Taking her place

Knights in the making

Lenna puts her hand on the sides of her waist as she looks back at me before she turns to look at the carriage that arrived for her.

"I will be heading there first." She smiles widely. "I hope to see you there supporting me today."

"Of course, we'll both be there for you," I say as I hold Kuros hand.

She turns to look at the boy who stands there quietly. "Make sure you root for me okay?" She says as she smiles softly towards him before she turns to get inside the carriage.

"Where is she going?" Kuro asks as he looks at me with curiosity.

"Today is the day she graduates as a knight from the academy. I will be graduating next year." I look over at one of the maids as I signal for her to start walking back inside of the house.  "But before we accompany her, we must get you changed, so that you may look presentable since this is a very important day for her. As her family and friends, we must at least show her that we cared enough to dress properly, don't you think?" I ask him as he begins to walk with me towards the house.

I sit there waiting for the boy to come out of the room ready for us to depart and I begin to think.

I do not remember seeing anything about us becoming knights, so I wonder in what way the future has changed.

It seems like the whole meeting with the cursed man is not avoidable. 'Does that mean that we won't be able to avoid the death of Lenna?'

I dig my nails deep into my arm as I try to think of anything but my sister's death, but it does not work.

The image of her lifeless body in front of me as she tries to give me one last smile flashes before me and I flinch.

'No, if it comes down to that then I’ll make sure that the one to get tortured on that day is me. This time. I'll be the one who dies.'

The boy walks out of his room with clothes made from the most beautiful material that the maids were able to find.

It seems mother almost immediately got him clothes after she picked him up.

Reminds me of when she found us as well.

That day when I woke up in a strange new room, with a soft and warm bed I was filled with confusion.

It did not even hit me when the maids entered my room and asked me to pick out the clothes, I would wear to dinner from like eight different options.

It was extremely troublesome.

"What took you so long?" I ask as the boy suddenly blushes.

"He has to wear white since he is still young for this kind of event, but he didn't budge and, in the end, wore this outfit instead. I apologize for not trying enough." The head maid says as she bows her head.

I observed his look for the day and hold in a laugh when I see that he is wearing the same colors as me.

Black with dark blue.

'I don't remember him acting this cute from my memories. Maybe I somehow remembered that part of him wrong.'

"You look great," I say as he looks at me with a small smile.

Almost as if he is shy.

I am taken aback when I see his shy attitude, this is not how I remember him in my memories. From what I saw when he grew attached to my sister he was beyond loud and arrogant for a child, his smile was wide as well and almost mocking.

I am brought back to reality when I feel his small hand take mine as he looks up at me with his small green eyes sparkling in anticipation.

'Perhaps he somehow changed since the way of our meeting was different?'

I hold his hand back as we begin to walk towards the door to enter the carriage that waits for us outside.

The way that a knight graduates is by fighting someone from the same level as themselves. On this public sword fight, it does not matter who wins or loses since both parties will graduate nevertheless but it is a good place to show off your skills in front of important nobles in order to be offered a job at a high standing home.

The Artema home is one of those few homes that royalty cannot touch since they train knights and let the kingdom use them as part of the Artema’s household goodwill.

It is also the reason why it was so easy for our mother to adopt us and call us her own since no one would ever try to intervene with her personal matters at the fear of having one of her dark knights go after their heads.

We walk past the people in the halls in a slow and steady pace as they all stare at me and Kuro. Some look at us with curious eyes while others in complete respect as soon as they catch a glimpse of me standing beside the unknown boy.

They are not being kind; it is more of being smart about the way they handle the situation. After all, they know that if they disrespect someone who is holding my hand and appears to be close to me, they would be disrespecting me as well.

The boy just smiles sweetly as he walks with his hand holding mine and I cannot help but notice that the people who look at him seem to immediately fall for his charms, especially the ladies.

I do not blame them after all his sweet smile adds to his cuteness that with just a small smile from him people would probably begin to act like his older siblings, parents, or grandparents.

'Is this what they mean when they say the phrase "a child loved by all"?'

In my memory of the future, I remember seeing him a couple of times in his actual form, but most of the time the one he would only show it to was my sister. From what I remember he was incredibly beautiful, a man with a strong and wild appearance so the fact that he is a sweet looking kid right now is almost unbelievable. After all, in my memories as soon as he opened his mouth his heavy arrogance would spill at an uncontrollable rate.

When my sister found out about his hidden appearance she was immediately taken aback but at that time she had already begun to see him as a brother of some sort, so she accepted him while vowing to help him get rid of his curse one day.

I met him again once more after my sister's death but at that point, his appearance had changed. He looked calm and more in control of his emotions. By that time he had met someone else and fallen in love with her, perhaps it was because of his love for her that he changed, but although his wild appearance was gone he was still as beautiful as I remembered him and that drove me mad.

By that time, I had done several evil things, things that I could never forget even if I were to be reincarnated again.

Things that I will possibly do.

Possibly the events that had occurred might have also affected the way that I viewed people and things, but I despised him for it. Seeing him happy with a future while my sister laid in her grave at an early age, all because he decided to involve her into his private matters, even after he had promised me that he would protect her and then he wasn't able to.

That was the last day I ever saw him before my future went completely red.

As soon as we arrive at my families designated area, I am greeted by a boy around a year older than me.

"My lady, you are quite the beauty no matter what you wear but if I must say so, those colors suit you so well that I may have fallen in love in a deeper way for you today than usual." He says as he bows and holds a hand to his chest.

The boy in front of me is called Julius, his curly red hair is popular among the ladies since its rare and a symbol of one of the most powerful witches in the east.

Women flock around him all the time as it is known that having kids with someone like him will have a good impact in the future bloodline, especially if the children end up with magic coursing through their veins.

"Please stop with the compliments, you should know more than anyone by now that I don't tend to fall for those kinds of sweet words," I say as I put a hand on my hip.

Ever since I remembered my past life it has been hard to please me. I used to smile all the time and my heart would flutter with any type of compliment thrown at me before I knew of my past but as soon as I remembered who I was I seemed to have mixed my personality a bit. The people around me noticed the change immediately but later accepted it since they thought I was probably growing up a lot faster than other kids my age.

Little did they know it was not that I was growing, but that I had the mentality of a twenty-year-old in my mind by then.

"Yes, you are quite different from the women who are constantly chasing after me, but that is part of your charm." He says as he looks at the boy who is now hugging my waist and smiling up at me. "When will it start?" He asks as he puts on a confused expression. "There's a lot of people so I'm getting scared." He says as he hugs me tightly.

Julius smiles warmly as he kneels to match the height of Kuro. "You are quite a cute kid, aren't you?"

For a moment I feel like I catch a glimpse of his warm smile distorting, but it is almost immediately hidden as he stands back up to smile towards me. "That's an interesting kid you have right there."

He is interrupted as we begin to hear the cheers of many people, signaling the beginning of the graduation ceremony.

"As unfortunate as it is, I must leave you, my lady. Please do watch my grand performance at today's ceremony." He says as he grabs my hand lightly and kisses the back of it as he turns to walk away.

I sigh softly.

I find myself thinking that it would have been nice to have been gullible enough to fall for something like that but unfortunately for me, I know what that look on his face means.

He looks like a businessman that is trying to convince his investor to invest in his ideas or future.

Not that anyone in this world would be able to understand if I described it in the terms, I used to use in my previous life though.

I snap out of my thoughts as I feel a small hand touch mine and I look down to see Kuro looking up at me with expectant eyes. "What's wrong?" I find myself asking almost immediately as he smiles brightly.

"That lady, she's on the floor now with this big heavy looking guy. Is she going to be okay?" He says as he points at Lenna who is now in the center of the floor.

Her sword stands out along with her dark black hair and black eyes. It is a long knight sword with carvings of the Artema household crest. A sword that shines like a star under the sunlight due to the good quality of work that had been done on it by its creator. It has been passed down through the Artema household as a symbol of the next heir and Lenna has it now.

I smile as I see her move swiftly as she challenges her opponent, her movements are not violent. They are almost dazzling as if she were dancing along with the other knight to just create a show to entertain the crowd.

My happiness is soon broken as we hear the scream of a woman as she points up at the ceiling and everyone but the knights on the floor realize what is going on.

The chandeliers on top of the ceiling of the building are moving from side to side and they are huge, incredibly huge that if they were to fall from that distance it would without question kill someone.

They begin to move so violently that they all snap at once falling towards the crowd and the knights.

The Knight that Lenna was fighting against freezes up as one of the lanterns heads towards his way and Lenna jumps towards him to try and save him but it is too late since the lantern in right above them.

Everyone screams as they all close their eyes and wait for the loud sounds of metal crashing down against the marvel floor but there is nothing.

Kuro is the first one to open his eyes as he looks at me with amazement while I have my hand extended.

As quickly as I can, I place the huge lanterns on the floor, and everyone finally opens their eyes again.

I place a finger on my lips as I smile towards the small boy that is currently looking at me with sparkling eyes.

I swallow hard as I grab his hand "we should go now. They'll probably be canceling the event due to this incident."

The boy takes hold of my hand as he silently follows me back to the carriage.

'I hope he doesn't find this overwhelmingly interesting.' I think to myself as I look at the boy holding my hand obediently.

After all, knights with the blood of a mage are incredibly rare.

'Well... Fuck.'

I sigh weakly.

'I hope this doesn't change the future too drastically...please.'