Chapter Text
A Feudal Country ruled under the hands of the Imperial System whose Emperor was cursed with a wicked curse.
Characters Introduction (I will only do this with AU stories for you to get a grasp of this AU)
Aether: Youngest son of the Emperor, whose mother was a beautiful princess from a faraway nation who was disgraced and left to die. Cursed by his status, there’s no way he can compete for the throne, so now the Imperial will exploit him in other ways.
Codename XiaoYing (Lumine): Prince Aether’s most loyal guard dog, is said to always appear with a distinctive mask cover all her face. Nobody knows why she would be this loyal to a belittled prince.
Balladeer (Scaramouche): Sole owner of ByakuRen (白蓮) Cathouse, the largest whorehouse in the country at the moment, how he can manage to rule the whole system alone amazed many. Is said to have a shady business relationship with the Emperor and the mafia. Apparently, not a single one in his collection even come close to the beauty he saw that day.
Childe (Tartaglia): Sole boss of the largest mafia syndicate in the country - The Vulture, though usually known as the over enthusiast merchant who commutes with ByakuRen owner and the Emperor. Balladeer gave him a portrait of a one in a kind beauty, and he likes what he sees.
Xiao: Indebted to The Vulture, he has to work as a lowlife call boy at the ByakuRen Cathouse. The kind that is said to be even more worthless than slaves and is heavily looked down on by society. One day, his eyes fell upon something he can’t reach.
Albedo: A genius from overseas, sent as a good-will present from his nation. In charge of educating royal children and mentor for the Imperial, is greatly impressed by Aether’s exceptional talent and wants to help him in his path.
Kaeya: talented military general of the Imperial, swore loyalty to the Emperor, also responsible for training the princes how to fight. Is impressed by Aether’s exceptional talent and his iron will and wants to help him in his path.
Diluc: Brother in arms with Kaeya, head of the Imperial elite assassination syndicate, swore loyalty to the Emperor, responsible for protecting the royal family and doing ‘unnecessary deeds’ for the Imperial. Is said to hide his true identity behind his ‘bar owner’. Is said to have similar movement patterns to XiaoYing by gossipy witnesses.
Venti: A deity banished from heaven, now working as a Spiritual Guide in the Underworld - the place where spirits returns, be judged, and set foot for their afterlife. Supposedly Aether’s Guardian Deity.
Zhongli: A deity serving under the Ruler of the Underworld, in a good relationship with Venti, his role is to guide spirits through undone deeds and misconceptions in their current life, thus relieving them to the afterlife. He is curious about the human Venti couldn’t keep his eyes off.
...
It's freezing outside.
“Mama, why does that boy looks like me?”
…
“Mama, why can’t I talk to him?”
…
“Mama, why are you crying?”
…
“Mama, why don’t you answer me…?”
Said the young girl, tears dried on her reddened cheeks as she held the woman’s hand tightly. It was so cold, even colder than the howling blizzard outside. The once beautiful woman now lies frozen on a tattered mat, her skin as white as snow, hair as fair as sunlight, eyes shut together painlessly. No matter how loud the young girl calls out, she would not respond.
“Promise me, Lumine, you must be kind to that boy no matter what happened to mommy, or to you. And you must never let him, or anyone sees your face.”
That was everything she has to said before drifting off to her eternal sleep in this iced rundown room. It has been one full day since then.
“Mommy, a-are you leaving me too?” Her childly face now wrinkled with agony as precious memories began flooding back to her.
She has been helping her mom with their life in this shabby little place since she was a toddler. Occasionally, her mom would give her a piggy-back ride to their favorite place where there were plenty of delicious fruits and beautiful flowers, but she always has to hide when people went by because they will be in big trouble if they were caught.
Some days, she caught her mother crying silently as she kept staring in that one direction. In those moments, the young girl simply believed her mother when she made an excuse that she had some sands in her eyes…But over time, the young girl grew up and was finally able to see 'it'.
Her mother cries whenever she looks at that young boy, about the same age as her, dressed in the most pretty clothes she has seen. His hair was beautiful like mommy, and when he looked over their directions, her mom was quick to duck her away.
But she would never forget that face, the same face she sees whenever she looked down into the river. They have the same face, but why does he get to wear all the pretty and shiny clothes, his toys always look so awesome, and he smiles all the time, too…
She used to ask mommy a lot of questions, but mom always lies, or sometimes she cries and forgets to answer her. Is it something that she can’t understand?
At one point…she felt like he was stealing everything away from her.
But moms would always tell her to be kind to him, to not feel hatred for him, and to try to feel for him. She doesn’t understand much, and she’s trying her hardest to do what mom told her, but…why is it so hard?
Her mom talks a lot when a red-haired person visits them once a few days and gave her mom a lot of things. He never talks to her though…She doesn’t like it that he never do anything more than that, and her mom would still crying silently every night.
That being said, he came today, too.
“P-please w-wake my mama up.” She begs, staring up at the tall man with her painful puffy eyes. “P-please-please- I beg you.”
The man now finally looks at her, his eyes have barely any emotions, just like always, but her mom seems to trust him so much, then it’s natural for her to do so.
“...” The man still doesn’t say anything as he stare at the skinny young girl who was still holding onto the dead woman’s hand which was about to fell off.
Taking off his outer jacket, the man uses it to cover the once gorgeous legacy of that pale woman. She never did anything wrong, but that’s what she gets for doing nothing wrong. There are not many places for the weak to stand in this cruel ever-changing world, tragedy is inevitable.
“Wear this.” Said the man, handing the crying child a black velvet mask, just so happen to be the perfect fit for her face. “Follow me, we should not disturb her any further.”
…
Grey sky, not even a single cloud or star is visible.
“You sure are his devoted follower, Venti.” Said the black-haired man, peering down the tranquil water surface below the vermilion bridge they’re standing on. “What is it about that boy that you can not keep your eyes off him?”
“Haven’t I told you, Zhongli?” Replied the other man with a double braid on the sides of his temple, holding an umbrella to ward off the raining red petals in the unnaturally cold air. “He’s the reason why I can’t go back there.”
“...I do not have mutual thoughts, but I must say that I have yet to see someone quite like you.” He said, showing no emotion whatsoever on his stone-cold face. “Is he really worth what you are doing?”
“I have made my decision, Zhongli.” Smiling, the shorter man spread his hand out, catching a frail tattered flower as it fell down, which immediately combust into dust particles as soon as it lands. “I will take care of him, and I won’t leave him like them.”
“...” The black-haired man doesn’t say anything as he slowly made his way to the other bank of the river. It’s the blooming season, blood-red flowers greet his every step, blooming and dying, and then pave the way for new buds to sprout on this cursed soil. “Venti, we should be going now, many are waiting.”
“Right away.” An answer echoes back to him from the middle of the river which reflects the world above, the man than pull his long piece of garment up and follow the taller man, carrying the flowery umbrella with one of his hand.
“I always wonder how you could always be this calm,” Walking down the flower trail, the man took a deep sigh, staring at the grey sky above, not even a cloud or a single star could be seen. “Knowing what will become of you.”
“That’s no different to you then, haha.” His voice was calm, of course, Venti wasn’t someone who can keep a straight face like Zhongli, but it was more like “I have come to accept it, there’s nothing for me to worry about.”
…
Clear sky, nice warming weather.
Holding a white piece of chalk inside his hand, the foreign man carefully writes his lessons on the board while waiting for break time to be over. The smell of chalk is very appealing, but also very toxic, it’s not good for a human to treat their lungs with such powders.
Cough!
A faint coughing sound breaks the silent atmosphere, judging from the volume and the tone of that sound, Albedo could make out right away who, where, and why it came to his eardrums.
“Your Highness, why won’t you go play with your brothers?” Putting down the half-used chalk, the man gently spoke.
“I don’t want to.” Came an immediate reply from the back of the empty classroom, fully furnished with the finest decorations and furniture.
Hearing the distress inside that voice, the foreign mentor takes a slow approach to the boy sitting in the back of the class, hiding his face inside his arms as he rests his upper half on the carved wooden desk.
His beautiful blond hair was neatly done by the right hands, his luxurious clothes smelt of a fresh powdery scent. Albedo finds it both pleasing to his nostrils and visual interpretations. But the boy seems to be having some trouble since he is not in his current bright mood.
“What’s the matter, Aether?” Standing next to the seemingly down boy, he asks.
“XiaoYing is busy today, they’re gonna bully me again.” Replies the boy, unrelieved stress and tensions stacked up inside his voice, which Albedo finds very appealing to his hearing system.
“Oh, what did they say this time? I’ll see if there’s anything I can do.” He asks, doting the sad young prince.
“They said I look like a girl and call me a princess!” Lifting his head up, the boy takes a disgusted sneer outside and then turn back to Albedo, looking at him with his round golden eyes and his gorgeous face, even at such a young age. “I’m clearly a boy! Can’t they tell that by looking at me and XiaoYing!?”
“Why is that girl not with you today, my prince?” Offering the prince a fake understanding smile, the man asks.
“Hng…She said she needs to do chores,” Said the young prince with an annoyed frown on his eyebrows. “I don’t get it, XiaoYing is my guard, why does she need to listen to other people?”
“You can’t be too attach to her, my prince.” Replied the ever-so calming mentor, gently brushing the boy’s head with his hand. “I’m afraid she’s just a servant, she must follow strict regulations.”
“...” Sighed the boy, once again falling to the desk, sticking his face to the cool wooden surface. “I don’t like her that way…”
Aether doesn’t know why, he has always felt some kind of strange attachment to his bodyguard, not in any way people thought, but she felt more like a family to him than any of those other guys.
“I’m glad you are clear about that, Aether.” Trailing his hands down to the blond ponytail, intertwined his fingers in the soft stream of hair with intentions unknown to the young prince. “XiaoYing can’t always be there for you, you have to learn how to fence against the other princes.”
Although Aether was just in the middle of his thirteens, Albedo could see that this boy really took after his mother's feminine side, growing up with that cursed beauty that would surely bring him nothing but troubles. Especially when he’s put up against those other rascals who have a whole bloodline to back them up.
Unlike them, Aether was just a child of a disgraced woman who was lucky enough to be beautiful. Sooner or later, they’re gonna make him bait for wolves.
But until then, Albedo shall take this child under his wings for the time being.