The Dragon Emperor's Slave Bride

Empire of Tejask

The Empire of Tejask has been ruled by the most powerful race of Fire Dragons for generations. A prosperous and rich Empire that gladly accepted all kind of dragons as their citizens since the beginning. The founder of the Tejask dynasty is said to the first fire dragon Agni, after whom the city of Agnion was named which is the capital of Tejask. The monarchs of Tejask have always been benevolent protectors and wise rulers and are chosen as the successors to the throne irrespective of their genders solely on their abilities. But just like Nishak, the heir to the throne has to be Fire Dragon.

Shirina did not know much about the Empire of Tejask before the current Emperor was throned and he started attacking other countries and won over them. But it was said that there was a gap of few years between the former Emperor and the current Emperor where the Empire was ruled by a council because he was quite underaged to rule the Empire.

Those years were said to be the weakest years in the history of Tejask due to the absence of the acting Emperor but somehow, they had made through it. A lot of people applaud the council for their efforts in keeping the Empire stable and safe.

The Emperor’s name – her fiance’s name - was Ariyan Tejas.

She lingered at his name, rolling her tongue to get a feel of the name on her lips. Was it weird that she like her soon to be husband’s name?

Before she could give a single thought to the matter, Emily burst in, frantic.

“The Queen is here, your highness!” She told her with wide horrified eyes and Shirina felt a wave of calmness sweep over her. She closed the book and placed it on the table beside her.

“Then, I want all of you to leave the room.” She gestured to her maids. Most of them looked reluctant to leave her alone. “You all know better than to interfere. Leave now.” She commanded and they quietly followed. The last of them was Emily who looked honestly heartbroken at the prospect of laving her alone with that woman. Shirina tilted her heads towards the gate in a way to gesture her to leave and she did after giving her one last and long troubled look.

Shirina stood up from her place and took a deep breath and prepared herself for the oncoming drama. The queen was close and Shirina could feel her stomping towards her room in anger, thanks to her enhanced dragon senses. The gates to her room were thrown open, the Queen flew in and slapped her hard across the face.

“You little b***h!” She seethed, “How dare you! How dare you contact people behind my back!”

Oh, now that accusation was new.

“Forgive me, your majesty.” Shirina bowed to the woman like how a low born maid would rather than a Princess. “I deeply apologize for making Her Majesty troubled.” The woman huffed haughtily but Shirina continued, and addressed the accusation, “But I promise, I have never ever contacted people behind Her Majesty’s back.”

She grew furious once again. Grabbed a fistful of Shirina’s hair and yanked back painfully, “You little b***h! How dare you lie to me.”

Shirina whimpered, “I am not lying. I promise you, your majesty.”

“Oh?” she yanked harder, “Then tell me! Tell me why would the Emperor of a mighty Empire like Tejask would want a pathetic little Princess of a pathetic little country as his wife? It makes no sense! I have made sure that everyone knows about the misfortune of Nishak that their Princess is a shadow dragon. And it is a well-established fact that female Shadow Dragons are harbingers of bad luck. The Emperor should know you will bring him the curse of misery and pain just like how your mother had cursed the Kingdom and my husband! And how could he make decision like that for himself and his Empire?”

She released her hair and Shirina dropped to the floor. The Queen paced in front of her, her heels clicking against the floor, radiating anger and hatred.

“I am sure you must have tricked him. Contacted him somehow and told him lies about how you were being hurt and treated poorly in the Kingdom. You might have begged him to rescue you from us. And he, the poor man, must have been deceived by your words just like your father was! And he must have decided to save you the only way he would have known. By marrying you! The poor soul would have been none the wiser for your trickery.”

If Shirina could, she would have rolled her eyes. How many times had she fantasized being rescued by someone, only to ever meet disappointment? How incredible it would have been for all of this to be true. But this man...was the Emperor of Tejask. It was hilarious but the way Queen was talking about him seemed like he had misfortune of having a bleeding heart for anyone who needed a silver of kindness from him.

Suddenly a thin sharp hand grabbed her chin and yanked her to look up, the woman's pointed nails digging into her skin painfully.

“But he does not have to worry.” The Queen smiled malevolently. “He has a well wisher here in my form. I will definitely save him from marrying a b***h like you.”

Then she loudly demanded, “Bring me my whip! And my knives.” And then lowered her voice to smile at Shirina disdainfully, “I will ruin that ugly little face of yours. So the Emperor does not have to worry about marrying a b***h with scarred face to show it to his people.”

Shirina was done now. She could not stand to be afraid of this woman anymore.

“I do not think that is a good idea, Your Majesty.” Shirina replied. “What do you mean?” The woman hissed at her.

“Well…” Shirina shrugged. “The ambassador has already seen my face. And now that the proposal has been accepted, I think the Emperor will definitely suspect the royal family of Nishak of something if my face gets scarred.”

The Queen blinked. “The proposal was accepted only verbally. And even then, your father had not uttered a word. The proposal requires his seal of approval. I can easily tell everyone that you did not want this marriage at any cost so you have ruined your face to do that. And who do you think your father would believe? His dear wife? Or the daughter he hates?”

“I believe you missed one tiny detail, my queen.” Shirina commented. She felt smug satisfaction in heart. The older woman froze.

“What do you mean?”

“The proposal…never required my father’s approval. Each and every word in that proposal was addressed to me, the Princess Shirina of Nishak. And as you know, I have already accepted it. And the ambassador of Tejask has already been informed of my decision."

Queen looked absolutely stunned and Shirina took pleasure in that particular expression. She opened and closed her mouth several times before settling on glaring at her for a long while.

Then she snarled, "Well, the Emperor deserves to see his Empire ruined if he leaves such important decisions in the hands of wretched people like you."

With that, she turned around and stomped away, angry and defeated and even humiliated by a little girl she believed she had under her foot. And maybe she did. But not anymore. Shirina had already suffered a bit to much. But now she will be free.

...

It was not surprising when the Queen ordered any resources she had about the Empire knowledge to be seized because if she could not interfere and prevent this marriage then she was willing to do all she could do make sure that Shirina humiliates herself in front of the people who are supposed to her next home . 

That made Shirina basically uneducated about the country she was going to marry. All she knew was about her husband that his name was "Ariyan Tejask" and he was the son of the Emperor before the last and an incredibly famous dragon warrior known for his immense strength and ruthlessness. 

Also some basic geographical information about city of Agnion and it's founding myth. 

But because the Queen was preventing her from reading about more about the Empire meant that she also, was unaware of the important personalities and even customs of the Empire. It made Shirina want to be livid at her but she now simply did not have enough energy to hate this woman. 

Yes, it was going to make her new life in a new country unbelievably hard but at least, she was going to get out this place soon. And that gave her enough happiness.