Chapter 6 - A Tea so Fragrant

The room filled with utter silence as the last word came out of her mouth. Her right hand placed near her heart, her eyes staring directly into the eye of the Mage.

The Mage has a surprised look on his face, as if he had never seen that side of her before.

He strokes his beard once more and closes his eye, contemplating before finally opening his eye and looking at his former student.

"... Do I seem like the type of person who would teach a child to use magic to kill?"

The Queen, who was sitting down, walked towards the Mage and placed her hand on his shoulder and had a skeptical expression.

"Indeed, you do."

The Mage's mouth puked out blood as he heard that and stood dead for a silent minute before composing himself, coughing out the remaining blood out.

"W-well, it seems like I'm giving out the wrong idea towards you, Isabella."

He puts both his hands behind his back and looks at Duchess nostalgically.

It is not my intention to lead his life to defeat the future enemy. In fact, I detest the meaning that Magic is used to kill people."

He stretches one of his hands in front of him and a blue flame appears before him.

"They say that creation of fire magic was to burn the enemy, and burn the corpse, and reduce the number of people that inhabit the world. But I believe that, instead, the creation of fire is to bring warmth into the land."

The color of the flame shifts into a melancholy pink, still burning fiercely in his hand.

"This warmth signifies life and new creation. Fire is the first warmth that the skin of a newborn experiences first in their lifetime. It's not meant to burn, but to embrace that warmth before embracing in what you call the warmth of another being, guiding it into what you call trust, care, and love."

The Fire soon floats towards me, and spreads throughout me, before dispersing into thin air, without a single burn in my body.

The Mage puts both his hands behind him once again and closes his eyes.

"You're indeed right, Isabella. To teach a child to use magic is not to kill, but to learn how to embrace that warmth, giving him a reason to protect."

The Duchess's eye gives off a sense of relief upon hearing those words.

"... Teacher..."

The Mage walks towards the Duchess and stands in front of her. He places his hand on her shoulder and smiles brightly.

"That is why the warmth that he must first learn about needs not to be learn from me, but from his own mother."

The Duchess tensed her body after hearing those words.

"Teach him about the world first, so I can do the rest just like you said."

He removes his hand from her shoulder and walks towards the door; before he leaves, he looks at her again.

"Don't forget, a child needs the care of those around him, so he can grow hope and honor."

Not long after, he leaves and the door closes.

The Duchess stood there without uttering a single word, the duke stood behind her and placed both his hands on her shoulder.

The Duchess reacts to the touch and smiles while looking at the duke, placing one of her hands on top of his.

The Queen, watching the couple, coughed a bit, grabbing their attention.

She crosses her arms while having a serious expression on her face.

"It seems like you have a lot in your mind at the moment, it should be best to rest for a bit before leaving."

The Duchess' face looks towards the ground.

"... But-"

"No but, getting a good rest will clear your head and help you decide on what to do. Even then, you should take proper care of your child, he may be hungry."

The duke pats her shoulders softly.

"I still need to talk to her Majesty before we leave, so take this opportunity to rest with the child."

The Duchess stands still for a bit before nodding.

The duke begins to move the pram towards the door, while the Empress and Duchess Walk slowly behind, the Empress talking casually to the Duchess, while the Duchess just nods and speaks a bit.

The Doors are opened by the guards, and soon close once again when we're all outside. We walk towards the corridor, filled with many luxurious paintings and expensive decorations like vases and flowers.

After a while, we reach a new room, the doors are opened by the servants that were following the Empress when she left the throne room, and inside that room, the wallpaper are colored a dark red shade, filled with paintings with golden frames. A wide window opposite of the door lets in the natural sunlight, and a small chandelier in the middle of the ceiling. Drawers in all sides of the room, one of them with a wide mirror, a grandiose carpet with detailed and majestic pattern, a luxurious looking couch with red seatings and brown handles with two chairs of similar qualities in both end of the couch on the middle of the room, and in the middle of the seatings lies a white wooden coffee table with a white and red vase with roses on them.

The Enpress stays outside of the room while the rest of us enter the room.

The duke places the pram near the couch and takes the hand of the Duchess before she sits down in the cough. He gently let's go as he carefully looks around his surroundings.

"If anything happens, don't hesitate to signal me."

He gives her a red crystal shard and smiles at her, and then faces me.

Come to think of it, this is the first interaction I have with him other than the time I almost suffocated.

He looks at me for a second and stretches his hand towards me. He places the back of finger and caresses my cheek.

He smiles gently at me, just like how the Duchess does towards me...

"I'll be back, Lysander."

He gently pulls back his hand, and waves goodbye at us as he leaves the room. The Duchess smiles a bit and waves back at him. The doors closed, and silence fills the air.

The Duchess lays her head on the pillows that were at the end of the couch, and just stares at the flowers that were placed on the table right in front of her, unable to decide on what to do.

Soon, my stomach started to rumble.

'Ah, I haven't eating anything since I came to this body...'

The Duchess sat up and looked at me gently.

"Ah... I must not think about this for now."

She stood up from her seat and went to where I was, she gently carried me into her arms and sat down once again on the sofa. I stared deeply just like any newborn would towards their mother.

Can I call you, my mother?

The last time I called my original mother "Mom", she looked at me with disgust. Ever since then I refrained from using such terms such as "Mother" or "Father" and spoke just like any stranger would.

The way she smiles at me makes me remember the inconvenient times, when no one would smile at me. All the hateful memories that I wish I could forget. But her smile also brings a familiar emotion.

Happiness.

She tried to remove part of her clothing to breastfeed me, but the clothes were too tight to remove partially.

She looked worried at first.

"What should I do...?"

Her expression looked dire, but soon seemed to remember something.

She let go of one of her arms that was carrying me and placed me closer to her body with the other arm still clinging tightly to me.

Once her arm was stretched out, she snapped her finger. Soon a blue insignia appeared and dispersed with blue light fragments.

A baby bottle soon appeared in the middle of where the insignia was. She grabbed it and shook it a bit.

"Thank goodness Mia prepared this right before we left."

After shaking it a bit, she begins to put the bottle near my mouth.

I must admit that this is better than being breastfeed, but I guess I must get used to it if I want to continue surviving in this world...

Huh, should I continue to live in this world? Can I even call this my world at all.,,

The baby bottle entered my mouth, and I felt the sense of warm milk in my mouth, I must admit that it tasted better than I anticipated...

I burrow my brows. My thoughts are a mess right now.

But one thing is for certain, I was given a second chance to live a new life. A life where I can enjoy the many things I was unable to do.

Just maybe, I can call this place my home...

The baby continued to suck on the bottle until it finished. The Duchess patted the baby until he burped, and placed the baby back into the pram where he lays asleep.

She watches the baby with love and care, her mind freed from all the negativity that she thought about.

"Lysander, I'll make sure to carry on my duty as a mother for you."

She leaned towards him and gently kissed his forehead.

The baby smiled happily as he felt the warmth of her mother near him.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Sitting across from him was the Empress, the powerful and leading figure of the Izora Empire, in a luxury room that was like where the Duchess is currently resting.

She holds the cup of tea that the butler beside her made, smells the tea to enjoy the aroma, and sips it carefully so not a single drop is wasted, and gently places it down the saucer.

Her eyes opened and she stared at the man in front of her.

"The Duke of Blood... For what important subject do you wish to talk about?"

The duke flinches at the word. He looks away to the window right beside them, showing the grand stature of the palace from high above, being able to view the fountain he saw before the meeting.

"I'm sure you're well aware of what the topic of the conversation..."

The Empress sighs once more, she flicked her hand towards the butler, signaling to leave.

He bows and walks towards the door and gently closes it before leaving.

Shortly after, The Empress snaps her finger and a large insignia surrounding the whole carpet of the room appeared, and shortly dimmed.

"With this, there won't be any rats listening to our conversation."

The duke's face stiffens for a moment and then faces her with a worried look.

"What about-"

"Relax, the room she's in was already prepared beforehand. Even then she's well capable of what I can do."

The duke looks even more anxious.

In the eyes of the Empress, he looks no more than a Dog worrying about their owner.

"You really are sucker for your wife. If you really want to see her that badly, then talk."

The duke coughs and straightens his posture, looking serious again.

He looks towards the ground, closes his eye, and takes a deep breath before looking towards her with both his hand on the table, interlocking them to show the seriousness of the situation.

"An assassination attempt was attempted yesterday towards my son, Lysander."

The Empress flinches at his words, she puts her hand below her chin and thinks for a bit.

"Things are looking dire then, the same thing happened to yesterday with Augustus."

The duke looked shocked.

"Does this mean..."

"Yes, the group intended to target the Heir of the Royal Family and the Blakesty Family."

The duke puts his hand in his lap, fondling both his thumbs while s toll interlocking his finger and contemplates for a bit before speaking.

"I tried to follow up against the magicians who were responsible. In the end, I only managed to capture three of them. Unfortunately, all three of them committed suicide shortly after being imprisoned."

"I see..."

The duke grits his teeth and clenches his hand into a fist.

"It was him...!"

The Empress looks directly at his hateful eyes, showing bloodlust of the man he is talking about.

"... Count Avington."

His eyes trembled as he heard the name. His aura increasingly growing more furious. After a while he soon calms down and takes a deep breath.

"Yes... I received notice that he was the one who initiated this attack."

The Empress stands up and faces the window, showing her the scenery of the majestic orange sunset that brims the cloud gold, alongside the autumn leaves flying around the air, and crossing along the view of where she was looking.

"The Noble Faction seems to be taking a grand gamble. They also dared to try and assassinate my son..."

She continues to watch the scenery in front of her. Emotionless, but she soon faced the duke.

"A las, even if I wanted him gone, he is a Sword master of the seventh Tier being guarded by many other Aura Knights and Magician of at least fifth Tier. Not even you can face them all alone."

She folds her arm and leans towards the edge of the window frame.

"... And he has the support of that so called husband of mine..."

His face looks disappointed but acknowledges the situation in hand.

"... I see..."

The duke looked down at the Tea he was served, seeing his sad expression being reflect on the surface of the drink. He contemplates this ordeal, figuring out what to do next.

"... Poisoned, isn't it?"

The Empress stands upright and walks towards the table, sliding her finger on the edges of the cup from where she drank from.

"Indeed, not that it has any effect on us though. Well, the butler that implanted the poison just now is probably packing his things and planning to escape. Also sent from Noble faction of I presume."

The Empress looked at the window from where she was standing once more and smiled sinisterly.

"Well, I can't have that happening... That's why I prepared a fun little spell in advance."

The duke looks at the Empress, knowing her true personality, quite calmly.

The Empress quickly turns around, smiling innocently despite her previous words.

"It's my way of releasing stress over this incident!"

She calmly and elegantly sits down on her chair, picks up the teacup once more and drinks the Tea filled with poison.

"You can hardly smell the fragrance of the poison."

The duke stares at the cup in front of him for a minute. After moments of contemplation, he carefully picks up the tea from the saucer, smelling the fragrance of the Tea that emits a light and rich apple scent before gently placing the cup in his mouth, drinking it carefully before putting it back down.

"... It stings..."

The Empress chuckles a bit. She places her palm on her chin, her elbow laying on the table.

"I never said it does."

The duke stays motionless before raising the teacup once more and drinking it again and placing it down.

"This burning aftertaste..."

The Empress closes her eyes and has another drink of the Tea before putting the empty cup down, staring at it with glee.

"Yes... this aftertaste. It reminds us of the failure that we have made. Unable to protect the people closest to us."

She turns her gaze from the cup to the duke.

"Showing us how useless our actions were..."

The duke stares at the Empress with a cold gaze.

"... Your words... they sting more than this poison concoction..."

The Empress closes her eyes and hums at his response before opening them once more on the cup.

"This conversation... It might last awhile. Should we prepare more Tea?"

The duke looks at the half empty cup in front of him. His reflection filled with insecurities, but his eyes showed a new wave of motion.

"... I'll take you up on that offer."

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

My eyes feel numb from them being constantly closed. I fell asleep again while being fed.

I see the familiar ceiling decorations in front of me. I have returned to where I live.

No other light but from the moon that illuminates from the window in the room, it is already nighttime.

Everyone is asleep at this moment.

This feeling of loneliness is all too familiar.

Being in bed, constantly laying down and unable to get up. This is no different than the life I used to have.

But this time, I'm an infant. No expectations are currently being held for me.

Should I continue my facade once more?

No... This doesn't seem right. Is it alright for me to be in this body of the character known as Lysander?

Doesn't that mean that no matter what I do, my ending is predetermined?

This life is even more cruel than my previous one, am I expected to suffer for who I am? Can I never live a normal life?

A familiar flame appeared right before once again while I was in deep thinking.

'It's you again...'

"Glad that you remembered me."

I froze for a bit.

Can he read my mind?

No response was made. But the flame knew what he was thinking.

"Is not exactly mine reading. But if you wish to communicate with me using mind or other sources, I should be able to respond."

'I see... then can I ask who you are?'

The flame flew a bit farther away from me and expanded a bit, not replying for a moment.

"I currently have no name to go by. You can address me however you wish."

The flame grew closer and shrunk once again.

"But to respond to your full question. I am a being that is here to guide you in this new world and help you adjust to your situation and answer any questions."

My mind froze for a bit, I immediately responded to that last sentence.

'Can you tell me what happened to my siblings?'

"That question is out of jurisdiction."

'Then can you tell me who sent me to this world?'

"That question is out of my jurisdiction."

'Then... can you at least tell me why I was summoned here?'

"That question is out of my jurisdiction."

'You're pretty... useless, aren't you?'

"You're mistaken. I can only answer questions with the authority I am given. As of now, I can only answer questions regarding certain knowledge that I am given authority of."

This whole situation is not ideal at all. I can't ask the questions that I have about my siblings or why I'm here.

I guess it is better to ask questions I know I'll need for the future.

The flame backs away and turns green, expanding with fierce flame at the questions that the infant will ask.

"Now. What questions do you have about the world, lost one?"