Chapter 4
Meanwhile, not too far away from the scared generals was the manor house of Duke Longbert, the only high noble in this particular area. While one would expect that the Duke and his family would be happy about the Directrix showing up, nothing could be less true. In fact, the Duke was interested in turning this area into his own small kingdom, rather than having to pay homage to the Emperor and the Direcrix. As his own military forces consisted of a few turncoat army soldiers and some armed peasants (the local rebel movement), he was careful to appear as a loyal noble. As the Directrix was due to show up this evening for dinner, at the expense of the Duke of course, today was a special day in the Longbert household.
"Father, why do we have to be polite to that arrogant Directrix. He should be ashamed to call himself Bravian. He knows nothing of the freedoms that we want, especially ever since he betrayed the rebel forces and joined up with the Emperor," young Eric Longbert said to his father.
"Son, we may disagree with him, but as he is the second in the command of the Empire and has a thousand very elite troops with him, it is best not to make a scene, or else our bodies will be gruesomely tortured as an example of how the emperor treats its traitors. That would not only be a disaster for the rebel movement, but for our family as well. After all, who knows what kind of temper he has, after all, our actions are why he is here in the first place," the Duke reminded his son.
"Yes, I have been distracted from plans by some stupid butterflies. Just this afternoon this group of blue butterflies started attacking me. They play so gently with Cherie, but they attack me," whines Eric.
"I think you need to keep the Great Purple Hairstreaks from bothering you. Butterflies are odd creatures, for their actions betray much of the plans of the mages. If the butterflies are bothering you, just go inside until they alight on somebody else. After all, they do seem to like your sister," says the kindly Duke.
They look across the beautiful rose garden where they are standing, filled with roses of all colors, and near the only blue rosebush the beautiful young Cherie is playing, a young lady with dark hair, wearing a beautiful pink-colored dress, while the butterflies are gently playing with her hair and landing on her shoulders. She is laughing and giggling, having a good time, and at the age of 13 is still quite carefree about the world.
"I am so glad that our daughter is having fun in this dark world. Too bad her sister never got to enjoy this," quietly says the Duke.
"Father, you cannot blame yourself for the kidnapping of our sister Bathsheba when she was only 10. Who could have known that our chamberlain was a person who profited from stealing young ladies and selling them as prostitutes. She's probably pleasing someone in Bravia right now, but it's not your fault," shivers Eric.
"I know, son, but there are some things that just trouble me. How I wish your sister was here, for maybe we would have some way of getting the Directrix to be on our side," says the Duke.
"Well, the Directrix is known for his taste in young ladies," says Eric.
"True, but if he wanted our dear little Cherie, he could probably find a pretense for just taking her without compensation, and we would lose her without gaining him as an ally. If Bathsheba were here, though, we could offer her hand in marriage to the Directrix and he would thus be tied to our family interests as well. In fact, we might not even need to support these rebel schemes then, if we were sufficiently empowered by the Directrix's support," says the Duke.
Eric replies, "That is all very true, but it is a shame she is not here. As it is, what is our plan for the dinner?"
The Duke looks at him and shrugs, "I do not know if there is anything we can do. He will probably bring a large enough guard that he has a taste tester to avoid poison, if there is no spy in our house already ensuring that the Directrix knows what is going on, as well as a guard to keep us from overpowering him. It is our best to befriend him by making him feel safe before we do anything."
"I wish I could be so confident," says Eric.
"Confidence will come with time, son," the Duke gently tells his son.
"With our luck, he'll probably bring one of his concubines too. At least she'll be pretty to look at," says Eric.
"There you go, thinking with your little head instead of your big head. Do you think the Directrix will appreciate you staring at his concubine. In fact, he will probably have you killed right there at the dinner. That would do no one any good at all," the Duke warns his son.
"That's true. Let's just go and get ready for his arrival," Eric says in a low voice.
"I agree, he will be arriving soon," the Duke says.
As they walk inside a small airship carrying the Directrix and his chief concubine arrives at the household, and Cherie stops playing with the butterflies after her mother scolds her for not being ready in time for the dinner. As Cherie rushes outside, the Directrix and Bathsheba walk outside of the transport, noticing that the Directrix's official butterfly, the beautiful Great Purple Hairstreak, is around the manor house in force. They smile as the butterflies alight onto the two of them as they walk into the house for their banquet.
[ Chapter 3 ]
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