His Destined Empress

Ch-16 ( Evil Royal)

Aarav sat beside Aahana, looking at her. He held her hand in worry. The doctor said that she is just exhausted. He cannot shake the feeling that something is going on with her. He felt nothing, or felt exhausted. So why does she?

He looked at everyone of the Archduke’s family standing in the room looking at the unconscious girl with worry.

“You all don’t have to worry. She will be fine.”; Aarav said. He does not want them to stay in the room for long. Eleanor walked closer to Aahana and sat down beside her, holding her hand. She looked at Aarav with a concerned look.

“Does she always faint like that?”; She questioned. Aarav shook his head, making her even more concerned.

Aarav is worried about her. She has had none health issues. She rarely caught cold or fever. She has always been healthy. This is the first time he has seen her this sick.

“She is just exhausted, Archduchess. I am sure it must be because we jumped through worlds. We will be fine.”; He answered. He does not care if she is worried, he just wants them all out and away from his sister. He does not trust them with her.

“Sir Aarav. I have a favour to ask from you and Miss Aahana.”; Anderson said. Eleanor looked at him with a glare, but he did not back out. Aarav wanted to frown in irritation because this clearly is not a great time to ask for a favour but said nothing.

“I would like if you both can pretend to be my niece and nephew.”; Anderson said. Aarav frowned, not knowing where this is going.

“And why is that?”; Aarav asked. If he allows them to announce that he and Aahana are his niece and nephew, they will be bound to the Griffith family. People who dislike Griffith family might even try to harm them and people who like them might try to take advantage of clueless siblings. Surely, they will have much stronger standing, better means to survive and obviously luxury. But this might even narrow down their perspective, because people will see them as one of the Griffiths.

“When you both arrived here, the power that was emitted alerted many people. Imperial family and Royal families of all other kingdoms. I was called to the King to ask me about it. I had to lie that I went to the church to pray for my niece and nephew, Eleanor’s brother’s children, who have lost their memories. So that your identities could remain a secret, but for that I would like if you can admit it as well.”; Anderson said. Eleanor looked at her husband in worry. Lying to the royals is a crime. He could be imprisoned for years, if this gets out.

“Why did you lie? I thought it is very common for people to come to your world.”; Aarav asked. He is confused. Is this man really just contradicting his own words?

“It is common, but it is kept a secret between the church and the Griffith family after what happened last time.”; Anderson said. He looked down at his shoes and clenched his fist. Aarav could see the clenched fist shiver. It could be anger from remembering something bad or trembling from lying.

“It is okay, father. I will tell them the rest.”; Michael said. He looked at Aarav with a sad face.

“We said that people traveling to this world are common, but you guys came here after a century. Before you guys, a girl with black hair and brown eyes came here as well. She was tall and white as snow. During that time, a plague was going on. Royals could not control it and provided no service to the people. Everyone started revolting against them; they wanted the royals to be dethroned. During that time, we all were close to make a medicine for all and the distribution was started and we had a positive result.

But because of this Griffith’s family image rose and people wanted our family to become royals. While Royals could not see that, they saw how our medicines been affected and it was then they chose the right time to blame everything on the girl. The girl living in our protection, she was the one who helped in developing the medicine. She did not want the attention and prohibited us to take her name. Our ancestors complied.

She was blamed for everything. The family tried to clear her name, but to no avail. She was declared as a witch from another world who is responsible for everything. We protected her till the end, but the Archduke of that time was asked to go to the borders to take care of the area. Because of it he had to take the knights and see the security weaken a little; they kidnapped her. When he came back, he came to know that she was burnt alive.

Goddess was angry and prohibited any other to come to this world. Our ancestor wrote a book which is just for us Griffith’s, it said that after what happened the Goddess lost trust in Griffith family. The day another one come will be the day Goddess forgives them. It will be our duty to keep them safe from everyone, even the royal and imperial family.”; Michael finished his story.

Aarav’s eyes widened when he heard that. He wants to believe it, but from what he sees; they are only protective of Aahana and not him. He is also from the other world. Yet, it could be seen that Aahana is a girl. From what he has heard about ‘old’ times, women were considered weak. This kind of makes sense why they always keep an eye out for Aahana. They don’t want to anger their goddess and people from such time are very religious and superstitious.

“I believe King will send someone to check on the fact in coming week,” Anderson said.

“The choice is yours.”; Samuel said. All of them were nervous. They know Aahana is very close to Aarav and seeing that Aarav does all the speaking, they think he is the one who decides.

“What about your brother, Archduchess? Won’t he object to it?”; He asked. Eleanor gave him a small and shook her head.

“The brother, my husband is talking about is my second brother. He is travelling the world and we just get a letter a year to know he is fine. I am sure he will be fine. We will send him a letter.”; Eleanor said.

“What about his family?”; Aarav asked.

“Well, he has never been much of a marriage kind of person. He had many affairs in towns he visited, but he never married.”; Eleanor said. Aarav raised his eyebrows but nodded either way. He looked down at Aahana, who was still laying still. He has no choice but to trust them for now. He does not know about this world and they cannot take a risk of going through such things, especially when everyone has powers and they have no advantage at all.

“I accept.”; Aarav said. Anderson nodded at him.

“I thank you.”; Anderson said.

“No, I should thank you all. You all have been taking such good care of us. I thank you Archduke Griffith.”; Aarav said with a hint of thankfulness in his voice.

They all smiled at him and nodded before going out of the room. Anderson came towards Eleanor and he had to signal her to come with them out. She cannot stay here with Aahana. Aarav has every right, but they are not so close to her yet. She looked at Aahana and combed her hair back. She wanted to kiss her daughter’s forehead, but she could not. She got up and followed her husband out.

She covered her mouth as a tear slipped out of her eyes. Anderson hugged her as they walked away from the closed door of the room.

“I want to be with my daughter, Anderson.”; Eleanor said.

“I too, Eleanor. But we have to wait. We have to become her family once again and that takes time.”; Anderson said. He wants to sit by his daughter’s side. He wants to become someone she can rely on and he wants to hear her say ‘father’. She used to in her past life, but he always reprimanded her and denied their relationship. After sometime she stopped altogether. It is such an irony that now, he would even beg for her to call him ‘father’.