Marie-Paule Auberjonois-Lenoxx; Fifth princess, and youngest out of the recent emperor's lineage. Many people would jump at the opportunity to be born in a lovely paradise known as 'Royalty'. However, here was a perfect example of a child who has already seen the horrors of greed, murder, and anger. Marie-Paule needed any form of escape from the constant etiquette classes placed upon a child, and the garden near the western palace did her mind justice.
Every day she found her size two feet hustling out of the large queen bed getting ready to run away to her safe place.
Why?
Because every day was horrible
Waking up to maids who didn't feel the need to do their job, brushing her exquisite peach-toned hair roughly. The tangles in her hair getting snatched so arduous, her follicles suffered severely. Leaving her ridden with horrid tension headaches and thinning hair. The voluminous volume she once had was gone, her pride and joy as a young lady diminished all because of them.
Marie's soft doe eyes we're tortured to view the same women come in her bedroom and have the same wretched thoughts. A princess was a tool, this was what she learned quickly.
Today hadn't been the best for the young princess. Not that any day at this point had brung the child some significant form of happiness. She faced the same struggles every day, nothing new, but her mother made things worse.
Lulth Auberjonois was the talk of the capital once in her prime. Visuals so breathtaking that it made men melt into puddles of excitement. She became accustomed to the life of a royal quick, adjusting to the wicked deeds that needed to be done in order to survive. She might've been evil from the start, maybe not, rumors went around quickly in the palace. No one really knows the truth, everything is a lie.
Her mother told her the same thing every time she visited-,
"I should've never given birth to you..."
Before, Marie-Paule couldn't help but cry, those words cut deeply into her soul. Like her skin was slowly being peeled off, piece by piece. All she could wonder was, 'Why? What did I do? How can I make her happy?'
Those questions played in a loop, over and over.
So today, she would reset her mind and go to her safe place.
But the woman her father recently married occupied her space, and she had smiled, it was a happy genuine smile.
The first she had ever seen...
Although these noble ladies could never be trusted, they all had the same goal. Making their successors at the top of the food chain.
She had to defend what she had left, and no one was going to take this from her!
Marie placed her hands on her hips and she prepared her icy cold eyes to make a blizzard fall upon this lady.
"Hmph! Who gave you the authority to take my spot!"
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Today was either a blessing or a curse. Her wavy chestnut brown curls bounced while the gust of wind greeted her softly. In front of her occupying the long bluestone path, Marie glared at her with those familiar cold blue eyes gifted by her father. Allison nudged Eleanora, causing the automatic action of greeting the princess with a simple curtsy. "Greetings, Princess Marie-Paule"
Fuji and Allison did the same, they curtsied lower to show more form of respect.
"I don't care about formalities, just leave my spot!" Marie complained, she was frustrated that Eleanora ignored her first angry inquiry.
Marie's maids snickered just so quietly, whispering shamelessly in front of her like she wasn't even there. "I see, I deeply apologize princess, we will be taking our leave now" Eleanora responded with the softest voice, ignoring the wicked voices behind the child.
Marie's glare softened for a bit, and her gaze shifted over to the neatly arranged hydrangea bushes while a pink tint graced her small cheeks. Allison grabbed the parasol opening it once again and walked out onto the path, Fuji followed behind sneaking glares at Marie-Paules maids while they brushed pass the women to follow Marie into the large pergola.
Eleanora found herself under the parasol looking ahead, dryly.
They walked for a while before speaking in order to ensure that they weren't in-ears view of the princess.
"How impudent of them to snicker in front of you like that Lady Eleanora!" Fuji finally let out of the fuming anger that settled in her mind. Allison shook her head ever to slightly while holding the parasol. "That's how maids are around those of higher status, they get full of themselves" Allison responded smoothly, while Fuji tried to calm herself down.
Allison glanced at Eleanora, and she held a focused expression, her tone was sophisticated and relaxed.
"Lady Eleanora?" Fuji observed the woman quietly-,
"Do any of you know Princess Marie's schedule?" Eleanora first looked at Allison and then she looked in Fuji's direction hoping to receive a good answer.
"No" Allison answered bluntly leaving Fuji with a shocked expression
"Did you have to be so coy about it?!" ┌|゜□゜;|┐Fuji exclaimed
"Please don't make me drop this parasol in front of Lady Eleanora, just so I can hit you" Allison gazed at Fuji with a frightening smile. Eleanora began to sweat nervously with Fuji.
"N-no, I apologize" (ू˃̣̣̣̣̣̣︿˂̣̣̣̣̣̣ ू)
"Now, now no need to fuss and fight." Eleanora tried to settle the two ladies, taking in a deep breath she spoke again "I need to learn her schedule as discretely as possible"
"What is the reason for doing so? You don't plan on scheming do you?" Allison responded with ease and a bit of skepticism, but Fuji nodded extensively along with her response.
"To give her some love!" Eleanora opened her arms wide and her long puffy dressed bounced along with her joyous reaction.
Allison's eyes widened, while Fuji held a sweet admiring gaze for Eleanora.
Silence came to interrupt the conversation, only the sounds of birds chirping and leaves blowing reverberated against their ears. It was a bit awkward for a moment as Eleanora stayed in the same position waiting for a response.
("I'm sure this looks weird" ) ᕕ〳 ཀ 益 ཀ 〵ง
"Sounds like a good reason" Allison finally spoke agreeing with the Noble Wife, leaving Fuji sighing heavily with relief.
Eleanora laughed awkwardly while the spring colors accentuated the loveliness of her bright green eyes.
She scratched the back of her head nervously.
"That was weird wasn't it?"
Both of them nodded without hesitation.
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Eleanora was faced with the hardest and biggest task ever given to a woman and man.
Raising children
She let out a heavy breath of air while she lounged in her desk chair lazily, ignoring the empty journal in front of her. Eleanora had a candle lit instead of the lights in order to fully diverge in her memories.
If she was going to relive this life she needed to have major life-changing events that affected the children written down before she forgets every single detail.
In the palace, Noble Wives are granted to those who were of status and married off in order to have connections in the higher court, while concubines had a lower rank because they were only chosen when the Emperor wanted a mistress. This Emperor wanted to keep his harem as small as possible, in order to keep balance.
Eleanora picked up the ink pen writing down the dates that she had to look out for especially while living in this hell hole. Knowing the financial and economic crisis ahead of time is pretty helpful as well. Unfortunately, assessing them was gonna be just as difficult since the date for the banquet was one day behind, which made Eleanora unsure if the past would help as much.
"Might as well give it a shot..."
For now, she was worried about two dates,-
March 29th 'First banquet for myself, all of the Emperor's children are gathered together'
April 17th 'Marie-Paules Birthday; No one attends'
Eleanora bit her lip ignoring the aching pain in the back of her throat. Her heart was full, too heavy with distress, guilt, and fear. A child who had a large family and no one attended her birthday, not even her own mother. Eleanoras fist clenched tightly while the thoughts rushed through her head.
"How am I supposed to approach her?" She unclenched her fists and pulled at her hair frustratedly, locks of her hair were bundled in her hands. Closing those delicate almond eyes still gripping onto her hair tightly, she took in a deep breath...and released. Eleanora concentrated quietly in efforts to soothe herself.
"I don't care about formalities, just leave my spot!"
Eleanoras bright green eyes opened gradually and her hands released the clumps of hair she held onto so tenaciously while the memory of Marie's words echoed in her head.
"I guess it makes sense that she loved it there, it was peaceful.." Her words fell out of her mouth like a faint murmur. Eleanora closed the journal, her hands rubbed over the smooth brown leather before she picked it up. Scooting out of the white wooden chair she scanned the room with journal in hand and finally, her eyes fell upon a shabby floorboard.
She hesitantly made her way over to the floorboard but second thoughts flooded her mind. Eleanora swirled around quickly and eyed her bed.
"Perfect..."
____________
There were five days until the impending doom of the banquet would hit the corner. For the past three days, Eleanora was making no progress, Marie put up her guard even more. "Hopefully me not visiting will ease her thoughts about me.." Eleanora thought to herself blocking out the fake laughter at the table. Today she couldn't visit her, but instead, she had to attend a tea party set up from Royal Princess consort Eve Belmont.
One might say she was the most favored out of any of the Royal Princess consorts, giving birth to three sons back to back, even the Empress was jealous of her.
However, Eleanora knew the true personality of this woman and her sons didn't receive any of her love which wasn't surprising. Eve spoiled them with distant affection and praises just for being a male in the palace. She made sure to remind them that they weren't brothers when the day came to the succession of the throne, that day they would-be enemies.
Eve had luscious long blonde hair, her eyes we're a beautiful honey brown. The Emperor surely married good-looking women, Eleanora compared to these ladies found herself lacking in many areas.
"I hear the banquet will be quite exciting, prepared just for you two ladies!" Eve slyly brought up the topic, and this conversation was about to get unsteady.
The Emperor married the daughter of Duke Bainbridge, Eleanoras father; in order to obtain a large portion of land they had control over. The second Noble Wife had been in the palace a month longer than Eleanora. Her name was Aliya Vimprose, her family reigned with military power just as Eve's family did.
"Lady Eve are you feeling jealous?" Aliya responded firmly taking a sip of her tea. Eleanoras eyebrows raised for a moment as she reached out to grab a pastry. "I have no need to join a conversation that is about to become reckless, and it seems Royal Princess Jade agrees with me..." Eleanora glanced at the woman with short black hair, sharing the fakest smile in history.
"J-Jealous?" (°ㅂ°╬) Eve could barely hold onto her smile, those thin pink lips we're quivering substantially from that one statement. Aliyas expression couldn't hide the heavy amount of superiority in her smile.
"I heard when you first came into the palace as a Noble Wife nobody even bothered to prepare a banquet for your arrival" Aliya took another jab at the woman's pride.
Eve placed her cup down as gently as possible retaining the thought of throwing the scalding hot drink in that woman's face. "That is true, but I hear the Emperor suggested it mostly because he is really excited from receiving such an abundant amount of land from Lady Eleanoras family, right?" Eve's gaze was now fixated on the quiet Eleanora.
Eleanora glanced in Aliya's direction and the look of arrogance quickly dispersed into an annoyed expression. "Maybe so, maybe not, no one really knows what goes through his Majesty's head" She responded hastily with a smile.
("She should've known better than trying to combat with a woman who's been in the palace for many years") Eleanora deduced taking another sip of her tea. Eve's authority over the conversation returned quickly and Aliya stayed silent with defeat.
"You entered the palace a month ago, so I wonder why he's doing it now.." Royal Consort Jade finally spoke her two sense in the situation. Eve couldn't hide the big smile on her face after hearing Jade's words. Aliya frowned and got up from the table "I will be taking my leave now!"
Eleanora hesitated in taking another sip of the drink that held the slightest of distance from her lips.
Her green eyes followed the young lady and her maid exiting the room.
"She seems to not be accustomed to the palace rules, leaving before being dismissed...how discourteous" Eve mumbled hiding her satisfaction.
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