Netori SSS-Emperor: All Queens Shall Be Mine!-Chapter 27: Hope Rides On Your Shoulders

The night before the competition, Renee watched as her tired lover slept on his study table. It had been a whole day of studying, and finally, Wolf was knocked out like a baby. Not the least bit concerned about him being overpowered physically, the faunan smiled at his mental efforts and decided to retire for the night as well.

However, right as she moved onto their bed, a sudden knock on the door ruined her plan. Glancing between Wolf and the door, she first made sure the prince hadn't woken up before slipping out of bed to check was at the door.

"Who is it?" She asked, her hand tightly gripping the doorknob.

"It's me, Alta Greggor. I brought you tea this morning, ma'am," the honeyed voice of the widow bled into the room. Her guard instantly lowered, Renee opened the door and moved into the doorframe. "Is the prince awake?"

Smiling, the woman looked around, already searching for Wolf before greeting the person in front. Although somewhat irked over being ignored, Renee quickly shook the thought out of her head.

"He's asleep," moving to the side, she gestured to the prince sleeping on his study.

As she looked back at the woman, her expression had already dropped from cheery to that of visible disappointment. Even so, upon noticing Renee's gaze, Alta lifted her head and smiled at the faunan.

"The children were asleep, and the villagers working wanted to talk to the prince before the competition," shaking her head lightly, she closed her eyes and tried to think logically about the matter. "Never mind, I'm sure they'll prefer that the prince is well-rested instead."

Opening her eyes and smiling at Renee, Alta gave her a gentle bow and tried to walk away.

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"Wait..." Moving out of the room, Renee locked the door behind her. Watching the widow turn around with confusion reflected in her gaze, the faunan shrugged her shoulders and added. "I'll come with you, and you can tell me what you want him to know. Morning come, I'll relay it to him, first thing."

"You would?" Her eyes sparkling with joy, Alta instinctively grabbed Renee's hands and lifted them between their chests. "Thank you, I'm sure everyone would really appreciate that."

Letting go with a light tug, the widow began leading the way forward. And although she'd only agreed so that she could know more about the woman because of their previous poisonous encounter, Renee followed her free of guilt. Carrying a hollow look in her eyes, she studied her from the back–judging everything about the widow's frame against her own body.

Unlike her short pink bob, the widow was a brunette with long flowing hair that bounced right up above her extruding ass. Not curvier than her yet not less than her either, the woman held nearly the same allure with the exception of being a faunan with animal tail or ears.

Done judging her body as they reached the back of the castle, Renee was pulled out of her trance by the voice of another woman. Looking around, she found herself in the training grounds. But with no soldiers present, the women had taken over the place and were sitting around the sand-filled fighting ring.

"Please sit down," being offered a chair by one of the women, Renee sat in the only chair that was available near the ring.

Once she was seated, the women drew closer. After Alta briefly explained why she was there, one after the other, the women spoke of their problems and how they'd suffered at the hands of the true prince's tyranny thus far.

"I didn't wanna say this before, but if tomorrow is the day, then I need to," scared that her words could land her in the dungeon, one such woman took a deep breath and steeled her heart before speaking up. "Prince William–only the bay people support him, I've heard about him selling false stamps that approve their goods to be sold in our city. One of my kids consumed some fish they had and..."

Squeezing a hand to her chest, the woman took yet another deep breath. Gulping, the emotions welling up to her throat, she lifted her head and explained further.

"It was rotten, I didn't know, and he almost died. Had it not been for the herbalist, who knows what would've happened?" The moment she was finished talking, many others took her place. Everyone had one problem or the other, some relating to corruption while others were related to William's draconian punishments.

Most of the women had lost a loved one, and every single one of them had lost business because of William's fake stamps. Just as he'd faked his ranking documentation, the true prince was selling the queen's stamps under the table, but with no way to prove it to be true, the people had kept their lips shut.

"When my husband tried to voice concern about the stamps being real..." With tears in her eyes, Alta shut her eyes. Her body quivered to the memory, the memory of her husband being lashed until she could see his spine. On the verge of bursting into hissing cries, she gave Renee a quick glance and spewed what she could before tears began to fall. "He whipped him so much that he grew a fever when I brought him home. The local healer tried to heal him, but his whip–that whip of dark magic, it's something else, because none of their efforts worked..."

Looking away from everyone once she was done, Alta let the others tell their stories as well. Minutes turned to hours, and yet the complaints kept coming. However, with so much at stake, Renee did not mind and allowed those women to speak their hurt.

"A lot of hope rides on Prince Wolf's shoulders, please...I beg you, do let him know that these women and I, we're all gonna support him and want him to be our king." And with those words by Alta, the conversation came to an end.

There was much riding on Wolf's shoulders, and it was up to Renee to relay to him the woes of these poor women.