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"Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." –Song of Solomon 8:4
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THE SUN was already waving its goodbye as it slowly sunk beyond the wide horizon while hiding behind the seemingly endless vast ocean. The sky was clear of rain with clouds turning like ashes on a cigarette trey yet so painstakingly breathtaking as it wore its pink and purple canvas. The breeze was starting to turn cold, chilling her bones as it seeped through her thin clothes meant for her victorious glory.
Lantana stared at the horizon with a sophisticated smile plastered on her face as she took a sip from the chamomile tea, brewed by the palace servant, with satisfaction.
"We have similar tea in our duchy yet I wonder why it tastes so much better today? Was this perhaps because it is of a different quality or was it due to your brewing skills, Mr. Kanri?" Lantana said as she elegantly placed down the tea cup on the glass table.
As they threaded through the palace earlier to go to the gazebo near the greenhouse where the emperor and the duke were catching up for her to eat, they just automatically clicked. Enough for Lantana to know that Kanri Lincoln was not a normal palace servant, but the aide of the first prince.
"You flatter me, my lady," the aide said with a genuine smile on his face while standing beside the tea set.
"By the way, when will His Majesty and my father finish talking? I remember the sun was still high up there when they started. The sky is about to turn dark now," Lantana said as she sighed and pouted.
"My lady, I do not know a little about the history of His Majesty, and His Grace. Would you like to hear it?" Kanri said as he subtly glanced at the direction of the two highest people in the empire.
Lantana's eyes sparkled as her ears perked up. She sneaked a quick glance at the emperor and her father who seemed to have no awareness of time.
"What is it? Let me hear it so that I could satiate my boredom," she replied in a disinterested tone before she took another sip of her tea.
"According to my grandfather's stories, the emperor and the duke were already friends before they succeeded their positions. When they were your age, my lady, both of their names were always heard being talked about everywhere and in the newspapers. Their achievements in all areas, may it be magic or academia were often plastered in the nobles and in the commoners' area. Ladies back then were always talking about how their dream men were like the duke or the emperor. When they were at school, girls were lining up for them. Some noble ladies even tried to pursue them but failed," Kanri said in a tone as if reminiscing about the past as he filled up Lantana's teacup.
Lantana on the other hand, though she already expected it, she couldn't still help but to be astonished by what she heard.
With Kanri's story, she couldn't help but to think of the usual male leads in the books she once read while looking at the two middle aged men who were still busy chatting with each other.
"Man, those two went from ikemen to hot daddies, huh?" she thought in a dreamy tone, not realizing it escaped from her mouth.
"Pardon?" Kanri said as his eyes widened, uncertain of what his ears had heard.
'Could the weak and innocent daughter of Duke Montgomery say something like hot daddies towards the emperor and her own father? That's impossible,' Kanri thought as he shook his head.
He couldn't understand what ikemen meant though which gave him more reason to dismiss what he previously heard.
As if she was dropped in a pool full of ice, Lantana came back to her senses. Did she just speak what was in her mind?
"Ah. I just thought even now ladies still line up for them, don't they? Especially since my father is wife-less and the emperor still only has one woman in his harem whom he loves so much which is the empress who has a weak body," she uttered in her usual sophisticated tone.
Because of that, books about the love of the emperor to his wife were widely spread across their empire. Even Penelope surprisingly had a lot of books about them which also fueled her delusion of a fairytale-like happy ending.
And how did she know about the state of the palace harem and of the empress? Of course it was because of her servants in the mansion who liked to gossip. There was nothing that the servants did not know.
Even the fact that the empress dowager did not like all the children from the empress and emperor's bloodline.
That the empress dowager was pushing the people from her bloodline to curry favor and to antagonize the emperor because they wanted to take the throne.
But even the current empress did not receive a happily ever after. All because the empress dowager drugged the emperor in his chamber. Which made the first prince a bastard child of the emperor from an unknown maid, which also resulted in him not receiving love since birth.
The maids knew everything that was why even when Penelope was ignorant about the court affairs of her world, Lantana still knew that though in her current world where the eldest sons were always the one automatically expected to succeed their parents, there was still no final decision on who the crown prince would be.
Though he was the first and eldest son born from the emperor's lineage, because of the first prince's low bloodline and unserious attitude, the nobles' opinions were divided.
Most nobles preferred the second son who was born from the love of the emperor and the empress, and was always shown diligently doing his princely role in the court. Most people in the empire knew him as the unprejudiced second prince who always had a big smile on his lips whenever he would help people. Girls tended to flock to him because of his face and vibe that looked like a prince that came out directly from a fairytale book yet also had the halo of a saint who looked as if someone that could not even hit a mosquito.
On the other hand, while everyone was against the illegitimate child whose attitude was trash and whose half blood was from the sewer, a lot of the nobles also thought of supporting him for their namesake. And though he was a trash, trash still had little worth in the junk shop. He would still be a great weapon to strengthen themselves, to fuel their fame and to fatten their pockets more. They could also reduce the power of the emperor, the influence of the empress's family and the intimidation of the empress dowager in one hitting if the one sitting on the throne was someone that they could easily control and manipulate. And most especially, they could get the throne themselves and hail themselves as the most high while the one sitting on the throne himself had no real power—like a puppet. As a result, oppositions always flooded the emperor from both sides without a sign of stopping.
"Lady? What are you thinking so deeply that you didn't even notice that the emperor and the duke were already done talking and looking at you with a smile?" Kanri uttered in a teasing tone while waving his palm in front of Lantana.
She didn't realize that while she was busy thinking about all the drama that the imperial family had, she was already seen by the aide, looking at the portrait of the second prince that was hanging on the hallway—even when she wasn't really staring.
"I wasn't staring at him though? It just happened that while I was getting lost in my thoughts, my gaze ended up in the same direction as the portrait. Anyway, it's not my fault that those portraits of the imperial family were hanging in the hallway where every passerby could see them. What? Is there a policy here saying that no one could stare at the portraits of the imperial family members?" Lantana said defensively as she averted her eyes which only made Kanri chuckle.
"It's all right, my lady. Everyone likes the second prince's face. There is no need to deny that you also got mesmerized by his face," Kanri teased.
"I wasn't really. He's not really my type. I like guys who wouldn't look at me better," she said jokingly while pertaining to Penelope's ex-fiancé.
Then, she glanced at the next portrait.
However, Kanri noticed all her movements and took everything he heard in his heart.
Kanri was right though. The second prince had a beautiful face that looked like a boy-next-door type with dark brown hair in a clean cut style and a pair of blue eyes. However, though he was pleasing to the eyes, she wasn't interested because he was not part of the ikemen type that she liked. He couldn't even surpass Siegrain's face, how could she have liked him?
And if she were to choose, she'd definitely choose the guy in the portrait beside the second prince. Not only because he looked good with his long purple hair in an updo, he looked smoking hot in his portrait too! His lips were curved in a smirk while his tongue was out on the side of his lips. His hand with protruding veins was also brushed against his hair! He looked totally like her type! The kind of guy who looked like a walking red flag who wouldn't probably treat anyone right yet she'd still desire! That kind of ikemen! Because that type of guy was also the kind of guy who would end up obsessing towards his beloved. That was the kind of guy she always loved in all the mangas and manhwas that she had read.
Well… As long as it wasn't cheating, she could tolerate all the red flags. Perhaps she could change him?
Lantana almost slapped herself because of all her thoughts. Too much daydreaming.
That kind of man came from the imperial family. Though she was a duke's daughter, he was still untouchable. And even if he was, she might not even consider him because of the complexity of the imperial harem. She wanted no drama in her new life. All she wanted was to live more relaxed than the past. Why would she put the poison in her mouth on her own after knowing that the palace was nothing but a den of poisonous snakes?
"My dear daughter, it's time to go," she heard her father say as she felt a tap on her shoulder.