𝕷𝖆𝖉𝖞 𝕶𝖓𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 (𝚆𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚙 𝚡 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛)

Chapter 11

A/n: Honestly, I feel like the story is moving on too fast, so I'll try and slow it down a bit.

You ran to Claude's side. "Felix, Take the emperor to his room. Athanasia, go with Felix." You say. Felix nods and lifts Claude on his back and started running, Athanasia following him. You turn to the maids that were present. "Go call Lucas and tell him to go to the emperor's room immediately." You say. They immediately run to do what you said. You looked at Jeanette and saw that her bracelet had some sort of black aura in it. "Jeanette, who gave you that bracelet?" You ask, even though you knew the answer. "The princess did, why?" She asks. She was trembling. Oh right, She doesn't know Claude isn't her father. "The bracelet is the cause of The emperor's condition." You say and her eyes widen. "W-what? I-I D-didn't-" You cut her off by gently holding her shoulders. "Jeanette, listen. I know you're scared but this could help cure The emperor, so please tell me. Is there anyone other than you and Athanasia who touched the bracelet?" You ask. She takes a deep breath before thinking for a while. "Now that I think about it, Mr. Patterson also touched it before I came here. But, Mr. Patterson is a nice man, so...." She says. "Jeanette, I want you to stay away from that man." You say. "What?" She asks. "We can't rule out the possibility that he was responsible for it." You say. She nods. "Jeanette, I want you to go find Ijekiel and return home, okay? Don't worry about the emperor. And don't tell anyone about his condition, Okay?" You say. She hesitates a bit before nodding. "Good. I'm gonna go see the emperor. bye Jeanette." You say, before running off.

*****   

You barge into Claude's room where Athanasia and Lucas were talking. "Y-Y/n." Athanasia says still a bit wary of you. "Catch." You tell Lucas as you throw the bracelet his way. He catches it and looks at it. His eyes widen. "This..." He says. "Is what made the emperor that way." You complete. Athanasia immediately recognizes it. "That's the bracelet I gave Jeanette!" She exclaims. Lucas looked at her. "I don't think the chimera could've done it. the magic used doesn't match up." He says. "I have a hunch." You say, pulling a chair and sitting down. "Wait, before that, y/n, do you... remember?" Athanasia asks looking at me hopefully. "Ah.. that.." You say before nodding. "I remember." You say. Athanasia sighs in relief. "What's your hunch?" Lucas asks you. "There's this man who's been living in our house. He has an uncanny resemblance to the emperor and he acts suspicious." You say. "You think he id this?" Athanasia says. You nod. "Come to think of it... I saw someone who looked like daddy when me and Jeanette snuck out." She says. "Jeanette said that  only you, her, and that man has seen the bracelet. She didn't bring it out because she was worried the duke would ask where she got it from." You say. Lucas nods. "It's a high chance it is him." He says. "There's something else that's bothering me... He looks way too much like the emperor. What if he's somehow related to him?" You ask. "I thought that too, but I couldn't find anything about the royal family, so..." Athanasia says. "It's just a guess, but, what if he's the previous emperor?" You ask. making both Lucas's and Athanasia's eyes go wide. "That's impossible. Daddy killed him." She says. You shrug. "What if he survived?" You ask. Athanasia looked deep in thought. "Enough about that, You need to rest." Lucas says, trying to break the tense atmosphere. 'Did I reveal too much?' You thought. "Um... Athanasia?" You say, looking down. "Yes?" She asks. "I'm sorry. For everything I said to you while I was still... you know? I didn't mean of any of the things I said, I swear." You say looking back at her. She smiles sadly. "Honestly speaking, I was really hurt. When you suddenly snapped at me like that I got really scared." She says. "I'm sorry..." You say, looking down again. "But it's okay now. I'm glad to know you didn't mean it." She says. You look at her gratefully. She looks at Lucas and you. "I'll leave now.." She says, leaving the room so you and Lucas could talk.

"Lucas, I-" "Save it." Lucas says, cutting you off. "Huh?" you ask. "If you're gonna say, sorry, save it." He says. "Huh? b-but I didn't mean-" "You didn't mean what you said? Even if you lost your memories, There has to be some truth to what you said. " He said, cutting you off. He turned to look at you. His eyes was cold. "If you're trying to say sorry, I don't want to hear it." He says. You felt tears threatening to escape your eyes. "I-" "Leave." He says. One word. It was just one word. But that was enough to break your heart. "I... Um... Okay.. I'll leave now..." You say, your bangs covering your teary eyes as you leave the room. You ran to your room and closed the door. You sat down, Your back against the door. 'I'm so stupid' You thought. You took so long to realize your feelings to the black haired boy. You ignored it until reality hit you along with rejection. You liked Lucas. And it took a curse for you to figure it out. And you ended up hurting your friends in the process. 'I'm so so stupid' you thought again, before letting your tears fall.

*****

"You're going to be the emperor?" Lucas asks. "Not the emperor, the emperor's substitute." Athanasia responds. "Okay, so you'll be the emperor's substitute?" He asks. "Not yet!" She says. "I'm a candidate for the emperor's substitute." She says. "The candidate for the emperor's substitute? What's that?" Lucas asks. Athanasia holds her head in annoyance. "Agh! N/n, can you please explain it to him?" Athy asks, snapping you out of your daze. "Ah... explain what, again?" You ask. Even though you tried to hide it, Athanasia noticed it. You looked tired. Your eyes were a bit puffy as if you cried. "The candidate for the emperor's substitute." She repeated. "Ah. She will be the emperor's substitute, but it hasn't been approved yet. The council will have to approve it first." You say. Athanasia nods. "Although it's only formality.." She says. "By the council, you mean the heads of the noble family, right? What right do they have to control the emperor's authority like that?" Lucas asks. "The council doesn't have the power to control my authority but they have the role to formally announce me as the emperor's substitute." Athanasia explains. "The methods of nobility are frustrating." Lucas says. you toned them out after that, not wanting to pay attention. You already had your mind filled with the Lucas problem. Not to mention the emperor. You don't know if he would wake up or not because the last chapter that was released before you died was... So you didn't know what happens from that point onwards. You'll just have to do something about it. 

*****

"-/n. y/n. Y/n." You hear someone call your name. You turn to the side to see Felix looking at you. "You've been spacing out a lot lately, are you okay?" He asks.  "Ah. Yeah, I'm fine." You say, smiling. Then you see Lucas walking towards your direction. "Lucas-" "I need to check up on the emperor." He says coldly as he passes you. Your hand lowers as a single tear falls down from your eye. "Y/n! Are you okay? why are you crying?" Felix asked panicking. Lucas stops walking. "It's nothing. Dust entered my eye. that's all." You  say wiping your tear and smiling to assure Felix. "If you say so.." He says, though he didn't look convinced. "Ley's go." You say walking farther away from Lucas.

*****

"Y/n! Are you spacing out again?" Felix says, bringing you out of your daze. "Oh, sorry. I just have a lot on my mind." You say. "It's about The magician, isn't it?" He says. Your eyes widen. "what-" "It's kind of obvious. You guys aren't the same as you used to be." He says. "Oh.. so it was that obvious, huh?" You ask, smiling sadly. "I don't know what's going on between you too. But, if you want to fix it, you should probably be honest with everything. Honesty and trust is the key to a relationship." Felix says. Your eyes widened at Felix's advice. You had never thought about telling anyone about your past life. But you didn't want things between you and Lucas to stay the same. so you'll have to tell him. You smile. "Wow, Felix. I didn't know you were capable of giving good advice." You say, genuinely complementing him. He blushes a bit. "It wasn't that..." He says. You turn to him with a closed eye smile. "Thanks a lot Felix. I'll get going now." You say and run to Claude's room, which is where Lucas was supposed to be. 

When you neared Claude's room, you saw Lucas exiting it. "Lucas!" You call out. He immediately turns away and start walking. You run up to him, grab him and pull him to a room and pin him to the wall.

"We need to talk."

A/n: Ummm.... Idk what to say, except thanks for reading. Leave a vote if you liked the chapter. I love y'all🖤🖤

Word count: 1571