Road to the Crown

Chapter 106: Morning of the big day

16th April 1574

With all the dances and fun extending way into the night, I made sure to escape the public eyes with my dear wife as soon as the sun started to set behind the line of the trees in the distance, initially moving back to our tent to rest, but swiftly relocating back to the city.

No matter how fun camping was, there was no way in hell that I would prefer sleeping on a pile of blankets rather than doing the same in a comfortable bed back at the Pilznian palace, especially with how little effort it required to have a better sleep. While if Elia was all right, I might have considered staying longer into the night and playing around with everyone else, thinking about the possible repercussions if she really was bearing my child, I didn't dare to risk her, or our potential kid health just for the sake of a few more hours of fun!

Thankfully, my idea to hire some nobles skilled in maintaining the festivities paid off, with how the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes in our bedchamber, was a sign of drunken people roaming around the town in a long procession surrounding the entire palace in a silly yet silent dance.

As if they were reenacting the pagan rites, a huge crowd of people holding each other by their hands and danced around the entire building, instantly attracting the attention of my eyes that I would much better use turning my head just a slightly to the side to stare at the beautiful face of my still-sleeping wife.

Ignoring the silly folk outside, I simply stared at the small movements of Elia's mouth as the air continued to raise her chest, only to suddenly escape from her body in form of a slight, warm breeze hitting me squarely in the chest. With her face barely a few inches away from my breast, even looking at her cute, peaceful expression was a tough challenge, at least compensated with her half-naked body tightly hugged into mine.

"Good morning, dear."

After feasting my eyes and mind on the sight of Elia's sleeping face, when I realised her eyelids started to twitch only to suddenly raise all the way up, I couldn't help myself from reaching with my hand forward and swiping away a wild strand of her hair that blocked my direct line of sight to her pupils.

"Gmoornnin."

While her eyes were already open, the morning dizziness only started to dissolve from her mind, turning her new day welcome from a complete phrase into one long yet cute mumble. Yet while lying right beside her just like that was awesome in its own sense, looking at the how short the shadows were under the window, the time was nigh for us to properly wake up and prepare for the main event for today.

"Come on, babe. Today is a big day."

Seeing how my words alone wouldn't be able to do the work, with a decisive move of my hand, I tore the blanket from above us and threw it to the side, exposing the two of us equally to the chilliness of the early spring.

"AH! How dare you!"

Instantly roused from her sleep, Elia attempted to grab the blanket, yet with the advantage of surprise on my end, she ended up rolling on me and failing. Thanks to our position, just by moving myself up I lifted her along the way, swiftly grabbing her under her knees and carrying her down from the bed.

"Don't tell me you want to miss the trial?"

Only those words were finally able to put some reason back into the head of my dear wife, pushing her to grab her clothes stored beforehand on a small stool beside the bed. Seeing that I no longer had to force her into reality, I moved to dress myself.

"SNEAK ATTACK!"

Feeling a sudden weight pulling me down by my neck, I felt my body reacting instantly by tensing the muscles of my legs in order to kick with both of them forward at the same time and protect myself from strangling by dropping myself back, only to suddenly freeze and force myself to stay still.

"I got you!"

With the hands that initially grabbed my throat now moving to my chest, I felt two hard points pressing against my back as Elia started nibbling on my ear.

"Dear, stop it. We can't make everyone wait!"

Instead of fighting off the assailant, I leaned forward, reaching for my own kontus before raising it above my head. Without even a hint of hesitation, the hands that were roaming my upper body suddenly moved up and helped me pull the cloth down.

"Thanks."

With Elia finally giving up on her silly attempts to prolong our morning cuddles, I could at last pull the pants on my ass and hold both parts of my dress with the normal belt, before covering it with the sizeable, contus one.

"Are you ready?"

After fully dressing myself up and finishing the worst part being forcing my feet inside the tight shoes, I turned around only to see Elia adding the finishing touches to her own dress.

Yet another advantage of the current times rather than the future. With how insanely expensive all sorts of make-up and perfumes were in this day and age, it took way shorter for any woman to prepare for any outing!

"Yeah. Let's go."

As soon as the last string of cloth that held her dress on her shoulders was fixed in place, Elia stood up and snatched my arm to herself, leading me out of the chamber.

"Come on, what are you waiting for now?"

With her instantly taking the lead in our way out of the palace to the main square of the town, she couldn't miss the opportunity to tease me, could she?

"Okay, okay, I'm coming. We still have some time, so no need to pull on my hand so much!"