Juliette XI

PA 1.6

Being the Queen (well, duchess) of a small, stone age nation was at once both incredibly busy and very, very slow. Some days it felt like she could never catch a break, things moving too fast for her to comprehend and her own decisions leaving her in the dust as she desperately tried to catch up.

Other days, like today, were so slow that it was almost painful.

With a soft groan she woke up, stretching out her limbs in every direction, only to yelp as she nearly fell out of the hammock she was sleeping in. The hammock, of course, was her bed, which she slept in because the only other option was a crappy straw mattress. Also, it was a childhood dream and there was nobody who could tell her she couldn’t. Steadying herself, she much more carefully climbed out of the hammock. Once on solid ground she stretched, raising her arms high above her head with a groan, before grabbing her comb—carved from a deer bone—and began brushing her hair.

“Should I braid it today?” she mused out loud, before glancing down at her fingers with a slothful distaste. “Urgh. No. Too much work.”

Then, with a groan she forced herself to her feet, giving her crappy bed one last forlorn look before leaving her bedroom.

The rest of her ‘palace’ wasn’t that special, all things considered. It was a two-story building made from tree logs piled on top of each other, with the first floor entirely taken up by her throne room, and the upper floor being her living space. A bedroom, a kitchen, a dining room, and a balcony overlooking the central plaza of the city that she used to give speeches from.

Reaching the kitchen, she pulled open one of the many preserving jars lining the walls, this one with a pattern of green leaves painted all over it. In it was one of the few projects she could actually consider a ‘success.’

Soybeans.

Over the past year, she’d had people set up small farms along the river outside the city. There they planted… really just whatever they could get their hands on. Wild rice, berries, herbs, etc. Out of all the seeds planted, only soybeans saw widespread success. Two of her farmers managed to grow a successful crop of soybeans, and now she was having them trade information and techniques with each other to hopefully gain a bigger harvest next year.

She had also heard that other people were successfully growing crops as well. While Saanvi and Billy-boy focused on fish and sheep, the neighboring Kingdoms they’d entered into a semi-peaceful truce with reportedly had succeeded in growing other plants. To the south, the ‘Grand Lake Alliance’ had managed to rice—though how much was unclear—while the ‘Kingdom of Galloway’ across the river to the north had managed to grow a patch of millet—which she knew because Billy-boy had sent her on a raiding mission across the river to steal some from them.

It had been easy, since she’d just quietly taken them from the storehouse of a smaller village once the guard had fallen asleep. No casualties on either side, barring the guard who’d probably been executed after the fact.

She didn’t have any sympathy for them. She’d had to put a damn watchtower next to her bridge to stop those damn Galloway savages from using it to raid her Outpost.

Anyways, all that is to say, this is why she’s having soybeans for breakfast.

She refused to let anyone else judge her for that. She judged herself enough.

But breakfast concluded with and the remaining soybeans sealed back up, Juliette continued on with her day. Walking downstairs, she nodded regally at the two guards standing watch by the entrance to the throne room. The two guards bowed lowly, before straightening back up and continued their watch with a solemn professionalism.

Despite herself, Juliette always felt a little giddy when they did that. It made the little girl in her that always wanted to be a princess squeal with joy.

Not that she showed that on her face, of course. Solemn professionalism, Divine Queen and all that.

Exiting her palace, she paused, before turning and looking to her right, where she knew her servants were already waiting for her to start her day.

Two young girls stood there, two identical twins who looked to be about thirteen years old at most. Their hair was light brown and cut off at the shoulders, with doe-like eyes and tanned skin. Despite being so young they already had callouses along their hands and one of them even had a thin scar along her chin, which was the only way to tell them apart by appearance. While they weren’t that short for their age, they still had to crane their necks to look up at the six-foot giantess that was their queen.

Their names were Ya and Yan, twins whose parents had been awful at naming. The scarred one, Ya, stood close to her, grabbing her hand the second she arrived. The other, Yan, was more standoffish, glaring at anyone who passed by as though they were an assassin in disguise.

It might have been scary if she was older, but as it way she looked more like a grumpy kitten than anything truly threatening.

This was how the three of them met every morning. Juliette would leave the palace to find them already waiting for her, after which she’d give them their chores for the day and they’d part ways until dinner. They didn’t live in her palace—she’d offered, but they wanted to continue living in their parent’s hut for as long as they could. She didn’t really get it, but it wasn’t like they were in any danger in her city and figured it just wasn’t that big a deal and let it go.

“Ya, Yan,” Juliette smiled down at them, letting her Queenly mask soften when dealing with children. “It’s good to see you this morning. Did you remember to eat breakfast?”

“Yes,” Yan replied.

“No,” Ya replied at the same time.

The two girls looked at each other, before Ya quickly turned back up to her and corrected herself. “Yes, we did!”

Juliette’s eyes sharpened, lightly glaring at them. “Ya. Yan. Why didn’t you eat breakfast today? It’s the most important meal of the day, you know.”

Yan looked off to the side with a scowl (pout), while Ya winced, clutching her hand tighter. “We, um… we ran out of food…”

“And why didn’t you grab something from the warehouses, or simply ask one of your neighbors for help?”

“We, um…” Ya grew quieter with every word, her face flushing with embarrassment. “…we overslept…”

Juliette let out a quiet sigh through her nose, not letting her exasperation show on her face. “Ya. Yan. Look at me,” she gave them a stern look, forcing them to meet her eyes. “Your own health is more important than getting here on time. I let you live alone because I trust the two of you to take care of yourselves. If I can’t trust you with that, I’ll be forced to move you into the palace with me. Do I make myself clear?”

The two girls stared up at her with wide eyes, before nodding rapidly. Holding their gaze for a moment longer to make sure that they understood, she finally nodded, straightening back up to her full height.

The two girls, no longer under her scrutinizing gaze, slumped down, making her feel bad even though she was clearly in the right about this.

God save her from devoted servants who couldn’t take care of their own bodies.

“Now then, I believe the first order of business for today it to make sure you two are fed. Ya, Yan, come with me. We’re heading down to the docks to grab you something fresh to eat.”

It wasn’t like she had anything better to do today anyway. With Shimisi on a break she had nothing planned, and so it was either this or waste away in her bed until dinner.

Which, now that she thought about it, did seem rather tempting…

‘No! Bad Juliette! Feed the children first, then you can sleep the day away!’

“Ah, um…” Ya began, only to trail off when Juliette turned back to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

Yan, seeing her sister falter, jumped in to finish what she was trying to say. “But what about our chores? We still need to do them.”

‘Such a surreal world, where children want to do chores…’

“The chores can wait,” she told them firmly. “You need energy to start your day, and you can’t do that without food in your belly. In fact, it seems your hunger is making you delirious, if you’re actually asking for work. As such, you will not be cooking this morning—I refuse to let a delirious child handle a fire alone. We’ll get one of the soldiers to do it for us instead.”

Juliette, it should be noted, did not know how to cook. There was a reason she ate raw soybeans for breakfast.

“Eh?” Yan frowned, confused. “I’m not deli… deli… that. Also, what does that mean?”

“It means you are ill. And that illness can only be solved with food. Now, come along, we’ve dallied here enough.”

Without giving them any more time to question her, she placed her hand against Yan’s back and began pushing her down towards the docks, Ya being dragged along by the hand.

It should be stated, before all else, that there existed no economy in this world. The few merchants that existed bartered, and any type of coinage didn’t exist. Within the smallish community of King’s End, all supplies were instead shared evenly amongst the citizens. If you wanted more food, and there was food to spare, then you could just ask for it. If there was not enough food (a rarity, since even foraging was normally enough to feed the whole city) then the leader—in this case Juliette—would ration out enough that everyone got an equal share.

Some people might call this communism or socialism, but in a world before such concepts existed, this was merely ‘how people lived.’ Whether it would stay like that Juliette was doubtful of, but for now the system worked fine how it was.

Arriving at the docks with her tiny charges in tow, she narrowed in on a lone fisherman. The elderly man sat on the docks, sorting through a barrel of fish while two younger men on a small fishing boat worked on tying a net next to him.

She wrinkled her nose at the smell of fish, but smoothed out her expression a moment late.

Walking up to the old man, she slipped into the role of ‘Queen’ with ease. “Yao, son of Tengri,” she spoke, slowing to a stop next to him. “I see you’ve had a fine catch this morning.”

“My Queen!” the man bowed low, his voice taking on a reverential tone. Behind him, his son and grandson both dropped the net they were working on to bow as well. “What an honor, for you to visit me so early in the morning! And yes, we have! I’m sure it’s because of your very presence we’ve had such luck—surely the gods wished to show you their favor!”

Juliette nodded, glancing over all three of them. “How fortunate,” she hummed, looking down at the bucket of fish with what she hoped was an aloof enough expression. “Hm. Quite a fine haul indeed. In fact, I believe this one looks quite fine. Tell me, would you part with it?”

The man’s eyes followed her hand as she elegantly pointed to one on top. Truthfully, she knew nothing about fishing, but that one looked big and so that was the one she picked.

“The carp? Of course, of course! Anything for you, my Queen!”

She nodded sharply. “Excellent. Ya, Yan, you may grab that one. I thank you, Yao, for your generosity. These children shall no longer starve thanks to you. It shows your merit, that you did not even hesitate to relinquish what you worked so hard to catch.”

The old man blushed, raising his hand to scratch his scalp. “Aw, shucks. It’s not really such a big deal. But if it’s for you my Queen, I’d do anything!”

She gave him a placid smile. “Wonderful. May all your endeavors be fruitful.”

“So long as you are our Queen, they always shall!”

With the exchange done, the three of them left the fishermen to get back to work, the two girls carrying the fish between them with twin looks of adorable determination.

Despite herself, Juliette caught herself musing on the encounter.

It was sometimes jarring, to interact with her citizens. These people didn’t worship like people in modern era did—religion in her time was an institutional, active act, while for these people without churches or temples or even distinct gods religion was more of a communal, passive thing. They gave thanks to gods of nature when foraging or hunting; they had funerary rights where they floated a person’s body down the river, clutching things they would need in the afterlife; and at night they gathered to listen to stories and songs from their shamans. Recently, a new trend of painting your doorframe with sheep’s blood to keep away ‘Red Bandits’ had cropped up, and some people had set up a spot by the pier to ‘commune’ with their ancestors.

Religion was a fundamental part of these people’s lives, so intertwined that it was hard to tell worship from simple gratitude. It was like helping an old lady cross the street, only for her to quote scripture to you in thanks, making you unable to tell if she was thanking you or God.

As a normal person it would be just kind of weird, but as the object of worship herself it was stressful.

What if she did something wrong? What if she lost one battle too many, and people realized she wasn’t as divine as she portrayed herself as? Should she react to surprises, or pretend that she knew what would happen all along? She kept a regal, ‘Queenly’ face on at all times, but in reality it was little more than a particularly good poker face.

At what point did the ‘normal woman Juliette Francois’ end and ‘God-Queen Juliette’ begin?

“Queen Juliette,” Ya murmured softly, tugging on the back of her skirt. “Where are we going?”

Juliette blinked, shaken out of her spiraling thoughts. “Oh, right. Of course, we’re going to the barracks. One of the soldiers there will cook this for us. If he’s polite, he might even get a piece.”

“Oh. That makes sense.”

“Hm, good, good. That being said—ah, why don’t you lead the way then, Ya.”

The young girl stared up at her, wide eyed. “Wh—you want me to lead?”

“Of course,” Juliette raised an eyebrow, placing her hands behind her back calmly. “I am the Queen. Surely you don’t expect me to go first?”

It was complete bullshit, what she was saying. But the girl had some serious confidence issues, so Juliette tried to help her out wherever she could. Whether that worked or not, though…

“But—but I…” Ya shook her head with wide eyes, and oh god were those tears wait please don’t cry I can go first I’m sorry!

“Hey, stop your crying!” Yan snapped, stomping in front of them. “I’m fine with leading, so you just stick back with the Queen, you got it!?”

Ya sniffled, wiping at her eyes. “I… I understand,” she murmured, looking at once both relieved and dejected as she stepped back next to Juliette, clutching at her skirt.

Juliette closed her eyes, wincing internally. ‘That… that could have gone better. Still, thank you Yan, for salvaging it. Though, you might just be making it worse in a different way…’

“Very well then,” she hummed, opening her eyes. “Lead on, Yan. Come along, Ya. Let us go forth. This fish won’t cook itself, after all.”

And with one gruff and one meek “Okay,” the three of them continued on with their day.

--

About eight months ago, two young girls stumbled up to Juliette’s house. They pounded on the door, begging and crying. For help, for safety, for their leader to tell them everything would be all right.

Juliette, the Queen-turned-Duchess who was then struggling with rebuilding her city and dealing with the new King breathing down her neck, would normally have just sent them on their way. Perhaps she would have given them a smile and some kind words before sending them back to their parents.

Which is what she did. Only for the little girls to tell her they didn’t have any.

They’d died in the war. Their father had been a soldier of hers, who’d died in the initial stages of the siege by the Red army. He’d been up on the walls with her, when the catapults tore them down. And then their mother, who’s grief had turned into rage, turned and attacked any soldier who came near, leading to her death by their hands as well.

The girls had been especially descriptive of that part, Yan explaining with a viciousness of how their mother gutted a man with a butcher’s knife, while Yi whimpered as she described the soldier’s retaliation.

All of this was explained to an increasingly wide-eyed Juliette, who stared down at the two girls dumping their life stories on her doorstep.

After that, well… she couldn’t just tell them to leave. They had nowhere to go, anymore.

While normally the two of them would end up being adopted and raised by the community, after their annexation into the Red Kingdom and the subsequent almost complete restructuring of society that followed, they had ended up being left adrift for far, far too long.

Juliette… still wasn’t sure what to do with them, exactly. She’d given them the job of ‘handmaidens,’ which was just a fancy way of saying ‘servants,’ but beyond cooking and cleaning they didn’t really do much. She wasn’t cruel enough to treat a bunch of desolate kids as slaves, so she just gave them some easy chores to make them feel like they were being productive. But half the time she ate with Qian’s family and Li refused to let anyone besides Qian help her with the cooking, and cleaning a small, barely used house once a week wasn’t exactly a time-consuming task.

She didn’t really need them here, but every time she considered getting rid of them she was reminded of the two crying orphans begging on her doorstep and she was just like, ‘damn, guess I’m a mom now??’

Well, she didn’t think of herself as a mom, more like, a cool older sister? Yeah, that. She was too young to be a mom anyway. The kids were practically adults anyway, no need for her to replace their parents.

And so, Juliette, God-Queen, murderer, and twenty-one-year-old college dropout, had found herself as the adopted older sister of two depressed orphans.

…Yay?

--

“So, Juliette, what did you do today?” Li asked, gently stirring a pot of stew over a fire. Behind her, a table was spread out with ceramic bowls and silverware. Qian sat nearest to her, tapping his remaining hand on the table absently, while Juliette sat across from him. Further in the back of the room, the twins Ya and Yan were playing dolls with Qian’s children Min and Chaoxing.

It was a peaceful scene, and one of the few times she felt she could relax and just be ‘Juliette.’

“I checked out the fishermen down by the docks, to make sure they were catching enough fish,” she hummed, grabbing herself a cup of water. “Then I returned to my palace to plan out my next projects and look over some important reports.”

Yan gave her a confused look from across the room. “Hah? But didn’t you just sleep all day?”

Across from her, Qian snorted, before covering his mouth and looking away.

Juliette swirled her cup of water absently, taking a short sip. “Ya, would you mind slapping your sister for me?”

“Wha—OUCH! Hey!”

“Did you really do nothing but sleep all day?” Li asked, giving her a disappointed look only a mother could pull off, despite the fact that she was only a couple years older than her. “Shouldn’t you have been doing something more productive?”

“We’re taking a break!” Juliette most certainly did not whine. “And all my other projects are already set up! All I have left to do right now is just wait for them to finish. Then I’ll continue working on them.”

Li raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “Uh-uh. And what exactly are these projects, that you don’t need to—”

“MY QUEEN!” Li’s recrimination of Juliette was mercifully cut short by Shimisi suddenly slamming open the door, barging into their house. “I”VE DONE IT!”

Yan let out a shocked scream, chucking her doll at the smith’s head. It bounced off, yet she barely noticed it, her manic smile not budging in the slightest.

“Shimisi!” Juliette smiled at her, taking the lifeline for what it was. “What have you done, exactly?”

“I smelted it!” her wide, manic smile grew even wider and crazier, if that were possible. “The ore. The… the metal! The thing! Yes! It’s done!”

Juliette blinked, suddenly focusing on the deep, deep bags under the smith’s eyes. “Shimisi. Are you saying you’ve successfully smelted one of the ores I gave you?”

“YEAH!”

Juliette took a long sip from her cup, suddenly feeling very, very tired despite what should have been an amazing breakthrough. “Shimisi, I thought I told you to take a break. I have been actively seeking you out during the day to make sure you are doing so. When have you had the time to work?”

“That’s because I’ve been working on it at night when you aren’t around!” she smiled back, her eyes alight with manic, sleep deprived energy.

Juliette placed her head in her hands and gave out a long, shuddering sigh.

“Very well,” she lifted her head back up, her face a calm and regal as a Queen’s should be. “Qian, Li, I apologize, but I’ll be back later. I have something I need to check on. Shimisi, if you would lead the way.”

“Yeah! I’m…” she stumbled, looking a moment away from collapsing on her feet. “…It’s this way. Just follow me, yeah!”

--

Following the sleep deprived smith through the nighttime streets of King’s End, the two of them eventually arrived at the forge she’d set up behind the barracks.

“Alright, Shimisi, where is it?” Juliette asked, glancing around the scattered, messy courtyard. Was it just her, or was it worse than when she was last here?

“Here it is, here it is!” the smith hummed, practically floating over to the stone anvil. With flourish, she picked up one of the rocks and held it out for Juliette to take.

No, wait, it wasn’t a rock. It was metal.

It was a lumpy, offset slab of metal that shined in the dim moonlight. With only the cooling cinders of the forge as light, it was next to impossible to tell the color of it, but it looked like it was some shade of silvery grey.

Despite that, it was very clearly not iron.

With some effort, she pushed down, bending the metal slab with just her bare hands. As she did so, it let out a faint cry that almost sounded like crackling.

This was not iron. It was tin.

It wasn’t what she hoped for. But it was a sight better than what she feared.

“Shimsi?”

“Yeah?”

“Is this what I think it is? Did you successfully smelt metal?”

“Yeah!”

“I see…” Juliette felt a small, content smile to grow on her face. It wasn’t iron, but tin wasn’t bad at all.

“Oh, and Shimisi?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to strap you to your bed until you learn to listen when I tell you to take a damn break.”

“Yeah! …Wait.”

9,884 God-Kings Remain