The Romantic Trials Of A Transmigrated Empress-Chapter 33: A dog with a bone.

The brief moment of silence that the king had managed to attain was broken by Sigrid once again, she riled up the lords and the arguments for or against the proposed changes to marriage laws was restarted.

For a long while, in the midst of the noise, king Raff kept his eyes on Sigrid, pondering on what was going through her mind. She appeared to be helping but at the same time, there was something amiss about her motives and the way she was going about it.

Was there a hidden agenda behind her proposals? He questioned himself but his mind was incapable of answering the question.

His spies that had been keeping an eye on her had not seen her don anything worthy of note, with the exception of the businesses she started. Although, why she was doing business was a puzzle to him.

She was smart, she had registered the businesses using hers and Roland’s names to keep other greedy businessmen at bay. He shook his head and returned to the matter on ground, why was Sigrid pushing so much for these changes?

"Silence." he roared. "We can have a mature debate without throwing around insults like commoners? Now if someone has something to say, they should raise their hand..."

Sigrid’s hand shot up like an arrow before king Raff could complete his words, he groaned softly, she was like a dog with a bone, not knowing when to let go.

"Crown princess, you are quite passionate about this field, it seems you came prepared." king Raff commented.

Sigrid read between the lines, he was telling her to tone it down but she was unprepared to do so, if she lost today, Emmah would take the win.

"Your highness." she stood up faced the king and turned side ways to a part of the lords in the court. "We are mainly debating the laws of marriage concerning women, there are only three women in the hall currently, myself, the queen and the secondary wife...." She grimaced. "I apologize, secondary consort."

Someone chortled, even Cosmos laughed, they all knew that she had made a deliberate mistake. All the lords had heard about Consort Rina’s alleged attempt on the life of the crown princess.

"As women, the burden to speak for other women falls on us and I believe that it will be a disservice to all those women if we or I fold my hands and pretend as if this issue will not affect my future daughters. I know that I do not want them to be victims of spring cleaning."

Her eyes moved around deliberately, falling onto some of the lords that participated in the foul activity every year. Her eyes were so sharp that they were forced to squirm and look away in shame.

"Victims." the king repeated.

"Yes, your highness, I do believe that they are victims. Young girls that would have married good men, had children and lived responsible lives are married by lecherous old men for a year and then divorced later on to pave way for new brides who are also traded for replacements the following year.

These young women are tagged with the stain of divorcee so they can only live alone like widows for the rest of their lives or marry men with nothing to offer because the responsible ones do not want them anymore. Their lives are ruined in different ways so if they are not victims, what are they? I beg you to end this gross injustice against your female subjects your highness."

King Raff folded his arms, telling himself to be patient and appear concerned. It was not as if he was not aware of this so called spring cleaning season, he just had no opinions about it before.

None of the lords dared to respond to Sigrid, especially those that had ever participated in spring cleaning. In the uncomfortable silence a surprising response was made from an unexpected party, Consort Rina,

"These so called victims are young girls that are willing to marry titled men at all costs, if they are abandoned later on, it is their fault for failing to keep their husbands interested. Why then, should the blame fall on the men?"

She looked behind and shot the queen a smirk, her words were directly aimed at the queen after all. She had failed to keep the king interested and if it was not for politics and peace, he would have long divorced her and made Rina his queen.

Sigrid sat down and scoffed. "You speak so carelessly consort, it is surprising to hear such words coming from a fellow woman.

The queen has built tailoring schools for women in the empire, she even built two nursing schools and enabled girls to learn medicine. She can be looked up to because she has set an example and done her best to protect young girls.

As the consort you demand for respect daily but what have you done for the women of Eldoria apart from looking on them with contempt? No wonder the female traders from Nemoris spoke extremely crassly of you."

There was dead silence in the hall, so much so that those inside could not even hear their neighbors breathing. The lords had no idea what to say, especially because they did not want to offend Sigrid or Rina. One was the crown princess, the other was the king’s favorite woman.

One wrong word and someone could end up being beheaded. The queen held her head high with pride, after Sigrid’s defense, she was filled with happiness.

Finally, someone is not afraid to stand up to that whore, she thought. If she had said a word, they would all assume she was just being jealous.

Rina swelled like a pregnant frog, her eyes became moist and she turned to the king with an aggrieved look on her face, begging for him to help her because she had been wronged.

King Raff sighed and frowned, why was the atmosphere in the court off? He used to be caught in the middle of squabbles between the queen and Rina, now Sigrid had been added to his list of problems.

"What was it that was said about my noble consort?" he asked.

Sigrid bit her tongue to keep the laughter at bay, there was nothing noble about Rina, only the lovesick king referred to her as such.

"I don’t think that you want me to repeat what I had in passing your highness, especially not in the presence of all these noble lords." Sigrid said.

"Your highness, she is making it up, see, she cannot even come up with an answer. The crown princess is disrespecting me in your court your highness, I beg you to punish her." Rina cried out and sobbed softly.

Her coquettish antics were not new to the lords, they all knew what was coming next, Sigrid was to be punished. Rina’s tears were like the magic button which aroused the knight in king Raff, he just had to protect her.

Many eyes turned to the duke, waiting for him to intervene and stop the king, however since he had halved his military might recently, would the king give in to him?

Some waited for the queen to step in and defend Sigrid, she had just praised her after all. The question on their minds was the same, who was going to save the crown princess?