I'd Give Up The World For You

Daisy sat there wondering how everything had gone so wrong so quickly. Pole looked like he was about ready to draw his sword on Lady Helene and she didn't know what she was supposed to do to diffuse the situation. 

"Pole! It's really okay. Don't do anything rash," she tried to tell him but her words fell on deaf ears. 

"No can do, Your Majesty. This one will await the king's verdict as soon as—oh, they're here. You two take over for us. We're taking this one down to the dungeon." 

"This one?!" Duchess Atierre screeched, affronted at being addressed that way. 

"What happened?" a soldier-turned-royal-guard Daisy recognized but didn't know by name asked. He completely ignored the duchess's protests. 

"She decided it would be a good idea to insult Her Majesty and threaten her at the same time," Pole said as he rolled his eyes. 

"Well, that's the stupidest thing she could have done." 

"Exactly."

The duchess finally seemed to realize the precariousness of her situation as she was being led away and began pleading with them to let her off until they were out of earshot. The other royal guard who came as a replacement but hadn't spoken had to hold back Lady Helene from running after them. 

He sighed. "Chilton, can you handle things here for a moment? I need to take her too so she'll stop fussing." 

"You're leaving me alone?!" 

"What, you think you can't handle a few women by yourself for a couple of minutes? I'll send someone to join you if I pass them. Protect the queen with your life."

As he left, Daisy feebly said, "That really isn't necessary." 

Unfortunately, Chilton was taking things as seriously as Pole. "It is though! I've been given permission to use deadly force to protect you but I doubt it will come to that. None of these wilting pansies want to end up in the dungeon, I reckon."

A few of them looked furious at being called wilting pansies by a commoner but no one said anything. The ensuing silence was so heavy and awkward that Daisy couldn't take it anymore after ten torturous minutes of sipping at cold tea. She should have sent them all home as soon as Duchess Atierre and her daughter were taken away. 

"I think we should end things for today," she said wearily. 

No one argued. They all stood, curtsied, and fled as quickly as they could in their high heels without saying a word. 

Daisy sighed. "Chilton, where is my husband?"

With all the nobility gone, he didn't see the need to be formal anymore. "Blaze is having a meeting with his generals right now. Would you like me to take you to him?"

"Please."

She followed him through the maze-like castle to a room she had never been to before. There was a large circular table in it and Rukelion, Conrad, and two other men she recognized were standing around looking through papers spread across it. 

"Blaze, your wife wanted to see you," Chilton said as he opened the door. 

Everyone looked up and Rukelion smiled brightly at her as if nothing was wrong. "This is certainly a nice surprise. I thought you were still at your tea party."

"Uh…it ended early. Did no one tell you what happened?" Daisy asked with a raised eyebrow. 

His smile dropped and he looked at Chilton accusingly. "Didn't I tell you all to report to me if something untoward happened?" 

Chilton didn't get the chance to answer because Pole barged into the room. "The Duchess of Atierre has been arrested for treason and I took her and her daughter down to the dungeon. They insulted the quee—oh, hello. I see you beat me here."

"Yes but I didn't get the chance to say anything yet."

Rukelion's eyes narrowed as he looked between the two guards. "Will somebody tell me what's going on before we're all old and gray?"

"Right," Pole said apologetically. "Unless you'd rather tell him, Mrs. Blaze?" 

Daisy jolted. She had never been addressed that way before. Ever since her husband revealed his true identity everyone had been calling her Your Majesty. Though she had noticed that if no one they needed to flaunt their newfound authority to was around that they continued calling him by his last name even if it was different now. 

She had come here to talk about what happened but this felt rather like tattling. She had thought Rukelion was already aware of them being taken to the dungeon and had wanted to see if she could potentially plead for them. Treason seemed a little harsh. 

"Sure," she said with an internal sigh. She looked directly at him as she spoke. "Duchess Atierre was being rude about my origins and was implying I only married you because you were an officer in the military and ended up getting more than I bargained for. 

"Then she was flippant about…something else she shouldn't have been flippant about so I chastised her for it and she ended up yelling at me. What she did was terribly rude but it wasn't treason! She isn't actually going to lose her head over this, is she?"

Rather than answering her directly, Rukelion looked to Pole for confirmation. "Is this true?"

"Yes but she also stood up and knocked over a teacup in her anger. I was concerned she was going to strike the queen so I acted, per your instructions."

Daisy thought there was something weird about the arrest before but now it clicked into place. No one in this room looked the slightest bit concerned or shocked about what happened. It was almost as if they had expected for something to go wrong and were waiting to strike.

"You did well," her husband said with a nod. "We were actually going over Duke Atierre's finances before you came in. We'll have enough to charge him with soon. When that happens go to headquarters and get some people to go with you to arrest him as well. We can get rid of them all in one fell swoop. Did anyone else do anything arrest-worthy?"

"It wasn't blatantly treasonous but Lady Marinette Dewello was rather rude as well," Pole told him. 

"A pity. I'd like to take House Dewello down a peg. We'll try to find something on the duke. You may take your leave now."

"Yes, sir!" 

Daisy gaped at her husband. They were all trying to get people killed?! "What exactly are you guys trying to do here? Why do you want to arrest the nobility? What did they do wrong?"

"They've let their power get to their heads, among other things. I won't let them continue to abuse the people living on their lands," Rukelion said seriously. "Duke Atierre has been taking far too much tax money from the people, leaving them practically penniless. What he's doing is wrong and he can be replaced by someone more competent and less greedy so we've been looking for an excuse to get rid of him."

Conrad nodded earnestly at what he was saying. "It's true, Mrs. Blaze! I'm originally from Duke Atierre's territory and he's made it nearly impossible for my sister to buy her medicine. She would have died long ago if I hadn't joined the royal army and sent home most of my pay.

"I've followed Blaze all these years because he promised to make things better for people like us. I knew he would because of the way he's always cared about the well-being of his men. He's a man of his word keeping his promises about cleaning out the dirty members of the nobility."

Daisy realized she had vastly underestimated this world's politics. She was living in a place where it was common for criminals to lose their heads. They didn't see what they were doing as a moral issue at all. 

There was nothing she could do to dissuade them. This was how they were going to make this country a better place for the masses. 

She couldn't deny that she was disturbed by what they were doing but everyone here had been a soldier. They already didn't value life the same way an average person from her world would. 

It wasn't her place to say anything. They weren't being purposely malicious. She was going to have to learn to live with the morality of this place. 

"I see," Daisy said neutrally. "Carry on. I'm going to go out to the gardens for a while." 

Rukelion was still in work mode and didn't seem to realize the direction her thoughts were going. He briefly kissed her before getting back to the task at hand with his generals. Chilton left with her and followed from a respectable distance the way she preferred it. 

She went to her room and legitimately needed help getting out of her death trap dress so she rang for a couple of her personal maids. They arrived almost immediately and helped her out of it before offering her refreshments. 

She didn't have much of an appetite even after not eating much at the tea party but she knew she needed to eat and drink something for the baby's sake so she asked for some water, fruit slices, cheese, and crackers. Then she slumped into a chair by the empty fireplace and sighed. 

Her husband wasn't a bad person. Daisy simply didn't agree with the way things worked here. He was trying to make the world a better place as he had originally told her. He wasn't a villain wantonly killing anyone in his path.. He was using the rules of this world to accomplish his goals and she was going to have to accept that.