A Familiar Void

Chapter 22

A six-year-old Louise was wandering around the gardens of her family's estate. The young girl had escaped from the halls of the house, and had hid herself within the vegetation that was planted around it.

"Louise, where are you? Come out now!"

The purpose was clear as she heard the shout call out for her.

The youngest Valliere hugged her body, eyes looking at the ground as she could hear the sound of her mother shouting for as the footsteps of other servants marched around the area she was hiding in.

Louise looked down and sat on the grass, her small body meant that she could hide in pretty much any of the bushes without anyone noticing.

So when two maids passed by her hiding spot, neither of them noticed.

And from she could hear from them, it didn't even sound like that they cared to even look for her.

"Again we go through this every day."

"How come Lady Karin keeps scolding her?"

"Apparently she's no good with magic, lot of good being a Noble is if she can't even cast a spell."

"Oh my."

Louise hugged her body closer as she heard those words. Even the servants knew that she was hopeless with magic.

So when they left the immediate area around her, Louise went deeper.

To a place where her mother couldn't scold her because she couldn't cast a spell, where her father could look at her with disappointment, where she didn't need to be compared to her sisters.

The central lake, her 'Secret Garden' where she could just hide there and forget about the rest of the world. Flowers, bright white and delicate to the touch, bloomed everywhere. Birds would rest on the benches and bath themselves in the lake water. And most importantly, was the small boat where she could hid away.

She climbed onto the boat, and snuggled into the blanket there.

She remembered how her father would occasionally bring her and her sisters around the lake on the same boat. Even if there wasn't anything interesting, it just felt nice being outside with her family as they circled the beautiful body of water.

Now she only really came here to hide away from her failures. If she failed to cast a spell, and she managed to leave before she was scolded she hide away here and waited until her mother calmed down.

Sometimes it would work, other times it didn't.

So Louise Valliere, the youngest of three sisters, sat in the boat as it floated around in the middle of the lake as she tried to hold back her emotions.

It didn't take long for another person to show up however, but instead of the furious look of her mother, or the tired exasperation of her father. Instead it was a young man who wore a dark purple cloak and a large brim hat that hid his features.

"Viscount!" Louise couldn't help but call out in surprise, somehow recognising the figure before her despite the lack of features.

This was the man who she was engaged to, something that her father had done when she couldn't show any aptitude in her magic.

He approached the boat and stood beside it, he raised a hand pushed the brim of his hat higher revealing a teen with white hair and a pleasant smile.