Taking her place

Breakfast

I walked up to the man while I calmly pulled on my black gloves.

I was bored at that point.

Much like my current self, I could no longer feel anything but this was much worse.

I could neither feel physical or emotional changes in myself, at least not anymore.

The man walked backward until he was no longer able to walk any further. His back hit the wall behind him and he began to shake.

My hand inside of my glove that was already covered in someone else's blood was twitching in anticipation as if my hand just knew what was coming. "I'm not a big enthusiast on chasing men," I said to him as my lips formed a distorted grin. I grabbed his neck as I made him lean on the table in front of him. "But when the chase is over," I grabbed a knife from my belt as I pierced the middle of his hand, causing the man to scream in anguish. "They say I tend to get a little... Too excited," the man began to cry as his hand was stuck in between the knife and the table. I pushed the knife further down in a random burst of curiosity. 'How does it feel to hurt again? It's been so long for me that I wonder if it would bring tears to my eyes as well.' I thought to myself as a man entered the room. His short silver hair shined as he passed through the lights of the room.

"You need to fix that twisted personality of yours." He said as I backed up from the man in the table. 'Great, there goes my entertainment.' I thought to myself as I scoffed loudly.

"She's not exactly the type that you can bribe but luckily for you, I am." He said as he moved closer to the man in front of him. "So, what do you say? You think you can give us what we need?"

I wake up to the sound of a thud beside me and I see that Kuro dropped one of my swords with his foot as he stretched out his leg too far to the side of my bed.

I rub my temples as I remember what happened last night.

Once we got home Kuro would not leave my side. No matter what.

He even tried to follow me inside of the bath but luckily for me, I managed to convince him to let me bathe in peace.

When it was nighttime, he would not let go of my hand. He went to the pure extent of crying so I had no other choice but to allow him to sleep next to me, even though it could have ended up in a catastrophe.

I admit that throughout most of the night I could not sleep. At one point he changed from a boy to a young man of about twenty years and my body went cold.

He was beautiful, yes but the thought of him waking up and possibly trying to kill me bothered me.

As a knight in training, we have been taught about survival and one of the things they teach is to never be weak in front of someone who poses a threat, so throughout most of the night I laid there awake.

Trying to fix my breathing and just staring at the man who laid beside me. Trying to find any suspicious movement, trying to survive the cold night without having it be obvious.

"You really need to work on your posture when you sleep," I whisper to myself as I fix the boy to have his legs on the bed and under the blankets. "Or else how will you ever share a bed with a lady?"

After taking a bath I prepare myself to eat breakfast as fast as I can but I encounter a dilemma as I begin to hear screams and the sound of things being thrown towards the walls of a room.

"Whoa!" I hear Lenna scream as I enter the room confused.

"What's going on here?!" I scream as I see pieces of glass and ceramic everywhere on the floor.

"Blair, we don't know he just freaked out," Lenna says as she looks at the perpetrator that is hiding against the wall with tears coming down his eyes.

I flinch as I look at him concerned; I have seen this before.

In my past life, there was a family that lived beside us, they had a small dog that whenever strangers would get close, he would completely freeze for a second before he would try to bite anyone and anything. They would constantly apologize to us for the loud barks the dogs had especially when they had a guest in their home. "He was tortured before, so we are slowly trying to teach him that there is nothing to be afraid of, but some people just don't have the patience with him as we do," I remember the lady of the house saying to my mom, one day when she asked about the dog’s behavior.

I look away with a small sigh, 'I don't remember him acting like this in the future that I had seen.'

"Clean this mess up." I signal to the maids as they bow their heads down in respect. "Lenna, you should go accompany mother to breakfast. She's probably already there waiting for us."

"Ugh, what about?" She tries to ask before I cut her off.

"I’ll take care of this mess. Just go. She's probably excited about your accomplishments and would like for you to celebrate it with her, don't let our Aku get worried so early in the morning." The moment she hears the nickname we have for our mom she straightens her back and smiles. "You're right! Aku is probably wondering where we all are." As she walks out of the room.

Aku, it means moon in some language.

I do not exactly remember when we had found it but when we read it at the academy, we both fell in love with the name.

It is a secret of ours, the meaning.

Because to us, our mother was like the moon that decided to share some of the light that reflected upon her for us to be led to a different path. A path carved by her, with no cracks or bumps. A purely white road made of white sand that would allow us to see if there was anything in our way clearer than ever.

I walk towards the couch next to the wall where Kuro is currently frozen up against and I sit down.

I do not say anything, I just stare at the servants as they move about the room. Cleaning the pieces of broken vases with some sort of broom made of straw and then cleaning the straw with a cloth, I sigh loudly. 'Maybe I should make them actual brooms.' I think to myself. I realize that the concept is yet to be perfected in this world.

I feel some movement on the couch next to me, but I do not look. I just continue to stare at the workers as they kneel on their knees while they try to clean the mess.

I breathe out softly as I look at the boy that is now sitting next to me. "You aren't going to breakfast dressed like that," I say as he looks up at me with tears almost coming out of his eyes again. I get up and kneel in front of him as I signal a maid to come closer to me.

"Yes, my lady." She says as she bows.

"Bring me a change of clothes for him." I look at the boy as he clutches his pants tightly.

"Yes, of course." She says as she gets something from the boy’s closet.  She smiles as she runs handing me a set of clothes with the same colors that I am wearing today.

'Seems like matching will become a thing from now on.'

The boy’s eyes begin to brighten as he takes the clothes from the maid and smiles widely. "Thank you!" He says as he leaves to the bathroom, leaving behind a blushing maid.

"Why did he go on a rampant?" I ask the maid as she sighs softly. "He doesn't seem to like getting changed by others, we didn't listen and began to try to undress him which got him antsy but I guess the last straw was lady warner."

"Why?" I ask as she moves her fingers nervously.

"He wanted to wait to see what colors you would wear for him to wear something that matched but she insisted on how he couldn't continue to always wear colors that are similar to your clothes, my lady. She said that kind of thing must be embarrassing for you since he is of unknown birth and for him to wear the same colors as my lady..."

"Alright," I say as I cut her off. "I understand. Let lady warner know to not do that again, or whatever gets broken next time will go under her name."

"You won’t punish her?" The maid asks as she looks at me with a surprised expression.

"She didn't know how the boy would react. She is not one hundred percent responsible this time so ill forgive it but like I said. Let her know that if it happens again, there will be repercussions."

"Ah, yes! I’ll let her know."

Kuro soon walks out of the bathroom as he smiles brightly with red eyes that show that he had been crying. "Alright, that's better. Let us go." I extend my hand as he holds it tightly with both of his hands.

"You guys finally made it!" Lenna says in a jokingly manner as she smiles at our mother. "I told you they were on their way."

We both sit on the table in seats opposite from each other as our plates get served by our maids.

Mother looks at Kuro and as she looks at his red puffy eyes, she purses her lips as if she is about to say something about the matter, but she decides not to.

"I have begun to look into Kuro’s situation." Mother says as she grabs my complete attention. "We can’t seem to find any family within our kingdom that has a missing child."

I breathe out slowly as I look at my plate. 'That's because he's not from this kingdom.'

"Do you think he might be from the neighboring kingdom?" Lenna asks as she looks at mother and then at the wall somewhere above by the ceiling. "The kingdom of ashes might be where he's from, we were originally from there so it might just be destiny that he ended up in this kingdom as well."

I scoff as I hear the nickname of the kingdom, that place brings me bad memories. Especially knowing that the kingdom benefitted from our parent’s death.

Lenna does not know but in the life that I was to live, I searched for our mothers’ killer and i found him, but once I killed him I was not satisfied. So, I looked for the reason as to why he even bothered to go after our parents in the first place and I found it.

He was paid by the queen, kill our parents and us and they had an excuse to declare war against a small kingdom that was known for its beautiful rubies.

My mother had ties with them since she had previously helped them out so they did not bring chaos to her place of birth out of respect, to think that kindness from both sides would bring their downfall.

In the future, the boy sitting next to me would break his curse somehow and he would go back to his position as duke of that kingdom and would kill his brother, the person who ordered his death together with the queen who partnered with him in the conspiracy.

The older prince, who is known for having impure blood will become the next king and that is as far as I know.

Since I did not live long past that.

"I wouldn't get involved with anyone from that place," I tell mother as I continue to eat. "Most of those people are snakes."

"Most doesn't mean all," Lenna says as she smiles innocently.

"Yeah most, as in most," I say as we continue to eat.

"Alright, well meanwhile we have him as a guest here. I will be having him go to school at an academy. If a boy is not receiving the proper education, those bastards at the church won’t leave me alone." Mother says as she looks at Kuro. "So, I’ll need you to help me out by behaving and having you go to school properly, alright?"

"Can I go to the same school as Blair?" He asks as he looks at mother with sparkling eyes.

"That's a school for knights, are you sure you'll be alright with that?" She asks as she smiles worried. "You'll be training even if you are young."

"Yup!" He says as he begins to move around his chair with excitement.

"See," Lenna says as she takes a bite of her bread. "I told you guys, I should train him to be a knight."