Imperial Affairs (Levi X Reader) AU

34. Lack Of Honorifics

Levi's POV

The prince lived up to his word and what happened was exactly what he said. The day was boring as fuck and I was just miserably following him around the entire damn day.

First, he and his guests, who I had come to know as the Emperor and crown princess of the French Empire, had lunch and it was every bit as grand as Furlan said about how they eat, if not more. They put napkins on their collars but with the way they were eating, it was hard to think that they would drop anything on them. Their meal had many types of meats that I couldn't even recognize or name because I had never seen them and the salads served on their tables were arranged so beautifully that it was hard to think that those same types of vegetables were used to prepare the meals that the servants and guards got.

I could hardly believe my eyes upon seeing them eating normally like it was usual for them to eat that luxurious feast. It was even worse for me because I was made to skip lunch to guard the prince when he would usually dismiss me for mealtime and keep the gloomy brat with him but it was different today because she wasn't there. Imagine what hell I had to go through by seeing dishes that even Furlan couldn't name with his otherworldly knowledge of the world above the grounds when I hadn't had lunch and skipped breakfast because I didn't feel like eating then.

Now I understand why the palace head chef, who is that potato girl's husband, banned her from the kitchen himself.

But other than the food, for drinks they had wine which was coloured redder than the blood I had spilled over the years as they gracefully drank glass after glass of wine made of alcohol in the middle of the damn day.

And I thought that Furlan said that only alcoholics above the ground drank alcohol in the middle of the day and there were far less of those than under there.

I remember as the prince gracefully ate his food once he and his guests were seated and the servants pushing the trolleys had laid their food and he sipped his wine from his wine glass that seemed to have jewels embedded on the upper side of the base.

Once their meal was over, the three of them left to visit the graves of the two late princesses. Once we reached the building where the two were buried, the three entered whereas I stood outside as the prince didn't let me inside because the weather today wasn't bad like the other day when it had started raining.

But as I remembered that day, I remembered another detail that I seemed to have forgotten or looked over. The prince that day quite uncharacteristically didn't stand inside the building holding his family member's graves and order me to go fetch an umbrella for him so that he wouldn't be soaked under the rain like any other royal including him typically would. I remember how he shabbily walked back to the main palace with me following him, his posture and confidence from earlier fading into nothing.

It was as if the lie I told broke something in him.

And he was a sadist, sure, but I didn't think that he was as big of a sadist to walk as a man who had lost everything after finding out that the cousin he wanted to kill was dead.

That made me question if he wanted her dead after all.

But every time anyone mentions his sister or mother or goes to visit them, I remember that it's not worth risking it. If I told the prince that Isabel was still alive and as well as she could be in the Underground then he would immediately get her out of there but I wasn't sure what he would do with her after. He might even kill her and I decided to prevent that by living up to the bastard's expectations and asking him to send them to the capital right away so that he would never see her.

Every time I thought of trusting the prince, I was reminded of the fact that the royals who didn't hesitate or rather, enjoyed spilling the blood of their own family, could not be trusted.