1 1. DAMN MORNINGS!

The night was eerily calm...

Though the roads of this part of the country, located towards the center of it, were always bustling and filled with the voice of people from all backgrounds, today it was calm to the point of deathly silence.

The silence before the storm...like the few minutes before the beginning of the end.

Even the normal citizen seemed to be aware of the state of the present capital and hence maintained their silence till the storm passed by but this time was not the same as others.

Near a magnificent palace-like structure which was set ablaze, a century-old mythical wisteria tree was blooming at the top of its beauty even now, every generation of this particular household have seen this tree bloom for ages now.

Signifying a new life, it kept on blooming every year, it was truly a miracle but today this magnificence was lost because of the presence of two young children under its shade; they were bleeding, they were dying.

The supposedly purple flowers due to the light from the fire appeared to have a cold glint of death, everything was coming to an end it seems.

Under its huge canopy that seemed to spread forever, the lady in a black fitted combat suit held the body of her beloved as both were losing blood and as their life was being seeped out of their already cold bodies, even the heat from the huge fire only deepened the coldness.

That place was their home now ..it was gone, everything, everyone, all belongings...every single thing was left into dust forever but their condition didn't allow them enough time even to lament about it.

She held him close but her hold was weak, it was because her wounds were too severe from the earlier rescue plan of her master.

Before she left this world she wanted to hear his voice once, she knew she was not qualified as she couldn't protect him from his enemies and the both of them ended up in this state but...she wanted to be selfish this once..

She felt him opening his eyes as if, he heard her inner monologue and the first thing that came out of her mouth was an apology even though it won't change a thing.

Since she knew she couldn't protect him and keep him safe, she profusely apologized....when she calmed down, she finally heard him speak, albeit in a very soft voice which could be compared to a whisper,

"I'll make you my Empress..I promise", it took it his all say that much.

She was slightly startled but also amused, she said all that and put her heart out but he spoke something irrelevant to it and without a care for the TPO, even in this situation that is what he said, he still remained the same.

A teardrop fell on her cheek or was it sweat or maybe a raindrop,

'Why does it hurt so much?'

They could be together at last but fate played them well,

'Why does it have to end...why now?'

Though she felt like her heart was being shredded still, during her final moments, she gave him her most charming smile as she opened her mouth and said in a soft voice which was reserved only for him, "I'll wait forever for you...forever for your return....and to your answer just now, I gladly accept, my highness," she smiled, at her last moments she didn't want to deny herself.

Looking at the pale man with a contented smile on his face, she almost couldn't stop the tears welling inside her but she couldn't show her weak side, she lightly said, "I'm sorry for my negligence....and incapability to take you to a doctor..I'm sorry for my uselessness, I'm sorry..for everything."

She still remained stoic even though her face was ghastly pale due to excessive blood loss, she still held him as if, protecting him from everything outside of her embrace, even though her hold was weak...she will protect him till her end.

And she knew, the end was near.

Even the roaring sound of the fire seemed to be on mute as she could hear his faint breaths which were lowering on an increasingly faster rate.

She gritted her teeth but didn't allow the tears to run down...

The boy had already closed his eyes with a faint smile tugging his lips up, it seems he relaxed after he got his answer.

It was the end....

She put a chaste kiss on his lips and close her eyes, still holding him and sitting proud with a straightened spine.

A moment later.

Finally, the tree also caught fire and the beautiful pair of two unable to move even a single bit were the casualties of it and were buried there.

(In the far future this place will become a spot for lovers, to celebrate their relation....well that's a story for another day!)

.........

Pi pi pi piiii....pi pi pi piiii

The alarm broke the tranquil air of the room.

The sunrays entered the room through the slight gaps in the curtains and told the girl, who still had her eyes closed, that it's morning.

As always, the girl had woken up the moment the alarm took off and even though she was known to be "the clockwork empress", who treated time as MONEY she, for a fact, was never a morning person.

This was the only time of the day, she wanted to laze around, but she knew, she couldn't.

She was still half-asleep and fumbled around to stop that obnoxious alarm off, she always wanted to throw it out but, it was already the 5th of this month and it wasn't even the 20th yet so, she restrained her desires.

Her fan-like lashes trembled open and with bleary eyes, she sat up on the bed. Her waist-length hair softly curled towards the end cascaded down her slim waist, she tucked some of the unruly hairs behind her ears and lazily stretched like a cat.

"hm...haaah" she yawned and thought to herself,'DAMN MORNINGS!'

But she still got up to the washroom to freshen up.

'It's going to be another busy day' she thought and yawned, again.[Yah, baby..mommy is also not a morning-person]

.....

Out of the washroom, she took out her signature office suit from the closet.

Most of the white-collar office ladies preferred blouse with pencil skirts for work but she preferred suits. Her closet was filled with those, well, she was a bit of a tomboy, to begin with, but according to her, it's comfortable and also for smooth movement while *cough* fighting *cough*.[WHAT FOR?!!!]

Today she wore a gray suit, the color was light = she was in a bad mood! She mostly liked black or night-blue ones and rarely wore other colours but for today it was gray, that is, hell was going to rise in the office.[cold sweats]

All Employees felt a shudder down their spine and thought, ' Someone is going to be grilled, Empress must be in a bad mood, oh lord, help!'

Anyway, the gray suit accentuated her slim figure and gave away a restrained look, not like her lazy self, this morning.

She pushed her hair up into a neat bun, applied light gloss over her plump lips and she was done.

She didn't like make-up, it didn't help her in any way plus applying it, for her, was a waste of time, of course, she applied them during banquets or official parties like year-end parties or the like but that's it; if not for her upbringing, she would not like to do that, at all, like she always says, "No Anti-ageing property. Waste of time." [She didn't even want to waste time in using complete sentences...hah...Atsuki is tired]

Her breakfast consisted of two slices of toasted bread, sunny-side-up with freshly squeezed orange juice, she took her time eating it while going through the Business Today.[I don't know if it exists but it's supposed to be a business newspaper here.]

After she washed the dishes, her alarm took off, right on time!

It was 20 minutes to 09:00, from her apartment it took her 10 minutes to reach the office building, she closed the door and left unhurriedly

{PS. A significant part has been added on 8/21/2019...new readers can ignore the note at the end of chapter 45.}