The cognate Empress

Chapter 10. A perfect engineered doll

In the guest quarters of the Royal Palace

"Where is Aleph?" Primrose asked her personal maid, as she sat on the couch, looking through the large window towards the roses filled garden. Ironically, though her name was Primrose, she very much disliked roses, black ones even less. Perhaps because of this reason or it might have been due to Aleph's earlier reaction, but her tone seemed capable of cutting a person in half, though her voice still retained her usual softness.

"He is still inside the throne room with the other heirs. Her highness has not finished speaking with them." The young woman immediately answered with her head bowed.

Pouting her lips displeased, as her hands were tightly clenched inside her long sleeves, Primrose sighed a bit, but did not verbally express her anger more than this. Inside the palace, everything she were to say must be very well thought of.

"Do not worry, lady Primrose. He is sure to come see you as soon as he can. The prince always has your wellbeing inside his heart." The maid also did not speak openly with her, but her words were enough for Primrose to settle down.

After all, she was the one he had saved earlier. He only returned to the empress because he had to maintain his public manners, not because he cared about her. His first instincts were towards her, that enough for now. With such thoughts in mind, Primrose's face finally showed a gentle smile.

In the throne room of the Royal Palace

The long black nails knocking slightly against the golden frame of the armchair resounded  clearly in the quiet hall, as the slow tapping of the empress's fingers were the only sounds that could be heard in the absolute silence.

The largest room in the whole palace, the throne room, was filled to the brim with people, but who would dare utter a word in the cognate empress's presence? Especially after seeing the first display of power from the second ruler to possess the black color.

There was not one person in that hall who had not learned of how the first empress had managed to achieve her conquests, not one person who had not learned of what happened to those who opposed her and their gruesome fate.

Associating the personality induced by the black power of the first empress with the current wielder of the same colored power, naturally made the people wary of Nova.

As for the appearance of the two empresses, and the resemblance between them...

Even though there existed a portrait of the first empress displayed in the same throne room they were in now, the original one had unfortunately been lost, with her current hologram being only a representation based on the records of what she might have looked like... still the two were far apart.

If one were to look at the ruler sitting on the throne and then to the hologram of the first empress, comparing them to one another... The etheric beauty who was currently tapping her fingers rhythmically on the cold metal, seemed nothing like how the history described the first empress.

Even in an idealized portrait, the first empress seemed fiercer and crueler, with these traits overshadowing completely her beauty. As opposed to her... Nova, with her perfectly sculpted small face, with the long dark hair that framed it, and her small slender body, somehow succeeded in complementing the coldness and ruthlessness she exuded, toning down a notch her unapproachable nature to only a cold beauty, rather than a cold tyrant.

But the black colored vines and the remembrance of how easy she had managed to subdue the pterodactyl, would not allow the people to judge her based on her appearance alone. After all, the particular aspects of the personality that came with the black color were seeded deep within their minds.