Unexpected reunion

In all four directions you could see on almost every ocher- brown coloured wall having one large painting, which brought out landscapes from different countries. The picture in the east side showed a typical dark red eastern temple with a cherry blossom tree next to it, the one in the south side uncovered a wide dessert with an oasis in the middle and finally the one in the west side revealed the beautiful mountains of our territory. Shelves filled with antique books stood in the corners and right beside them some large cupboards who showcased its exquisite porcelain tableware through the glasses, a collection my mother was proud of. They were placed against all each walls. The north wall, the only one who didn't possess a painting, had a large glass window with doors, displaying a beautiful sea sight from the cliff where our mansion was located near to it. When you opened that certain window doors, you arrived to a veranda where a tee table and four chairs awaited for you. This was the parlour room.

In comparison to a typical noble mansion from the Alynth kingdom, our homeland, this style possessed some touch of eastern and oriental vibe, getting the feeling of visiting a foreign country in the parlour room.

A combination of three different cultures surprisingly fit well together in one place.

In the middle of the room two families sat opposite from each other. Some occupied a sofa and armchairs while others stood still. They surrounded a glass table, the centre of this circle. Big old picture books, old weapons with fancy decoration on the handle and magic stones were laid on it.

Even though so many fascinating items lying on the platform, nobody reached to one of them, instead they just looked at each other with stiff expressions. If you let a needle fall at that moment, you could immediately hear it ringing. All in all it made an unapproachable impression, where a cold atmosphere invisible to the eye exuded from them. It practically told someone to better not to disturb them. From the outsider's perception someone would ask, what just happened before, but if you knew the situation, ….you would be even more confused than before … even questioning if they were still sane.

" So this son of the b*tch dared to hurt our precious Rosie?", reaffirmed the old man of the merchant's family LaBelle, who sat in the middle of the sofa .

I just looked at this situation, as this was someone's else business. ' The second round…', was my thought, once I remembered our last discussion that was minutes ago.

What happened before everything:

When I entered our parlour room with my family to greet the guests, I saw a group of four people sitting on our brown leather sofa, making themselves comfortable while sipping from their tea. Two grown-up men, one woman and a young boy enthusiastically chatted with each other. The blond haired girl with beautiful ruby eyes who was of similar age as me talked with a younger boy, who had the same hair colour but amber coloured eyes. They spoke about the new items which laid on the glass table while the other men, one in his forties and the other one in his already "old"age, admired our exquisite objects located everywhere in the room.

As if they just now noticed us entering, they all simultaneously turned their heads to our direction. All of them stayed in their position, whereas only the young woman stood up and screamed out of the blue, " Oh, Rosie! You are back. I'm so happy. " .

She immediately ran up to me and then hugged me tightly. To this I happily accepted this motion and returned this with the same intensity. Like old childhood friends who couldn't see each other for the longest time, it was one of the warmest moments I had since years ago. After my marriage I had difficulties to meet her, however the last time I could see her again was before my public execution. I saw her hidden under the hood among the crowds. She was a bit far away, but her ruby eyes overflowing with tears which fell down from her face endlessly, even visible under the cloth, and her slightly shaken shoulders at that moment revealed her location. She was that much of a mess, as she disfigured her beautiful face with her snot and tears. Next to her stood her whole family mourning for my death. Remembering this, I felt so grateful to get the chance to see them this time again. At such moments you should cry, yet I didn't have enough water anymore, so I just smiled gently.

"Alisa, it's wonderful to see you after such a long time.", I said with a soft smile and looked at her affectionately who rubbed her face against my chest. She was "slightly" smaller than me and her skin was as white as snow, so she was like a cute rabbit for me, but you shouldn't judge someone by his cover, especially when it came to this cutie. In contrast to her smaller figure, she was still full in all important parts, when you knew what I meant.

When she finally reacted to my response, she looked up to me and pouted similar to a child," What do you mean with 'after such a long time' ? Your words feel like we didn't see each other for hundreds years … We only saw each other just a month ago secretly." For the last part she whispered it to me, not letting anyone to hear her. Actually, she came to my mansion in the middle of the night at that time and climbed up to my room like the prince charming of the fairy tale " Rapunzel ". How she could come there without being found out stayed a mystery for me. Still it was a really funny idea. Nevertheless I only met her six times during my marriage until I met my death and that was one of the few cute moments.

Not knowing how to respond, I just dismissed it as joke by awkwardly laughing. Even though she told me this, for me it did feel like hundred of years not seeing her, because I was executed and after that reincarnated, so it shouldn't be possible to meet her again afterwards.

'But here we go… Life is really unexpected in many ways.', I thought so myself while watching my rabbit still hugging me tightly. She soon became suspicious of my reaction and wanted to ask further more, but was stopped by someone else.

" Good afternoon, Rosie. How are you ?" When I turned my head to the voice, I saw a sixteen years old boy, who looked very similar to his sister, walking towards me. He became taller over the years since I didn't see him, now I only reached until his eyes. I could already tell that he would grow even more.

Because of his journeys with the family and his outdoor trainings he became a bit tanned, but due to his mother's genes who had naturally snow white and flawless skin his skin tone was still more on the brighter side. Furthermore he had a muscular but lean body which just showed his good growth. If you compared it with Cedric, his muscles wasn't as massive as the archduke's, however his body shape fit better to more types of clothes. Still you shouldn't underestimate his strength. When I remembered his sword training with me from our childhood, it just sent me shivers down my spine. He had always trained with my brother and was very talented. At that time I thought that he would become a knight, yet he chose to be a merchant like his family. 'Business, trade and adventure ran in their blood, for sure…' , as I reminisced my memories of him.

The family LaBelle was the most famous mercenary family in the whole kingdom and their reputation was well-known even in other countries too. They built a huge trade network over many generations. Many customers trusted their work and quality, so whenever they need antique, exquisite or precious items which you would only find in the smallest parts of the world, they first would request it to them. Travelling, adventuring and making bonds. Who wouldn't want to try it out for one time?

I first met them, when my family wanted to buy something from the LaBelles personally. On that day I was eight years old, while Alisa was the same age and Cabel was only four years old. At that time the mercenary family returned from their long journey and decided to settle in our territory temporarily, so they could raise their children in their hometown before continuing to travel again. Thus I spent most of my time with the siblings and enjoyed it. Every now and then they still went to travel with their family because of important requests and for them to get to know their business, but normally, everyday we would play and go on small adventures. Sometimes they joined me to some of my studies and swordsmanship training. When Alisa became eighteen years old, she began to go away more often, as she could now finish some business trades for her busy father. Cabel still joined me until I became married.

Anybody would get jealous of them if you heard their stories, right ? But for me it wasn't the case.

The reason was my family also traveled from time to time as the representatives of our kingdom, so I could also see the world with my own eyes as I accompanied them. I got to know the other countries not as much as them, but I was still satisfied and happy.

When I finished reminiscing my memories, I realised I dazed out too much, so I hastily looked back to him with more focused eyes. What I saw was amber eyes who gently gazed at me and a smile which showed some refreshing charms.

" You are still the same, Rosie ? You just daydream too much really.", he laughed lightly and began to walk towards me till only two steps- distance remained between us. Then he suddenly raised his hand over my head and patted it, as if I was a child who wanted to get praised. I was embarrassed by this sudden gesture, therefore I gripped his hand and said with a raised eyebrow, " Now you became pretty grown up, but it didn't change the fact that I'm still your older sister." I proudly puffed my chest and showed my confidence as his older sister to him. I knew him since he was just small, so he was like a younger brother to me.

" Yeah, yeah! I know it, but as you can see, I'm already taller than you, stronger than you and prettier than you", he teased me with broad grin and his big eyes became smaller as the result. I let go of his hand and became slightly irritated with his statement. I would like to rebuke this, but I couldn't deny it, since he wasn't that wrong unfortunately. Still I didn't like it, thus I showed it openly on my face. Amused by my reaction, he just laughed like a boy his age. If you compared the siblings with each other, then you would immediately point out theirs personalties.

In contrast to Alisa, who was energetic and optimistic person by nature, Cabel had a more mature and elegant feel to it, but had still a teasing side appreciated for his age. Both were siblings, but were total opposites of each other.

I gave up, sank my shoulders and just added with a smile, "I'm okay now, so thank you for asking."

He watched me intensely, observing if I said the truth and later on smiled brightly, " That is good. I was a bit worried about you." Before I could open my mouth to reply to him, a different person joined our party.

" You know, we were pretty worried about you, since we didn't see you that often anymore." Upon hearing this, I shortly turned to a good-looking man in his forties with brown hair and amber coloured eyes, who still sat on the sofa. Worry was visible on his face. His concern towards me made me smile even wider. I couldn't help it, as he was always caring towards me. It didn't change even after my marriage fortunately. To reassure him, I answered, " Yeah, I'm sorry if I worried you very much."

"No problem! You're like my own daughter. I saw you grown up to a full fledged flower, so naturally I would care for you.", he smiled and his eyes became like crescent moon. I just looked at him astonished and for a short moment I fell into a daze, but quickly regained my composure, ' Why was Alisa's father so handsome, even though he was this old already? In the near future I could already see Cabel being a total hottie.', I convinced myself by this theory.

Finally the last member of this group spoke to me, " But I just heard of the rumours about you being a witch. What did this mean? I know who you are, so I wouldn't believe this that easily. However this had brought many problems for you, right? Aren't you lonely ?"

The leader of the LaBelle family exploit for an explanation from me. Naturally, many who had the same question couldn't help, but to become curious as well, so the eyes of every LaBelle's member fixated at me, whereas my family just watched this "small show". Only now I noticed my own family's gaze at me as I was occupied by something else before, thus I also soon returned their gaze to see their expressions but after that they suddenly avoided me with their pupils looking straight at our guest, not minding me at all. If you observed theirs faces more precisely, you could find some nervousness left behind in theirs hidden expressions. Similar to the discussion in the living room they showed a slight flinch in their straight posture, only a small but visible to me. I knew them too well, thus it was useless to hide. At first I thought it was due to their anger at Cedric, however now as I saw them like this, I began to ponder if there was more into it. I squinted my eyes and was about to ask my family as well. Suddenly a different thought struck my mind, when I just remembered the questions from before. I stayed still for a moment, for I became a bit restless.

By seeing theirs big eyes watching me attentively, I knew that my friends had many things to ask me, but at that moment only one thought occupied my whole head: How could you remember these rumours even after leaving the capital? Except for me who was the cause of these rumours and my family whom I told everything, they shouldn't know of this ? How could it come to this?' Although I would like to make this question, I couldn't do so since I shouldn't know of this magic that the royal family secretly casted on us. I only found out about it through the novel. In the story it was described that the royals casted us with this spell, as they were afraid for major problems and new opportunities for sudden attacks coming from different places.

According to the book Luciana went around the castle with Cedric as his new fiancé and was guided by one of the royals who spoke about their powers and me, since she asked him, why the people outside the capital didn't know of the rumours until recently. By the way at that time I was already executed unfortunately.

So what would happen, if the royals got wind of that ? That I knew of their magic.

There must a reason why they didn't tell me beforehand. I knew I could trust my people, especially the LaBelle, nonetheless from what I learnt, I should be careful about my environment regardless they were enemies or friends. Anybody who heard these questions of the old man would become suspicious, so I should keep it quiet. 'Only my family…since we shared the same fate and I trust them unconditionally… I will tell them later on.', was my final conclusion.

So I finally looked at them for a while and saw all of the eager eyes directed at me. From what I saw they also didn't know of this magic, but just earnestly asked me this. Why would they ask me in such direct fashion without worrying for the consequences of their action, if they were aware of the secret ? That's why I believed that they only heard of the rumours. '…It just made harder for me to doubt them.', I thought to myself now,' They are still family to me. So should I trust them like the royal family or they will also betray us like the royal family ?' Just remembering the scene, where my best friend cried for me and even visited me, it shaken my anew determination. Speaking of the royal family, I couldn't categorise this action as betrayal towards us, because they probably had no choice in their perspective, but was it really no other way around there? They should know that we would never be unfaithful to them.

That's why I still felt some resentment towards them as they mercilessly took all our goods, territory and pride.

As I watched the old man expectantly awaiting for me to speak, I concluded, 'Better you tell them now, before it became too late.' Since the LaBelle would someday find out anyway, I narrated everything that happened with me, but let out the magic part.

Back to the current situation

" So this son of the b*tch dared to hurt our precious Rosie?", reaffirmed the old man of the merchant's family LaBelle, who sat in the middle of the sofa .

" Yeah, answered my brother with a grave expression. Finally one of my family joined our reunion and I just thought‚' Only now you speak after being so quiet like a mouse?' I sincerely wanted to slap my brother's head at that moment. I ignored this lunatic and now observed the LaBelle's. 'No way…!', I thought to myself, as I saw theirs restless expressions showing on their faces. It wasn't your usual "restless" face, where you first thought that they were just nervous and tense, but their agitation was more in the direction of anger and eager to kill. I could see their finger fidgeting slightly. 'My gosh, I feel a bad omen coming before me now…', I looked at them nervously, hoping that it wasn't going to become like THIS. But contrary to my expectation, I heard someone speaking next.

" We should prepare our weapons. Should we also bring some allies to this party ?", continued the leader of the LaBelle family, Maximillian LaBelle, short Max, to his family. Naturally, my family would nod to this and a devil's grin showed on their faces. ' My ass!.. They are the shield and sword who protect their kingdom! In this very minute they planned to kill a royal member. Are you f*cking kidding me?', I inwardly cursed as I watched them like this. If my family was already like this, then I couldn't possible blame the royal family in the past for executing my family now. My family was in the way no better than them. Did this mean they also wanted to protect someone precious ? As I pondered about this possibility, suddenly a high pitch voice broke me away from my thoughts.

" Why waiting? Just let him taste our swords and magic now? With combined powers, both families could take him down, for sure .", interfered Alisa, while smiling sinisterly .

'This goes out of control again', I instinctively concluded. To avoid any more trouble and possible war, I proceed to stop them, but came too late as….,

"Hold on, guys ! You should calm down first of all.", responded the teenager with haste, worry visible in his voice. … Cabel was the first to stop them. I was surprised and happy at the same time seeing him like this. I felt like tearing up a bit. ' I raised him well', I just confirmed this. He wasn't the only one who shared the same opinion with me, also his father, Oliver LaBelle, joined us in this party.

" I agree, we can't hurt the archduke. This action could be called treason for the royal family. Already this whole conversation is something nobody should know. At this rate, we would end up in jail, so stop it !" Upon hearing this my eyes unconsciously widened and realisation hit me.

' Don't tell me my family commit treason after my execution, because they wanted to kill Cedric ? Why didn't I think about this possibility too ? ….But it wasn't written in the book…why ? It would be a perfect reason for the novel's ending. Cedric also collected the evidences, however what he found wasn't written too. AHHH…SH*T ! I shouldn't come to this conclusion fast without considering everything ', I reassured myself, still a bit irritated. I should think about the momentarily situation unfold before me now. As I also wanted to strengthen Sir LaBelle statement, I also agreed with a load voice,

" No war ! No fight ! No torture ! No assassination ! Or any of these violent things ! I don't want any of it ! So stop thinking about the ways how to kill the archduke !"

While we firmly stood our ground, the others just simultaneously looked at us, showing obviously unsatisfied expressions.

'No don't even think about it !' , I just heavily sighed, knowing that I couldn't change their minds easily .

To distract them from any more thought of it, I pointed my finger on each items on the table. As if Cabel also knew my intention, he said,

" Let's show our items to them. This was our main object anyway, right ?"

Afterwards I heard small voices coming from the sofa area. When I looked at it, I just frowned at the sight.

" How could I raise such an incompetent son…", the old man grumbled. " Why is my brother like this? Was he always a d*mn softie ?, Alisa murmured. 'Hey, guys ! You should be happy having such people who are down to earth. Otherwise you would lose everything because of me.', I just shook my head to their statements.

" My child, it wasn't anything special anyway. Your family already had the biggest collection of antique books and weapons in this kingdom. They won't need these, for sure. We only wanted to visit the family. Who knows that we would see our small bear (my nickname) again ?" , the old man assured her and just ignored Cabel's suggestion. My family and them shared one thing passionately: Collecting antique precious items. They liked to find new information, to read history and to analyse the relicts of old times. Furthermore as of now they also took a liking to strange things from other cultures.

"Yeah, we missed to see our friends.", my best friend Alisa LaBelle called me out .

To this Alisa's father nodded and agreed," It's wonderful to come back after such long time."

I smiled seeing them like that. Being happy that we could talk about their stories now.

….

…

" But could we go back to this sh*"prince" ?", my friend asked eagerly with sharp and glistening eyes.

'How could you come back to this topic again ?!' ,I inwardly cried out, losing my patience now, " Alisa ?!"

" Don't you want revenge, too? Ah, yeah, you're not the type to do this, right? How about we do it for you?", Alisa said with an "innocent" smile, whereas the others agreed eagerly to this idea, except for Cabel and Sir Oliver LaBelle.

" No means no. If you do this, I don't want to see you ever again .", I responded sternly and turned my back to her.

"NOOOOOOOO !!!!!", screamed my best friend with tears slowly forming in her eyes," We just wanted to do something for you? Did you know of the rumours? They were talking about you when we had to do some stuff in the the royal castle last week. How could we stand still, heh ? " She ran up to hug me from behind and wailed for my forgiveness, but I just got out of her grip and became startled when turned my head to her.

As soon as I heard this, I was surprised. ' So they knew of it just last week ?' After I found it out, I shortly turned to my own family who became stiff again and had a slightly agitated expression. Seeing them like this, just confirmed my suspicion that they also knew of the rumours beforehand, even before I told them everything, " Father, mother and older brother ,….It seemed like you also knew the rumours before, whereas I didn't notice that they spread that widely during my marriage."

Afterwards my older brother looked at me with anxious eyes, but soon turned away no daring to look at me anymore.

I saw their downcast face of each of them and became quiet. 'This won't do ! I want to know the truth ! Did they actually abandon me in the past?', not standing the silence any longer, I hesitantly proceed to finally ask the question that followed me around until now:

" Why didn't you help me ?", I unconsciously let one tear flowing down my cheek.

" Darling…", my mother looked at me sadly .

" Why ? …Please tell me. I want to know." , I practically yelled at them while looking straight at my father, the head of our family. If you had done something against it, it wouldn't have to end up like this in the novel. I continuously cried, as if I wanted to let go all my sadness and frustration which I piled up in the past until now. All a sudden I felt a warm touch on my back, as I turned my head to the origin, I saw Alisa who comforted me. This just made me cry more. Cabel also couldn't take it anymore and began to pat my head gently, reassuring me.

Sensing that it became serious, Oliver decided to leave. One by one the mercenary family left. Only Alisa took a fast glance at me worriedly, but I smiled to relieve her. As we were finally alone, my father asked as a start," You remember the big war 500 years, right ?"