Capítulo 21: Empirial Marriage Agreement

"I do not accept this arrangement!" The great general shouted as he stood.

Many of the envoys looked at this general with mocking eyes.

Who cared whether he accepted the arrangement or not. It was not like anyone was asking for his opinion. Who did he think he was, Princess Qamari?

They all scornfully thought.

The great general could feel the disdainful gazes thrown his way, but he could do nothing about it. His wife and daughter sternly told him to use whatever means necessary to prevent the Jinn Princesses from getting anymore involved with the Crown Prince than they already were. If not, they would not speak to him. As such, he had no choice but to step out.

"Oh, what gives you the right to speak upon this matter? As far as I can see, you are neither the Crown Prince nor Princess Qamari, neither a representative of Jinn nor her parents. So what gives you the right to speak in between such matters?" The Janah envoy spoke with displeasure and condemnation.

Smiling bitterly, great general stepped forward before facing the crowd and looking sideways at Princess Qamari.

"I am not a representative of Jinn, true. But I am a great general of the Amayan realm, and have the right to speak in matters concerning the welfare of the Amayan Empire. Princess Nari and the Crown Prince's marriage was set after many formalities and background checks were done."

"Yet, Princess Nari turned out to be a girl who would sleep with her own cousin's future spouse. How can we be certain that Princess Qamari will not turn out to be such a person as well? Moreover, Princess Qamari has been in the Amayan Empire for more than 13 days. However, no one in the Amayan Empire has seen her appearance."

"The Crown Princess will be the future mother of the Amayan Empire, how could we be so careless with her selection?" The great general said in a reasonable manner, garnering the support of many Amayan ministers.

"I agree with the great general. We have yet to see the appearance of this woman. How could we possibly declare her as the Crown Princess Consort without doing full check up." Minister Ren added.

"Even if we forgo the background check for now, there is still the issue of her veiling." Another minister added.

"Is that not an easy matter? We can remove the princess's veil right here and now in front of everyone." A member of Prince Noore's faction suggested as he moved towards the princess.

Standing in front of her, he raised his hand, intending to remove her veil.

"Take one more step and I will make sure that you regret for life." Princess Qamari's eyes were as cold as steel, her voice sharp. The man froze, his body trembling as he met her freezing gaze.

Sweeping her gaze around the room, her violet eyes rested on the great general, a mysterious silver light flicking in her irises. Her whole aura changed into one of majesty.

"I believe that you are all misunderstanding something here. I do not owe any of you anything. Not an explanation or an exposure of myself, so it is best that you do not make the mistake of believing that I do. Additionally, whether I wear a veil or not is not any of your concern. Where verification or validation of my identity is concerned, well, do you think the Regent Prince of the great Amayan Empire will get just anybody married to his only son, without doing any background check on her?" Princess Qamari asked, pausing on the men who were clamoring for her to remove her veil, as she looked deeply into their eyes.

Seeing them embarrassedly bowing their heads and not responding, she turned to the man standing in front of her, still frozen in fear.

"And you. Up to date, let alone allowing an unrelated stranger to remove my veil, I have not so much as given my paternal uncle the permission to touch my clothes. Who are you to dare attempt such a task? Are you tired of living? Is that it?" Her eyes flashed with a sharp light as she overbearingly asked.

"And you, the great general of Amaya. I do not care why or for what reason you are doing what you are doing here right now, but keep this one fact in mind; cross me and I will show you what it means to beg for death."

The great general that was spoken to so bluntly in front of a crowd, by a little girl at that, angrily raised his head to rebuke her in her manners of speaking to her elders and, froze. The purple eyes that met his gaze seemed to penetrate into his very being, uncovering all his secrets. He hurriedly lowered his head again, avoiding her piercing eyes.

Seeing him turn mute, Princess Qamari brought her focus back to the man in front of her, her eyes turning the brightest shade of violet, shimmering with the silvery glow of pure moonlight radiance.

"Now scram!" She barked at him with power that overwhelmed the crowd.

The three men that suddenly stood up and put forth reasons to prevent the Empirial wedding, were silenced to the point where they did not let out a peep, as they returned to their seats with bowed heads.

They themselves could not understand why they felt such fear upon meeting the gaze of such a young girl.

Turning to the Janah envoy who was also shocked into silence by her sudden majestic aura, Princess Qamari gently smiled.

"As for the question of whether I would accept the proposal to marry the Crown Prince. Well, why should I marry him? His cousin turned out to be such a promiscuous man, what guaranteed is there that he is not or will not turn out to be like him as well." She asked her.

"I believe you should be directing that question at me." The Crown Prince replied before the envoy could.

Watching the girl's display of majesty and power, he felt his desolate heart stirring with various emotions for the very first time. Awe, respect, and admiration. These were feelings that he had only ever felt towards his Father's best friend, who raised and taught him everything he knew.

"After all, you will be marrying me." He added with finality.

"Yes. I should be directing the question at you, but whether or not I will marry you is not settled yet. Tell me Crown Prince Lail. Why should I marry you and put myself through the ordeals of fearing betrayal every day when I can live however I want by myself?"

"Marriage is a matter of two people. The one going through an ordeal would not only be you but myself as well. I too have received the same betrayal that you did, however that will only make our bond stronger. Having experienced it for myself, I would never put you in the position of experiencing it as well. And I believe you will do the same. No?" Crown Prince Lail said with a smile.

It was a smile free of arrogance and coldness, meant for only one person; his soon-to-be Crown Princess.

"You are correct on that point. However, I still trust a statement stamped with your seal more than empty promises. Why do we not do this Crown Prince? The basis of every relationship is trust, and as we do not have that now, we should start with physical evidence. I want a written statement with your seal about our marriage agreement. Consider it your betrothal gift to me." Princess Qamari said with gleaming eyes.

"Sium, go and get my seal and something to write on." The Crown Prince ordered his guard without hesitation.

"Yes, your highness." The guard swiftly turned blurry before disappearing.

The rest of the crowd were left staring silently at one another. They had the feeling that they were nothing more than spectators and background props to the two people standing in the middle of the hall, facing each other.

They ignored everyone present, writing up a marriage agreement that was outside the normal Empirial wedding proceedings. Something that was never even heard of before in the entire seven realms.

They perceived the rise of a great storm in the seven realms. Because Crown Prince Lail was already formidable before he even took the throne, now that he is marrying Princess Qamari, who did not seem to lose out to him in terms of overbearingness, aura, and dignity, it was almost as if a tiger gained wings, getting the ability to fly freely into the heavens.

It seemed the heavens themselves were favoring him, giving him only the best. Princess Nari was nothing but a paper tiger, depending on her father to get to where she is. But Princess Qamari, judging from her overwhelming aura a while ago, seemed to be more than she showed.

The Regent Prince was seething with rage, feeling like crushing the whole place into pieces. This was not what was supposed to happen. It should be his son marrying Princess Qamari and bringing her home. Everything was going perfectly as planned until this whole farce took place.

The Regent Prince tasted the sweet metallic flavor of blood in his mouth and looked away, swallowing.

He was angered to the point of puking blood!

As for Princess Nari and Prince Noore, they were completely ignored by the crowd. Seeing that they were no longer the center of attention, Prince Noore deeply gazed at Princess Qamari before finding a spot to sit.

Princess Nari went and sat next to her father, her gaze peculiar as she looked at the Crown Prince and Princess Qamari, who were creating their own marriage agreement in front of the renowned leaders of the seven realms. She turned to look at Prince Noore, suddenly wanting to create one of their own as well.

The guard soon returned with a quill pen and parchment. Spreading it out on the table, he stepped aside.

Princess Qamari held the quill pen and wrote her conditions on two parchments. After finishing, she blew on them and said;

"Alright, your highness. I have written the same conditions on both parchments. One copy will be yours and the other mine. The first condition of the agreement is that you respect me and I will respect you."

"Meaning as long as you respect me, I will also respect you back. But if such a day comes where this condition is not met, then you should not expect me to still treat you with respect after showing disrespect."

The second condition is that the foundation of our marriage will be trust not love. Because love can either strengthen or weaken with the trials and tribulations of time, but trust strengthens with the passage of time, as we get to know each other more."

"A relationship built on the strongest love can break within seconds if there is no trust, but a relationship built on trust will last a lifetime if there is no love; because you only trust in who you know, and you only know a person when you are closest to their heart and give respect to the one in your heart."

"The last, but not least condition is that no matter what happens in the future, we will face it together. No nonsense stuff like 'protecting you because you are important to me, wanting to only give you happiness and no pain'."

"Marriage in the most simplest term is companionship. A relationship where everything in life is shared and no one person does everything while the other enjoys the benefits. This means that we will share the pain and sadness, difficulties and hurdles that come our way as much as we will celebrate the happiness and joy, ease and comfort."

"When you are tired, I will be your pillow. When I am upset, you will be my comfort. Good?"

After reading the three conditions and explaining them clearly, Princess Qamari looked towards Crown Prince Lail for his affirmation.

"A marriage of respect, trust, and companionship? Princess, does this mean that from now on, we will be companions for life?" With glowing bright eyes, the Crown Prince asked Princess Qamari.

"Yes. Any problems?" She asked with a frown.

"No problem. From now on, we are companions for life and this is our Empirial marriage." The Crown Prince declared, the happiness evident in his voice.

After his parents passing, what he desired most was someone who he could get along with in his life. However, the simplest things were usually the most difficult to acquire.

As he was too busy fulfilling his duties as Crown Prince and trying to build and maintain his power in the empire, he found it difficult to meet others and spend enough time together to form a strong friendship.

Yet, here was his soon-to-be Crown Princess Consort, giving him exactly what he desired most, without him even asking for it.

Looking towards the envoys and ambassadors around them, he felt everything that happened today was a wish come true.

Not only did he gain freedom from Princess Nari, but also saw a glimpse of his life partner in Princess Qamari.