Enki spent the rest of the day showing Adelinetta around the imperial palace. He enjoyed chatting with the princess. She was smart and treated him as an equal without any prejudice regarding his birth.
Finally, after escorting Adelinetta to her room Enki returned to his own chambers, completely exhausted. The day had truly been tiring. First, he had to deal with his protesting half-siblings and then with the damn Empress.
He felt slightly regretful that he had provoked the Empress. While it was inevitable to clash with her, willfully provoking her was not in his best interests. The Empress would surely retaliate.
'I need to find allies. I need to gain a force that the Empress can't easily afford to go against. And I need guards completely loyal to me. I don't trust the palace guards any further than I can throw them.' Enki thought while slowly drifting to sleep.
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"That damn bastard has the gall to go against me in public!? He dares to humiliate me in front of foreign delegates!!!", the Empress screamed within her chamber, throwing a vase at the walls of the luxuriously decorated room.
"Please calm down your imperial majesty.", soothed the captain of the Empress Anastasia's personal guards. He had been guarding the Empress ever since she was a little girl in the ducal house of Lapius.
"I want him to pay for this. I want him to know that I can take away everything he holds dear.", Anastasia seethed.
"Can we get to his sister? Losing her would probably make him crumble.", Anastasia asked with an evil glint in her eyes.
"She is staying within the Barca mansion and barely goes outside and she is always heavily guarded. It will be impossible to assassinate her.", the guard captain replied.
"Can't an assassin sneak in to the Barca mansion during the night?", Anastasia asked while frowning.
"Uh... dear Empress, the Barca mansion is like a fortress. It's even better guarded than the Imperial Palace, and the Barca family has personally trained their guards and all of them are Warriors of at least the green rank. It's impossible to infiltrate.", the guard captain said with a solemn look. It was just pure foolishness to try to sneak into the Supreme Commander's home.
"Who else does he hold dear? What about his friends from the academy?", Anastasia retorted.
"He spent most of his time with Mago Barca and their two roommates, both of whom left with the Barca boy on the southern campaign. We can't get to them either.", the guard captain explained.
Anastasia was getting frustrated. Why couldn't she manage to lay her hands on anyone the brat held dear? Did she have to let this go without retaliating? No, her pride didn't allow her to do that. She had to get even, she would never be on the losing side.
After pondering for a while, she suddenly remembered the silent beauty that the brat had brought to the throne room with him today. She seemed to be his personal aide, and he trusted her quite a bit. The aide would do for now, before she figured out a way to get to the others. Mago was of course out of the question, only a lunatic would try to touch the Supreme Commander's only son and heir. But the other two boys were a different story as well as the sister.
"Alright, send men to kill the brat's aide. The pretty girl with black hair. I'm sure you know who I mean.", Anastasia ordered.
"Yes, madam. When do you want it done?", the guard captain asked.
"Tonight. I want him to clearly know the price of crossing me.", she snorted, her anger subsiding now that she had a clear target for her revenge.
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Madelein was on her way to her room, which was located a few doors down from Enki's private chambers. It was already late at night; her having been forced to work overtime since the young prince had been fooling around with the foreign princess.
She entered her room, lit up a candle, and massaged her stiff shoulders. Office work truly took its toll on her.
She quickly changed into her nightgown and went to bed. She barely had time to sleep for five hours before the slave-driving prince would force her to work once more. The only comforting thing was that the prince was equally hard on himself as to those who worked under him.
'He truly is a suitable candidate for the throne.' Madelein mused. When she had been first assigned to the prince, she had been filled with prejudice towards the youngest imperial prince. She had pictured a boy either filled with self-pity or with unfounded arrogance, like most of the other imperial children. But the young prince had positively surprised her. He was hard-working and diligent in his duties with a steady while slightly vindictive personality.
Extinguishing the lit candle, Madeline drifted off to sleep. Few minutes passed and several shadows appeared before her door.
They were the men sent by the Empress. They looked at each other before one of them started to pick the lock on the door, barely making a sound, not wanting to alert anyone in their surroundings. After a few attempts, the lock on the door gave a small click and opened. Stealthily, the five men entered the room and surrounded Madelein's bed.
Looking at each other, they gave a small nod and brandished their daggers, and struck down on the bed. But contrary to their expectations, all they hit was a soft feathery mattress.
"So the arrogant bitch of an Empress decided to target me after all?", came an amused voice from behind them. Knowing the Empress' personality, Madelein had been sure that the Empress would try to get ger revenge on Enki. Enki being the crown prince and heavily guarded within the palace and with his sister living in the safest place in the whole Empire, Madelein had figured out that she might become the target of the Empress' anger.
Startled, the men turned around and saw a woman donned in black leather gear standing in front of them with a playful smile on her face, creating a big contrast to her usual cold and expressionless look.
"Well, since all of you came here on your own accord, do entertain me a little.", Madelein said with a sweet smile while shadows gathered around her.
Experienced soldiers as they were, the men, after quickly recovering from their shock, dashed towards Madelein, slashing at her with their daggers. But when their daggers made contact with Madelein, she suddenly dissipated into the shadows, leaving no trace.
Feeling a sudden pain coming from his chest, one of the men looked down and saw a spike made out of shadows, penetrating his chest all the way from his back. Blood spurted out of his mouth and he collapsed on the ground lifeless.
Two other men met similar fates.
"This is it? This is what the most powerful woman within the Empire sent against me? I have to say I'm truly disappointed.", Madelein chuckled.
The two remaining men were covered in a cold sweat. This woman was nothing like what they were told. She was supposed to be a weak scholar working as an aide. Instead, the woman in front of them was clearly an experienced killer.
Seeing the two men just standing there, frozen with shock and fear, Madelein simply gave a small tsk sound and muttered; "Amateurs."
She had been taught since young that no matter the situation; you don't stop or give up as long as you and the opponent are both still breathing. You can have eternal rest once you are dead.
Shaking her head, Madelein summoned two more shadow spikes and pierced the chests of the two men.
"Now, I need to clean this mess up to avoid startling the little princeling, it's not time for him to learn of my prowess just yet. After that I need to give the Empress a little present since she so kindly gifted me these playthings." she tutted.
The shadows within the room started to expand and enveloped the corpses of the five men, and the blood splattered on the ground and walls. After a few moments, the shadow receded, not leaving any trace of the battle, or well, massacre, that just took place.
"Oh. I need a new mattress as well. These bastards completely ruined mine.", Madelein sighed. Work just kept piling up.
'But first, I should go and thank the Empress for sending these playthings. I should pick up a gift on the way' Madelein thought to herself while tapping on her chin with her finger. What would be the perfect present for the Empress, to clearly show her gratitude?
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Within her bedroom, Empress Anastasia woke up, feeling some sort of warm liquid dripping on her face. Frowning, she lit up a candle and looked down. She could see crimson blood smearing her bed and nightgown, and she instantly fumbled to check if she was wounded somewhere. After finding nothing wrong with her body, she gave out a small sigh of relief.
Looking around, she couldn't see anything wrong with the room, which made her further confused. Where did the blood come from?
Finally, she looked up and momentarily froze.
Above the bed from the ceiling was hanging a severed head. She instantly recognized the face, it was her guard captain, the man who had kept her safe for a few decades already.
Seeing the head, Anastasia couldn't help but let out a scream, alerting the guards and maids outside her bedroom. They instantly rushed in and were shocked to see a blood-soaked Empress standing in her nightgown while staring at a severed head hanging down from the ceiling.
What none of them noticed were a pair of dark eyes looking at them, slightly smirking from the shadows.