Chapter 21: Ripple Juice
THE MONTH OF NINSUM DAY 25 YEAR 675 OF THE SECOND HOLY CALENDAR
Dominic watched as the red juice poured into the pitcher on the table. As he let out a sigh, it had come to this. He hadn't wanted it to, but then again, he was a powerless baby. How is he supposed to stop the tide of a war? He didn't even know who they were fighting or whose side he was supposed to be on. Information, really, was King in war, but Dominic could barely speak the language. “At least I could now take that information to my next life.”
Over the past few days, the situation in the Mansion had gone from tense to impossibly tense. The soldiers had been training even more intensely, and he'd seen Luce less and less. Dominic's predictions that War was happening in the outside world were proven accurate when Luce started to receive war reports. He'd even watch them pouring over a map with figure representations of the various armies moving around. Now, he was sitting in front of a pitcher of Nora's favorite drink, and everyone gathered around the dining room table with somber expressions and somber clothing. Maybe it wasn't poisoned, but he hadn't seen ripple juice since that time on the lawn. It was clear that some rationing was going on, and there was no way at the height of recent tension and with many guards disappearing. There was no way this drink wasn't poisoned.
“So we're killing ourselves?” As a history student, Dominic knew that it was generally considered honorable in most societies, from Japan to ancient Rome—a culture of killing yourself rather than becoming a prisoner or allowing your family to be dishonored. Of course, as someone from the modern lower class, he never thought this would happen to him. “But I suppose these past six months, I have been completely out of my expectations for what I thought my life would look like.” For better or worse, it had been a wild ride.
Dominic felt as powerless as he ever had been. As impotent as when his idiot managers had bullied him, as powerless as that time, he got mugged. As powerless as when he watched his mother's boyfriend break her nose. There was nothing he could do. They were bigger and stronger, they were armed, they had more experience in fighting, and right now, he was only a baby. How could a baby stop a war? He couldn't even stop himself from drinking the poisoned liquid or stop his sister, who was eagerly awaiting her cup, not even knowing what was in it.
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Luce also watched as the Ripple juice was poured into the pitcher. Without even thinking about it, she prevented Nora from reaching for it. She mentally chuckled at herself, wondering when she'd become such a mother to two children who weren't even her children. Valerius, the love of her life, had married a different woman for political reasons, but she stayed with him even though he could never marry her now. She would never have her children of her own. At least as long as she stayed with him, she would raise another woman's children by the man she loved. Luce wondered why she stayed with him even after he married her. They said love was like a sickness, and if that was true, she was practically dead from the disease.
She looked at the two children she'd raised. Nora was excited to see her favorite drink and was trying to get it. Dominic watched it with an expressionless face. He seemed to know that something was going on, But then again, Dominic and Nora had been strange since they were born. They matured strangely quickly and learned things that no child should. Dominic almost seemed like an older man in a child's body. Luce wondered if she'd made the same decision if they were her children and not that bitch's children.
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When both Dominic and Nora were born, Luce was in the room where the birth occurred. Luce heard somewhere that when a commoner gave birth to children, it was a bloody and often deadly affair, but for Nobles trained in Magic from birth and had access to Healing Magic, it was a relatively straightforward process. When both children were born, Maria immediately handed them over without looking at them. She hated her children because of the man who had gotten her pregnant. Luce understood that she was blessed to have loving parents and to have been raised in a relatively safe and comfortable environment. She had never really hated anyone before, but that was only until she met Maria.
For as long as she thought about the future, her simple wish was to marry Valerius. They had sometimes fought, and she'd even thought it was over, but that was ultimately what she wanted. Although she never factored children into her life with him vaguely, somewhere deep down, she'd always thought there would be a child in the mix. But that was until Valerius defeated the Wolf of the Norost mountains, who would promptly marry his daughter off to Valerius. When Valerius had tried to refuse, the Wolf of the Norris Mountains directly requested the Black Court to intercede. The woman who would obtain her happiness hated her children because of her husband's lackluster bloodline. She could say without a shadow of a doubt that she hated Maria.
Luckily for her, neither Dominic nor Nora had even an inkling of her appearance; both had golden eyes, the same as Valerius's, and black hair. But she still wondered if she could love them enough because she wasn't their birth mother, even if their birth mother hadn't even taken the time to give a name, something that all mothers were traditionally obligated to and had the right to do. It was instead Luce who had given them names. Luce had found the wet nurse for them, and it was Luce who had all the obligations and privileges of parenthood.
She had ultimately decided to kill her children. This was all to prevent them from becoming hostages that might used against Valerius. It was initially suggested by the other woman she hated, Veronica. It wasn't like it was out of the question for the Antlatur's use children as hostages. Francis The Liberator was lured to his death by the Kingdom of Antlatur using his brother as a hostage. She knew that Valerius loved his children. She knew a birth mother wouldn't do that to her children.
“Are you sure you want to join us, Jane?” Turning to Dominick's maid, Luce asked this question out of genuine concern. Jane was holding Dominic like one might have a stuffed animal holding him in her lap. But Dominic did look like a stuffed animal. He was as still as a stuffed animal and as cute as one.
“Of course, I do, my lady. I have a brother and sister fighting, and I can't become a burden to them.” Jane said with the determination. Most of the household staff were planning on joining her in death, and many of them were nobles like Jane, hailing from noble families serving the royal family. Even the ones that weren't had hatred for Antlatur carved into their bones. When they heard of their lady's determination to kill herself, they all decided to join her as many of them, too, had members of their family serving in the military.
“And you, Patrick?” Patrick was the captain of the garrison of the detached palace where Valerius lived for specific reasons. He was loyal to Valerius. The entire garrison had been chosen for members of the first division who worshiped the ground he walked on.
“I would much rather die with Antlatur blood flowing down my sword,” The old man responded.
A loud sound rang throughout the city before she could even thank him for his service. Slowly, the sound spread, and eventually, they could make it out. It was the sound of cheering and celebration. “Glory to the Kingdom of Black, Glory to Veronica Black, Glory to Noel.”
The soldier she had assigned to tell her of the status of the battle burst in: “Lady Luce, we won, we won. Antlatur is falling back.” Luce prayed for this to happen but was still relieved when she heard this. She grabbed the pitcher on the table and opened the window, and with Nora's cry in the background, she dumped the contents. “Glory to Veronica Black.”