Vain - Chapter 73 Death of a Friend

The letter was simple and precise, all too cutting for Aileene’s heart. It wasn’t written by Dmitri, as he was her normal contact. Instead, it was the cold handwriting of Marquis Leon, a noble that was a trusted aid to her father. After her parents’ death, he had been reluctant to let her suffer with political matters a dukedom had to attend to, but she had convinced him that she was capable of dealing with everything that was thrown at her. Even to the point that she was able to delegate tasks to those that followed her. He was the first person outside of her group that she had told the truth about her parents’ death and her deal with Kinlar.

Marquis Leon was a good person, he was concerned about her and her goals. As she was still young, he had expressed this sentiment to her more than once, but she had brushed it off. Aileene appreciated the worry he had for her, but she couldn’t let her chance for revenge to escape her hand. He supported her, even with her instability in the beginning. Now he was the head of the nobility which followed the Lovell’s Dukedom, he worked closely with Dmitri when she is not available.

Dmitri is the friend she had made when she had visited her fief, he had returned to the capital with her when their visit ended. He was the heir of a fallen noble household, which Aileene knew to be innocent. And after her parents’ death and discovering the truth of the matter.

It was clear to Dmitri that his house’s fate had the same culprit as Aileene’s parents’ death. He had willingly volunteered to be her network and advisor and she accepted. She knew that he wanted revenge just as much as she did, so she couldn’t stop him. She trusted him and treated him as a younger brother. They had been living in the same household for a year or so. And she knew him better than anyone else.

He was a genius for being so young, as he was able to effectively organize information he was given and use his experience to strategically analyze the most direct path to what they wanted to achieve. Aileene didn’t doubt Dmitri’s ability and she knew how much she relied on him.

But it shouldn’t have ended the way it did, she shouldn’t have to see him like this.

Aileene eyes were cold, she couldn’t spill the tears she wanted to. She couldn’t show weakness in front of her people. The reason why the letter could not have been written by Dmitri was simple, he was dead. He, who still was so young had to die. And for what?

There was nothing that Aileene could tell herself that would relieve the guilt and the weight that hung over her head. How could she have been so selfish? How could she let someone close to her die once again? Had she not learn her lesson already?

Aileene closed her eyes momentarily, her hands were shaking by her side. She clenched her fists to stop the shaking, but she couldn’t bear to open her eyes and look at the casket that held Dmitri as it lowered into the ground. She had rushed back so quickly to make it to his funeral. It was a small funeral only among her own people, but it had been so terribly bleak to her. Her mind was a chaotic mess, as she pieced together the last memories she had of Dmitri. Even if she hadn’t known him all her life, she had known him long enough that he was like a younger brother to her.

And now that younger brother of hers was dead, he would never be able to talk to her again. He would never be able to send her letters again. He was dead. And once again Aileene started to feel numb. The reality of the funeral was no longer in her eyes, it seemed that the image of Dmitri’s funeral and her parents’ funeral were starting to merge. In each, she would lose people she cared for and once again be left alone.

And when the burial ended she walked alone to return to her carriage, she would return to her manor alone and she would stay in that cold manor without a single person close to her. She would stay there alone and continued on her path of vengeance alone like she always have.

❅

Aileene could not sleep that night, as she continued to dream about the death of all those around her. Even Lucian. She was powerless in those nightmares, just as she had been powerless in real life. She would blame herself over and over, and she would run her life into oblivion to achieve her revenge. In the end, there would be no happiness spared for her soul. There was no salvation. She was alone and there was no escape for her.

Aileene woke to the gray light of the early morning and could no longer force herself back to sleep. She decided that it was better for her to change and get some work done. So she sat at her desk, something she hadn’t done in quite a bit of time, its neat layout was familiar to her. And the wood frame was still just as delicate. Lumi was also doing well in a cage at the side of her desk. She opened the cage and picked up her white rabbit, the rabbit had grown much fatter since the last time she saw it. It must have been overfed.

Lumi stared at her and dangle from her hands, Aileene stared at the rabbit for a few silent seconds before putting it on her desk. As she had been at the academy, she wasn’t able to bring Lumi. It was a disappointment to her since she loved Lumi greatly. She was a gift from her parents, especially chosen for her since she loved rabbits so much. It had been a while since she saw Lumi, she was nostalgic for the past. She had gotten the servants to feed and take Lumi out to exercise, but Lumi must’ve not moved much. Since it had gotten so chubby, Aileene smiled. She should make it run to lose all that weight. It was a small smile, but it was the first smile that had graced her lips after she these past few days.

After a few more minutes of petting her beloved rabbit, she knew to begin her work. She placed her rabbit on the ground to let it roam her room and turned to the stack of papers on the corner of her desk. Now she had to focus on resolving the aftermath of Dmitri’s death and the rising tension of the two kingdoms. Aileene was very proficient in her tasks, she wrote letters and read through reports. She would soon need to collect her network and regroup. She could sense a great change to the dynamics of Kinlar and Austrion in the near future, so she must not delay as a key figure of the conflict.

Before she could get too deep into her work, a knock at the door interrupted her trance.

“Come in,” Aileene said just audibly loud enough for the servant to hear her. There shouldn’t be anything important enough for a servant to interrupt her, it was not the time for breakfast yet. But she still let her in as she watched the maid shuffled into the room curiously. The maid handed her a letter without pause.

“It’s an urgent letter from Marquis Leon.” The maid answered without being questioned, she knew what she needed to do and quickly excused herself when she was no longer needed.

“Another urgent letter?” Aileene wondered what news would be so urgent, as to make her Marquis send her another urgent letter. Would there be so many urgent news all in one week? She could only hope that the news would not involve the death of another innocent.

Aileene began reading the letter with hesitation, but when she had finished. Her eyes turned cold and she closed them once again. She threw the letter into the fire by her desk and sighed. Her shoulders were weak and her eyes sad, another one of her friends had been injured.

Ruby was attacked by an assassin and in urgent care because of her injury.