Chapter 97 - Maddie's Unexpected Encounter

Maddie smiled at the morning breeze. It had been a painstakingly eventful journey for her. Madielyn was a maid in the palace but was hired by the Feuerlons for bigger pay. She doesn't exactly remember the details (oddly enough); her memories of the palace were vague. And even vaguer, is that how she felt she knew the Duchess' daughter, Faustina, for almost all her life. She had the familiar feeling to her—yet it felt strange how this girl was also foreign to her. It was a feeling Maddie felt when Faustina Feuerlon woke up and received the letter of admission to the academy—only if she could pass the test. She was a sickly lady, a premature baby as all the servants had said, and an outrageously short child for her age. The girl was sixteen, and because of her declining health, her stature took quite a downturn.

Faustina was a child who Maddie had known only when she turned a teenager. The memories were awfully clear as day, and some vague as rippling water. Servants claimed to not have the same sentiments since they witnessed Faustina's birth. But for Maddie there were inconsistencies. She was once a maid in the palace, and for some reason, she could remember tending a lady—and she felt it was Faustina. It felt as if it was her. Of course, this cannot be. Faustina Feuerlon was the sick, hidden daughter of the dukedom. She was ridiculously hidden. But then Maddie remembered—she wasn't exactly hidden; it's like an open secret that everyone forgot. One look at her long, ash-grey hair and chocolate-brown eyes, one would instantaneously know this was the daughter of the Feuerlons.

For Maddie, only such things would be able to exist with the help of sorcery.

Her master, Lucas Feuerlon, left an order before they left the manor. He said that she had to find a new place to stay—a new inn for them to stay in! Maddie did not, of course, understand such rash decisions. Feuer Manor was the best inn they could spend their night with. It's the number one destination of nobles when they need a place to stay in the capital—and booking was done usually a month before, because the manor was, apparently, always at its capacity.

Baron Francois Jeune was a man with charms and smarts. He often teased people, without much truth laced nor supporting claims on whatever he decides to spread—there were zero times Maddie and Lucas went to the manor together, yet he fancied to associate them with such a relationship. For Maddie it was embarrassing, and sometimes she wondered if Lucas felt ashamed, or disgusted by it.

There were numerous choices of inns with a lot of good reviews around the capital. Like the Palazzo, or competing inns like the Feuersturm Dragon. They were the inns that would suit the nobles. Maddie decided to go to Feuersturm Dragon first, but then they were already at full capacity. She decided to head to Palazzo right after the failed attempt to book.

As she reached the lobby to inquire, she heard a mumble.

"Ah! I hate her." Says a voice. "How could she embarrass me in front of Ezekiel? That… wench!"

"Oh, Lady Lili… that girl's vileness would ruin her reputation!" says a servant as she chuckles along with the others. They seemed to be the lady-in-waiting of the girl.

"Let them hear it. Let them hear how that uncivilized Feuerlon girl shamed me!"

Maddie blinked and turned towards the source of the voice. Her eyes widened as she remembered who it is.

. . .

Faustina fidgeted, looking around anxiously about her surroundings. Unlike the festive and loud noises outside brimming with joyful peals of laughter and music outside, Feuer Chateau had a mellower, elegant atmosphere. A beautiful piano and violin playing in the background, nobility with beautiful dresses bombarded with frills chitchatting as if they were in a banquet, and a food that looked more like art rather than a piece of treat.

These things brought Faustina to immediate anxiety.

"Eat anything you like, sister." Says Lucas. "Treat yourself tonight! Let's have a feast. Today is the start of the End, after all. Such banquet only comes once in a week."

Faustina nodded.

"I'll be going for a while, alright? I have things to attend to here." Lucas exclaims, "Eat to your heart's content. You too, Maddie."

"Y-yes, young master."

And then, as Faustina watched Lucas go, she smiled.

"You like Lucas Feur—er, my brother, don't you?" Faustina grins. "Maddie."

"N-n-n-no! You g-got it all wrong, M'lady!"

Faustina giggled momentarily, only to be stopped short by a pat on her shoulder. She turned around who did so, and then her eyes met that of a young woman with large, yellow curls accompanied by other women who were smiling. The young woman smiled sweetly right at her.

"Might I inquire, is the one standing before me Lucas Feuerlon's sister?"

Faustina blinked, and then bowed gracefully, thanking Lovellia on the back of her mind. The lessons clearly paid off by her dashing bow.

"Before you stand Faustina Feuerlon," says Faustina. "I believe we have never met?"

"Oh!" The woman smiles. "Of course we haven't. I do not have the slightest to be an acquaintance with a bastard."

"H-huh?"

The women behind her giggled, covering their lips slightly. "Oh, you jest, Lilliane."

"M'lady..." Maddie mumbles, clearly uncomfortably surprised.

"Might I inquire once again," says the young woman named Lilliane. "Are you the illegitimate child of the Feuerlon household?"

A sweet smile was plastered over the beautiful face of the girl named Lilliane. Her blond hair was complimenting the totality of her appearance, fully clothed as a noble surrounded with luxury. Along with her are also noble ladies sniggering and chuckling softly―their behaviors were so alike, Faustina couldn't distinguish who is whom.

"Oh, did I surprise you?" The girl asks. "I forgot to introduce myself. I am Lilliane Madora Disfiegro."

"Disfiegro..."

"That's right," the noble lady exclaims. "One of the highest nobles in Feuersturm."

"Have you heard of me?" The girl inquired, clearly scanning Faustina.

"I have," Faustina answered, and smiled. "The youngest daughter of the Disfiegro House. Might I ask, what is it that you want from me?"

Lilliane smiled. "Oh, perhaps you are deaf?"

The ladies behind snickered.

"I inquired if you are the Feuerlon bastard."

"M'lady..." Maddie mumbles, looking back and forth at Faustina and Lilliane.

"...I am afraid you're mistaken." Says Faustina, after a brief of pause. "I am indeed a Feuerlon, yet I do not think 'bastard' is a suitable word for someone such as I."

Lilliane's brow twitched, and her smile turned into a smirk.

"Oh, goodness... is she dumb?" Says the noble lady from the back.

"She's talking to Miss Lillie, the next queen!"

"Maybe she doesn't know what a 'bastard' is?"

Covering her lips with her gloved finger, Lilliane chuckled softly. "Oh, dear. It seems like you never attended tea parties due to your 'sickness'... but we were not informed that you were also mentally impaired."

Taunting peals of laughter. Sweet smiles. Innocent faces.

Devious nobles.

Faustina faked a sweet smile. "My health is on the decline for a while, and I have been in constant need of medication, yet my education is still provided by the best teachers Feuersturm had to offer." She says softly. "A bastard is an illegitimate child; conceived from an outside party. I am Duke Alphonsus Feuerlon and Duchess Adalia Feuerlon's daughter, therefore I do not call myself as one. PERHAPS, your teacher was so lax, that he or she has forgotten to tell you the differences between offsprings?"

Lilliane blinked, as well as the others; they stood in silence, flabbergasted―clearly thunderstruck with a retort they did not expect. A response that contained wit and taunts.

Faustina did not own everything to Lovellia; she was the apprentice of an unusual witch with many resources―language was one of the things Eula had taught her magnificently. Apart from simple medications and the like Faustina had studied, she also trained in sheer scrutiny under Eula's watch. And if they were right about her master's identity, she was not just under an insignificant witch's care.

She was under the teachings of the best scholar of all time.

Eulalia Fortunatorum.

"Wh-why you..." Lilliane grunted, and then grabbed the flute containing champagne. "Know your place, bastard!"

Faustina closed her eyes as a reflex before she could even react or move. She awaited the splash of the cold champagne into her face. Gasps and murmurs around the Chateau arose and enclosed the entire hall, yet she felt neither the cold splash of alcohol nor the laughter from Lilliane's party.

Instead, there was just a wave of murmurs and a stuttering Lilliane.

"E-Ezekiel!" Lilliane stuttered. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, i-it's a slip of a hand!"

. . .

"What are YOU looking at?" The girl says, raising her brow as she looked at Maddie.

Maddie was staring too long.

The girl slowly walked towards her gracefully, and almost intimidatingly.

"You look familiar." Says the girl. There were servants around her who looked as if Maddie was a bug. They were eyeing her head to toe.

"Oh!" The girl grins. "You're that girl's maid!"

Madielyn sighed internally.

Of all the people she had to encounter… why did it have to be HER?

"I'm Lilliane Disfiegro." Says the girl. "Bow before me, peasant!"