[ON HIATUS]To Be The Duke's Daughter//AU

Chapter 12

"Kill the witch!" I looked up at the balcony where Cosette and the duke sat. Tears were stinging my eyes but I refuse to let them fall.

Cosette was smirking behind her hand. I tried to move my hands but to no avail. The rope that was tying it together was too tight I couldn't even move a muscle.

"Keira Parvis. Have you accepted your fate?" I look up to see my executor. He looked at me coldly, as if he couldn't careless if I was truly a fraud or not. "Perform the execution!" He yelled. I fussed around when the knights picked me up again, they made me lay on my stomach, my head in the middle of a wooden board.

"Kill her!" The people yelled in unison. I stopped moving and simply waited until the blade hits me, I close my eyes wishing to wake up from this nightmare.

"Keira!" I sat up, covered in sweat. I looked down on my trembling hands as tears started to flow from my eyes. "Shh, it was just a dream" Medea had already enveloped me in a hug which didn't help with my emotions. Right, it was just a dream but it was also once my reality. "Mom" I whispered, her dress was already soaked with my tears but she didn't mind. "It all felt so real."

Medea pulls away and looked at me, she wanted to know what that horrible nightmare was about but she knows that I am not in the state to share it yet.

After sometime I finally stopped. "Heh, sorry mama. I got too emotional over a dream" I wiped my eyes with my hands but Medea pulls them away. "Don't use your hands, it can damage your eyes. It will itch and sting more." She wiped the remaining wetness from my eyes with a soft cloth that came out of nowhere "Also, it's nothing to be ashamed of. You wouldn't be the first person here who woke up crying from a nightmare"

Right. Everybody has nightmares except mine wasn't. It was a memory, a memory about a past that I was already starting to forget. "Get ready, breakfast will be ready soon" she kisses me on the cheek and got out of my room.

After a few minutes, I was done getting ready. "Is mom and dad in the dining hall already?" I asked Lucas. I was on my way to the dining area when I passed by him. "I think so, Leilin and Benjamin aren't in their rooms so I'm guessing their already there as well"

On the way to the hall, we passed by Rashta's room. I could still remember the incident from yesterday and I couldn't help but chuckle but quiet enough for only me to hear. "Don't think too much about last night milady. The duchess was just tired so she had that type of mood swing"

Did Dion invite her to breakfast?

I stopped when I realized that we were already in front of a door, Lucas pushed it open and lets me go in first, they were already there. My two older siblings and my parents. "Ah you two are here" Dion looked both at me and Lucas, "Goodmorning" we both said at the same time.

I sat down beside Leilin and Lucas beside Benjamin. While waiting for our food, we were happily chatting away the minutes. In the middle of our conversation someone bursts in "Finally made it" Jeremy, Roxanna and Charlotte walked in, their coats covered in snow.

"It's getting everywhere, Jeremy" Dion said, pertaining to the snow that was falling off from his coat. "Well, I can't do anything about that. Do you know how far away the West estate is?" Jeremy answered, he sat down beside the boys and Roxanna and Charlotte sat down beside us.

One by one food started leaving the kitchen. "Yummy" my eyes probably sparkled from how amazing the tenderloin tasted. "Eat slowly Keira. You wouldn't want to choke again" I was eating slowly. It's just that I woke up starving and the aroma that the steak is emitting was just tempting.

Just then out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the butlers leave the dining hall with a tray of food in hand.

I guess Rashta isn't joining us after all.

***

"My lady? Are you paying attention?" The countess snapped her fingers in front of me. I suppose I stared off again.

"Yes" I lied "then repeat everything that I've said" I remained quiet, she sighed in disappointment "I don't know what's wrong with you young lady but ever since you recovered, you've been having difficulties in concentrating" She looked at me with concern "Is everything alright?"

I don't know. I got executed by the hands of my own father, found out that I transmigrated as the youngest child in a family that needs serious therapy and family counseling and now an woman with unknown origins is living here and is possibly trying to make my father fall in love with her for power so you tell me dear countess, am I okay?

"Yep! I'm sorry. I'll try to concentrate better" the person who is teaching me is from a very reputable family. She came all the way here from a faraway kingdom. She has quite the temper and is really strict that she would yell at me for absolutely nothing. Has she started to underestimate my power as the daughter of the duke?

Honestly, I really couldn't careless about etiquette, I've learned it before and all the things she's teaching me right now is just basic common sense.

For example, according to her, if we come face to face with someone of a higher rank, king or emperor, we must bow our heads until he lets us rise. We must also use the proper titles for them no matter the rank. Basic common sense, right?

She also taught me about other rules which I couldn't even remember anymore. "Young miss!" She yelled, I looked at her lazily. While she was talking, I was busy looking outside.

I forgot to mention. The kingdom where this woman came from is also ruled by a tyrant and he's her cousin so I can see where she got the confidence.

"What?" She got even more annoyed "I cannot accept the amount of insolence you have shown today, you have been unexplainably rude!" She threw her fan to the ground, I looked at it then looked back up at her.

"I'm not being rude. I'm simply returning the same attitude that you have shown me" she was a total bitch towards Keira, even until now. She puts on a smile when faced with the duke and duchess but once she locks the doors of her classroom, she'll be a totally different person

"I don't understand why you've been acting like this. It's not like I mistreated you in any way" she looked at me half angry half sad. Oh my, what has this world come to?

"Countess please don't act dumb" I stood up from my seat and approached her "Didn't you belittle me before? Not only that you also compared me to King Eduardo's children who I know nothing of" That is in fact true.

The last time we met, she called me lazy and inconsistent and said that her nephews and niece were nothing like me. And the week before that I was practicing my dances when I accidentally tripped and fell onto her, she pushed me off and told me that it would be embarrassing for her if the same thing happened while I was dancing with a man.

"To be honest, I'm embarrassed for the duke. For him to call you his daughter. Tch, How awful" Those were the exact same words she said and that was the last straw. I thought that Keira had been simply been giving this woman a hard time in the past but I realized that it was the other way around.

"I haven't mentioned any of this to my parents nor my siblings for your sake. But you really love to push your luck" I smirked. The door was cracked open and it was obvious someone was eavesdropping.

She froze. Probably finally realizing who she was talking to"Milady, I have only said those things for your sake. Please don't take it the wrong way" she chuckled nervously "For my sake? What does your cousin's children have to do with me?" She wasn't meeting my eyes anymore.

"Please don't misunderstand me. I am simply trying to do the job that His Grace have given me" "Does that job include harassing his daughter?" She tenses and stayed quiet "Yeah, I didn't think so" Wow, you really used my father's name as an excuse? That's extra.

"Let me go countess. I'm tired and you have already crossed the line" she lets go of my arm which she has been holding tightly. Once I got out, I felt like I could breathe again. Are all etiquette teachers like this?