Requiem

future| 13 - Naoto

"D-Du— Duchess!" The petite apprentice stuttered. From the way she shifted her weight from the balls of her foot, and the way she would shyly look up to her, before turning away, she was obviously flustered. Dhalia always had that uncanny effect to intimidate other people.

"You're Marie, right?— Tristan's apprentice," Dhalia smiled, placating the young girl. They were not in a castle, in court and this was certainly not Cobalt Castle. She was no longer princess or a duchess, so she thinks there's no need for formalities now.

"I- The keeper sent me to give these to you," she thrusted a box, probably filled with clothes from the light weight. "I got them from the boutique you used to visit! I- I don't know if it would suit your tastes though." She was twiddling with her thumbs, looking away. Honestly, Dhalia doesn't know why she is worried. If this was her life before, when she had to keep up appearances then Dhalia would make sure that she is impeccably dressed. Anything less than perfect would implicate the house she represents and as a Di Carita, King Auguste would not tolerate it if his daughter looked even a bit ruffled. But that was her life before, and Dhalia does not remember terrorizing her maids and assistants before so really, there was no need for this child to be so nervous.

"Thank you, Marie." Dhalia was about to back away, but Marie was staring at her as if she has something she wants to say.

"Uhm, if you're going to Tarin, you absolutely should watch Lacuna!"

"Lacuna?"

"It's my favorite play. I- I hope you'd like it your highness!" She bowed, before speeding off and rounding to the next corridor.

Lacuna. Is that what teenagers watch these days? She'd make sure to remember it, and recommend to Tristan later if they have time.

....
See, Dhalia had never been one to spend extravagantly, be it on her clothes, jewelry or shoes. But, secretly she does splurge on her perfume. Naoto is her favorite brand of foreign perfume. She even named her own son Naoto because of her love for that perfume. It was also the brand her cousin Ilya gifted her, carrying a fresh scent unique to Rinada, where her ancestral roots from her mother's side lay. Bottomline, Dhalia really liked the brand Naoto and she could sniff that perfume on anyone.

But.

As she was spraying on her wrist right now— why can't she smell anything? Once, twice— there was still no scent. The room should be wafting with the scent of blooming flowers right now.

"Naoto right?" Tristan suddenly appeared behind her, carrying a coat, which he offered to her. "That scent always reminded me of you."

You... could smell it? She almost wanted to ask, but she held back, noticing that something felt.. wrong. "How did you know?"

"My heir is literally named after that brand Dhalia, of course I'd know," That awkward moment when your husband realized that you named his son after a foreign perfume. "It smells like a flower field in here."

Is that his passive aggressive (polite) way of saying that she sprayed a bit too much?

She doesn't have a cold, so for sure she should smell it but......

It was at that moment, Dhalia realized that her time here, must be shorter than she thought.

"Oh, Dhalia, wear your hood over your head when we get to Tarin. It would be better if we don't get recognized." His eyes were narrowed lightly, lips set in a straight line.

"Alright," She nodded, understanding that he would not like to elaborate further. "If we have time, let's watch Lacuna too."

"W-What?!" His eyes were blown wide, and the tips of his ears were turning red.

Now what's with that reaction?

Did Marie recommend a play with a scandalous plot ?

She looked way too innocent to do that.

So it might be a tooth-decaying romance play then.

"It's—" Tristan looked away, eyes frosting over. She knows that look, when he wants to drop the topic. And she probably wouldn't get further explanation from him.

"It's alright. You don't have to explain if you don't want to."

"When the historians recorded the revolution.... the playwrights became interested in...." He looked really uncomfortable, and Dhalia was enjoying his reaction. "..... the Arseni couple."

"Oh," She blinked. It seemed as if they were talking about other people entirely, characters of history and not themselves. Maybe that's what death does to you. Dhalia felt so detached with the chains that used to keep her down before. "Seeing your reaction... they probably exaggerated huh?"

"Another thing, when you stole King Auguste's mana, did you use the stardust seal with Meltune?" The stardust seal was one of the techniques she could do with Meltune to steal mana, but King Auguste is too strong for that.

"No. I didn't use the stardust," She shook her head. "It's the black void seal. When I got the mana out of him, I gave it to Nao." See, the thing with the Di Carita line is that they transfer their mana to their successor. King Auguste was absurdly powerful because he was holding centuries worth of mana from all the previous Seoris kings passed down to him. He was undefeated throughout his reign, until Dhalia zapped that coveted mana out of him with the price of her life force.

"Black void seal?"

"It's something I invented. I always knew that if worse comes to worst, I have to find a way to steal his coveted mana from him," She shrugged. "See if I used stardust, I won't be able to steal his mana and weaken him. Why did you ask?"

Plus, the only way that Dhalia even managed to use the black void on King Auguste was that she caught him by surprise. See Dhalia disappointed him big time twice in her life. First when she was born a woman and not a son. Second would be that she was a woman and she can't even use the oh-so-important Di Carita summoning magic. In the eyes of her father, Dhalia was a complete and utter failure the moment she was brought in to this world.

Jokes on him. Eventually Dhalia managed to summon but she kept that from him. That was around the time that Dhalia swore she would kill King Auguste even if she had to die trying. Her magic, the magic of the Di Carita Line would be the one that would bring that tyrant king's downfall.

It was common knowledge that if Dhalia had used stardust, her body would perish but she would one day materialize in the world again. Another weird Di Carita thing again, she had an ancestor who once sealed off a Forest Monster using stardust seal. That same ancestor perished, but came back to the world again after a few years, to the surprise of many historians and the absolute joy of playwrights and novel writers, as that sparked a fuel of inspiration for the next centuries.

"Ah!" She felt a lightning bolt moment of clarity. When she found Tristan in front of Carthia Cathedral, he had been so wary of her and even went as far as to throw her in the dungeons and interrogate her.

"You see, everyone was under the impression that you used the stardust seal. I've had women throw themselves at me, pretending to be you."

"I'm... sorry for that. But don't worry, I won't come back. And I'm not going to be here for long anyway."

Her time was ticking.

She turned, heading for the door before she even saw his expression.