The bastard child becomes the empires royal consort-Chapter 58: Late Night [2]

From this height, the valley looked like a sea of shadows, with the faint, distant lights of Kahl flickering like stars on the horizon.

"Couldn’t sleep?" Alan asked, keeping his voice low.

Julia didn’t answer immediately, she picked up a small pebble and tossed it, they both watched in silence as it disappeared into the dark, never hearing it hit the bottom.

"I keep thinking about the capital." she finally whispered, the usual energetic voice was gone, replaced by a hollow tone.

"The attack?" Alan asked softly.

"That too." She offered a faint, tired smile. "But mostly just... the place, you know, that castle was the only world I knew for sixteen years."

Alan remained silent as she continued speaking. "Sure, my time there may not have been the greatest, but it was still a place I grew up."

"So, you’re homesick?" Alan asked, tilting his head with a light smile.

"No, not really." Julia shook her head. "In fact, quite the opposite, I’m very happy I finally escaped from that place... but I don’t know how to describe what I’m feeling right now, maybe I’m just upset about my garden?"

"That place could barely be called a garden." Alan chuckled, he leaned back on his elbows, looking up at the stars. "Have I ever told you about the Zevril estate?"

Julia raised a brow, turning her head slightly. "You and Lucian mention bits and pieces, but you’re always so vague about it."

"Well..." Alan tapped his chin. "The first ten years were mostly just quiet, boring, even."

"Quiet? In a Grand Duke’s household?"

"I’m an illegitimate child, Julia," Alan reminded her with a shrug. "The main family didn’t exactly welcome us and left our lives to neglect, it was just me and my mother living in the annex, well, we had servants, but they were... let’s just say ’unhelpful,’ so I eventually retired most of them myself."

"Wait, if you were neglected and stayed away in an annex, how did you end up so close with the others?" Julia looked confused. "The last I saw, your relationships with your brother and sister were quite good, no?"

"Ah, you mean Alden and Alessia?" Alan’s smile widened into something more mischievous. "I didn’t even meet those two until I was ten years old."

"So, they looked favourably to you?"

"Absolutely not." Alan scoffed. "The first day I saw them, Alden came and trash-talked the living shit out of me, so I just knocked him out."

"Oh..."

"He’s consistent, I’ll give him that," Alan laughed, ignoring the shock on her face. "Ever since that day, he’s been coming back for rematches, he thinks he’ll win for some reason and put me in my place? It’s actually kind of weird, considering Alessia was always way stronger than him, she’d just watched from the sidelines, fawning over Lucian while I tossed her brother on the dirt..."

"He came back to fight you in the castle as well, didn’t he?" Julia giggled, her expression softening for the first time. "Still, your relationship with your siblings are quite good."

"Is it?" Alan awkwardly scratched his head. "But we’ve never exactly exchanged pleasantries."

"But they don’t hate you, right?" Julia pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms tight around them and resting her chin on her forearms. "The two of them actually see you as a person."

Alan fell silent, caught off guard by the self-deprecating smile playing on her lips.

"My siblings never exactly saw me that way." She tilted her head sideways, her gaze drifting. "I don’t know what they thought I was... but it definitely wasn’t anything good."

"I tried, you know, for many years I tried getting closer to them, but all I got back was just... coldness?" Her brows furrowed deeply. "Even the servants weren’t any better, thinking back on it, I guess my life wasn’t great, huh?"

Alan’s face held an awkward smile with sweat dripping down his face, he could go commit arson or murder someone, but comforting an upset woman? That was the one thing he never received training for, both as Alan and Leon.

"It’s fine, you don’t need to try and comfort me." Julia looked up at him with a wide, knowing grin, like she knew what he was thinking. "You don’t look like you’d be any good at it."

"You’re not wrong," Alan admitted, letting out a small chuckle.

"It’s okay, I don’t mean to be sad or anything." She responded back with a chuckle of her own. "I guess I was just thinking about how much different the world is outside of that castle."

"Liking it so far?" Alan questioned. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Absolutely!" Julia nodded with a bright smile. "It’s so different than I ever thought it’d be, especially alcohol, we all should go and drink sometime!"

"Yeah, nah, let’s never do that again..." Alan flatly denied her request, remembering what happened the last time she drank alcohol.

Suddenly curious about something, Alan decided to ask. "Hey, what about the First Prince? What’s he like?"

"...The first prince?" Julia tilted her head. "Why are you suddenly asking about him?"

"Well, it’s just that he is travelling with my older brother." Alan frowned slightly, recalling the report he’d heard before.

Alvin took the entire second battalion of the Zevril knights order along with him to the Eastern Continent, so why on earth was the first prince even travelling with Alvin?

"If you’re talking about my eldest brother..." Julia trailed off thoughtfully. "Then I can’t really say much."

"Uh, is it a sensitive topic or something?"

"No, no, it’s just that I never actually interacted with him." She paused mid-sentence. "But I remember seeing him from a distance... he was always very close with this one guy."

"Another guy?"

"Oh!" Julia’s eyes went wide. "I remember now! It was Alvin! He used to visit the palace all the time years ago."

"I guess it makes sense they’d be close if they’re travelling together now." Alan nodded. "But what was Alvin like? Believe it or not, I’ve never actually met him."

"Really? Well..." Julia frowned, trying to remember. "He was... very, very loud..."

"Huh?"

"How do I explain..." Julia looked down. "Both the first prince and he were, uh... very unique, you see..."

"Hmm." Alan didn’t expect this sort of response.

"There was a great uproar in the castle about eight years ago, if I remember correctly."

"What the hell happened?"

"Well, that day the first prince ran away from the castle." Julia replied.

"Oh." Alan nodded slowly. "Well, that explains a lot of things."

So in summary, the first prince ran away from the royal castle to join the heir of the Zevril clan in his journey to the Eastern continent, which still didn’t explain why on earth Alvin took Jack hostage and travelled without the second battalion.

"Hmph." Alan just shrugged, brushing the thoughts away, he wasn’t going to find an answer anytime soon anyway.

"I know I’m a bit late in asking," Alan said, turning back to her. "But why are you actually out here?"

"Mmm?" Julia hummed, her eyes fixed on the horizon. "The view is nice, isn’t it?"

"Yeah, I guess it is..."

Alan finally took a moment to truly look at the sight in front of him, they were seated on a jagged cliff high above a dark, sprawling valley.

In the far distance, the vague outline of Kahl was visible with flickering lights, connected to that cluster of lights was an ocean illuminated by the pale, white glow of the moon.

The scenery was mesmerising, added to with the brilliantly lit night sky.

On Earth, due to the light polution, he didn’t often get the chance to see the sky for its true appearance.

But in this life, every night was a view he would’ve never seen before, numerous faint, hazy bands of white light stretched across the dark sky, like glowing rivers of stars.

"It really is..." Alan whispered softly. "I didn’t take you as the type to be into stuff like this."

"Why’s that?" Julia shifted her head to look directly at Alan.

Her crimson eyes were luminous in the dark, the sight would’ve been terrifying to anyone else, but Alan wasn’t scared, instead, for a small moment, his breath caught in his throat.

The soft glow of the moon layered against her face, the silver light highlighted the curve of her features, Alan often forgot due to her eccentric behaviours, but Julia truly was someone beautiful...

"Alan...?" Julia called out.

"Ah—uh, ehem." Alan quickly cleared his throat, looking away, silently wondering why his chest was suddenly beating so loud.

"Are you... not going back to camp?" Alan quickly changed the subject.

"What for?"

"To sleep, obviously."

"Aren’t you?" Julia asked back

"I’ll go if you go." Alan countered. "I can’t exactly leave a lady out here alone, can I?"

"Oh my, how manly," Julia giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. "But I think I’ll stay here a bit longer."

"Fine, then I’m staying too." Alan settled back in, returning his gaze to the valley.

Rustle

Julia shifted in her position, sliding closer to Alan, confused he gave a side glance, observing her actions.

She moved closer to him, until very naturally placing her head on his left shoulder, gently closing her eyes like she’d done this before.

In that moment, Alan froze stiff like a rock, the only emotion he felt was pure and utter confusion, he could only blankly look at the resting Julia.

Snore Snore

Or rather, the sleeping Julia.

Alan didn’t have any choice other than to sit there in position acting as her pillow, although he didn’t know why.

’That position can not be comfortable...’ With that thought, Alan just went back to idly looking forward, while his mind raced with questions.

After a moment, he didn’t notice his own eyes getting heavy, as the exhaustion finally caught up to him, his chin eventually dipped.

And he drifted off into a sleep that, for once, didn’t start with an endless void.