<h4>Chapter 229: Thest shard, at great cost.</h4>
Rnd whistled as he sauntered up the stairs which led to the former royal castle of Nemoris. All around him, restoration work was ongoing to turn the ruined castle into a new castle, or almost new. Another fortnight had gone by and in that time, the affairs of Nemoris had been steadied.
Nemoris was now a city not a kingdom. The new city was being rebuilt in the shape of Eldoria. Statues of the former king had been brought down. The secret path between Eldoria and Nemoris was being paved into a wide cement road.
Already trade had been facilitated and people could move freely from Nemoris to other cities in Eldoria. Migrations had already started with some people moving into the new city and others moving out. Everything was moving positively and all they were waiting for was the return of the king and the empire would officially be dered one, under one emperor.
Rnd could not wait for it to happen so that he could move back home. He missed Doria, it felt more like home than Nemoris. He was also tired of sleeping in a flying ship.
Those were the thoughts on his mind when he finally found his wife in the main hall of the pce, handling paperwork as she had been doing in thest two weeks.
"Are you still working?" He perched himself on the arm of the chair. His eyes perused through the list of names she was looking at and therge history book next to the list.
Sigrid had somehow found an old, torn book which was handwritten. In that book was proof of the fact that Nemoris was once a part of Eldoria. A king had sent his son to what was a fief at the time as a punishment for disobeying orders.
His son had built a wall around the fief and rebelled, turning Nemoris into an independent kingdom. Families had been separated, nobles that had been locked away in Nemoris lost their titles.
Now, Sigrid was locating the nobles and giving them back their legacy with Rnd’s support. The king would be the final decision maker by officially entering these families into the records of Eldorian nobles.
As soon as Sigrid announced this activity, the Nemorians had been quick to forget the fact their kingdom had fallen. When they viewed some of their neighbors, friends and rtives bing nobles, they crossed their fingers and hoped that this luck found them as well.
Another thing that had helped was the fact that Sigrid and Rnd went around on foot, interacting with the people, listening to to grievances and kissing their babies. Television was also a tool being used to manipte the masses.
"There are still fifty names on this list." she sighed and pushed the papers aside. Then, she ced her head on Rnd’s thigh and closed her eyes for a moment.
Rnd moved her head gently and he carried her back to the ship. The ships were resting on the ground, on the hunting grounds that once belonged to the royal family. Trees had been cut down in some areas to make room for all the flying ships.
On reaching inside their ship, he took her straight to the bedroom andid her on the makeshift bed. She tied to get up as soon as he put her down but he pushed her back down. Using his strong legs, he trapped her where she was.
"You need to rest. The work you are doing now is the work of the king."
"Emp..." she started.
He hugged her abruptly, burying her entire body in his chest. "Emperor, I know. I do not care, whether its a king or emperor they are one and the same. You are my wife, you should be rxing, being served drinks and food by the servants. When you are this exhausted, you should be bathed, massaged with oil and pampered. Not giving yourself a headache."
Sigrid closed her eyes and yawned.
Rnd used his magic to soothe her the way she did for him when he was exhausted. Sigrid had coined the act a magic massage.
She made a "Mmmmm" sound and leaned into his chest even more. "This is nice."
"This is what we should have been doing after the war, sleeping and being intimate. Clean up should be someone else’s duty. I have kissed too many babies in thest two weeks that my lips are chapped."
Sheughed, the sound was buried in his chest.
"What kind of babies have you been kissing?" she asked him.
"The small kind with lungs that can outpete Viper in crying. You have to agree with me on this one, that silver haired baby almost ruptured my ears yesterday and he punched my eye."
"It was a she and that punch did not hurt that much, stop exaggerating." Sigrid rolled her eyes.
"Well that little she almost took out my eyeball." he grumbled.
Sigrid burst intoughter, thinking to herself that the little she sounded more like little shit.
"I will say this for sure, if our offspring have lungs like that kid the Lord mage will be doing a lot of baby sitting." He said.
"Why him?" she asked.
"Because, he has been eating a lot of free meals at our house and sleeping in cocoa greenhouse. You have given him many books on magic and done him so many other favors. He even freeloads at Little Thorin, eating luxuriously everyday. He has to pay us back some way." Rnd exined his reasoning.
"You realize that we have servants, about ten dozen of them that can take care of our children when we are busy!’"
"I do." he confirmed.
"But you still want the Lord mage." She sighed.
"Yes." he confirmed.
She yawned again and returned his leg, wrapping her legs around him to keep him in ce as well. "I am going to sleep now, don’t try any funny business."
"Funny business." he raised his eyebrows.
"You know what I mean." They had not had sex for a week now. Rnd was already itching for an opportunity to release all that energy he had been storing up for her.
Heughed and replied, "I would never."
"If I ever believe that, kill me on that very day." She turned around and faced the solid wall with her back to his chest. His hands went around her waist. She closed her eyes, nning to sleep for at least two hours.
Five secondster, she opened them because the system had just updated the new novel plot. The king was back, along with the final shard of the Eclipsion sword. It had been attained at a great cost.
She sat up and pulled him up as well. "Rnd, we should return home, today itself. rin has just sent word that your father is in trouble."