Chapter 365: Meeting My Fiancee?!
Alma POV 1/17
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My mother's baby is going to be born soon, perhaps in a month and a half more… and today, I get to meet a kid.
Yes, yes, this kid is… my future husband, what a bliss.
I hate royalty and they arranged marriages!
I slowly walked through the corridor with Rose at my side, she had made me extra pretty today, I looked like a living doll, with a beautiful pink dress, my hair made into classic drill-like pigtails, and a bit of makeup here and there over my already young face to look even fresher…
When I entered the room, a young elf boy greeted me, of about my age. His hair was blonde and reached his shoulders, he had sharp emerald eyes, and a slim physique, wearing a white and green-colored prince uniform.
"A-Ah! I-It is a pleasure to meet you… Y-You're as beautiful as I was t-told..." he said timidly, averting his gaze from mine.
"Ugh…"
Who thinks that arranging the marriage of two random kids is a good idea anyway?! Are they completely insane or something? Why would you make a little girl marry? I know the potential interest that a family can get by arranging that both families can unify as one through marriage, but even then, aren't I a Princess? Why can't I just marry anyone? I am the richest here anyways!
Ugh… I hate how I have such a big authority, yet I cannot even exert it for anything. It is just like those cliché stories. No matter how many privileges princesses have, they're still bound by the laws of aristocracy and all the stupid forced marriages, etiquette rules, and more.
It really makes me wish I could have been just reborn as a normal girl somewhere else, just a normal girl- or better, a boy! I used to be a man, I almost forget this sometimes… Ugh, living for so long as a baby is impacting me.
Anyways, here's the kid, he greeted me, and I had yet to say a word, I was just drowning myself in my own thoughts just to escape this harsh reality.
"A-Alma-sama, please greet the young Prince…" sighed Rose, petting my shoulders gently.
"Ah! N-Nice to meet you too… Erm… What's your name again?" I asked.
"M-My name is Elred Flowerbed! O-Of the Flowerbed Allied Nations of Merchants…" said the boy.
I see the Flowerbed Nation of Merchants.
In the Continent of Alfheim, there are naturally many Kingdoms, Nations, and so on. No matter how much elves are connected with nature and all that crap, they're still selfish, individualist, and rather envious of one another. Naturally, they all separated into big clans long, long ago, and made up their own Kingdoms.
My Kingdom is the Kingdom that the first Venerable left behind, the Oberon Kingdom, often referred to as the Greenwood Kingdom too as this was the last name, he passed to all of us… I don't know why Lord Greenwood has that name though, he's not related to our family, but my parents have not said anything about it. Greenwood sometimes is a very popular elven name, even when they don't belong to our family, so it makes for some confusion sometimes.
The Flowerbed Allied Nation of Merchants was founded approximately almost one thousand years ago, after the Ice Queen, the latest Venerable, died out of her lifespan ending, after she cleansed the world of the Vampires, ending the Blood Age where all nations fell to the Vampires and society had to completely reconstruct after such an apocalypse while the population of other races slowly rose once more.
So, even the most ancient Kingdoms are very few, as they were mostly all destroyed in this era. Meanwhile, there is a large abundance of "new" kingdoms and nations, although the merchant nation is not so new, for Elves who live for so long they seem to be not so old.
I can see the potential that our Kingdom could get if they marry me off a noble from this nation. They're a wealthy nation of elves with their pockets filled with money, resources, and a lot of opportunities for the market. Our Kingdom despite belonging to the first Venerable doesn't get as much love, the Immortals that overlook us only help us when it is very necessary, which is almost never, so we are left on our own.
Most of the time what can we do is merely sell our crops, but lately, there is a high demand for fabric and other products due to the specialization that every Kingdom had for harvesting food, so there is overexertion of food everywhere in the continent and therefore it is very cheap and abundant, everyone is always well-fed, but things such as education, clothes, houses, furniture, utensils, and all sorts of other things are lacking severely.
But this Nation has a lot of crafters, alchemists, blacksmiths, tailors, and so on, while also having massive plantations of cotton, so they are making a big amount of capital by selling these products at inflated prices, becoming a monopoly.
If our Kingdom can get to connect with this nation, we'll get a piece of that pie. And of course, I have to marry this boy… sigh.
I don't know what to think, but I don't know it will work, as I will be taken away from him anyways by Greenwood. I think I only have around another year before I am taken away with my little sister who is yet to be born. And then, I don't know how long it'll take for us to come back or escape from this predicament.
A year…
The boy looked at me timidly, his face was all red, and his adorable emerald eyes were eyeing me out from head to toe, he especially looked at my face and my hair the most, I guess these drills in my hair are very attractive, they really make me look like a royal ojou-sama.
"M-My lady, please stop spacing out…" sighed Rose.
"Ah! R-Right… Anyways, Elred… Erm, let's sit down here. Rose, bring us some tea and snacks, alright?"
"Understood."
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