Taking her place

A Royal Mistake

"What are you wearing?" Mike asks as he scowls at me.

"You should feel honored, I only dress like this to insult royalty," I say as I take a sip of the coffee that his maid offered me.

"You did what?"

"It’s a long story, but long story short." I put the cup down in the center table as I stretch my arms and then put them back on my lap. "You won’t have to worry about that hairless cat anymore."

He sighs loudly as if his entire soul is sighing with him "oh God, I was so worried that I would actually have to go through with it."

"How are your parents with that entire situation anyways?" I ask as he lays back on his couch.

"They want me to marry before I graduate, but I’ve convinced everyone that supports them that I should wait until after my graduation. It gives me more time to figure out how I can strip my parents of their power so that they can't have control over my life any longer."

"Strip them of their power huh?" I say as I look at the window. "I might have a way to help you with that but first I’ll need you to help me with something."

"What?"

"My parents used to have armory on them all the time that was more or so considered ancient artifacts."

"So?" He asks as he looks at me with a nervous expression.

"I need you to send someone to go and steal them for me." I smile as his face goes pale.

"How about, Hell no." He untightens his collar as he undoes his buttons from his wrists and begins to fold the sleeves back. "Do you know how dangerous something like that is?"

"If it’s the dangers then just send someone else, someone who's not from your faction. There is a guild in the west that has all sorts of interesting people. People, that for a good price will get any job done in a couple of days." I say as I sit back and try to relax my body, my muscles are still stiff from what happened earlier. Some sort of reflex that my body does when there's some sort of fight or flight event. 

"Alright, let us say we hire a few people here and there. We don't know where the weapons are at the moment," he says trying to reason with me. I stare at him for a long time as I begin to think twice about whether I should trust this guy with this task, to begin with. 

'It has to be him...'

"My father’s sword is in the capital of the kingdom of vespers, it's inside of the main church that they have there. In the tallest tower where the statue of an angel protects it, the angel of ashes you can't miss it. As for my mother’s swords, they are in the same kingdom but they are in the house of a woman named Lora, she's been protecting them ever since my mother died for that part of the job it will be more of a pickup then a challenge. So, for that part, I suggest that you just let whoever you send to tell her that Regina’s heart wants her swords back."

"How do you know all of this?"

"Perhaps it could be explained as a dream that guided me?" I say as he looks at me with a confused expression. "But you have to trust me. That’s as much as I can say, I don't even know if I were to tell you everything if you would even believe me."

"Fine, I’ll send someone to post the job without setting any kind of alarms. As for the payment."

"I’ll take care of it." I smile as he sighs softly. "Well now that I’ve taken care of that situation." I stare at him as I try to choose my words wisely but as I thought. A topic like this will always be painful, no matter how you word it. "How have you been?"

"I’ve been great." He says without skipping a beat.

"That’s not exactly how a person who is great usually answers." I cross my arms as he continues to stare at the floor. His posture becomes stiff as he leans forward, he runs his hands through his hair as he looks up at me with red eyes now, as if he is going to start crying at any moment.

"I miss him." He begins before he sits up straight and looks up at the ceiling, trying to stop his tears from rolling down. "I don't understand why he left me. I’ve been looking for him everywhere but I can't find him, I feel like I'm missing something but I can't quite put a finger on it. What am I missing?"

My hands turn into fists as I look down at the floor, my tears want to fall as well but for a different reason. Not because I miss anyone in particular but because the man sitting in front of me with a broken heart, the man that's has been helping me is the man that I betrayed.

"I'm sure you'll meet again." I smile as I slowly get up from my seat.

'Im sorry.'

"Well if it isn't lady Lenna?" The Duke and his wife walk towards me as I walk through the hallway with Mike next to me.

Mike sighs as he looks at his father with a displeased expression. I try to not give a bitter laugh as I stare at the interaction, it reminds me of my other life. the one previous to this one.

'I wonder how that family is doing?'

"You seem to be getting along quite well with my son ever since you two entered the same academy." He says as I feel an intense pressure begin to build up around him and Mike. "How much more until you are of age?" He asks as he smiles sweetly.

this man...

I try my hardest not to laugh at the stupid intentions that this old man has but they aren't rare. there are many people out there that want what the Artema name can give you. Power, fame, and above all, the ability to reject the crown without it being called betrayal. 

I smile back with the same fake smile as his "about a year is left, my mother hasn't really talked to me about it yet."

"Well, how about marrying into our house?" The Duke smiles as his wife snickers as she looks at Mike who is standing next to me frozen.

"That seems like a formidable proposal but unfortunately, I have no desire of giving my hand to a man whose heart belongs to another." I begin to walk away as I stop before passing through them "Also, I would very much dislike it if I married into a family that can't seem to remember my actual name."

The Duke looks at me with wide eyes that are immediately directed towards Mike who ignores him and continues to walk along with me.

"I don't want it!" The boy screams as he throws the piece of cake on the floor, causing the plate to break into smaller pieces as Lenna sighs softly.

"Why are you being like this? Blair is coming back soon I promise, so please eat something." She says as she sits down in the chair across from him as he frowns with his arms crossed.

I pull up the front of my dress as the maids' bow while I enter the room as quietly as I can.

"I'm not fond of sweet food but what a waste, who am I punishing for wasting this food?" I ask as Kuro and Lenna both turn to look at me, one with a relieved expression while the other one wears a worried one.

"Umm... Well, I'm sure you can let this one slide, right?" Lenna gets up nervously as she plays with her fingers.

"I let the fact that some vases were completely thrown around go if I let it go again whoever did this will surely do it again. We can't have that happening, now can we?" I speak as I look at Lenna look at the boy next to her as she flinches. 

The maids begin to clean it and I begin to move my feet around from the pain that the heels have been causing in my ankles.

"I'm sorry." I look down as I feel something tug at my dress. "I promise I won't do it again." He says as he looks at me with a sad expression. "Are you mad at me?"

I extend my hand as he holds on to it and I pull him towards the chair where he was previously sitting in. "I’ll forgive you if you eat the next one, don't go throwing it on the floor anymore."

Lenna smiles as she puts a plate on his side of the table, he grabs a fork and immediately begins to eat which cause Lenna to smile brightly. "It’s like if you have tamed a small tiger."

 She grabs a cake herself from the center of the table, as a maid brings me a hot coffee and I sit down next to them in the table.

"Where did you go?" Lenna asks as she takes a bite from her cake.

"I went to see Mike."

Lenna stops eating as she smiles widely. "Sooo... Is he the one?" She asks as she moves her eyebrows up and I stare at her in displeasure.

'of course.'

In this world, there's something that I could never get used to. The way they treat relationships is complete bullshit. 

if you meet a man even by accident more than once it's considered them courting you. its truly saddening, what happened to being compatible and with exploring the odds?

"It’s not like that, he's helping me with something so I'm helping him with something in return."

"Oh, what is he helping you with?" She asks almost uninterested so I smile as I say "he's going to find our parents swords."

She begins to choke on her food as the maids begin to freak out while they bring her all kinds of fluids, from water to tea. She takes a random cup and begins to chug it down her throat before she looks at me with a disapproving expression.

"Are you trying to kill me?" She asks in a dramatic tone. "Why can't you stay out of trouble?! You know that stealing something like that from another kingdom can be used as an excuse to accuse you of treason!"

"It’s not treason since they belong to us, to begin with, besides, he is doing it in the quietest way possible. If anything goes down, I’ll take responsibility." 

"How exactly are they going to find them? I'm sure by the moment that our parents were found that they repossessed all of our belongings, including our parents," she swallows hard as she looks at the table and the at Kuro and tries to smile gently.

"I found out where they are in advanced, all I have to do is just use that information to get them into our hands."

"Fine." She says as she continues to eat her cake. "Just make sure you don't get hurt."

"My lady." Lily walks inside as she hands me a piece of paper that I had asked her to bring me from my room.

It is the list that I asked Sir. Alec to leave for me, the grown-up version of Kuro.

The cursive is well detailed, to the point that I feel like it might resemble a printed version of a document.

'How nice, he's great at being a tyrant and his calligraphy is on point. Not exactly something I would expect to be part of his character.'

I stare at the writing as I scrunch up my nose. 

'and yet even on this life, my writing looks like s**t, seems like even with being reborn my handwriting will stay the same.'

The list consists of horseback riding, training with a sword, studying mathematics, learning history, and physical magic.

'How the hell am I even going to do something like this with a kid?'

There is a big difference between my magic and his, the magic I hold is magic that I grab from the environment and turn it into spells. The type of magic this person uses is the type that is grasped from his environment as well but instead of turning it into spells, he uses it to enhance his body, such as strength, duration, speed, and in rare cases to manipulate an element.

As far as I know, both of the ways that these skills are learned are on the completely opposite side of the scale. 

'How am I going to teach this kid magic that even I can't use?'

My head begins to hurt as the lack of sleep begins to catch up to me and I sigh loudly.

"What is it?" Lenna asks as she stops to stare at me.

"Just some chores that I must take care of, but to be sincere with you... I think I’ll be heading into bed earlier today instead. I'm tired."

"Oh yeah, I don't blame you," Lenna says as she smiles meekly. "The fact that the king almost killed you today..." she bites down as she looks at the center of the table. "There won’t be a next time for sure."

"It’s alright, I made it out alive so there’s no big problem." I slowly get up as I take the list with me. "The thing we should be most worried about is the people who will threaten our family from the shadows after this, they won't be happy that I went against royalty but that's for another day." I look at Kuro who looks up at me with anticipation. "Sorry, but today I won't be able to hang out with you, behave yourself alright? I'm very tired so I have to get some rest."

He looks at the ground with clear sadness as I pull his chin up. "If you behave, tomorrow after the academy I’ll take you to the forest so that we can watch the fairies play. How's that?"

He smiles widely as he touches my hand with his small hands "promise?!"

"I promise."