"What did you just say?"
"The empress changed our wedding venue to the Eclipse temple," Albert sighs after drinking his tea.
"AFTER ALL OUR HARD WORK???" I blink at him. "WHY THE TEMPLE??"
"I heard they're going to try and check if your hair is real,"
"Please no," I groan. "I've gotten enough gossip about my hair for the past month."
After my debutante, rumors of me being a cursed child spread through the nobility. Highlights are considered impossible since hair can not be dyed, and since I have highlighted hair, it's strange. Some people are calling me a witch, others are calling me that weird new girl. Lady Magellan seems to want me to attend her tea parties when my parents had already announced that I would be doing everything in my power to become a good duke.
"Why can't you tell people that you are a blessed of the sun and the moon?" Albert's brows raise in confusion.
"Well Albie," I grit my teeth and Albert rolls his eyes. "Remember the greed of the noblemen these days? If I were to tell everyone I'm blessed by both, the kidnapping and threats would come pouring in. I'm not putting any of my family in a position like that."
"So who knows so far?" Albert stares at me.
"You," I smile. "The crown prince of Phoenicia is suspicious of me, and Felix knows that the sun intervened with my blessing from the moon."
Albert hums. "What about the family?"
"None of the maids are allowed to speak on the matter. There is a spell that prevents them from speaking about things that I keep a secret."
"I see. Has the duchy always been this way?"
"Well if you consider that our maids are paid and treated incredibly well other than the magic spells, most of them are happy to serve us," I hum. "We serve the commoners so many of the maids take the excess food that we can't consume to the people."
"No wonder you live on the border of the nobility and common folk," Albert stares outside my window into the town. "Feeding them and not getting paid in return isn't good for you, you know?"
"I do," I smile. "But trust matters more. Each emperor has to kill his unsigned siblings to get to the throne. Have you ever noticed... that the Villarreal duchy aids them, but never accepts any of them into our servants?"
Albert's eyes widen. "You..."
"We send them to the other nobility and then gain information," I hum.
Albert stares at me in awe. "Then... how come you haven't taken the throne?"
"Does my mom, my dad, and I look like people who care about the throne?" I deadpan. "But of course, we ourselves as a duchy have been here for longer than the empire."
"The only duchy that wasn't destroyed by the first emperor," Albert remembers. "Apparently Prince Terence tried sending your family a marriage proposal but was turned down."
"Speaking of Prince Terence, who has been seeing? I heard he finally found himself a lover," I ask.
"He's been seeing Lady Bria," Albert sips on his tea.
"How lovely..." I mumble.
"Shouldn't you be elated? He's dating your best friend," Albert raises a brow.
"My best friend who loves to one-up me," I smile. I take a sip of my tea. "I'm marrying the fifth prince, so she's marrying the first prince."
"Does she want to become empress?"
"Yes," I hum and place my teacup down. "But I have my money on another prince."
"I heard rumors that you're marrying me so that I can become emperor," Albert glares at me.
"Pfft," I snicker. "I have no interest in becoming empress. I am simply helping you establish your position as a future duke and prince of the empire. Besides, if I cared about being empress then I wouldn't be divorcing you in four years."
Albert hums. "You keep speaking as if I need help. Did something happen?"
"In five years..." I hum. "We'll see. I'll tell you when the time comes."
"Did you receive an oracle?" Albert pours us some more tea.
"No," I hum. "But I was delivered a lucid dream by the moon."
I lied. Lucid dreams were like prophecies in this world since I never had a lucid dream in real life. Also, I can't just tell him that I'm the author of this entire universe!! ARGH why did I decided to get married again???
"A lucid dream..." The male smiles at me. "Will you tell me about it after we get married?"
I hum. "Of course."
That was a lie. But ignoring that last statement, I almost felt bad for marrying this man. He did have someone predestined for him anyway.
"While we're on the topic of lucid dreaming," He mumbles. "The other day I had a lucid one too. It showed that I was going to die soon..."
What. That wasn't part of the original story-
My face drains of color and Albert laughs slightly. "Sorry, I wanted to joke with you."
"YOU SCARED ME," I whine.
"Am I that important to your plan?" Albert leans onto his hand and smirks.
"I don't technically need to marry you," I match his energy with a copy of his smirk. "I felt bad for what happened to you in the dream."
Albert laughs lightly. "That I died?"
"That you became immobile after a fight," I smile. "At least you met the love of your life after that."
Albert freezes at my statement. "The love... of my life?"
"Golden hair, purple eyes... she fell in love with you after meeting you before the battle," I smile. "She's so kind..."
"How lucid was this dream?"
"It was 12 years cramped into a dream that felt like eternity." I sigh. "So after the four years, I will be living my life as a forest witch."
"Witch??"
"With my highlighted hair and my blessings," I hold my hands up with tears in the corner of my eyes. I can hear the choir of angels around me. Albert stares at me in disgust.
"Regardless." I smile. "It's just four years and then the memory's wiped."
Albert sighs again. "Alright."
"Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?"
"Ah." Albert gasps. "Iyla wanted to be the flower girl at our wedding,"
"Of course!" I gasp in delight. "But she's a royal... aren't royals usually sitting in the front?"
"She wants to throw flowers for the wedding and then join the front," Albert smiles. "She already talked to me about it. She seems to really like you."
I smile. "Children are delicate creatures,"
Albert raises a brow but doesn't question it.