Emperor's Alternate - Chapter 3
“Young lady, you are truly intelligent. It must be the legacy of the noble bloodline, Your Grace.”
“How wise she will be when she grows up, for she has no interest in anything but books, and how her eyes sparkle as her dainty hands continue to turn the pages of books that even adults find difficult to read.”
“There was a time you went missing while reading books in the library. You’re so engrossed in your books that you forget to eat.”
When I was young, people used to praise me. When I think about it now I wonder if it was just flattery to look good to those higher up.
I’d like to think so, but….
I’ve always had an unusual attachment to books. From a very young age, I always had a book in my hands, even though I can hardly remember those early years. Books were considered luxuries in those days before mass printing.
My mother was a calm and warm person, but she didn’t smile easily. However, when I asked her to “buy me a book,” she would beam. But when I asked for precious dresses or jewelry, my mother would show no emotion at all.
As a little girl, my parents meant the world to me. I couldn’t stop reading, wanting to see my mother’s bright smile.
“You’re a genius.”
“An unbelievable talent. You’re not even ten years old yet, and you already understand the principles behind creating magic spells. Even professors find it hard to believe. How can a young lady like you comprehend things so effortlessly?”
“You’ve already surpassed me as your teacher. I think you should get another tutor.”
“Are you saying my daughter is that good….”
These words brought me back to my childhood when I basked in my mother’s admiration and strove to be even more impressive to her.
I had worked hard for my talent to shine. Exceptional memory and understanding required an abundance of information and knowledge to feed on. Since I invested almost all my waking hours into reading, I could appear more mature and intelligent for my age.
On the day the incident unfolded, at that very moment, I was still engrossed in a book.
‘It smells burnt.’
I put the book down when the realization hit me. It was winter, a week before my eighth birthday.
Suddenly, I remembered a passage from the book.
‘If you inhale a lot of smoke, you could die. But where is the smoke coming from?’
A fire?
I instinctively looked for water. I yanked the luxurious tablecloth off the table. The crockery fell out with a loud crash, but I didn’t care.
On the carpeted floor, our three-year-old little brother, Lucian, was playing with his toys. After checking that Lucian was safe, I turned the kettle upside down, pouring its contents onto a nearby blanket.
I felt the dampness of the blanket on my fingertips. My heart was pounding excessively.
‘When there’s a fire, you should cover your mouth with a damp cloth.’
I wiped what was left of the kettle onto a handkerchief.
The tea from the kettle was hot. The scent of lavender hit me as I wrapped the handkerchief around my mouth and tied it behind my head.
I wrapped my soaked cloth tightly around my little brother, tying a knot in front of my chest and securing him on my back. Sensing the foreboding danger, he burst into tears, but I remained eerily calm in the face of it.
‘People are going to die.’
“Don’t cry, Lucian.”
Waaaah!
“Stop crying. You can’t cry now.”
I turned my head to look out the window. The sky was an unusual shade of red. I thought it might be the sunset, but it wasn’t.
A burning castle formed on my retina. Pillars of crimson rose from the ground. I would have thought it was normal fire, but there was also a blue fire that could only come from magic.
‘The mana barrier of the Grand Duke’s castle has been broken…. There is only one powerful person on the continent who can break it.’
Emperor Teiles, the First.
It was then that I heard the sound of the locked door being violently pushed.
Thud, thud.
I held my breath, completely still.
Was the person trying to open the door an ally or an enemy? Could I find help from someone else? My little brother’s sobbing was making it difficult to think. I didn’t know what would happen next, and my brother’s cries were becoming more and more unbearable.
Even though I shifted him further back to endure whatever was about to come, I was young and lacking in strength.
In a flash, I had an intuition.
‘It has come to pass that the Emperor has decided to eliminate the Grand Duchy of Rotea. …You must not seek help. If we don’t slip away quietly, we’ll be killed on sight, or taken hostage. Let’s move quietly. We need to stay alive.’
The words of the hostage negotiation manual I’d been reading flashed through my head. I felt dizzy, like I was going to throw up, and stumbled to the secret passage I had memorized. The signs were there; the royal family’s actions had been strange for years.
In the distance, far, far away, he could hear the screams of familiar voices.
