After being at the castle for a few hours, I expected the royal family to provide me with some quality entertainment, and they delivered without failure.
“I’m back, everyone!” appeared Colette, followed by a pale and shaking Lux carrying a curled up Alan.
“Welcome back, Lady Colette,” replied Keith and the Queen without delay. The Queen’s cousins, Maya and Belle, have already left, while Keith, Sara and Sylvie have joined us.
“Hi, Colette. It’s good to see you being well. Wanna tackle me again?”
“Ah, sorry for that. I was just way too excited after not seeing you for thousands of years. Did you miss me too?”
“I sealed you about a day ago. Why would I have missed you?”
“Sounds like you have more things to catch up with than I do, then. The Demon boys here seem to be in pretty bad condition, so could anyone help?”
“Heh, like Alan deserves help after being done in by some girls. Brother, can you handle Lord Lux? I’ll take this useless idiot back to his room.”
“Stay away!” said Sara, tackling the unsuspecting Kathleen. “Stop bullying Alan! Be like that nice lady who brought him back!” A sisters’ quarrel? If Sara was ten or so years older, I would have thought she was Kathleen’s rival in love.
“Lux? Isn’t that Lucius, Alan’s uncle?” wondered Brianna.
“Lucius? Isn’t Lucius Datsemuli dead, Queen? This guy is his brother, Lux Datsemuli, my cute little sister’s boyfriend. And little Sara, my name is Colette. Want me to help you nurse Alan, so you wouldn’t have to let your sister bully him?”
“Yes, big sis Letty!”
“Oh, am I Letty now? Thanks for the cute nickname,” smiled my sister at Sara, then a surprisingly wide grin appeared on her face as she turned towards us. “Look, Princess, I took your sister, just like you took mine.” She quickly turned back and continued speaking to the Medved girl. “Little Sara, can you help me carry him? Unfortunately I’m quite weak, that’s why I had to ask Lux here to bring him home.”
“Sure!” It was a strange sight to see, how the short bear girl took Alan from the tall Lux’s hands and princess-carried him away, Colette following close behind. He must have lost all his remaining dignity after showing such a sight to the Queen. Keith then led Lux away, leaving the stunned Kathleen and surprisingly silent Sylvie with the Queen and me.
“Nice job sister,” I patted her shoulder. “May I suggest you refrain from verbally abusing Alan for some time? You managed to alienate your own sister pretty quickly but you could probably still save your relationship with him.” She hugged me with tears rolling down her cheeks but did not say a thing.
“Lady Hanna, could you explain to me what's going on with Alan’s uncle?” asked the Queen, choosing to ignore her daughter’s troubles for the time being.
“What exactly is there that needs to be explained? He is indeed Lux Datsemuli, Lucius Datsemuli’s little brother.”
“But… Lucius’ brother was the husband of our Founding Queen, who was said to have died together with her, yet Lady Colette said he was your boyfriend.”
“He definitely was my boyfriend until sealing Colette but it seems like he married my cute little Clara sometime after that. That was quite the shock for me too, when Alan pointed it out last evening. As for him being supposedly dead, you can see it’s not the case but I can’t provide you with the hows or whys of that.”
“I see. Then, what might have terrified him this much?”
“That was definitely my sister. I guess she just showed up next to him like they were old friends, and he got scared, realizing she was no longer sealed. I can confidently say that she made everyone in our old party suffer a lot in the past, making this the natural reaction.”
“That helps reinforce some of the legends about her but it still feels like the Director is a completely different person. The Colette Hildakoa I know is the friendly and helpful woman, who just accompanied Sara and Alan.”
“Reminds me of when we were still children. I hope she stays like this but it gives me the creeps, knowing what she’s done. Hey sister, would you let go of me?” She didn’t reply, instead hugging me even tighter. “What should I do about you? Do you maybe want me to stay with you for the night?” I could see her nod.
“Would that be okay with you, Lady Hanna? We can provide you with your own private room if you prefer so.”
“I can take care of that, you just have to ask,” came Sylvie’s voice.
“Woah, you scared me, Master Sylvie. I actually forgot you were here. What’s with you being this quiet?”
“Just trying not to get killed. I already got reduced to a pile of bones by both Hildakoa sisters today, so I thought maybe I could stop playing with fire for once.”
“I did no such thing. It was Eva, not me, who crushed you. Isn’t being dealt with this way normal for you though? Seeing how casual, or in Eva’s case straight rude you are with the royals for being a maid, I would expect you to get severely punished all the time.”
“Oh, that? I’m pretty sure being executed was a severe enough punishment to justify me no longer getting punishments for my offenses.” So much about not playing with fire.
“More undead stories. Sounds interesting.” Brianna’s eyes were literally sparkling. “Go on, let us hear the details.”
“Well, you see, I was actually an orphan taken in by Eva as a personal maid for the elderly Andrew Alakhir, the last living Alnamir of the time.”
“Oh, yet another time when the Alnamir almost went extinct?” I couldn’t help but ask. “I can see why the prince and princess said you and Eva are actively urging them to have children.”
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“That’s indeed our reason for doing this, but you are quite mistaken about the Alnamir almost going extinct at the time. They did go extinct, without a doubt.”
I looked at Brianna. “Excuse me, but could you please tell me what race you belong to?”
She was just as confused as me. “I’m supposed to be an Alnamir, a descendant of Andrew Alakhir at that. Do you have an explanation for this, Master Sylvie?”
“We’ll get there eventually. So, the thing is, Andrew Alakhir died while only having one child, a Farkas boy.” Farkas are a race of wolf demi-humans, for those in the dark. “Eva found his cold body in his own room when checking on him after he failed to show up for multiple marriage interviews in a row. His personal maid was also nowhere to be found, so looking at all the evidence they had, they started a manhunt against her, the prime suspect of a murder case.”
“You just said you were his personal maid, didn’t you? Did you kill him?” The million dollars question, asked by the Queen herself.
She looked away from us. “Yes. It might have been unintentional but I was the one who killed Andrew Alakhir.”
“Then you were caught and executed. So, how are the Alnamir not actually extinct after that?” I refused to let Brianna hog every chance to shine.
“Have some patience. You are incorrectly assuming that they could catch me, while in reality I was able to slip out of Siegel without the Royal Army ever being able to trace me down. It wasn’t until eleven years later that I gave myself up, and got publicly executed. Now, the reason why the Alnamir did not stay extinct is that I was able to give birth to a healthy Alnamir boy under the protection of the Datsemuli family.” Lux seemed to be involved with each and every woman ever getting into trouble somehow. “I was raising him until he became ten years old, then brought him back to Eva, fully prepared to meet my end in the process. You should have seen her face when instead of the Demon delegation she was expecting, it was me who walked into the castle.”
“Wait wait wait wait, let me get this clear. Are you saying that you are THAT Sylvie, Adam Alakhir’s mother?”
“Yes, that would be me. Surprised?”
“Obviously. I wasn’t even aware you were undead until earlier today, so I have never made the connection between you and the Sylvie in our family tree, but this means you are actually my eighth grandmother, doesn’t it?”
“Putting that aside for a moment, why did Eva bring you back as an undead if it was her who got you executed in the first place?”
“Ann, can you remember who Adam’s first wife was?” First my sister started speaking to some ‘Brad’, then Sylvie did the same to this ‘Ann’ person. Did people in the castle have imaginary friends?
“How many times did I tell you to stop calling me that?” Maybe in Sylvie’s case she could just give nicknames to anyone, including the Queen. She could really do whatever she wanted. “I’m pretty sure that was Alan’s sister, Emilia Fero. Oh, right, you were under the protection of her mother’s family, so my guess is that you arranged that marriage.”
“Sure I did. I’m not petty enough to only offer my head and son after making a fool of Eva for over ten years. She seemed to like the gesture, as the next thing I remember after she beheaded me is waking up next to her pale and shaking form, with an Ilehoria beauty looking down at us.”
“Were you not afraid of my sister?”
“Why would I have been afraid? She was just a friendly-looking woman I knew nothing about. Did you maybe expect an orphan who never got a proper education to know the legends about her?”
“My bad. What about when you were told who she was?”
“What would you think if Eva suddenly told you your combat trainer was a mass-murderer?”
“I would probably soil my pants while being glad I was her trainee, not victim.” That did not sound like something the Queen should say in public, even less so with a completely straight face.
“That second part sounds like my most probable reaction too.”
“Now, imagine the same after realizing that said trainer is laughably weak, with her only strong points being her fire magic and the high regenerative power specific to the undead.” She had a point. My sister was so weak physically that I couldn’t help but wonder how she managed to walk for more than a few minutes without taking breaks. Unlike me she also didn’t have an affinity for earth magic, making it unlikely that she used magic to reinforce herself. If she did, she wouldn’t have needed to rely on Lux when retrieving Alan.
“This makes me wonder why she taught you combat skills over magic. The only weapon that she is relatively decent with is the dagger, and even with that one only needs to block her once to make her stumble.”
“What she taught me was not normal combat but fighting mages, no matter how strong. Following this very principle, the final exam she gave me was defeating her one-on-one while both using artifact-class weapons.”
“Ah, one Panther’s Bite against the other?” That was practically the same duel after which she gifted me the green dagger from that pair of artifacts as a reward for defeating her. The rules were simple: Both of us used one of the Panther’s Bites, but I could only keep mine if I won.
“What? No, it was me with the pair of daggers against her using Formless. If she used one of the daggers, I would have defeated her within seconds, but it took me over 3 hours to finally beat her and her spear of fire.”
“That must have been an interesting fight to watch,” chimed the Queen in. “I wish I could have seen it.”
“If you want to see that, she actually challenges me at the Academy’s tournament every year. If cute little Ann insists, I can make an exception and accept it this year.”
“Please don’t call–”
“Colette being the one who challenges you instead of it being the other way around is already pretty mind-blowing, but there being a person who can just casually decline makes me glad I accepted sister’s invitation to the castle. You royal bunch are truly great entertainers.” Kathleen’s pridefully smug but still teary face almost made me laugh out loud.
“Like I was trying–”
“I’m glad I can be of service to you.” Sylvie’s serious reply, however, made me shudder. It was just… not like her. Sure, she was one of the most annoying people I have ever met, but that was part of who she was, and it fit her to a T.
“Could you please–”
“Sister, will you also join the tournament? Your fight against Lady Eva and the head maid was a spectacle to behold, and we really need some fresh attractions if we want to keep the populace interested in the Academy’s public events,” came the long-missed voice of the Crown Princess. “Brother and I are on the organizing committee, meaning I can easily slip you in as a seeded participant.”
“Listen–”
“That would be great, but wouldn’t someone from an extinct race participating be strange?”
“It wouldn’t be stranger than someone getting away unpunished after not letting the Queen get in a single uninterrupted sentence.” Did someone interrupt the Queen? Must have been Sylvie. Sister and I definitely did not do the same afterwards. “You are Director Hildakoa’s sister, so can’t you just camouflage yourself as the same race she acts as? Also please stop using us as some kind of cheap source of entertainment.”
“That’s a nice idea. I could probably even pull it off better than she does, with me being this short. She might have average height for an Ilehoria, but she is way too tall compared to real Fushane.” I went ahead and tweaked my appearance on the spot, gaining applause from my three spectators.
“We can now actually be sisters,” laughed Sylvie.
“Why would I have to be your sister? Do we look related?”
“Right, I haven’t properly introduced my official persona yet, so you wouldn’t know. The identity I use when interacting with those unaware of my circumstances is–”
This time the Queen was the one to interrupt Sylvie. “Sylvie Hildakoa, the older sister of Colette Hildakoa.” It felt strange when our last name was used for someone unrelated to us, but Her Majesty being aware of that name meant she was probably using it since a long time ago. I couldn’t realistically make her change it like this.
“Why are you the older one?”
“Because that’s actually the case. I was alive for one year longer than her, then got turned into a lich the exact same time she got unsealed. Other than that the only difference in our ages is the slightly over 800 years she was sealed for.