Reincarnated to set her free

Chapter 5

Or that's what she was hoping for.

Because in fact, her brother took their parents death a little too hard, way  harder than it looked.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I don't know if I'm in another dimension, but this world is a lot less modern that ours. It seems they are stuck in the 16 century.

Anyways, 

Elois was as smart and as quick witted as his sister. And that, plus his heir lessons, made him the perfect duc. It took him two years to give the duché back to its initial power(Although Iris managed it quite well, it was hard for her to maintain a good position due to her lack of experience), and 2 others years to make it the biggest power in the empire.

Meanwhile, Iris was living her best life. Litterally. She had all the money she needed, and althought it was hard for her at first to adjust to the boredom, her brother insisted to take on all the responsability, leaving her with nothing to do, she rapidly found new occupation. They weren't all ''ladylike'' since she enjoyed swordmanship, but most of them were socially acceptable. And even thought she debuted at 20(nobleladies in this world make their first entrance in society at 17) she quickly built herself a big social circle. She made a lot of friends, and at the age of 23, she met Elijah. 

First let me explain how nobles get married in this world.

When a man is interested in a women, he goes and ask for her hand to the head of the family. The head then accept or refuse. If he accept, and really like the pretendent, they immidiatly prepare the marriage, that is what we call an arranged marriage. When the head refuses, he turns it down. When he don't really care, he asks the women asked in marriage if she is okay with it. If she isn't he turns the offer down, if she is, she get engaged with her pretendant during a certain period, so they get to know each other. That period can be a maximum of 2 years, if they don't decide by then, then they move on.

So lets continue with Elijah. Iris, had a lot of pretendants. And women here get married by the age of 20. So to not get in ''trouble'', or not have any rumors on her, she decided to get engaged to a random man of a less powerful house(so she can easily break of the engagement). She discussed this with her brother, and he didn't really have anything to say. So as I was saying, she gets engaged with him and after a few meetings, they fall in love. It is a little cliche, but it is was genuine love so after one year they actually decided to get married. the thing is Elois.

Elois, after taking on the duche became a workaholic but he still passed one hour a day with his sister(I honestly don't know how he found the time for that). Gradually, the only person he was actually seing, apart from the servants was his sister. Iris insisted for him to make a debut, he did, but that didn't really help him. Since the death of the parents, the little brother she knew was no more. He was serious and laughted quite rarely. He was a little rude, and she didn't know if it was power, but something changed the way he saw people. Elois, became really powerful by twenty one year old, he was only second to the king and the crown prince. She also noticed that he was monitoring her movements, the moment he took her place, but she didn't think much of it. He was still kind of sweet to her and okay to the servants of the mansion. 

But everything changed when she started meeting with Elijah. At first, when she  got engaged with him, everything was normal, but then when she started meeting up with him and getting interested in him, Elois started acting strangely. He first asked her to change their daily meeting to the middle of the day, (when it was in the morning before), preventing her from actually planning something outside of the mansion that took more than 5 hours(she didn't protest since it was the only thing she could do for her brother). Then one day, when she asked him to cancel one of their meetings for her to get a day with her fiance, wich was quite normal, they often did that when Elois was too busy,  he throwed a fit, something very unlickly , coming from him. He even instaured a 6 pm curfew, pretexting that it was too dangerous outside for a lady at that late hour, and no matter how hard she protested, he had the final say as the head of the house.

She couldn't hate him, and always found him an excuse, he was her only family after all, and it was normal for him to get jealous, since, while she had quite a lot of friends, he didn't have anyone else. She even tried to match him with some of her friends, and even if he did show a little interest, nothing really resulted from that. He was too busy.

When she asked him if she could marry Elijah, something she thought wouldn't be a real problem, he simply refused. Pretexting that she didn't know him well enough, From that day on, he stopped meeting with her, only seing her 2 hours a week She though he had let go of her, , or accepted her relationship, and it wouldn't take him too long before accepte her marriage, but it wasn't really the case.

6 months after her request, Elijah's family got killed in a carriage accident. She was scared he would leave her so she asked her brother if she could marry him to help her fiance manage the territory he just aquired and help him cope with the deaths of his realtives. I don't need to tell you how surprised she was when her brother threw a new fit, broke eveything in his study and confined her in her room...

She stayed in her room during 5 days. during 5 days she begged for him to let her go. To let her go and find Elijah, but nothing. Absolutly nothing. As if Elois was expecting her confinement, there were bars in her only windows, and a trap in the door to give her food. After those 5 days, he came and apologized. She was in a bad state, but it was worse for him. It seemed as if he didn't eat for days, and he seemed livid. He apologized so profusly, she pitied and forgave him.

Too afraid to anger him again, she didn't talk to him about the marriage, and managed to respect all the new rules he set for her, including the daily meetings he decided to restaure.

Everything was going quite well in the beggenning. And after a while, when she felt that he came back to normal, and that the deadline of her engagement with Elijah was coming to an end(1 month left), she asked him again. This time he seemed totally okay with it and even gave her money to start preparing the ceremony. It seemed like Elijah was also really happy too, he got some time to mourn his family and would be able to build a new one. So everything was going for the best.

Then came the day. It was a sunny day, and it was a week before her wedding(she decided to set it one day before their engagement expiration). That day, she was going to pick a white dress. She insisted for her brother to come with her. So they went. She choose and then she said what she shouldn't have.

She was done choosing a dress. Elijah was going to pay and alone with her brother she said that she felt quite bad for him. Now that she was going to leave the mansion, he would be quite alone, and that he should take her example and marry one of her friends. He snapped. Not quickly though, really slowly, as if he was fighting something. And as Elijah was coming back from his purchase, he jumped on him. Then it went black, she doesn't remember anything else. Anything beside her deep sorrow, hate and the feeling of someone strangling her.

I don't quite understand what happened to her. She wouldn't have been in a coma if she just fainted from shock, and her brother seemed to value her too much to try to kill her. ''I'' remember seing some black light glowing around Elois when she was talking to him. Does magic exist in this world? Iris memory, is too fuzy. I just remember the events of her life, nothing from this world or how it works. I need information.

My head start hurting again, and i feel myself coming back. I open my eyes, it is night, but some candles are lit around me. They are really strong for candles, too strong, magic definitly exist in here. I know that Elois is watching me somehow so I don't move, I just keep my eyes open, thinking.

She want me to set her free. So I guess she wants to escape from her brother. But I think she missed the whole picture. She probably thing that her brother is obssessed with her or something like that. That is what I would have thought if I was the one who lived what she did, but who would have strangled her then?  He isn't THAT crazy. Or that's at least how it seemed. He was isolated from the world. Always working. He is clearly hiding something.

But it is not my job to play detective. My job is to set her free. And that is what I will do. Because I need to make amends to them...