Wandering down the hallways of the Demiliore Castle, with the pale moonlight peering through the glassed windows, Keith played with a tune in his mind, perfecting it and giving it a soul.
It was late in the night, probably past 2 a.m, and everyone who was here in the castle with him was probably asleep by now.
Since he had his wedding with Qingyue a few days later, he could no longer see her, and so he had come to live in Noxville, leaving his future bride at the Demiliore Estate.
He had been playing with the tune in his mind for the last hour, and finally, he found the right notes to conclude the song. It was a song he had prepared as a gift to his future bride.
A light smile crept on his lips when he suddenly saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes in the darkness, waiting for him a few meters away at the corner.
"Void." He called out to the Magical Beast, who happily rushed at him and lunged in his embrace. "Hungry?"
"Eee!"
"Okay." He chuckled and then started brushing the fur of the cub with his hand laced in a black flame.
Taking the little fellow with him, he walked into the room of the girl it usually stayed with and smiled when he found her up, sitting on her bed with a book in her hand that he had gifted to her a few days ago from the System Shop.
It was not any special book, but a storybook that contained true stories from across the worlds. And though it did not look massive, it was a magical book that contained dozens of full-length novels inside it. After all, the stories inside it were about the lives of some famous people, and some of them lived for a long time.
Minami raised her head and brilliantly smiled when she found him in her room.
"Master." She cutely greeted him in her beautiful voice, getting up from the bed and bowing to him.
"Hey, mind if I rest here tonight?" He playfully asked and chuckled when he watched her fair skin burn in an adorable blush.
Without waiting for an answer, he got into her bed and then placed the little cub beside him.
"What were you reading?" He curiously asked as he picked up the book, and smiled when he found that she was on the last pages of a story about the life of a princess. He handed the book back to her, pulling her close to him as soon as she entered the bed again. "Finish it and then tell me what it was about."
Minami frowned, seemingly conflicted, but then nodded her head as she continued reading it.
Keith had his guesses that she probably did not like this story. The lives of people were not exactly fairytales, and since this book only contained true stories, there must have been something inside it that disturbed her.
He did not look at the pages but kept his eyes on her beautiful profile. She was beautiful enough to make him keep looking at her, and then there was the fact that she was special, mysteriously special, and he could feel her even when he was away from her, thousands of miles away.
The learning ability of his cute little maid had astounded everyone in the family. She was like a sponge and soaked all the knowledge she was taught. She never had to be clarified anything twice, and her memory was almost as good as his. Not as outrageous as that of Rebecca, but still terrifying enough.
Minami could now speak and write in all the languages that Viola, Rebecca, and Celine taught her. Additionally, she even learned the common language of Ashaya, which was spoken in other worlds by the masses. It was just an experiment he did when he was told how much of a genius Minami was, and surprisingly, she managed to learn it in under three weeks, earning praise from him.
Her progress in the language of Ashaya was better than that of Kiara, who had still not completely mastered it. And his dear little sister had kept pouting at him when he gifted Minami this magical storybook.
"You did not like it?" He smiled and asked when she finished the story.
"No." She truthfully replied and put the book on the side table.
"Tell me about it." He adjusted himself and placed his head in her soft lap, looking up at her.
"It is not good." She seriously said, which made Keith chuckle.
However, since he had asked for it, she started telling the life story of the princess named Reina Starzen, who lived in a magical world called Aria, and belonged to a powerful family and a Kingdom.
Since her birth, she was a restless child, always creating trouble for those around her, and as she grew older, she did not become wiser.
As the only child of the King, she was declared his Heir to the Thorne on her seventh birthday, and her engagement was announced to her cousin who was the same age as her and belonged to the Starzen Family.
The decision was made in light of the fact that she had no other sibling, and since the family had to keep their Bloodline pure to honour and retain their magical powers that their blood bestowed them, her father had chosen the best possible match for her.
However, on her 16th name day, when she was to wed her intended, the Magical Artefact showed that the Princess was no longer a maiden and that she was doused in the essence of a man who did not belong to their family or any magical Bloodline.
It was the essence of a common Ashaya, and as it turned out, it belonged to one of the Knights in the castle.
Even in light of all these revelations, Princess Reina did not feel ashamed and stood her ground, telling everyone that she had every right to choose her partner, and told them that it was her choice to decide whom she sleeps with.
The family hall was silent at her words, and the King, who had never felt so weak in his life lowered his head.
He ordered the execution of the Knight who had touched the Princess, and he sent his daughter to the dungeons, stripping her of the status of the Heir and bestowing it to his newly born son from another wife.
The elders in the family advised him to execute the Princess too, but he could not bring himself to kill his child who was born from his late wife and sister, the one he dearly loved.
And his decision to not kill his daughter proved to be the downfall of his kingdom and family.
Reina was heartbroken when she learned about the death of her lover, and she vowed to snatch everything back from her family that she considered was rightfully hers.
Banding together with enemies of the Starzen Family, gathering allies, bearing bastards that sullied the Bloodline, she met her half-brother on the battlefield years later, with an army that threatened to raze the kingdom that she wanted to rule over.
Even in face of death, her half-brother gave her a way that could have saved their family. He offered to accept her as his wife and the Queen, but the Princess was far too lost to her obsession that she signalled the start of the battle.
Walking over the corpses of her kin and blood, she managed to sit on the throne that she desired and suppressed all the immediate rebellions through force.
The once brilliant Kingdom, famous for its happy people and the Starzen Family, soon became a mockery to the rest of the world.
The masses never accepted her as their ruler, and her Bloodline powers started growing weaker over time.
In her rage, she had already killed all the males of her family, leaving only her bastard sons alive, and it was too late for her to regret her actions as she could not reverse the time and prevent herself from committing those sins.
She wedded all three of her sons, in hopes that her Bloodline would continue through them, and she even wedded them to the remaining females of the Starzen Family who were being kept prisoners by her, but her efforts failed.
A couple of hundred years later, the Starzen Family only remained in name and their Bloodline Power was gone.
Reina committed suicide when she finally realised that she was the one responsible for everything that happened to the Starzen Family and the Starlight Kingdom.
The allies she had gathered had turned on her, and all her life was spent curbing rebellions.
In the end, however, before committing suicide, she did do something that was in the interests of the people of her Kingdom, and that was that she handed over the crown to the last remaining Magical Family of the Kingdom of Starlight.
She killed all of her legacies to stop them from ever stirring trouble and then killed herself to be buried right next to her sins.
"I dislike her," Minami told him. "She killed her kin, and never respected her blood and family."
"Yes. I dislike such people too." He told her and then raised his head to plant a kiss on the tip of her nose. "So, what do we learn from this story?"
"In the face of duty, love shall never come in the way." She said. "The King should have executed her and not exiled her. His love proved to be the downfall of his Family and the Kingdom. He was weak."
"Hey, my little Minami is really smart. Isn't she?" He pulled her in his arms and then lay down with her. "Sleep now. Don't dwell on the disturbing thoughts."
Minami blushed at the warmth of his body, and it was only a matter of minutes before she fell into her dream world.
She had never before found the right words for the feeling of being held by him like this, but now she knew that his arms were the safest place in existence for her. They were where she belonged, and they were where she would stay forever.
Keith did not fall asleep immediately, and he took his time scanning her body. He was a little alarmed to see that she had gotten stronger again, almost on the verge of entering the True-Profound Realm.
And what was scary was that no one had helped Minami cultivate. Her Aura Nodes had started opening on their own, and her body was cultivating itself.
Keith knew very well that only the most powerful of the Bloodlines worked this way, and though he was happy for her, he was also just as curious.
The System was not going to answer him over this matter, and despite his Medical Knowledge, he could not pinpoint what exactly was Minami's race now.
But he had his guesses, and his guesses were bold enough to make him apprehensive.
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