Diana Of Alcotta (Yrsoreth Chronicles 1)

36 ♔ Anna of Levich

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It has been a long time since Xander pulled out his sword and pointed the blade to another. Although he was not a heroic figure to swing a sword, he never parted from his weapon.

An emperor is not immortal, after all.

"Speak."

With the back against him, the person in question was frozen. Although the emblem of the Levich empire was sewed on the cloak, the stranger's silence was suspicious.

From the stranger's build, it must be the female, and probably the envoy whose face was never seen by outsiders. Ana. That was her name. Short and ordinary. But anyone from Levich was such a mystery of exoticism and magic surrounding them.

Xander, who was finally finished with his documents, met a few vassals in the Gold Palace, roamed, and found himself in the garden. Even if he was free and laid in his bed earlier, he could not sleep.

If he does, nightmares will haunt him back to consciousness. And so, he was brought there, following the glow of red butterflies he had seen from the window.

From the nape of the stranger's hood, Xander slid his sword to the woman's shoulder, an inch away from her neck.

"What are you doing here at this hour?" he repeated. The maritime treaty hasn't been signed, and both empires are wary of each other. Yet, the envoy, aside from roaming this late, was also defenseless, as if she was asking to be killed in a foreign land.

It was not just Gran Dacchia she must worry about. There were others opposing the treaty between the two empires and would come up with ways to end it before it even began. Some would gladly slice her neck as Levich's envoy for the sake of conflict. A few slow-witted were even caught and now interrogated at the dungeons, and some were being buried. A few of these unnamed enemies are probably still roaming the capital and the imperial grounds.

But the woman was still frozen and silent. One could even mistake her for a clothed stone. With only her cloaked back, he wondered what face would she be making.

Terrified? Angry? Cautious?

After all, he, a famed tyrant, might point his sights towards Levich soon. With his reputation, he couldn't blame her.

He has the intention. To rule the world as he promised, Levich is not an exception. But that would be for later.

"Lady Ana?"

A voice interrupted the silence. The man was Fedimon, Lady Ana's assistant, and has done the early socializing for Levich Empire.

Xander quickly withdrew. A sword pointed to an envoy is as good as pointing to the entirety of Levich, but he does not like to explain himself. And so, a few seconds past, he waited for the cloaked woman to explain to her assistant what has transpired.

But she never spoke a word, nor she moved.

Fedimon opened his mouth and closed it. With the seemingly endless stare at him and back to the other, he said nervously. "Your Imperial Majesty... you thought Lady Ana is an intruder and threatened her, y-yes?"

Xander nodded, somehow appreciated Fedimon's quick wit.

The assistant apologized on Lady Ana's behalf and explained that she was for the Levichian tradition of not showing her face until her official introduction at the Welcome ball.

It was a lie. Not because Xander was knowledgeable of Levichian Tradition, but because Fedimon, no matter how quick-witted he was, could almost not look at him in the eye and fiddled with his hands.