The Duchess - Gruvia

Chapter 01

The March of Rain was governed by the Lancasters for hundreds of years. They were the fearsome Lancaster of the South, Where The Rain Never Stops. They were cold and expressionless and damn right powerful with their own small army, which was necessary, since the March was a forgotten land by the sea and was sometimes attacked.

But the name Lancaster was doomed when the last Marquess had four daughters. He and his wife tried to have a boy, but it never came and even worse, all the girls died before married. All except the youngest.

Stormi Lancaster then married Sylvian Lockser, a Baron from a small island rich in blue diamonds, very rare and very expansive, making the March of Rain a prominent place.

Sadly, the marriage didn't last long; Stormi died in childbirth only two years after the ceremony. The baby survived, a little girl and the tradition of the Lancaster family was to name the children in honor to the rain, so she named her Juvia. Baron Lockser was devastated with the death of his wife; so devastated that he couldn't even look to his daughter straight, seeing that the girl was almost a copy of her mother.

When Juvia was three, after an attack of pirates to one of the ships containing the blue diamonds, Baron Sylvian Lockser was killed while protecting the jewels. A couple of years later at such an early age of five, Juvia Lockser became the Marchioness of the Rain when her grandfather died.

Of course the vultures appeared to take advantage of her naivety; she was too young when it all happened and bending her to their own agenda would've been incredibly easy.

The one to push them all away was Jose Porla, the advisor of the late Marquess and Baron Lockser. He was already an aged man who always treated the young Marchioness with kindness, even though he was very strict and had many rules to keep her safe of everything that could harm her. Sadly, his overprotective nature made her miss out most of the fun of being a child.

According to Master Jose, as he was called, the world was a very awful place and it should be avoided at any cost. But Juvia was skeptical; she had seen the images in her books and there was no way that people who lived under the beautiful sun was evil.

The sun.

She never actually saw the sky without clouds or a day without rain. She did live at the March of Rain, Where The Rain Never Stops. She dreamt of bathing in sunlight and wondered about how it would make her feel, warm, certainly but what else? Not that Master Jose would ever let her go away from the March, of course, but she was allowed to dream.

She was the Marchioness but felt like a prisoner where it was supposed to be her home.

Juvia never felt like she was in her own house; everyone treated her as if she were the second in command, putting all of Master Jose's words above any order that she could give.

He was the master, not a silly eighteen-year-old girl who grew up sheltered of everything. No, people wouldn't take orders from a person like her. She was weak, while he was strong; Porla had more experience, so she just lowered her head and trusted that everything he did was for her people's best interest.

Juvia's routine was quite boring, if anyone asked her; during the morning she had her breakfast, then class with her private teacher. After lunch, she sew, painted and had dance lessons. And after dinner, she was free to read until bed time – Master Jose knew that the Marchioness was fond of her books and allowed her to dive into them.

One day, though, when Jose asked her to see him at his office she knew that something big was going to happen but never guessed how big was going to be.