The daughter of the Duke Grenadine, Francesca Anastasia la Grenadine, was engaged to the son of Archduke Thornwood, Frederich Thomason Thornwood. Anastasia and Frederich had been engaged since they were babies, and had grown up as good friends. However, when they both reached the age of 16, Frederich met the love of his life: Marianne Cognac, the daughter of a local merchant.
Despite the obvious social difference between them, Frederich was drawn to Marianne, and looked for every opportunity to interact with her. However, he had five rivals for her love.
Ashleigh Ludwig read the first paragraphs of the otome novel again, then set it down. The fourteen year-old girl crossed her arms and stared at the book on her desk, frowning. She finally stood up, and took the book to her sister’s room.
“Hey, sis. You got a minute?”
Her sixteen year-old sister Marianne was studying at her desk. “I guess. What’s up?”
“Do me a favor and read the first page here.” Ashleigh handed her the book, and sat down on the edge on Marianne’s bed. She didn’t have to wait long until Marianne looked up at her, her face pale. “Does any of that seem familiar to you?”
Marianne closed the book and looked at the garish cover: an auburn haired girl surrounded by beautiful men, while a blonde girl in the background looked on with disdain. The gold embossed title read “To Know You is to Love You: or, The Lily Princess Must Choose One!” Even with the pretensions to grandeur of the gold embossment, the cover was clearly an inferior leather, flaking already, and the papers were so thin as to be almost transparent, showing how the publishers had scraped the parchment thin to make more pages.
“It’s popular right now with my classmates,” Ashleigh said. “It describes you perfectly, with your auburn hair and sky blue eyes-“
“Just stop!” Marianne exclaimed, her face showing her panic. “What does this say about me? Did I seduce Thomas? Try to steal him away from his fiancee? How did anyone learn about this?”
“The character in the book” Ashleigh emphasized, “had the Archduke’s son fall in love with her after they helped each other at the school festival. Even though there were five other guys in love with her, she chooses him about ¾ of the way into the book. Then they work together to take down the villainess, the fiancee of the Archduke’s son, who has been orchestrating things behind the scenes to bring misery to Marianne. Then they graduate and live happily ever after. I don’t think there’s a girl at my school who hasn’t read it, sis.” Ashleigh patted her older sister’s shoulder. “And a lot of them are eyeing me. A couple have even come up and asked to meet you. They’ve become fans of yours by reading about all the hardships you’ve been through at the Academy.”
“There haven’t really been any hardships!”
“What about the bullying you told us about?”
“That wasn’t Lady Silverthorne! It was a girl from a minor count’s home who was jealous that I kept getting the best grades in our class. I talked with the teacher and it stopped eventually.”
“But it was still bullying, even if it wasn’t as bad as in the book.”
Marianne buried her face in her handkerchief. “My life is over. Our life is over. If any of the nobles learn about this, do you realize how much trouble this will stir up? Especially if any of the Silverthorne family learn about it? They have such a terrifying reputation! We’re all dead.”
“Let’s be real here, okay?” Ashleigh interrupted. “How many nobles will actually read otome novels? They’re fantasies for young single ladies, not high literature like you read at the Academy. I think the chances of them learning about it are pretty low.”
Thomas slammed the novel down on his desk, his face completely red. He had managed to read through half of the novel before giving up, and now, all he could manage to do was read the first page. He felt like burning the book. No, collecting all copies of it and making an enormous bonfire. How dare this author write something like this??
There was a knock on the door. When Thomas snarled, “Come in!”, his manservant Jonathan cautiously came in.
“Your Grace, I’m afraid I have bad news,” Jonathan said. Thomas visibly braced himself. “As you ordered, I went and found the author of this novel. Unfortunately, I arrived moments too late. The author was being taken away in an unmarked carriage. While the men taking the author wore street clothing, one of them wore an earring that… appeared to be a silver rose.”
Thomas let out a groan and slid down to collapse into his chair. “Oh no,” he moaned. “What do I do now?”
The same thoughts were being thought by Adrian Knickerbocker, who wrote under the name Adrienne Kenworthy. To be honest, he could only be considered an author by his one published work, “To Know You is to Love You: or, the Lily Princess Must Choose One!” But this fact seemed irrelevant, as he sat in a chair, rope binding his hands and feet together, sweat pouring down his brow. He was very uncomfortable, despite being in a beautiful and elegant sitting room. Two armed men stood behind him.
Facing him, seated comfortably on a divan, was his kidnapper: Anastasia, the daughter of Duke Silverthorne. Her dark blonde hair was swept away from her face by jeweled hair clips, and her emerald green eyes gazed at him like a carnivore watching its prey. She let out a sigh, and took a sip of tea, handling the cup and saucer with grace and poise.
“So.” She finally spoke, her voice calm. “You are the author of this new otome novel?”
“Y-y-yes…” Adrian managed to squeak out.
“Do you have a death wish?”
“Sorry!?”
“Has no one ever warned you of the danger of basing your characters on real people?” Anastasia set her cup and saucer on the table, and sat back in the divan. She began reciting the facts with impressive speed. “You have taken my name and my fiancee’s name, simply switched our middle and first names, and changed our last names somewhat. For your heroine, you have retained her first name, but changed her last. All of the male love interests are clearly based upon the classmates and close friends of my fiancee. Your publisher has not even put a disclaimer, of this being a work of fiction, in your novel. It would appear that your publisher either wants you dead or simply does not care about the consequences. In either case, she would seem quite untrustworthy.”
“That… I can’t… necessarily deny that.”
“It would also appear that you are unaware of libel laws. That is when you are taken to court for defaming nobles, stripped of all your possessions, sentenced to a heavy fine, and must work in the mines for the rest of your life to pay that fine. If you’re lucky, the nobles you have defamed will simply dispatch guards to kill you cleanly and destroy all the manuscripts you own.”
Adrian had stopped sweating. He simply sat there as if his soul had flown away in a hurry.
“Therefore, you are lucky that I was the one to act first. Although I would have preferred being able to seize the novel before it was published, your publisher is so sleazy and insignificant that I did not think to monitor her, thinking that nothing she could do could injure my family’s reputation. An oversight on my part.”
Adrian managed to swallow. “May I ask what you intend to do, milady?”
“Firstly, I want information. Why did you write this story?”
“Well… I… needed to make some money. And I heard that there was good money in the otome novels currently. I’ve never written something so long, but I managed.”
“I see. Although the content itself is libelous and deplorable, the writing itself is well done. There is no flowery or ridiculous prose, the dialogue is well done, and the descriptions are not superfluous. If you were to enter the legitimate market, you would do quite well.”
“Truly?” Adrian was unexpectedly flustered. “Thank you, milady. I’m glad to hear it.”
“However, the fact of the matter is that you did not enter the legitimate market. Which leads to my next question: where did you get the idea for the story itself, regarding the characters and the secret relationship?”
Adrian squirmed. “Someone told me that the Archduke’s son was having a fling with a classmate who was there on a scholarship. I asked him about the people involved, and wrote the story after that.”
“Someone. Who?” Anastasia raised a perfect eyebrow.
What to do? Adrian started sweating again. He wasn’t a reporter, so he couldn’t claim confidentiality for a source. But to admit that he had gotten the information from a stranger at a bar… and that he had been so drunk at the time he didn’t think it odd that a student at the Academy would be old enough to drink… how pathetic was he in actuality? Adrian Knickerbocker was faced with a dilemma he could never have anticipated, and a moral morass he couldn’t get out of.
Anastasia sighed. “If you don’t know the name, at least furnish me with a description.”
“Brown hair, brown eyes, glasses.”
At Adrian’s quick reply, Anastasia nodded. “That narrows the school population by roughly half. Did they specifically say ‘classmate’ or ‘schoolmate’?”
“Classmate.”
“Three likely suspects then. Male or female?”
“Male.”
“Two then.” Anastasia took a long drink of her tea, and placed the cup on the table again. “Thank you. That has been quite helpful.”
“Umm, you’re welcome, milady. Umm…”
“I apologize for the rough treatment. My guards are used to people who are ready to fight, so they reacted accordingly. I shall have them return you to your lodgings shortly, with the knowledge that should you attempt something like this, you will be punished accordingly.”
“Milady, could you instead… possibly… help me leave town? I’m sorry! I know that this is shameless of me to ask, but I needed money to return home to Dalmuth, to see my family. I have enough money set back to pay for a train ticket, but if I stay in town any longer, I’m afraid of what might happen to me.”
“I see. While it is somewhat shameless, I acknowledge your efforts to learn from your current situation. Hans, take Mr. Knickerbocker to his lodgings and then escort him safely to the train. Make sure he arrives in Dalmuth safely. That should give you enough time to spread the word that he is under my protection.”
Adrian felt like crying. “Thank you, milady, from the bottom of my heart. I cannot repay you for this.”
Anastasia nodded, her face still serene. “In the future, if you write another book, please give the person like me a happy ending. It’s unsettling to read of me as the villainess who is exiled into poverty.”
“I will, milady. I promise!” Adrian, who had been freed from his ropes, was escorted out of the room.
Anastasia leaned back against the cushions and sighed, massaging her temples. A female guard stepped forward from the corner of the room and bowed.
“Shall I fetch anything for you, milady?”
“No, Genevieve.” Anastasia pulled a pair of eyeglasses from inside her sleeve and put them on. “I simply needed my glasses. I didn’t want to intimidate the man so much that he couldn’t give any useful information.”
With her glasses, Anastasia still looked a perfect lady, but with an aura of coldness she hadn’t had before. A frightened Adrian would have been scared even more, had he faced this version of her.
Genevieve nodded. “Understood. Shall I send Luther to spread the word?”
“Better to send Klaus. Luther looks too genial.”
Genevieve bowed, and left. This left Anastasia alone in the room. She laid her head against the back of the divan and closed her eyes for a few moments. When Genevieve came back, Anastasia wrote out two notes and rang for the maid to deliver them.
To be continued…
Random English Major Thoughts 