Chapter 488: Inner Workings Of The French Court
Within the Royal Palace of Paris knelt the young Prince, before his elder sister Sibila; the princess had a scowling expression on her face as she repeatedly tapped her hand on the armrest of her seat. Though she had dispatched Aubry to seduce the Austrian King and win over his support in the war against the various rebels, as well as the English crown, he had returned empty-handed, and quite frankly, in a state of disarray.
Since then, she had been disappointed with her little brother, and had been scheming a new way to ensnare Berengar into her service. As far as she was aware, a superior man had intimidated Aubry, causing him backed down from his usual flirty self.
The very sight of Aubry kneeling before her made Sibilla both aroused and frustrated at the same time. Just how come her little brother was so much prettier than she was? These were the thoughts that had always accompanied her every time she witnessed Aubry cross-dressing.
As for King Giles, nobody had seen him in days; perhaps he had finally croaked on the chamber pot. Frankly, the Princess did not care about her father's unusual disappearance, though she supposed eventually she would have to search for the missing King, but for now, she needed to discipline her brother for his failure.
"So let me get this straight. You got to Austria, embedded yourself in their Royal Palace, made physical contact with their King, and yet still he did not fall for your cute appearance?"
Aubry nodded obediently when he heard these words; he tried to raise his head but was immediately stepped on by the white leather heels that his sister wore. His dainty head was immediately slammed back down onto the cold tile as she grabbed ahold of a whip and lashed it at his petite back.
"Who told you to raise your head!?!"
Aubry immediately shook upon the impact of the whip; despite this, he did not cry out in pain; after all, he had endured Sibilla's abuse for so many years that he was well accustomed to it by now. Instead, the French Princess immediately commented on her brother's untimely return.
"What I don't understand is why you didn't keep at it? What did he threaten to castrate your or something?"
The effeminate French Prince immediately shivered upon hearing this. Berengar had indeed threatened to remove a body part from him if he dared to continue his advances. Though he was not so cruel as to imply castration.
"I am sorry, Sibilla, that man is terrifying!"
The moment the French Princess heard these words, she became enraged. If there was anyone that the boy should fear, it was her. Despite being aware of this, Aubry had failed her in the face of a superior man. Of course, Berengar was terrifying. That was why they called him the Tyrant of Steel. Yet to crack under such pressure just proved how worthless her little brother really was. Upon thinking about this, Sibilla only became more enraged and pressed his head even further onto the stone tile with her spiked heel.
"That is not an excuse for your failures!"
Immediately Aubry tensed up as he heard this; he knew better than anything that his sister was an incredibly domineering young woman. If she expected him to succeed, then he should have succeeded. To fail her was every bit as terrifying as trying to seduce Berengar. In the end, he had made his choice and merely remained silent as he suffered his elder sister's abuse.
Sibilla felt as if she would have an aneurysm after witnessing her brother so spinelessly accept her thrashing. So much so that she completely lost interest in tormenting the young man. Instead, she threw her whip away in disgust before asking further questions about Berengar's nature.
"Surely you must have gotten some valuable intel on Berengar's behaviors while you were under his care. If you tell me what you know, I will spare you..."
Despite her harsh tone, Aubry knew better than to withhold information from his sister. Because of this, he quickly spoke about anything that might be seen as helpful to Sibilla.
"There's not much that I can say. I had little interaction with him. However, he appears to be weak towards pretty women. However, he took no interest in me. Apparently he has a disdain for same-sex couples."
This was hardly news to Sibilla. She had already received such information from her brother when he first returned home from Austria. Because of this, she was had become irritable as she stepped on her brother's head once more.
"I'm losing my patience!"
Aubry quickly kowtowed further to his sister before apologizing, he truly did not have any additional information to provide her with.
"I am sorry sister, I know nothing else! Please spare this miserable servant!"
Sibilla sighed heavily as she rested her head in her hand. She could not believe that her brother had failed so miserably to seduce Berengar. At the very least he could have collected some valuable insights about his character that would aid her in her efforts to force him into submission.
To terrify Aubry in such a manner, Berengar must be a truly frghtening and dominant personality. After all, she had trained Aubry to be incredibly submissive. This was the only useful information she could gather from this entire ordeal. She could not entirely blame Aubry for his failures, she was at least partially responsible.
Thus she smiled as she immediately descended from her father's throne, where she grabbed ahold of her brother's face and locked lips with him. If anyone else were to witness the strange relationship between these two French siblings, they would immediately be disgusted.
However, they were, in fact, alone, and thus she could openly display her more egregious affections. After kissing Aubry for some time, Sibilla released her grasp yet still maintained a firm grip over his jaw; as she did so, she whispered something in his ear.
"There is nothing to fear, my dearest brother; so long as I am here, nobody will harm a hair on your pretty little head!"
This response immediately caused the anxiety in Aubry's heart to fall away; however, in the next second, a wicked smirk appeared on the girl's face, causing him to grimace once more. Sibilla proudly stood up and declared her intentions to her brother.
"Well, since you have failed to properly seduce the King of Austria, I suppose it is up to me to win over his heart! After all, I hear that King Berengar can't seem to keep his dick in his pants; it should be easy enough to charm him!"
Though Aubry tried to protest, the moment he let out a gasp, his sister stared at him with a chilling gaze, which immediately caused him to shut his mouth. All he ended up doing was sighing in response before asking the question that was on his mind.
"What about father? Is he even aware that you want to enlist the aid of Austria in this conflict?"
Sibilla immediately scoffed upon hearing these words before speaking the thoughts on her mind.
"Nobody has seen that feeble old man in over a week; he is probably dead already, which means that soon you will be King of France. Make sure not to fuck things up while I'm gone!"
Aubry could not believe that his father, the King of France, had gone missing; if that was true, then he was desperately needed by the Kingdom; of course, the effeminate Prince didn't know the first thing about the ruling; his first instinct was to seduce the various rebel leaders and bring them to his side. However, that was easier said than done when one considered that the most powerful of these rebel leaders were in open revolution explicitly because of the prince's amorous nature.
The French Prince was forced to agree to his sister's demands; he bowed his head respectfully as he led the young woman down from her father's throne, where the two siblings departed towards their quarters. Much preparation would be needed if she genuinely intended to win Berengar over to her side.
Whether she was interested in the man was unimportant; what truly mattered was that Sibilla believed that the Austrian King had a purpose to serve, and thus she planned to milk him dry before tossing him aside as she had always done. For what man could impress her and her high standards?
While Sibilla was preparing to depart towards the Kingdom of Austria, Berengar and Honoria were halfway through their journey back to the Fatherland; when the couple finally arrived, they would be introduced to the many problems that had occurred in their absence, such as the maiming of Prince Decentius and the arrival of yet another French Harlot.
By then, Berengar would have little patience for Sibilla's games and would be far blunter in his methods of hosting her presence when compared to her slutty and effeminate brother.. He did not have time to entertain the advances of the French Royal Family, as more important matters were at stake, such as the War against the Eastern Coalition, Colonization of the New World, and assisting Byzantium in its newest campaign against their rivals to the Southwest.