A man with golden hair and smile as brilliant as the sun stood before the crowd of onlookers his hand on the shoulder of a young boy who looked similar to him if her were younger, a grand gesture as he waved to those in front of him he spoke, deep baritone shook the hall,

“Fellow citizens of Calliope! You have gathered here today for the celebration of the solstice! I thank you this year again for being honorable and loyal subjects! I have one other piece of news to share with you all! You are the first to know of this!”

He put both hands heavily on his son, “As you all know my first son and heir apparent, the Crown Prince of Calliope, is turning 13 this year! We have struck a match for my son that will bring great prosperity and joy to our land!”

The people before him cheered, most knew this was only him saying that no arguments would be considered, the mentions of wisemen, and others simply to placate those who were superstitious. This was wholly a decision of the king.

“I bring to you a match that is best suited for my child and your future leader! A girl now, but who will grow to be a woman of exquisite taste, elegance and wit, who will earn the trust of the people and who will lead the people as the king will lead the kingdom!”

The people held their breaths, Aster looked on, bored out of his mind, but face as intense as ever.

“The first daughter of our Duke, heir to the seat of Luna, DELILAH DE LUCA!”

Aster choked on his own spit as his eyes widened the girl from before stepped forward the picture of cold elegance even at her young age, behind her a man who looked as cold as an iceberg.

Aster covered his mouth as he nearly made a scene, ‘Oh fuck…'

Though outside he had gotten his choking under control inside his mind he was swearing with words that would make even sailors with how expletive it was. 

Life just got a helluva lot more complicated.

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He was in his rooms when he finally let himself break, if only just the slightest, screaming into a pillow for 3 minutes straight, before he looked up and pushed back his messy hair, wiping his face he cleared his throat, “No fucking wonder I thought this was familiar, dear god... I mean jeez, how dumb can I be! I was literally reading this story a few days before I died. Honestly at this point I should’ve stayed dead. The world doesn’t deserve to have such a moron like myself in it’s clutches!”

He groaned as he held his face in burning shame.

He let out a sigh as he rolled his shoulders back looking into the middle distance, “Well nothing to do about it… I don’t remember Aster Rosewood mentioned in the story… I do remember Tiberius though, but even he was a side character… so I should be fine… probably, knock on wood and all that.”

He knocked on the bed frame, as the door was knocked on, once again he was called away to the party at least this time it would be outside.

Smacking his cheeks he yawned as he opened up his closet and set to work.

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“Quite so, ah yes young master Rosewood I see you’re here again! Well, if you have the energy if you can pass along a message for your father I would be most thankful…”

The older man was actually on of the more polite people he had talked to over the three weeks, sure he definitely just wanted a meeting with the shitty old man, but at least he showed a decent amount of respect and actually treated him like a person and not just a messenger box, ‘Jeez you guys could buck up the balls to talk to the motherfucker himself… whatever…’

“Of course sir, I’ll tell him, but I can make no promises of a meeting.”

The boy looked serious so the older mustachioed man gave him a heavy, but warm pat on his shoulder and Aster went on his way.

“Well at least today will be the last of it, and there’ll be fireworks…”

No more stuffy halls, no more scent of snakes, no more impossibly tiny savory finger foods, and finally he could have an actual meal without the stress sweat he had been having since the very beginning. This body was sweaty as hell it wasn’t terribly obvious… probably, but he could feel it, on his palms, back and pits.

It was uncomfortable.

‘I think I lost at least 20 pounds in water weight…’

“Oh! Greetings once again my lord.”

Delilah de Luca.

One of two protagonists in the Duchess and the Saintess, the one who got the worse ending, not completely out of nowhere the author had an almost distinct dislike for the character even from the beginning which was a shame considering how interesting of a character she was.

He froze and turned and the girl was there again, they were in one of the lesser populated parts of the courtyard, he bowed deeply, stiffly, “Apologies for my earlier indiscretion, please forgive this one Princess De Luca.”

There was silence between them and minutes passed, his back began to ache, stress sweat going full throttle as he felt his shirt soak through, ‘If I just keep my distance… play polite I won’t get dragged into the story… the political intrigue ugh…’

He peeked up through his hair and he wished he hadn’t, he was sure had he kept his head down his stupid soft heart would have been able to hold out, but as he looked up between strands of hair he felt himself flinch, the girl looked so… lost. Sad maybe, lonely most definitely before she slid up a cold mask, and he felt his heart twinge at the sight of it and before he could even brace himself he fell to his knee and held out a hand looking as impassioned as he could, “You see princess, I had forgotten myself in the face of such delicious egg tarts, that once again I have eaten them all my deepest and most regretful apologies! Oh~! Do you have it in your heart to forgive this most unrestrained fool!”

She blinked in confusion at first before the barest hint of amusement crossed her face before she hid it under exaggerated haughtiness, “I see… then I believe as a most noble and honorable person I must forgive you for your indiscretion.”

Bending his head down and hand to his chest, “I thank you dearest princess De Luca.”

He stood and walked with her. It was a silent companionship, the girl awkward, thought she was good at not showing it and Aster refusing to be cold, but also refusing to make the first move, ‘As long as I’m a decent person I’m fine… right? I can't be mean to a kid… unless their assholes. She probably already has to deal with shitheads trying to earn her favor, as long as I’m decent and never make the first move she’ll probably just see me as a decent person that isn’t trying to use her!’

With that he decided as long as he was decent and didn’t try to do anything and left Calliope as soon as he turned of age he would be fine, no political intrigue for him…

No sirree!

.

It was the day after and he was finally fucking leaving, he had tears in his eyes that he made excuses to his brother, “I just got some dust in them.”

Tiberius looked over at him sharply before turning away to finish up some of the security details, “You’re not sad about leaving your little friend, well friend is a stretch, she probably just needed somebody to turn away other people, and who better than you middle brother.”

Thalia had been… let's say abrasive these past few weeks, more like little gremlin with a need to embarrass him, he was lucky that she got bored so quickly at these events or he’d likely end up even more messed up than he had been.

“Quite so Thalia, though I’m glad I could’ve been of help.”

A plain answer without any inflection tended to annoy her more than actually engaging though-

He felt himself trip as he stepped away, nearly falling to the ground as he spied the raised earth she stomped away and got onto the carriage, he sighed cracking his neck as he straightened up.

“Excuse me young lord.”

He stopped and turned to a maid, maybe the same age as Belle, approached him she fidgeted as she presented a letter and seal, “My lady wished to give you this, she has asked me to inform the young lord that she’d like to keep in contact, if he’d like.”

She looked to him like he should be thankful and honored that her lady would deem him worthy of correspondence, he nodded silently not accepting or turning it away and the girl left in a hurry, he frowned slightly as he put it away.

He’d think about it later, for now he had an hours-long carriage ride to worry about, ‘God my back is gonna hate me after this…’

.

“Thalia, have you ever thought of creating a transportation device?”

Thalia was just as tired of this ride as he was and thus made their conversation all the more easy to respond to, “Transportation… sounds boring-”

They hit another bump and she grunted, “Maybe you're onto something…”

They had finally arrived home the youngest jumped out before anyone mumbling as she went to her wing loyal servant following after her with a notepad at the ready, the old man left right after as stoic as ever, but anyone who had been watching him as long as Aster had would notice that even he was done with all this travelling nonsense. Tiberius got off after helping mother with getting off and walking her to her rooms.

He jumped off and stretched, rolling his shoulders. He looked over the manor with something like fondness, “Aw home sweet home… how I missed thee.”

“Young master, welcome back!”

He turned to the voice and gave a grin that made the other staff flinch, but had Belle smiling back widely as ever, there was a glint of mischief in her eyes and his sweet grin turned somehow even more wretched which the people around them didn’t think possible.

“We have much to discuss then?”

“Certainly young master, may I recommend a bath and tea in your study balcony?”

He nodded and on he walked Belle following exactly three steps behind at his right, it really was good to be home.

.

.

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“What is this?!”

The people in her workshop looked dead eyed into the middle distanced half were muttering to themselves, Thalia Rosewood looked pissed, but her staff could barely even notice her, She waved a hand checking for confoundment jinxes or curses and found nothing, meaning this was a product of their own stupidity!

One of the few who still had her wits about her, a tough looking woman with mismatched eyes spoke up, “We did as you asked mistress, we went to the middle child's study and looked, but only found this!” She picked up some of the scattered paper, grappling it like it was some frustrating tome, “Confoundment! We couldn’t crack the code, we were nearly desperate enough to hire a linguist, but-”

Pinching the top of her nose she raised a hand and the woman fell silent, “Are you kidding me?! I ask you to do something very simple, get anything suspicious, don’t get caught, figure out the information, but you fail! You guys are some of the foremost masters in your subjects and you fail!”

“I don’t get it!”

“Mistress, none of it made sense!”

One screeched into their hands.

“Mistress, we're not spies! This isn’t one of our skills! We’re not even codebreakers!”

“Then invent something! I know you can, you have the resources damn idiots! That guy isn’t even half as smart as any of you and yet he led you by the nose without even meaning to!”

They flinched and whined, she growled the air around her sparking under her heavy and erratic emotions, she stomped away, a hand waving as she gathered up the pages.

“You’re all dismissed til further notice I don’t want to see any of you for at least a week!”

She slammed the door behind her.

She looked down at the crumpled pages in her hands, she was pissed, beyond that though she felt, and trust her it was a disgusting feeling she knew, lonely.

Those weeks at the capital watching from the shadows at her middle brother be companionable to a girl he barely met was irritating.

‘Fucking bastard… if I figure this out then he can’t do shit without my say… yeah I just have to figure this out, if it’s something so hard to break like this then it’s gotta be important!’

She grinned and looked at the papers, setting them on her desk she would crack it and then everything would go back to normal with Aster back in his usual timid place where she could ask him to do whatever she wanted and he would do it without question.

She cracked her knuckles as she got to work.

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