The World Dragon's Heir-Chapter 154: Jealous Claudius

"Big Brother, is there an issue?" Alexis asked, smiling at him with mischief in her tone.

"Do you have to make this difficult for me? Father has asked that I keep the selection fair, yet everywhere I go, you’re with the young master Wavemates."

Alexis sighed and threw up her hands. "Do you hear what you’re saying? He’s my Advisor, of course we’re going to be spending time together."

"In your suite?"

"Did you not have a pre briefing meeting with your advisor?" She countered.

"That’s different."

Princess Alexis gave him a taunting smirk, daring him to back up that statement, while the two advisors stood to the side.

"For one, We’re both married men, and he doesn’t have any intention of getting into my bed." Prince Claudius insisted.

Alexis turned to Dominic for reinforcement, but he just shrugged.

"You make a cute sleeping face. I am surprised that the Crown Prince knew of such a hidden talent, but it appears that he does not underestimate the power of the family’s secret techniques." Dominic informed her.

Claudius had to struggle not to smile, then shook his head.

"Fine. I will back off. But you should know that the King will insist that you at least give the appearance of considering the others."

Alexis put her hands on her hips, about to retort, then gestured for the Crown Prince to follow them into her suite. The door would block their conversation from the outside, and that should stop some of the idle palace gossip.

"Fine, come with me, and we can discuss the options." He declared, with no intentions of doing anything of the sort.

Once the door closed, Alexis took a seat in the comfortable chair by her fireplace, every muscle tense as she prepared for her verbal sparring match with her brother.

Claudius immediately raised his hands in surrender.

"Look, I know how you feel about marriage alliance, and the notion of princesses being married off in general." He began.

"Yet, you are still going along with it.

You know full well that the Cygnia Royal Family has stronger ties to the Wavemates bloodline than any of the contenders, present company excluded. But there are no single Princes, so one of us has to be married off because a Princess doesn’t count, does she?

Just a political tool to tie the families together." She ranted.

"You knew this was coming eventually." Claudius reminded her.

"And I fully intended to become a battle Nun of the order to avoid it, but now that the arrangement has been announced, they’re not going to allow that, are they?" Alexis retorted.

The Crown Prince’s advisor turned to Dominic and whispered. "Did you know about her feelings on the topic?"

Dominic shrugged. Of course, he did. "I don’t see the issue. Battle nuns are sexy."

The Crown Prince’s Advisor covered his mouth and chortled, desperately trying not to involve himself in their argument.

The Crown Prince and Princess Alexis went back and forth, their argument becoming increasingly heated and focused on the treatment of Princesses and their inheritance rights.

The Princess maintained that as they were the ones who gave birth, it should be the mother’s bloodline that was passed on, not the father’s.

"Let the men rule, but what right do they have to sell us off as political prizes to build someone else’s bloodline?" She finally shouted.

Claudius turned to Dominic. "You might be our last hope here. Once they actually get to know her, which one of the Noble suitors would take her?"

Dominic chuckled. "Probably Thorvald. He’s definitely a masochist. But I know a secret that the others do not, and it is certain to help me win her heart."

The Crown Prince cocked his head. "Doubtful. They all grew up around the Twin Princesses."

Even Alexis scoffed at the notion.

"Don’t believe me? Second shelf, page two hundred thirteen."

Dominic winked at the Princess, who burst into laughter.

That was the romance book that she was reading yesterday, and it was one that she had read during the siege as well. The page in question was one where the young Noblewoman of the story had finally ended the misunderstandings between herself and her arranged marriage partner, who then spent the next thirty pages ravaging her senseless in every part of the Manor.

The blush crept up her cheeks, and the Crown Prince’s frown turned into a glare.

"Advisor, why do I suspect that this is a secret code for something unseemly?" He whispered to his partner.

"The Princess mostly reads combat tactics tomes and romance novels, Your Highness." The older Advisor whispered back.

Claudius looked back and forth between Dominic and Alexis, whose anger at the topic of marriage had completely faded. So, he changed the topic.

Sort of.

"Have you found time to read through Lord Dominic’s educational proposal?" He asked.

"Not fully. I only skimmed it before the meeting. Would you like to go over it with me?" She asked.

She handed over the short document, and Claudius began to read, nodding in certain places, frowning in others, then eventually laughing.

"You did come up with a comprehensive plan, I will give it that much. But did you forget that the Princess is not the only one who has to approve of the proposals put forward by the suitors?"

Dominic shook his head. "I did not forget. But ultimately, she will be the one putting the plan in action and vetting the tutors for the children, won’t she? No matter what everyone else might think, it will ultimately be the Princess and her husband raising their children.

So, I put my intentions forward, and if there are objections, I would expect that it is mostly her opinion that matters."

Claudius frowned. The young Dragonkin was suspiciously good with words. Did he see this interrogation coming and plan for it in advance? No, he just knew her well enough to know what to say.

He had always had a soft spot for the twins, and when the idea of a marriage alliance that would move them to the border territories to secure land with their husband was proposed, he had been firmly on the side of allowing them to actually become nuns instead.

The only real advantage that the dragonkin had as a suitor was that he was unlikely to raise any objections about the secret requirement that he marry into the Cygnia Royal Family as a Son in Law, instead of having a Princess married into his family to secure their ties for future generations.

Some of the others would not take that well when it was revealed.

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