Taking her place

A Year

Waking up at night is disorienting and inconvenient. There’s something daunting about being the only one awake at night, being the only one who experiences the night.

The good things, the bad…

I rub my eyes as I get up from my bed with a heavy feeling over my shoulders. It is pitch black inside of my room since I closed all of the curtains before I fell asleep since the sun was still out.

I wait about a minute before I start to walk anywhere since I want my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Once my sight adjusts, I quietly walk towards Kuro’s room to meet up with his older version.

Throughout the entire walk I hoped that he would be asleep so that I would not have to go visit him, but I can hear the slow paces of someone walking inside of the room. I stand there as I listen carefully to the paces go back and forth from one side of the room to the other.

I knock as softly as I can to hear him say in a soft tone "come in."

I open the door as slowly as I can as I walk inside of the room with a soft sigh leaving my lips.

Once I am inside, I expect him to say something, but he just stares at me, his hands that were once touching his lips fall to his sides as he just continues to stare.

I look at him with a confused expression until I look down at what I am wearing as I sigh loudly.

I am still wearing the dress that I wore to see those royal idiots, a gown worthy of belonging to a princess or a bride with a black smooth material and bright gold designs on the ends as if outlining my wrists and chest.

‘I must be more than tired since I didn’t even notice what I was wearing.’

"I had quite a busy day as you can see, so I wasn't able to take you around to do what you suggested from the list." I walk towards a window and open it up.

"I hope you don't mind my looks, after all. It’s past midnight, you can't possibly expect a lady to still try to look elegant around that time." I pass my hands through my hair as I walk towards the small cabinet that I sat in last night and begin to sit there again today.

"You look like you are having some personal troubles, so I’ll let it slide this time." He states as he sits down in his bed but at the opposite end from me.

Most likely trying to stay away from me as much as he can out of respect, after all, it is already bad enough that an unmarried man and woman are seeing each other at night, alone in a dark room with the doors closed.

"So, will you be answering my question today?" I ask as he looks away from me for a second before he says, "so where exactly am I now?"

'Of course, you would change the subject.'

I mentally roll my eyes as I chuckle at the fact that he switched it all up on me so smoothly.

"You are currently living as a guest in the kingdom of Zircon." I pull my feet up to my chest as I hug them. "Have you heard of it before?"

He looks at the walls and sighs softly "no wonder the structure of this place is so different from what I’m used to."

"It could be that, but it could also be because of the name that this home has the honor to hold."

"What do you mean?" He asks in a low tone.

"This is the Artema household, my mother lady Daliah took you in and decided to care for you in the meantime." I shift my position uncomfortably due to the slight puffiness of the dress as I cross my legs and lean on the wall. "And my name is Blair Akuna Artema, her youngest daughter."

"A pleasure." He says as he stares at me again.

I wait for him to continue but all he does is stare at me to the point that it begins to make me uncomfortable at the thought that he might be able to see as he looks at me.

‘Perhaps he’ll realize that I am similar to him?’

"And you are?" I ask as I pull my hair back, trying to hide my nervousness.

"Oh yes, I am Alec-" he says as he stops midway, probably realizing that he was about to tell me his entire name.

"Alec? Are you perhaps Alec Moretti?" I ask as he looks at me with a dark expression.

"How?"

"That name is well known in every single kingdom so since your first name matched his I just took a guess and was coincidentally right. It's also kind of obvious that you are of someone who is of either equal status to me or higher, after all, if you were a normal person you would have already bowed to me with just knowing the name of this house."

He stares at my eyes intensely as if he is trying to read my soul.

'Sorry but it's pitch black in there.'

"I see, I have heard of your family. They say that the leader of the Artema household is very protective of her two daughters, there are many good rumors about the oldest sister but there isn't much on the youngest." He crosses his arms as he stares down at me.

I frown as I look at his facial expression that reads 'pathetic'.

‘At least I don’t have a trail of blood in my reputation… yet.’

"What can I say? I enjoy myself more than my sister who all she does is train for knighthood.” I look at him as I smile sweetly this time and he begins to look at me with an uncomfortable expression. “or is the fact that I don’t breathe swordsmanship a problem to you?”

His eyes darken as his lips spit out “It definitely makes me question getting help from you at all.”

 “How sad, you’ll definitely miss out then, I'm not exactly influential when it comes to relationships, but I am powerful, so the type of influence I have is different from that of my sisters." I lean back as I smile innocently.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He glares at me as if he intends to somehow threaten me, but It does not work.

Although last night it affected me in a slight way it does not work right now since I expected it. I have met many people like him, people who were my enemies, and people who I once considered friends, many of them were powerful people with the ability to make a normal person cower in fear.

Except for me.

"I am a very kind person, but I'm not perfect like the saints in fairytales." I look down at him with unwavering eyes as I see him shiver.

'Are my eyes playing tricks?'

"But just because I'm not perfect it doesn't mean that I won’t keep my word." His glare turns away from me as he looks at the floor now. "I can see that you still don't trust me, I don't blame you though I wouldn't trust me either, how unlucky if you. That I out of both sisters is the one who found out about your condition, but you have a limited amount of time for you to plan what you'll do next. I suggest you use up all the time that you can to hurry and get back to where you belong."

"What do you mean I have a limited amount of time? Do you perhaps know something that I don't?" He looks at me with an expression that says I cannot be trusted as I swallow slowly.

"In a year I will turn eighteen and I will begin to look for a marriage partner after I get married, I won't be able to help you anymore.” I swallow as I look at his dark expression lighten and then dull up. “More or less meet up with you like this, after all that would make me a horrible wife. To meet up with a man at night while my husband is sleeping at home. That’s not something I am willing to do." I get up as I scratch the back of my head. "I am giving you the last year that I have left with my freedom for you to reach your goal. So, do not waste it. I will come tomorrow; I’ll be expecting your response. As unfortunate as it is, I do not have the luxury of what people call time. I have many things to settle before I marry so if you could help me make things easier for myself, that would be great."

I walk out as I sigh and breathe heavily at the fact that I only have one more year until the final event that will decide my future happens and I groan softly.

"What have you been doing these days?" Mother asks as she cuts her meat with her knife and stares at her plate with a solemn expression and I gasp softly as the maid puts a cup of hot chocolate in front of me.

Mother has always known that I am bad with anything sweet so when she makes a maid gives me something like this, it always means 'you've been a bad girl.'

I twitch as the sweet smell slowly makes it towards my nose and smile softly. "I don't remember doing anything wrong."

She stares at me with stern eyes as she begins to say "it’s bad enough that you have insulted the royal family but now you are asking the dukes son to look for things that are located in other kingdoms. Don’t you know that you aren’t just misbehaving? This is a more than being a young person at their prime, this is now a diplomatic issue. What are you planning?"

I grab the cup of hot chocolate and take a large drink of it as she looks at me with a shocked expression.

"I would love to tell you, but you wouldn't believe me, and to be truthful it’s too much of a bother to explain it over and over so I’ll just ask you to trust me. Can you do that for me mother? Can you trust me?" I ask as I put the cup back down on the table as softly as I can.

She looks at her plate now stunned as she frowns "is it dangerous?"

"Perhaps, in the future."

"Then stop."

"I can’t. My actions are to help prevent the danger that is coming from becoming more annoying than it should be, even if I stop the situation will still happen. You know that more than anyone."

"How?" She drops her fork as she tightens her grip on her knife. "You know about that?"

"Yes, but don't worry. I'm working on a way to prevent that." I smile as I drink the rest of the chocolate. "So just trust me, alright?"

She grabs the new fork that the maid hands her as Lenna begins to walk inside of the room along with Kuro behind her with wary eyes as he looks around the room and begins to run as soon as he sees me.

I get up and pull the chair next to me as I pick up the boy with a smile on my face. "No matter how excited you are, next time don't run alright?"

The boy just stares at me for a while before he smiles widely, and I am left annoyed. 'Is he even listening?'

"Fine, but the least you can do is tell me what you are trying to find." My mother says as she glares at her plate.

"Our blood parents had two weapons that will be able to help us in the future. I am trying to track down their whereabouts so that Lenna and I can use them."

Lenna's eyes open wide as she freezes "you don't have to go through all the trouble for us to have something of theirs."

Mother looks at Lenna as she realizes that I am the only one who knows as she drinks from her silver cup. "Are they useful?"

"Yes, very..."

"Good." She smiles softly as she looks at Lenna and I. "Make sure you get them here as soon as possible then. You will be needing them."

My long sleeves cover the bruise from my arm as I walk inside the classroom while everyone stares at me.

"You are always pulling eyes, aren't you?" Mike laughs as he walks towards me with his hands on his pockets.

"How's the treasure hunt going?"

"It’s only been a day, but my men have recovered the weapon you told us to ask for and are heading back. The problem will be with the sword inside of the main church. They guard it with top security from what I have investigated, they won’t let us get close to that one, but I have found a guild willing to take the task as an underground job."

“At midnight,” I say as Mike looks at me confusing in his eyes.

“what?”

“tell them to go at midnight,” I look away from him as I look around us instead to make sure no one is listening in. “the guards that are usually guarding the place go down to the first floor to smoke and drink. There’s a window on the east side of the building with a window that has been broken for ages already. Tell them they can get in through there.”

“wait, how do you-“

“I just do,” I say as I quickly cut him off.

“al-alright, I’ll let them know.”

"Good, my mother seems to already know about what is going on-"

"You told her?"

"No, she found out on her own." I sigh loudly as I cross my arms. "I did tell you that she has eyes and ears everywhere, right?"

"Of course, I see." He leans on a wall as I stare outside into the side of the school and admire the flowers growing from the trees as I begin to remember something from some other time ago.

The trees have petals falling of them as the breeze moves slowly and the image of light blue petals is replaced with a soft pink. They look like cherry blossom trees but the color of the trees in this world is softer and blue instead of the usual white and pinks.

The pink petals fall as I look at the water-filled with flower petals disappear. The park has about twenty cherry blossom trees with dozens of benches to sit in, but I choose to stand as I look at the water move slowly along with the thousands of petals that have fallen from the trees.

“The goal is to take you out on a date, have you become emotional at how beautiful the place looks and strike when you least expect it, and BAM! You will fall in love with me.” He says as I turn to look at him.

His charming smile looks extremely attractive as he hands me a small drink from the vending machine as he looks at my lips.

“how confident of you.” I joke as his expression turns serious.

“well, it's working.” He says as he looks at my eyes directly and a soft sensation in my chest begins to appear as I realize that I am no longer breathing.

I try to look away as my cheeks feel flushed.

I try to breathe again as soon as I notice the unnatural state that I'm in. ‘Am I breathing right?’

He pulls my cheek towards him as he pulls himself closer to me. “if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t let me do this.”

The sensation of his lips colliding to mine makes my mind go blank as I lose all thought. The coldness of the drink against my hand isn’t enough to bring my senses back from the clouds as he pushes himself closer to me and I allow it as I do the same.

Embarking myself into the abyss of this heat.

I smile softly as I stare at the blue petals flying around. It seemed as if in that life I was going to be happy, but I died before I could even make any decisions about my future.

'Too bad.'

Perhaps that’s why I was given another chance, maybe in this life, I am allowed to try out the things I couldn’t in the previous.