CH 08 ~ One and Only

"Eleanora… are you feeling sick again?"

"Should we go back?!"

Alexander spoke anxiously and Eleanora shook his head.

What was that voice?

It sounded so painful and desperate.

"No… I am…fine…"

Eleanora replies weakly but Alexander still feel concern, but seeing that they have almost reach the imperial palace; he couldn't go back to the duchy either.

"You must tell me if you feel weak again."

Alexander speaks as he gets down from the carriage and extends his hands towards Eleanora to get down.

At least this was what she had thought.

Instead of helping her down, Alexander carries her on his arms and Eleanora becomes shocked.

"W-What…put me down!"

Eleanora speaks with embarrassment as everyone was staring at her but Alexander just simply walked out with her on his embrace.

The sunlit made the white building's look like a shiny gold buildings, and the thick green trees cast shadows over the white stone road.

There were servants and maids walking briskly, officials talking to each other holding a handful of paperwork, and knights trading places with each other, dressed in fancy uniforms.

All these were the same familiar images that Eleanora had seen in fantasy comics and movies in her modern life.

Then her eyes fall on a familiar magnificent palace towering over lots of buildings.

Unusually large, it was the Emperor's Palace, the main and most important palace of the imperial palace as it's the residence of the emperor.

'Wait… how did I know that it's the emperor's place?'

Eleanora asked herself and a fear raised in her heart.

Why was she suddenly feeling so suffocated in this place?

A few knights in indigo white uniform nods politely to her might be father in this world, as well as some knights in silver and blue uniform did the same.

Eleanora watched them curiously as Alexander enters the emperor's palace, which was also the residence of the crown prince.

But there rooms were far away from each others.

Her father stops in front of a huge door and he slowly puts her down before fixing her dress a little.

Eleanora was watching everything around her curiously but then she froze as a knight announces their presence.

'Duke of Dalton?'

'Where have I heard this name?'

She was still lost in thought as the huge gorgeously decorated door opens up in front of her and Eleanora gasps as she listens to her father's greeting.

'Alexander De Xavier Dalton…'

'Eleanora…Eleanora La Alexander Dalton?!'

But even before she could think about something more, someone had hugged her tightly all of a sudden and she become surprised.

Her father was gawking at the person who had hugged her and the rest of the people were too surprised to say something.

"H-Hey…"

Eleanora awkwardly speaks as that person wasn't letting her go and she could see her father's killing intent towards that man.

But then that man finally releases her and as he moves away from her body and looks at her, she becomes shocked.

~His eyes was as bloody red… his pitch black hair used to shine like silver under the bright sunlight~

~And he had only loved a girl in his every life…~

~Elle~

"Elle…"

Cathain's voice rang on her mind as the person in front of her called her at the same time.

[A/N: She is referring to the modern life's Cathain by his name here. As she doesn't know that the boy in front of her is also called the same.]

His bloody red eyes looked straight into her jewel like blue eyes, and his pitch black hair shined like silver as the sunlit which came in through the window fall on him.

The boy with red eyes looked at her painfully but she only felt scared and didn't dare to move an inch.

And her mind went back to her past memories.

~Flashback of her modern life~

"Elle… Do you want to hear a story?"

Cathain, who was silent throughout the whole time, suddenly spoke and Milenka, who had her head rested on his lap, puts down the book she was reading before she looks at him curiously.

He was wearing a white shirt again and she doesn't know why he loves wearing white color so much.

She doubts if she has ever seen him in any other colors except white.

"Since when did you start to read stories?"

"If it's a business plan again… keep your stories to discuss with our fathers."

"I am not interested on them."

Milenka pulls up her comic book again as she starts reading it.

This is how their dates usually are.

They would casually pick a quite park and then she will read books or blabber like a chatterbox, and he will just keep quiet and listen to her nonsense.

This is the first time that he has taken the initiative to speak.

"Hey… do I always just tell you about business plans?"

Cathain speaks and Milenka raises her eyebrows in question.

"Do you not?"

"Okay… I won't be like that anymore…"

Cathain speaks with a smile as he snatches away her book, and Milenka once again feels like his smile was actually quiet painful.

Not the happy one.

"I will kill you if this is another business story or plans of yours, you dickhead!"

Milenka spoke with a frown as she wasn't really interested in business.

Maybe she had done a lot of work in her past life and thus she is a spoiled useless rich daughter of a billionaire in this life.

"There was a boy… who loved a girl a lot."

Cathain started and Milenka concentrated.

"Elle…"

"That was her nickname."

He pauses on his story and she blinks her eyes, wondering why he had suddenly stopped and then realizes that the girls name sounded familiar.

"Wait…Her name is the same as my nickname?"

She asks as she finds it amusing and Cathain chuckles before continuing again.

"Her full name was Eleanora La Alexander Dalton… who had shiny silver hair and sparkling jewel like blue eyes. She rarely smiled and looked like a lifeless doll most of the time."

"Her personality was as cold as ice, looked unbreakable as nothing affected her. But she was really vulnerable inside… as fragile as a glass doll but strong at the same time."

"All she wanted was to be loved, as that was the only thing she lacked as the crown princess of the Valentino Empire."

"Fiancée of the crown prince, Cathain De Valerian Valentino…"

"His eyes were as bloody red… his pitch black hair used to shine like silver under the bright sunlight and he had only loved a girl in his every life…"

"Elle…"

"His one and only empress…"