Eternity Through Sacrifice

Chapter 4

The journey to the Argent Estate seemed to last forever. It took several days to finally reach the estate. With such a long trip, Mireille had no doubt that Claude D'Argent was rushing to claim her parents' things. 

Repulsive.

She remembered when Alfred said that the bastard was probably living off her parents' fortune, and yet he still wanted more. She wondered how disgustingly greedy a person could get. Her father was this man's brother, how could he treat his own blood like this?

He truly pursued the magic items in a pushy way. During the entire journey he pestered Mireille with ceaseless questions in hopes of gain information. Thankfully, Mireille could just pull a child like face and pretend not to understand with ignorant sounding, "huuuh?"'sand "whaaa?"s, due to her physical age.

When the group finally arrived at the Argent Estate, lines and lines of servants awaited the group, bowing as they welcomed them. "Welcome Your Grace, Young Lord Alfred, Lady Mireille."

The first to get off the carriage was Claude D'Argent, followed by Alfred who helped Mireille down. Mireille peered around, unfamiliar with the way she was supposed to act. She ended up just following Alfred's mannerisms and actions.

As they neared the doors of the estate, Mireille could see a poised woman standing atop the steps of the mansion. "Welcome back." She smiled.

Claude D'Argent kissed the woman on the cheek, "I'm back." He then turned Alfred and Mireille, "Alfred, do you remember your Aunt Iris?"

"Yes, it has been awhile Aunt." Alfred bowed, crossing his arm and placing his hand on his chest.

"And this child is Cordelia's youngest, Mireille."

Mireille did as her mother had once taught her and put her hands in her lap, followed by the slight crossing her ankles and a small curtsy. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"No, the pleasure is mine." Mireille looked up to meet an empty, almost disdainful stare. Iris D'Argent, huh? Mireille didn't quite understand why, but she felt as if she had met her somewhere, it was on the tip of her tongue, but she still didn't know.

Claude D'Argent then had his maids drag off Mireille and Alfred to get them "cleaned up." The maids obeyed without another word and got to work. They first bathed Mireille and began to work in fancy soaps and essential oils into her skin and hair. Wasn't it kinda a waste to use nice things like these on a four year old? At first Mireille struggled, but she eventually gave up and let the maids do as they pleased.

Finally they forced Mireille into one of those dress that you'd find in ye olden days. Y'know, the nice poofy type. Well, it wasn't quite as bad as Mireille thought but she kept her guard up. She was then escorted downstairs to the dining room where Alfred, and the others waited.

MIreille sat down politely next Alfred.

"Ahem." The Archduke cleared his throat, "Tonight, we're going to have a feast to celebrate the reunion between family!" He turned to me and continued, "Mireille, these are your cousins, Vanessa and Vivienne are twins and Emil, he is the eldest."

Mireille smiled as she greeted them. "It's nice to meet you, I hope that we'll get along." 

The twins continued to eat, ignoring Mireille's presence. Emil, on other hand smiled back with gentle eyes.

For the most part, the meal was silent. Though, awkward conversation fillers jumped into play every now and then. Mireille couldn't help but stare down the boy called "Emil," as her brother kept up the conversation between everyone. She had seen him somewhere, at sometime. Yet, she just couldn't put her finger on it.