There was no large timepiece in the room, and the curtains were drawn shut, but Prince Ryle still had the vague sense that time was passing from the sounds of the birds chirping outside. Unlike the previous nights, it was a hot morning. Sweltering, even. He felt dizzy.

“Is the tea not to your liking?”

The first prince of Andorin snapped out of his daze, likely caused by the heat and his over-accelerated heart rate. He focused on the creature sitting across from him and felt his lips somehow smile.

“It’s just a bit too hot for tea today,” he replied politely.

“Is it?”

The creature sipped tea from an oversized cup. There wasn’t a bead of sweat on her. Was Ryle imagining the heat?

Their conversation was dead on arrival. As a royal host, Ryle couldn’t allow that.

“My father has informed me that you’ll be aiding us in the upcoming war. We’re very grateful for the support.”

The Orc Lord smiled. Ryle imagined that those tusks could crush bone easily. Never before had he envied his younger brother’s extensive martial training. He never once imagined he would be in such a dangerous place without a single guard.

Surely father would have at least spared him a hidden shadow or two? However many they had in this palace… All of them?

His throat felt dry, so he tried a sip of his tea, which he had checked three times for poison already.

There really isn’t any? This is a fantastic opportunity to kill this beast, you know? She’s drinking the tea like it’s water.

The hot liquid, sadly, only wetted the prince’s throat for a moment before it dried out again.

“Of course. We value Andorin as our only trading partner.”

It was a measured response. Some small parts of Ryle’s brain were still doing their job, pondering if she meant they were her only trading partner among people or if even other monsters weren’t trading with her. Of course, more of his psyche was simply trying to stay afloat.

How in the world did it come to be that his first solo negotiation with a foreign dignitary was with the Orc Lord herself?

“Forgive me for being forward, but may I ask why you wanted to speak with me and my brothers?”

“I was hoping to learn a thing or two,” the monster smiled, sipping from her cup. “Andorin has a tradition of raising members of the royal family as specialists. So tell me…”

Her cup, indeed the entire teapot, was empty. The giantess set her drinkware down with a gentle clink. Her piercing yellow eyes made an unpleasant sensation crawl up the first prince’s spine, but he kept a moderate smile plastered on his face.

“How can I establish good relations with human nations going forward?”

Warning bells tolled in Ryle’s brain, but he gave a calm reply to her question. “Do you mean publicly or privately, as you do with us now?”

The Orc Lord leaned back in her seat and folded her hands in her lap. “Let’s hear both.”

“Your current method seems to work well enough for secret trade agreements,” he stated. “If you want public relations, the entire church system would have to dissolve first.”

“One step forward and two steps back,” the Orc Lord chuckled. “I would be more hated than ever if I forced that. Very well, let’s talk about other matters.”

The next hour was all a daze to Ryle. The Orc Lord would ask him hypotheticals about politics and government, and he would reply with surface-level answers. By the end of it, he felt her smile was colder than before, but he couldn’t give her actual advice now could he? Perhaps he had ignored an olive branch of some kind, but a foreign leader couldn’t truly expect the prince of another nation to answer such questions. That was what her own tutors and advisors were for.

He was excused and asked to send the second prince in. Ryle returned to the sitting room where his brothers were. To the servants’ eyes, the three of them were having a private meeting together, but one by one they were slipping away to meet the monster their country had allied with.

Prince Verdi and Prince Corinth were sitting in awkward silence, and they both turned when their brother entered. His face was unreadable, but he was close to a breakdown in reality.

“It’s your turn, Verdi,” the first prince slowly lowered himself into an armchair.

“How was it?” the second prince asked quietly.

Ryle couldn’t think of anything to say. He just laughed once dryly and shook his head. “Like a carnivorous flower and a raging boar all at the same time?” he muttered curiously. “She didn’t do anything, but I can’t stop shaking.”

Verdi nodded with a serious look on his face. “Putting the Orc Lord matter aside, she’s a Queen Orc, which is a dominator race. They tend to have passive skills for control and intimidation.”

The second prince offered his older brother no criticism. He just braced himself and marched out the door.

***

An hour later, Verdi threw open the door to the sitting room, green-faced. Before his brothers could ask him anything, he ran to the nearest waste bin and upchucked everything inside his stomach.

Rather inappropriately, Prince Ryle just sat where he was and chuckled at his brother’s state. Corinth, meanwhile, hurried over and used a quick spell to check whether he’d been poisoned. The results were negative.

“A-are you alright?” Corinth asked unsurely.

“Do I look alright?!” Verdi spat back, gasping for breath.

He tore a silk handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his mouth and stole a glass of water off the table, swishing and spitting into the waste bin.

“So it’s worse than my estimations,” Ryle declared after seeing his brother’s state.

Taking an actual drink of water now, Verdi plopped down on an unoccupied couch. “I think that thing was telling father the truth when she said she just likes war. They say all the past Orc Lords have been warmongers. You can feel it oozing out of her bones.”

“She must have talked with you about her hobbies then,” Ryle smiled subtly. “Did you lose your lunch in front of her too?”

“I held it in,” Verdi grimaced. “Three times, I got bathed in her bloodlust, but I held it in. I honestly couldn’t tell you how strong she is, but I know I wouldn’t want to fight her. I bet she’s a bad winner.”

Ryle nodded approvingly and glanced at Corinth. “She’s talking to each of us about our specialties. Just make it clear that you don’t have the authority to sign off on any trade deals and you should have it the easiest of the three of us.”

Corinth blinked at his eldest brother in surprise. “Th-thank you?”

Ryle sighed and waved him out. “Don’t embarrass us out there.”

***

This was a very unusual day for Corinth. Perhaps it would be a unique day, unsurpassed by any other day for the rest of his life in terms of new things.

For the first time in his life, he saw Verdi break down and show weakness. For the first time in his life, Ryle had expressed care and concern for him. For the first time in his life, he would be meeting face to face with a monster.

As he stood in front of the double doors where their foreign guest was staying, Corinth swallowed and adjusted his shirt collar with its ruffled front. It was a bit warm today. He was nervous, absolutely, but both of his brothers had returned unharmed—if a bit shaken—so he imagined he would be fine too.

Corinth finally knocked and excused his entry, pushing open one of the doors. Seated calmly on an oversized silver couch, drinking tea, was the Orc Lord.

She was large and imposing, but for a moment, Corinth stalled.

Nobody mentioned she was pretty.

The monster queen was dressed in green and gold, with brown skin and long, blood red hair, tightly wound down her back. She looked nothing like the typical lesser Orcs that came out of the forest from time to time, nor like any hideous monster that had ever been described to the sheltered prince. This monster had a fierce beauty to her. She was a giant in body and presence. Corinth felt like a small rabbit trapped in her sharp yellow gaze.

A soft smile blossomed on the queen’s face, and she lowered her oversized teacup.

“Welcome, Prince Corinth. Please, take a seat.”

“Thank you.”

Freed from his daze, Corinth found himself able to move again. He sat himself down on the ordinary couch opposite the giantess, instantly feeling much smaller for it.

Of course, Corinth was used to feeling looked down upon. It actually helped him find his proper footing. Already, he was proud of himself for not stuttering.

Given their difference in eye level, Corinth briefly failed to keep his gaze from wandering.

She… her chest was massive. It was anatomically impossible for a human to possess assets like that at true size, and… extremely unlikely, even if it was just proportionally as large.

Was it shameful to notice womanly features on a female monster? They should have a similar relationship to that of a human and a beast, shouldn’t they? Such that one wouldn’t notice the beast’s gender and certainly wouldn’t view them as a woman… But this was an intelligent monster, not a beast. Did that make it better or worse? No, before that, this was a leader: a queen and a Lord. He had to be respectful as a prince.

Corinth tried to hide his offense and the blush that creeped onto his face by turning his head and coughing into his fist.

She must have noticed. The Orc Lord was smiling teasingly at him, or so it seemed to Corinth.

He tried desperately to change the topic. “I was told you wanted to speak with me about my area of expertise, like you did with my brothers?”

“Indeed. They both were a bit tense, I think. I’m glad you seem more relaxed.”

The Orc Lord raised her finger, merely to signal she was doing something. The ceramic teapot between them lifted itself off the table and filled the prince’s teacup neatly before setting itself down.

Corinth tried to remember what level of was required to move ceramics. It was a considerably high level, if he recalled. He wasn’t particularly surprised to learn that a monster queen was a capable mage, though. The prince mixed cream and sugar into his cup in generous portions and took a sip.

It wasn’t the usual luxury tea they served to high-ranking guests but one of the ordinary ones they drank in the palace. Corinth hoped it wasn’t something they were doing on purpose out of prejudice or to be rude. Hopefully it was just because this particular guest was a secret. Either way, he didn’t bring the matter up out loud. It was still good tea.

“You’re a very skilled earth mage, Queen Vyra,” the prince complimented.

The Orc Lord smiled. “Mechanical industry is rooted in numbers and time, but Babylon is young and small. A handful of talented individuals, including myself, dragged our society up by its bootstraps using magical industry.” She took a casual sip from her cup. “What about you, Prince Corinth? Are you familiar with magic of any kind?”

You’re telling me not to underestimate you just because you’re a recent force, is that it? the prince thought privately. He wasn’t planning on underestimating an Orc Lord in the first place.

“That’s a commendable feat. I’m not a mage myself, but I have memorized a few useful non-attribute spell patterns.” He had secretly cast one of those spells, before sipping his tea, as he was taught to do under all circumstances.

He considered himself quite proficient at poison detection spells in particular. It might look easy to poison one of his meals or snacks, but frankly, if someone wanted to kill him, a blade would be faster and more successful.

“I see.”

Somehow, she sounded pleased. Corinth shrugged it off and changed the topic again.

“So, your majesty, shall we proceed to the main topic?”

The Orc Lord’s smile seemed to flatten somewhat and she lowered her gaze. “Is the small talk over already? … Then yes, I suppose we shall.”

“I should tell you that I don’t have the authority to sign off on any new trade deals,” Corinth stated, recalling his brother’s advice.

The monstress nodded. “I understand. I'm more interested in financial theory today. It’s rare that I get to consult an expert. Babylon uses an entirely new form of currency, and I wonder if it can be improved.”

Corinth widened his eyes in surprise. “Ah… I suppose using monster cores as currency would be uncouth in your situation.”

The Orc Queen chuckled. “No, it’s simply that those cores have too many uses. As I said, we built everything we have now on magic. Magic cores are indispensable for continuing that development, so we had to pick something else to use as currency.”

“So what did you choose?” Corinth asked curiously. “Forgive me for saying so, but if it isn’t something equally valuable, you would have a hard time trading with foreign powers.”

The young prince felt his heart skip a beat as the giantess rested her cheek on her fist and smiled kindly down at him. It was a natural sort of expression that he rarely ever saw in the palace. Perhaps a little coquettish, even…? No, he was imagining it, surely.

“Prince Corinth, we would have trouble trading with foreign powers no matter what sort of currency we settled on.”

“Ah… That’s… Yes, indeed.”

Well, his field was finances and management, not politics; there were times when Corinth failed to see the forest through the trees. How could he forget that he was talking to a monster here? She was well-spoken and pretty, yes, but still.

Perhaps it had something to do with the very friendly way the Queen Orc looked at him. There was simply no aura of tension in the room, and he felt oddly at ease.

Ryle and Verdi were badly shaken by their meetings, he pondered briefly, but I feel fine. Maybe I’m braver than I thought?

The Orc Queen resumed, “That said, it had to be something convenient and valuable in order to have it actually be used. I brought samples. Here.”

From a small leather bag at her hip, she took out three flat, seafoam green crystals. One was a circle, another a pentagon, and the third a hexagon. They each had a hole through their center. They were curious little baubles, in the human prince’s eyes.

“May I?” the prince asked. Vyra gestured for him to go ahead, and he picked up each coin to investigate the carvings on them. They seemed to be symbolic… but there were also small etchings that looked like writing. “How does this read?”

“It’s the value of the currency, which we call sealights, after the material we used. That round coin is worth one sealight, the pentagonal one is worth ten sealights, and the hexagonal one is worth fifty sealights.”

Corinth closed his hand around the pieces of crystal experimentally, picturing grasping a handful of them. Their flat shape could make storage easier. It would be too expensive to reshape all the monster cores in circulation this way. He wondered briefly if a beveled square shape would have been more efficient.

“Well, they do seem convenient, but I wouldn’t call them valuable. Sealight crystals aren’t magical: they can be produced by any mage who knows .”

“That’s right, the material is nothing special,” she didn’t seem surprised by his rebuttal. “I wanted to use the same material for each type of coin. The natural problem then is how you make sure that the smallest denomination isn’t worth more as material than as currency, and that the largest denomination of coin is still small enough to easily carry. So, we used cheap but suitable materials and simply enchanted them with magic of different values.”

“These are enchanted?” Corinth inspected the coins closely. “But it’s so small. There can’t be a monster core in this. Not to mention, the whole point was that you didn’t want to use monster cores as money.”

“Would you like to know the obvious answer?”

Again, the monstress leaned in toward him and smiled. Prince Corinth flushed at the sudden lack of space between them, wondering again at the unusually friendly-seeming tone on her face and in her voice and why he was so unafraid.

Perhaps I… have unusual tastes? He wondered worriedly, feeling heat spread on his cheeks. He had never met a monster before, so he had no other point of reference, but at least this one… he felt no discomfort towards.

What a scandal. This feeling, whatever it was, Corinth decided to hide it away. It would only get him and his country into trouble.

After taking a brief pause to control himself, Corinth nodded. “Please tell me.”

“Enchanting can be done without a magic core. It’s called magic engineering.” The Orc Lord smiled sweetly and sat up straight again. “Of course, I won’t tell you how it’s done. You may keep those coins, but investigating them won’t find you much. Just sealight crystal and a bit of kobold blood.”

“Blood?” The youngest prince’s head began racing with various frightening theories about how magic engineering was done.

At least it isn’t human blood, but it’s still so morbid.

“Now then,” the Queen Orc went on, “each round sealight contains one minute of the spell. Each pentagonal sealight contains one hour of the passive skill, which regulates temperatures. And each hexagonal sealight contains three uses of the spell. Just putting a bit of magic into the coin while holding it is enough to activate it. They have to be enchanted again once they’re used up, to encourage circulation and the use of banks, which are able to enchant the coins again.”

“These are incredible,” the prince realized aloud, staring at the small coins with new appreciation. “You didn’t exaggerate your proficiency with magic technology.”

Corinth wasn’t a mage, personally. If he was, he would’ve been even more astonished. After all, with the system of magic humans still used, it was impossible to enchant skills into items, passive or otherwise.

Even without knowing that, he was amazed.

“Are these already in circulation?”

“Yes, it’s going well so far.” The monstress seemed proud of the compliment she received. “Have I impressed you?”

“Yes,” he admitted, turning one of the coins over in his hand while wondering how to activate it. “It’s a very effective way to assign value to currency.” A thought occurred to him, which he promptly brought up. “Do you have measures in place to prevent copycats? If this magic engineering is widespread in your country, someone might start producing their own money.”

The Orc Lord nodded. “In fact, the three coins I gave you are counterfeit. Or rather, inferior working models of our currency. Legal sealights use my blood instead, which we can test for if there’s a concern.”

“Your blood?” Prince Corinth paled a bit and shook his head. “Queen Vyra, that simply isn’t sustainable. As you introduce more currency to the economic system, you won’t be able to keep up with demand.”

“It’s fine,” she chuckled “I’m quite a lot sturdier than you imagine.”

Corinth was unconvinced, but he had given his advice, and it wasn’t good to pry further. And… for all he knew, maybe some monsters could endlessly produce blood. He couldn’t say with certainty that she was wrong, but it still worried him.

Perhaps there was no need to worry about one of mankind’s age-old enemies? But, the third prince was an empathetic person.

“Well, if you do have a counterfeit issue, it’ll be hard to track down like this. What if you numbered your coins and kept track of which coins are where via your banks? That way, if two coins of the same number show up at once, you’ll notice.”

The Orc Lord paused for a moment to think about it and then nodded, smiling warmly. “That’s a good idea, thank you. Exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.”

Corinth had surprised himself. Did I just… make a policy? Despite all his training, he rarely had a chance to do such a thing. The financial system they used was already long established, after all.

This is a little fun, the third prince began to enjoy this talk in a new way.

“Now then, I believe for large sums of currency, there might be more overlap between our two systems,” the Orc Queen said. “How do you manage it here?”

It was relatively common knowledge, so Corinth had no issue sharing. “We use promissory notes that the banks issue. They’re made of secret blends of ink and paper, painted in complex patterns by artisans. They’re secured by their sheer complexity.”

While he explained, the third prince poured a fresh cup of tea for himself, mixing in cream and sugar until it had practically turned white.

Bitter tea was unpleasant. He personally saw the drink as nothing but a base to mix the aforementioned treats into.

Before he drank, he used again on the fresh cup, expecting nothing and getting nothing in return, but it was a reflex.

“I see,” the Orc Queen mused. “And that’s feasible because you don’t need many large sum transactions compared to small sums.”

“Correct,” Corinth nodded.

She held a hand to her chin, “I have some ideas now, thank you.”

They continued to talk about financial policy, management, and trade. Unlike what his brothers knew, Corinth’s knowledge wasn’t anything that could harm the kingdom if it got out, and there were plenty of academically interesting problems that he enjoyed helping to solve.

But they only had so much time. His brothers must be worried sick about him, despite the fact that he was actually having a rather enjoyable time.

There really must be something wrong with me, Corinth worried again, wishing he’d had any encounters with women of the civilized races to prove to himself that his preferences were ordinary.

“I enjoyed our talk very much,” Queen Vyra said. “It ended too soon. You’re clever and well spoken; I had fun listening to you.”

She offered him her hand to shake, and the prince blushed faintly. So many compliments in one day… it was uncommon for him.

The prince stood up and unsurely put his hand in the queen’s large palm. She slowly and gently closed her fingers around it. Corinth imagined that it wouldn’t be unrealistic for his hand to break if she wanted it to, so he was thankful for the extra care she took.

“R-really?” he replied, failing to control his stutter at the very end. “I’m glad you weren’t bothered by my rambling.”

“There’s nothing to be bothered by. You make very pleasant company, Prince Corinth.”

He wondered if it was just his imagination that their handshake dragged on a little long, but the moment he tried to pull his hand back, she let go.

“If we have another chance, I’d like to chat again,” the monstress proposed gently.

“I wouldn’t mind that.”

His reply was noncommittal. Whether the chance actually appeared would depend on the war, his father, and if he could slip away without others noticing. The fact that a monster was in the palace was, after all, a secret.

Even if he was the prince people were the least interested in, Corinth still had eyes on him much of the time. It would be bad if rumors started spreading that he was visiting a secret lady in the palace. He wouldn’t even be able to defend himself, either, for fear of exposing the truth.

And so, Corinth departed for the sitting room where his brothers were waiting, and he experienced yet another new thing. He seemed to have gained his brothers’ respect for the first time.

“I can’t believe you look so calm after coming out of there,” Verdi muttered.

“Agreed,” Ryle said with slightly raised eyebrows.

Corinth smiled shyly. “I was worried because of how you two reacted, but it wasn’t that bad. The tea could’ve been better.”

Ryle stood up, took a step forward, and set his hand on his youngest brother’s shoulder.

“Well done. You have more courage than I thought.” A small smile tugged at his lips. “Perhaps you should’ve been the politician or the soldier.”

Corinth balked, imagining giving speeches in front of large audiences or—perhaps worse—being made to exercise.

“No, thank you,” he promptly replied.

***

And to think, she was worried that her hopes had gotten too high.

Alone again in her room, Vyra held a hand to her lips to block a chuckle from escaping. The corners of her lips turned gleefully up.

The first two princes had been a disappointment. She had already expected not to have feelings toward them, but they were shaking in terror the whole time they talked. Fine, it was amusing, especially the first prince, who put on an ordinary expression as if it would hide his lips turning blue, but it was also greatly disheartening.

She wasn’t even trying to be scary! She didn’t care why they were afraid, frankly, but she didn’t want to scare away her potential mate.

Admittedly, she had used the second prince and his war specialization to test some boundaries, coming to the conclusion that she should avoid talking about violence as much as possible in front of Corinth.

All the first two princes were to Vyra was practice before meeting Corinth.

Vyra had looked up when the third prince’s knock came. Smile, but not too much. No sudden movements. Don’t talk about killing.

And then the door had opened, and her heart pounded in her chest.

The third prince looked exactly like his portrait, only his eyes were bluer and gentler than the artist could give justice to. He was small and delicate and cute, like a baby rabbit: a sweet little prince from another race and country. She did indeed feel an attraction to him, even in person.

How good. How wonderful.

Now there were only a few matters left to settle. First, there was obviously no guarantee that a human would find a monster attractive. Vyra was beautiful and powerful, but just like how she had no interest in other desirable specimens up until now, that spark might just not be there.

Also, what if their personalities didn’t match? Vyra knew that if she changed the prince using her Law… she would grow tired of him and ever be unsatisfied. She wouldn’t brainwash him—ever. Even the fact that Ashtante’s blessing could interfere with their feelings for each other bothered her. I absolutely must tell her to keep her meddlesome fingers out of this.

There was much to consider; many ways in which this could go wrong, but… Vyra saw the prince’s eyes wander briefly to her chest before he looked away, trying to hide his glance and his sudden shyness by coughing.

He sees me as a woman. Then it’s possible.

There was no suppressing the warm feeling in her center. Prince Corinth wasn’t afraid of her, and he obviously knew that she was beautiful.

Is this what they call star-crossed lovers or soulmates? she pondered. For there to be mutual attraction despite all odds was a miracle.

Picking up a pillow to hug close to her body, Vyra reclined and let her mind drift, fantasizing a happy future with her little prince.