Kapitel 14: Chapter 14 - His Harem?

"Eh?... Uhm… May I know what kind of specific individuals? Like consort?" Rei asked, she sounds slightly awkward.

"I am sorry, I am unable to answer your question," said Jade, in a slightly stiff and formal tone.

"Ah…"

And with this, Rei's weird thoughts got even weirder…

***

After Rei had her bath, she was summoned by the King, Jade helped her to put on a dreamy and elegant dress and did a new hairstyle for her. Although Rei really like the new makeover done by Jade, due to her weird thoughts during the bath, Rei can't help but feel uneasy towards her coming meeting with the King…

Rei once again reached his personal reading room, this time, she is even more nervous than before. She nervously bowed at the King without saying anything and tried her best not to make any eye contact with the King. King noticed Rei's unusual behaviour and is slightly confused, instead of just pure nervousness and anxiousness like the previous time, he can feel a slight awkwardness from her.

"Rei, is there anything bothering you?" He asked, in a casual yet concerned tone.

"Your Majesty… I…"

Rei doesn't know how she should be telling the King about her weird thoughts, her fingers somehow started 'kneading' the fabric on her dress as a subconscious move from that awkward feeling of hers.

"You don't like that dress? I personally think that it looks nice on you. Or maybe you prefer a dress that is more to Qin's fashion senses?" said the King, trying to figure out the reason behind that awkwardness of Rei.

"No, My Lord, it's not like what you think, I really like this dress and this makeover… It's just…"

"Hmm?"

"I… Your Majesty, did you know that… I… I have a fiancé?" Rei asked, in a careful tone.

"Well, I found out about that the third day I brought you back to this castle, why are you mentioning this all of a sudden?... Hmm… Ah… Hold on, you can't be thinking that… Hahaha… I believe we are having some weird misunderstandings here. I am not interested to build my own harem, at least not at this moment." said the King, who laughed out a bit after figuring out that silly thought of Rei.

"Eh? But… Your Majesty, why did you suddenly assign a personal court lady for me?" Rei asked, slightly surprised and relieved.

"Hmm? You don't like her? But she is the only one I can fully trust to put at your side." said the King.

"No, Your Majesty, it's not… it's just not feeling right to get this sort of special treatment," said Rei as she tried her best to stay calm.

"I see. Despite I don't know why you are so rejective towards my hospitalities, it's not wrong for me to let you know my intentions of doing so. Well, I am not sure if you realised this or not, but we had been investigating your background all these days. First of all, you were a renowned female official who will be the wife of the emperor's youngest brother in the near future, which means that you were actually a noble lady in Qin Empire, and without that unexpected incident, you would have eventually married into the royal family and became a royal lady of Qin Empire. Secondly, we actually found that case of poison attempt rather suspicious and unreasonable, which means there is a big chance that it will get flipped over in the future." said the King, in a serious tone.

"Combining these two points, try to imagine that there is a day when they found out that you, a noble lady of Qin Empire were falsely accused, and when they try to get you back to Qin Empire, you were long dead in my castle. Or when they finally got you back but found out that you were mistreated and harmed during the short period you lived in here. Would that be a good thing for my kingdom?" the King asked.

Rei sheepishly shook her head.

"And, as I said before, if I would want to harm you easily, I would not even save you from that snowy forest, and since I chose to save you, I shall make sure you live well." said the King in a gentle tone.

Hearing this, Rei looked into his eyes and felt warm.

"In order to prevent that unfortunate incident to happen again, I have to put someone trustable at your side so that you would not get schemed by those people with ugly intentions again. Don't worry, Jade might be a bit 'unique' but she is trustworthy." said the King, trying to reassure Rei.

Rei nodded.

"If you are having any other concerns, you can just ask me directly, I will answer you if it is nothing too confidential." said the King.

"Well… Your Majesty, did you just dismiss all the palace maids because of that incident?" Rei carefully asked.

"Dismiss? If that's how you interpreted the situation, yeah, not only the palace maids, some of the palace guards as well." said the King.

"But Your Majesty, you don't really have to dismiss all of them, after all, it's not a big deal. And it will be a great embarrassment for them to be dismissed like this," said Rei, who feels bad for those dismissed servants.

"No, you are wrong, it is indeed a big deal, if one of those palace maids could scheme you, it is possible that one day they will scheme the whole kingdom, I would never allow that to happen. Furthermore, those palace maids usually work in a whole group, we can't really tell who is innocent and who is not, it is more secure to get rid of them as a whole." said the King.

Rei nodded, despite not very agree with his deed, she found that it was reasonable.

"Another thing. Dismissal is definitely a better option for them, just saying." The King added.

***

"Hmm… I guess, he is just a really strict ruler instead of a tyrant. Rumours can be a bit exaggerated sometimes."

That's what she thought when she stared into his black alluring eyes.

As she stared at him, she noticed a slightly weird movement of his left hand…