta's personality since she was born was that if she has to suffer, it won't be for free .