Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 257

Chapter 257: THE FIRST PROBLEM
“I will get you some medicine,” Rowan said, as he put her down on the bed and tucked her in. Zaya curled her body and hugged her blanket. She still had her eyes closed when she nodded.

After that, Rowan left to get her medicine and something to eat, but Zaya couldn’t eat anything. She only managed to get two spoonful of rice before she stopped. She was going to throw up if she forced herself to eat more than that.

Rowan stayed with her until she fell asleep and then left to his bedroom next door, where Addie had been waiting for him.

“If you are going to complain, get out,” Rowan said, he had to read a few reports that he had postponed for long. He had been away for longer than he expected, hence it was only natural that he had a lot of things to be done.

“I am not going to complain, I only wanted to remind you that our people have never seen a magic user and for you to have her as your queen will create a ripple within our people.” Addie then added. “Your enemy will love to rile people up with this issue.”

“As far as I remembered, you were the one, who encouraged me to pursue her.”

“Yes, but… I meant…. not something as serious as this…” Addie scratched his head. “I only thought you would love to have some fun with her, but not actually take her as your queen.” He shook his head. “This is way too far from what I expected.”

“You have to raise your expectation.”

Addie pressed his lips. “Are you serious about… her? I meant… you really do like her?”

Rowan lifted his head and looked at him for a while without saying anything. “She is a powerful magic user,” he finally said.

“You are going to use her ability.”

“I like her.”

“You like her because she is useful.”

“I think you have a lot of free time to make assumptions.” Rowan stood up and walked toward Addie, he nodded at the reports at the table. “Read them all and give me the summarize for each of the report.”

“What? No!”

Addie wailed, but Rowan had left. He went to the room next door and watch Zaya was sleeping. She was sweating, curling herself as if she had a really bad nightmare.

Rowan assumed that Zaya simply had a very bad seasick, thus he didn’t think of anything else when she spent the rest of their journey to Marca El in her bedroom. She refused to go out and have fresh air, so she would feel a little bit better.

She chose to spend her time inside the room and ate very little, sleeping more.

Two weeks later, they finally arrived in Marca El harbor. Those two weeks were gruesome weeks for Zaya, but she couldn’t confide it to anyone else.

This was one of the reasons why she couldn’t go back to Ogregon, even though she really wanted to leave. She didn’t have trauma with the ocean before, since she had gone to Karam continent with her brothers and father when she was little, but she developed a strong fear of large amounts of water during her training in Holy Kingdom.

“Feeling better?” Rowan asked, as he helped her to enter the carriage.

They arrived in the middle of the night and there was no welcoming party or anything like that, but Zaya didn’t mind it at all. The last thing that she wanted was giving a fake smile at the people that she didn’t know.

“Yes.” Zaya leaned her head against his shoulder. She closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

***

Zaya didn’t remember how she could get into her bedroom, but she was sure it was Rowan, who had carried her. She didn’t have enough energy to walk on her own, she didn’t think that she inspected her bedroom before she fell asleep in this big bed.

The bed was as big as the one that she had back in the palace, with four pillars around it. The room had this cinnamon scent in the air.

Zaya stretched her body, she curled herself again before she stared at the ceiling. She was no longer in Ogregon or in the sea. She was in Marca El. The foreign land that she had never visited before. She had never thought that she would end up in this place at all.

However, as much as she wanted to fall asleep again, it wouldn’t look good to wake up so late. She knew better not to let anyone to gossip about her in her first day here.

Therefore, she grunted and grumbled when she pushed herself up into a sitting position and then stared at her reflection on the mirror.

She grimaced.

Her hair looked like she just hit by a tornado every time she woke up. Hastily, Zaya tugged at her curls to tame them and make them looked more presentable before she got off the bed and walked out of the door.

The hallway was empty and this confused her. She thought there would be a guard or two, or even a maid that would wait for her, since that was what happened back in Ogregon or in the Holy Kingdom.

“Hello? Anyone is here?” Zaya walked along the empty hallway and heard a few people talked from one of the rooms.

Didn’t have any other choice, Zaya came closer and found a black door, where the source of the voices came from. The door was slightly ajar, thus she could hear the conversation from inside.

To her relief, she saw Rowan was sitting at the head of the table. She was glad that she found him here, but she couldn’t enter since he was in the middle of a heated discussion with the other three men.

Zaya was taught to be a proper lady and eavesdropping was not a good habit, but what to do? Her curiosity got the best of her.

She squatted down next to the door that was slightly ajar and listened to their conversation.

“… You can’t have her as your queen, my king. This will be a disastrous.” The first man looked agitated with Rowan’s decision. “You have not yet discussed this with your councils!”

“She is a witch, but she has a bloodline of a shifter, what if she gave birth to a monster?”

Zaya raised her brows when she heard that, she poked her head to see who said that and peek. She would mark that man.

These people had never seen a monster, but had the audacity to say that she might give birth to a monster?

Zaya saw a man in his armor, looking at Rowan with a heavy disappointment in his eyes. Unfortunately, Rowan had his back against Zaya, thus she couldn’t see his expression, but he didn’t say anything. He let those morons talked, which irked Zaya a little bit because he didn’t stand up for her.

What a great day. She just arrived last night and already had people against her.

“From what I heard she lived in Holy Kingdom, she grew up there and that Holy Kingdom was the kingdom that sheltered black magic, what if she used black magic?”

These morons…

Zaya clicked her tongue. They clearly needed to be educated about magic.

“What if she wanted to take this kingdom and actually she is here because she has hidden agenda? You have given her kingdom one hundred thousand knights, don’t you think it’s odd?”

Rowan must have given that man a look to elaborate his claim, because he explained in detail about his accusation.

“How could you exchange one hundred thousand knights to five hundred magic users only? Pardon me… but, I think she got in your head… probably, she already used her charm on you, my king.”

The other knights there chimed in, they agreed with this statement.

“If the words got out, people will revolt. No one wanted a king, who was charmed by a witch.”

Zaya poked her head the more she heard the growing voice of displeasure from the other three men, while Rowan didn’t say anything. Did he fall asleep? Why he didn’t defend her?

“What are you doing here, princess?” Addie asked her in low voice, he also squatted down next to Zaya, giving her a start. “You shouldn’t have eavesdropped the conversation. A princess shouldn’t do that.” Not to mention how she was literally squatting down next to the door.

Zaya glared at him. “They are badmouthing me, why don’t your king say something?” She straight up ignored Addie’s complain about her behavior. “Who are they?” She talked in low voice.

Somehow, Addie poked his head to see who were inside. This was not a planned meeting, but this early morning the three generals heard what happened and immediately went to confront the king.

“General Declan, General Zake and General Xander.”

“That one, the ugliest one, who sat on Rowan left side.”

Addie was speechless, the three generals were around the age of late thirty, but they were good looking, thus for Zaya said General Declan was the ugliest one, he must have said something that offended her.

“General Declan, he is the one, who is responsible to the safety and the security around the capital city, especially the palace,” Addie explained.

“My king, losing one hundred thousand of knights is a great lose for us!”

“You shouldn’t have let that little witch to charm you.”

“Please, thinking thrice about making her your queen.”