"Hailing from Egypt, we are now honored to welcome you Queen Cleopatra, Daughter of the Nile."
The moment she stepped into the hall, the Egyptian queen mesmerized all the nobles that had gathered into silence. A black-haired beauty like no one in Briton had ever seen. Her dark, almond-shaped eyes slanted upwards in a catlike manner, gleaming with sly wit and sharp cunning.
Her seductive body striked the eyes of both men and women as she walked through the hall in her sleek black dress with two slits cut upwards beside both her hips. Her peerless beauty was amplified by the gold jewelry glinting on her silky smooth skin radiating her royalty.
"Goddess". That was the word that immediately appeared in the minds of the nobles as she slid past them.
Except for Emery, of course. His heart almost fell out from sheer surprise the moment she entered the room, for this young woman was none other than Klea, one of his dearest friends from the Magus Academy. The sight of her immediately breathed a gust of fresh air into his previously aching heart.
The Egyptian queen strided confidently across the hall. While she was accompanied by a few guards, they all stayed at the back of the room, manning the doors.
Now that everyone had already snapped out of their dreamlike state, their minds began to wander: who exactly was this Egyptian queen and why was she here?
It was likely only half the people in the room even knew where Egypt even was. It was among one of the faraway kingdoms that were thought of as the cradles of civilization, which meant it was among the first kingdoms established by humanity. Some of these nobles had also seen some Egyptian jewelry and dyed products as part of their trade. But other than traders, none of the Egyptian emissaries ever came to Briton, much less a queen. Even Rome, with their big influence, rarely ever sent their statesmen over.
The congregation of nobles started to murmur as Klea approached the center of the room.
Emery barely realized he had tensed up when Klea passed by him. Almost as though a telepathic cord had been struck between them, at that exact moment, Klea turned to him, flashing a sly smile and a wink before standing in front of the main table next to him.
Klea nodded in respectful acknowledgement towards the main table before beginning to speak.
"I'd like to extend my most respectful greetings to Logress' new King, Arthur Pendragon. Congratulations on your anointing and may your kingdom prosper."
It was a simple, standard greeting, one that she had repeated countless times to a hundred different kingdoms before, but it was delivered with such poise and brevity that no one questioned whether or not her words were genuine.
Immediately after, she surprisingly turned towards Emery and shot him a gleeful grin that only confused him more. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Uther, who was still extremely bewildered, suddenly interrupted her.
"Queen Cleopatra, what is your purpose in coming here from such a faraway place?" He asked, brows furrowed inquisitively.
Emery could see that this interruption annoyed Klea, but she maintained her respectful smile, as she turned towards Uther.
"Oh, don't mind me, your majesty. I came here today to see my dear Emery." As she said this, she waved a hand in his direction, in a manner that was overly casual for a setting as serious as this.
These words surprised everyone in the room and instantly the nobles began to whisper among themselves. Some simply couldn't believe this queen would travel such great distances just to see a low-ranking noble, while others thought she was a sham, a self-proclaimed queen that ruled over nothing. Many even believed she had come here looking for trouble. But out of all of them, the one who was in the most shock was Gwen, who could see clearly from her seat on the main table how the said queen was gazing at Emery.
Emery was still gasping in disbelief at what he saw. Seeing the situation, he quickly asked, "Klea, what are you doing here?"
The queen frowned. "To see you of course, silly! Why? Don't you miss me?"
"But how did you find me here?"
"Well, it's not hard," she said rather dismissively. "I had found you since yesterday, but you bounced around from here to there! It was so tiring to track you. And finally, here you are now, but you don't seem very happy to see me, don't you?"
Seeing that Klea's expression had dissolved into a disappointed frown, Emery quickly panicked.
"No, no... Klea... Of course I am happy to see you," he reassured her, hoping he sounded convincing enough to do so.
While the other guests still found the situation very bizarre, Uther immediately understood the woman standing before him was Merlin's friend. Knowing Merlin's unique background, he did not take any issue to it, but he currently still had a ceremony to finish. He cleared his throat loudly, once again interrupting the two.
"Excuse me," he chastised. "If you don't need anything else..."
At this, Klea grew annoyed yet again. She grimaced before flinging a cold glare in Uther's direction.
"Actually, I am kind of tired. Could you fetch me a glass of wine?"
The audience was immediately taken aback and in an instant, they began to mutter amongst themselves in shock. It was an utterly disrespectful and insolent thing to say to a figure such as Uther, but to their even greater shock, as soon as the words left the queen's lips, Uther stood up, walked towards the end of the table, pouring fresh wine into a glass before passing it on to Klea graciously.
It suddenly dawned on Emery that she had just used her enchantment magic on the most powerful man in the kingdom.
As soon as Uther gave the wine and walked back to his seat, it seemed as though he was jolted awake from a dream, as he suddenly realized what he had just done. All the faces looking down at him, concerned and bewildered, made his insides boil with shame and anger.
"Guards!" He roared, slamming his fist onto the table.
The Golden Knights that were prepared for any threats shot upwards readily, just as Emery had requested previously. Now he wanted to hit himself in the head for demanding such a thing.
"Why did you do that, Klea?"
"What did I do? He's not the king, is he?" The Egyptian queen seemed genuinely confused.
When half a dozen golden knights had approached closely, she calmly sipped her wine.
"Emery, with your skills, I am surprised you are not the king of this outback kingdom already."