Chapter 105: The Princesses

Baldwin's coronation ceremony was held three weeks after Sibylla's wedding.

This ceremony was simpler than any previous coronation ceremony, yet exceptionally solemn and grave. It was less like a coronation and more like a second funeral Baldwin held for his father. Throughout the entire ceremony, neither Patriarch Heraclius, who blessed and anointed him, nor Raymond, who placed the crown on his head, found a hint of joy or excitement in this youth.

Just as he said, what was there to value in this ceremony? Every step taken reminded him that he had lost his monarch and father.

Although this led some people to often slander the new King of Al-Asar as being too indecisive and sentimental, others said that a king with feelings and righteousness was always much better than those heartless and ungrateful villains.

"Heartless and ungrateful villain" undoubtedly referred to Abigail. For someone like him, who had already been knighted and become Sibylla's husband, wanting to enter the decision-making layer of Al-Asar was a very simple matter. After all, according to the tradition of Al-Asar, the combination of a queen and a foreign husband was equivalent to the queen bearing the responsibility of politics and inheritance, while the husband bore the responsibility of military affairs and external conquest and expansion.

And before long, Abigail began to be mocked by others as a coward hiding in a woman's skirt—even though there was already the saying of a honeymoon at this time, his behavior of pestering Sibylla almost every moment was truly looked down upon, not to mention that young knights were already complaining that Sibylla's husband interfered too much in the Princess's life.

Although ever since Amalric I concluded a new marriage contract, the mistress of the castle had changed to the Byzantine princess Maria. But the King's eldest daughter was also one of the objects of admiration that knights could choose—this admiration did not involve the flesh, but was more like a kind of spiritual compliment and worship, more like a means for a knight to show his loyalty and talent to his monarch than to a woman—knights would not fight a duel for a tavern maid or a peasant woman.

As a husband, Abigail should not only not interfere, but should express appreciation. But he didn't.

Not only did he not allow Sibylla to accept gifts, flower crowns, or any items expressing affection from other knights, even when a minstrel was hired by a knight to sing a song for Sibylla, he would rudely drive them away or even whip them.

At first, there were knights who challenged him. If he could defeat his opponent in a joust or a melee, he might still gain some respect; after all, the voice of the strong had always been the loudest among knights. But the problem was, no matter what kind of duel it was, he was defeated miserably.

After he broke his leg in a melee for the last time, Sibylla finally lost patience with him completely. She moved back to her original room (the original couple's rooms were adjacent) and refused to share a bed with her husband again.

This matter soon attracted the attention of Baldwin, the Wang Hou, and the Grand Duke of Antioch, Bohemond.

Strangely, neither party of the newlyweds was willing to express their views on the current situation. Abigail insisted on staying by Sibylla's side, while Sibylla just remained silent.

What made Bohemond feel most ashamed was that after Abigail recovered, he actually challenged that knight again. And that knight actually refused. Logically speaking, someone who refused a challenge would be seen as a coward, but no one thought that knight would be a coart (in the French folk satirical story poem "The Story of Reynard the Fox," there is a small hare named Coart, whose greatest characteristic is cowardice).

He had once followed the King on an expedition to Egypt and had made enviable contributions in the siege—he was one of the knights who followed Richard, Cesar, and Baldwin to be the first to scale the walls of Fustat.

In the joust, he had unhorsed Abigail with a single spear, and the reason he refused, anyone who heard it would laugh out loud. He said: "I can't always have you lying in bed!"

This sentence was truly ironic, and even carried a bit of color. This joke soon became a wonderful phrase used by every knight to tease beggars and prostitutes. They wouldn't even use this sentence on other knights—no knight could compare to Abigail in being fierce in appearance but faint in heart and bluffing, and his repeated provocations made the knights feel weary.

Abigail dared to do this, wasn't it because he knew clearly that during the period of his and the Princess's marriage contract, for the sake of the future heir to the kingdom, no one dared to kill him?

"Indeed," after listening to a knight's complaint, the Wang Hou smiled: "This is indeed the most important work they are capable of now."

They must have a child. This child was not just for the continuation of this marriage; he was born for Al-Asar, for the Crusaders to have a healthy and strong commander in the future, and also for the cause of the believers, the church, and God.

This was not a responsibility that two young people could easily abandon just because they were angry.

She called Bohemond and told him about this matter, and asked him to urge his son; after all, in the matter of procreation, men were more crucial.

Bohemond went to see his son. They had a conversation; it didn't last long, but when they came out, neither of their expressions was very good. As for Sibylla, she was persuaded by the Wang Hou.

When facing her birth mother, Sibylla could put on an arrogant posture. Because in terms of status, she was higher than the Countess of Yafa. But when facing the Wang Hou, her arrogance was not so rampant. The other party was a direct female relative of the Byzantine Emperor, the widow of the King of Al-Asar, and her "mother."

Although the age difference between them was not more than three years, the Wang Hou was the mistress of this castle.

The Wang Hou didn't care much about Sibylla's attitude. She still clearly remembered how ecstatic Sibylla was when she gave birth to Isabella—and also saw how she treated her own birth mother. If a person could be so cold to the one who gave birth to them, others shouldn't expect to get her true heart.

She was just fulfilling the responsibility of a mistress.

To be honest, although she and Sibylla had spent more time together in the castle, in terms of affection, Sibylla was not even as good as Baldwin, whom she had only met a few times—when she married in, Baldwin should have been raised by her, but at that time Amalric I was anxious for her to conceive, and Baldwin was also promoted to a squire and apprentice knight in advance, serving more by his father's side, so they didn't have many opportunities to meet.

Instead, after Amalric I passed away, Baldwin would visit her and Isabella at a frequency of three to four times a week.

Today was also a visiting day. Before the Wang Hou walked into the room, she saw the knights outside the door. They bowed their heads to salute her. She nodded slightly and walked in with the maids.

Baldwin was standing by the window, which was the farthest place from Isabella, wearing a veil and gloves. The Wang Hou curtsied to him, and he nodded in return.

"Why are you standing so far away?" the Wang Hou asked with a smile: "Don't you want to hug her? Children always grow up fast—she is very comfortable to hold, fat and soft, like a little pig."

"You shouldn't say that about a girl," Baldwin said. "It's enough for Cesar to hold her for me to see. And Isabella seems to like him more."

The Wang Hou's response was to forcefully take Isabella from Cesar's arms and stuff her into Baldwin's arms.

No mother could not love her child, but she was a Byzantine princess. No one knew better than her what would happen to a princess if she could not gain the favor of the King or Emperor.

Affection was never cultivated overnight, nor could it be had by coldly greeting each other from afar. Love was hugging, kissing, and listening. Without real touch, all descriptions and memories were false, thin, and could not withstand any test.

Baldwin was already the new King of Al-Asar.

This meant that everything in this castle now could become a weight he would place on the scale in the future. Who was light and who was heavy? Perhaps it was in his single thought. And as the grand-niece of Manuel I, did she not have ambitions?

Who said that only the child born to Sibylla could become Baldwin's heir, and the child born to her Isabella could not?

Even in terms of noble status and illustrious birth, her Isabella was completely superior to her sister. Of course, the final decision-making power was still in the hands of the youth before her. When he rarely showed a nervous expression, looking down at his little sister, the Wang Hou's mood was exceptionally calm.

However, Isabella clearly did not understand her mother's painstaking efforts.

A child of only one or two years old, of course, did not understand leprosy, inheritance rights, and the meaning of a king. She only felt that staying in Baldwin's arms was very boring. To ensure the safety of his little sister, Baldwin had put on gloves, covered his face with a veil, and wore a headscarf before entering the room to ensure that not an inch of his skin was exposed, and his breath would never spray onto the child's tender face.

But for a child, she could only see a pair of blue eyes. Although these blue eyes were also beautiful, there was still no way to compare with her previous "big cradle." She struggled, wanting to return to Cesar's arms, until Baldwin stood up and lifted her into the air, "Are you afraid?" he teased the child.

Clearly, the little Princess was not afraid. She looked around in the air, propping herself up with two little arms, kicking her two little legs. This height was something she had never reached before—in any case, Baldwin and Cesar's height far exceeded those of their peers, even rare among knights. She overlooked everything from an incomparably fresh position, almost able to see her mother's head, as well as the maids' towering headdresses and flower wreaths.

She giggled, extremely excited. Suddenly, she spun around.

The scenery before her eyes kept changing. She let out a sharp cry, but not because of fear, but because of ecstasy. Her face became flushed. Baldwin could feel the little body between his hands rapidly becoming scorching hot. He quickly put her down, worried that she was frightened, but he only saw an incomparably brilliant smile.

An infant's smile was always so pure, flawless, and worry-free. He looked at those blue eyes. The little Princess did not look much like her mother or father, or rather, she combined the advantages of Amalric I and Maria. She had deep features and soft facial contours. Her eyes were also blue, but different from Amalric I's and Sibylla's, they were very much like Baldwin's, but the color was lighter.

If Baldwin's eyes were as blue as a great lake, her eyes were as azure as the sky, and those fine flashes were like the moon and stars in the high sky.

When she was still a baby, the Wang Hou had worried that the little Princess would inherit her mediocre appearance. Although she would definitely have a good marriage, whether a husband's heart was by your side was very important for a woman. Sibylla was the best example.

Isabella would be a beauty in the future, not inferior to her sister, and she was also very smart.

She discovered that when Baldwin was willing to lift her high, she would honestly stay in Baldwin's arms. Baldwin put her down, and she kept begging with those round, big eyes, but when she found that Baldwin only wiped the thin sweat from her forehead but had no further action, she mercilessly abandoned her brother and ran back to Cesar's side.

People thought she would also ask Cesar to lift her high. Unexpectedly, she just looked left and right, and knew her wish could not be realized. If she brought it up, Cesar would very likely hand her over to another maid, so she wisely quieted down and obediently nestled in Cesar's arms, without a sound, drawing another round of irrepressible light laughter from the Wang Hou and the maids.

Such an atmosphere indeed made people involuntarily feel a sense of attachment. Baldwin had originally only wanted to see his little sister and leave after staying for a while, but accompanied by laughter, they actually stayed from dusk until the moon rose. During this time, they also enjoyed a sumptuous dinner with the Wang Hou.

When they returned to the left tower—Baldwin retained the King's original room, hoping that he could occasionally go and see it, as if his father were still by his side.

He knew that the King had once regarded him as a transition, but before him, the King had never revealed a single bit of it. Allow him to be fragile for a while; at least before Amalric I, he still hoped to be a son who was loved.

And now he also had someone he needed to love. He talked incessantly with Cesar along the way. Baldwin rarely did this—after getting sick, he had always been reticent.

Today, he was completely immersed in this rare happiness, so happy that Cesar couldn't bear to interrupt.

Unfortunately, their teacher Heraclius would not care about Baldwin's mood.

For him, Baldwin's status had changed. He was the King of Al-Asar, and he should become a person like Amalric I.

Amalric I might not be perfect, but in terms of how to fulfill the duties and obligations of a king, he was impeccable.

And his other student.

"You should go and take a look at Bethlehem, Cesar."

Heraclius said.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 106 =====