After the whole becoming friends with the Hillington children, a little bit to change but not much with Annebel's daily routine. Every two or three days the children would visit the palace. That had been going on for about two weeks now and she didn't know if she felt annoyed or indifferent to them. But she did notice a few things about them…
The first had been Charlie, it appeared that he inherited his father's wisdom just by looking at the pile of difficult books he had on both sides of him. Every time he came to the palace he would anyways go to the library and bring back piles of he always brought back to the playroom, which Annebel knew about but never really cared.
Diana on the other hand... The girl couldn't help but looked over to the child that was on the ground playing with a doll house, or more like a castle. She was more interested in the piles of toys and such. Today it was dolls that appeared to resemble all the different races, in a ballroom dancing. The girl acted exactly how she looked, but she was 30 years old or something.
Dragonoirs have a long life, similar to elves but they only have large growth periods during something called the Awakening. All Dragonoir's go through three of them, the first it when their around 50-100 years old, they then take on the appearance and personality of a child between 10-13. The second one comes about 50-100 years later and they become a teen, then again 50-100 years pass and they become an adult. After that, Dragonoirs will age in appearance. All the awakening depend upon the strength of the Dragon Blood and Blessing they have, which is determined by their shade of yellow their eyes have. For those that have stronger Dragon Blood and Blessing they awaken almost as soon as the age comes. Those with lesser Dragon Blood and Blessing its a lot later.
It means that Diana still has a few decades before she goes through her first awakening. Unlike Charlie who has already had his last year.
Annebel had spent most of the time she spent with the siblings observing them. She had glanced back to Charlie who seemed to have glanced towards his sister. She couldn't help but notice the gentle smile that came across his face. The moment she saw this, something felt off about him. In the book he was supposed to be cold towards people. He had never once smiled and his eyes always appeared to be lifeless. But clearly that was not the case for the boy before her. His current personality and the one in the book were completely opposite of one another.
It was a little bit after lunch, Annebel and the Hillington siblings had lunch together and they were now walking through the Summer garden. Diana was running around laughing with excitement as she normally did while Annebel and Charlie where walking with the two maids and knights, other then Rose and Kent while the other two where from the Hillington house.
The two were watching the young childish Diana, not talking. Not hat Annebel really cared about talking and there was something that was on her mind since meeting the siblings. She couldn't help but think that something was off to her and this had been the Duke...Stephen Hillington. Her memories were still jumbled about the small details of the book but Annabel felt that the name 'Stephen' wasn't right.
As she was deep in thought, trying to remember. "Ah! It's Dandan!" Diana's excited voiced pulled her away from them and the moment she turned in the direction the little girl was looking in, a tall man with a lean muscular build man appeared out of nowhere.
"Greeting to the star of the empire, Princess Cassandra." Her entire demean had shifted looking at the person who had greeted her and began to lift himself up. They were unnatural pale complexion that gave of an unhealthy and sickly feeling. He had curly black hair and sharp, almond-shaped eyes. His irises were cat-like in appearance and were a lemon yellow color. This had been the first time she meet him but she knew him well.
"I am Count Daniel Richfield." Ah... that's right. Why didn't she remember the core of his personality? The core... the betrayal that caused the death of his entire family before his eyes. Count Daniel Richfield... No, Duke Daniel Hillington.
Count Daniel Richfield was the younger cousin of Duke Stephen Hillington who was born from the older brother of the previous Duke. However, the older brother was not of the legal wife but the son belonging to Countess Richfield at that time. It was an open secret that the Countess was sleeping with the Duke, despite both being married. The Count and Countess had been married for five years and had yet to have a child, while others were already have their third or fourth child. It was only after Countess Richfield became pregnant after sleeping with the Duke for less then six months that she realised that Count Richfield was infertile. It didn't take long for the former Count to know that his daughter's child was that of Duke Hillington, however, it did not matter to him because it meant that someone will continue to carry on the family name, while at the same time would create a chain to the Hillington family as well. The truth was that the Count was a son-in-law, he had a thin blood line to the Richfield and no power to speak of.
However, everything began changing after the former Count had died due to an illness. The Count had only been the puppet of his father-in-law for all those years began to gain control of the family. But there was still his wife, the Countess who still held the most power over the servants and vessels. Eventually the day for the baby to arrive came and the Countess went into labor. But sadly there was complications and she died after giving birth the Daniel's father. It left the infant alone with the Count that despised the blood running through his veins. He tried to give the child to his birth father but the Duke only laugh saying that he only slept with the Countess for fun and didn't care for the child. It was also due to the fact that the Duchess was with child herself.
The Count hated the baby born from his unfaithful wife, not because she betrayed him but because she treated him like a dog. It only got worse after she became pregnant. However, as the Count was unable to have children his only chose was to keep the child and turn him into a puppet just like his father-in-law did to him. He began removing all those that mocked and belittled him one by one, from the servants to the vessels and eventually took over the family. Those that replaced them turned a blind eye to the Count's constant abuse of the child and never helped him. If there was ever a servant that treated the child kindly they were beaten as punishment and kicked out.
Years passed by and the child had grown into a lifeless being that did everything he was told to do in fear of being beaten. However, that changed when one day he overheard the conversation of the vessels. They were talking about the truth behind his birth and how the Duke of Hillington was his real father. It seemed like a light of hope appeared in the boy's eyes and with it he took off to where the Duke lived in the Capital. He didn't hear the fact the Duke didn't want him, so he had assumed that the Duke did not know of his existence. He knew that he wouldn't become the Duke because of the law.
The laws of inheritance stated that only the children of the legal wife were entitled. In other words the only way an illegitimate child were to inherit anything was if the legal wife adopted them. However, this rarely happened as the only time it did was because the wife was unable to bare a child of her own and planned for another woman to conceive the child instead.
It meant that Daniel's father would never become the Duke... unless there was no direct lines left. However, that was something that he didn't care about. In his mind the Duke had loved his mother so much that despite being married they were together. But he soon realised the reality of things when he stood before the Duke, smiling as he informed him that he was the child of him and the late Countess of Richfield. 'Oh... you're that child.' He could see the indifference in the Duke's eyes, it was clear that he had no feels for the child standing before him. However, that all changed when the children of his wife came running to him. Daniel's father saw that the Duke didn't see him as his blood but more like a bug that appeared from nowhere. When the children asked about him, the Duke just said that he was some lost child and there was nothing for them to worry about, before leaving him all alone.
In that moment, it was like something inside of him just snapped and his blood began to boil at the sight of the happy family walking away in the distance. A family which was also his... No, it should have been his. He realised that his boiling feeling was hatred. Hatred towards the Count that took his frustrations and anger out on him. hatred towards the servants and vessels that ignored him. He came to hate the Duke that rejected him and ignored his existence. But most of all, he hated how his half siblings were given everything that should have rightfully been his... With hatred running through him, the older brother wanted to take everything that he believed should have been his. and that hatred was forced onto his own children creating Daniel to later on killed and his family.
All but Charlie that was, he was saved by the leader of the largest underground information guild on the continent and later on became the leader himself. He used the guild to find out that it was Daniel who planned his family's death in order to take the position of Duke. His target had been set to take back everything that was taken from him and get revenge for his family.
Annabel seemed to be beating herself up at the fact that she only just remembered this, now laying on her bed alone. The Count had taken the Hillington siblings home. She thought it had been strange that the Duke's name seemed different than what she remembered, it was because Duke Stephen Hillington and his family were still alive. Duke Stephen had only been mentioned and never appeared in the book, nor had the duchess and Diana. In fact Diana's name was never mentioned at all, only 'my little sister'.
Annabel had pulled out one of the note book she asked for a few weeks ago and began to write in everything she knew of Duke and his family's death and how Charlie found out. At least that was but she hand stopped before she touched the paper. "What will I do with this information?" She questioned herself, as there wouldn't be a point in having it unless she planned to stop it since the world was going to end anyway.