Chapter 2

"Urgh, that Frencia. If I could just...squeeze her or something," she muttered in curled fists.

"Do that and your head will be in the canal."

Cataleya looked up in the door's direction and saw her brother leaning over there with folded arms. He always went checked on her room every night as if she would escape one day. Well, she might if things get ugly around the estate. She learned from Cataleya's memories that she didn't have a good relationship with her dad and brother at all.

"I don't want to talk to you." She said and buried her head on the pillow again.

"Me too. But father gave me an errand to pick up your dress for the ball. Open it if you want." Cxenon said in a bored tone.

"I'm not attending the ball," Cataleya grumbled. Who would want to see the one who beheaded her countless times in her dreams? If she had to feign sickness, she will. So that she can't be anywhere in the palace when the people welcome the duke from the southern kingdom.

"Who said you have a choice here? Father said to attend your duties to lady Frencia even if it means I have to drag you by myself."

"You and father had no idea how that little wench treat me-"

"You deserve every ounce of it after all of the things you've done to her. The family still had a hard time cleaning up after your mess after all this time. The emperor has his eyes on you. You mess up, the family will be brought to the ground."

Cataleya scrunched her face and glared at Cxenon. "Gosh please, I'm tired as it is and here you are, nagging me with all this nonsense."

Cxenon then stopped talking and looked at her like he sipped a bitter tea. "Just don't do anything stupid. Our family reputation will be on the line-"

"I heard you. After I woke up from a coma, I realize how brazen the adopted daughter of this family acted high all those years. Like you always say, I' shouldn't dare tint the family's honor." Cataleya cut off and acted to ignore Cxenon who lingered for a stretch of the moment before he turned to his feet and closed the door.

Cataleya peeked at the purple box on the floor with Madame Shu's signature. She thought a mere lady-in-waiting shouldn't wear such expensive gowns coming from the most sought-after designer in the empire. Even princesses from distant lands can't easily be booked an appointment with the infamous madame.

The marquess, Cataleya's father, must have treasured the family so much that getting a dress from madame's shop was done in advance. Curious as to what kind of dress was tailored for her, she ended up checking the content of the box and was left speechless at the dress.

She couldn't help but smirked, thinking about what will be Frencia's reactions if she learned that her lady-in-waiting managed to nab one of Madame Shu's dresses. She looked forward to it.

"Oh, she gonna be super pissed." Cataleya giggled, gliding her hand over the dress. "If only that duke won't attend, the ball is the perfect stage to shame that Frencia."

Cataleya's evil chuckles filled the room and made her think one thing. "Indeed. I'm still a villainess. Get a hold of yourself, Ruby. Jeez."

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"Your grace, it is not pleasant to have blood on your robe just before meeting the emperor of the kingdom." the chief knight said in a calm demeanor, unfazed with the scene in front of him.

"The south emperor pride himself on peace of his land. Is it all lip service?" Adelard shook off his sword in one swift motion in an attempt to clean his blood-stained sword. "Mobs are everywhere. If this is peace, then these lands are doom."

"We will rid of all the mobs in the way and you should not go out of your carriage, your grace." The chief knight, Stefan, said.

"It's stuffy inside." The duke said and glanced at the city's direction.

"We will arrive soon, your grace." Stefan insisted.

"Give me a horse." Adelard requested and Stefan signaled his men to do as the duke requested. "And next time, I won't be too submissive in heading this envoy. "

"As the direct successor of the throne in the east, you must establish harmonious relations with the neighboring empires." Stefan reminded but the duke only scoffed.

"The time I got involved in politics, I ended up losing everything," Adelard said, already up on his horse. "I'm not doing this to please the emperor or to succeed the throne. If my search is also fruitless here, I'll leave in a heartbeat." he then began to leave from there in a fast gallop.

Stefan looked at the duke already at a wide distance from them. He looked at his knights who waited for his command. "Don't lose sight of the duke and follow him."

"Yes, milord." the knights responded and left there speedily. Stefan walked to the carriage and instructed the coachman to be at the Aristol estate and put away all of the duke's belongings there. He then followed his knights even with many thoughts bothering him for those months he was serving the duke.

Adelard Cross sometimes spoke the things that no one can decipher. Like he became a visionary man which probably rendered him victorious over his quests and battles. And he has a strange fixation on finding a woman to become his duchess. Stefan saw the desperation in the duke's eyes as he searches the one woman whom no one seemed to fit on, in every land they went into.

Many beautiful noble ladies had been openly presented to the duke at many balls and lavish parties in the hope to spike his attention. But the duke remained disinterested in all those princesses and noble ladies' beauties. Stefan thought of the duke to have one woman already painted on his mind. Like it was already engraved on his heart on who should occupy its empty and frozen state. But years passed and no one even made the duke's walls shattered to pieces.

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