That Child Is Strange - 12

" Your grace, it's a pleasure to have you here."

The Count of Garland territory said as he looked at the Marquis sitting in his guest room. A masculine figure captivating enough to be called the empire's most desired man among the high society, this was currently the most famous man in the whole empire that was sitting on the couch at his place. Say, women, even men were equally attracted to his perfect features. Marquis Lloyd Shuzar was, as people famously called, an incarnation of a God. Count Garland wiped the sweat off his forehead as he proceeded with the talk. It was almost normal to be flustered and nervous before such a man. No noble could afford to get on the bad side of this person. So it was alright to be careful. Lloyd Shuzar visited the County every month to receive reports on the territory's fares and business profits as Garland, along with five other major territories of the Northern principality, functioned under the Marquis. If the country's only Dukedom was responsible for the military power, then it could be believed that the country's finance and monetary power resided in Marquis Shuzar's hands.

Ever since the current emperor rose to the throne, the empire's politics had been a mess. But from recent years, the internal affairs were strangely calm. And all that was because of the man sitting right now in front of the Count. Marquis Lloyd Shuzar.

The previous emperor, Vincent Evanlite, was the one who unified the Northern and Southern principality to create the empire of Alkezar. That prolonged war of unification continued for eleven years, devouring all of the country's assets and igniting a mad frenzy of acquiring as much as every inch of the land that the emperor set his eyes on, inside the Unified Army. After acquiring all the small neighbouring ally countries by breaking peace treaties ruthlessly, the emperor set out to acquire the Southern principality. The king of the principality resisted this forced invasion till the last moment thus making it the primary reason why the war took eight additional years to come to an end. And it came to an end with the death of the king of Southern principality.

Emperor Vincent had finally achieved the dream he had dreamt his entire life. But a man of war can't easily fit into the politics of a country that had been enduring the backsets of war for such a long period. With the emperor's primary focus being busy restoring the empire's foundations, the nobles started to play dirty tricks to secure their power inside the imperial royal palace. The younger sister of the king of the Southern principality was held as a war prisoner but being part of a royal family, she just couldn't be put in prison among other prisoners of war. Therefore, she was trapped in a fort-like subdivision of the imperial palace receiving all the essential facilities a royal should receive. Emperor Vincent wasn't someone who held personal grudges against the enemy's family. To him, the king's sister was just an unfortunate girl who lost her family in the war. So the nobles tried to use this 'fallen princess' to shackle down the emperor. 'Fallen Princess' was the name the nobles had given to her. Her original name, Sylvia , was somehow forgotten in the struggle for power inside the imperial palace. 

The nobles' original intent was to use the emperor's guilt of having killed her brother, to make him marry her and then hold the empress who had no one to back her beside her fallen kingdom, in their grasp to manipulate the emperor into making decisions according to their will. Though indirect, this method if successful would've secured them enough power over the emperor. All the major noble families at that time, saw the princess as a treasure chest to be acquired first. 

However, the princess was very well hidden from everyone as she was always trapped inside the imperial palace's West Wing, her fort-like prison. No one was allowed to talk to her or have any relation to her besides the emperor himself and his closest aide, Duke Blacqua. Duke Blacqua being the one who had rescued the princess from being beheaded along with other rebels, was inevitably among the few people who had the privilege to meet the princess. But there was no way someone as righteous as Duke Blacqua would've given in to the nobles' dirty trickery.

It was around that time when the famous 'swan' incident occurred. Apparently, the emperor bumped into the fallen princess while hunting alone on the imperial hunt grounds. He was shocked to see her secretly sitting near the pond surrounded by white swans all around her. Even though she was being treated like royalty, she was still a prisoner. So to be wandering around freely on the hunting grounds which were considerably far and quite the opposite direction from her prison, The West Wing, more surprised the emperor than it angered him. How could a weak and fragile girl like her, escape all those guards and maids' eyes that were supposedly monitoring her and wander around so nonchalantly and yet manage to return safely, in the end, avoiding any exposure of her secret outings. The level of familiarity that was brimming between the princess and those swans confirmed that it wasn't the first time she was out of her cage. But, somehow, seeing her smile for the first time, the emperor was mesmerized by her beauty. He had only seen her bending her head down with a lifeless expression and always having a gloomy temperament. But now, as she was alone ( for the emperor was secretly watching her from behind a tree), she had a bright expression full of life and an upright posture. This was what the fallen princess originally looked like, not like the disguised gloomy princess the emperor had always thought her to be. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to ruin the only specks of happiness the princess had, so he decided to quietly watch for the time being. 

So, from that day onwards, the emperor would sneak out of his office during noon and secretly watch the fallen princess playing with her swan friends. Curiosity grew into habit and habit into addiction. By the time he realized that he was addicted to her smile, he had fallen too deep into the affection he secretly held for her. He had long crossed the boundaries from where return could've been possible. He wanted her, not just to see her from afar, but to touch her, embrace her, make her happy, give her everything he had the power to give.... to make her his and his only. The emperor had fallen in love with the fallen princess.

But he was afraid that the princess' smile would fade again the moment he showed up in front of her. However, being away from her when she was so within his reach, tortured him. Therefore, he decided to disguise himself as a stableman and meet her with the excuse of taking a horse for a walk. He quietly and cautiously approached her as if afraid that he would break the dream if he progressed too hurriedly. His actions, at first, startled the princess, but as they started meeting daily and their topics of conversation became more and more versed, the princess finally started feeling at ease around him.

After two months of meeting like this secretly, the emperor finally decided to reveal his identity and propose to the princess for marriage. But that day the princess didn't show up. The emperor felt disappointed. But there was nothing he could do, so he patiently waited for the princess by the pond's side and gave the swans company in her instead. The day passed, the princess never came. Another day of patient waiting passed, yet there was no sign of the princess. Waiting like this, two weeks passed, but neither the princess came out, nor the emperor had the courage to go to her himself. But they say there is a limit to which the heart of a person can hold and when the amount given surpasses that limit, that heart is bound to spill over the emotions.

The emperor couldn't take it anymore at the end of the third week and charged directly towards the West Wing. More than anger, his heart feared that he would never see her again if he didn't go himself to reach out to her.

He stood in front of her room's door, all the personal guards and the one posted at the West Wing were told to retire for the day. The emperor gently knocked at her door. He got no response. His heart trembled and he knocked again. Still no response. He, unable to control his body anymore, barged in the room and shut the door behind him. He wanted no disturbances, for he had already reached the limit of his patience and control. He quietly went over to the bed where the princess lay. He looked at her closed eyes and ran his fingers through her hair, he always wanted to touch that soft hair, but was too afraid to do before. Somehow, he wasn't afraid today.

He called out her name, as softly as he could, not expecting her to wake up at this little sound when she was indifferent to the loud knocking on her door. But the princess opened her and looked at him. She wasn't surprised but was much happier as if she was expecting it. She smiled at the emperor the same way as she always did when he met her in his disguise, but he wasn't in his disguise that moment, so he felt dumbfounded. The princess then revealed all the secrets she had been holding in her heart the entire time. She was actually a healer. So she could see the emperor's light ever since he first approached her, so she always knew it was the emperor who was keeping her company like that.

The emperor felt a loss of words, but this precious chance was something too valuable to be lost for such a reason. He asked the princess a question which he had always feared to ask, but now where things had reached, there was no turning back. He asked her if she resented him for killing her brother. Why she had been avoiding meeting him for three whole weeks. These questions took greater courage to be asked than heading to the battlefield for war took. 

"I don't resent you. Maybe it's because I fell in love with your honest white light."

These words that Princess Sylvia told Emperor Vincent that day were engraved on Empress Sylvia Evanlite's Grave when she passed away after twenty-two years of a beautiful marriage with the emperor. The emperor truly treasured his love and together they had three children. The first emperor's love story with the fallen empress had become a fable and classic fairytale in the Empire of Alkezar.

But beautiful stories don't last long in a world that is prone to power struggles. The nobles could never use Empress Sylvia as a trump card to control the emperor. As he had married her out of love and not for just responsibility, the Empress had the Emperor himself backing her. So it was only natural for her to rule autonomously instead of being a puppet in the nobility's hands. 

So the nobles looked forward to making factions with the princes for the upcoming struggle for the throne. Among the three royal heirs, the eldest first prince and the current emperor was Prince Asterus Evanlite. First, in the line of throne, he very well had the strongest noble families supporting him. He was deemed perfect by most scholars and was supposedly the best candidate for the throne. He had always felt it natural to be learning everything an emperor should know because he knew his other siblings were not interested in a power struggle. So he always went for perfection. The second heir was, Prince Sirius Evanlite. From the very beginning, the second prince had made it clear that he had no intentions of fighting for succession. Although loved by the public, the second prince preferred to rather support his elder brother to succeed the throne and live quietly with the title of Duke Evanlite as that was bestowed to him by the father emperor for his accomplishments in war studies and earning the title of Sword Master just in his twenties, the youngest age ever. The third heir was Princess Kasia Evanlite. She had, by the law of the empire, all the rights to be a successor in line, but the princess had wanted to live a normal life as a normal lady, so she rather avoided making factions with the nobles and indirectly declared to be not interested in the throne. When she reached adulthood, she very well married Duke Blacqua's only son and next Duke in line as they were engaged since young and were childhood sweethearts and became the most powerful lady next to the Empress, Duchess Blacqua.

The power struggle was very smooth, it was very much clear who the crown prince title would go to. The first prince after being officially declared as the crown prince, married an unknown girl. This led to a huge uproar among the noble families who were wishing their daughters to be possible crown princess candidates. The emperor helped Prince Asterus to overcome the opposition from the nobles and the girl he had married to be recognized as the true crown princess. Everything was going well, the crown prince was going to ascend the throne that year, his wife was pregnant with the future heir. The second prince was engaged to the crown princess' younger sister and was holding his title as Duke into practice. Duchess Blacqua was living the life she wanted. And there was no war threat which is usually common during the time the heir succeeds to his throne. But maybe it was the calm before the storm.

On the night before the day of Prince Asterus' coronation, the second prince led an assassination squad to the crown princess' chamber and killed her. But being held on the spot by a servant's shrieks, the second prince was forced to fight with the imperial soldiers and was discovered with his true identity. Though he managed to successfully escape, the crown prince declared him a traitor to the empire and passed the order to behead him, the next day after he was coronated as the Emperor. He lost his wife and child in a single night and then he heard the news of the previous Emperor being poisoned to death. There was also poison found in his breakfast which he refused to eat because he was depressed with the news of his father passing away. All these things were enough to make the second prince hated by the public and being searched for like mads. His fiance fled and was never found again. But Prince Sirius was captured and sentenced to death by beheading him. Duchess Blacqua forsook the imperial palace after this and never set her foot again in the palace.

Emperor Asterus never married again. This was the sole reason why there were always revolts among the nobles about not having an heir for the throne. Without an heir, it was difficult for them to predict the power concentration within the palace. The nobles' opposition and the emperor's severe suppression was the primary picture of Alkezar's politics until he appeared ten years ago. Lloyd Shuzar.

The Southern principality was always known to have a large number of witches as King Akezen never opposed nor prohibited witches or any other sort of natural magical creature. So the Southern had always been a safe abode to witches from all over the world. And this continued even when the empire of Alkezar was unified because of Empress Sylvia. But when Emperor Asterus succeeded the throne, he very openly showed his resentment toward witches who were, as was known publicly, the ones that helped the second prince infiltrate the imperial palace the night of the crown princess' assassination. Though declaring all witches to be banned was initially considered harsh when only a few witches were at fault, but it all became justified when rewards on bringing witches to the imperial knights were declared.

Most witches fled from the Southern principality, but there was one that remained there, nonetheless. The Great White Witch of Singrad. The Singrad territory was at the centre of the principality and at the edge of the vast Singrad forest where the White Witch lived. Though there were huge rewards for capturing witches, no one ever tried to capture the White Witch. It was a well-known fact that whoever crossed the inner bounds of the Singrad forest, never returned. No one knew what the White Witch looked like as no one ever lived to tell the tale. But leaving the witch alone, who never bothered anyone, was much easier than trying to capture her. So it was like a silent order in the Singrad territory to never cross the inner bounds of the forest. Things were calm enough until ten years ago when the White Witch went bersek and froze the whole territory in black ice. It was much more like a one-sided massacre. There were only two survivors, a boy of ten with an infant girl in his arms.

They were the lord's children, Lloyd Shuzar and Julia Shuzar. They were adopted by their grandparents who resided in the capitol and that was how Lloyd Shuzar made his first appearance in the high society of the empire. Even though only ten, his features were much sharper and his eyes looked as if he could see right through the intentions of the people approaching him. But what truly made him the talk of the capitol was his striking resemblance to the emperor. It was almost as if he was the emperor's son. His age weirdly coincided with the crown princess' pregnancy and this was counted as a reason as to why the emperor was refusing to remarry.

Lloyd was now infamously called the 'Hidden Prince' of the empire. And his amazing knowledge of politics and power dispersion, made it quite the evident untold truth that the emperor was secretly raising his son and that the child had somehow survived the assassination. He joined the academy and within two years mastered sword and became what people called 'even better than the second prince'. And then to the public's shock, at the age of fifteen, Lloyd Shuzar led the battle with the rebels of the Frechenare and came back unscathed. Those who saw him on the battlefield called him 'The Grim Reaper'. But the emperor rewarded him nonetheless. He was awarded the title of Duke Evanlite which was empty ever since the second prince was beheaded. Lloyd politely declined and instead inherited his grandfather's Marquis title and became the present Marquis Shuzar.

It may look foolish to refuse the Duke title but it was actually a very calculated move. A Duke is responsible for the military service while a Marquis is in charge of the finances. Why take the risk of fighting in a war for a higher title when you could simply hold power sitting comfortably in your home with the empire treasury in your hands. One move of the finger and you could erase even the name of the most famous merchant or noble completely from the market. And it wasn't like he hadn't done that. Whoever dared to harm him, was witnessed ceasing to exist. It was a relief, as Count Garland sighed, that Marquis Shuzar never harmed anyone pointlessly. So, many people wanted to be on his good side and never dared to cross him.

" Everything seems in line with the mines, Count, I think that should be it for today," Lloyd said as he stood up and buttoned his coat." Oven in his room as usual?"

The Count nodded brightly and said," It's very nice of you to visit him, your grace, he is always better after meeting you."

" As if," the Marquis chuckled. The Count felt more at ease because now Lloyd was acting like a usually young man of age twenty, happy to meet his friend. The Count usually felt uneasy whenever Lloyd talked about finances, but somehow he always felt a fatherly affection toward him whenever he led the Marquis to his crippled son's room. Oven Garland, Count Garland's second son was a friend of Lloyd from the academy. In a carriage accident, he had lost his legs' movement and could never again walk. But the Marquis always visited him as if to make it clear that they were still the same as they were when in the academy.

" Well, here you are, your grace," said the Count as he bowed and turned around. But before Lloyd entered the room, he said," It would be nice if you could look after yourself more. You don't have to push yourself so hard, your grace."

The Marquis blushed at the sudden warm words and stuttered," Y... Yes, I understand."

And he quickly entered the room. The Count smiled and wondered if it was the same cold-blooded young man who was interrogating him a few minutes ago about the missing ledgers of the diamond mines.

" My father seems to be getting more and more skilled at getting you flustered, no? Your grace?" a young man with sharp green eyes and shiny blonde hair said from a wheelchair near an open window.

" And you seem to be getting more and more skilled at making your room stink like dead rats," said Lloyd controlling his involuntary blush.

" Now that is a very keen sense of smell you've got there, I was indeed trying out at new potion using dead rats these days," Oven replied cheerfully as Lloyd sat on the chair beside him.

Oven, a talented knight but after losing his legs, his future seemed unclear to most people. But this guy was rather happy at his loss as it gave him quite a fine amount of time to pursue his original interest, Alchemy. This was the skill of making potions and medicine. Within a year of studying, he became a practising alchemist and a very good one at that.

" You know normal people cry after losing their ability to walk," the Marquis said sarcastically looking at the large bottles and containers of God knew what sort of stuff.

" Why to cry when I got rid of that knight training this easily, if I knew it was going to end this way, I would've broken my legs from the very start."

" You know you sound like a masochist right now."

" Come on, I earn loads of money by selling my potions and medicines anyway, and I got a confession letter from Lady Aria last week. My legs are gone, not my face, pal."

" Looks like being a playboy is still rooted deep inside you," the Marquis yawned as he said this.

" You pulled another all-nighter, Dear Marquis," Oven said in a singing tone.

" Is it that obvious?"

" You look like a zombie. I bet Raymond 'slammed' the teacup on your table this morning, hehe."

" He was scary, more than usual. Guess he got a little brother to look after now, that's why."

" A little brother? That stone Raymond got himself a little brother?!?"

" Why do you look more shocked than happy for Raymond? Well, even I was confused when he said he would take Frank in his brother. But the other employees said that Raymond cares a lot for this brat, so I just permitted it. That guy would never marry, I'm sure of it. So, a younger brother might do him some good company."

" That kid must be either too cute that even Raymond got fazed or he might be another stone like Raymond so they got along well being the same kind."

" The first one. Frank, according to the servants, is a very adorable child. Guess even Raymond could be fazed by such a face."

" He must be good if even you're praising him. Next time bring him over."

" Okay, now let's get to business. Is it ready?"

" As always."

Oven wheeled his chair to a chest of drawers and opening the second one with the key from his pendant, he brought out a jar of what seemed to be red candies.

Lloyd walked over and said," They look good."

Oven hide the jar on his chest and held out another hand," Payment please."

" Do you always have to do that? It's not like I'm going to scam you or something?," said Lloyd taking out a bag of gold coins from his pocket and handing it over to Oven.

" Well, there's no helping it. Can't trust a monetizer like you, no?," said Oven handing Lloyd the jar.

" Lies. You ask for money first but never count it. You just like doing it."

" My, my, I'm caught. You know I love you the best, Marquis."

" Could you please not say it like that? People would think you have a crush on me."

" That would just make it more interesting. I wonder what you would say if Julia asked you whether she's getting a sister-in-law or a brother-in-law."

" Now that you mention Julia, did you do what I asked you last month?"

" I increased the candy's power, but don't know until when it would last."

" Julia is getting stronger. I wonder until when can I control her mana core with this." Lloyd looked at the candies in the jar.

" Why control then? Just let her be. It's not like she would be directly considered a witch. And she's not even one, to begin with. I don't know what you're so worried about?"

" She has a witch's blessing, Oven. That's equal to being a witch, just cutting out the metamorphosis. And if she had normal powers, I would've let her be but her power....."

" 'Foresight'. I wonder if she really doesn't know of her power."

" Of course, she doesn't."

" How do you know?"

The Marquis fell silent for a moment then sighed and said," She is a careful child, Oven. She won't act recklessly."

" Remember what she did when she 'foresaw' you falling down a horse and getting hurt."

The Marquis was silent.

" She jumped in front of the horse and hypnotized it to stand still so you could get off safely, though unknowingly. But it sure is something that you call reckless, no?"

The Marquis left silently as he heard Oven sigh and mounted up Dusk as he greeted the Count. Riding back, his mind was over what Oven said. It wasn't the first time he heard something like from Oven but for some reason, it made him uneasy that day. He just wanted to reach back home as soon as possible and see Julia.

The governess held Julia's hands as a strange blue light shone from the girl's eyes. Hannah knew in a moment what kind of magic it was. Hypnosis.

' I thought only I could do that, Hannah thought. But as she looked out again, all the people had frozen to their spots and only the priests and the emperor was moving, confused at what happened. Suddenly, a priest turned towards the direction of the carriage. Hannah froze. That priest, he had noticed something. The magic from the carriage.