Rogue and Riveting

Chapter 6 The King and the Queen

The ceremony took place with Adelia's attention, not into the event itself. Her mind was full of wondering what the hell did Ester meant when she told her that she should not fall in love with her brother, Enoch. It may have been a wise piece of advice if you look at it strategically, but for Adelia, it felt wrong to even say to someone. 

Who was she to tell her that? Yes, she may be his sister, but she has still no right to give her unsolicited advice. And she was talking like she likes her as her brother's wife when she clearly heard her that first night she was here that she don't trust Adelia. Adelia was sure that she was not imagining hearing those words from her. It was even her reason for not attending the wedding at Sanjolia. 

So now, as she wore the gold and bejeweled crown that will make her officially the reigning Queen of Sanjolia, and as everyone in the great hall bowed in front of her, all Adelia could think of is the mysterious piece of advice that Ester had given to her. She did not even notice how bright the flashes from the cameras of the media people covering the event, or didn't even see how guards of the palace started pushing back the public who wanted to have a closer look at the newly-instated queen of Romeodel. Adelia's mind was in limbo right now, and not even Enoch could take her back to reality.

Well, not until Enoch took her hand and kissed it, then told her that they were going to dance in front of everyone. Her eyes bulged in shock because Adelia knew her limitations as a woman. She could not dance for the love of God and Sanjolia. That's why she badly wanted to protest the dance, but she could also hear the speaker on the microphone telling everyone that it was customary for the new King and Queen to have their first dance as a reigning couple of the country.

Adelia also saw her father in the corner, gently nodding at her when he saw her looking at him, encouraging her to dance. And so she did. She followed Enoch to the center of the hall where everyone was waiting for them to dance. And as the music started and Enoch started on dancing, she did the best she can to dance at least properly. She knew that she wasn't great at it, but she was also sure that she wasn't doing a bad job of it too. She could hear the cheers and the claps all around them, so her heart calmed down a little bit after that. 

"You are cute when you dance," Enoch said to her who turned to have been watching her expression the whole time. Their dance was kind of slow and detailed, and every nuance of it looked like they were a couple madly in love with each other. The good thing for Adelia was that it was a dance in which the female just have to follow what the male was doing, and then they will sway in a counter-clockwise pattern until they covered the whole place. She had also seen this royal dance in movies so she had no problem executing it. This is why she still had time to chat with Enoch while they were doing it.

"Thank you, Enoch, but I am not as good as you," Adelia replied humbly. "You are a great dancer."

Enoch smiled at her and that smile only made her heart flutter all the more. "Starting now, we are officially the King and Queen of Romeodel and Sanjolia. Our countries are now married to each other too. Are you excited?"

Adelia nodded. "I am," she said with a smile. "I could not hide my excitement, Enoch, especially with how we will stop the killings in Sanjolia."

The smile on Enoch's face faded when she said that, and somehow that made Adelia feel guilty. Maybe she should have not mentioned that problem this early, not when Enoch was just instated as the new King just like her. She was sure that Enoch was not keen on working as the new King as soon as possible. Enoch is just twenty-four years old. Men his age are having the time of their lives, so Adelia knew that Enoch was the same.

But she got a different response from him than she expected. "You don't have to worry about that anymore. Tomorrow, you, me, and your father will discuss that matter, and I promise you that we will solve it as soon as we can. But right now, let's just dance and have some fun."

"I'm sorry..." said Adelia who felt guiltier than ever that her eyes were on the floor. "I shouldn't have mentioned it now."

"Oh, that's not what I wanted you to think, my wife," said Enoch to her who immediately lifted her chin up using his hand so that she would their eyes will meet again. "I just want you to stop thinking about your role as the new Queen even just for today. It seems like it has been bugging you since the start of the ceremony."

Adelia could no longer deny that if even Enoch has already noticed that her mind was wandering somewhere else. "I'm sorry, Enoch. I was just pressured."

"You don't have to be," said Enoch who was now looking at his wife fondly. "I know how dedicated you are to your country, and as the new queen I know that you just don't want to disappoint everyone, but you're not alone, my dear wife. We are partners here. You don't have to do anything alone, especially with things that are important to you. I will help you deal with it."

"T-Thank you..." said Adelia. That was all she could say again because she was just overwhelmed by Enoch's response. He just said that he will help her in everything that she will plan to do. That she doesn't necessarily need to do anything alone. That they were partners. And she liked that, because back when their marriage was just set by the two countries, she assumed that Enoch will just give her authority to use Romeodel's technology and weaponry to hunt the infamous killer back in Sanjolia who is behind the serial killings there. She never thought that Enoch will actually decide to get involved with the issue. Adelia thought that he will just mind his own business and work on his country's own problems, and the reality is so different from that. 

Adelia loved this reality, so how the hell does Ester expect her to not fall in love with her brother?

***

The next few days went like a blur. They started doing their duties as King and Queen of the two allied countries. They visited several important institutions and communities in the two countries and had led them in passing new laws and studying the places that need their help. Enoch also kept his promise about the killings in Sanjolia. Just after they discussed it in a meeting with the rest of the government officials, Enoch had sent a special task force that will hunt the mysterious and elusive killers. It is said that they are hiding somewhere in the mountains, whoever they are, which meant that they are possibly on the mountain ranges that separate the southern territory of Romeodel with Sanjolia's northernmost province--- the place where most of the killings are recorded.

The killings are actually a piece of huge news to the international community for the last few months. Not only it had taken away the life of a lot of people, but it also had destroyed nature in the area, for some weird, unknown reason. Animals that live endemically in that place had been killed too by these mysterious killers, and that one particular species, the mountain buffalo, was so severely affected that only about fifty of them in the wild have been recorded and seen by the biologists. And no one from Sanjolia has ever found out who are these murderers, and it reached a point where international groups and communities have been protesting Sanjolia to do better, otherwise, the poor animal species will become extinct sooner than everybody thinks. 

Even the people of Sanjolia had become alarmed over the killings. Not only their wildlife and the people had been put in danger, but the country's economy as well. Sanjolia is a country that relies much of its income from its tourism, so the presence of a very grave threat to the people and the animals in the country had made a huge impact on the tourism industry, something that had troubled the traditional country. 

And just as when Adelia and her father thought that a solution would never come to them, their neighboring country, Romeodel, suddenly contacted them and asked for a meeting. It turned out that the heir to the throne of the country needs to get married to ascend to his throne. Enoch Napoleonez, the heir, has stated that he only wanted to marry one woman--- and that is Adelia of Sanjolia.

At first, Adelia was shocked and confused as to how on earth that royalty from a supposedly locked country would know about her, but she already had a guess on how he did know her. There were rumors for decades that Romeodel is a technologically advanced country, a country whose science is at least a hundred years ahead of the rest of the world. Maybe they have some form of technology that made it possible for the heir to get to know her, even though Romeodel is supposed to be a country that does not want to engage with other countries.

So when the news broke out that the heir wanted her to be his wife, the clamor for Adelia to marry him started, even reaching the international news. The people of Sanjolia wholeheartedly supported it. Everyone thought that the advanced technology of Romeodel is the only thing that could possibly identify what is happening with the killings in the mountains of Sanjolia. And not only that they will be able to solve the problem. Marrying the next in line to the throne of the wealthy and advanced country of Romeodel will also boost Sanjolia's economy as well. It was an offer that was very hard to resist.

However, Adelia initially did not like the arranged marriage deal. She was skeptical of the true motive of Enoch, who seemed to her was some kind of creepy dude who acted like her secret stalker. Because her thinking back then was, 'if you don't know me, why would you even want to marry me? Don't you at least want to know me first before asking me for marriage? What if I turned out to be a joke? Or a bad person?' 

These were her worries back then which to her father were all valid. But as the sole princess of Sanjolia, she had the obligation to do everything in her power to save the country from collapsing. Not only their economy will suffer, but the rest of the world will condemn Sanjolia if the issue was not resolved as soon as possible. For a country whose pride relies on maintaining its culture and respect for nature, letting its endemic species die out because of a lack of will to fight and solve the problem will even make their countries reputation go south. So she had no choice but to accept the offer from their neighbors.

And so she is here now, keeping tabs on the special task force that they had sent to the region where the killings were last executed. Enoch was always by her side when they were monitoring the team on the ground, so Adelia was never worried that they will fail this time. But the team that was sent there was having problems too, and so the case stretched out into weeks. There were nights that Adelia will have just a few hours to sleep because she was hands-on with the case, and she could see the worry in her husband's eyes as he ask her about her day.

"Ester told me that you did not even have dinner, wy dear wife," he said to her while they were about to sleep. "That's not good. Starting tomorrow, I guess you will need to rest."

"What? Enoch, I am fine---"

"But I want to spend time with you," he said before she could even complete her sentence. "Don't you want to spend time with me too? We can go to our vacation house in Red Ivy," he said. "We can take the whole week off and go there."

The idea of a vacation did not sound bad for Adelia, but she has still something to worry about. "But what about your job?"

Enoch smiled at her. "The Minister can do them for me. Our honeymoon is more important to me right now."

"Honeymoon?"

Enoch nodded. "Yes, my lovely wife. We still did not have our honeymoon, so we're doing it. And if we get lucky, we might get pregnant and have an heir, right?"