Lucien sighed as he picked out the final shard of glass from beneath his skin, wrapping his foot in a bandage as the blood was making him slip on the floor.

He then stood up and got changed before leaving his room in search for his dear sister. As he walked through the halls, the servants only watched as they spoke in hushed whispers.

While they were always on edge around Lucien, something was different, what they felt now was actually fear. It was different, his aura, the look in his eyes, it was nothing like before.

Lucien stopped in front of Charlotte's door before kicking it open, she was lying on the floor reading a book, her head shot up, her eyes slightly widening at the sight of her younger brother before she glared at him with a scowl.

"Who let you in?!" Charlotte sneered.

Lucien didn't answer as he walked over, Charlotte's heart couldn't help but start racing a bit for reasons she didn't understand. Lucien was supposedly scared of her, so why did she feel like running away as he slowly walked over towards her?

Lucien stood in front of Charlotte and she finally looked up at him and met his eyes. She flinched as she felt her stomach turn.

This couldn't be Lucien.

She stared at the boy in front of her who had a crazed look on his eyes despite his eerily calm face, he didn't say a word as he stood above her for a few seconds, before suddenly squatting down and grabbing a fistful of Charlotte's hair.

"What are you—?!" 

Before Charlotte could finish her sentence, Lucien dug in his pocket and wrapped his hand around a shard of glass, pulling it out and slicing it through the portion of hair he was gripping onto.

Charlotte's hair fell onto the floor, accompanied by the blood dripping from Lucien's hand as the glass dug into his hand.

"It seems you took all the razors we had to put in into my sandwich, so I had to resort using this shard of glass instead" Lucien spoke up with a sigh, moving his bloody hand to pat her cheek.

Charlotte's eyes were wide as she stayed completely still, her hands slightly trembling as she processed what had just happened.

"Unfortunately for you, I didn't swallow your razors, so it looks like I won this round, right?" Lucien asked with a cold smile, treating this situation as if it was a simple game between kids.

With that, Lucien stood back up and waved to his older sister before leaving the room, the second the door shut, Charlotte let out a blood curdling shriek.

Lucien smiled to himself as he walked down the hall, watching the servants and his brothers run to Charlotte's room with a look of concern.

One would think with that reaction, she was the one who swallowed razor blades. Lucien suddenly felt bitter for a reason he couldn't explain.

"I should've cut more of her hair off.." He muttered to himself, glancing at his bleeding palm without much care.

Lucien didn't just mess with his sister to get revenge, it was also to test something out. So while he waited for his theory to play out, he went back to his room, taking a seat on the windowsill as he simply looked out the window.

He hadn't sat down for even a minute before the door to his room opened as a servant walked in, most of the servants in the palace were at the very least wary of Lucien if not scared.

Yet this servant had an expressionless face as he stared right at Lucien without any fear. Lucien could tell immediately that the servant was from his father's palace.

"Your Majesty requests your presence at once." The servant said with a small bow, using a finger to push up his glasses as he waited for Lucien to stand up and follow him.

The emperor lived in the main palace, he used to live with the empress but after he got a concubine along with an illegitimate son, she moved to a separate palace.

Meanwhile his children lived in a separate palace as well, which is how Lucien's siblings got away with tormenting him in the past, as there weren't any of the emperor's men in this palace to report back to him.

But even if there were, he doubted any of them would bother reporting anything he went through to his father.

But it seems someone went out of their way to report this incident, which was good for Lucien, after all, things are going the way he wanted it to.

Lucien stood up and gave the servant a coy smile as he followed after him. The main palace wasn't too far from here so within minutes Lucien was standing in front of the door that lead to the throne room.

A smile crept on his lips as his gaze darkened before he pushed open the doors. The emperor sat in his throne, a cold look on his face as Charlotte buried her face into his arm, his other hand patting her head.

Alexander and Lionel were also present , they respectfully stood near the steps that led to the throne and kept their gazes down.

Alexander's eyes met Lucien's as he gave him a cold glare, fixing his glasses with his lips tightly pursed.

Lucien walked over and stood a bit behind his brothers, smiling up at his father without much fear.

"To what do I owe this pleasure of meeting with you?" Lucien asked, bowing a bit.

"You cut my hair!" Charlotte cried out before the emperor could say anything, her head shooting up as she looked at Lucien with her lips quivering, tears running down her cheeks.

"Care to explain?" The emperor asked, his voice cool and lacking much emotion as he gazed down at Lucien.

"An eye for an eye, my dear sister put blades into my food, so I had to repay the favor, in all honesty I went easy on her.. hair grows back after all" Lucien answered with a smile, watching Charlotte flinch.

"Is that true Charlotte?" The emperor asked her, his eyes shifting from Lucien to Charlotte as her face flushed.

"Th-that's... Alexander told me to..!" Charlotte wailed, pointing a finger at Alexander who flinched, his finger twitching as his face paled.

"Well?" The emperor asked, cocking a brow at him.

"... It's just child's play father, nothing too serious" Alexander answered with an awkward cough, swallowing his spit.

"So it's child play when they do it..but not when I join in on the fun?" Lucien asked with a mocking smile.

"Enough." The emperor said with force, before looking at Alexander, making him flinch.

"Since it was Alexander who set Charlotte up to this, I'll have him under probation for the next week." He declared, making Alexander's face darken as he nodded respectfully.

"I suppose since you simply retaliated, you'll be free from any repercussions this time." The emperor declared, avoiding saying Lucien's name as he spoke to him, it seemed like he was determined to always ignore his existence, one way or another.

Lucien nodded with a smile, in fact he was quite pleased right now, in his eyes he just hit two birds with one stone.

Firstly, Alexander was under probation for the entire week, meaning he wouldn't be be able to intervene with anything Lucien had planned.

Secondly, with his own eyes he confirmed the rumor that the cruel emperor who had no attachment to his children, doted on his only daughter. 

Lucien had heard about that rumor all throughout his past life, he never paid attention to it because it never benefited from it, he didn't care about such rumors and there was no proof of it.

This time, things were different, for he has use for the relationship between Charlotte and the emperor. 

The reason the rumor could never be proven was because as Charlotte grew she, like most people, began to fear the emperor. So in the end, their relationship was strained and all there was left were rumors of the past.

Lucien couldn't let that happen in this life.

He thought his sister was a fool.

If he had the affection of the emperor he wouldn't hesitate to abuse it to his advantage. 

But no matter how many times he repeated his life, there wouldn't be a single time his father would even call his name. 

So if he couldn't take advantage of the emperor through himself, he'd have to use his dear sister Charlotte.

Charlotte looked back over at Lucien with fury in her teary eyes, to which Lucien simply smiled at her, Charlotte's pout deepened as she whipped her head away.

Their relationship was strained now, and Lucien cutting her hair also didn't help with anything. But in Lucien's eyes, that would be a simple thing to overcome.

With Alexander being stuck in his room all week, Charlie on a trip with some other nobles, and Lionel preparing for his entrance exam for the academy, there would be no one to stop Lucien from attempting to.. get along, with his one and only sister.