Eleanor of the Shadow Palace

XVIII

Three years had passed ever since Ed and I arrived in the palace, and were recognized as the fourth imperial prince and fifth imperial princess of the Primavera Empire. It had also been three years since I woke up with memories of two of my previous lives, and Eddie completely taking over my twin brother’s body with memories of his previous life also intact.

I was hurt back then of course, since I lost my brother but over the years, I managed to just accept it and live with it. I’m pretty sure it was what my twin brother would’ve wanted.

Anywho…

For the last three years Ed and I had been slowly pulling the roots of Katherine and therefore the Vimi Family's secret empire. Not to mention we had been sabotaging Black Pandora and Black Market operations especially when it came to human and d**g trafficking. Of course, I did it as the mysterious ‘Lotus’ and had Hugo and Anastasia do all the work. Sometimes even Gregory would get dragged into it. Fortunately, I had never been found out yet, although there were close calls.

Suffice to say, Katherine is getting the taste of her own medicine. She did use a lot of underhanded tricks to get to where she was.

At the same time frame, I also slipped some hints towards my father about being given drugs by Katherine and told him to be careful. I did this in real life and in dreams. It turned out Harry was good at dream magic and he was able to help me h****k my father’s dreams to give him warnings. It was saddening that he became rather paranoid for a period of time but he gradually followed the advices in his dreams and became vigilant towards everyone, Katherine most especially.

Speaking of Harry, he and his brother were still working for me even though I freed them from their slave status two years prior. I told them they could go and even gave them a small fortune so they could start anew somewhere but they chose to stick around and became my full-time employees.

Percival Orion Mellis, or fondly called Percy by Harry, Edmund, Henrick and I, became my personal guard. There was an uproar regarding his arrival and appointment but I stood my ground in front of the empress and the emperor.

“It’s either him or I will not accept any knights at all.” was what I said to them.

They finally agreed but with a compromise; I got two more guards so that they could work on shifts. On the bright side, they left on my hand who to choose as the rest of my guards and I was pretty confident on those I chose; a young man called Dean and a young woman named Sam.

The names were totally a coincidence. Honest…

Anyway, the three had been with me for the last couple of years so I could say I knew them pretty well and trusted them with my life. I haven't told them about mine and Eddie's story yet but I was getting there

Eddie had his own set of guards too; Sheila, Carlo and Hanz. Sure he insisted he didn’t need it since he was a Sword Master himself but he agreed in the end after Mother told him she wouldn’t let him enter the First Knight Order. Well, more like threatened him to be honest.

On the other hand Harry, like his namesake, was pretty good at magic, although not at combat magic. He was well-versed in herbs, poisons and potion-making, and could make delicious jasmine tea. He also dabbed on runes, a branch of magic that studied and used the symbols of the ancient mages. To sum it up, Harry was a nerd.

Despite working for me, Harry stayed with Henrick in the Herlais Estate most of the time. He was the one who chose to work there. He said it would be safer than inside the Imperial City, which I totally agreed. I would come visit him from time to time

As for Henrick, well he became mine and Ed’s partner-in-crime of sorts. He would help us on a few things, like acquiring materials, or gather information which we couldn’t get our hands on ourselves, and we would help him in some things too. For example; restoring the honor of the Herlais Family since it was put to shame by his father, mother and older siblings.

The Herlais Family was punished because of the s*****y fiasco. They were forced to give up a few territories and had their perks of being a noble temporarily revoked. The people involved of the crime were stripped of their title and rights and were sent to the southern part of the Primavera Empire as workers for the military camp stationed there. Henrick was left to clean up the mess left behind by his family and he was only fifteen back then.

The young lord of the Herlais made the Herlais Vicounty into a productive territory of the Primavera Empire. He was the owner of the Bloomfield Trading Company, the only company who produces, manufactures, exports, imports and sells beauty products; from lotions, face cleansers, moisturizers and make-up.

We even promoted healthy beauty tips. All of those were a hit to the ladies of the society, no matter their status. I noticed there was a lack of proper beauty care materials when the ladies of society, royals, nobles or commoners, cared about their appearances very much.

-Maybe I should introduce face masks next time.

Of course, I had a hand in that, after all those products were my ideas. Harry was very helpful in this department with his extraordinary knowledge about herbs and expertise in potion-making. So to say Ed and I had a lot of money was an understatement, we were swimming with it.

Not that people knew. We opted to have mine and Ed’s identities hidden in regards to the ownership of the company.

This also meant Henrick knew who Ed and I really were. The look on his face when we told him was unforgettable but he was able to accept it.

“I knew there was something off about you guys! So this is why!” he said after finally accepting what we said, of course there was a lot of sarcastic jabs before it but he was finally able to get over it, this was a week after the raid of the Black Market auction

I suppose that was it with my friends. As for me and Ed…

Our ability to store mana, as well as recover it after usage, improved exponentially and I had been creating spells here and there. As a fan of light novels and isekai anime back on earth, understanding the spells and visualizing their effects and how to cast them came rather easy. Wordless Magic became a thing after I performed one once in public by accident. But I guess it won’t be easy for others to comprehend it since they grew up with chanting.

Seriously, I did not want to do chanting. The words to be uttered were… Ugh! No comment.

Edmund on the other hand finally hit a wall on his training.

At first, it was the sword technique he was being taught. Sure my brother was considered a genius because of having aura and talent with the sword, but he kept complaining to me that he was starting to struggle at the sword technique he was learning.

“I mean, this one is so different than the one I used to practice you know? And that one I already mastered!” he said one day while we were in the middle of practice; this was two years prior.

“Then why not use the one you know of? I’m pretty sure it would be easier.” I replied.

“It’s not- I mean, if I start practicing it, they’d think I’m weird or something!”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Do these guys even know what the Jianghu is? How will I explain the technique and skills I was using? Are there even people who practice any form of martial arts skill similar to that of Chinese martial arts in this world?”

Yeah, those were his concerna. So I then told him; “Dude, you’re a prince but you can totally be who you want to be. You are also able to do what you want to do! Everyone can. If you can’t perfect the technique and method being taught to you now because of your prior experience, then stop it! Just stick to what you know and improve there. I’m pretty sure you can do it.

Part of Edmund’s training as a Mafia Boss back on earth was combat skills. He learned hand-to-hand combat and how to shoot a g*n (assemble and disassemble it too). He was fond of the techniques he would see on TV before and asked to be trained on it. He excelled at the forms of the Chinese Martial Arts. Back then I thought it was because he was half Chinese and he was born with the talent or was because he just liked it, but it turned out to be both.

“Just stick to one!” I finally snapped at him. “Haven’t you heard of the saying ‘You can’t catch neither both nor even one if you go after them at the same time.’”

“I don’t think that’s how it goes.”

“Meh. Now just practice!”

I guess that summarized everything that happened to us for the past three years.