Onyx house was in mourning....

.......

For exactly one month...

That mother of mine... once her crocodile tears were dried and the compensation money in her hands, she immediately went back to hosting her parties while playing the part of the aggrieved widow to her guests.

This... The servants' faces were quite unsightly you know? I wondered how they hadn't already lynched her. You have to respect their professionalism and the thick skin of that woman to not notice the obvious mutiny written on their faces. They clearly respected father a great deal and severely disliked this frivolous wife of his.

That aside... they'd been giving me some heartbroken, sympathetic glances lately and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

I decided to ignore it in favor of studying hard to see to it that I had alternative escape routes now that the power-hungry mother was my sole guardian. My father had no relatives.

*Sigh*... just the thought of it made me depressed. To think I'd end up in the same situation in this life as well...

Unfortunately for me it got a whole lot worse when that mother of mine suddenly became engaged to Duke Verne three months after the death of her husband...

For fuck's sake... who jumps to marry someone else before their spouse's body was barely cool? As a matter of fact, who proposes to a widow so soon after her husband's death? I immediately became wary of this Duke Verne.

The neighbouring fief was that of the Verne Duchy and owned by Sir Richard Verne. A peculiarly single bachelor in his late thirties with black hair laced with grey and calculating eyes.

He courted the widow Clair Onyx with hundreds of roses, jewels and trinkets. That mother of mine was more than eager to receive them, becoming more and more giddy by the day and practically jumping to accept his proposal.

The tongues of the nobility must have been wagging furiously at this type of scandal. She had no good reason to rush to get remarried. Surprisingly if the head of the house dies with no immediate heir of age or a will specifying otherwise then his wife has the right to take control of all his assets. It's unconventional and somewhat frowned upon but still legal. The legal age for me to inherit is thirteen which is pretty low. Claire chose to hand off the management of the fief to our steward, Luke, Maddie's husband, and when she did everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Our relief lasted up until Duke Verne came a courtin' in autumn.

Our fief wasn't in hard times, and considering Claire's character it was obvious to everyone that she was doing it for the status, money and power.

The Verne household was much more powerful after all. Duke Verne being a distant relative of the royal family with one of the biggest fiefs in the kingdom and considerable power in court. He was a bit of a recluse though. Barely leaving his fief so imagine everyone's surprise when he decided to get hitched with Claire.

I especially didn't like him after she made an obligatory introduction between him and us, her two children that she'd neglected to consult about the whole thing... at all.

His eyes lingered on me too long in a way that gave me gooseflesh, so I fixed him with my frostiest glare until he looked away before excusing myself and my sister. The mother didn't seem to care or notice though. She was much too infatuated with her fiancé.

I never met alone with him after that introduction, I made sure. Soon we were packing up and leaving our Manor home for the neighbouring Verne Duchy. The only excited person was Claire. She bounced around all chipper and ordering the servants to pack faster.

I jammed as many of the books as I could into my luggage and still had less than her.

Soon we were all shuttled into carriages and proceeded to move along like a caravan because she insisted on bringing all the servants from our house. I shared a carriage with Ronnie, Maddie and a maid named, Tish. We were flanked by a huge array of guards from the Onyx fief making quite the flashy entourage.

The guards' faces were as grim as the servants'. They hardly paid Claire any mind but sank into a deep bow in front of me and my sister. Unlike a certain someone, they seemed fiercely loyal to father. I kept a cool expression and nodded curtly to their respectful greetings before telling them to carry on.

I couldn't blame everyone for looking like they were watching someone drown a sack of puppies. Claire's marriage to Duke Verne effectively meant that the Onyx Barony would be completely and legally absorbed by the Verne duchy through a marital merging of assets...

It was the right day to mourn, hence our entourage seeming more like a funeral procession. A few quick words with one of the guards through the carriage window and I learned a few things about the Verne duchy we were headed to.

It seemed that Duke Verne was not very liked by the people of his fief. Apparently, like most other nobles, he lived a life far more luxurious and detached from the suffering of the common people. Despite having one of the largest fiefs in the country that far dwarfed our modest one in comparison, the people of Onyx fief were living a far more wholesome lifestyle, while it wasn't rare for commoners in the Verne fief to starve to death.

The majority of the refugees we'd get coming into our fief were from there. Having a larger fief meant that Duke Verne didn't have to do much maintenance to receive a satisfactory amount of tax money. It seemed that the tax there was higher as well despite the conditions.

It seems that being near someone capable like father my whole life had made me forget just how nasty a bunch the nobles could be. It sounded just like it used to be medieval Europe in history books...

'Hold on...'

That nagging sense of familiarity came back with a force just now, but I so couldn't dredge up where it came from. It was unsettling how strong the urge to remember was.

Anyway, it seemed as if hard times were on the way for the people of our fief once Claire married Duke Verne. I was still too young to take any action. I was still only six, but letting father's hard work go down the drain...

'I need to get stronger faster.'

One loooong week we spent in the carriage to finally arrive at Duke Verne's ridiculously, pointlessly huge mansion on his perversely large estate.

It was pretty clear before, but I should say it once more to cement the fact: this man was a pompous spendthrift.

He and Claire were far too prefect for each other....

The servants continued to silently mourn.