Imperial Affairs (Levi X Reader) AU

25. Heartless

Levi's POV

Perhaps it was cautiousness that made me lie because the prince, like everyone else from the Imperial family, was made to kill. Especially their own family to protect their position. The Underground was a terrible place and we didn't know most of what was going on outside but we still had some idea. While living in the Underground, I found out about the three powerful bloodlines and while more extensively looking at what Ackermans really were in the library that was made available to palace workers and why I would freeze up when I heard that name. I found that the Yeagers, the Imperial family of the English Empire, were the most bloodthirsty family out of the three.

They were like snakes.

Worse than snakes.

Isabel told me that she did know about her family history to some extent and that they never left the English Empire or at least no one till her grandfather's time left the Underground.

It was her grandmother who had come from outside.

I could tell that she wasn't from the French Imperial family but the English because of the portraits in the prince's palace. I could see the Emperor and the prince's mother and if anything, I could pinpoint the familiarity between the Emperor and Isabel that I couldn't recognize before.

I lied to the prince to protect Isabel.

Because what would happen if word got out that someone with English Imperial blood was living in the Underground? That there was one more? Everyone with Imperial blood in the Empire is in danger even if they have withdrawn their right to the throne. Even if they are from a branch family.

There's only one branch family of the English Imperial family and they receive extra protection from the Emperor. More than the Imperial children because the children are supposed to fight to the death but the branch family shouldn't be involved unless no one from the main family is left alive to carry on.

What would happen if a new member of the Imperial family showed up from the Underground where the Empress has power? What would happen if that member had no means to defend themself? Not only that person but their friends would be killed off as well.

I didn't want to bring Isabel to the 'kill or be killed' life the Imperial family had where they drenched their hands with blood to gain power.

When I first came here, I thought that the people of the Underground and the Imperial family members were the same. We all killed to survive but then I found out that I was wrong.

We did it to survive another day.

They did it to reign over others another day.

We lived at the bottom, trying to stay there as long as we could before we fell even below.

They lived at the top, doing everything they could to push those around them down and us even below.

Everyday, we give life our all just to be able to eat another rotten meal, drink another drop of dirty water and live another day of our hellish lives but these people, they don't even do anything and are given better things on a daily basis. Those kinds of things that we haven't even heard of.

We worked so damn hard just to be given these rotten rich bastards' leftovers.

They did nothing to help us. To save us from that hell.

What is the point if those with the means and power do not fight?

What would happen if in between all these heartless bastards, a girl who wasn't as fortunate as was living off of what these shitheads left in the garbage was suddenly dragged here with someone as powerful as the prince who could make anyone disappear forever with a snap of his fingers with his eyes set on her? And the Empress who was the one person I considered more dangerous than this bloodthirsty family sees someone with Imperial blood that she can use. What would happen then?

I wasn't about to bring Isabel in this group of monsters that would do anything in their power to take her life.

She was an exception. She had a heart. She cared for others more than she cared for herself. Like the time she fed a hungry bird with the last slice of bread she had. When she gave a poor man in a worse condition than her, her whole meal that day.

But if all of them except her were emotionless bastards who only knew how to drag everyone down when they were falling, why did the prince look at me with widened eyes as if I had just taken his last hope from him with the raindrops falling on his face and me not being able to tell if that was the rain or his tears.

Why did he let me in the small building where his mother and sister were buried instead of having me stand outside in the rain so I didn't obstruct his privacy with his late family. He only sent me to sit in the cleaning supply closet which had plenty of room for me to stand in. Though, that didn't help him much since I could still hear his choking on his own breath and muffled sobbing while I waited.

That made me question if they really were killers, thirsty for power, control and authority or if they had hearts, buried deep deep down, so that no one could see it or hurt it.

Maybe they were good people before and only turned into creatures worse than a vicious snake because they were surrounded by those.

Or maybe they had a heart before and they hardened it.

If so, then they were nothing more than mindless monsters.

Not that I was any better. I didn't believe myself to have a heart. I wasn't like Isabel or Furlan. Isabel gave everything she had to people who needed it more while Furlan thought of rising up unlike me who wanted to drag everyone down with me if I was falling.

I wasn't any better than these rich bastards. If I was scrutinising them, I was scrutinising myself as well. Though I deserved it. For all the blood that I spilled without any sort of hesitation just like these people up here.

I hadn't done anything meaningful in my life but I would and I would start by protecting those two and hope that I didn't give Mom, wherever she is, a reason to be disappointed in me.

I was neither on the prince's side nor on the empress's. If I got a chance to kill the prince, I would and if I got a chance to 'prove myself' to him, I would do that as well.

It didn't matter if he had a heart or not because he could never amount to anything for me, let alone someone worth risking Isabel's life for.

No matter how many times I saw his blank eyes or his sorrowful ones, his blank expression or his pained one, his blank voice or his sobbing one, I would let the last remnants of my heart waver because it could all be an act he was putting one to make me say that she was alive. Or it could all be his pain because he didn't get to kill her himself. I could never figure out what was going through his crazy brain.

I had already stepped over so many bodies and I wouldn't even think to step over many more to protect the two people that meant the world to me and do anything to protect them without regrets. I would have one regret though and that would be that I couldn't be the man my mother wanted me to be.

A/N = If I keep writing at this pace then this story would end up being well over a hundred chapters. Do you think that I should keep going at this pace or cover more things in less words?