Firstborn: Return of the heir

“Are you out of your mind?”

Even with what he considered a great victory with the negotiations that spared a lot of lives, Saulus couldn’t rest easy.

Not with his childhood friend and currently his queen conducting a passionate lecture.

“Please, you need to understand. We are too weak to achieve anything by ourselves.”

It wasn’t that Venna was disappointed with the man who single-handedly recreated the country that her father lost. It wasn’t that she was particularly unhappy, even though to a degree, that was obviously the case.

Venna was simply disillusioned with reality once she learned about a few of Saulus’ plans.

“You do realize that this is not something I would ever agree to?”

Right on point. Out of everyone that he knew, Venna was the only person that Saulus couldn’t deal with easily. After all, he said himself that she had to become a queen, true ruler of the lands rather than a puppet. And now, he basically took the liberty of informing her what kind of decisions she would make in the near future.

Venna lived through a fair bit of hardships on her own. Brutally deprived of her entire family, she managed to survive mostly thanks to a bit of Saulus’ help through several years. Falling as low as acting like a damned maid of a person who was adopted into the court as her own servant. Everything that she went through made it impossible for naive ideas about how the world worked to remain in her mind.

But realizing how stupid some of the assumptions were and actually learning what the true, brutal reality of the world was something else.

“I do. And for that, I’m sorry. But I cannot let you rule as you wish before you learn what the role of your crown is.”

Suddenly feeling exhaustion from all the events that had just happened, Saulus’ knees caved in forcing him to rest on the nearby couch. Between charging at the mass of enemy infantry, dealing with a lord who could slay him with his magic in a single instant and arguing with Venna, it was the last thing that sapped Saulus’ energy.

“Oh, and now you are going to play the victim?”

Seeing the state of her childhood friend and taking it for an attempt to manipulate her, Venna flared up even more.

“What? No. Sorry, I’m just tired.”

Raising his face from his cupped hands where he rested it for a moment, Saulus looked at the girl with a look of an unjustly scolded dog on his face.

“Listen, power… There are two things that you need to understand about power. Have you heard the saying, no man rules alone?”

Venna took the chance to look deeper into Saulus’ eyes. And in one instant, her attitude changed. She now realized how heavy was the burden that this man carried on his shoulders. Noticing his serious expression, she also realized what she was currently doing herself.

Throwing a fit like some pretentious princess, arguing with a man who worked insanely hard for his achievements, only to sacrifice everything to fulfil the promise he made to her father.

All of that, just a few moments after he won a huge battle and faced off against someone he had no chance against. Who was she to say a single negative word about the reality that Saulus had created for her?

“Holding power doesn’t mean that you alone have all the power. As a ruler, your job is to manage the people who hold power. The nobility, great merchants, neighbors… Your council isn’t made out of just your friends, but out of people that need this sort of recognition to keep their own power. It’s a symbiotic relationship.”

Hiding his face back in his hands, Saulus recalled all the moments when he had to acknowledge this reality himself. Even after becoming the chief general of the military, he wasn’t freed from the structures of power. More than that, he was forced even deeper into the net of codependency, forced to learn about the intricate inner workings of this delicate balance of influences.

No man rules alone.

Being the general himself, Saulus couldn’t command all his troops personally to battle. He couldn’t manage the warehouses to keep his legionnaires well fed. He couldn’t personally collect the taxes nor spend entire days on training new recruits. With his seat as the chief general, it was his job to find people who would fulfill those tasks for him, while keeping them happy with his oversight.

That was the essence of power. And no matter what situation occurred, any person in power would have to play according to the rules. Even with the most loyal retainers one could ever dream of, those retainers in positions of power had exactly the same problem as the one who ruled over them!

“And that’s why you invited the Pleiades to the council? That’s why you basically let Rena off the leash? That’s why you are trying to establish a potentially dangerous force right to our side?”

This entire discussion couldn’t be said to be a result of a single misunderstanding or disagreement. It would be closer to the truth to claim that it was a result of Saulus’ bizarre decisions that left Venna with no choice but to challenge them.

“Listen. When you said that you wanted to turn me into a real queen, I took it to heart. Over the last few days, I desperately struggled to learn what my new role in your great plan would be.”

With her face finally calming down, Venna sat down on a chair opposite to where Saulus was sitting. With just a few meters separating them, he could adore her beauty in all its magnitude… That is if he had the energy to raise his head from his cupped hands.

“I think I understand what is causing our current discord.”

Suddenly changing the topic, Venna simply waited. Only when Saulus finally raised his head and looked in her eyes did she again pick up the conversation.

“You are desperately trying to fulfill your promise to my father, all the while being just as desperate to protect me. But listen, Saulus. You can’t protect me forever.”

Leaning towards the man and reaching forth with her hands, Venna forced the otherwise fearless general to look at how serious her expression was.

“I know how much you care for me, and you can trust me, I care for you just as much. But you cannot keep me clean from the dirt of this world. I will whine. I will curse. I might even end up crying…”

Letting go of one of her hands that she used to hold Saulus, Venna hid her face behind the free hand as she said that. Even with how serious she was about the topic, she still ended up blushing while uttering those intimate confessions.

“But ultimately, I don’t want you to spare me the brutal details. I’m involved in everything just as much as you are. And I think I deserve to know the truth.”