Secrets of the Villainous Empress

Chapter Sixty-One: Ground Breaking News I

Mayflower Luxury Hotels

“Good Gods, Look at the news Lady Nichols.”

“I see you have graduated from Miss Nichols to Lady Nichols,” Aliviai said joyfully as she peered over from the other room to gaze at what her hotel room guest was looking at.

The bold news title in red caught her focus.

“A new Emperor?!” she frowned, “Heavens, Is that not the boy from the ball?”

“You mean The Nissian duke’s son? Gods, I hate that man.” Cleanna said.

“Yes, yes, that is him! I am certain I would remember those eyes anywhere?”

“Because they are so dreamy?”

“Duchess, one thing at a time.” Aliviai said, nearing the living room,  “No actually..because…How do I put this delicately without scaring the noble in you.”

“Well, even I can tell that you are off to a terrible start,” Cleanna commented.

“Okay, fine, let me start over,” she said, wiping the flour on her hands against her white and purple checked apron.

“Are you sure the help couldn’t, you know, help you with the cooking?”

“Nonsense, this is my safe journey gift, a southern special I grew up enjoying. No noble help can recreate that without trying to put a fancy twist on it. That and they are mostly focused on the shopping. I love the clothes here.”

“I know, the east is soo humid, while the south is just…haunted, so you know you need to dress warmly.” Cleanna shuddered, “What are you cooking again?”

 “First of all, it is not haunted, and your reasoning makes very little sense!” Aliviai said, “Secondly, Naan, with lemon butter prawns.”

“Yes, it is, and my reasoning is perfect! Who eats a first when they are terrified?” she asked, “Anxious people are cold!”

“You are thinking of the serpent king that lives around the isles. He is actually pretty tame.”

“Okay, let us unpack this, if I were a beast that when one cuts my head off, I grow another, I too would be tame, so no, I am not buying that he is tame by nature, I think he is just powerful enough to play god with the cargo ships at whim then spare the island that feeds him sacrifices.” Cleanna explained, “And no, I know that there are sea creatures, thank goodness for that because now we, the eastern territory, do not have any competition in terms of tourism. But in any case, I am talking about the wraiths and spectres!!”

“Okay fine, whatever! My point is,” Aliviai stressed, “Freddie and I grew up in the outskirts of List.”

“Fred Erickson, you mean?” Cleanna sought clarification.

“Yes, Freddie.”

“Gods, how many people can call that terrifying man by a childhood nickname?”

“Can I just finish my story without your interruption?”

“Alright, fine, fine.”

“Okay, so when Freddie and I were young, we lived near a village called List. Yes, it was haunted. Actually, most believed it was the source of all things beastly. Anyway, there was this dear old man called Simon, who used to tell the kids there, stories. Stories about far, far, places that at that age you could not even envious going, like Akonia, hell, who knew that I could call the Akonian duchess an acquaintance?”

“I too grew up on vampire and werewolf romance.” Cleanna joined.

“Right? Mine was always- HEY! stop interrupting me!”

“Sorry, I thought we were sharing a moment!”

“So anyway…” she pressed, “The man, Simon, was a weirdo. He never left List, yet some of his stories were wildly accurate!”

“Like one of a warrior, the founding Emperor's first division knight. Simon gave even more details than those offered by the history books. His name was...Oba…Oa…Onn?”

“Any name, pick any name, and I will believe you!”

“Yeesh, kids, these days.” Aliviai muttered, “well, anyway, the warrior was apparently chosen by the gods.”

“Chosen by the…which God?”

“No idea, he never said. But he did say that golden eyes were proof of the contract.”

“So, what was his speciality, the warrior, I mean? Being blessed by the gods must liken your attributes to the god that granted you the blessing, right?”

“I guess I do not know much about scriptures. Religion was a luxury to us, first came survival. All I know is that according to Simon and the history books I fact-checked, he was the strongest swordsman to have ever lived and the founder of the imperial knights.”

“Oh, so this is a Mayflower legend?”

“Honey, this is an empire. Whatever happens in mayflower affects all of us.”

“So why the hell do we not learn combined history.”

“I hear they have started teaching it in schools.”

“Now?”

“Yes, quite recently actually, like three-four years ago?”

“Ohh,” Cleanna nodded, then gazed back at the homely woman before her in the well-lit room.“Lady Nichols?”

“Yes?”

“What was the point of your story?”

“My….oh! the eyes, the new Emperor has golden eyes remember?”

“Oh yes, I do!”

“The warrior from old man Simon’s story had golden eyes as well.”

“Was that in the history books?”

“Funnily enough, no, and all the statues are made from marble, so we can not even tell. However, I do think that they are a sign from the gods!”

“Hmm, perhaps, maybe that’s why the Empress chose to marry him after meeting,” Cleanna said. “You know in the interviews, she kept saying that it was love at first sight, so I wondered if I had read her wrong. But that story, even though it could be fictitious, makes more sense than ‘love at first sight’.

“Hmm, do you think the Nissian head knows that story, or is he just happy to gain direct access to the throne?” Alivia asked.

“Thro- what? The boy said that he is changing his name to Cursix.”

“What?”

“Yap! He no longer has any Luciano name, and as he is a concubine’s child-,”

“OH MY! Oh, the duke must be livid!!”

“I bet!” Cleanna laughed.

“Oh, he should have been suspicious when his son had different eyes than he!”

“As any father would, but we do not know, we have never seen his concubines. He does not let them out in the sun.”

“Quite a shame.”

“Indeed.” Cleanna agreed.

“Do you think he knew the mythology?”

“If he did, I wager he would have gone through with the naming process. The duke of Nissa epitomizes sketchy businessmen!” Cleanna added, “Plus….”

“Plus?”

“Think about it logically, the reason the South and the south of Mayflower are religious freaks is bec-,”

“Freaks?”

“Fanatics”, she corrected, “Religious fanatics on the Mayflower part, but your territory has nuts. How many cult raids have you done because some local thinks feeding the serpent king a virgin will sate it?”

“Okay, fair point. However, you are still on thin ice.” Aliviai warned playfully.

“Understandable,” Cleanna nodded before proceeding with the rest of her argument.

“Your lands have non-sentient mythical beasts, ghosts, and summoned curses, so you are all torn up about it.” She began, “And thus the temple interferes and sends its knights where the imperial family fails, so you have your traditions carved on good and evil.”

“In the west, they are scholars, so the ‘Gods and temples’ concept is loosely respected except during harvests or games. The only thing there that boggles them is the mythical non-sentient beasts and healing fairies that are on the foresty part of Nissa, but the Scholars chalk it down to evolution.”

“In the east, we have the mer-folk, and on the North, most sentient non-humans.”

“Your point?’

“My point, lady Nichols, being, the west does not follow scriptures and legends strictly because they are oriented in the ‘now’ so such notifications miss them. So he probably did not know that his son’s eyes resembled a historical hero if that is truly the case. Perhaps even the new Emperor has no notion of it himself.”

“Hmm, that was a long way about it, but I do see your point.”

“You know,” Aliviai continued, “I find you very hard to pin down, Lady Alistan. You are smart where one expects you to gawk, but you gawk where one expects finery. Why is that?”

“It lowers one’s guard when I play the fool, so why not?”

*

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Royal Academy Headquarters

“Pick up! PICK YOUR CRYSTAL, YOU DAMNED FOOL!”  Calvin Brent Luciano threw his crystal communicator on his new bed in the teacher's dorm, correction, in his luxury teachers quarters, because the school had upgraded his room the minute they found out that his brother was literally weeks away from becoming the next Emperor.

“What the hell is wrong with that playboy!!” he cursed, “and that old man keeps calling as well!!”

Was he to rejoice for his brother or weep because he was the only one closest to him, which sadly meant more calls from home, Calvin wondered.

“AAHH!” he groaned, then threw himself on his fluffy, comfortably freshly serviced bed. “Will no one give me peace?”

*

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Christoff Luxury Train.

Upper Aristocratic Section.

“WHAT? Father, is this permitted? Should she not seek your blessing before doing something as heinous as getting engaged to an illegitimate boy?” Coral asked her step-father, who had joined her on the trip to the capital in order to attend the Banquet in which the empress herself had shamefully missed.

If she were the Empress, Coral thought, she would never miss her own event, then act as though better than everyone.

“I was once a commoner, and her majesty married me.” The Emperor Dowager replied, “I do accept that she should have let me know her plans, but I guess she is still angry with me.”

“Oh, father, I did not mean it in such a way! I cannot believe that sister would surely treat you this way!” Coral said, hastily changing her tactic, “Shall I speak to her on your behalf?”

“No, no, heavens. There is enough conflict in the family as it is.”

“But father, she must be shamed for this, is that not disrespecting mother as well?”

“Look, sweetheart, I am touched that you feel strongly about this issue. However, I feel it best to let her process her emotions if at all she is doing this, as you say, out of rebellion. She was raised differently than you were.”

“You mean that because she was raised like a princess while I, as a poor village girl, our regards in proper manners and societal steps differ??”

“No, no, I do not mean it like that?”

“Then what do you mean, father because I believe that no matter how one is raised, Once you speak to them, matters clear themselves!”

“Oh, Coral, let us first reach Dru and then we can send a visitation request.”

“A visitation request? Father, that was once your house!!”

“Coral, enough.” He sighed, “Let us end this stressful chatter for today.”

“No, father, I was raised with my beliefs, in just the same way as you were raised with your own, we must speak to her.” she insisted, “Harmony is what must be sought after. She cannot simply do things as she pleases. That can be regarded as abuse of authority!”

“Emperor Dowager!” a greying old man holding a letter sauntered in the adjoined room without even knocking on the doors.

“Excuse me? Do you mind? My father and I are-,” Coral began.

“Coral, he is a man older than you by several decades. You will respect him.”

Coral sneered behind her stepfather’s back; nonetheless, she still nodded at the command.

“My apologies, Butler. What is it you wish to convey.”

“I have just spoken to the imperial finance. They said as per her majesty’s request, they are only permitted to distribute ten per cent of the net profits earned in the mine to us.”

“What? Why the sudden change?” the dowager frowned, all too focused on the butler leaving Coral’s vicious expression unseen.

“How much less are the net profits?” Coral asked sweetly, having managed to school her expression.

“Net means that the mines have to incur a profit minus all the costs, though it is possible to live with the amount, we may have to downsize, or at least halt the repairs in the manor until we stabilise.”

“That goddamn hussy!” she muttered.

*

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Mayflower Southern slums.

A woman covered in a heavy black gown inside a foggy room cackled at the screen that read:

‘EMPRESS FINDS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT IN THE ARMS OF A NISSIAN LORD’

“The exchange seems to have been made.” The woman muttered.

She then stood with great difficulty then reached for a cane leaning on the dull walls.

“Now that that girl got what she wanted, which new soul did the gods summon?” The woman muttered to herself as she limped to a cauldron filled with green bubbling liquid.

“Crow!” the woman called, and a deep blackbird squawked loudly then flew to the cloaked woman’s shoulder.

“Show her to me.” the woman said, and the liquid inside the cauldron portrayed a late evening image of Azalea and Aleu waving to the crowds, “Show me her real face, for it is indeed time to end the tragically written tale. Go.”

At the sound of the command, the crow on her shoulder flew purposefully out of the window.