Amphorae's eyes glistened, but she blinked whatever she was feeling away. Instead, she nodded and turned away, re-establishing her Queenly aura.
Dyon smiled, before turning his gaze back to Pearl who currently had the most weight on her shoulders. But, she immediately relaxed when she saw her King's reaction.
"If we come to learn that Queen Luna is responsible for these events, she will be treated like any other traitor. There will be no trial. There will be no jail time. There will only be death."
Pearl's eyes widened along with the other concubines. They felt like cleaning their ears out. Some even inwardly made plans to ask their maid servants to handle this tomorrow.
Seeing their reaction, Dyon only remained silent, leaning back and enjoying the scenery as though he was giving them time to digest what he had just said.
He wasn't worried about them thinking that these were just empty words. How did one usually react when their loved ones were accused of a crime? He knew that it definitely wasn't like this.
Mothers would go to the ends of the earth to defend their children from alleged crimes. Fathers would defend the chastity of their daughters to the point of accruing blood on their hands. Wives would fight to protect the honor and dignity of their husbands. And husbands would place their wives on lofty pedestals, wanting the world to admire them as unblemished flowers that could only be enjoyed by them.
This was the way of the world. To so casually speak of killing your loved one, if it wasn't for the fact their King's love of their Queen was so public, they would think he had been faking it this entire time.
As such, these words had the effect that Dyon wanted. They could all see that he had mentally prepared himself for this meeting with them.
In reality, Dyon just didn't have any real feelings for Queen Luna, which made saying these words incredibly easy. He couldn't imagine saying something like this about Ri, Clara or Madeleine. In fact, the ease of this process was another fruit of Dyon's methodical nature.
When he called Amphorae his women, he had felt something heat up inside of him, as though he really meant those words. If he hadn't, how could he trick a woman as perceptive and intelligent as her?
Dyon had noticed this feeling long ago, as soon as he stepped into this trial world. The first moment he grasped this clue was when the Ministers spoke of the boy who sacrificed his life: Michael, Minister Brodaya's son.
Dyon distinctly remembered feeling pain when he heard this information. Yet, he had never met Michael, and he had spent just a few minutes with Amphorae? So, how could he have such deep feelings for them?
The only conclusion was that this was part of the trial. The thoughts and feelings of the body he took over were heavily effecting Dyon.
Understanding this, Dyon decided to investigate his concubines first. After all, their emotional impact on him would be far lesser than that of his wife. Considering this body's infatuation with that woman, Dyon would be in deep waters the moment he met her.
Just like that, Dyon had identified a sub-aspect of this trial. As a ruler, he needed to be able to decide when emotions were important and when they weren't. If this Queen Luna was truly a traitor, it would not only take major foresight to see that she was with his love for her overwhelming him, and even more courage to actually go through with killing her.
If he had to do such a thing… Dyon was absolutely certain that his grand teacher would make this just as difficult as if he had to kill one of his real wives…
All of this said, there was another interesting aspect of all of this. This body, it had true feelings for Amphorae. So, why did he treat her like this? What was the purpose? Dyon couldn't imagine neglecting such a love.
This aside, it was suffice to say that this question truly broke the ice, so to speak. They found Dyon's answer more than satisfactory. Even if they weren't 100% certain that Dyon wouldn't punish them all for this later, they at least decided that if one of them was going down, they might as well all go down.
Their conversation shot through many different things.
The first thing they spoke about were the grievances of the women in the population as a whole. After all, they too had Angel Clan blood. In a lot of instances, they were more powerful than even their male counter parts. Amphorae, for example, was easily the second strongest of their age group within the clan – only behind him as king, of course. And yet, they weren't allowed to fight for their lands even though they cared for it just as much as the men did. They understood that their husbands and brothers and fathers wanted to protect them, but didn't they also want to protect them as well? Love was often a two-way street, especially when it came to family.
This, of course, led to a round of negotiating. After all, 50% of their population were made of males, that meant he had two major halves to appease. Keeping status quo was definitely easier, but he too wanted to move the clan in the right direction. If he couldn't do so, their likelihood of surviving was next to zero.
As a result, Dyon immediately suggested the ideas he had thought of, causing the light in the eyes of his concubines to shine. How could they not see that their King had thought this out well? This meant that he had come to them already prepared to hand them more responsibility. It was impossible for him to have thought of these things on a whim.
There was no doubt that as these talks proceeded, the women grew more and more comfortable around Dyon. Some even found that the flames of love they had for their King, flames they thought had long since been extinguished, were being rekindled. It was safe to say that Dyon had accomplished his first step successfully.
