The Knight's Mysterious Maid-Chapter 424: Moving forward (1)

"You’ve denied taking other women by your side but you’ll take this one?" Julius questioned, appalled by the proposition Tobias made. He pushed for Tobias to take more women into the palace after there was no heir, but he would not allow Annalise to be the first of the women accepted.

Tobias sighed, covering his face with the palm of his hand because of his court’s stupidity. They were all aware that Annalise and Rafael were a couple. It only made sense to have Annalise wed Rafael as a symbol there would be trust that the truce would not be broken as the two remained married.

"She will get married to Rafael," Mark spoke up to save Tobias from losing his mind. "I am not against this since the king has made it clear he will take no other women and as far as we know, you don’t have a younger brother for the princess to wed."

"I do not," Annalise replied, but even if she did, she wouldn’t have allowed her brother to marry the princess.

She wasn’t thrilled that her marriage to Rafael was brought up at the truce meeting. It was something she said she wanted to avoid, but they could not get around it now.

It was the only solution to make some people feel relieved. Those who didn’t know about her relationship with Rafael would think it was the perfect idea to have the knights around her people.

Annalise hoped they wouldn’t go further into detail about her wedding and start planning it for her. It might surprise most but she wanted to experience being proposed to. Be surprised by the moment Rafael would pick to do it and then share the surprising news with her family.

Then she also wanted to get married at the border not here around people she didn’t care for. Around people he wanted Herbert to bite.

’I should get a pet with venom,’ Annalise thought. ’One that would listen to my orders and sneak into someone’s room to bite them. Why one when I can have a group of them?’

"Well," Julius said, not knowing how to object to Annalise and Rafael getting married.

"I am for it," Saul said, putting up his hand. The best person to watch over Annalise was Rafael. Though Rafael was smitten by the woman, Saul wasn’t like his peers to think Rafael wouldn’t put the safety of the kingdom first.

Rafael had always been someone serious like his father. He was not getting involved in palace drama by staying out of the way. It was only his friendship with the young duke and the fact he would not accept bribes from certain people that he became hated.

Saul was going to trust Rafael would alert them should those at the border try to break the truce and attack. As much as Saul would have liked for the land at the border to belong to their kingdom, the days were going by too fast for him to spend the rest of his life thinking about this war.

His peers should not be against the marriage because it would bring more benefits to their side like having the knights settle at the border.

Julius couldn’t argue about it when there were already four people agreeing on the marriage and only he and Otto left. The king proposing their families join the war had ruined everything.

He peered across the table at Annalise lost in thought with a little smile on her face. She must be thinking that they were a joke. Desperate to do anything to make the truce happen since they had not made any progress in winning the war.

"The wedding must be here with all her relatives present," said Otto. With Annalise’s family in one place, an attack could be made after the wedding with it looking like an accident.

Then Rafael would rightfully own the border. He wasn’t thrilled about Rafael owning it, but they would be closer to the king getting his hands on it.

"That’s not going to happen," Rafael said, fully against marrying Annalise here in the palace. Truce or not, he would never get married here. "We will get married where we see fit. All you need is for us to be married. The court does not need to be present."

"I would have liked to be invited," Mark said. He wouldn’t mind travelling to the border to witness the marriage. After dealing with a case that had women afraid to walk around alone, he could use a break.

Mark wanted to go to the border to see what it was like for himself so he didn’t have to rely on what someone else said.

"You’re not invited. He said the court has no reason to be present," Edgar said, speaking for Rafael. Rafael did not need to invite Mark. He still thought it was a good idea for Rafael to follow what he did with his wife and get married with just the two of them and the priest present.

Edgar had never attended a more perfect wedding because he didn’t need to worry about meeting with guests. He didn’t need to have his parents around or Alessandra’s family. It was fast just as he liked. So far, his marriage was doing better than most who spent money they didn’t have on a wedding.

"I assume that you will be expecting an invitation?" Mark inquired.

"Of course. I am his closest friend therefore I will be right there. Did you drink before you came here?" Edgar asked as Mark had to be drunk to think he wouldn’t be at Rafael’s wedding.

Of all the men in the room, there was no one closer to Rafael than Edgar. Tobias was second and then the rest of the men were at the bottom of the list or perhaps not on the list since Rafael and Annalise hated everyone else.

"We should leave the wedding up to Rafael and Annalise to plan. They will decide where it will be held and if the court will not be attending, that is fine, but Castro royalty should be there because it will mean so much more than the two of you promising to love each other forever. If you do not mind," Hazel said, wanting to get Annalise and Rafael’s permission since they were dropping this on the couple at the last moment.

"I am fine with you or the king coming to the border to attend our wedding," Annalise replied, feeling weird to speak about a wedding in front of others. She appreciated the times she spoke to Rafael about their future in private more now. "When the time comes, I will send guards from our side to escort you safely to the border."

Julius released a dry laugh. "Is it only me who thinks that sending our royalty to the border is dangerous? What if something were to happen to the two of you?"

"If we cannot trust that we can go safely to the border without something happening to us, then the truce is pointless. It’ll be the first time in many years that Castro royalty steps foot on land at the border. It is a day to be celebrated. It is settled that their marriage will act as a symbol of the truce. Now, back to want both sides want," Tobias said, moving forward with the truce.