Secrets of the Villainous Empress

Chapter Twenty-Four: Une Nuit en Ville

Lucy Diox

All the stalls in the town in the capital were open and packed, the streets decorated in ribbons and light crystals while wonderfully upbeat Celtic music filled the streets.

It felt like ‘remembrance’ day festival, only this time she was not with her friend but her wonderful brothers, Aleu and Calvin, who had delicious gossip to entertain her with.

“Wait, so the duke said that he wants you, a person he has never even had a conversation with, to be the Empress’s concubine?” The youngest of the Luciano household, Lucy, asked her brother Aleu as she ate the second last dango off her skewer.

It was odd for any sixteen-year-old to address their father by their title, but that was perhaps only in other households.

“Technically, I was the first choice, but as Aleu is unemployed…unimpressive… un-”, Calvin began cheekily, giving his obviously twisted version of the truth.

“Hah! First choice?” Aleu interrupted, “You practically begged not to be chosen!”

“Hey, she is very attractive but-,” Calvin shrugged as though to remove the heavyweight on his chest.

“I can't believe that there is a 'but' after the word attractive.” Lucy teased.

“Right? What sort of sorcery has been used on you?” Aleu followed Lucy’s cue to gang up on their brother.

 “I have a career.” He pressed. “I don’t want to give that up to rearrange furniture and look pretty.”

“You think I’m pretty?” Aleu retorted good-naturedly, but Lucy understood that he was probably hiding his true feelings concerning the matter before them.

About two weeks ago, the staff at the academy had announced that today and tomorrow would be a temporary holiday because of the Council summoning, as most nobles would most likely wish to either attend the ball or be with their families.

She hadn't expected to be visited, especially by Aleu, who mostly avoided conflicts in every shape and form. Lucy had expected Calvin’s appearance because he had mentioned his promotions in one of their letters. However, Aleu was not a talker, so his presence came as a most welcome surprise.

Lucy had always found it difficult to commune with her brother, Aleu. It wasn’t just the twelve-year age difference that acted as a hindrance but the fact that Aleu had experienced more than most, even though both she and Calvin were illegitimate.

Their Mother, Myra Diox, had beautiful brown eyes that bordered on hazel, while the duke had sapphire eyes, Aleu on the other hand, was born with golden eyes.

This led to the immediate imprisonment of their mother, who never once dropped her claim of fidelity to the duke. Their mother raised Aleu in the cells, feeding him the scraps that she was served until he turned five, and his mana potential exceeded that of Trident and Virginia.

That was when his hell begun.

Virginia and Trident played awful pranks on him, pranks that nearly bordered assault and when he finally grew numb to them, they turned their attention to their mother.

One such childish prank had been Virginia deceiving their mother that the man she had loved, the duke, wished to meet with her in his offices. Needless to say, their mother had foolishly believed Virginia’s words, and when she left the cells, she found the duke and his knights surrounding the prisons’ main exit because Trident had plaided the other side.

Trident had urged the duke to test her loyalty by offering her freedom. If she were to leave her cell, she was not a faithful woman. If she were to stay, she was his, a conversation that was brought about by the subject of how best to use Aleu as at age ten, he was already at par with his siblings, who had begun their training almost four years before him.

After twenty-eight lashings to her soles, her position as a concubine was lowered to mistress, and it was then that Aleu understood that he had to learn how to quiet his breathing for he and his mother to survive.

Almost overnight, Aleu’s training and promised talent seemingly vanished. Though this to the duke resembled a tragedy, he was a man who only tore down; therefore, he locked Aleu and his mother in the central tower on account of being useless.

Lucy’s birth had been a test of sorts; could his mistreated mistress produce another golden-eyed child who did not spend their days watering flowers and chatting with the maids? However, the next child had been her, and she turned out below average.

Lucy had been raised by Aleu because their mother’s sanity had already begun to escape her by the time she had finally learned her words.

Even in school, where Virginia and Trident had less access to those he loved because it was boarding, instead of finally dashing to the spotlight, Aleu settled with blacksmithing, an art that was not in any way representative of nobility.

“Are you scared, Aleu?” Lucy found herself asking before she grew too nervous because, at the back of her mind, she understood that her existence only added to his suffering.

“Kid.” He smiled then ruffled her hair, “Do you not want an excuse to visit the imperial palace?”

“BU-” she began, but Calvin interrupted.

“Don’t worry, kid, this isn’t for you. The Empress nabbed his girl.” He winked.

“Wait, Fuscia is in the palace?” Lucy asked, startled by the news.

“A little bit?” he squirmed.

“A little bit? What is that!!” she huffed, “Oh gods, she could be crying right now? Fuscia must be crying by now. You know how sweet she is.”

“Oh, the Empress…!” her hands flew to her cheeks, and the sauce from the dango treat caught her hair, but this was easily ignored, “She is going to eat Fuscia! I guarantee it!”

“Somehow, I can't picture that,” Aleu replied, but the newfound stiffness in his posture betrayed his emotions.

But rather than press the issue, Lucy decided to drop her worry because it would do them no good to panic over their own imaginations.

“So, that’s a yes on you becoming a concubine?” she asked, clearing her throat while she lowered her overdramatic hands from her face.

“I give my answer tomorrow.” He said, then added, “But it will most likely be ‘yes’.”

“Wow.” Lucy breathed.

Truthfully, she had always anticipated for Aleu’s life to take a turn. Sure, his story can start a little depressing, but she had always waited for the big turn, the huge twist where he gets more from life than its bitterness, the climax…the happy ending.

Surely, a man as kind as he should have a different god writing his story.

 Or did perhaps her prayers not reach the heavens?

Was she not praying correctly or hard enough? Should she have to kneel until fatigue claimed her? Should she pray to the point of fainting, or should she take up fasting like the priests in the temples?

Their prayers always seemed to work.

Aleu pressed a finger between her brows then whispered.

“Mother will be set free if I do this.”

“S-set free?”

“Yes, to live in Mayflower.”

So, that was good news to him?

In exchange for his life, because it was common knowledge the fate of the Empress’s harem, he would get mother, whose spirit was halfway to the heavens by now?

Aren’t the gods too unfair?