I was invited to tea time by Isabella and Oliver.
"Hello mother, father. Thank you having me" i decided to treat them like my parents I hope they wouldn't be angry about it.
"Oliver did you just hear that? she called me mother" Isabella was gushing as she smacked Oliver.
"Yes honey I heard her clearly call me father, welcome dear please take a seat" Isabella cleared her throat as she composed herself.
"Dont be too pressured by her dear, she always wanted a cute daughter and theo is the farthest thing from cute as your can see" lord Oliver helped serve tea to Isabella as he filled her plate with cookies. Not once did he take his eyes off her, he looked so head over heels for her.
"Steven tells me you want to learn about the duchy from me clarisa" she fed him a cookie, it almost seem like I was a third wheel on their loving date.
"Yes mother, I just found out recently that my teacher fed me wrong information " their expressions changed.
"Have some of this dear, your teacher was baroness Sally croft right? I wonder why she would teach you the wrong things" she offered me some tea and cookies. Should I tell them the truth? I don't want to lie to them but I think saying everything might be hard right now.
"Its fine dear, it must be a terrible memory for you. You can tell us whenever you feel like it" I feel so bad deceiving them but I'm glad they accepted me just the way I am.
We spent that morning going over the history of the empire, salum empire was founded by King adert salum who became the first emperor after unifying the continent. With the help of the first descendant of leandros they unified the continent and founded the salum empire, as a way of thanking his friend that helped him rise to power, he established runan as the only duchy in the empire and made them independent. That's means count dumont also lied about the dumonts being a duchy and being demoted for not producing grand mages.
"No one knows why the first duke leandros picked runan as his territory especially with the threat of monsters on the other side of the north wall, isn't that right Oliver?"
"Yes honey, even when I took over the duchy i never got a satisfactory reason why we had to be the protectors of the continent. We may be an independent duchy but we still have to follow the rules of the empire. Although we don't need to be at the emperors beck and call"
"Thats right, that was one of the reasons I married you. Just knowing i could reject invitations from the palace was enough reason for me. The imperial family always act high and mighty like their bloodline is the purest, it makes me so mad" she snapped the fork in half as tea spilled. Father helped her clean her hands and the table as he checked on her. Mother seems to really hate the imperial family.
"You see I was the daughter of a baron before I got married, the count in the territory we lived in tried to force me to be his 4th wife, so I tried to appeal to the imperial family but they were too good to interfere in the lowly riffs between a baron and a count." She looked like she would strangle someone.
"Thats when she came to runan proposing a contract marriage with me, stealing my heart instantly " he kissed her cheeks. Spending one morning with them I suddenly understand where theo learnt how to be so seductive, he grew up around such affectionate parents. It's nice to see a loving relationship unlike the tense silence between count and countess dumont.
"Ahem.... back to the lessons, you don't need to learn about the empire. Knowing only about runan should be enough for you."
"Thats right dear, runan is considered the shield and spear of the empire, that's why our emblem is a black knight holding a spear enclosed in a shield. When I was the duke, i dealt with a rebellion against the emperor and soon came to be called a war hero"
"Thats right, i was so happy to see the stupid look on the emperors face when my husband came to save him from his younger brother that tried to force him off the throne "
"So the duty of the north is to protect against monsters and rebellion against the throne" now I see why the imperial family respects runan so much, having such mighty power behind you must give allot of power to the throne.
"Thats right dear, and that's why even the emperor cannot interfere with runan. He knows we are not Interested in the throne as we have no claim or say on what happens in the capital, and as the only duchy in the empire we have a lot of power which all belongs to the throne."
"Oliver don't you think you are being too nice, the emperor knows he cannot beat the knights of runan so he cowers whenever he hears our voice" mother had a big grin on her face as father fed her.
"Honey, you really don't like the imperial family..." Mother slammed her hand on the desk
"Of course I don't, I lost the barony of arlet because of them. Had they just told count filo to bite the dust i wouldn't have lost the legacy passed on to me"
"Well because of that you were able to meet me, honey. It may sound selfish but I'm slightly grateful to..." she pulled him closer by his collar.
"Oliver what are you saying..... even if i hadn't lost the barony, i would have still found a way to meet you. You belong to me don't think you can escape me that easily" she grinned mischievously kissing him. I really want to hear more about their relationship, it sounds like a fun novel about a marriage contract. Father seems to be wrapped around motgers fingers, he may look scary to others but when he is with her he looks so tame.
"I knew it would end up like this" we all turned around to theo standing by the door.
"Mother just can't help herself whenever she is with father" he walked in sitting beside me on the couch.
"You seem to be asking for a beating son"
"Dear, its lunchtime I was going to wait for you but I knew mother wouldn't let you go once she gets you were she wants you" he nuzzled into my neck acting all cute.
"Honey are you seeing this? It's been more than 8 years since I saw you smile son, I always felt like i was at fault for you losing your smile...." thats right father gave theo full authority over his assassination case, I'm sure he must have felt guilty all these years
"Oh oliver hush..... I always knew theo would end up fine, he needed to toughen up. He wasnt even a cute child, but he was so tenderhearted.... tsk,tsk. How could a child be so naive thinking there was no evil in the world." Mother may speak curtly with theo but I can see how much she loves him.
"My love, let's have lunch with mother and father" he kissed my cheek smiling as he nods.
"If that's what you want dear." Mother and father grinned, watching us.
"I heard from Maria that you smacked theo on your second day here" my jaw dropped as I heard of my past shame. I buried my head in my hand embarrassed.
"Dont be embarrassed dear, I'm sure theo had it coming. If you hadn't done that I'm sure Isabella would have had to do it now that we were back." Thank you father for trying to make me feel better but it's still so embarrassing .
We decided to have lunch together today and dinner together going forward.
At dinner mother kept talking about the younger theo and i just couldn't imagine him as a child.
"I heard Cavill got released from jail last night? You should have let him rot there longer, disrespecting the duchess is a big offense " father finally spoke breaking the bickering between mother and theo.
"It was fine father, he only said those things to protect theo..."
"Thats why you should have grabbed him by the collar and slammed him to the ground" Mother was demonstrating as father nods along.
"I always knew he would cause some kind of trouble because of theo. There was a time I thought he had a crush on him, had he not gotten married i would have believed that he was in love with theo" theo shrugged as if used to the statement, but I wanted to know more. I knew they were close but what did they have to do for mother to want to change the genre to BL.
"Thats right, there was even a time he refused to leave theo's side, even at night he would sneak into his room and stand guard watching him sleep, every night"
"Mother, if you say it like that clarisa might have the wrong idea. It wasn't like that my dear, he was training to be my personal knight but later gave up after an earfull from Maria."
"I heard hannah beat him up later for being a nuisance to theo...."
"Ignore them dear, try some of this. It taste really good" father is the only normal person in this family, i used to wonder where theo got his attitude from but watching mother i can see where he got it.
Knock knock
"Come in" I walked into the room as mother sat by the window.
"Come dear, have a seat. Would you like some tea?" I sat down shaking my head refusing tea.
"Sorry to call you, when you are already tired." She lifted a plain black box and slid it across the table to me.
"Mother?" She opened it and in it was a beautiful emerald necklace and earring set.
"Mother.... I can't...."
"In runan it's customary for the mother to pass on an heirloom to her daughter, So I want you to have this. The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew it belonged to you." I could feel my eyes welling up as I fought back the tears. She wiped my eyes gently.
"Thank you mother.... it's beautiful, ill cherish it."
"Also I heard my stupid son hasn't gotten you any gifts yet..... hehehehehe.... he will be so jealous when he hears i got you your first jewelry " I couldn't help laughing at her silly grin, mother can be so childish at times.
When I got back to the bedroom theo was already there and he looked to be avoiding my eyes when we spoke.
"My love" he lifted his eyes from his desk staring at me and I could see it. He was hiding something.
"Do you want to go to bed?" He seemed to know i wanted to know why he was avoiding my eyes since I walked in.
We both lay in bed and he held me but I could feel his hesitation.
"Theo..... what's wrong" he flinched before he sighed.
"My dear, remember what carion said to us that day?" I knew this day would come but I still wanted to avoid it if I could.
"Yes my love, is it still bothering you?"
"Well, i knew how hard you were working to prepare for the banquet so I didn't want to stress you about it...but...." I could see his eyes shaking, as if struggling to speak.
"When I was 6 I found that book in prince callus's library. I took it home and tried opening my mana pathway, but I passed out half way through it. It was quite painful and I heard from Sarah that I bleed allot " there is no need to tell him how Sarah said my body was ice cold all night like a corpse. His face looked so sad and broken.
"Theo I'm fine now, so you don't need to look like that" he pulled me close and I could feel he was trembling. Should I tell him that I remember my past life and i think that's why I didn't die? That I think the soul that was ripped apart was the soul of Anna Adam's? Would he believe me if I said that?
"How sure are we that there would be no side effect? If it truly means your soul was ripped then.....then..... what if it's just delayed and it will happen in the future?"
Huh!! why is my back getting wet, is he crying? I pulled away from him and it broke me. He was sobbing uncontrollably and I didn't know what to do, I just hate seeing him like this. I pulled him in cradling his head in my chest as I stroked his back.
Why was I thinking he didn't love me? Even if he hasn't said it, he has shown me over and over again how much I mean to him. I should trust him, I don't know what will happen, but I trust theo to believe me.
"I'm fine, my love the truth is when I turned 6 because of a head injury, I recovered memories of my past life. So I think it's the soul of my past life that was torn to shreds. Although i dont know how it happened or why, i just have a feeling thats its all fine now." I could still feel him trembling but he had stopped crying.
"I don't remember everything about that life except my name and how I died, so the knowledge was never useful." He lifted his head and I caressed his cheeks as he leaned into my hand.
"I know it's hard to believe but..." he shook his head in my hand smiling softly
"I believe you..... I believe you clarisa.... I'm so glad..... so glad you have lived twice... I'm so glad my dear"
"Shhhhhhh.... let's talk when you calm down my love. You are trembling" I pulled him close as he listened to my heart beat. It must be some sort of reassurance that I'm still living to him.
"Its okay my love, take as long as you need to calm down. I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere" so please.... please stop making that face, I never want to see you in pain like this again.
He was still trembling, so I pulled him into a kiss. If my words will not reach him then my body heat should be enough to prove my existence to him. He deepens the kiss, as our bodies heat up, I wanted him to confirm my existence with his whole body. His lips on me, and the pleasure that I feel are proof enough that I exist right now.