Chapter 4: Alliances Form in Different Ways

Getting upset from what his brother had just said, he runs over to his brother and grabs him by the collar of his shirt and pushes him back first to the door hoping it hurts him.

“Why you little brother? Going behind my back making alliances and suddenly wanting to marry. What the hell do you think you are doing?” Prince Leonidas asks angrily.

“I guess I did all this to mess with you,” Prince Mathias said, being cocky.

“This is so unlike you, brother,” Prince Leonidas mentions.

“Perhaps, but if this ruins your chances to succeed to the throne, then I am all for it,” Prince Mathias admits.

“Why you little brat? End your contract with the Arch-duke or you will regret you were ever my brother,” Prince Leonidas said putting his fist on his brother’s face.

“I would love to see you try,” Prince Mathias says, ready to take on his brother.

“Fine, get ready, I will fight you right here and right now. If I win, you will break your contract with the arch-duke,” Prince Leonidas said, getting into a fighting position after releasing his brother from his grasp.

“Yes, picking a fight with me in front of the lady who I am going to marry, well this is not going to help your cause,” Prince Mathias said, being cocky again.

“Your highnesses, please I don’t think it will be wise for you to fight here, there is no fighting in this domain,” Lady Aurora said, coming to the boys to stop them from fighting after watching the whole thing.

“Stay out of this, you little brat,” Prince Leonidas angrily said as he accidentally slapped Lady Aurora. She falls to the ground holding her face.

“Aaahh….” Aurora yelled as she fell on the floor.

“My lady, are you alright?” A maid said, running to Lady Aurora’s aid.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Aurora said.

“Wow, I knew you were cruel, but I never thought that cruel,” Prince Mathias points out.

“Huh, that surely was a mistake,” Prince Leonidas said kindly.

“What is the meaning of this?” Arch-Duke Diamant asks entering the scene.

He walks over to the princes and sees his daughter on the ground and he is furious.

“What is the meaning of this? You are both princes of the crown and you behave like children. Even getting my daughter involved in your bickering. I suggest you both leave before our deal is off,” the arch duke said.

“My apologies, your grace, we will leave at once. We apologize for any disturbance we might have caused you,” Prince Mathias apologizes.

“All is forgiven, your highness,” Arch-duke Diamant said.

“Tsk…. I’m leaving,” Prince Leonidas said as he walked away and left in his carriage.

“I should apologize to you too Lady Aurora for my brother’s treatment of you. My apologies,” Prince Mathias apologizes.

“Thank you, your highness. I am fine. I am glad you were not the one who hit me,” Lady Aurora said, accepting his apologies.“

“Now that is settled, your highness, Aurora, please be weary of Prince Leonidas. I have known him as having a bit of a temper and will get revenge on anyone that stands in his way, so be careful,” Arch-Duke Diamant warns both of them.

“I can handle my brother and besides your daughter will always have my protection, I promise you that,” the prince said reassuring him.

“I will continue to hold you that, so please be a man of your word,” the arch-duke asks.

“I will, you have my word.”

“Of course, I will let you two speak for a little while, but darling please head inside as soon as you are done here.”

“Yes, father, thank you.”

Her father soon leaves them alone and they are alone to have a conversation.

“Thank you for helping me with your brother.”

“It is what I do.”

“You do not have to be so charming, your highness,”

“It is my pleasure. I never like to see a lady being harmed.”

Lady Aurora blushes hearing this.

“I must be going now. I promise we will see each other again soon,” Prince Mathias said, as he kissed her hand.

She blushes again at the motion and turns her head so he doesn’t see her face turning red.

“Of course, I will see you then.”

“Yes.”

Lady Aurora kindly escorts the prince and his valet to the carriage. They both entered and drove off. She stood there watching the carriage drive away hoping they would see each other again.

Alone in the carriage again with Rion, he stays silent. It is probably because he is starting to feel like a different person and also falling in love.

“Are you all right, your highness?”

“Huh, oh, yes, I am fine.”

“Your highness, I would like to say, you did a very good job in handling yourself with your brother, the arch-duke, and Lady Aurora.”

“Yes, well, someone needs to be a gentleman here.”

“That may be true, but I believe it is more than that.”

“Read it in any way you want, but I am not going to jeopardize my plan.”

“As you wish, your highness.”

The carriage grew silent for a minute until they heard a small noise tapping on the glass.

“What is that noise?”

“Um…I believe it is the hawk, your highness.”

“Bring him inside,” the prince orders.

“Of course.”

Rion opens the window and lets the hawk in. They are still confused about why the hawk is here and who sent it.

“What a magnificent creature this is. I never seen a hawk this beautiful before,” Rion said admiring it.

“Maybe whatever he has tied to his leg might have the answer,” the prince points out, pointing at the letter.

Rion sees this and carefully takes the letter out of the holder.

“Your highness, it seems this hawk belongs to Lady Aurora?”

“Lady Aurora? Give me that letter.”

Dear Prince Mathias,

I do hope the messenger hawk I sent reached you well. I wanted to thank you again for your kindness and protecting me from your brother. As a token of my appreciation I would like to give you this hawk, so we can communicate in secret. I should mention, this hawk is faster than any hawk in the entire kingdom. I would also like to extend an open invitation to my family’s manor to continue discussing our future goals.

From

Your new ally, Aurora Diamant

P.S. Ever since you kissed my hand, I could not stop thinking about you.

“Hum, it seems someone has a crush on you. Seems you still have your charm.”

“Well, it is all part of my plan, nothing more.”

“Whatever you say, your highness.”

“Beleive what you want to think. Now on to more important matters.”

“Yes, your highness. From what I have gathered, we will need a few more nobles from the Neutral Faction to join your side, so you can weaken both of your brother's claim to the throne.”

“That is good news indeed.”

“Yes, of course.”

“You know Rion, I don’t think I could ever have done any of this without you. You have been by my side since we were children and you have always been my trusted ally and friend.”

“Yes, Since I was appointed to serve you, I have done everything I can to support you to the best of my abilities.

“I know and you are the only person I can trust with my plans and making sure my brothers get a taste of their medicine.”

“I would have to agree, your highness, so shall we continue with the list.”

“Yes, we shall?”

Meanwhile back at the Diamant Estate, Lady Aurora has returned to her bedroom preparing the next part of her plans in order to continue her work.

“Right, maybe the next part of my plan is to improve the medical equipment and further upgrade the medical research here, so the doctors could save more lives,” she says to herself. “Right, I think the first thing I should do is head to the library and see what I can find.”

And so, Lady Aurora gathered her papers and headed out of her room and to the library. This is going to be the first time she will be going since she has woken up in this world, so it will be challenging to find it.

“Let’s see. The library should be this way close to my bedroom. If I remember this correctly, the previous Lady Aurora loved going to the library, and it was always close by to her.”

Lady Aurora begins walking the halls on her left side to find the library. She opens one door and she does not find it. She goes through opening the remaining doors and she has no such luck in finding it.

She looks like she is about to give up, but when she reaches the final door, she puts hand on the knob, and opens the door. When she opens the door and enters the room, she is surprised by what she sees. The library is so beautiful that it stuns her as she has never seen a library like this in her lifetime. There are shelves of books reaching high towards the ceiling. With so much material to read, she believes the faster she starts, the sooner she will be able to find what she is looking for.

“Right, let’s get started,” she said, cheering herself on.

She begins walking through the library trying to figure out how the books are being labeled. She doubts this world even heard of the Dewey Decimal System, so she thought of looking around to see how the books are sorted. It seems as she walks through the aisles and notices there are labels created in each section.

Then she looks around for the medical section. It seems the medical section was on the second floor and it seems to be the largest section in the entire library. She grabs the first book she seems interested in and begins to read. After she pulls even more books out of the shelves and begins to read them. She gathers that this world has slowly been improving their medical findings as well improving many cures for many of the common illnesses in this world. She was also impressed while reading that she is finding different types of medical treatments she has never seen before and how they actually work.

“Wow, I never thought their field of medicine is similar to ours and these methods I never heard of could be useful for the new products I am going to be making soon,” Lady Aurora said to herself.

With this new found research, she begins writing and drawing pictures of the medical tools this world has created. She has begun to draw blue prints of a building that might be used as a hospital, medical school, or a small clinic. Maybe this can be her new path in this world rather than being a character in a book where she does not do anything in the background.

Doing this project, she will have to ask permission from her father to see if he accepts her proposal about her projects.

Lady Aurora leaves the library with her books and leaves the library to head over to her father’s library. Walking to her father’s study, she goes over her plan she is going to discuss with her father hoping he will accept her ideas.

Arriving in front of her father’s study, she stands in front of the door both excited and nervous discussing her ideas to her father. She does not know what her father’s reaction will be, but she hopes he will agree to her plan. Taking one brave step forward, she knocks on the door waiting for a response.

“Come in!” her father shouted.

Lady Aurora, then pushes the door open and walks inside seeing her father at his desk reviewing some contracts from his supporters. He looks up from his paper and sees his daughter present in the center of his room.

“Oh, Aurora, I didn't expect to see you this evening, please take a seat.”

“Thank you father.”

Lady Aurora takes a seat in front of his father’s desk and places her research she wishes to present to her father on his desk.

“So, my daughter, what do you wish to discuss?”

“Father, I know my life is not going to be the same after your alliance with the prince. I was thinking, with the prince’s support and our family’s connections, I would like to use it for the greater good.”

“And what do you have in mind?”

“My proposal is that with our resources I would like to work on improving the medical research in this country by improving the advancement of the medical tools and knowledge to better improve the treatments of certain diseases."

“My, I don't think I ever heard you being so passionate about something before. I am so proud of you.”

“Thank you father. I also wish to build a medical school, so many of the citizens can come and study medicine, so we have more doctors learning more about treatments and advancements to better people’s lives.”

“Hum, I do like the idea of building a medical school for the people to have a place of study and we could use improvements in this field. Very well, daughter, I give you permission to begin this project of yours and I will help you in any way I can.”

“Thank you father. I promise I will not fail you.”

“I know you won’t. I am proud of you my daughter,” her father said, standing up from his seat and walking over to give his daughter a hug.

“Yes, I will not let you down.”

“Now, how about you tell me more about your plans.”

“Yes.”

Lady Aurora spends some time with her father discussing her plans about the school and the research she will begin with in the next several months. It seems her father enjoyed the conversation and the bonding experience he is having with his daughter.

After an hour or so, Lady Aurora returns to her room with a smile on her face and overjoyed about what she has accomplished. Being overjoyed, she decides to write a letter to the prince telling him about the good news.

Dear Prince Mathias,

I am sending you this message to inform you that I have gotten permission from my father to begin my projects in improving the medical research of the empire. I can arrange everything thanks to my father’s support and hopefully your’s as well. I wanted to let you know about it because I feel like we can be friends and support each other. I hope we get to see each other again really soon.

From your friend,

Aurora Diamant

After finishing up her letter to the prince, she spends the rest of her day in the library continuing her plans to begin her projects.

Meanwhile returning back to the palace after returning from the Arch-Duke’s home, Prince Leonidas is angrily processing about what happened and how his own brother outsmarted him in claiming the one supporter he thought he can rely on to gain more supporters.

To lash out more about this disappointment, he rushes over to his mother’s chambers, Queen Teigra to discuss this more personally.

“Mother?!”

“Yes, come in my dear.”

The door opens and sees her son charging in wanting to lash out about what happened.

“What happened, my son?”

“Well, mother, I went over to Arch-Duke’s estate like I planned, but it seems little brother caught wind of this and got to him first!”

“Mathias, in the Arch-Duke’s estate? That is unlike him.”

“Well, clearly he was there for something or to torment me. He is good at that after all!”

“I still don't believe he would be going to go to the arch-duke’s estate for no reason. I wonder what this is about?”

“I am not sure, but I have been hearing rumors that he is gathering allies for something, but I do not know what he is up to.”

“Darling son, just because he has the arch-duke by his side, it does not mean he will just give his daughter to any prince who wants her. There is still a chance you could have her.”

“I suggest you give up on this girl. You only saw her once at a ball and you know nothing about her.”

“No, mother, that is exactly why I want her. She is mysterious and beautiful. I want her.”

“Then perhaps you can try a different approach to get her attention.”

“And what do you propose?

“Well, perhaps, make yourself unavailable and choose Duke’ Rubias’s daughter as your bride.”

“No, there is a reason why the duke’s daughter will never be befitting for the crown. I only want Lady Aurora.”

“If that is what you want to do, then there is no point for me to interfere. But, I will warn you, try not to let your obsession with this girl ruin you.”

“Thank you mother. Promise it will not.”

The prince soon leaves his mother’s chamber and to his dismay, he sees his brother around the corner. He did not want to cause conflict in front of his mother’s bedroom, so he simply walked the other direction and let it be.

Prince Mathias seeing the look on his brother’s face was simply classic as he now knows he is starting to get under his brother’s skin. All this happens, as he returns from his quest in meeting the nobles and having one piece of his plan to fall into place.

Having a smirk on his face from slowly defeating his brother, he walks through the halls and returns to his room to finally relax. Of course Rion is with him to go over the next parts of his plan.

“It’s good to be back home at the palace. Isn’t that right, Rion?” Prince Mathias said, exhaustion as he is resting on his bed.

“Yes, your highness. It certainly was a long trip, but well worth the effort,” Rion said, as he took a seat at the coach.

“Yes, I believe we are doing quite well for ourselves. With the Neutral Faction supporting me, it is only a matter of time that my brother’s will fall and have no power.”

“Your highness, I believe you can accomplish this, but I still don't understand what this is all about.”

“You will find out soon enough.”

“Yes, your highness.”

Before they can continue their conversation, they hear a weird tapping on the window.

“What is that?”

“It seems to be a hawk, your highness.”

“Well, let it in.”

Rion walks over to the window to let the hawk in. It seems hawks love Rion as it came to his arm.

“What is that on his leg?” Prince Mathias asks, staring at the letter.

“It seems to be a letter.”

“From whom?”

“It seems to be another letter from Lady Aurora.”

“Bring it over.”

Rion walks over to hand over the letter to the prince.

“Huh, it seems she is developing a crush on you.”

“Perhaps. Rion, you are dismissed for the night.”

“Of course, your highness, have a pleasant evening,” Rion said, leaving the room.

Alone in his room, he begins opening the letter. “Let’s see what Lady Aurora has to say,” Prince Mathias said to himself.

Dear Prince Mathias,

I am writing to inform you that it was nice seeing you and honored a prince who will be interested in me. I hope we can be friends. I am also writing to inform you, I will be working with the medical research team to improve the medical advances to save lives in the empire. I do hope you can support my cause as you are in an alliance with my father.

From,

Aurora Diamant

“It seems she is falling in love with me afterall, good,” Prince Mathias said, as he began to fall asleep for the night.

Early next morning, in the Diamant Manor, Lady Aurora woke up early to begin her next round of experiments to sell in the next couple of months. She goes through her notes she has gathered from the library and the knowledge she had back in her old life trying to figure out how all of this can improve the lives of many people who cannot afford the medical needs for their survival.

She goes through the books over and over to see if she can find a solution. She has to do this fast, so she can finally release more products to sell in her guild.

“I did not think this was going to be harder than I thought, but I am determined to not give up,” Lady Aurora said, to herself.

After a few hours, Lady Aurora continues reading through her books and research and it seems she has not made much progress.

“Hum, it seems they are a bit behind from what they should be in the medical field. As for the equipment, they need some improvement. I guess I should first work on the tools to help with a deeper understanding of the human body first.”

And so, she continues looking through the medical tools book and sees what she can do with this.

After hours of deadends, she decides to leave the manor and head over to Hyperiton Town to see what progress has been made to build the merchant guild hall. She leaves her room and tells her maids she is going into town for something before heading over to the carriage.

It did not take the carriage long to reach the town as it was close by. She told the driver to wait outside of town, so no one sees she is here and she can leave undetected. A minute later, she gets out of the carriage and begins walking through the town.

Entering the town, she is surprised how it is buzzing with people walking around and shopping for the day. It was even tempting her to do a little shopping, but she had to focus on her real task to get to the guild hall to see what progress had been made.

Since Lady Aurora needed to export her goods to other places, she thought the place to have the guild was close to the outskirts of the town. The breeze is a little nice in this section of town making the walk even better.

In minutes, she arrived at a building which was painted blue and had a temporary sign with the name of the guild being hung up until a new one can be put up. Then she sees Nigel coming out of the building with a few workers discussing plans of improvement.

Lady Aurora walks over to Nigel to say hello. “Hello Nigel. It is great to see you again.”

Nigel turns around hearing her voice and gives her a smile. “Oh, Crystal, it is great to see you again. It has been awhile.”

“Oh, yes, it has been a long time. I am sorry I have not been here for a while,” Crystal (Aurora) said, greeting him.

“It is fine, we have been making great progress in forming the guild and the supplies have been arriving smoothly. We should be able to get things running in one more month.”

“That is great news. I cannot wait to see this place up and running again.”

“Yes, I will admit this was an interesting project you have come up with. I cannot wait to see this business up and running.”

“So am I. We should start looking for people to…to….”

“To what?”

“I don’t know.”

Lady Aurora faints after those words.

“Crystal, are you ok? Can you hear me?” Nigel asks, trying to wake her up.

Nigal works quickly trying to get some help. He carries her to some place where she can rest since the guild hall is not a safe place yet, so he carries her though the town hoping there is someone to help. Luckily along the way, her driver found them and took her from him.

“Hey, what is going on?”

“Do not worry. I will take her back home where she can rest,” the driver said.

“No, I am coming with you. I do not trust you.”

“No, I am afraid I cannot take you with me. I will inform you about her condition as soon as she is well.

“Very well, take care of her.”

“I will.”

The driver ran to the carriage and drove quickly back to the estate.

Returning back to the manor, the driver quickly heads inside carrying her in where her family sees this and is afraid of what is happening to her.

“My darling,” her mother shouts with worry.

“She collapsed in town as she was visiting.”

“Call the doctor and make sure she is treated well,” her father said, at once.

“I am on it,” one of her brothers said, working on it right away.

An hour later in Aurora’s room, it seems the entire family is there with the doctor in the room. He begins examining her by doing a few more exams to determine what has happened to her.

“Hhhhmm….,” the doctor said.

“Doctor, is our daughter alright?,” her parents asked.

“Yes, she’s fine. She has a mild case of exhaustion and fatigue by working so hard. I suggest she takes it easy. For the next few days she will be back to her old self,” the doctor said, passing along the good news.

“Thank you doctor. We will take it from here,” her mother said.

“Of course. Call me if you need anything.”

“Thank you. Let me walk you out,” Lady Aurora’s brother said, escorting him out.

“And we should let her relax for the night,” her father suggests, as he escorts the rest of the family out.

With no family in the room, Lady Aurora can finally get some rest after a long day.

Imperial Palace -Prince Mathias’s Study Room

Prince Mathias and Rion are in his bedroom discussing more potential nobles to join his cause and he is thinking of getting a few more supporters from the Imperial Noble Faction. The first one he considers to recruit is none other than Marchioness Amethyste. She is visiting the emperor to discuss some business arrangements. This is good timing for him to get her on his side for support. The only problem is that she will be a little hard to persuade since she is not an easy person to convince since she does not like to work with people who do not seem worthy of her time. So, it will take everything Prince Mathias has to convince her otherwise.

Knowing her presence will be with his father in his study, he walks through the halls heading towards the study with Rion close to his side.

“Rion, what do we know about Marchioness Amethyste?” Prince Mathias asks, beginning the conversation.

“All I can gather is that she is one of the wealthiest Marchioness in the region and the most powerful influencers in the Imperial Noble Faction in the empire and she has many connections that may be in good use to your cause.”

“Do you think she can be a trustworthy person to support my cause?”

“I am not sure, your highness, she can be hard to get along with and very tricky to work with since she does change her mind a lot,” Rion explains.

“Intersting to know.”

“Yes, your highness?”

“Right, we better hurry before she leaves or we will lose our chance to win her over before my brothers get her to their side.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, pick up the pace,” Prince Mathias said, ending the conversation and walking faster.

Not long after, they arrived at the study where the meeting was taking place. Prince Mathias entered the room unannounced seeing the Marchioness Amethyste speaking to another noble finishing up a conversation, so this is the perfect time to have a conversation with her. He walks over to her before someone speaks to her.

“Excuse me, your grace, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Prince Mathias,” he said, introducing himself to her.

“Yes, I know who you are, your highness. To what I owe you the pleasure to speak with me?”

“I was wondering if it would be possible for you to give me your support in my bid to claim the throne.”

“That is lovely you are considering me, your highness, but I will have to politely decline.”

“May I ask why?”

“I am sorry your highness, but I do not see you as the right fit for the throne because I do not believe you have the right characteristics to become the next emperor.”

“And why do you say that?”

“It is because I have followed the rumors about you since you were a child hearing about your past behavior of ignoring the needs of the empire, your attitude of disrespecting all the nobles, and your lack of knowledge for becoming the emperor, truly is troubling. I do apologize, your highness for being honest.”

“It is fine, your grace, I do enjoy hearing some honesty.”

“Thank you, your highness. I should also be honest with you, I will be supporting your brother Prince Adalwolf for his bid to the throne. I will admit, I am going to enjoy watching you three princes fight against each other.”

“Yes, of course, I too look forward to it. Thank you for your time, your grace,” Prince Mathias said, saying good bye.

“It is my pleasure, I do wish you luck on your quest,” Marchioness Amethyste said, as she walked towards the door and left the room.

Failing in getting the Marchioness Amethyste on his side, he decides to move down his list to the Marchioness Bleu Vert. He did hear she will be attending today speaking to his mother about an upcoming event she will be hosting. He begins walking through the palace, but no luck. He peeks through the window and sees her about to leave the palace in her carriage and he has to stop her from leaving.

He runs through the halls as quickly as possible before missing his chance to speak with her. It is a good thing he can run and chase down the carriage. Out the door, he manages to get there before it really did get out of the estate.

“Wait!” he shouts.

It seems the driver heard him and stopped the carriage so the prince can catch up.

“What is going on?” Marchioness Bleu Vert asks.

“I am sorry to delay your return home, your grace, but I wish to speak with you.”

“Hum, since you were chasing my carriage, so I will listen to what you have to say,” she answered as she opened the door to her carriage to let him in.

“Thank you, your grace, now let me begin.”

“How about you let me start?”

“Very well.”

“I have been hearing rumors about you wanting to gain allies for your cause to have a bid for the throne, so your brothers do not take the throne. How are you doing so far?”

“Quite well, actually. You seem to know so much about me.”

“Yes, well, gossip does spread far and wide, so you do catch my ear once and a while.”

“Then, do I have your support?”

“Yes, I would love to support your cause. Besides you are probably the only person who I believe will care about this empire, even though you never before did, but I believe in you,” Marchioness Bleu Vert explains, giving the prince her support.

“Thank you. I will be looking forward to working with you.”

“As am I your highness. Have a good evening.”

“Of course, thank you and ride home safely.”

“Yes, your highness.”

The carriage soon departs and the prince is left with another victory under his belt.

“Well, your highness, it seems you got another victory under your belt,” Rion points out.

“Yes, my plan is running according to plan and there is no time to show weakness.”

“Of course, your highness.”

“Good now let’s head inside. We have to continue searching for support and set up a meeting to speak with my father about my bid to enter the war for the throne.”

“Of course, your highness.”

Prince Mathias and Rion both walk back to the manor to continue their research on allies to join his cause.