Chapter 48 – The Plot Thickens

As the sun set on the great forest of Artellan and a certain pair of young women were busy indulging in the pleasure of each other’s company, the rest of the world was yet to retire for the night like those in that tranquil, little log cabin had. In particular, the sprawling city of Artelax, the capital of the Kingdom of Artellan, was still buzzing with activity.

At the centre of the city’s activity was, like always, the shining halls of the Crystal Palace. This monolithic structure of pure, shining crystal predated even the kingdom at the heart of which it sat and from within which all of Artellan was ruled by their king, Aeldan II. In fact, it was on this evening that King Aeldan sat on his crystal throne, holding a late session of the royal court.

Like always, the mezzanine viewing floors, which gave a prime view of the king’s majestic and lavish throne room, were packed with the upper crust of society here to witness and honour the rulings of their lord. However, unlike normal, this session of the royal court dragged on longer than usual.

Too many had come, wanting their petty squabbles to be heard by the king, wasting everyone’s time. Although only those of noble blood could petition the royal court like this, King Aeldan was known for his sense of justice and equality. As such, he did not refuse any petition, no matter how low-born the nobles were or how petty their petition was, something he no doubt regretted given the tiredness he felt.

Where once the king was proud with a straight back and a stern face upon his throne, he was now slouched ever so slightly and his gaze often slipped from the pair of minor nobles squabbling about land rights before him. To most, this difference in body language was barely perceptible, as kings and princes of Artellan were trained at a young age to always give the air of regality that they should bare. However, to a certain noblewoman who stood at the forefront of one of the viewing floors, he might as well have been yawning.

Said woman was Lady Madela Thorn, High Mage of Artellan and heir of the Thorn family. Madela made for quite an image, dressed how she was, in a fine purple dress with gold filigree around the edges, a dress that hugged her seductive womanly curves quite well. Between that and the copious amount of expensive jewellery adorning her tanned skin and luscious black locks of hair, she looked like the spitting image of a wealthy noblewoman. One, who was shadowed only by the king on his throne and his royal family, stood beside him.

As one who sat on the royal council and advised the king as the High Mage of Artellan, Madela’s presence was strictly required during all sessions of the royal court. However, as of late, there had been little need for her presence during any such sessions, and she had not stepped foot down in the throne room proper in nearly three weeks to share her wisdom. That didn't bother the noblewoman though because her area of expertise was magic, and many of her workings were beyond the comprehension of the simpletons gathered here. Not to mention, she had more than enough prestige and political power in other regards.

Unfortunately, though, this did not stop Madela from getting tired and bored herself. The workings of magic required a great sense of patience to excel at spellcrafting and grow as strong as she had, but even her patience was growing thin. However, Madela was skilled enough in the social games of nobles to not show her boredom outwardly. Still, that did not stop her eyes from drifting from the petty events unfolding in the throne room below.

Over time, the noblewoman’s gaze moved across the viewing floor opposite her, taking in and observing everyone there. Eventually, her eyes settled on another noblewoman, who was nearly as lavishly dressed as she was. However, this other woman’s dress was a crimson red colour, as rich and deep as blood, not to mention quite scantily cut, to the point that it would have been an outrageous thing for anyone else to wear, but given who she was and what she did, it was par for the course.

Said noblewoman was Lady Sophia Varsen, the mistress of the Red Den and the current head and only member of the Varsen family. After her father mysteriously died twenty years ago, her brother up and vanished in the same night, leaving her the only member of her family and defacto leader. What was most strange, though, was how the king did not bat an eyelid about the disappearance and dissertation of his strongest royal knight. In fact, the king had never even addressed the matter since it happened.

Suspicious, most suspicious. Where could he have gone? Madela thought to herself as she scowled at the middle-aged but still incredibly attractive woman across from her. A scowl that became a lot more heated when Lady Varsen returned her gaze with a friendly smile, but that was only a facade. Madela knew in her heart that the other woman was mocking her with that smile of hers.

That whore’s presence here is nothing but an insult to us all. Noble or not, how dare someone like her think she has the right to stand amongst us.

Madela’s thoughts continued to turn, working herself up and growing angrier and angrier. However, before too much of that anger could slip past her own well-maintained facade, the woman moved her gaze on. In time, her gaze found its way back down to the throne room, where she found herself calmed greatly while laying eyes upon Prince Aels.

The king’s heir and only son stood to the right of his father’s throne, dressed in fine black silk clothing adorned with complex crystalline jewellery. Prince Aels was the spitting image of a younger version of his father, a broad-shouldered, blonde-haired young man of extreme beauty. Just the sight of the young man, barely an adult, made Madela feel all kinds of things, as he did for many of the women on the viewing floors, as well as some of the men too.

Another part of Madela’s role as High Mage of Artellan was to tutor the king’s children in magic, should they be so inclined. And even though magic was not something anyone, regardless of class rarity, was able to truly perform until tier 2 and even then something only select people had the right affinity for, there was still much they could learn and practise even before they found out if they had the talent for magic. As such, Madela had shared many hours alone in her study with the prince heir, and had grown quite fond of their time together. Madela found that Prince Aels wasn’t the most interesting young man to talk to, but he was quite skilled in other areas and, best yet for Madela, easily manipulable.

When Madela first came to the royal court at her father’s insistence, she had thought that wrapping the newly crowned king around her finger would be an easy task. However, where she had failed there, she had succeeded much more spectacularly with the prince over two decades later.

"ALL HAIL KING AELDAN II, SOVEREIGN OF CRYSTAL AND KEEPER OF THE GREAT FOREST!" The voice of the captain of the royal guard boomed throughout the throne room, signalling the impending end of the court.

Madela had been so absorbed with her own thoughts as she gazed down at the prince of the kingdom that she had completely missed how the last petition ended, not that she really cared. However, because of her distraction, she was taken off guard by the royal guard captain’s shouts and hurried to raise her voice with others around her to respond in kind. "All hail King Aeldan II, sovereign of crystal and keeper of the great forest."

A quick glance around at her peers told her no one had seemingly noticed her faltering etiquette. Well, no one expected Lady Varsen, who just gave her a mocking smile like always. something that caused Madela no small amount of anger.

As soon as the king and his royal family were escorted out of the throne room, the guards and royal knights standing at the various entryways and exits opened up the doors, allowing the crowd to disperse from the throne room. Madela immediately hurried back to her study while maintaining the air of nobility that was expected of her. Given her status as High Mage of Artellan and that of her father, Duke Indus Thorn, many men and women of the royal court scurried to make way for her as she passed, not wanting to offend someone of such a high standing as her.

The walk from the throne room to the high mage’s study wasn’t truly that far, maybe only a couple of minutes at most, and as such, Madela was soon shut inside her chambers. Although most referred to this series of rooms as the high mage’s study because of the copious amounts of bookshelves, magical tools, and alchemical labs, it was only part study, part bed chambers.

The backmost room, separated only by a thin purple curtain, was her private chambers, where she slept and did other such private affairs. It was her bedchambers where the woman hurried back to, not because she was tired and wanted to get to sleep, which she was, but because there was something there she needed to check on.

As Madela pulled out one of her bedside drawers, a hidden compartment built into the underside of the woodwork was opened up, revealing an ornately carved box. Once the box was retrieved, the noblewoman wasted no time opening it and looking over the contents. Inside were twelve nearly identical coins made of a pristine silver-coloured metal called mithral that sparkled even in the low light. Across the surface of each coin was an intricate enchantment Madela had herself woven onto them, pairing each of them with another currently out in the kingdom.

The purpose of said enchantments was to record and send messages to their counterparts, and just as she ordered, almost all of the coin's counterparts had a recording waiting for her. One by one, Madela touched each of the coins, pushing the slightest bit of mana into the coins so that the message they held was telepathically delivered into her mind. One after another, each coin gave an identical negative response: "Unfound, moving to next sector."

Eventually, Madela’s touch lingered on the last of the coins, but no message was delivered to her mind. "Concerning… But not necessarily something of note yet." She murmured to herself.

Although she had ordered the mercenaries in her father’s payroll to report back at sundown every day, a delay or two was not entirely unexpected. If they ran into trouble with monsters close to sundown, they might not have had time to send the message yet. As such, Madela put the thought of the coin out of her mind for the moment, resolving to have someone investigate further only if no response came by tomorrow night either. Which was a task that would be relatively simple given that the coins not only allowed telepathic messages to be shared, but also allowed the master coin to track its counterpart across the entire continent if necessary.

Without further need for the coins tonight, Madela closed the box and returned it to her hiding spot just in time for her attention to be drawn away by a knock at her door. The noblewoman immediately found her way over to the door and eagerly opened it. Although she was not expecting anyone to visit her tonight, she had a fair guess as to who was paying her a visit at this late hour.

Just as she had guessed, she was greeted by the handsome, grinning face of Prince Aels, accompanied by a pair of royal knights. "Good evening, Lady Thorn. I hope you don’t mind me disturbing you at this hour, but I was thinking further about our lessons earlier in the week and I had some questions. May I come in and discuss these with you?"

"Of course, my prince." Madela curtsied before opening the doors fully for the prince to come inside.

As he did so, Prince Aels gazed back at his bodyguards, ordering them to stand waiting at the door with a simple nod of his head. Given how often the prince seemed to have questions concerning his tutelage by the high mage and how often they came up late in the day, these two royal knights, in charge of guarding the prince heir night and day, were well acquainted with standing guard in front of this particular set of doors and did so without complaint.

Once the prince was inside her study, Madela closed the heavy wooden doors leading in here and turned around to face the young man. However, before she could fully turn around, a pair of hands embraced her from behind. Without even a moment of hesitation, one hand went for her breasts and the other for her crotch, massaging and groping her through her fine purple dress.

"Have you missed my company so much, Aels, that you're going to take me at the first opportunity, right here in front of the doors, where your royal knights will undoubtedly hear my moans?" Madela teased, dropping all formalities that would be expected of anyone of her station interacting with the prince heir.

Prince Ales didn’t even bat an eyelid about being talked to in such a casual manner. After all, this wasn’t even close to the first time it had happened and it was his request to have her do so. At least he thought it was and didn’t realise that Madela had subtly suggested the idea, planting the notion in his head, as she had with many other things.

"I can’t help it, you're just too beautiful…" Prince Aels practically moaned as he slid his hands under the woman's dress, getting a direct feel of both her pussy and breasts. "But… you could always move us to the bed if you wanted. It wouldn’t be the first time you did." He said with a cheeky smile.

Madela let out a slight chuckle. She was a powerful mage of the 4th tier, above level 100, of which there were only maybe a couple dozen or so living on the continent, and here the prince was, requesting her magic as a mere parlour trick. She would have been offended if it did not mean they would get to the real fun that bit quicker.

As such, she let loose her magic, spinning tendrils of mana out from her core deep within her soul. As her near invisible, shimmering mana circled the pair, it formed a weave around the high mage and prince, assisted in this act by the guidance of her rank 50 Spellcrafting general skill. Once completed, her spell activated and the two disappeared from where they stood in the blink of an eye.

In that very same second, the two reappeared atop the bed, further into Madela’s chambers. However, they weren't as they were before. Not only were they now completely naked, with their clothes neatly folded to the side, but they were repositioned on the bed. Madela was straddled atop the prince, who was laying down on the bed, his cock already deep inside the older, more mature woman’s tight, wet pussy, the only pussy that the prince heir had yet to know so intimately. A pussy, which he craved so desperately and could not stop thinking about at practically all hours of the day. A pussy that he wanted nothing more than to fuck and fill with his seed, in the hopes that a child would take hold. He wanted nothing more than to be with and start a family with the woman he loved, despite the fact that his father was unaware of their relationship and had not signed off on it. Something that he never would have under normal circumstances given the age difference between Madela and Prince Aels. After all, even though she kept up a young appearance thanks to her magic, Madela was old enough to be Prince Aels’ mother.

Normally, if a prince was to sire a bastard child, it would not be anything serious and would not necessarily mean marriage to the mother of the child. However, most of the time such a thing happened in the past it was with serving women or minor nobles. Prince Aels knew that if it became public knowledge that he had knocked up the daughter and heir of Duke Thorn, a woman who was unwed despite her age, his father would have no choice but to condone a wedding or face upsetting one of the kingdom's most staunch, loyalist faction, which the Duke led.

However, what Prince Aels was unaware of was that this was exactly what Madela wanted, but with one slight difference: she didn’t love the prince. Having sex with him and hopefully getting pregnant with his child was a means to an end. An incredibly pleasurable means to an end, but one nonetheless. Even as she bounced fervently up and down on the prince's cock, driving both closer and closer to their climax, she felt nothing but lust for the young man.

In fact, Madela Thorn had never loved another soul; she was incapable of feeling such emotions. Her father had made sure of that when he had inducted her into the Cult of Sinn when she was just a child.