Tyranny of Steel

Berengar sat in his office across from one of the many women he loved. The redheaded beauty had a bit of an infuriated expression on her delicate features, while she cast doubt on her husband's virility to his face.

"Why haven't you slept with the girl yet?"

Berengar was in the middle of drinking coffee when he heard this words and quickly choked on it. He was not expecting the conversation to suddenly shift to something so risque. After swallowing down the brown liquid, he gazed upon his most beloved wife and questioned her sanity.

"You know, most women in this world would be infuriated if they found out their man was sleeping with other women, especially one half their age. Yet here you are pestering me for the sixteenth time this week to sleep with Priya. I'm beginning to wonder if you're a cuckquean."

Linde merely scoffed at this notion before lecturing her man on his inability to perform, in a way the sent chills down his spine.

"It's not a matter of whether I personally get off on my man sleeping with another woman. Which, for the record, I do. This is a matter of securing Indian hegemony for your lineage. Priya has been encouraging Dharya to seek out a wife. Something that threatens your control over the region. I would think that you would have a sense of urgency.

Especially when we consider the fact that the girl has displayed her willingness to be your woman on numerous occasions, and yet you keep denying her. Never in my life have I seen you restrain yourself around beautiful women, especially if they're of high status. So why now? Are you perhaps not attracted to her?"

Berengar merely sipped from his coffee mug while narrowing his gaze at the woman. She was clearly not going to let this issue go until he popped the Indian princess' cherry. However, for whatever reason, he stubbornly refused to do so.

"She's a very attractive young woman, one that I'm sure any man would be happy to call their lover. However, I practically raised the girl. I'm the only paternal figure she has ever had, so I have a hard time accepting the premise of sleeping with a girl who is practically my daughter. It's the same reason I rejected Veronika all those years ago."

The moment she heard this excuse, Linde broke out into a fit of giggles. She couldn't help herself. Knowing who Berengar was, and who he had fucked, the notion seemed entirely ludicrous to her, and she was quick to voice why this was the case."

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"You, the man who slept his sister, married his cousin, and has one of his wives call him daddy in private is having a difficult time overcoming the notion of 'incest' with a woman who not only is completely unrelated to you but also looks nothing like you? Pardon my language, but I have a very fucking hard time believing this excuse of yours. So try harder..."

Berengar sighed heavily, already exhausted from the conversation before attempting to explain his reasoning behind his inaction to the angelic beauty sitting across from him.

"Okay, let me put it this way. Hypothetically speaking if say, Alexandros was a fully grown young man right now, and he approached you in an attempt to sleep with you. How would you feel?"

Linde's expression turned to one of pure disgust when she heard these words, which was all Berengar needed to know her answer. However, she still felt compelled to chew the man out for putting such an image in her head.

"Of course I would feel disgusted! I raised that boy, I even breastfed him when he was an infant because his mother was never around. That would be practically the same as if Hans approached me with such intentions! The very idea is absolutely repulsive!"

When Berengar heard this, he gave the woman a condescending gaze. Which obviously outraged her as she quickly tried to explain why Berengar's hesitation was not the same as hers.

"Don't look at me like that. Our circumstances are completely different. You merely provided for the girl when she was practically an adolescent. The very reason that boy is alive is because of my milk. These things are not the same!"

In response to this, Berengar merely rolled his eyes before debating with the woman he loved on why she was wrong.

"What is a father's foremost responsibility? To provide for his family! I took the girl in when she was sick. I was there for her when she climbed her way back to health. I gave her a place to stay when she had nowhere else to go. I fed her as a member of my family, I paid for her education, and I raised her as if she were my own child.

I practically adopted the girl in everything but name. If I am not a father to her, then who is? Now that she is old enough to marry, she wants me to be her partner, and I'm supposed to accept that? It is every bit the same as the scenario I have proposed to you."

Upon hearing Berengar's reasoning, Linde was almost throughly convinced if not for one thing that the man had overlooked. A cunning smile appeared on the woman's luscious lips as she rebuked Berengar's words in a way he did not see coming.

"If that were truly the case, I would respect your wishes. Except... you are forgetting one very important thing, are you not?"

Berengar's brow raised as he listened to Linde's words. As far as he was concerned, his logic was flawless, and thus he glared at the woman who had the most confident expression he had ever seen. So much so that he was beginning to feel that he had indeed made a critical mistake, and thus he felt compelled to ask what it was.

"What do you mean?"

Linde's confident smirk curled even further as she approached her man and whispered seductively in his ears.

"All of those things also apply to your dear little Henrietta. Not only were you raised as her elder brother, but since she was ten years old, a similar age to when you took in Priya, you raised her, and acted as her paternal figure, and yet, at the first given opportunity you slept with her, and have gone to exceptional lengths to conceal your relationship with the girl from the public eye.

On top of all of this, Henrietta is your aunt by blood. If what you said was true, and the idea of sleeping with Priya indeed disgusted you, then how do you explain your preferential treatment towards Henrietta? I would argue that out of all your women, you treat Henrietta the best of us all, and that is specifically because of the rather taboo relationship the two of you have...

So tell me, now that I have disproven your petty excuses, what is the real reason you still reject Priya?"

An overwhelming sense of coldness washed over Berengar, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on his head. He merely narrowed his gaze towards Linde and made one simple remark.

"You are far too cunning for your own good, you know that?"

A slight giggle erupted from Linde's lips as she once more whispered in her man's ears.

"So I've been told. Now answer the question!"

Berengar sighed heavily in defeat. He could no longer hide behind the myriad of excuses he had concocted and instead thoroughly admitted defeat to the women.

"Very well, if you must know my reasoning for rejecting Priya, it's because I already have enough women already. Any more, and I will no longer have the time to fulfill my duties as the Kaiser. It is a simple matter of priorities. At the moment, I must spend every waking hour of the day managing my time perfectly.

There is a war on the horizon, and I can't waste any more time than I already do on familial matters. You want me to take another mistress? Impregnate her? Then I will have to be there for the woman's emotional needs, and raise the child, among my many other responsibilities.

Unlike Anggraini and Tlexictli, I don't have the luxury to force Priya out of the Palace to live in some other part of the city, where I can visit her once a month when I have the time to spare. I would have to actively participate in the relationship I build with the girl."

Linde's lips curled into a wicked smile when she heard these words, easily deciphering the true meaning concealed behind them. As if to provoke her man into action, she said one simple phrase that would permanently change the relationship between Berengar and Priya.

"So in other words, you're saying that if you took another woman into your harem, you wouldn't be able to satisfy us all?"

Upon hearing such clear provocation in Linde's words, a fire was lit within Berengar's mismatched eyes as he stood up from his seat and headed to the door without saying a word. This action caught Linde slightly by surprise, which caused her to call out to the man while he was still within earshot.

"Where do you think you're going?"

A simple shout responded from the other end of the hallway in response to the woman's question.

"To prove you wrong!"

Upon hearing this, a devilish grin appeared on Linde's lips, as she took a satisfying sip from her coffee before responding in a voice so low that only she heard it.

"Men are far too easy to manipulate..."

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