These Damn Men

"NOW ANNOUNCING, THE CURRENT DUCHESS, SYLVIA VALADEZ IS ENTERING!"

A young man shouts at the top of his lungs, in a manner that would make anyone think he's in danger crying out for help.

As the young girl whose name was harshly shout out made her way towards the emperor she winced her eyes as everywhere she looked she saw, gold.

[Damn, there's not even a speck of dust or any plain colors in here, it seems nothing has changed, in the years I've been gone]

The girl sighed, but doesn't make it to apparent to the point where it the annoyance starts to show on her face.

Instead she uses all fingers on both hands to slightly lift both sides of her commoner like dress and slightly weighs both her body and head down, forming an elegant courtesy while looking to the ground.

[Easy, I haven't rusted at all!]

"I greet you, the emperor. As the moon goes down, and the sun rises, we all; commoners, nobles, and gods, see your pearly white teeth.

[UGHH, I still can't with this formal greeting, even when I say it myself I still cringe to literal death, of course, this is one of the many reasons why I left this place. Who knows maybe I would've stayed if this cringe ass emperor hadn't change the original greeting.]

But as discomforted as the girl looked, even to the point of biting the insides of her own innocent cheeks, the middle aged man seemed pretty satisfied, satisfied to the point of grinning.

[What a stupid look on his face.]

"Please, lift your head. Your looking quite uncomfortable, I don't bite."

When the Sylvia lifted her head as told, she froze in shock.

[God no. Not him]

The thing that had caught the attention of Sylvia wasn't the emperors cocky face, that she'd gotten used to staring at with having the urge to run up to him and beat him, or the annoying prince that had somehow convinced her to come her to this hell, standing on the right side of the emperor. It was the man standing on the left side of the emperor, her fiancé, Felix. Felix Huxley.

"I see you've spotted him."

The emperor quietly stated.

[Oh my-]

But before the girl frozen in shock could even finish her inner thought, Felix spoke.

"I've missed you, Sylvie"

If a man says something that romantic you'd think he'd have the face to match his statement, but no. As always, he looked at her the same way he looked at everyone. The coldest eyes a human being would see. He look at her like she was a speck of dirt. Dirtying this clean palace.

This time without being interrupted, Sylvia finished her inner thought,

[Like hell you missed me, you might need me, but missing me? hah!]

The girl held in her anger with all the might left in her, and states sternly with a smile,

"Please refrain from calling me that, for the 100th time, my name is Sylvia, not Sylvie"

You could almost see the vein popping out from her forehead.

Silent. That would be the word to currently describe the current vibe of the room . With a shocked looked on Abel's face, a stone cold look on Felix's face, and a gentle smile on Sylvia's, the emperor bursts out laughing.

As he continues to laugh for a good while, the hatred in the atmosphere slowly dies down, and the emperor soon goes quiet.

"It seems the three of you hasn't changed at all since your childhood days, the only thing that has really changed is that it went from four, to three."

The man says with a smirk

[This damn man, such disrespect, but if I were to disrespect him this openly, my head would be disatached from my body and flying to his feet.]