You are currently viewing (First Draft) Alicia Chapter 5: Mother’s Past Part 1

Alicia’s mother, Irene Bell, was formerly named Irene ir Illyer, eldest daughter of the Illyer family who had the highest noble position of duke in her country the Kirash Kingdom. Her father the duke of Illyer ruled over the territory given with utmost responsibility. He was loved by many. He was a good noble. The only good noble. Every other aristocrats are typical corrupted beings like in books and films.

A succession war was embroiling at that time with the king being on the edge of death. Two main faction arose, the first prince faction and the second prince faction.

The second prince, Van va Kirash, was born from the second wife of the king whom he loved more over the first. This has made the second prince spoiled, he was given everything he wanted. He had grown to become quite despicable. He bribes any official to do his bidding, does who refused gets “eliminated”. He took money from the townspeople as “donations” to fund his spendings (he understands that he cant just use the treasury willy-nilly). He forcefully took any women he come across he liked as his concubine even the married ones in which their husbands died mysteriously the day before he took them in. The king and the queen never reprimand him for they dote on him too much.

The first prince, Albert al Kirash, on the other hand, is better than his younger half-brother. He is an honest man who considers the people’s well being. He does not engage the same detestable acts as his younger half-brother. However, he had little support namely literally just the Illyer family backing him up in the succesion war due to every other nobles accepting the bribes from the second prince. Worse, the king liked the younger brother over him making the war seemingly one-sided. The people have no say to this either with a single protest puts them on death’s door to by the second prince.

It was obvious for any person to see the outcome.

However, it was not that simple. The power of both factions are equal in fact.

The prince’s only supporter, the Illyer family holds a large influence over the royal court of Kirash. The duke of Illyer had previously led the army against the Fichs Empire, an enemy nation looking to invade the kingdom, and pushed back the enemy back to their territory from 20 years prior. The enemy outnumbered the kingdom 3 to 1, so this victory had given the Illyer duke an outstanding achievement. Also, with his responsible work in his territory had made his territory prosperous and the public have high opinion of him. Even before the duke’s achievement, the predecessors of the duke had also been outstanding people. With all of those factors combined had been enough to equal all of the other noble in the opposing faction.

Now normally, the Illyer family usually stayed neutral in this kind of situation as siding with one faction tips the balance of power very heavily. That itself was surprising for the noble society. Of course there is but one reason for the duke of Illyer to do this.

“Because the second prince is a jackass.” he said himself.

The second prince had tried to bribe him over to his side but to no avail. He is an incorruptible man after all. For one thing, the duke had never shown his daughters faces to the royal court (he has two daughters by the way) out of fear that the jackass would lay his hands on them. Even the those nobles he bribed never shown their daughters too despite being in his side.

The duke had seen the his vile atrocities. He believed that the kingdom’s future will be grim under his reign and as such, he entered the first prince’s faction who is better and more competent as a ruler than his dastardly younger half-brother. Besides, The first prince had been close to his younger daughter. With all the other nobles flocking over to the second prince’s side the duke took the opposing side, tipping the balance to a stalemate.

Of course, this made him a thorn in the younger prince’s side. Usually, he would crush those who did not do as he commanded however, his target is the duke of Illyer who is hailed as a hero in the kingdom. Surely he will not do it right?

Well it should be obvious. He did it anyway.

With the help of his mother and even his father the king, he attempted by hiring a highly-skilled assassins to kill the duke but that had failed numerous times. He tried to hire bandits to kill him when he’s on the way in a carriage and that failed to. He even tried poisoning his food and it did worked, but he mysteriously recovered.

He got frustrated and so he pulls the last straw.

Night in the Illyer manor. The duke, his wife, his two daughters, all of the workers inside, the guards and even the prince (he himself had also received his fair share of assassination attempts, so he sheltering away in the manor) saw light outside the window. Fire. The prince burned the manor. He had his guards disguised as Fichs soldiers to burn the manor and kill anyone who escapes the place. The first prince was there too making two birds with one stone. This would be the end for the them if not for the Otherworldly Court rescuing them.

The Illyer family had connections to the Court Wizards. It was Ronald Bell alongside Owen’s father during their days actively as a Court Wizard. When they were travelling in that world, they frequently stop by the manor. It was a high noble in the hierarchy, it would benefit the Court to have connections with them. They were the reason why the duke survived all of those attempts on his life.

The two had repelled all those assassins and bandits attacking him. When he got poisoned, they called another wizard to heal him in a quick manner. The Court are capable of knowing almost everything happening in worlds so the two were able to intervene at the right moment.

And now, in the manor set a blazed they had rushed in rounding up all of the trapped inhabitants and transfer them to the Court. The soldiers saw no one coming out and when the manor had burned to the ground, they went back and reported it to their prince. Although they did not find a body, the prince was satisfied nonetheless. There was no way anyone could survive that he thought.

Little did he know that they survived that. It doesn’t change the fact however that now the throne was good as his.


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