"Slow down, slow down... I can't... aaah—!!"
After one last, high pitched cry, Hisui went boneless, sinking back into the bed, eyes hazy and unfocused as she gasped for breath. With her collapse, the bedroom fell into sudden quiet, a stillness that lasted nearly ten minutes before Hisui finally blinked and felt a little strength return to her limp body.
She rolled over, draping a slender arm across the man's chest beside her, her lovely face still flushed, and parted her red lips to grumble.
"You bastard. You really do plan things out to the last detail, don't you, sneaking away in the dead of night just to come warm my bed."
Kabe, his mind still somewhere pleasantly blank, caught her hand and pressed a kiss to it without bothering to answer the question directly.
"You've gotten thinner since last time. Is the pressure from handling state affairs getting to be too much lately? You're the Queen, you don't have to handle every single thing yourself. Delegating some of the less important matters down to the people under you isn't a bad strategy either."
His words successfully steered the conversation away, and Hisui let the matter of which other woman he'd been keeping company with before coming to see her drop, at least for now. The corner of her mouth curved up, and she nestled sweetly into his chest.
"I have not gotten thinner. If anything I've actually gained two pounds. You clearly noticed and you're just teasing me on purpose."
As she said it, she opened her mouth and gave his shoulder a light bite as punishment, not hard enough to really hurt. But she quickly let go, checking the spot she'd bitten to make sure it hadn't left any obvious mark, before continuing.
"As for state affairs, I've already sorted most of it out and picked out the people to help me with the rest. But there's one thing the ministers below keep pushing me to decide on, and I've been putting it off."
"Oh? What's so thorny that it's got Her Majesty the Queen hesitating this long?"
Kabe cracked a joke, hoping to tease her a little. Instead, Hisui let out a cold snort, her tone laced with resentment.
"You. Have you forgotten you hold another title besides Prince Regent?"
"What?" For a moment Kabe genuinely couldn't place which one she meant, since, embarrassingly enough, the list had actually grown fairly long by now.
Looking thoroughly vindicated, Hisui propped herself up, pressing her whole upper body against his chest, staring straight into his eyes as she bit out the words.
"Let me ask you something. Ever since Father made you Count of Hargeon, have you gone even once to visit your own territory? Do you have any idea about the local population, taxes, military strength, or the state of the city's defenses?"
Crack—
Her words landed on Kabe's heart like a bolt out of a clear sky. He sat bolt upright with Hisui still in his arms, blinking blankly down at the girl in his embrace, before laughing awkwardly, looking utterly, innocently caught out.
"Uh, well, you know how it is. I've got a lot on my plate most of the time, and it just sort of slipped my mind."
"Slipped your mind? That's one of Fiore's busiest port cities, and you managed to just forget about it?"
Hisui, unable to hold it in any longer, raised her voice, thoroughly exasperated.
The Kingdom of Fiore sat in the southwest of Ishgar, a nation formed from a broad, jutting peninsula, bordered by sea on nearly every side except for a stretch of land linking it to the interior in the east. Even so, Hargeon remained the largest port city in southern Fiore, easily ranking among the top three in the entire kingdom. When the decision had first been made to grant this very city to Kabe, even old King Toma himself had agonized over it for a long time, reluctant to let it go.
And this man had the nerve to just forget about it, a port city so wealthy that any ordinary noble handed the same fief could secure their family's fortunes for centuries with only the lightest management.
Furious, Hisui straddled him outright and started raining down little kitten punches on his chest.
"You jerk, you absolute jerk! If you don't want Hargeon, give it back to me! Do you have any idea how much tax revenue the treasury's losing out on because of you?!"
Well aware he was in the wrong, Kabe let her "pummel" him without complaint, and had to admit the beating felt rather nice.
Ahem. Back to the matter at hand.
Once Hisui had vented enough and her temper had cooled a little, Kabe grinned and pecked her on the forehead.
"You know exactly what I'm like. At most I can throw out a policy suggestion or two off the top of my head. Actually put me in charge of real administration and I'd be a complete amateur at it. As for Hargeon's massive annual tax revenue, honestly, I don't need that much money anyway. Why not just fold it back under royal jurisdiction? Let the crown handle the day to day management and keep the tax revenue in the royal treasury each year. We could use the money to go traveling together, or renovate your palace, or build a couple more wonders somewhere in the kingdom."
Listening to Kabe's thoroughly shameless suggestion, Hisui rolled her eyes so hard they nearly disappeared.
"You bastard, are you actually hoping I turn into some decadent, self indulgent tyrant queen? Name me one ruler in history who took the throne and immediately threw money around on wonders and palaces who ever came to a good end. I refuse to be the one who brings Fiore down."
"Yes, yes, I'm the villain, I'm the corrupt minister leading you astray."
Even as he kept confessing to every crime she threw at him, his hands had already started wandering shamelessly around her waist.
"Then our beloved Majesty really will have to manage the kingdom, and my fief, properly. Someday I'd like to pass it down to our own children, after all."
Smack.
Hisui swatted his wandering hand away and shoved him back down onto the bed with both hands.
"Managing the kingdom is my duty. I can manage your affairs too, while I'm at it. But as compensation for my trouble, I'm raising the annual tax Hargeon pays to the crown. And don't try dangling promises in front of me either. I don't care about your fief. Save it for whichever child you have with one of your other wives instead."
With that, as if in retaliation, she pressed her weight down hard, cutting off whatever Kabe had been about to say, leaving him with nothing but a long, satisfied sigh.
"Ahh~"
But just as Kabe closed his eyes, ready to lie back and enjoy himself, Hisui's movements suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes in confusion, throwing her a questioning look, only to find her still perched there, unmoving, the corner of her mouth curling into a wicked little smile.
"Oh, right, there's one more thing I need you to handle. The Balam Alliance's Element 4 have started acting up in the kingdom again recently. I recall your guild has quite the history of bad blood with them. Since that's the case, Fairy Tail will be organizing the campaign against them. And you, Count Kabe, will be the commander of the allied forces for this one. That's an order, and you're not allowed to refuse."
"...As you command, my Queen. Now, enough talking. Get moving already."
"Don't move. I'll do it myself."