Location: Velstand Grand Hotel: Penthouse Restaurant
Time: 7:45 PM, 02/14/2108
The Velstand Grand Hotel was interesting in the fact that rather than using the top floor as the most expensive room, it was instead used as a fine dining establishment. From what I had gathered, it was widely considered to be the premier dining experience in Velstand; not that Velstand was particularly known for its food.
Obviously, I couldn’t eat any of the food they served myself, but I knew this was the ideal place to schedule a meeting with Eren. That’s why I used the prime minister’s influence to reserve the entire restaurant for the two of us.
Eren would have been insulted with anything less.
And despite what people might think, I don’t actually dislike my younger brother. If anything, I actually sympathize with him quite a bit.
After I was exiled and our mother was executed for giving birth to a royal aberration, Eren was put in a delicate situation. While his augmentation developed properly, that didn’t change who his mother was. He was never given the same treatment that our other half siblings would have.
We were both victims of the same twisted fate.
That’s why he should understand.
No, I’m sure he already understood.
That’s why he came here in the first place.
His only mistake was being less capable than me.
Everything I said to the prime minister was true, having Eren on our side would make things move smoothly.
That wasn’t my only motivation though.
I just wanted Eren on my side. We had hardly any interaction since we were children, but that didn’t change the facts. We were siblings cursed by the same fate. I wanted to restore my younger brother's position almost as much as I wanted to restore my own.
It might have been easier to just abandon him, but I’m not the monster that my teeth make me out to be.
After being led to my table, Eren sat down with the grace of a member of the royal family. He didn’t say anything, and neither did I.
The two of us remained quiet as his meal was brought out, and I remained silent as he ate.
To an outsider, it might have looked odd, but that was common practice back in the Empire. Our grandfather once mentioned that sour conversation would ruin a good meal, so it became customary to leave any discussion until after the food had been completely cleared away.
After finishing off his dinner, Eren was the first to speak.
“Well, we suppose a congratulations is in order.”
I raised an eyebrow at his opening remark. I knew he still spoke with the royal we, but hearing it in person was more ridiculous than I expected.
“From what we’ve been able to gather, all three of the ones we convinced to join us are dead. They only managed to kill Karen Kaldsen, and we’re sure that suits your motives just as much as it would have suited ours. And from what we’ve seen, there hasn’t even been a bit of press coverage on the matter. We were outplayed.”
That was all true, but I wasn’t expecting him to admit it so easily.
“None of our plans to take this city had any defense against your involvement; that was our mistake. And while we would typically move on to form our next strategy, now that our most useful piece has been stolen away after years of forging her into what she is, moving on appears to be impossible.”
His most useful piece was stolen away? He seemed to think that I should understand what that meant, but I was drawing a blank. I doubt he was talking about Mock Turtle. Something must have happened without my involvement. I made it clear to the Prime Minister that we shouldn’t target any of his followers from the Empire. They would be useful, and I had nothing to gain by making anyone from the Empire look like a bad guy.
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“So we won’t be one to hold on to a false sense of hope. We shall accept our defeat with the pride of the Esterhaert family. Does it make you happy to know that we are perhaps the first to be paradoxically trapped in the non existent shadow of a vampire? Forever unable to escape our curse of being born your brother? We thought that by claiming one of the Free Cities for the Empire, we would be able to gain some semblance of recognition that didn’t involve you, but we were mistaken once again. No matter how fast we run, we’ve never once managed to escape your legacy. It’s only natural that we meet our end as a footnote in your story.”
Having heard everything that Eren seemed to want to say, I decided to finally bring up the topic that I called him to discuss.
“Eren, want to help me kill the Emperor?”
Eren’s face betrayed him. The regal expression he usually wore cracked, showing signs of surprise.
Naturally. Who wouldn’t be surprised by the idea of killing their own father?
But Eren’s surprise was different. He wasn’t surprised by the idea of it, he was surprised that I casually brought up his deepest desire.
Before meeting face-to-face, I wasn’t certain, but at that point, I knew. Eren wasn’t like me. While I was trying to take back what I had lost, Eren wanted revenge.
Was it for his own treatment or for the execution of our mother? Either way, it didn’t matter.
“Excuse us, perhaps we misheard you.”
“You didn’t. I plan on regaining everything I’ve lost. Our goals might be different, but the path to getting there is the same. Neither one of us can live freely until the Emperor is no more. You want to escape my shadow? Then help me defeat the one who trapped you in it. Once I’ve regained my status in the capital, I won’t even stop you from trying to take the throne for yourself. At that point we’ll all have an even playing field, just like we were supposed to.”
A half truth. While I had no intentions of forcing Eren to denounce his position as a prince, I knew he would never be able to overcome me.
“Eren, I know how much you value your pride, so I’m not asking you to work for me. I’m asking you to work with me. We both want the same thing. So in honor of me defeating you, agree to follow my path.”
Eren laughed to himself, pausing to take a sip of wine.
“Your speech was wasted on us. A royal doesn't make requests, they make demands. That’s something our father used to say.”
“I never heard him say it.”
“We’re sure. You know, we could take everything you just told us back to the empire. If the Royal Guards were alerted, even you wouldn’t survive. You couldn’t stop us if we decided to run.”
I caught Eren’s reflection in his wine glass. He was right. He was capable of running somewhere I could never follow. In an interesting twist of fate, his augmentation was the exact opposite of mine.
“Probably, but I’m asking you anyway.”
“Which means keeping us alive is valuable enough to risk your own life. Then tell us. What is so valuable that you’d risk losing everything?”
Eren's posture had regained his usual arrogance. Having come here expecting death, he managed to find something to bargain with. That’s fine. He may have thought he was gaining leverage, but I didn’t mind. I had no plans on killing him in the first place. If he thought blackmailing me would guarantee this life, I had no problem in letting him.
“I need you to sign off on a joint request from the two of us to the capital. I want to call on reinforcements.”
Needless to say, the Pacific Empire was not at war with Velstand. That was why I was unable to use any member of the field army at my disposal. And as long as Eren and I were competing against each other, I wouldn’t be given permission to use any subjects loyal to the Empire. I’m sure Eren was in the same position. That’s why we were using what few retainers we managed to smuggle in, along with any help we could garner from Velstand itself.
But if the two of us made the request together, the bureaucrats in the capital would be unable to refuse us. As long as the Emperor didn’t get involved, I could request anyone I wanted.
“Interesting. And who would we be summoning?”
“Two people. Members of the Royal Select. James and Seven. I need both of them to execute my final ploy to take this city. Well, I need James for sure. I don’t technically need Seven, but he’s the one I thought would be best to get this city’s Number problem under control.”
“The Number problem? Are you referring to anyone specifically?”
“Of course. I shouldn’t have to explain it to you. I’m sure you’ve thought about it as well. That Number, Vier, he’s too dangerous. I had hoped that getting his owner killed would reset his priorities, but his behavior has already strayed too far from its initial programming. He might not openly oppose me, but if I can’t use him, he’s too dangerous to keep around.”
A massive understatement; I’m sure Eren realized that as well. I’m not sure how strong he actually was, but I knew enough to understand that Vier wasn’t someone I could afford to ignore.
“Sister, you have given us the first good news we’ve heard in some time. Very well, we’ll join your cause. We will do whatever it takes to see that number erased from this existence.”
Eren seemed oddly excited about the idea of getting rid of Vier? Why? I was initially planning on keeping things vague, in an attempt to trick him into thinking I might have been referring to Hana. She was the Number I thought he’d have a problem with. When did Eren and Vier even have any interaction with each other?
“You seem to be lost in thought, but things are finally starting to make sense for us. Let us tell you something. That Number is far more uncontrollable than you realize.”