Taking her place

the guest

The sound of birds chirping wakes me up as I stare at the ceiling for a while.

I test my surroundings, trying to figure out if what happened last night was real or simply just a dream.

The warm blankets make my body feel exhausted since the rays of sun passing through my windows are hot. ‘I need a shower.’

I lift my arm but there’s something heavy pinning it down to the bed.

Kuro is right beside me, holding down my arm as he hugs it with as much force as he can.

His forehead twitches slightly at my movement as I sigh.

‘When did he sneak in?’

I gently remove my arm as I cover him with the warm blankets.

I get up as I walk towards the bathroom and begin to fill up the bath with cold water.

The water changes color as soon as I fill it up, what used to be clear water before is now a thick red.

‘it’s been a while since I saw this.’

In my other life, I would see this every night, right after a job I would simply see myself and everything that was liquid as blood.

I stop the water from filling up the tub any more than what is needed as I begin to get undressed. The view of the blood undisturbs me as I get in the tub without any second thoughts.

I lay backward as I stare at the ceiling and feel the cold water against my skin slowly turn warm.

Perhaps in that other life, I got some sort of PTSD and I did not even know.

That would make sense after all psychological sicknesses in this world are practically unknown.

It’s not that someone was abused in their childhood and suffers from trauma but more because the poor thing was cursed since birth.

‘it’s pathetic, but perfectly understandable.’

I close my eyes as I lower my body into the water until I am fully underwater and wait for a minute before I get up again.

The air that I craved finally fills my lungs as I hear the water move violently at my sudden movements.

The blood-red color is gone and it is back to being clear.

‘I need to fix this; I can’t have something like a mental disorder getting in my way.’

“my lady we have a visitor who is asking to be able to see someone from the Artema family.” the maid says as she bows at Lenna who is now the one sitting in the seat that mother used to use.

“who is it?” Lenna asks as she continues to eat.

“it’s a man wearing all back, he looks like a soldier.” The maid says as she puts her hands gracefully in front of herself and slowly pulls out a letter. “He was carrying this letter.”

The moment the maid pulls it out I get up. ‘it’s him, he’s finally here.’

“I invited that man here.” Everyone but mother looks at me with a shocked expression. “he's my guest.”

Lenna stares at the letter as she reaches out for it. “why? You don’t usually-”

“I have something I need to talk to him about, it’s a personal matter.” I begin to walk away before I stop and look at Lenna. “would it be too much to ask for me to have a room prepared for him as a guest?”

Lenna opens her eyes wide as she turns to look at mother who smiles approvingly. “that’s alright.”

I walk towards the waiting room as I begin to listen to the little steps of someone behind me. The slight pull of my cape stops me from continuing as I look at the little culprit standing a couple of feet away from me.

His sulking expression with slight tears in his eyes makes me turn to look at him.

“what’s wrong?” I ask as he looks at the floor.

“Who are you meeting?” he asks as his expression turns sullen.

“I wanted to keep this a secret, but I found someone who may know you and you may see as a close friend.” I smile as I grab my cape and pull it towards me causing him to move with it as he holds on to the cape.

Once he is within reach, I grab his hand as I pull him until he is standing in front of me. “would you like to meet him?” I ask as he looks at me with a confused expression.

“but I don’t have any friends.”

That is a fact, sadly this guy was never sociable in his younger years with anyone who was the same age as him, so he grew up alone. After all, how can a child who has been psychologically abused his whole life think that anyone outside of his home would want to genuinely be his friend?

At the point, I think its fair game to say that he probably did not know what a friend was or is.

“well, I think it’s worth a try.” I grab his hands as I kiss them. “don’t you think?”

“fine.” He says as he looks at the floor.

We walk inside as the man stands and looks at us with a careful expression before he finally sees the little body standing beside me as he continues to hold my hand.

He kneels as he looks at the young boy.

“sire, I didn’t know why I was called upon to such a place but to think that it was you. I am honored.”

“Who are you?” Kuro says as he looks at the man with a grimace.

“Pardon me?” the man asks as he looks at the boy in front of him in disbelief.

“Please, would you mind sitting down with me to have a conversation?” I ask as he gets up and bows politely.

“I understand, thank you for the hospitality.”

“how about you go back?” I ask kuro as he looks like he is about to complain. “it’s just to make sure that he's related to you. I want to know if we can trust him okay?”

Kuro tries to retaliate but I give him no opening. “I said go.” I look away from him.

I hear the small footsteps run out as the door is slammed behind me and I sigh softly.

“I apologize for making you see that.”

The man in front of me stares at me with a concerned expression. Something similar to seeing the ghost of someone who you believed to be dead.

‘Perhaps because he's never seen his boss listen to a person before.’

“I hear that your name is Noah, please have a seat,” I say as I proceed to sit down across from him. A soft knock is heard as stare at the table in the middle of us. “come in.”

Lily enters with a silver plate as she sets down a cup of tea for both of us and bows before she proceeds to walk back out.

I grab my cup as I begin to drink from it while blowing on it gently.

“how do you know my name?” he asks as his black eyes show a gleam that I can recognize better than anyone else.

‘killing intent.’

I smile as I hold the cup to my lips, I don’t show it but I know that he is prepared to take a knife out of his coat.

“I would avoid using that against me, I can kill you in more than fifty different ways with just my bare hands.” He flinches as I smile politely. “besides, you will make me look bad, I'm here trying to help. How will I ever tell Sir. Alec that I have killed the man he called for?”

He slowly moves his hand away from his coat as he puts both of his palms on this lap where I can see them.

“how”

“It was by coincidence,” I put the cup of tea down as I sigh. “I found out about his dilemma and decided to be of help to him.”

The man in front of me is silent as he stares at the cup of tea without blinking.

I wait it out since I have met this man before I know that he tends to stare into the distance as he thinks whenever it comes to making important decisions.

‘you haven’t changed at all.’ I grab the teacup in front of me as I continue to drink from it. ‘I’m glad.’

“he didn’t recognize me. Did you find him like that?” he finally speaks as I blow on my tea softly.

“my mother found him in the woods. It seems that the small body of his doesn’t seem to remember anything but when he is in his original form, he knows everything.” I finish drinking my tea as I put the cup down. “at least that’s what I got from talking to his other form. He wanted me to find you. He said only you can be of help to him.”

He looks pale now as he looks at the floor as if he's trying to find the answers that he is looking for withing the tiles of marble.

“It's going to be hard if we don’t find a way to release him from the curse soon.” His eyes look dull now as he looks at the cup of tea with a defeated expression.

“I have sent for someone who I believe may be a help for that.” I smile as he looks up at me with curious eyes. “to be sincere with you, the main reason as to why I called for you is for you to help me take care of his other self.” I look at the door that Kuro slammed.

“he is, after all, a child during the day, he needs someone to protect him when I can't be there.” I sit up straight as I swallow hard. “there are some people threatening my family so I can’t be by his side at all times.”

“of course, I will protect him,” Noah says as he stares at me deeply in the eyes this time. The sudden glow that shows in his eyes is now different from when this conversation started. He isn’t building a wall and trying to dance around his words with the phrase that he says.

‘that’s determination.’

There’s a deep silence as soon as I enter the room.

Kuro doesn’t even get up to greet me like he usually does, instead, he covers himself with his blankets so that I can’t even look at his face.

I sigh softly as I walk towards his bed and sit on the opposite side from where he is laying down and I take off my cape. I proceed to take off my shoes and put them beside the bed.

I take off my jacket so that I'm wearing the plain black shirt that normally goes underneath it as the main piece of my outfit and I lay down.

“are you going to be mad at me forever?” I try to sound hurt and he flinches. “he seems to be the real thing you know. He offered to be your personal guard, so what do you think?” I ask as I close my eyes to let them rest.

The silence continues for about a minute before I can hear the shuffling of blankets beside me.

“if he becomes my guard will you abandon me?” he asks as tears roll down his little eyes and I laugh softly.

I grab the blankets as I get underneath them, and I hug the little boy. Trying to reassure him about the slow but necessary changes that are happening. “of course not.”

I can feel his warm tears through my shirt, but I ignore the feeling. I just continue by caressing his hair as he looks up at me with teary eyes. “you promise?”

I wipe his tears as I look down at his lovely puffed up eyes. “I promise that as long as you need me, I won’t leave you.”

His tears slowly come to an end as his breathing begins to soften.

The warm sensation in my arms causes me to slowly close my eyes as I am enveloped in the soft warmth of another human being.

‘I shouldn’t get used to this. He’ll be leaving soon.’

There’s something moving about in front of my face, I ignore it at first but it soon becomes apparent that it won't stop.

Annoyed at the sudden movement I sigh as I open my eyes and look in front of me.

Alec is touching a strand of my hair as he moves it between his fingers and stares at the color with a deep gaze.

“Sorry, I ended up falling asleep.” I get up as I begin to walk away from the bed but he pulls me back, causing me to land on the bed violently.

‘what the hell is his problem?’

“the color of your hair. I feel as if I have seen it before, but I can’t seem to put a finger on it.” He doesn’t let go of my hand as he continues to stare at me.

I look back at him as I try to figure what he is thinking but to no avail all I manage to see is the empty eyes of a cold-blooded killer.

I fix my body as I lay beside him and I stare at the ceiling.

“you might have seen it, I don’t know.” I close my eyes as I imagine her.

The smell of Asters makes their way to my brain as her features begin to show up in my mind.

Her dark blue hair shines a light blue in the sunlight as she looks back at me, she stands as the colorful Asters behind her move slightly from the breeze as if they were rejoicing their caretaker.

She smiles softly as she extends her arms, “Come here!”

My lips flinch as I hear her voice.

I turn my eyes away from Alec as I realize that I have tears in my eyes.

My mother was always smiling, she was the spitting image of a retired Hero.

Although the kingdom spread rumors of her being a powerful and barbaric witch who didn’t deserve to share a home with the direct descendant of an angel. In our home, she was equally as much as an angel as my father was.

‘and that’s what got them killed.’

“my mother was from the kingdom where you came from, she was murdered along with my father.” I turn to look at him as I feel my body stiffen from the anger. He flinches as his grip on my wrist begins to loosen. “that day I vowed to never step foot into that wretched land unless I am going to kill the people responsible for it.”

I turn to look up at the ceiling as he continues to stare at me in silence.

He lets go on my wrist and I internally sigh.

‘I should go.’

I feel his fingers intertwine with mine as he stares at our hands.

“maybe I can help you with that.” He pulls my hand towards his lips as he presses them against my skin.

I feel something similar to lightning pass through my entire body as I stare at him with my eyes wide open.

‘wh-what did he just.’

There’s a silence as I finally let out a breath of air.

“there’s no way I could ask something like that from the Duke of that kingdom. It’s practically treason.”

“there’s nothing I can’t do, and If I say that it's not murder then it's not. They are after all people I rule over.” He smiles as I stare at him with a troubled expression.

“it's not that simple your grace.” I joke as he freezes before an expression of realization appears on his lovely face.

“are you saying that the mastermind is royalty?” he sits up as he looks down at me. “who was it?”

“it's not important.” I try to pull my hand away as he pulls me back down to the bed and pins me down to the bed.

“who?” he says with an expression that tells me he isn’t willing to let go of the subject anytime soon.

I stare up at him and realize that this man's face is too perfect. ‘how in the world is someone so beautiful and yet so unwilling to understand what others feel. What it means to feel.’

I touch his cheek lightly as if I were touching something that were so fragile that it could dissolve at any moment.

‘but who am I to talk.’

“your grace,” a smile makes its way into my lips as I finally feel it so close to my hands. The number one thing that I wanted in my other life, the last thing that was taken from me by this man. “would you be willing to kill a queen?”

His expression hardens as he grabs my hand that is touching his cheeks lightly as he smirks. “are you kidding? That’s a walk in my garden.”

‘my revenge.’