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𑁍̤ ❛ HAUNTING ―― LINGERS BEHIND . . .
𝘈 𝘚𝘔𝘌𝘓𝘓 𝘖𝘍 𝘚𝘐𝘓𝘒 *
a fanfiction based on a crossover between 'who made me a princess' and 'death is the only ending for the villainess' // tw : just in c...
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" BLESSINGS UPON the moon of empire , " roger alpheus welcomes the empress when she enters the still empty council room . penelope acknowledges his greeting with a nod of her own , striding over to take seat at the end of the table like she so often did .
" take a seat , duke alpheus . " she replies , busying herself with arranging the quill and papers in front of herself . this was one thing penelope preferred doing herself , having refused the servants countless times in the past . arranging her own workspace gave her an odd feeling of accomplishment . besides , she was far too nit-picky about how her things should be placed and in what order , something no-one other than emily knew the details of .
alpheus chose to sit beside the empress , taking seat to her right . his gesture did not go unnoticed by her , but she chose not to comment on it ; for all she knew , duke alpheus was the first noble who tried to get in her good graces to use her as a lease between himself and the emperor . greedy dogs .. claude's words rang true in her head .
" the weather keeps getting progressively hot with each day passing , " roger chimed in an attempt at conversation , and out of polite courtesy , penelope flashed a small grin towards him before agreeing , " yes . it is odd how after the rainy season where most empires face a chilling winter , obelia simply returns back to being warm . "
alpheus ― relieved that his attempt did not fall on deaf ears ― quickly added , " ah , yes . it's because the whirlpools in the obelian bay often divert the northern winds towards the north western kingdom of seltia , which is why that region remains frozen for most of the year whilst obelia rarely ever experiences winter . "
now that caught penelope's interest . putting her quill down , she leaned back in her chair to eye the duke with question obvious over visage , looking more like a scholar than the monarch she was . " i never knew whirlpools could be strong enough to divert the northern air current all the way up to seltia ? that sounds a bit of an exaggeration , if you ask me . "
alpheus shrugged , " that is what the ministry thinks , anyway . they don't dwell into it much given the winter blizzards aren't exactly something worth looking forward to , so the whirlpools simply do us a favour , if anything . "
" but isn't it odd ? there could be another force that diverts the northern air current and the whirlpools could be nothing but a veil that covers for it . " penelope clipped back instantly , making the duke smile in a manner that wasn't ― for once ― the false people-pleasing smile that he always had on ; instead he smiled truly interested this time , amused at the empress' curiousity .
