The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 320: Queens stick together (1)

A few weeks later, there was much for Hazel to focus on in the palace. The man who had taken the women had been captured and now they were in talks of forming a truce to end the long war that had been going on before Hazel was born.

"I can feel your worry and I don’t think that should ever be possible. We will be quick to speak about the terms of the truce and then return to the palace," Hazel said to her panicking husband.

Tobias didn’t want Hazel to have to make the trip to the court even though it was close by since she was not feeling good the day before. "I could have the day changed or you could leave it to me to stop them from fighting each other."

"We’ve been through this already and I said no. The court made a fuss the first time Rafael was bringing her to Lockwood so we had to tell Rafael to take her away from us. They will seek any opportunity to dismiss her because not only is she from the border, she is a woman," said Hazel.

The court was open to the truce because they thought they could finally get the land at the border and they thought the leader there was a man. Hazel had learned a while back that the leader they knew of at first was a man, but his daughter would now be taking over.

Of course, this didn’t sit well with the court. Most of them didn’t accept their own queen’s presence in the court so Hazel didn’t have any hope they would be kind and accept Annalise Woods, future leader of the border.

"I need to be there to help her," Hazel said, knowing her presence could ease some of the tension in the room.

Annalise would be the only woman in the room if she did not attend.

"You must hope that they do not do something. Thank you," Hazel thanked the coachman as he offered his hand for her to get out.

"These fucking bastards better be on their best behaviour," Tobias muttered.

He wasn’t in the mood to have to stop anyone from fighting. With the pregnant queen near, they should know to stop their antics, but Tobias knew not to get his hopes up too much since they were always loud and wrong.

Tobias replaced the driver and had Hazel hold his hand as they walked inside the court. It was expected for him to be here since this was about the future of the kingdom but once more, they seemed surprised to see Hazel.

Tobias opened the door of the room they were using to speak of the truce. Already it sounded like there was an argument but the room got quiet when they entered.

The confused stares were there again as they weren’t expecting to see Hazel with him.

Hazel ignored the stares and focused on the woman of the hour. Annalise looked to be intimidating and these men would not like the powerful aura around her. They didn’t like anyone they couldn’t scare into listening to what they wanted.

Hazel didn’t regret her decision to come here since Annalise looked to be relieved to have another woman present. Like she had thought, they weren’t giving Annalise the warmest welcome. Why would they when they believed that women shouldn’t get involved in war?

Hazel noticed that only one side was going to stand to greet her as the others were getting over the shock of her arrival. Hazel stopped them from getting up. "No need to stand up when you all look so comfortable. Some of you look surprised to see me. On such an important day, I thought it was best that I be here. We are talking about ending a war."

They should be used to her coming to the court by now. The other meetings she attended might have been for smaller matters but it should have shown that she was going to be more involved in whatever she deemed a queen should have input on.

This wasn’t like the days when she sat around and did nothing.

Otto, one of the men of the court present, couldn’t allow this. "Normally, matters of the kingdom are left to the king and the court-"

"That is changing from today. Do you seek to argue with me today or talk about the truce, Otto?" Hazel questioned, challenging him to continue. "Surely you don’t wish to make our guests see that the palace is not together. I am staying here."

Even though Rafael, Edgar, and Tobias were present, should Hazel leave, Annalise would be left all alone as the only woman present. Queens should stick together and help out each other when they can.

Hazel would not have these men treating Annalise as they like because they wouldn’t treat royalty from another land this way.

"Rather than focus on why I am here, we should turn our attention to our guest, Annalise Woods," Hazel said, giving Annalise a good introduction in case her side failed to do it. "It has been too long since we have sat with our neighbours at the border. So many people have been lost over land.

Hazel continued, "I think it is time we try to fix what was done wrong in the past and try to live with each other. Putting our differences aside to live in peace."

What she meant alongside this was to give up their dreams of wanting more land that did not belong to them. Instead of arguing over the land they could not claim and focusing on Annalise’s gender, they should end too many of their side having to die over a war started by someone long ago.

Annalise and Hazel shared a look, both seeming ready to take on the men in the room who did not want them here. Hazel looked forward to being good friends with Annalise as she needed women who couldn’t back down to the court.

Julius, another one of the men in the court, wasn’t interested in what Hazel had to say. What did she know about war to speak on it? She was blinded by having a friend. "The land at the border belongs to our people."

Hazel gave Annalise the floor to speak as it seemed she had a lot to say about the land. Annalise proved herself perfectly capable of responding to these men, but Hazel decided to jump in when needed to help when the conversation turned to having the men from the court go out to fight if they did not want to give up on claiming the border.

"I agree with the king that those who do not wish to leave the land and have a truce should offer men to fight. You should fight for what you want and not expect someone else to do it when there is a peaceful option," Hazel said and then waited for volunteers, but as she expected, there weren’t any.

It was fine for the court to push for wars when they weren’t the ones having to do the fighting.

Hazel noticed the way Otto stared at her with hate in his eyes and looked away in hopes Tobias wouldn’t notice. "There are very few men we could depend on to make the border any different than it is now. Rafael has stated he will not fight. The duke is no longer interested in war and has already done his share of protecting the kingdom."

"It is only fair that those who have not picked up a weapon to defend the kingdom in the past should be made to do so now," said Hazel.

Julius had enough of Hazel speaking up about the war. Was she going to fight? Since women wanted to do more than they should these days, why don’t they pick up a sword? They would want to go right back to their duties of getting pregnant. "Since the queen wants the men in our family to fight, why not get the women of her court to join?"

Hazel smiled as she was happy one of them proposed this idea. She would love it if women who wanted to fight had the opportunity. "I am happy you brought that up so I can request that we accept more women who wish to join the knights or simply become palace guards. Allow them to take the test to enter the court. We’ve come a long way for women to not be turned back because they are women-"

’Your Majesty!" Cries to Tobias filled the room as they wanted Hazel to stop.

However, Hazel was not planning to back down and Tobias was not going to silence her.