Imperial Affairs (Levi X Reader) AU

40. Still In His Hand

Levi's POV

The coat was comfortable. Too comfortable for me. I didn't understand how these materials were made in the first place. One second I was freezing while standing in the doorway away from the small fireplace in my temporary room and the other, it didn't feel like we were in the coldest area in the entire empire.

I was thinking about how Marco had lent me one of his extra pants and shoes that he had brought because mine had been soaked because they were buried in the snow while I walked from the carriages to the castle.

I walked behind the prince as he walked toward the staircase while I thought about the fact that if I was in bed right now, I could've been asleep in four hours. I'd sleep for three hours and then wake up but the prince ruined that sleep schedule for me. I grumbled inwardly before the prince offered me something.

A cigar.

I accepted one and lit it as we walked down the stairs and smoked it, making me instantly cough.

It was nothing like the ones I had tried before which were more impure than pure and wouldn't cause such effects.

But this one was pure.

As pure as can be.

"Is it too strong?" The prince tilted his head at me, "I can get you a different pack if that's what you want."

"I'm fine, Your Highness," I declined as I smoked the cigar once again. Despite the fact that it was making me cough because I wasn't used to it, it was some serious gourmet shit because of its highest purity. Even Furlan couldn't make this quality for the rich merchants. I have got to have him try this. I have got to have them try all the luxuries you can get above the ground if you have the money and station. You can get anything: coats, cigars, expensive clothes, servants, properties.

Down there, it was a simple rule; survival of the fittest. Up here, however, it's quite complicated. The Underground, no matter what part you look at, is basically the same but that rule doesn't apply here. It's different rules everywhere. It's survival of the fittest in the gangs, survival of the richest in the merchant companies, survival of the smartest in the commoners where they have to set up their jobs and businesses and it's survival of the highest station among nobles and royals.

In other words, survival of the worst in the highest stations, that don't include even the nobles of royal families but only the imperial ones.

Marco had helped me get accustomed to the customs up here among the nobles to be able to understand what problems the prince sometimes spoke of. Up here, it wasn't just the station that mattered; it was the purity of their blood.

If the heir or heiress of a noble family wasn't able to bear their own heirs or heiresses, it was customary to transfer the leadership to one of the heir's siblings' kids. If they adopted a kid, it would be really difficult to transfer the noble title to them because they weren't related by blood.

There was also a problem with illegitimate children. Illegitimate children weren't typically considered part of the family because they were born out of wedlock. They were mistreated and never given the titles they could have achieved had they been a legitimate child.

Another problem was the misogyny in the world. It wasn't just up here but in the Underground too. Though many people had changed their thinking, the fact still remained that most others still considered women to be beneath men and qualified women were rejected for positions that men who were good for nothing were gifted.

It's a good thing that the prince kept one of his full sisters hidden from the world and kept her safe. Though, I imagine that she would be quite independent, similar to how Isabel is, the paranoia still cannot be beaten.

I know quite well that Isabel can take care of herself but I always followed her at a distance whenever she went out to protect her from any dangers.

It's not that I don't trust her. It's just that I'm too scared to lose her.

If I think about the prince's other full sister, Princess Christa; she was talked about as if she was quite independent too. It seemed like the full siblings had had a feud for years but were finally reuniting and joining forces until they were broken apart forever.

I didn't think about it too much but now that I do, I can think of the despair the prince felt because he lost his sister. I can't even imagine what I would do if I lost Isabel...

So, it seems like even monsters like them have hearts that beat for someone else and daggers in their hands that they can use to protect the special people, staining their own hands with blood and not ordering someone else to do it instead because they just want to be there to keep their people safe no matter what how many of their clothes were soaked in filthy blood and how many bodies they had to drag their expensive shoes over.

Because they also had someone else in their hearts; whether it was some who existed at the moment or used to.

I silently followed the prince as he smoked his cigar and I smoked mine. Soon, we reached the east tower where the prince had to fetch something from. The prince unlocked the door as I entered the room that he did too and it was fucking filthy, cleaner than most in the Underground, but still filthy.

Even my room was dirty and I had to clean it.

The only clean room I've seen here is the prince's.

But of course, he's the prince.

"Now, where has he kept them?" The prince wondered out loud and scoffed, "I should've asked him before leaving. Or rather, he should've told me. And he's training to be Erwin's assistant."

I just stood there, staring at the scene with my hands behind my back, not caring the least.

"Levi. Come here. Help me look," The prince commanded as I helplessly sighed and obliged.

"What should I look for, Your Highness?"

"That's none of your business."

Then how the hell am I supposed to look for it?

Before I could say anything, the prince continued, "It's a packet. Not too big. Not too small. And don't read the name of the product."

"Your Highness," I reasoned, "This room is full of suitcases and I wonder how many packets it would have. Do you want me to hold up every packet I find for you to see?"

"Exactly," He nodded as I sighed.

I opened a few suitcases as the prince sat in a chair that was somewhat clean by first spreading a cloth pulled out of one of the suitcases on it. I started showing every packet I found to the prince and after five packets or so, he gave up and gave me more specific instructions.

"Why would Your Highness need a pack of tampons?" I stared at him weirdly.

"I told you! Mikasa needs them!"

"I understand," I nodded as I handed him the pack he was looking for in one of the five random packets I had pulled out. Apparently, he didn't even know how the packet he needed looked.

The prince coughed awkwardly, looking away as he pulled out a bag from one of the suitcases to hold the packet in while I just stared into his soul. A few seconds later, he turned away, leaving the room and when I was also out, behind him, he locked the door and turned away as I followed him. We soon arrived in the corridor that the prince temporarily resided in along with the gloomy brat.

In this corridor, the second room was the gloomy brat's and the fifth was the prince's.

"You can go back now. I'll give these to Mikasa," He told me as I nodded and left.

After I walked a few steps into the corridor to the left, I remembered that I still had his coat on and turned back to return it.

But when I got to that corridor, I saw the prince was past the third room already, as if he hadn't spent much time in the gloomy brat's room but what confused me the most was that...

The bag was still in his hand.

A/N = What is a math teacher's favourite dessert? Pie.

February 28, 2023

- Heliaxa