Secrets of the Villainous Empress

Chapter Eight: What happens to crumbs once we eat the cake?

“Henderson!?”

“You called?” the blonde-haired heartthrob winked, then pulled me in for a hug. “My gods, how long has it been?”

“Umm…” I froze at the contact.

I would have preferred if his hounds had come instead because apart from being exceedingly efficient…he was very touchy.

“I am a woman in this life, and the Empress, so try to keep your distance.”

“What do you mean?” he pulled away from the embrace to examine my face, “You will always be my brother.”

-This fool!-

“How kind,” I replied sarcastically.

I first met Henderson when he was ten in the southern isles, the merchant dutchy of Cursix, in a little village called List. There, my role had been to protect the village children from raids, monster attacks and all sorts of natural phenomena as the village had been isolated in the ‘Evil’ Mangroove forest.

I mean, it wasn’t evil, well maybe it was, the place just had a lot of energy, so much so that it drew in all sorts of beasts.

In any case, I was married to Henderson’s sister, who had passed away several years earlier, leaving him to my care. For most of that life, I raised Henderson like a son. If you don’t count the occasional disagreements we had, rendering me to abandon him in numerous caves because he was more rascal than adorable, then we were a pretty decent family. Probably, because of my parenting methods, I don’t know, when he was thirteen, he left to join the underground world of ‘Ninjas’ that was rampant in the isles, to my surprise, he took over that world, which had not even been in the role description. In any case, he came back and placed List under his protection, rendering my role complete.

I don’t make it a habit to tell everyone my identity; I only did so to those who were ‘worth knowing’, and he, was very much the epitome of ‘worth’. After being a pauper in three lifetimes, and in two of those, I met my end via starvation, I decided to become an elusive merchant, whose source could not be traced, and an ‘elusive’ merchant needed connections, however few.

Those who I told my secret could benefit in just the same way I did from them.

So far in this world, apart from Saint Mikael, who was a fallen god, only three other people knew my identity. Sofia Moss, an immortal Lycian witch, Tea Draconia, a dragon that I had raised as my own and lastly, the big oaf standing before me.

“Sit, sit,” I said, ushering him to the luxurious deep magenta couch at the centre of the room. “I, unfortunately, cannot offer you tea as I am, well, stuck in my room.”

“We could just break you out.”

“I see you are still as tactless as ever. Thank the gods for Everest,” I said, walking towards the seats.

Everest was Hend’s best friend and vice in the organisation. He was the brains, while Hend’s the brawns because he was unbelievably powerful.

“Ah, he is well, by the way,” Hends said, sprawling himself on the three-seater couch with shoes on.

-This! this is why it was easy to leave him in the caves!!-

“So, who was it that came to see you,” I asked, sitting across from him on the single couch then, crossing my left leg over my right.

“First, it was some guy at door’s death, a doctor of sorts, I guess. He almost bled out, so we had to nurse him. I will send you the bill, by the way,” he said, winking, “Later, a terrified maid came in and spun some fancy tale about a Knight delivering goods like a merchant.”

“Unfortunately, the knight threatened her, so she could not check the goods as ‘her master’ had suggested. Rather, her situation is quite extreme. There is a search order placed on her head, so she can’t return.”

-Hmm, no wonder Hilda was missing-

“She came crying, sayin’ that you were going to kill her and whatnot. Both are still at my hideout, and I sent some men to watch her family.”

“I specifically told them not to mention my identity,” I said, then leaned on my chair's backrest.

“She didn’t if we are speaking in technicalities. She just kept insisting that her master would kill her. The actual giveaway was the Knight’s name, Crysis…or is it Circus?”

“Oh gods, please tell me you have someone else working on the case.” I frowned, “With your memory, I might end up executing the wrong person!”

“Not a chance brother, I have your back.”

-Well, f**k-

I sighed, then stood and walked to the chess table near the window.

“Tell me more about the doctor. What information did he provide?”

“Hmm, he said that he saw the shipment of moonlight as you had described it, being delivered personally to a man by the name of Cletus, a butcher. Later, a cart with the imperial stamp carrying fresh vegetables from the market swang by and a case of meat was loaded into the vehicle.”

“That was all he saw before he was spotted and, the bandits roughed him up. It was a miracle that he survived!” Hends placed his hand on his mouth, “He limped, all bloody to my pub. Can you imagine what would happen to me if my customers stop showing up because of you? I’d have to look into another career choice, like daycare or something.”

“I see,” I frowned, “So the doctor has been incapacitated.”

“are you just going to ignore me?”

“hmm, both of them have been dealt with rather easily,”

“do you want to meet with him…? Oh wait, you are grounded.” He laughed sarcastically, and I threw him the nearest object, which was a pillow.

“This means that my message has been passed, but not fully.” My hand flew to my chin, and I unconsciously tapped my forefinger against my cheek before moving the white’s Knight on the chessboard to F3 and my black Knight piece to C6.

“So?” I turned to him, “Will you have someone else take this commission?”

“What do you mean, someone else? Bro-bro, I am here for you.”

“You don’t even know the name of the Knight!”

“I’ll ask them to write it down; what’s the problem, bro-star?”

-Haaah…I should have asked them to request for Ernest.-

“Plus,” He began, “I've always wanted to be an imperial lap dog.”

“We’ll discuss that after you show me what you can do.”I took a deep breath to quell the frustration building up at his insistence then began pacing around the chess table. “I want the names of the key players, the butcher, the knight, the kitchen staff receiving the ‘meat’, and I need you to interrogate the man who does the personal delivery to the butcher. His life is yours to judge, but I don’t think that there is a need to kill him, mercenaries often only follow money.”

“Don’t kill any of the key players. I want them to play a little first.”

That should take care of that, but how would he know which cook or staff to look into?

“You can double any two of my staff, do not kill the ones you replace.”

Some ninja techniques allowed for body doubling, which was convenient in preventing assassinations or…going undercover.

 “Oh, by the way, I’d like a teleportation scroll,” I added casually as I gazed at my wardrobe.

“What, are you crazy? They sell at one hundred thousand Keris per scroll!” he protested, “Can't you just go to the magic tower?”

“Grounded, remember?” I replied, “Hends….”

“Why are you so stingy to your bro-bro? I will pay you back.” I pleaded sweetly.“I need to go to the temple as soon as possible.”

Before the System goes offline.

“Which one?”

“Which else? The one in the outskirts of  Mayflower, the abandoned ruins of Shea. I can’t go too far, It might take too long, nor can I use the one at the capital, too many people around.”

Although teleportation scrolls save up on the effort, they still took time. Half the time that would normally be taken. If a journey was twelve hours, using a teleportation scroll will make you arrive in six hours. That is why the council that I summoned had to be in two weeks. The furthest dutchy from the capital is a month and a few days away.

“Fine,” he said grumpily, then reached into his jacket pocket.

“Gods!” I startled, “You have it with you now?”

“Yes, do you not want it?”

“No! no, of course, I do!” I said, nearing him.

I thought that I would have to send him back and forth, but this is a pleasant surprise!

He pulled out two blue sheets with some circles drawn on them then handed them to me, but just as I was about to take them, he pulled back.

“What was your life before this one??”

“Huh?”

“Come on, bro,” he hurried.

“If anything, you should call me father, now show some respect and hand the-,”

He pulled the papers further from my reach, then shook his head.

“You know how this goes.”

I sneered, then gave in to his demand.

“I was…what was it, oh yeah, I was the daughter of a commoner, My mother’s name was Charlette, my Father Roberts, and my brother Pete was an aspiring pirate? I guess. I probably should have beaten him up more before I left for boarding school.”

“Anyway, I attended The Royal Academy of Cursix.”

“Wait, how long have you been the-,”

“I won't tell you that.”

“Bro?” he pleaded, but I shook my head stubbornly. “Fine, then, have you heard of the case of Mariette? Apparently, some nobles bullied her so bad that she ended her life.”

“Hmm, I don’t think I killed myself.” I frowned; I actually can’t end my life, “Perhaps it was a cover-up?”

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘you don’t think that you killed yourself?’” he sat upright, “Was that girl you??!?”

“Technically, it was supposed to be a girl called Peris,” I explained, then muttered the rest of the words, “but I guess I fulfilled my role.”

“Your role?”

“Hmm? Never mind that…” I shrugged, “I guess I died protecting her. Some kids were throwing stuff from the roof at Peris because she beat them in the exams or whatever? She was a commoner, and you know how that goes. Now gimmie!”

I lunged at the blue parchments, and he again moved them from my reach.

“Hey!”

With a pained expression, one that I had not seen in a while, he asked;

“Don’t…don’t these lives that you live so carelessly make you sad?” he frowned, “I mean, what about your parents, your siblings? What about the people who love you?”