Chapter 5 The White Mansion

In a dark hallway the duke walked unlike the calm atmosphere, the duke's thoughts were chaotic.

He kept thinking about the past and the necklace, the necklace isn't supposed to be in an auction, it was a holy relic that belonged to the guardian of the spirit from generation to generation, the fact that it is being sold in an auction meant one thing, the guardian of the spirit is dead.

His memories of the guardian wasn't alot, Alita was a strong warrior and in addition to her beautiful looks, she had as much a beautiful personality, she was kind especially to the weak and was the most fearsome to the evil doers, she was even more stronger than the emperor and she was the emperor's lover, the only flaw that the aristocrats found in her was that she was a commoner and for that sole reason she became the lowest concubine rank, after the war ended and everything was settled, the news of the concubine's pregnancy flew around, the exciting part wasn't that the concubine is pregnant, it was the fact that the guardian of the spirit is pregnant,

The guardian of the spirit is power beyond human power and magic, it was something more pure and much stronger than any other power

And although the power wasn't inherited by blood connection but the idea of the holy warrior and the strongest emperor in the empire's history to have a child made the odds turn, what if the child was a boy and the guardian of the spirit at the same time, that meant he had a free pass to the crown prince's seat and that didn't set well with the empress since her oldest son was the strongest candidate to the seat if the crown prince and war broke between the empress and the guardian of the spirit

Days and months passed and the day that the concubine was supposed to give birth, the news of the child being born dead flew around and the concubine left the palace for good but there was no specific information about the gender of the child, it was something that only the royalty in the royal palace knew.

The duke arrived at a carriage that looked normal from outside but the interior was luxurious, he got into the carriage and ordered the coach to ride home, through the way home he kept thinking about the guardian of the spirit and the dead child, no one knows who inherited the power of the guardian and if he wasn't found the chaos was bound to cover the world.

Finding the necklace was an important but the easiest part, the necklace can identify the guardian of the spirit, it emits a strong and holy light whenever it is close to the guardian but the problem was finding the guardian.

The sound of the cry of a child broke his thoughts, when he looked through the curtains he found out that they arrived at his mansion and that a child was crying right infront of the gates, the guards were trying to calm the child but she just kept crying, they tried to pull her away from the gates to make way but the duke told them to stop, he got out of the carriage and walked over to the child, her hair was so dirty that he couldn't tell it's color but something about the child made his heart move, he didn't know what that feeling was but he went straight to the child and held her in his arms, she turned towards him and wrapped her hands around his neck, something about the way her small hands was trying to hold onto him made his heart warm, she started to calm down when he patted her and her breath started to calm, he felt his heart beating in his throat and feeling in his heart that he never knew before, it was a comfortable but warm feeling

When she slept on his shoulders he didn't know what to do, at first he was confused and flustered but decided to take her inside the mansion for now

He took her inside and assigned two guards on her door to protect and mostly to watch her and see if she was sent with a purpose then headed back to his study to sort his thoughts about this chaotic day.

An old man whose hair all turned grey and had a kind face knocked and came into the room accompanied by a maid who put tea and lights snacks in front of the duke then lift

Once the maid left the butler bowed his head again then asked the duke about what he is going to do with the little child, the duke remained silent then said " when she wakes up, bath her and give her food, I will decide after I meet her tomorrow, for now I will go to my room, don't let anyone disturb me for what ever the reason is" said the duke while getting off his chair and leaving the study, the butler took his orders and bowed his head once again in respect when the duke was passing him by.

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I woke up in the next morning and judging by the position of the sun it must be sometime around noon, unlike the familiar ceiling of my house, the one above me was unfamiliar but a luxurious one, I tried to move my body which was heavy to see the room and try to find out where I am, the room was very large and luxurious, it was made of white marble and blue painted walls, it's curtains were aqua marine blue and the furniture was white and little of blue, the ceiling had drawings all over it which made it so luxurious and beautiful

I felt thirsty and when I looked at my bed side table I found a jug and a glass

I stretched my hands to hold the glass but my hands were shaking and I ended up dropping it causing it to break

Because of the calm and silent atmosphere the sound of the glass falling and breaking was really loud and the next thing I knew was the door opening and the footsteps of someone approaching

I thought that who ever was coming must have come to punish me and I took the blanket and hid under the bed while covering my whole body in the blanket

I closed my eyes and covered my ears and kept wishing that this person whoever he is will go away

The closer I felt he was the more I trembled

The footsteps stopped right at the bed and I thought that this must be it, I will be punished for sure

I wanted everything to disappear and trembled even more when the silence fell all over the room once again, I could hear breathing but I couldn't tell if it was my breathing or the other's

Then I felt something touch my back and I flinched causing my head to hit the bed hard but somehow I didn't feel pain

I started to get my head out of the blanket slowly and looked above me

I found a hand right above my head where I almost crashed it

Apparently this person protected me so I let go of the the thought that this person came to punish me and slowly looked to this person

When I looked I saw the most beautiful man I have ever seen

His icy blue eyes were cold but very beautiful, he had shard but beautiful lips and his platinum white hair added to the allure and the way his lashes fell to hide his eyes was just mesmerizing

His cheek bone and jaw were sharp and naturally contoured

His adam apple and everything was screaming out beauty as if he was crafted from a different mold from every other human being

Looking at him I forgot that I was scared and mouthed some words with my mouth without thinking "pwetty, really really pwetty"

Once I realized what I said I felt my face heating and covered my mouth with both hands

When I heard no answer I looked at the man's direction once again

He looked taken aback but soon he laughed out loud

The guards outside the door all flinched when they heard their lord laughing, he never laughed like that even when his kids were right infront of him

The only time he laughs is when he is on the battle field and surely then he looked like a monster laughing

Scary and very unsafe so no one dared to go even one step closer to him

But the laugh that they heard was different this time, somehow it was just a genuine laugh and when they looked they turned pale

The lord was crouching down on the ground and laughing while holding his stomach

If they swear on their life to their other team mates, no one would believe them

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The sight of the man laughing was quite the sight, I have never seen or heard angels' laughter, but I bet they would be jealous of him

He stopped laughing and wiped tears from the side of his eyes while still maintaining his smile

"I'm not gonna hurt you, so can you please come here" he said looking in my eyes as to reassure me, he extended a hand for me to hold

After looking at him then at his hand and back at him, I stretched my hand to hold his

He helped me out and once I was outside he raised my in his arms, I looked at him in silence and he looked back at me

He moved the hair infront of my eyes and once he saw them he seemed surprised

We never had mirror in our home so i never knew what we looked like, the only reflection I ever saw of myself was the reflection of water surface and even that reflection isn't clear

"You're one beautiful child aren't you" when I heard him say that i felt my cheeks turning red

Through out our meeting I didn't talk or say a word to him, not that I don't want to but rather that I couldn't

He called for a maid and a middle aged woman who was very elegant came into the room

He told her to help me bath and tried to hand me to her

When he tried to let me go I trembled and hugged his neck tightly and closed my eyes

He flinched when I did that but soon patted my back and said "hush, it's okay, she is a safe person" he then cupped my face in one of his hands and looked me in the eye

"I will take you there myself, will that make you feel better" he said and I nodded to him and so I was carried in his arms to a bathroom attached to the room I was in

When I saw the new place I got distracted and focused totally on discovering the new and beautiful place

I pushed my body away from him and he understood that I want to go down

He put me down gently and stood at the door of the bathroom

I started going around the place and everything seemed very intriguing for me, it was a world where one could use magic so maybe that's why everything seemed so interesting

Compared to my world, this world is just as advanced but more interesting and at some parts it can be more advanced

Soon after I went in a maid followed me with two dresses asking which was one I would love to try later on

One of the dresses was a blue and white lined dress, it was a strap dress and the other was pink and yellow strap dress

Both dresses were so beautiful so I got confused but soon regained my senses

I must have gone crazy, my situation is weird as it is, for a man who just found a child crying infront of his mansion to be this kind and on top of it all an aristocrat seems quite fishy

I started to sweat with fear and looked around me trying to find an exit, I got swept in the moment and forgot that this is not home and people aren't this kind for nothing

I found no exit so I decided to follow them for now and look for an exit later

I chose the blue one and the maid proceeded to wash and dress me

"Oh my, you're so beautiful" the maid exclaimed when she saw me all clean and washed "your hair color and eyes are really beautiful and mesmerizing" she kept showering me with compliment about my looks while scrubbing dirt off of my body

The water soon turned dark because of how dirty I was so I apologized to her but she said it was okay

She proceeded to bath me in milk and flower petals and put oils on my body then massaged me

I gotta admit that the life of an aristocras is very comfortable and luxurious

After she finished washing me she proceeded to dress me and dry my hair, she also trimmed the dead ends but my hair still remained quit long, it used to reach my knees but now it goes a bit more that my waist

She put a hair pin on one side of my hair and pushed the rest of my hair behind my ear and along side my back

After she finished everything she told me that I had to meet the lord of the castle, I guess that would be the handsome young man I saw once before

I decided to go meet him and find an exit as well

After the maid left a guard came to escort me to the lord's room

The fact that the escort was a guard made it even harder to escape from him so I decided to just scan my surroundings with my eyes for now

After we climbed a few stairs we walked to the end of the hall then turned right

At the end of the hall there existed a door and two guards standing were standing infront of it

When we came closer the guards opened the door as if they were waiting for it and stepped aside so We can go in

The guard beside me told me that I shall proceed alone and left me there

I looked inside the room before going in, trying to find if there was anything fishy with the room but nothing seemed unusual

I stepped into the room and my eyes met with the man's eyes.

End of chapter 5