Side Story 1: Love vs Stanning (1)
-There are two suns in Crescenta empire.
That was a saying that mocked the imperial house of Crescenta, the land of talented people and magicians.
The more Louvremont house gained glory, the deeper the imperial house’s authority plummeted. The decisive trigger for this turnover of power was due to a terrible calamity that occurred 4 years ago.
The disaster later named ‘the great calamity of the world’ had an immense impact to swallow not only the Crescenta empire but the whole world Gaionia had created.
Fire rained down from the sky and beasts rampaged wildly and ground cracked apart, swallowing people into the lava below.
What appeared amidst that horrifying disaster that could easily be called the end or the world, was a single stream of light that would save humanity.
The light delivered everyone from the end of the world.
The dead revived and infinite vitality flowed. Those who witnessed it called it a ‘miracle.’
And the person who caused that miracle was found out to be the duchess of the great Duke House Louvremont. It surprised all those in Crescenta.
Because house Louvremont was one of the most prominent organizations that denied the existence of dragon god Gaionia.
[House Louvremont revived the world discarded by dragon god Gaionia.]
Duchess Aisha Louvremont, who had revived the world from calamity, was then revered as the ‘holy maiden’ and naturally the name Louvremont was engraved at the peak of the Empire, no, the world.
The one who has benefitted the most from the evident turn of power would be…
“Why? Are they crazy?! Who are they ter dare try kidnapping Priestess Deborah? Al’ dat’s left for ye lots would be now getting caught by His Grace an’ getting shredded ter pieces, eh?”
This man lying lazily on the sofa as he flips through pages.
Roxa Tribolt.
He was called ‘the white magician’ due to his hair color and was originally a famous wanted man of the empire. But his status was overturned in an instant just because he was one of the closest men of duke Louvremont.
-Lift the bounty on Roxa Tribolt’s head and permit him to live his life in the empire. He is my man, and he will live within the domain of the Louvremont castle and if he dares to do something to overturn the order of this empire, I will make stop him myself.
Not only was his criminal label lifted, he was also demanded to be brought in as the member of Louvremont, giving him ultimate free will.
The imperial house was baffled by this announcement but… what could they do? That demand that was near threat came from Hades Louvremont, a sun that known to be rising higher than the emperor himself.
Anyways, that was how Roxa Tribolt arrived at Louvremont and now he was working as the leader of ‘Louvremont magic foundation’ consisting of talents from all across the empire per Hades’ orders.
Indeed, he was known for turning his life around full 180.
Of course, he couldn’t let go of his habits picked up from the time he lived as a free spirit, ending up messing around in the fancy research lab like this on a daily basis.
Blam-!
“O’ me days!”
The door burst open without warning. Roxa shot up from where he lied to sit up straight.
“Ye-Ye Grace?”
Seeing Hades looking quite angered, Roxa gulped dryly.
What could this be?
Wondering, Roxa only realized looking at a familiar face hiding behind Hades.
Calten Rohas.
He was a 14 year-old young talent showing promise within Louvremont magic foundation recently, who, with a great appetite for knowledge, ended up tormenting Roxa every day.
“Are you slacking off again?”
“Slacking off, not a chance Ye Grace…”
Smiling awkwardly, Roxa snuck a glare at Calten.
Calten flinched and hid more closely behind Hades.
It was surprising to see him reporting the head of the foundation slacking off to Duke Louvremont directly when he was merely one of many magicians in the Magic foundation, but there was a reason behind that had his reasons.
Calten Rohas was the same age as Abel Louvremont, the heir, and they were close friends. Thanks to that, he was a hidden power receiving the bias of duke and duchess Louvremont.
“What are you glaring at the kid for?”
“Ha, glaring, Ye Grace? How would I even glare with these eyes? I canna even open dem al’ dat well…”
“All you do is talk. Do you want to go back to the times when you were on the wanted list? What happened to the earth element class that was to happen this afternoon? Why aren’t you there and lying here sprawled instead?”
“I was about ter get ter it…”
Looking at Roxa making excuses with discontent, Hades clicked his tongue and glanced at the book jammed to his side and winced at once.
“As expected, you were fooling around.”
Following Hades’ gaze, Roxa looked down at the book in his hand and hid it behind his back at once, surprised.
“Tis not so! Tis not so! I will be heading out right away! Oy, Calten! Prepare fer class!”
Seeing Roxa’s floundering reaction as he shed cold sweat, Hades narrowed his eyes.
“What is it?”
“Wo-wocha mean… I-I best be going.”
Still hiding the book behind his back. Roxa was about to leave the research lab in awkward steps when Hades stopped him.
“Hand over what you’re hiding.”
“H-hide ye say?”
Seeing Roxa trying to play dumb, Hades gave a grin.
In that moment the silky hair Roxa values so much has caught small fire and flamed up at once. Roxa screamed as he dropped the book.
“Ahhhgh! F-fine! Dis! Turn dis off Ye Grace!”
“That’s more like it.” Scoffing, Hades turned off the fire and picked up the dropped book. “What is this?”
The insignificant looking book cover had a title on it he could not understand.
“W-wasna me who wrote it.”
“Who says you did? Why are you trembling so hard? What is this?”
Hades was surprised as he asked. He could see Roxa’s narrow eyes open up wide enough to see his Iris rolling around here and there.
He usually wasn’t the kind to have such expressions on.
“T-tis just a romance novel dat’s a hit within da capital nowadays. Since it wos so popular here an’ there, I got meself a copy ter read…”
“A romance novel? How old are you to be reading such things even slacking off on the job?”
“I wos jus’ trying ter get da jest o’ it meself bu’ it was so entertaining I lost track o’ time…” Roxa himself seemed to be amazed by himself and shook his head.
Intrigued, Hades asked as he tilted his head. “Really? What is it about?”
“Kya… a love o’ da century between Duke Louvremont an’ da only holy maiden of the empire!”
“…What?” Hades was taken aback at first, but he soon smiled.
He was Duke Louvremont and the one who is deemed as the holy maiden of the empire now was Aisha.
There were times when nameless commoner authors imagined the everyday lives of nobles and made pop novels.
Since the Louvremont name was gaining value every day, it was not so odd to see such novels being written. Especially if it’s a story about him being regarded as the ‘lover of the century’ who had married a lady from a nameless house against the opposition of the vassals.
Hades smiled awkwardly as he rubbed off the tip of his nose. “Well, there was no need to be so…”
Looking at Hades’ proud expression. Roxa’s face turned pale at once.
“Ah, dat-d-er, Ye Grace…”
“What.”
“But er… da Duke Louvremont in dat book is er…”
“What, too dashing?”
“Ah…”
Without even a time to make excuses, Hades snapped the book down on Roxa’s head, just hard enough to not hurt him.
“Anyways, I’m confiscating this. Get to work.”
“Y-Ye Grace! W-wot are ye gonna do with dat… dat book?!”
Roxa tugged at Hades as he was about to leave the lab.
He turned around and grinned.
“I should read it too. It’s a story about me.”
“No!”
“Don’t mess with that kid for no reason and work hard. I will let your slacking off pass this time since you said the book was entertaining.”
Looking extremely pleased, Hades left the lab.
Roxa couldn’t tell the truth.
***
[I dedicate this book to my beloved sibling, Genus.
Genus, I have published a ‘spinoff included complete version’ with the lovey-dovey spinoff you’ve wished for. Hope you read it. Love you.]
Hades was startled as he returned to his room to open the first page.
There would only be few who recognize the name ‘Genus’ in the common salutations of the author.
“Is this…”
Hades couldn’t help but recall Aisha’s voice when she talked about her sibling, Procreathor.
-Procreathor is currently…
-Working as an author.
-He published a book there. It was a book that had the stories of this world in a novel format. It would have probably been so that I would read it and find something out, right?
-I fell for the protagonist of the book…
“Could this be… the book that made Aisha fall for me in the first place?”
How in the world did Procreathor manage to release this book in the capital, he had no idea. But Hades hurried through the pages.
Thinking he should read at once the story of him that made Aisha fall for him through mere text.
***
“Mhm.”
I was well prepared for today.
With only a few days left from Abel’s birthday, I asked him what he would like as a gift.
It was the answer he gave me without a moment of hesitation that made me prepare.
-A little brother or a sister.
“Yeesh, really…”
Though even without intending to, my life consisted of attempting to make Abel’s sibling every other day due to how overeager Hades was, but…
‘Is baby making supposed to be this hard?’
I didn’t even attempt birth control on purpose but there was no news for the last four years. It was rather astonishing now that I thought back.
Could it be because I didn’t wish for it dearly enough while doing the deed?
Anyways, due to Abel mentioning his birthday gift, I felt a certain degree of responsibility and am now…
…Standing before Hades’ room.
I snuck a peep at the inside of the house dress under the gown. I could see my undergarments of passionate colors brought in from the capital.
“Mhm. I’m ready.”
Though I was used to it, I felt a surge of nervousness. After drawing a few breaths, I opened up my husband’s room door.
“Honey~”
And the moment I opened the door…
I could see the white blanket bellowing up in the sky.
The pitiful layer of blanket that seemed to have been kicked by Hades in bed rose up and landed grandly.
What is this? I was wondering as to why Hades’ face was red as he chewed on his lips.
“…Why are you venting your anger on the blanket all of a sudden?”