Chapter 2- Irritating Banquet

EDITED.

"They made me a monster; now they'll fear my creation." ~Araneae Ruber

~

YEAR 1914

"WHO ARE YOU?" Lord Nigel questioned, still fearing the thought of looking back to find out himself.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The voice replied without giving hints. "Just calm your anger. It would only lead to your humiliation and downfall," he said.

Lord Nigel bit his lips but nodded in agreement, and immediately the cold air that he felt shocking before slowly dispersed. 

Suddenly hit with a ton of confidence, he whipped around to know the owner of the voice, but was met with the retreating figure of a black cloaked person. 

He could only deduce from his voice that it was man, nothing else gave any hints.

'Was he a supporter of Luella Van-Rensselaer?' he wondered, but immediately shut the idea. 

He knew within the noble society Luella, the first twin daughter of Duke Lloyd Van-Rensselaer, was a weak magic less wallflower that would prefer staying in the shadows of her younger twin sister Louisa than being in the spotlight.

Her only goodwill was that she was good at business and trading. Even people that dislike and detest her would admit that under her heirship, she would surely make the Van-Rensselaer Dukedom more prestige than it already is.

That was all she was good at, as she didn't inherit the family bloodline magic, Shadow Manipulation.

Lord Nigel shook his head as he pulled his thoughts away from her to wait for his beloved Louisa.

The cloaked figure had turned towards the direction in which Luella had gone through. He didn't know his aim for doing so. Did he want to talk to her? Or did he just want to watch her from a distance? 

He didn't know, but for now, he would just follow her. After all, he came to the banquet not because he wanted to nor because he cared, but he came just for Luella. 

He wanted to talk to her, tell her he was back and actually alive, not like the rumors that said he was dead.

Would she be happy?

The cloaked man wanted to know? No! He wanted to ask why she didn't wait for him. Why did she have to get engaged to another man?

Just why?

Meanwhile, Luella aggressively rubbed at her arm; the arm that Lord Nigel held. 

Disgusted.

Irritated and 

Annoyed.

"How dare he touch me without permission?!!" she shouted in the empty hallway.

She continued seething for a moment before letting out a slightly relaxed sigh as she pressed her back against the wall.

She didn't even know the noble man from anywhere, but because he was acquainted with her sister, then suddenly she should accommodate him.

SHE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HIS NAME!!

It was clear he wasn't the heir of his family, because she would have at least known what family he was coming from, but she didn't know him or his family. 

The audacity.

'Disgusting' She sighed to herself for the nth time that evening. She just wanted to go home. She was tired, stressed, and dirty.

Luella wasn't looking for her younger sister Louisa because some man asked for her, but she was looking for her just so they could leave. 

"Where do I even start looking for her?" She questioned herself as she massaged her forehead, reducing the already growing headache. 

Pulling herself from the wall, she began thinking about herself and her life.

She was the eldest twin daughter of Lloyd and Nanette Van-Rensselaer. Her family were of a long line of mages and were known throughout the empire as the Shadow mage family.

They were previous a family of assassins, but as generations came by it slowly began dwindling until it was completely lost in time. 

But that didn't stop the popularity, as they had also maintained their generational dukedom. Meaning they were more prestigious than other noble family because they either had just begun their generational line, or they had previously fallen off and were trying to get their stability. Some had fallen so low that all they have is a name and no wealth.

One could say the Van-Rensselaer would say they were one of the found nobility of the empire (though they were not), but it just shows how well off and respected the family was.

But it was weird, Nanette Van-Rensselaer had given birth to twin girls, but one had now inherited mana, not even mentioning the bloodline power -Shadow Manipulation-

Luella Van-Rensselaer.

It would have being better if she even had mana in her body, but she didn't have a single drop of it.

The bad news quickly spread within the noble circle, as they were more eager to witness the demise of another noble family than to receive good news about them.

So when the news that the Van-Rensselaer dukedom had a daughter who didn't inherit the family's magic power, it created a chaos inducing reaction. 

The nobles would either openly gossip about how they (the Van-Rensselaer) were slowly losing their nobility status, while some said they had fallen short of the glory of the gods, and now they had to pay the price. 

Others believed it was the sin of their ancestors back when they usually kill people. 

So, to hide their shame and rising humiliation, Luella was slowly left behind for family functions, event, and even invitational balls and banquets.

But Lloyd took this as an opportunity to turn the situation around. After all, his family's reputation was dependent on it. Since Louisa didn't seem a bit interested in the duties and running of the Van-Rensselaer household, he began using the time Luella was left behind with training her. 

And this slowly caused a rift between both parents and children, as the Lloyd favored Luella over Louisa and Nanette favored Louisa over Luella. 

The both parent blatant favoritism was very clear to those living with them. 

Since Lloyd cared for Luella more than Louisa, he would every so often take her to all political or business meetings he had to attend. 

Previously, the nobles in attendance to the meetings would make side comment and remarks as to how humiliating and unethical it was for a child who didn't inherit their family's bloodline to attend the meeting.

Very little had openly criticized Lloyd for his choice of picking Luella over Louisa, as they believed it was the one who inherited the family's Shadow power that should be the next heir. Regardless of it, Louisa was the youngest.

But Lloyd stood his ground on the matter of his daughter's attendance, and it didn't take long before Luella began showing signs of leadership and great understanding of business and trade. Those who thought that she should not lead the family kept their distaste and opinion of it behind closed doors.

Now, Luella, who was not known in the social community, was very well-known in the business and trade community. She was held to a really high standard in the community.

While Nanette favored Louisa over Luella, they would both attend a number of tea parties, book clubs or banquet celebration.

To Nanette, Luella was an evil being who had come to destroy the reputation of the family. She was not going to let her evil plans come to pass, even if it means putting her aside and turning her to a literal wallflower.

Nanette did everything within her power to orchestrate Luella from the noble community. But it wasn't hard for her to do, as Luella was too busy to learning the duties of being the heir of the dukedom.

But Nanette didn't like that. She wanted her beloved and 'only' daughter Louisa to be that would inherit the dukedom, because she was the only one who actually had the power that represented the family.

To her, it was very belittling of her husband to think Luella could do better than her daughter. So, she took it upon herself to train Louisa. She brought in the best magic teacher and etiquette teacher for Louisa.

Her daughter Louisa was going to be perfect in every which way, she decided. And as she believed, it came to pass.

Louisa, like her sister, succeeded in everything her mother wanted of her.

From magic learning to poise and etiquette to history and language. She succeeded.

Now, both daughters were a perfect picture of what their parents wanted. This perfection led to both parents completely abandoning the other and taking hands off from the other's upbringing.

'It was like united; they fall.

And divided they stand'. 

Rather than:

'United they stand,

Divide they fall'.

And this assumption left a bitter taste in Luella's mouth, as she wanted a family that was one and undivided. But there was very little she could do, as her activities differed from her sisters.

As the elder sister, she would always ensure to at least ask Louisa a bit of her day and would usually chip in hers. 

However, Louisa would give very little to what she says and would make an offhanded comment about how it was insulting the way she thought to talk to her about something she didn't understand.

While it was never Luella's intention to make Louisa feel inferior to her, but it always seemed like that to her.

Luella sighed as she rubbed her temple. "What the hell am I thinking about?" She uttered to herself as she shook the bad thoughts away from her memories.

She stood straight and began her mission of finding her sister.

"Louisa… where did you go to?" She wondered to herself in a low voice.

Turning to another hallway, a dimly lit room came to her view. As she came closer, she had a series of pleasure groans and moans coming from the room. 

Curiosity got the better of her as she walked closer to the door. Luella's eyes widen at the sight before her.