CHAPTER 272: DID I UPSET HER MAJESTY?

During lunch the next day.

Wilson brought up news about the locusts spreading out towards the capital.

"It’s only a matter of time before the locusts attack Belonmusk." He said.

Catherine nodded, her face devoid of worry.

"How long do you think the locusts will remain in Amberale?" She asked curiously.

Aristia paid attention to Wilson’s answer.

"With the speed of their consumption and movement, it shouldn’t be more than three months if they plan to consume the whole of Amberale." He said with a bit of amusement in the end.

[Oh, they plan to consume the whole of Amberale, alright.] Aristia thought.

But Wilson’s words were accurate.

In the original book, the locusts would consume everything till the middle of the year.

Currently, it was the month of March, and three more months would make it June, when she would turn seven.

The only difference was that during the famine in the book, there would be no food in the kingdom for the months that followed.

After the locusts passed, the farmers planted crops, but the crops would take up to a few months to grow. The farmers were also hungry, so the strength and energy needed to plant would be low.

Thankfully, Amberale was able to overcome this period of desolation.

As for how exactly, Aristia had no clue since it wasn’t really mentioned in the book.

But this time, there would be no such problems since there would be food for the kingdom to consume during this period of famine.

***

A similar discussion was playing out in the capital of Amberale, Belonmusk.

King Fedor sat down in the throne room with a few of his ministers.

Some of the other ministers weren’t present as they were in their Fiefs.

The ministers present now were the old men who had now left the responsibility of managing fiefs to their sons or grandsons, depending on who took over as Fief Lord.

Among them were faces Aristia would find very familiar.

Her grandfather, Edgar Anton was present among these ministers of the king. He wasn’t required in his Fief since his son, Maxim Anton, was already there.

The old masters of the other pure noble families— who had served as the king’s ministers for years— were also there.

The king had a lot of ministers, but the core ministers who held substantial power stemmed from pure nobility.

Fedor looked at his ministers, but his mind was elsewhere. He wanted nothing more than to bury himself in his wife’s arms at this moment.

However, he still had to hold this meeting.

"As we’ve discussed before, this is an opportunity to deduce which allied kingdoms are really on our side."

At his words, the ministers nodded in approval.

"His majesty is as thoughtful as ever." One of the ministers praised sincerely, prompting the other ministers to nod in agreement.

They were sincerely impressed with the marvelous idea the king had proposed just as the locusts appeared.

Even though Aristia had told her father and uncle about how they could use this famine to their advantage regarding knowing their real allies, Fedor had not informed his ministers of this until the locusts appeared in the West this year.

This was because he wasn’t sure if there would be a famine.

His niece’s idea of building granaries and storehouses for storing food was really beneficial which was why he had implemented it, but he wasn’t sure if there would really be a famine caused by locusts.

When she said that she heard that there had been locusts in other lands, he had investigated and found out that there really were locust findings in some other lands, but those lands were so far away.

He hadn’t expected that after two years, locusts would appear in Amberale, but he was glad that he had listened to his niece.

No one knew that this marvelous idea stemmed from the infamous third princess of the kingdom.

Fedor only nodded before continuing. "The famine has already begun in the West and is moving further now that the season of winter is over. Soon, the locusts will be here, in the capital."

The ministers nodded solemnly.

Edgar spoke. "Yes, your majesty. But thankfully, we have no reason to worry as with the plans put in place, there won’t be much difficulties in handling this famine."

"Word from the Lords in the West say that there’s not much indication of a famine in the West. The granaries and storehouses have really been a great help. The commoners aren’t starving." Carter Hemsworth, Aristia’s maternal granduncle, added.

Other ministers nodded.

"In fact, this might be the easiest famine handled in Amberale’s history." Another minister added jokingly.

It was a joke because Amberale had ways of handling other famines if it were caused by drought or anything else. This famine would have proved to be very difficult and problematic if not for this new method.

"Minister Edgar is correct," Fedor said. "There’s not much to worry about now. However, there is need to ensure that the other kingdoms are not aware of the Kingdom’s real situation."

The ministers bowed. "Yes, your majesty. We will do our best."

After that, Fedor dismissed the ministers before leaving the throne room.

He stopped a maid.

The maid bowed and answered. "Yes, your majesty?"

"Where is her majesty?"

"Her majesty is in her greenhouse." The maid answered.

"Okay," Fedor nodded, walking past the maid.

He headed to the greenhouse where his wife was.

He reached the greenhouse door and entered, seeing that it was open.

He closed the door silently before turning.

He walked further into the greenhouse and saw Rowaine bending down in front of a flower, trimming it.

She was alone as he expected.

Whenever she came to her greenhouse, she would dismiss her maid. According to her, she liked to be alone and without disturbance when she was tending to her flowers.

She preferred to take care of the flowers herself instead of having the palace gardeners do it.

It wasn’t like she liked flowers, but it was just that as queen, she quickly got bored. Apart from the official duties she had as queen, the only other leisure activities apart from drinking tea was embroidery.

In her kingdom, when she was still a princess, she would ride a horse out of the castle into the forest, or she would practice archery.

But in Amberale, women didn’t ride horses and neither did they practice archery or some of the other activities in her kingdom.

When she got married to Fedor, he gifted her this greenhouse and Rowaine had begun personally tending to it until it became a hobby.

When she heard the sound of footsteps, she turned in surprise.

Seeing that it was Fedor, she put down the tool in her hand and stood up.

She curtsied, "Your majesty. What brings you here? Are you done meeting the ministers?"

Fedor’s mouth twitched. "Your majesty? Did I upset you?"