Truvaria, The Royal PalacePrincess Rasha-the oldest woman in the room and certainly the most experienced to try and court the Crown Prince. She was a curiosity, but her boldness was something that appealed to Ivan. She smiled as he approached and accepted his hand to shake, which had been standard among the girls that he had met. She seemed to understand her age and what it meant in regards to her competition as she greeted him with precisely that sentiment. Age, age wasn't important to him. To his father, perhaps, but to him it was nothing worth mentioning. Ivan let the comment pass by without reply, raising an eyebrow as the Princess brought up a proverb he hadn't heard before-about a Cougar and its tricks.
A shift in posture was something lost on Ivan. Ari may have picked up on it and his guards certainly did, being that they were trained to watch body language. A few looked away respectfully, most were alert for weapons or threats, though there was nothing to fear. Ivan offered the Princess a wider smile. "I have seen a lot of tricks from around the world. How do you know i haven't already seen yours? I'll be impressed if you can show me something new." Ivan winked at her and continued along to the next girl.
Another girl with blonde hair and blue eyes and a strange attire. She was also unique in her title as Princess of the Martial blood. Ylara Etria of Noretias was certainly unique. She was someone who had been around, much like Ivan. What else did he know about her? Not that much unfortunately. Noretias was a strange place that The Frozen Forest just didn't have any real contact with apart from this very event-this girl that was before him. Surely the first Noretian to have ever set foot on Frozen Forestrian soil. It could be history-certainly it would become history if he ended up marrying her.
"My Lady." He offered his hand to her and a smile as he was trained to do with foreign guests. Up close he realized how attractive she was. Not that the other girls weren't pretty-Princess Amana's eyes still fascinated him and Lady Kiaris's clothes were something he hadn't seen before. Ivan took the lead as he spoke. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Princess. Ylara."
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Prince Ari felt out of his element among the many women around the room. As expected they all gravitated around his brother-but that was to be expected since they were effectively competing for his affections. Ari felt a small pulse of pity for Ivan-who he knew didn't want to get married at all. The whole affair was something that simply had to happen. He wouldn't have to go through with it though if he could have just fell in love when he was younger. Ivan was going on into what, his 30's? Prince Ari glanced around at the women in the room-They were all foreigners, pretty foreigners but foreigners all the same.
Ari bit his cheek and thought about all the girls that Ivan could have had from The Frozen Forest. What young girl wouldn't want to marry the Crown Prince? Then again, that same principle applied to Ari as well, so he couldn't blame his brother. In any case, there were likely hundreds of thousands of young women envying those in this room. A future Queen for the nation should have proper royal blood-that was his opinion anyways. Suddenly his brother was about, shaking hands with the girls-Ari was supposed to shake their hands as well, though none of them seemed quite interested in him.
After a few girls, Ari came to one with the body of a model and long black hair. She introduced herself as Penelope Sektbrunnen. Ari mustered his best smile as he introduced himself. "My Lady, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am Prince Ari, younger brother of the Crown Prince and second in line for the throne." His brother didn't particularly like titles but Ari relished them, and so he enjoyed introductions where he could flaunt it. The girl in front of him, Penelope, seemed interesting enough for a foreigner. "A lot of young women in this country would have given their left hand to be in this room right now. Are you nervous at all about courting my brother?" It wasn't the most formal question to ask, but being forward rarely caused him trouble.
Elsewhere in The Royal Palace An entourage of maidservants, guards, butlers and retainers trailed along after King Alvor. The Chief of Palace Security, Ivar Friis came along the aged man sovereign, a list in hand. Along with him were an army of more guards, most dressed in ceremonial armor but a few wearing tuxedos. Publicly they all sported ceremonial swords to match their armor but what couldn't be seen were small self defense pistols. A precaution in case it were necessary to truly defend the Royal Family from trouble. The Chief of Palace Security was the most experienced and loyal man in the entire Guard, which consisted of about 1,200 for the Royal Palace alone.
"I want patrols every half an hour and the men should be on high alert until i say otherwise. These girls should be treated like Royalty and given all the protections that it entails. All food should be tested before being brought to them and..." The King lost his train of thought gracelessly. He wasn't affected by any sort of disease-even those that appeared with age, but that didn't mean his memory was as clear as it once was. His doctors weren't optimistic as it pertained to his time left on the world-King Alvor was on his last legs and everyone in the Palace knew it. Such was the haste in which the search for a wife for Ivan had intensified, to ensure the Royal Bloodline continued then the Crown Prince had to marry and have kids.
Eventually the huge group of people came to a small room, a break room of sorts that had been set up a month prior. The Palace was a huge complex that handled the affairs of the nation, so it's size was necessary. The King was too old to traverse it though, so a few break rooms were set up throughout the building to allow him to rest.
"My King, remind me again why you invited these women in particular?" Chief of Palace Security
Ivar Friis, posed the question to King Alvor. Normally it wouldn't be acceptable for anyone to ask such a question of the King, but Friis was one of his closest friends despite the huge age gap.
"You mean the women we invited to the Palace? Well, i suppose we aren't going anywhere until dinner. I'll tell you why we invited them." The King settled back into an old wooden chair with plush purple fabric. "The first family we considered inviting were the Ui-Kriegers of Camelone, the house that my daughter Freja married into. As you'll remember, it was yourself that pushed me to instead offer invitations to Camelonean Nobility instead. We narrowed it down a single potential lady with whom myself and my retainers thought was suitable. That would be Lady Ceit Ui-Sgaire. I lied-come to think of it, i believe it was a mistake on our part that she ended up with an invitation, given that she isn't a member of the High Nobility. Still, turning her back would have been an affront to the nation of Camelone, and given what we know about her, she shares some of Ivan's hobbies.
The next woman we invited was Baroness Yali of Amenria. From what we know about her, she is from a powerful bloodline. Unfortunately she is also the daughter of a concubine and is considered a starchild in her home country. Our intelligence doesn't quite know what a starchild is, but the Amenrians have assured us that it is nothing to be worried about. As for why i invited her here, i admit it had something to do with her supposed bloodline. Whatever a starchild is, a strong Queen could do some good in the days to come, after i'm dead and gone.
After that was another non-noble. Ms. Penelope Sektbrunnen of Gerrst, a movie star in her home country. She has no royal blood to speak of, and as far as we can tell she has no link to nobility either. I invited her against the wishes of my retainers because of her ambition, primarily. If Ivan falls for her, he would have a woman who doesn't appear to be afraid of taking risks, and who could help liberalize several industries here in The Frozen Forest. I think that she would be particularly popular with the younger generation-support for the monarchy would be improved with her as Queen.
Then there was Princess Rasha bint-Razia. I have to admit that out of all the women we invited, i had the most disagreement from my retainers regarding her. She is the oldest among them, and older than Ivan by almost ten years. In a few more, she will likely be unable to have children just because of her age. Why did i invite her then? Well first things first, she's a Major General in Utica. She has guts and her experience would be undeniably beneficial for the nation, and for my son if he ever has to go to war. Personally i wouldn't mind if my grandchildren were raised with martial traditions either-traditions best enforced if both parents understand them. If Ivan were to fall in love with her, i would need to..er... express to him the urgency of raising children. Apart from that, and given that she still has years before she cannot bear children, i saw no reason to not invite her.
"Ylara Etria? Yes, she is of Royal Blood. In Noretias she is a Princess of the Martial Blood. I invited her partially because she is somewhat like Ivan, well traveled and having served in her military. The other reason i invited her was because The Frozen Forest could use more allies and even if Ivan doesn't choose her in the end, Noretias and The Frozen Forest now have diplomatic contacts with one another. And if he does choose to be with her, then Noretias would become an ally of The Frozen Forest. The economic benefits for both countries gives more than enough reason to consider the invitation.
Princess of the Blood Desdemona Adah Elizabeth Davenant of House Obed. One of the younger women we invited, nine years younger than Ivan. She is a beauty in her home country and i would argue, even here in The Frozen Forest. She was invited on account of her youth, the prestige of her family and quite notably her personality. She is a fresh face and like Penelope, could be quite popular with the younger generation. That aside, she would be a good Queen to help lead us away from the Communist Party which has dominated our county for decades. I've been in talks with high ranking members, it's going to collapse soon and this girl is an anti-communist."
The King reached for a glass of water provided by a maidservant, so much talk had left him parched. After a long gulp and a sigh, he continued explaining the last three girls.
"There is real opportunity in Toraia and the so called Lost Princess. Despite no longer having a monarchy there are still those with Royal blood in the nation. Lady Kiaris Lukiva was the best candidate for an invitation, she is gregarious and from a good family. I suspect she will have no trouble asserting herself as Queen here in the Palace, if Ivan chooses her. This is not to mention that she also has a younger brother, a fifteen year old. If Ivan is ambitious enough, he could start a war or a coup and elevate this child to power in Toraia-being that he may end up marrying Lady Kiaris, you can see why this would be beneficial for our country.
Princess Amana bint-Samir was one of the only girls that none of the retainers saw a problem with. She has Royal Blood and her family is in power in their Khanate. She is young and i would wager that Ivan will find her attractive-she also has experienced with governance, which could be useful if she were to end up becoming Queen. And besides all of that, Ivan always had a thing for dancers and as it turns out, the Princess happens to be a dancer.
The lasts girl we sent a letter to was Countess Magdalene von Eylstadt from Kuronami. She was one of the last to be considered, but i doubt we could have forgotten about her. She is the older sister to the ruler of Kuronami, so the benefits of Ivan marrying her would be heavy-not to mention the fact that the von Eylstadt's are known in our country, whereas most other Royal Families aren't. She would make a smooth transition if Ivan chooses her, easily fitting into the palace, at least i expect so."
The King stood as he finished, as did most of the people around him. Their next stop was the kitchens, to make sure everything would go well for dinner. As the King led them away, Friis pondered the girls and what the King had said about them. It would be an interesting couple of days.