The Proposal

Lloyd scorned the emperor's face as he bowed to him and stood down below in front of the throne. He was having quite a hard time dealing with the emperor for the last three weeks. It was very much clear that the emperor was messing with him on purpose but there was this mutual silence in the courtroom about it. No one dared to say anything.

It wasn't the first time it was happening anyway. As Lloyd being the hidden prince of the empire was an open secret, none of the nobles were comfortable interfering in the matters between the emperor and the supposed prince.

For the last three weeks, emperor Asterus had been ordering Lloyd around under the pretext of having bad health and not being able to deal with the documents. It was so openly absurd also that it was considered straightforward bullying.

Lloyd was called to the emperor's office that evening before his departure for home and now, as the situation was, the two of them were somehow having a conversation over some tea.

"I know you despise being called like this, Lloyd," Asterus said as he looked at Lloyd from his large armchair.

"Not at all, your majesty," Lloyd said forcing out a distorted smile.

"Pfft... Yes, I know. Marquis Lloyd is my precious child after all," Asterus remarked, not hiding the fact that he almost laughed.

"Well, this time I didn't call you here to just bully you," Asterus said as he placed a letter on the table.

'So you don't deny that you were bullying me,' Lloyd muttered in his thoughts as he looked as took the letter from the table. It was already intriguing because it had the seal of House Blacqua. House Blacqua was the only duchy in the empire of Alkezar. It was also the house of the only princess of the empire, Princess Kasia.

There was another duchy, Evanlite, with the royal family's name but even since the second prince's execution that title had been vacant.

As Lloyd read the contents of the letter, he froze in his spot.

"What... but, Your Majesty, why?" Lloyd muttered as he placed the letter back on the table.

"Well, Duke Blacqua visited me personally for this so I assure you the contents of the letter are by no means false," Asterus explained. "The only child of the ducal couple, as you know, Young Duke Ignis Blacqua, seems to have taken a liking to your younger sister, Young Lady Julia Shuzar. He saw her in a library and fell in love at first sight."

"She's ten!!! Your Majesty!! Is the duke out of his mind?!? How could he even propose marriage between children?!? And the young duke is only twelve as of my knowledge, how did he even fall in love?" Lloyd stammered as soon as he heard that.

"Calm down, Lloyd," Asterus said with a serious look. "It isn't an immediate marriage they want, my sister is still sane if not the duke. They want a legal engagement with a promise that the two children will be married once they grow up."

"Oh, right, is that so? I'm sorry, I was flustered. It was so sudden," Lloyd apologized. "I will ask for Julia's opinion on this when I go back to the estate."

"Aren't you worrying too much for someone who is not even your blood relative?" Asterus said looking sharply at Lloyd.

"Julia is more than that. Anyways, I'm not accepting anything until I get Julia's opinion," Lloyd said while standing up.

As he started to go out of the study, Asterus said, " Freedom. I'll grant you freedom from the prince's duties and position as you've always desired."

Lloyd froze on his spot. Then he turned around with a disgusted scowl at Asterus and said, " What did the duke offer you?"

"I do not desire much because I'm already at an age where I've seen all I wanted to. But it's also when you start to get lonely. If a family you've always desired but couldn't reach, comes to you, isn't that a pleasant feeling?" Asterus said with a faint smile.

"Is the Duchess finally coming back to the palace?" Lloyd asked with a torn expression on his face.

"The day those two children get married, I will let you go, Lloyd. Young Duke Ignis desires the throne and he's royal blood too. I see no need to force the throne on you when you clearly do not want it. And being the empress is the best future you could ask for your younger sister, isn't it?" Asterus said calmly.

Lloyd looked down and said while bowing," I'll give you the answer in a month."

Saying that he left and the emperor started looking outside the window behind his armchair.

The weather was changing more drastically. The wind blew yet faster that day.

Frank followed the Manikin as it flew through the woods and then the alleyways and small roads of the capital. Before long, they crossed the capital square and then towards the large lake on the edge of the square into the woods.

Now having reached Death Lake, Frank stared into the deep water for some time. It was a disgustingly nostalgic feeling. He had no memory of the incident whatsoever and it didn't matter as much to him anymore. Instead of being traumatized by water bodies as the others had feared, Frank became devoid of any fear he had.

It wasn't like losing it, it was as if it didn't exist in the first place at all.

The manikin whispered to him again:

"Into the forest. Sylvia is there."

The manikin flew over Death lake towards the forest of the afterlife. Frank contemplated for a while to whether swim or fly, then chose to fly because he didn't want to get wet and then wait even longer to meet Lia, in the worst case, make her catch a cold (though it was questionable as to how it made any sense).

Reaching the forest, as soon he stepped foot on the ground, he felt a large surge of energy filling his body. His eyes were filled with colorful lights from everywhere. And they weren't coming from the surroundings, they were coming from the dead souls that were passing through the forest.

It was quite a beautiful scene, with so many souls and different colors flickering like rainbows.

"A truly beautiful scene, isn't it?" Frank heard an elderly lady's voice and turned around to see who it was.

There stood a woman in old age and a very alluring presence.

"Are you Sylvia?" Frank asked her.

Sylvia smiled and held Frank's hand as they both disappeared from the edge of the lake into the forest.