Imperial Affairs (Levi X Reader) AU

1. Introductions

Reader's POV

I woke up to the sound of Reiner shuffling around my room, coming to wake me up. I sat up in my king size bed, pissed off for no reason at all. Reiner looked at me and grinned, happy that he wouldn't have to put up with my antics when I am half asleep and in no mood to wake up as I was already up.

"Good morning, your highness," chuckled Reiner.

"No, you may not take the day off," I grunted. I understood where he was getting at, he was talking nicely because he wanted something.

"Damn," he said, "It didn't work."

"When has it ever worked?"

I was the 2nd child of the English imperial family, a prince, well at least that was what people thought. I was a princess but I kept my identity hidden from everyone except those close to me, one of the ones I trusted was Reiner. He was my childhood friend and he was the same age as me. He worked at my palace as my personal attendant and also helped me keep my identity hidden. If I was a princess and not directly in line to the throne, it would be harder to fight for it as the first thing that the nobles and the empress would think of would be to marry me off somewhere. Or maybe the Empress wouldn't do that for the sake of fulfilling her bloody desires and instead try to kill me and I wouldn't be able to defend myself with the little power I would have if the people knew I was a princess.

I was planning to reveal that when I am made the crown prince, if that ever happens. That wouldn't be that much of a problem since the Emperor knows and me being the child of his actual loved one, he decided to help me by giving me a fair chance to fight for what could be mine.

"Oh, and get ready quickly, I have some news," Announced Reiner. 

"Let me guess," I pretended to think, putting my finger on my chin when I already knew the answer, "The empress sent someone again."

"Yeah," Reiner said, taking out a white shirt, black pants and a fully embroidered coat for me to wear after getting ready, "He's an assassin in the disguise of a guard, and guess what?"

"What?"

"He's short as hell," Reiner said, laughing.

I snickered, "Maybe the empress has run out of people to send to try to kill me."

I walked through my huge room with a carpeted floor, a little study in my room even though I had another study, a huge window, a balcony and couches. I went to the bathroom to wash up first while Reiner waited in my room, looking for my makeup kit to put on and a specially designed corset to make me look larger which I was used to by now. I was 17, I had hit puberty and definitely didn't look like a man without makeup. Even with makeup, I looked like a rather small man, despite being 177 cm, my body was still a little slender for a man even though I was quite muscular, the strongest swordsman in the empire. Sometimes I worried that someone might see through my act. 

After cleaning up, first I covered my chest area by covering it with a tight cloth which hurt a little even though it was routine. Then, I put on the rest of my clothes and exited my bathroom where Reiner was waiting to put on my makeup.

I checked the mirror once I was completely ready and saw that I looked rather good. I understood why all the ladies were crazy about me. If this version of me were another person, I would have a crush too. I had short (h/c) hair that spread over my head with my bangs covering my forehead and coming downwards a little bit in front of my eyes. My soft (s/c) skin made me look more attractive. The makeup made me look a little out of place whereas my real face was somewhat a mixture between mother's and father's. My white shirt and black pants fit perfectly and my coat embroidered with purple, violet, indigo and white patterns hung off my shoulders. My black shoes were polished too.

I ran my hand through my hair to look at my handsome face or at least that is what I would like to call it to admire myself when Reiner raised an eyebrow and said,

"Seriously?"

"What?"

"You do this everyday."

"What can I say, I am just that good-looking."

"Whatever," Reiner snorted.

"And I was thinking about letting you take the day off," I grinned.

"You look as charming as always, your highness," He said, opening the door.

"Mhm"

I entered the hallway and met eyes with Mikasa, my real guard who actually wanted to protect me. I met her a little bit after meeting Reiner and she was the same age as me. She was from the only branch family of the Ackerman family and the previous heiress of the Ackerman Trading Company, the largest trading company in the continent that had been started over a century ago by an Ackerman who was more ambitious than their ancestors commoner and had a knack for salesmanship. Mikasa had left all of that status because the money they had got them targeted in an attack where both of Mikasa's parents died and she wanted to leave all of it behind and I happened to be visiting the Company at that time with my father, Emperor Eren Yeager and our presence and our guards ended up saving Mikasa and she decided to join me and since she was strong she decided to train to protect me.

Currently the Ackerman Trading Company was run by Kenny Ackerman and had no heir since Mikasa had left and the other members of the main family were missing for quite some time.

Mikasa looked at me and said, "The empress has sent someone," she paused, "again."

"Yeah, Reiner informed me. He must be in the main hallway, I presume?"

"Yes."

I strided through the 5th floor where my chambers were and down to the ground floor towards the main hallway with Mikasa following behind and the servants and the guards bowed respectfully upon seeing me. The walls had a purple, blue, black and white colour scheme and had some paintings and pictures hung on them.

In the main hallway, I was greeted by two of my guards standing on either side of a short man which I supposed was the man the empress sent. Suddenly I felt better, I was supposedly larger than him so people were more likely to suspect him for being a woman than me because of his size which he probably wasn't. It boosted my confidence a little that I wasn't doing so bad. He still hadn't been allowed entry in my palace by me so the guards were standing to supervise him. I approached them and dismissed the guards.

When I neared the small man, I felt my skin start to twitch in a way that it had years ago, the last time it did. However, I just ignored it and continued on.

The man had a black hair styled into a curtain undercut and silver eyes which had small eye bags under them and it looked like he was wearing eyeliner. He looked about 160 cm and I would've mistaken him for a kid if Reiner hadn't previously informed me that he was 20 years old. I wasn't going to lie, he had quite a good face. The way that he didn't even think to bow in front of someone with my status, the highest one among the Imperial children, indicated his impudence. This was something not even the previously sent guards had done. I found that ever so slightly annoying but more than that, it was interesting.

"Introduce yourself." I said glaring slightly, towering above him even though I already had received a little report on who he was.

He glared back and said,

"Names Levi."

A/N = That was the first episode. I hope you liked it! I will be leaving a note at the end of each episode so if you didn't understand something about the episode, you can ask me here!

29/12/2021

- Heliaxa