Chapter Text
On a sunny day, a lonely figure of a small child walks along the wast gardens of the Alpheus Dukedom.
Uncle and big brother are out of the estate again... the brunette let’s out a long sigh unbefitting a child of her age.
At times like these, Jennette always found herself wandering the flower filled gardens, her only escape from the walls suppressing her day by day. Today she decides to look around the edge of the garden, looking at the fluffy bushes patterned with white flowers.
“Hhnng...?”
The child hears a strange sound coming from the nearby wisteria tree up ahead.
What was that?
Jennette shrinks back into the nearby flower bushes, not certain what to do. She didn’t expect to meet anyone around her vicinity, in fact, the only people she has met until now are the mansion’s residents and her dear Aunt.
“Where the... hell am I?”
Once again, she hears a voice of a male not that far away from her.
The wisteria vallley?
Tilting her head she wonders, her childlike curiosity already rising in her.
Maybe they are a lost guest?
The brunette flinches at the thought, knowing that she is restricted from meeting anyone without Uncle’s allowance, but before she can even make a step back to the mansion, she freezes.
“Hm..? Who’s there?”
The visitor definitely noticed her. She pinches her gown in distress.
“Who dares to ruin my sleep, huh?”
The same low, cold but strangely alluring voice rings, not letting a moment slip by for the stress-filled child to run. In fear of punishment, Jennette takes an unsteady step forwards.
“M-Mister?”
The child’s angelic voice rings out in response of the other.
“Are you perhaps l-lost?”
The small child reveals themselves completely, trying to remember her recent etiquette lessons for naught.
“Oh...”
As Jennette nervously looks up to see the stranger’s appearance, she sees a slender figure is seated under the violet tree branches, their long black hair, marble white skin and ruby like eyes bewitching the girl instantly.
“What is a kid doing—“ the mysterious guest’s speech stops for a moment to exclaim a confused “...here?”
Jennette is still unmoving and her hands tremble a bit at the earlier threat of the stranger, but the bewitched heart of hers makes her more brave than before.
“U-Umm—“
Her speech is trembling a bit, her nervousness of meeting a new person showing.
“These are th-the gardens of the Alpheus Dukedom!!” in the process of her explanation the child still stutters.
“The gardens of what now?” the male exclaims a sassy remark and furrows his brows.
“Wait... wasn’t this supposed to be the dark forest—?”
The mysterious visitor now starts taking in his surroundings, the violet valley of trees, the hanging flowers flowing in the slight breeze and the nearby flower garden filled with all kinds of exotic flowers.
“When the hell did this all get set up...”
Now the red eyes of the beauty land on the small child that had woken him up from his slumber.
“Hm?”
Suddenly the slack arm of the man reaches out towards the child’s face.
“Huh—?!”
Jennette jumps back from the sudden action, but her chin gets harshly pulled towards the now ruby like shining eyes of the visitor.
“What do we have here...?”
The male’s facial expression twists into a mockingly curious one.
“Those eyes should belong to imperial bloodline, no?”
The girl stops resisting in a moment in shock, letting the mysterious man continue his monologue. Jennette feels a strange, familiar force starting to emerge in her heart.
“But, that’s not it... well, well, what’s this?”
Inspecting the child’s jewel like trembling eyes, it seems like his red ones pierce straight into her feeble soul, as well as momentarily his eyes scan the small girl’s chest from where she felt the weird force filling her.
”A chimera? No, there’s something mixed in... what are you?”
Jennette gulps, filled with fear.
What’s a chimera?
“U-Um!”
The brunette tries to speak up and get her chin out of the man’s grasp, but unexpectedly he let’s her go. She grabs her face and takes a few deep breaths, still feeling the cold, dangerously captivating stare from before.
“To meet such an interesting thing right after waking up, I’m truly lucky, huh.”
The man seems to act as if nothing happened, sarcastically commenting about his situation.
“Well, missy, what’s your creator? Surely they are from royalty, no?”
Jennette tilts her head to look at the ground, trying to hide her exposed jewel eyes. Her chest starts lightly pulsating.
“It’s Kyilum, right? No, wait, he was hopeless in every aspect including mana control... don’t tell me, you’re Aetarnithas runt?”
As the black haired guest spouts some sassy remarks, Jennette slowly takes a few steps back some distance away from the dangerous beauty.
“...Aetarnithas?”
The child wonders where she had heard that name... wasn’t it in the catalogue of the royals of the past? Wasn’t the Empror Aetarnithas alive hundreds of years ago?
“Aethernatias, the strongest emperor magician in history?”
The smart child accurately recalls the royal bloodline she painstakingly studied in her free time, her mind still frantic on how to disapprove the fact she herself is royalty.
“Pfft, strongest emperor magician? That idiot? I can’t believe it...”
The uncultured man exclaims more snide comments, but soon stops his ramblings so he can hear what the strange thing will say about his prediction.
“Uuuum...”
The brunette now really is confused at the supposed guest she met. Was he a scholar so into books that he went mad? Just like in the stories Ijekiel told her?!?
“Well, kid, spit it out, I don’t have all day here...” his eyes gleamed. In fact, he did have all day. He’s free until the end of time, but he won’t let a chance to be rude slip by even in front of a stressed small child.
“The Great emperor Kyilum and his son Aethernatias reigned 200 years ago!!”
Jennette, scared by the red eyed man’s remark quickly spits out all her knowledge.
“The current ruler of Obelia is my father Claude de Alger Obelia!!!”
She continues, worrying of wasting the beauty’s time, but after the child processes what she just said, Jennette covers her mouth in fear.
Oh no, I said it! Uncle warned me to be careful and not speak rashly to strangers— but the brunette’s thoughts get stopped midway as a new voice calls out from the distance.
“Jennette! We are back!!”
A young boy’s voice rings out from the mansion’s direction, not that far away from the two’s current location.
“Oh.”
The beauty’s red eyes narrow in discontent.
“Just when it was getting interesting...”and starts getting up.
Big brother is back already?!
Jennette frantically shrieks in her head at the other’s emergence, praying for them to disappear again - a previously unfathomable thought from the isolated small girl. Her heart starts to feel weirdly pressured, but she brushes it off.
“Mister!”
Turning sharply towards the male again, the brunette takes a moment and decides to get all the curage she has and grab the visitor’s robe.
“I know a way. You can escape from here following this path!”
The child, filled with energy from her decision to help, nervously holds the hem of the man’s sleeve, waiting for his reaction.
“...”
The black haired beauty’s delicately shaped eyes dangerously narrow at the child’s actions, knowing that normally the opposite would be done - he would be introduced to the other people and asked what he is doing here - but the brunette seems to catch on quickly to his situation. Amused at this turn of events, he follows the kid’s futile whims.
"Lead the way."
The two figures hurry along the violet flower petal scattered path, running past more and more wisteria trees deeper into the valley.
“Haah—“ Jennette’s lungs lightly ache from the sudden change from inaction to action on top of the increasingly painful pulsation from her heart. The red eyed man looks at the small wheezes emerging from the child’s delicate figure and slightly grimaces, but doesn’t comment on it.
“Jennette, where are you?”
The voice calling out for the small girl seems to be closer than before. The brunette doesn’t look back as she leads the beauty onwards the narrowing path.
“Mister!”
The child frantically addresses her companion in crime.
“Up ahead there is—“ the girl now painfully wheezes the air out of her pressured chest, still running how fast she can.
“There’s an old tree up ahead right before the bushes around the garden—“
“Jennette, is that you?”
The black haired beauty hears their pursuer’s calls just around the corner. He wonders why the brunette still hasn’t given up, frantically explaining him the way to escape although she herself is in pain.
“If you climb on the lowest branches you can jump over the bushes!”
Some painful coughs emerge from the child’s lungs, her heart unable to function properly with the familiar force dominating it, her face pale. The man’s brows furrow at the sound, some painful memories clouding his eyes. Just as the girl is about to continue, he stops in his steps, pulling back the brunette with him.
“M-Mister!!”
Jennette desperately questions the sudden actions of the guest, still holding onto the long sleeve.
“Where are you going, Jennette?”
A confused, worried, young voice calls for the last time, the girl’s jewel eyes bouncing from the man to the figure approaching them. Just as she opens her wheezing mouth again, she coughs so hard from the pressure that she can’t hold onto the cloth anymore.
“...”
The black haired beauty stares at the brunette’s figure, seemingly deeply irritated for some reason.
“Tsk!” he clicks his tongue.
“Stop your wheezing. My ears hurt frim that constant barking Mister, Mister! of yours, the name’s Lucas!”
Jennette widens her eyes at the man’s actions, still mystified what is happening and why they stopped, but can’t say anything in response because of her painful coughing scorching her lungs are now filling up with the strange force too.
“You better not lie in a grave the next time we meet.”
And somewhat harshly unexpectedly pats the child’s head and snaps his fingers.
The white haired boy catches on to the falling girl’s figure.
“...! Jennette, what’s wrong?!”
The brunette lays on the flower petal path, weakly coughing some more.
“I-Ijekiel...” is all she can get out inbetween her wheezing.
What do I say about Mister!?
The honey eyed boy already is pulling her up on his back, not commenting about any visitor, only worrying about the little girl. Her eyes seem so heavy all of a sudden.
Did he manage to run away?
Jennette weakly turns her head towards the old wisteria tree some distance up ahead, but sees no human figure nether on the base of the tree nor the branches.
Where did he go?
She remembers the last exclaims of the mysterious beauty.
“Stop your wheezing.”
The girl recalls the carefully sculpted furrowed brows of the man, staring at her condition.
“...the name’s Lucas!”
Her thoughts start to slow down now, her eyes sticky as glue and her chest pain seems to lighten up a bit, slowly forgotten by the brunette.
“You better not lie in a grave...” she feels her consciousness slowly drifting, not acknowledging that the boy is calling out to her, or the brisk pace with which they are moving.
“...the next time we meet.”
The brunette remembers the last words of the mysterious black haired man and the strange warm feeling when he patted her head, making her slowly forget the pain in from her beating heart.
A small, dreamy smile appears on her lips as her eyes close.
I want to meet sir Lucas again...