Vergil's OneShots (DMC Fanfiction)

Your Guardian (Part Two)

[Your Guardian – Part 2]

"My Lady, if you do not leave for the carriage now, I fear you will not be able to make it to the ball on time." Cain spoke up politely as I looked up from the diary I had been writing upon, meeting cool green eyes that had become unafraid of meeting mine over the years that we had spent together. Through the mirror, the sight of a well-dressed young man who had grown up very well met me, and I could not help but recall the years that had passed since the first day he arrived at the door of the Danton house.

Cain had looked like a strong gust of wind could easily blow him off his feet back when he had first been introduced to my father by the princes, but he had certainly taken his training very seriously. Of course, a further contributing factor had to be his innate talent and ability at the sword, though I'd like to think that the Danton support also contributed in helping him fit his title and clothes as well. Over the years, I had heard talk from his teachers, my maidservants, and even my parents about how Cain had taken advantage of the classes that my father had assigned to him as part of his training to be my bodyguard knight.

In fact, the boy from back then had fared so well that my father had added on more classes in addition to his role as a bodyguard, and more for Cain's title as the Baron Lander.

"So what if I turn up to the ball late?" I responded with a light scoff, keeping to myself the amusement at his inability to keep his expression from turning dismayed at my dismissal of his suggestion. "Everyone would just be spreading stories about how I was late because I was helping out some poor orphan on the street, or caught up receiving praise for my foresight in investing in the newest trend or something of that sort."

"It will still be prudent for us to at least attempt to make haste, my Lady." Cain answered because the man himself –for all his wits and strategy in sword-fighting –could not come up with an explanation for the strange happenings around the lady he served.

It was certainly a strange phenomenon, and a very large boulder in my self-directed journey towards ruining my own reputation and position as a Crown Princess-to-be in order to avoid death. Ever since I decided to take my own fate into my own hands and avoid being poisoned to death purely because of my position as a Crown Princess-to-be, I had flipped through all my memories about the original storyline of Your Guardian and had exclusively picked out every name and event that was associated with evil, villainy, greed... and basically forced myself to get closer to these people and events.

Take for example Marquis Keifer. Somewhere down the timeline in the original story, Marquis Keifer was set to be executed on orders from Prince Vergil after being discovered to have taken part in the plan that killed Corvina Danton (i.e. me).  It was a simple case of a father who had desperately wanted his daughter to become the tool that linked him to the royal family, and Corvina Danton holding on tightly to the Crown Princess-to-be position was basically his biggest road block to that dream.

Naturally, to avoid death thanks to Marquis Keifer's careful planning, trying to avoid him as much as possible was the best strategy... except that I did the opposite. I forced myself to make friends with Kelly Keifer, the lady that Marquis Keifer so desperately wanted to replace me with. At first, I had approached Kelly –a young lady who had created for herself a not-so-stellar reputation because of her tendency to let her emotions dictate her and fly into a temper quickly –with the pure intention of being so close to her that she would eventually dissuade her father from trying to remove me from my (unwilling) position by killing me.

What turned out to happen went a little bit off the mark – it turned out that Kelly's bad temper had been born from her father's lack of attention showered upon her, and that she had always made fusses in public in attempts to get some attention. When I ignored her bad reputation and approached her to be a friend, she turned out to bask in the attention that I tried my best to give her, and her temper eventually calmed. I wasn't sure why the princes always insisted on coming along for the ride whenever I tried to visit my friend, and Kelly greatly enjoyed the company much more. With the princes and the Crown Princess-to-be frequently visiting the Keifer House thanks to our friendship, the Marquis became more and more welcoming of us –especially me –and eventually, the man even pledged himself to be on my father's side in terms of palace factions.