Duke of Emerald Lies

"WHEN I’M 18 I’M MOVING OUT YOU JACKASS"

"Oh? That's good to hear. I don't really want to sullen the name of Vessalius by having a filthy brat like you who's in love with his own servant. Such a shameful boy, just like the real owner of your body."

"Welcome my dear son~!"

They’re usual, the times in which she manages to sneak away and wanders into Reveille by her own. 

Not that she dislikes the people who surround her, quite the contrary she takes true delight in those quiet evenings spent with her brother, the rain pouring down and making plick plocks against the window glass. It’s not that she dislikes their servants or the caretaker who always so dutifully tries to make her behave like a true lady. What she dislikes indeed, are those boring piano lessons and the hours spent at teatime, the boring books that aren’t like those she likes so much, books about adventorous young women who take the control of their own lives, without anybody to tell them what to do. She dislikes having  to come to the city and beingn unable to frequent the bookstores she loves in order to buy corsets that are ever so difficult and painful to get into.

But this time things have been differnent, and she has managed to escape the watchful eye of her caretakers in order to explore Reveille a bit more, because honestly she’s been there so many times and she still gets lost easily.

A bookstore catches her attention, an old, dusty one, probably full of old and dusty books that are bound to be boring, yet she can’t help but think maybe she’ll be able to find something interestiing inside, because let’s be honest, anything is better than a lovely discussion about corset sizes with her chambermaids. 

She puts her hands behind her back and with an air of casuality crosses the street slowly, as if she had no hurry at all, until she reaches the door that makes the little bell ring when she opens it. As she’d thought, no many people frequent that place, and so she thinks it’ll be the perfect place to hide until her caretakers become bored to try and find her.

She takes a few steps further, and cannot help but find herself quite marvelled at how the books pile up one by one, the shelves full of them and the smell of old paper makes her nose tingle. So fascinated she is that she doesn’t realize she’s bumped into someone, until she feels the warmth of a man’s coat and catches a glimpse of a black hat that is perhaps a bit too big for it’s owner.

Why would a man so young wear one she wonders?

"That's alright, don't bother yourself." The young man of Vessalius replied monotonously. "Be careful and pay attention to where you are going the next time."

Lowering his hat a little bit, he motioned towards the top most shelf to place back the book he was reading, mouth set in a thin line. Zai was really careful in his actions-- afraid that someone might recognize him here and report what he and his brother had done. After all, it was Oscar who initiated for them to go out of the manor without their father's permission, so at least, all he could do was disguise himself from the coat he temporarily 'borrowed' and that over-sized hat sitting on his head. What would people think that the next successor of the Vessalius household was spending his time freely in some old bookshop rather than learning how to manage a dukedom? Certainly, people will start to spread awfully weird rumors.

"…"

"Hn. I see. You should not be wasting time doing such useless things."

The duke tapped his cane on the floor ready to turn away from her daughter. Truly, he only comes home once in a blue moon and rarely meets her. He averted his gaze down, taking in a full view of the young lady's aspects. How many months has it been? She seemed to grow another inch taller. But, he must not make signs of him observing her. Still, his fatherly senses are tingling.