Chapter 76: The Crown's purge.

Chapter 76: The Crown's purge.

"You look wonderful, Princess. I’m sure that Young Master Woodime won’t be able to take his eyes off of you."

The maid couldn’t stop praising as she worked, wrapping up Abigail’s hair to accentuate her curls. Another maid was working on her fingernails while a third was working on her toenails, putting their all into elevating the Princess’ natural beauty.

"I think today it would be best if we go with gold for the nails, I believe it would look stunning with your dress."

"The toenails, Princess, should we do something special with them? Just in case Young Master Woodime ends up seeing them."

The investiture was mere hours away, it was a prominent and highly public event so the maids were naturally eager to see their princess show off. Nothing had been spared, they had brought out all the jewelry they could find and made sure that her dress was beyond perfect. They were sure, this ceremony was the perfect place for the Young Master to ask for the Princess’ hand in marriage. But their Princess...

"Hmm..."

Abigail stared at the mirror in front of her, her amber eyes murky and unfocused as she sat there rather absentmindedly. There was a wrinkle between her eyes, her make-up shifting slightly because of how her brows kept lowering. After a few minutes of silence, a long breath escaped her.

"Sorry, but I need some time. Can we call a time-out?"

She tapped her fingers against her palm to form a T-shape with her hands, an unconvincing smile hanging on her face. But whatever the maids thought of it, they were but servants so they had to follow her orders.

"Naturally, Princess. We will be awaiting your orders outside, please call upon us if you need even the smallest thing."

With the maids taking their leave, only Abigail was left in the room, her eyes closing as she tried to think. She felt like she could hear her breathing echo around her as her ears rang. Sirens. The scraping of metal. The trickling of oil. The roars of fire and the suffocating scent of smoke.

Her eyes opened again. She was nervous, stressed, so it was becoming increasingly hard to hold herself together while properly wearing her mask.

"Caine..."

The word fell from her lips almost unconsciously, her hands ruffling through her hair and messing up the work of the maids. She hadn’t been able to speak with Caine ever since he left for the northern lands. He was supposed to come by after checking on the seal, but he was called back to the Woodime family due to the incident with the sealed claw.

"I just want some damn peace..."

The words just slipped out as she kept ruffling and tugging at her hair. Kaisel was out checking something so she didn’t have to think about anyone else seeing her for the first time in a while, resulting in one of her old habits slipping out.

Things were going wrong. Sure, she was changing things to alter the flow of events, but all those things were small so as to not upset the balance. But the beast in the north ended up being contained in more seals than just one, and one of those seals was even breached by Alice. The beast was defeated and sealed, by someone other than Azuras thankfully, but just the fact that the beast was released should never have happened.

At this point in time, Alice shouldn’t know about her affinities. It was information that carried too much weight, it was not something the balance should be able to bear if it got shared too early. And yet, Alice knew of at least three of her affinities.

Alice knew too much, she acted too differently, her servant was too strong, she acquired things she wasn’t supposed to... Things were spiralling out of control, and Alice served as the centre of it all.

They had yet to find Azuras so it could only be him. But how? And why? What made his memories return early? And why was he using Alice as a conduit? Was he trying to weaken them before he made his move? Was he prodding their capabilities because he was unsure about how they controlled time?

She didn’t know, and it was wearing away at her mind.

"Let me guess, the Duke has already contacted you, yeah? Probably talked about publicly recognising you as someone who can compete for the seat of heir? I told you all those years ago, didn’t I? You can win over Marion and the Duke by growing up well. I wasn’t wrong, was I?"

Abigail twirled the glass of champagne as she spoke. She wanted to drink it. She wanted to down it in a single gulp and then get to the next one. But she couldn’t. Too many eyes. One would have to do for now.

"You weren’t wrong, Abby. He called me in for a meeting the moment I came back from the north. I was useful now so he would stop ignoring me."

Alice flashed her a smile, clanking her own glass of champagne against Abigail’s before placing it against her lips. Abigail had an excuse now so she raised her glass and took a sip, keeping it to a normal one this time. She seemed to be tasting the alcohol for a moment, chewing on her words before she started to talk.

"So what happened up there, Ally, in the no..."

Her words were cut off before she could finish them, the announcer cutting through all the buzz again.

"Now announcing the arrival of Ser Gabriel!"

The hall fell silent again, Abigail swallowing her question. The second main character of the investiture had arrived, someone with two affinities on the Divine Star. He was the one everyone in the empire was most curious about so all gazes focused on the doors as they were pushed open.

The first thing everyone noticed as the doors opened was a heavy sensation. It hit them before his appearance, a weight on their shoulders that almost made it hard to breathe, a chill that lined the inside of their stomach.

Gabriel stood beyond the doors, now wide open. Violet eyes that swept through the room with a cold and calm gaze and silver-white hair that had been swept back neatly with only a few errant strands arching forward. A sword was strapped to his waist and one of his hands was resting on the handle, only adding to the heavy sensation that pressed down on the room.

He was clad in the suit that Trisha had helped him pick out for the occasion. Tight-fitting white pants and black boots that almost went all the way up to his knees and a crimson jacket with three golden buckles on abdomen. A black leather belt ran around his waist at a slight angle, encroaching on his abdomen. Most of the jacket was red, but the parts on the side, from his waist to his armpits, were black.

He had a long red cape on his back, but the inside of the cape was a dark violet colour that would occasionally be visible as he moved. Other than that, he also had a black half-cape on his right shoulder, a dense line of white fur running along the section closest to his neck. The half-cape had several thin braids of violet silk stretching out from it, connecting it to a black lace rose that served as the only decoration on the left side of his chest.

The hall was silent. Gabriel followed Trisha’s advice as he stood there and let a bit of his magic leak out. He had to stand out. For today, he had to be the centre of everyones attention. He didn’t retract any of his aura and started to walk. Slowly. Quietly. Calmly.

He felt their gazes. They lingered on him, unable to leave him. He drew their attention with his aura, his demeanour, he stole their breath with his heavy mana. At this moment, even the most foolish people present would understand the same thing. This was a warrior, forged in blood and death.

He kept walking, a hundred gazes following his every step. The hall was silent, as if people didn’t even dare to breath lest the heavy sensation fill their chests. His footsteps didn’t make a sound thanks to the carpet, yet it felt as if each one hammered against the ears of those present.

He saw her in front of him. Alice. It felt like ages since he had last seen her, lifetimes almost. She was stunning, a dark rose that rose all on her own. She broke through all the other colours in the hall with ease, everything he saw was simply dyed by her very presence.

Red and black, her dress was actually very familiar. When they were kids, before they had their magic affinity officially tested, he had once picked out a similar dress for her. But this time... This time she had gone above and beyond with it. She was stunning. He made it hard for those present to breathe, but he felt unable to take a single breath as he looked at her.

The Crown Princess was also there, but he barely even registered her agape expression and slightly pale skin. No, all he saw was red, black, and violet.

His legs stopped in front of Alice. He had to tilt his head down slightly to look at her. She looked up at him, and in her eyes he saw only himself, dyed completely in her crimson. Currently, he was a commoner while she was a noble, etiquette dictated that he knelt to greet her.

But he just bent his waist somewhat, a hand reaching out to hold hers. He raised her hand while lowering his head, planting a light kiss just below her knuckles, just as he had when they first met all those years ago.

"My Lady. Alice. I’ve come for you."