Chapter 18
***
The imperial palace of the Reuben Empire was made of gold.
The pristine white exterior was engraved with the symbols of the imperial family in gold, and the interior ceilings and walls were gilded.
From the doorknobs in the many rooms to the bathtubs and faucets in the bathrooms to the tableware, everything the emperor's hands, body, and gaze touched was gold.
The capital city of Byrne, where the imperial palace was located, had easy access to both the sea and the mountains. The sea to the northeast and the Wilcken Mountains to the southwest protected the empire from the elements.
Half of the land was accessible by sea, which paved the way for maritime trade, and fish and forest resources were abundant. For these reasons, Byrne was a livable land even before its founding.
The current imperial family won the land in a long war and founded Reuben.
Four hundred years later, on the brink of the 500-year milestone, Reuben was facing precarious days.
At the center of it all was the current Emperor, Dvor Cliffrid.
Even in the magnificent and spacious imperial palace decorated with gold, there was a villa that was particularly extravagantly decorated. In the nameless villa, there was only one room that had a name.
From a young age, the crown prince had a fascination with all things shiny, and as he grew up, he became very interested in gold. At first, it was considered a frivolous hobby that only nobles and royalty with money could afford.
But then it turned into a pathological obsession, and it became a bizarre habit.
So much so that it was said within the palace that it was the spirit of Gulbeid, the god of gold. The Emperor's obsession with gold was rumored to be inexplicable.
A secret chamber deep within the palace.
The room, more than three times the size of the main palace's master chamber, was so bright it didn't need a light. The walls were covered in gold, and the room was filled with gorgeous jewelry and all manner of rare and precious ornaments and artwork.
In the uncanny silence of a place so full of strikingly beautiful but lifeless things, a sound could be heard.
"Lovely."
The voice was eerily low, but the pronunciation was clear.
"Crawl."
"Pretty thing. Come here."
"....."
"Haha. Hmph!"
There was an unrecognizable sound between the talking voices, definitely not human.
"Ugh!"
"Grrrr."
Anger and fear coexisted in the sounds of the unknown entity. It wasn't a human language, but it was a snarl of pent-up emotions.
The human sounding words inside belonged to Dvor Cliffrid. He sounded both terrified and delighted, like a child.
The only laughing, talking voice in the place was filled with a contentment that went beyond satisfaction.
In the uninhabited space, there was another being, another being with a bizarre laugh. An aged servant stood in front of the only room with a name in the secret Palace.
A chamber within a chamber.
The old servant's hunched shoulders stiffened with every sound that came from within. He was nearly sixty years old and had served Dvor Cliffrid for nearly as long.
He has served the Emperor since he was a young man of seventeen, more than thirty years. And yet, he couldn’t understand his lord’s bizarre ways.
In the best sense of the word, the emperor’s bizarre hobbies were beyond the comprehension of normal minds.
They thought the gold-obsessed emperor only collected colorful inanimate objects. But that wasn't true.
The Emperor was a man whose intuition was unleashed only when he held something in his hands, whether it was dead or alive.
How long will I have to do this....?
Karl Germin was just an old servant with nowhere to go and nothing else to do. He'd probably be stuck in this palace until the day he died, assisting the Emperor in his sickly endeavors.
He was the only one who knew and helped Dvor Cliffrid's stench, and he hated himself for it. He pitied his life for being doomed to such a perverse fate.
What he had begun to do to make a living for his fallen family had turned into a festering swamp, trapping his life.
“Haaaaa."
"Kaaang!"
The beginning and end of maniacal laughter. In between were wild sounds of fear and anger.
The room filled with gold and silver treasures was dazzling and warm as if it held all the light in the world, but it only seemed that way. Karl's eyes were empty as he gazed into a space devoid of anything but splendor.
The sounds from behind the golden doors never ceased, and he never got used to them.
The servant, pacing impatiently, hoping that this time would pass quickly, suddenly stopped moving. For a moment, the sound of the chamber ceased, and the emperor stepped out of the doorway and stood facing one of the rooms.
He should be in a good mood, given the laughter that had been heard from within, but his face was not. His face immediately turned grim, and his gaze was fixed on the door of the chamber.
The door was white, the only other color in a room where everything was golden. The Emperor prided himself on the pure bloodline of the imperial family.
The emperor defined white as the color that could represent that purity. So he favored spotless white, and his clothing was always white with golden trim.
The only room with a name in an otherwise nameless palace.
The name of the room written above the door was again in dazzling gold. Chamberlain Karl Germin stared at the beautifully carved words.
Golden Eyes
The handwriting alone had begun to bother him terribly.
***
Crack. Crack.
There was a faint crackle of firewood. She came to her senses and tried to open her eyes, but it wasn't easy. Her eyelids felt as heavy as her exhausted body.
Amber finally opened her heavy eyes when she realized she wanted water. Her throat felt dry as a burning log. Through her struggling vision, she could make out the scene beyond the window.
It was still dawn in the pale light.
"Lady. Are you awake?"
A rustling movement startled Meti, and she approached the bed.
"Would you mind sitting down for a moment, I'll get you some water."
Seeing Amber nod, she propped several pillows and cushions at the head of the bed. Meti watched as her small body struggled to lean back and poured her water.
"You're thirsty, aren't you? You've had such a fever, it's only natural that you'd want water."
Meti tipped the glass to Amber’s mouth.
"I...."
It felt a little uncomfortable, so Amber reached out and took the glass, but she couldn't find her voice.
"Are you okay?"
Meti asked, still holding the glass in her hand. Amber nodded, pulling the glass from her and drinking the water. It stung like hell, and it was hard to swallow, but she couldn't stop.
She hadn't realized water could taste so good, even sweet, like porridge in the desert.
"Miss, drink slowly, they say you can choke on the water. It's been a few days, you must be hungry."
Amber stopped gulping the water.
"What do you mean, a few days?"
It was still dawn outside the window. She had dinner with the Grand Duke yesterday, so it could barely be a day.
"You’ve been sick for three days, and you haven’t eaten."
Amber's eyes widened. Meti's eyes widened as well, as she looked up into her eyes, which had grown even sharper with surprise.
"Three days?"
"Yes. Three days you’ve been in bed and haven't moved."
When she would occasionally stir, Meti explained, Mrs. Zendle and Meti were only able to give her a few spoonfuls of water.
Meti’s eyes never left Amber as she answered.
The first time she saw her, Meti thought Amber was mysterious, but every time seeing it, it was like the first time again. Her golden eyes were soft and brilliant, with a hint of sparkle. Whenever Meti looked at them and not at her face, she had the strange sensation that everything around her disappeared.
"Wasn't it only yesterday that I had dinner with the Grand Duke?"
"Yesterday. You came back from dinner with the Grand Duke and collapsed."
"I... Collapsed?"
"Yes. You threw up everything in your stomach, you couldn't hold yourself up, and then you just collapsed, and we were in such a mess."
Amber knew she went back to her room, threw up, and cleaned herself up somehow, but she couldn’t remember the rest.
"Mrs. Zendle panicked, and I frantically went to call for my brother, and I've never seen her so fidgety before."
"Why did you call Aiden?"
"Do you really don't remember? You were running a fever."
Meti put her hand to Amber's forehead, taking her temperature, and made a worried face.
"You were so feverish that you couldn't move a step, and your eyes were unfocused, like you were delirious. That's why Mrs. Zendle asked me to fetch Aiden, to get you into bed."
".........I'm sorry, because of me. I'm so sorry for Aiden, too... but I'll have to apologize to him later."
"To my brother?"
Meti made a face of incomprehension.
"I always step on him when he teaches me to dance, and I'm sorry enough for that, but now I’m making him help a sick person. He can't even rest when he’s already so busy."
Bowing her head in apology, Amber wiped her fingers over the rim of her glass.
"Oh, don't worry about it, my brother was just fetching the doctor, and it was His Highness who carried you, sweeping you up like a princess."
Meti felt a sudden rush of excitement, remembering that crazy night a few days ago.
Her heart had fluttered when she saw His Highness lightly scoop up Lady Amber, the tiny woman cradled in his wide arms.
She even hummed softly as she pictured the scene in the romance novel she had been reading behind her family's back.
But then Meti found Amber’s eyes suddenly widened with confusion as she was tucked into the blanket carefully.
***
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