Chapter 10

Antarina

I closed the door behind me. The cold air coming from the open balcony hits me. The room is dark with only the moonlight coming as a ray of light. I somehow manage to get myself on the couch. The emptiness surrounds me. The only reason that I ran here was to think. And now everything is empty. My mind is empty. Suddenly I feel tears rolling down my cheeks. There are no emotions but the tears won't stop. Ha, my head hurts. I close my eyes, leaning on the couch. With the hope, that it will all go away.

Renia

Today is finally the day of lady Antarinas's coming-of-age ceremony. I still remember the beautiful little girl debating with me about more chocolates. And today, she is already eighteen and has turned into an elegant lady. Her childhood has not been easy. The people of the mansion know that behind the perfection of the Lanchester name, there is lacking of love, warmth, and emotion. Especially for the lady, the love and affection she should have received were taken away from her by fate. But I am still proud of her for standing strong and becoming strong every day. Today's decorations for the ceremony are very beautiful and extravagant. Which was directly supervised by the duke himself. Even though for everyone they don't have an ideal relationship, the duke and the lady are affectionate towards each other. The duke adores the lady. He always is looking out for her in indirect ways. After that day, he never allowed himself to get close to the lady. It feels like he is afraid and in pain. The greatest swordsman in the empire, who is fearless and makes everyone shiver, is afraid, for this very reason. It aches my heart so much. Because both of them are lonely. They can be happy with each other and have a beautiful bond but there is an invisible barrier, that doesn't let them come close.

Every maid is very happy today. I can almost see the happiness in their faces, they are energetic and serving the guests with all their hearts. Since everything is going great here, I should go check the kitchens. As I was about to turn, I see lady running towards her room. Maybe others didn't notice, but I could tell that she was not alright at all. She is not expressive. She holds everything inside and never lets anything show her true self. I walk towards lady's room. I don't know what hurt lady that much. Opening the door, I go in. The room is dark and silent. I finally notice her leaning against the chair. She cried. Her eyes are swollen. Fear surrounds me. My heart pains to think that how much pain she has been through, that tears overpowered her. No matter what happened, she never shows her emotion.

Never.

Antarina

A sensation of warm hands on my knee woke me up. I see Renia, sitting on the floor with tears in her eyes. And tears start falling down my cheeks as well, I tell Renia all about my terrible nightmare on my special day. She gets very angry and tries to convince me, how much he was not meant for me and I should forget him for good. That's not the problem. He broke my trust. In my cold life, he came as a warmth I never experienced. He showed kindness and love that I always lacked. And to think that all was a lie hurts me. And forgiving him that Renia was worried about was never even an option. I might have let my guard down, But I have my self-respect that will never let me do it. You can only be with a person, when he is human. But when he turns into the trash, there is only one place that he belongs. The trash can. There was also anger for myself, why did I let my guard down? why did I let him take advantage of my feelings? why? " Renia, I foolishly believed in that so-called thing called love that does not exist". And tears start to fall down again. Why? the answer to that question was not clear anymore. " My lady, he did not love you. True love does exist. And if you want to know what love is, you need to know about the most famous love story of the empire". " I never thought that I will tell you this, but I have to today".

On a cold winter night, two people who had no idea that their future is going to be bound together met on a balcony coincidentally. Lauren Lanchester has seen countless people confessing their love for him. Either for position and power or because they fell in love with his appearance. But none of them ever moved his heart. But that girl that he met on the balcony that day, had innocence in her eyes. It felt like she looked right through him. Not the appearance or the title, but the person inside of him. As she introduced herself as Eleiana Archie, the name become something special to him. After that night, a few more meetings happened, maybe coincidentally or maybe deliberately. But both of them became very sure that who they want to live forever with. The news spread among nobles like wildfire. Soon the second daughter of the count, Eleiana Archie became a target. Nobles started to do terrible things to remove her from the future duchess position. Everybody thought that it was a temporary attraction. Their misconception was cleared after the people involved were executed brutally under the authority of the dukedom. Even the royal family didn't meddle in because they knew very well that the royal family will exist, as long as the duke respects them. He had both the power and ability to become the emperor of the country himself. Finally, the wedding came, where Eleiana Archie and Laurent Lanchester were wedded with all honors and had one of the most glamorous weddings the empire has ever seen.

Renia

My lady, the day of their wedding was the most beautiful day I have seen. Almost the entire empire was decorated. With the Spring breeze, and the entire Lanchester territory celebrated and welcomed their new duchess. She was not only a duchess but the happiness of our duke. Every knight swore their life holding their sword high that they will protect the duke and duchess with their life. You might not know how much duke loved your mother since he never talked about it, but he loved her like crazy and if she asked him, he would even sacrifice his life. After marriage, it was only one year with them but I have never seen the house this happy. The Duchess was the kindest person. She would talk and laugh with servants like they were her very own. Everyone in the mansion was the happiest and the mansion was warm as long as she was there. Everybody always thought that these days are going to be here forever. When finally the day came when their happiness became double.

The duchess felt morning sickness and everyone in the mansion started running to get a doctor. The doctor arrived and told the news to everyone. She was pregnant. That day not only the duchess but the entire mansion cried in happiness. The duke was the happiest we have ever seen. For days the entire territory celebrated the arrival of its new heir. I still remember the days when the duke would take care of the duchess like a glass doll and everyone will make fun of it. There wasn't a doctor in the empire that didn't visit the mansion for the duchess regular checkup. The doctors would be in pain because the duke always had a face like," If she is not alright, you are dead". The mansion was full of chaos and happiness. As everyone was waiting for the arrival of the greatest happiness, that day came. Which ruined absolutely everything.