“You can no longer avoid it, your majesty. The nobles will not stop until you wed.” The one who was reprimanding Nadia from dragging the issue of her marriage was her prime minister.

A loyal nobleman who had served the royal family since her birth and leader of the royal faction. Margrave Amadeus Balkier  

“I know that, but no matter who I choose it will be a disaster for the royal family.”

“Even so… the royal faction is in no position to oppose the noble faction. As it is, every candidate from our faction had to withdraw out of pressure from Count Baldwin Khaki.

“Tsk”

Count Baldwin Khaki was one of the seven nobles.

When the land was being shared among them, this opportunist pig purposely picked the land with high trade traffic between the out-lands and the capital.

The out-lands were the last fertile lands of the kingdom, down to the south and home to the majority of the royal faction nobles.

Count Baldwin Khaki made a fortune taxing goods from these lands as they made their way to the capital and on top of that, he used every trick to avoid paying taxes himself.

The pig count was his nickname as he resembled one. Fat and bold, his figure was far from noble.

Nadia would often feel her skin crawl every time she met the count as his lustful gaze fell upon her curvy body.

His preference for money and women were well known in the capital, with more than 25 wives and concubines - not to mention the occasional whore he brought home from time to time.

“Even then, I will not marry any son of those bastards.”

Margrave Amadeus Balkier sighed at her response. He knew the seven nobles would not let this go.

They could always request a prince from a foreign land, but as it stood, the royal family of Vinland was not so highly thought of.

'Weak, Poor, and at the mercy of nobles. What a pathetic excuse for royalty.' is what some of the other royals would say behind Nadia’s back at the academy.

Despite this, she did make an effort to make friends while there and even managed to form a relationship with the third prince of a strong kingdom in the east.

She hoped that a union between them would help boost her family’s power within the kingdom but it was not meant to be.

 She could not tame the prince who was notorious for flirting with anything in a skirt at the academy – teachers included.

She had no choice but to give up on a relationship with the said prince. Little did she know how much trouble that said prince would cost her in the future.

“Then what shall you do? You can’t remain single forever. You are the last member of the royal house of Vinland, you must provide an heir before you get too old to produce one.”

“Huh… did you say something,” Nadia replied with a glare

“You will not be young forever and you know it.”

Margrave Amadeus was not one to be intimidated by a girl's glare, even if she was a queen. 

“Tch… you’re are no fun, Margrave Amadeus.” She replied before taking a deep breath and leaning back on the chair she sat on. “Even if I were to marry, I can’t possibly get pregnant at this time, it will have to wait for at least a year or two. No. Definitely two years if you consider the cost of the wedding.”

“I have to agree with you on this… the royal coffers are basically empty. We will have to sell more royal artifacts just to break even.”

“Our coffers are empty and our treasures are being sold one after another. At times like this, I wish I could just run away like my great grand uncle.” It was at this moment that  a brilliant idea crossed her mind, “That It!”

“Don’t you dare even think about it! If you run away, I swear I will hunt you when I die…”

“Not that…  My great grand uncle left with the woman he loved right? They must have started a family. I will use a summoning circle to summon a descendant who is single to be my husband.”

Margrave Amadeus sighed heavily before speaking again, “We don’t even know where he ended up or even if he and that woman did indeed start a family. Furthermore, the whole reason he left was because she was not accepted by the royal family and nobles. I seriously doubt they will accept her descended now.”

“Details, details. First of all, I will not be seeking their approval on the matter. Secondly, no one objected to her having his children. The only object for her to be the legal wife.”

“I can’t but help feel that you’re stretching fantasy into reality.”

“Hump… fantasy and reality are two sides of the same coin, what matters is which side you fancy the most..." She said cheerfully, "Make preparations for the summoning at once. I want to do it before those seven bastards get wind of it.”

“That will be hard to do.”

“Tell me about it. The inner palace has more leaks than the roof a poor man’s house in the rainy season.”

“Can’t be helped. Some of the maids come from the royal faction and those that are not have been bought by the royal faction.”

“Tch… having money to bribe must be a wonderful thing.”

***

After three days the summoning ceremony was finally created in secrecy. It was being held in an old wing of the palace that was not being used much.

They were able to cover it up by claiming the Queen was seeking to reconstruct the area and make it into a new library wing for the palace.

Much to Nadia’s heartache, she had to spend money on having building material brought in just to make it extra convincing.

In the end, they concluded it would be a waste of money to just have the building materials there for no reason and decided to actually go through with the reconstruction work altogether after the summoning ceremony was concluded.

“Are the preparations complete?” Nadia asked with a nervous look on her face. If this failed, then she really would have no choice but to marry one of the seven nobles’ candidates.

“Yes, more or less. No one has ever attempted to summon a person before, you know?”  Margrave Amadeus replied

“I know. Only monsters and the occasional demons appear. That’s why I brought her along.”

The girl in question was the head maid of the inner palace as well as Nadia’s personal attendant, Teresa Rona.

Normally the jobs of personal attendant and the head maid would be held by two separate people, but the Vinland royal family who counted every bronze coin they had could not afford such a thing.

Thankfully for Nadia, Teresa was willing to do both with minimum wage. That saved Nadia, however, the trade-off was the way she spoke to her master in private.

“I can’t believe you are actually doing this. You finally flew the coop, Nadia.” She uttered with an irritated look on her face.  

She wore her long black hair in a pony style. Underneath her maid uniform were two sharp daggers that she had mastered a long time ago in order to protect Nadia.

“Is that any way to talk to your Queen?” Nadia glared at her as she replied

“On this salary? Yes, or am I to expect a raise soon?”

“Hahaha… I am just teasing Teresa. You are not just an employee you know, but a close friend as well. Hahaha…”

Teresa sighed at Nadia’s attempts to dodge the subject of her salary for the 100th time.

“In any case, if a powerful monster or demon shows up, don’t count on my skills to keep you both safe. I suggest you run like hell.”

“That why this old man will stand by the door… not to flee but to keep watch for potential spies.”

“Shouldn't I be doing that instead? Margrave Amadeus”

“No-No. A maid should stand by her mistress.”

“Tsk… Selfish old man”

“Enough. I beginning the summoning.” Nadia said,

Please let this work, she prayed in her heart as she began.

It had been three hours since she began and there was still no response from the summoning circle.

She tweaked the magic formula best that she could but there was still no response from it.

“Just what am I doing wrong?” Nadia asked with frustration.

“Perhaps there no bloodline to speak off.” Margrave Amadeus replied

“Tch...”

“They're also the possibility that he died when he reversed engineered the summoning circle to flee at that time,” Teresa added

“As much as I don’t think highly of him, there was no doubt in his magic capabilities according to records. The head sage at the time concluded that if anyone could make it happen, it would be him. I refuse to believe he failed and further refuse to believe he had no decedents to speak off.” Nadia cried in frustration   

“Give it up. You are almost out of mana, and I personally don’t see this succeeding.” Teresa uttered before continuing, “Perhaps the prime minister would be as kind as to produce another son for her majesty to marry.”

“Are you mocking my age little one? I will have you know I am fit and well but my wife dares not get pregnant again.

“Hump… you think she would be grateful enough to provide another son for her husband, who refused to have a concubine.”

Margrave Amadeus was a rare example in this kingdom. He had only one wife and no concubines to speak of, and that is despite only having one son among six children.

While the son was of age, because he was the only one he had, Nadia felt troubled about asking for his hand in marriage despite Margrave Amadeus's assurance that it would be alright.

“Well then, let’s give up. If It continues on like this, we might just end up summoning a monster instead.” Teresa said 

Is this it? Is this fate? I refuse to believe it. Nadia thought to herself.

“I don’t care from where he comes from, just bring me descendant of my family that I can marry!” she yelled before pouring her last bit of mana into the summoning circle and as if by a miracle it shone a bright golden color.