12 Chapter 12 You're my queen.
I was curious what they thought of the situation, but in the end, it didn't matter. I'd made my decision, and I didn't regret it.
Later that evening after Yubelluna had been thoroughly vetted by Ravel and Ruval, she sat with me in my room, her eyes wide as she took everything in.
"What do you think?" I asked as I sat down next to her.
Her eyes fell away from the over-opulent room to rest on me. "Am I dreaming?" she said, sounding more than a little scared.
I smiled. "No. You're not dreaming. This is real. You're my queen. And unless you grow dissatisfied here, I will never trade you. Welcome home." Using a trick I'd been working on for a while, I conjured a small flame in my hand. The flame condensed into a teardrop shape and solidified, falling into my palm. I held the resulting stone out to her.
Yubelluna reached out hesitantly and picked up the vibrant, orange stone fashioned from my fire.
"So long as you have that, I'll always be able to find you. You'll never have to worry about being alone again. Unless of course you don't want me to bug you, then drop it in a drawer for however long you need." I finished jokingly, but her eyes didn't stray from the stone in her grasp.
Fearing I'd overstepped or made her uncomfortable somehow, I said, "Yubelluna?"
Her eyes snapped up to me and a wide smile spread across her face. She launched herself towards me and wrapped me in a tight hug.
I was so shocked, I barely heard her whispered, "Thank you."
Seventeen Years Old
Sighing, I closed the book in front of me and pushed it aside. It wasn't like I was reading it anyway, my mind was too focused on other things.
"Are you well, my lord?" Yubelluna asked from where she stood to the right of my desk, the stone I'd given her the day I made her my queen hanging from a black cord around her neck. She hadn't taken it off since she'd fashioned it into a necklace.
The necklace was not the only change to her wardrobe. In place of the torn rags she'd been wearing when I'd met her, she now wore a simple yet elegant purple and blue dress. Her hair had grown out and now hung below her shoulders.
I waved her concern away. "I'm fine, Yubelluna. I told you, you can go train if you want. I won't be doing anything for a while."
"My place is here, my lord." she said, unmoving.
I couldn't help the small smile that grew on my face as I leaned back and looked at her. She'd grown a lot over the last few years. We both had, and my parents wanted to take advantage of that fact.
I remembered Riser's marriage contract from the anime, but I hadn't put it together that it would now concern me. My parents wanted a Phenex with the Power of Destruction in addition to our other powers, so they were setting me up to be married off to the Gremory family.
From their perspective, they likely thought they were doing me a favor. I was their third son and set up to inherit nothing as a result. My younger sister Ravel would get more than me. Not that I really cared about material possessions, but mother and father thought I was going through a phase. They'd orchestrated my marriage so I would wed Rias Gremory and become lord Gremory when she took her place at the head of the family.
The only problem with this master plan was that I was never consulted. I had never met Rias, and what little I remembered of her from the anime saw her as a manipulative, incompetent, selfish brat who stumbled around like a ditzy bimbo, complaining that the world was out to get her specifically. That kind of thing may have left most men slobbering over themselves for the slightest glance from her, but, to me, it was more off putting than anything else. I wasn't attracted to the clingy incompetent act she had going for her. A woman who was a tad possessive of me was hotter than Hell, but a woman who literally couldn't function without me was a migraine.
Massaging my temples, I said, "What am I supposed to do here, Yubelluna?"
"You could start by saying thank you."
Both Yubelluna and I turned to see Ruval leaning against my open door frame, an amused smile on his lips. "Mother and father are looking out for you, little brother. It may seem a little sudden, but in ten or so years you'll be thanking them." He pushed off the door frame and walked into my room.
A strange series of emotions I couldn't parse quickly flew across Yubelluna's face, but she bowed her head and backed away before I could comment, clearing Ruval's path to me.
"I know that was their intent." I said to Ruval, trying to be diplomatic. "I'm thankful for the thought, but I've never met this girl. All I know about her is that she has the Power of Destruction. If I wanted to get married to someone for no reason other than their power, I'd go after Serafall Leviathan."
Ruval's eyes lit up as he sat down on my bed across from my desk, chuckling softly. "This is why I love you, Riser. You say the most impossible things with the utmost seriousness. It almost makes me believe you could actually get the Leviathan to marry you." He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His smile is still in place, but his demeanor has clearly shifted to a more serious one. "Speaking plainly, little brother, I understand that you're a little out of sorts right now. You've never met Rias, and until yesterday all you ever really thought about was what to practice next."
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