Chapter 149: The Wedding (3)

Milton and Queen Leila held hands as they walked into their bedroom. It was only then that she began to feel a bit nervous. Why?

‘Everyone does it but…’

She has never been with a man before. No matter how much of a devious vixen she normally was, she was very nervous at this moment in time.

The room was lit with soft lighting and a gentle scent of fragrant candles was spreading throughout the room with wine and glasses waiting on the table. The maids had prepared the room perfectly.

“Shall we have a drink?”

To relieve her awkwardness, Queen Leila reached out for the wine, but…

“I already had enough to drink.”

Milton grasped Queen Leila’s hand and pulled her into his arms. 

“Ah!”

Before she realized it, she was in Milton’s arms being kissed. As he moved his hands, the clothes on her body began to fall to the floor, one by one. The sound of rustling silk as it rubbed against her bare skin was repeatedly heard. In no time at all, she was naked. Milton gently picked her up and laid her on the bed. He gazed at her body, slowly moving his eyes from her head to her toes.

“Beautiful.”

The word fell naturally from his lips, sincerely without any lies. Queen Leila blushed and turned to look away from Milton’s gaze. She could only squeeze out one sentence.

“Please turn off the lights.”

Milton turned off the lights. That was the only request of hers that he listened to that night. After that, no matter how much she pleaded, he didn’t pause or slow down.

“I love you.”

“Haah…”

She panted as she accepted all of her husband’s passion. And so, the night passed.

***

A thought crossed Milton’s mind.

‘Is this the best years of my life?’

The honeymoon phase was said to be the happiest time in a marriage. When humans receive the honeymoon ‘buff,’ it’s said that everything in the world looks beautiful and he believes he is the happiest person in the world. 

That’s exactly how Milton felt right now. It had been one month since the wedding and during that time, he had spent each day happily with his two beautiful wives. Perhaps it's because they knew how much he suffered on the battlefield, but his retainers hadn’t bothered him and Milton was able to spend the time completely drowning in the honeymoon bliss. Thanks to that, Milton felt like he was going to die from happiness.

Queen Leila was a vixen but when it was just the two of them, she was sweet and charming. Before, Milton thought Sophia was timid, but it seemed she felt more comfortable and closer to Milton that she became even more adorable and endearing when it was just the two of them. He could never be bored of her. By being with just the two of them, Milton felt like he could never stop smiling.

He felt like that right now as he was relaxing while watching the morning light shine on his sleeping wife. 

“Mm… what’re you doing, honey?”

Seeing Sophia asking him that as she opened her eyes, Milton smiled.

“I lost myself for a bit.”

“What?”

“Because you’re too beautiful.”

“Honey…”

Sophia’s face turned red. From a third person’s point of view, it was a really cheesy line, but from Sophia’s honeymoon rose colored blinders, it was a really sweet line. 

Milton embraced Sophia tightly.

“We have to get up now.”

“Nope, I want to just stay like this.”

“Then… why don’t we do that?”

The two laid back down and started to cuddle again. However…

“Grand Duke, Her Majesty the Queen is looking for you.”

Milton sighed when an attendant called for him from the outside.

“I guess I have to get up.”

When he tried to get out of bed, Sophia looked at him with sad eyes and then…

“Honeyyyy…”

Like a child crying, she shook her head and whined at him. That one word was full of meaning, ‘don’t go, stay with me,’ and looking at her eyes, Milton felt his heart dropping. But since Queen Leila was looking for him, he couldn’t just crawl back into bed. Full of regrets, Milton gave Sophia a deep kiss, then…

“I’ll come back soon.”

Only after promising her that was he barely able to get out of bed. 

***

“You called for me, Leila?”

Queen Leila smiled at his question.

“It took you a while.”

“Did it?”

“Haha, I didn’t want to bother you either, but it’s time now to begin talking about our country.”

“Hahaha…”

Milton laughed awkwardly but even he could hear the slight reprimands in his wife’s voice.

‘Did I play around too much?’

He had been busy with his two beautiful wives and had been indolent for nearly a month. Forget about politics, he didn't even bother with his early morning training that he had always done. 

‘Guess I should focus again.’

If he wanted to keep his happiness, Milton had to ready himself for danger because he was now in a position where danger would come looking for him. Queen Leila personally poured him a cup of tea as she spoke.

“Last time you told me that we had to thoroughly settle the public sentiment of the Northern region as quickly as possible.”

“I did.”

When Milton had checked the status of the country with his new stats, he realized that the biggest problem at this point was the public sentiment in the North. Since they were originally a territory of the Hildes Republic before the Lester Kingdom took over, the formerly Republican people had a strong aversion to royalism.

“That’s why I mobilized my information network to investigate the situation in the North.”

“I see, and what was the result?”

“It was as you predicted, dear. It’s so bad I’m afraid that if we don’t deal with it correctly, there will be a civil war.”

“It’s that serious, Leila?”

“Because of the difference in ideology, their hostility towards us is very strong. They even ignored the officials we dispatched.”

“Mm… that’s troublesome.”

Milton frowned when he heard that. 

Usually when you think about power and authority, it’s the image of the higher ups, the officials, pressing down upon the people who are below them. However, power and authority only exists if the people below respect them or at the very least, acknowledge and accept the higher ups.

Why do the nobles rule over the commoners? Because in a kingdom, the nobles are above the commoners and the majority of the people agree to that school of thought. Of course, when injustice and corruption increases, the people will revolt, but basically power comes from the people who are convinced that the higher ups deserve power and authority. 

But the differences were too great between the Republic and the Kingdom. Even if the monarch officially dispatched officials and tried to control the territory, if the citizens didn’t recognize the authority of the officials, then there was no way things would go smoothly.

“Usually, the simplest method would be to control them with strength and fear but…”

Milton interrupted her before Queen Leila could finish her sentence.

“You know that you shouldn’t do that, right?”

“I know. I would’ve already done it if I didn’t know.”

Strength and fear were one of the most effective means of governing a country for a ruler. It may seem cruel, but that was reality. However, if it’s abused inappropriately for the situation, it can become a poison that destroys the foundation of the country itself.

The current situation was exactly like that. The native Republican residents of the Northern region had a strong sense of resistance and hostility to the kingdom itself. If Queen Leila was to create an atmosphere of terror there, it would only increase the sense of hostility in them and Siegfried wouldn’t just calmly stand by watching. One of the Republic’s most favored methods was to push Republican ideologies to people who were dissatisfied and push them to rebel. Moreover, weren’t the residents of the Northern part of the Lester Kingdom originally Republicans? The sparks were already there. If they were fanned just a bit, it would burn brightly.

“Whatever it takes, we have to appease them.”

“I agree with you, but…”

Queen Leila let out a deep sigh as she looked worried. 

‘Leila specializes in swaying and cajoling people, but even she’s struggling right now? As I thought, the will of the people is like the will of heaven.’

Truthfully, even Milton couldn’t think of a way. 

Usually, the only way to deal with this was time —  gradually shifting the public sentiment in the direction you wanted it to go.

“Cheer up, love. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

Milton quietly walked over to Queen Leila’s side and stroked her arm.

“Thank you.”

Queen Leila let out a sigh of relief at her husband’s affectionate touch.

“……”

But that affectionate touch slowly became suggestive.

Slap!

“Ow!”

She glared at him as she lightly smacked her husband’s hand.

“Isn’t today Sophia’s day? Don’t do anything you’ll feel guilty about.”

“Got it.”

Though a bit regretful, Milton obediently stepped back. 

‘Guess I have to pay more attention to fairness since I have two wives. Still, it’s pretty nice to see that their relationship isn’t bad…ah?’

A thought crossed his mind.

‘Would that be possible? In my previous life, politicians divided into parties to fight… that wouldn’t be a bad idea?’

Thinking that his idea made sense, Milton spoke to Queen Leila.

“Leila, I have a good idea.”

“As I said, today is Sophia’s…”

“It’s not about that.”

“Hmph, tell me then.”

There was a slight misunderstanding, but Milton calmly got to his main point. The idea that flashed into his head wasn’t detailed but he had a rough outline. He focused on his words in order to calmly and carefully tell her his idea.

“Why do you think the Northern residents are against us?”

“Because our ideologies are so different.”

“You’re right. Now… let’s change perspectives, how might they rebel against us?”

“……”

Queen Leila frowned as she became thoughtful. Milton spoke up when he saw her struggling. 

“Don’t think about it too deeply. Think of it basically.”

She must’ve found a hint in Milton’s words because she soon came up with an answer.

“That’s because they’re the majority.”

“Yeup, because they are the majority and united with one purpose — fighting against the external enemies. That’s why they’re opposing us.”

Queen Leila slowly nodded at his words. 

‘It really is a basic point of view. I’ve never thought about it like that before.’

As Queen Leila seemed to be understanding what Milton was getting at, he spurred her on further. 

“If they unite together because of one purpose, they’ll fight to the very end. It doesn’t matter what it is, they’ll continue fighting till it’s over.”

When humans believe that justice belongs to them, they’ll show tremendous persistence and power. It doesn’t matter whether what they believe is right or wrong. As long as they have a purpose and the will power, whatever it is they’re working for will happen.

“We’ll have to divide public opinion then.”

“Yes, we’ll have to create a conflict amongst them so they can’t unite as one. We’ll also have to strengthen the people who will be on our side.”

“Hm…”

At that, Queen Leila’s expression became a bit odd. 

‘Maybe he’s saying that if we tried swallowing them in one bite, it won’t go down so we need to split them up? Get rid of the bad and only take in the good?’

Half frustrated, Queen Leila had asked Milton for his opinion, but surprisingly, it seemed like Milton had the answer.

‘Maybe she’ll come up with the answer?’

Milton waited calmly when he saw the deviousness on his wife’s face; it had been a while since he saw it.

He had only come up with a vague idea. While thinking about how fortunate it was that his two wives were getting along, he had remembered and been inspired by his previous life in which the Korean politicians were divided into parties and fought the whole year, 365 days. His abstract idea came when he thought about how if they could split the Northern residents’ opinions and believed the resistance would then decrease. Now, with Queen Leila’s extraordinary brain, that abstract idea was gradually turning into a plan.

“Milton, can you call over that man for me?

“Which man?”

“The one you were talking about last time, the one who brings in the money.”

“Ah, Robin?”

“Yes, that one. Can you call him over? I have some work for him.”

Milton sighed.

“He’s been pretty uncooperative these days…”

Queen Leila gave him a bright smile in response.

“I’ll take care of it.”