The Lupine Saga 134

Ruby stood silent as the speaker talked about her family’s greatness, and resisted the urge to yawn. The speaker talked about how it was a momentous and joyous occasion. All he could talk about were things that made her want to kick, scream, yell, cry, and run away. But she wouldn’t, so she stood silently. It irritated her that Murasaki was correct, ultimately she was a puppet on strings.

However, she couldn’t resign to her fate fully. But she also knew she had no control. And now that it’d finally come to this, it appeared that the elusive person would actually appear. An unknown presence she had grateful for, years ago, but had grown to hate in the past few hours.

The rush of the past day was sickening to her. The disregard for her well-being even though she had been absent for so long, the change in her mother’s attitude so soon after her return. It wasn’t fair. “Was it worth coming back here? Why didn’t I think we could stay away? A little? Or longer?” Ruby thought and questioned herself, hating that she had answered those questions so quickly a short while ago.

Through it all, she still held hope that the elusive person wouldn’t appear. Or that even if he should appear, he really would be far too young, too young for even the nobility and their arrangements. She knew she was young, but old enough to be standing where she was. Any normal girl would be. And yet she wasn’t normal, so there weren’t rules those in control of her had to abide by. As long as the elusive person to appear was older than a toddler, the nobles would go ahead with the ceremony. It sickened her, but she knew that was the life she was born into.

Ruby resisted the urge to run away or cry, and so she reflected on the past day. How happy she had been entering the gates of the estate she knew so well. She had been apprehensive at first, but she somehow felt as if everything would be okay once she entered those gates.

She had left the carriage, and at once a pair of arms were around her, holding and hugging her tight. She responded in kind, wrapping her arms around the avian girl’s neck, snuggling briefly in her feathers and whispering kind words. It was a brief moment, and afterwards Shiroi only spoke with her for a moment before leading her into the house she had lived in for so long, where a woman waited.

Ruby was happy to see Jane, regardless of their past. She had entered, and then bowed deeply, apologizing for her absence. And for a while, it appeared as if her mother was just as happy. Jane showed, though briefly, that smile that had rarely appeared. The real one, not the one she showed others. The one that could even bring Ruby to her knees in tears of joy. She hadn’t been able to hold out very long, and ended up running and hugging Jane, who had patted her head and lightly hugged her shoulders. And then, their reunion over, Jane had sent her to be bathed and dressed by the servants.

Ruby didn’t mind being sent off to be cleaned and changed, as what had been so usual to her in the past now appeared new and wonderful. She even chatted with a couple of them, who only smiled in reply as they cleaned her carefully and styled her hair. She had been dressed in a wonderful silk orange dress and had joined her mother in a room, where they sat and talked. It was a kind of talk. Jane asked Ruby once what happened, and Ruby took ten minutes explaining most of what happened, though she tried to minimize Va’il’s parts as best she could, and she didn’t mention Va’il by name or what he was either. She wanted to, but refrained from speaking of Va’il as much as she could around Jane; she still had some reservations in that regard.

When her story was over Jane acknowledged her story with only a brief word, and then spoke of something new. She said any investigation would have to wait until after tomorrow was over. And as she spoke of what she called wonderful news and arrangements for the future of the nation, Ruby’s excitement left. Her heart dropped, and the fake person that was a high-noble, Ruby Louise Melonscone, had to return. Her mother asked for no acknowledgment or acceptance, and told things as fact.

Ruby could only rely on the mask that she thought she had put away a while ago to look calm and composed, knowing that she had no recourse. She had been trapped in reality again. She knew that one day, something like this would come, though she had hoped it would have been farther off. She felt insulted that she had to be burdened with this immediately upon her return, but she knew that from Jane’s perspective, it was best to take care of such an arrangement immediately. And apparently it had all been worked out as soon as Murasaki’s letter arrived. The arrangements, the invitations to the other nobles, the statement that this event would also double as a revealing of a wonderful secret, the true unveiling of the elusive person, it’d all been arranged while Ruby sat in a carriage, staring at Va’il. Fair, it was not.

Internally Ruby sighed, and continued hoping that the elusive person wouldn’t appear. However, the speaker was about to get to that point.

“And now, the other side,” the speaker said. “It has been a long and trying time, but Rising has held together though its terrible loss. And even though we all mourned the loss of our wonderful King Fidel, there was a hope left to us, a hope of still one to continue the rightful line. It is with the utmost honor that I have been requested to present to you, the heir of our gracious King Fidel, his son, Prince Listus.”

The hall was filled with people. Nobles everywhere, guards in front of the stage and lining the sides of the hall, and more people and nobles in the balconies above. All eyes were on the stage. On the left were Ruby and her mother, both dressed exquisitely, though the amazing white dress made Ruby standout more, for once. In the middle of the stage was the speaker, a human in black with white trim, and on the right no one, yet.

He entered. A human boy was at the side of Regent Jin. He had white hair, and a subdued smile upon his face. Ruby looked, her heart further falling. She looked, and the boy looked back, his brown eyes narrowing on her. He was shorter and younger than her, but he was still old enough. He smirked at her, and then turned to the audience and gave a very slight bow of the regal kind.

At first the audience was silent, but soon broke into applause that lasted for a while. Ruby could hear the claps of her mother behind her, reinforcing the truth. And Ruby internally sighed again, knowing that regardless of what she wanted, all she would do was stand and wait, no matter how it made her feel. And she had to wonder, was that attitude going to reflect what she’d have to do for the rest of her life, just doing nothing and waiting, regardless of her feelings?

The audience calmed down, and the speaker continued, saying, “Regent Jin, do we have your approval and confirmation?”

“Yes, the circumstances are confidential, but Listus is the Prince, and approved to fulfill our fallen king’s final edict,” Jin said. The boy nodded approvingly while still looking at Ruby. She felt herself shiver, being eyed by the boy who looked like he had just barely entered puberty. She hated that particular stare, and it was one she knew far too well. There was only one person she wanted to look at her like that, someone that never had while she was looking. She pushed that thought aside, knowing that it’d just make the future harder than it had to be if she kept thinking that way. She didn’t have to like what was happening, but she knew she could keep herself from feeling worse than she had to, even though she was already feeling unbearably terrible.

“And,” a door hitting the wall startled the speaker for a moment. He coughed slightly to get his bearings, but was interrupted before he could continue.

About James Ashman

I write books of the fantasy, heroic, and adventure types. So far. I'm an author who loves fantastic stories.
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