355. Buried Memories Part 5

“Host a large banquet to aggressively spread our narrative that this was a thwarted uprising,” Emperor Andrew ordered his right-hand man, Frank Eldric, as the grand audience room finally began to empty. Leaning in closer, he added in a strict, low whisper, “Ravenna seems to have had a hand in helping this Nicola fellow out... We need to immediately divert all attention away from the palace and focus it entirely onto the unrest within Foster Liam itself.”

Frank Eldric gave a solemn nod and walked away to execute the command. Left alone, Emperor Andrew let out a heavy, weary sigh as he stared up at the cloudy sky outside the high windows. “Duke Roland will not take this loss calmly... his beloved wife has died, after all.”

A Few Days Later. A Corridor in the West Wing, The Imperial Court. Imperial Palace, Capital City.

Young Ravenna was just about to reach the safety of her bedchamber doors when she suddenly froze, her breath catching in her throat. Adult Ravenna followed right behind her, a shattered, hollow expression mirroring the exact look worn by her younger counterpart. The intensely repressed memories and the raw, suffocating torrent of agonizing feelings were finally flooding back into her consciousness, pieces of a broken past she had locked away to stay sane.

“Hey!”

A young Landon rushed down the corridor, his face contorted in absolute fury. Before the young princess could react, he slammed into her, pushing her violently down onto the stone floor. “It was you, wasn’t it?!”

“W-what...?” Young Ravenna stammered from the ground, startled and trembling as she looked up at him.

“The horrific massacre in Foster Liam!” Landon roared, his eyes wild with burning anger and deep emotional hurt. “You were the only person who entered the military archives right before the gathering took place! Nicola, the leader of those peaceful protesters, told his inner circle that he secured the patrol data directly from a member of the imperial family before leading three thousand people right into their deaths!”

“I... I don't know what you are talking about...” Young Ravenna tried desperately to feint ignorance, but the sheer weight of the guilt was already eating away at her fragile heart. Even though she hadn't personally witnessed the slaughter, she could feel exactly how hopeless it must have been, innocent people dying like rats trapped in a cage, with absolutely nowhere to run.

“As if!” Landon kicked her sharply in the side. Reaching down, he grabbed her fiercely by the front of her collar, forcing her up against the wall. “I was actually there, you know. I spent the entire agonizing night loading bloody corpses onto a handcart, desperately trying to find Maria’s body! Do you even have the slightest inkling of how it feels to haul half-dead people in the dead of the night, listening to them beg and scream because they don't want to die?!”

“They were completely innocent! The only thing they ever wanted from the crown was for us to just sit down and listen to them! What on earth did they do to deserve such a gruesome death?!” Completely consumed by his grief and rage, Landon’s grip tightened, his fingers wrapping around the young Ravenna's neck, starting to choke her.

Standing beside them as a mere phantom of the future, the adult Ravenna just stood there in the center of her own staggering guilt, her face completely sober and unmoving as she watched the horrific scene unfold.

“I... I really don’t know what you’re... talking about,” young Ravenna choked out, still stubbornly denying her involvement through her gasps for air.

“You bitch! You still dare to lie?!” Landon’s expression darkened. He squeezed her throat with even more brutal strength, his knuckles turning white, when suddenly a sharp voice echoed down the hall.

“Your Highness! What do you think you are doing?!”

Alice and Hughes arrived in the corridor, rushing forward with pure anxiety at the violent sight. Seeing the young knight closing in, young Landon scoffed with bitter anger and threw the young Ravenna roughly back onto the hard floor.

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Cough! Cough!

Young Ravenna collapsed in a heap, clutching her neck and coughing violently as Landon glared down at her with pure hatred. “You deserve the absolute worst, most agonizing death imaginable!”

He drew his steel sword, turning his stance to face Hughes, who was already rushing toward him to intercept the blade. But before Alice could even reach Ravenna’s side to offer any comfort, young Ravenna frantically scrambled to her feet and took off running down the hall as fast as her small legs could carry her.

“Your Highness! Wait!” Alice screamed, trying to catch up, but the child was already gone.

Adult Ravenna didn't follow the fleeing little girl this time. Instead, she turned her hollow gaze toward the direction of the grand banquet hall, her mind vividly reconstructing exactly what had happened next. Every ounce of color completely drained from her face as the suffocating wave of old emotions crashed through her defenses. In her mind's eye, she could already hear the upbeat music and the booming laughter from the palace's main wing, the victory party celebrating the brutal subversion of the "Nicola Uprising" was already in full swing.

The Grand Banquet Hall, Imperial Palace. Imperial Capital, Ancorna Empire.

The grand banquet hall was bustling with high-society activity. An endless array of exotic food gathered from all over the world was meticulously arranged on a massive central table. Lavishly dressed nobles and important foreign delegations spun gracefully across the central dancing floor, while the more serious, politically minded types mingled about the perimeter, drinking and eating.

The young Ravenna came rushing in from one of the corridors, her breath ragged and her hair disheveled, and bumped heavily into a familiar figure. Adult Ravenna stood silently in the corner, watching the unfolding scene with the same somber, hollow expression.

“Your Highness...?” the lady, Ruby Ronin, said as she steadied herself and recognized the trembling young girl.

“It’s the servant girl princess!” Jessica Ronin chirped next to her mother. This time, Ruby instantly pinched her arm hard, warning her with a sharp, terrified hiss, “Jessica!”

Ruby quickly turned back to the visibly shaken young princess, offering a polite, deferential smile. “Your Highness, we really must apologize, not just for just now, but for the last time as well... We actually came to the banquet today specifically hoping to find you, so we could properly beg your forgiveness for the incident when we bumped into each other alongside Duke Roland and Mister Nicola.”

“No... no...” Young Ravenna began to hyperventilate, a severe panic attack violently seizing her chest. She took a step back, clutching her head as she continuously muttered to herself in a low, frantic whisper, “I didn’t do it... I didn’t do it... I didn’t do it...”

It was as if something vital was slowly cracking inside her fragile psyche. Completely overwhelmed by the crushing weight of the blood on her hands, the suffocating guilt, and the terror of Landon's accusations, young Ravenna broke. Her eyes locked onto Ruby in a desperate, frenzied attempt to deflect the blame. She pointed a trembling finger at the noblewoman and shouted at the top of her lungs, “She! She had a hand in the Nicola Uprising!”

The entire grand hall instantly went dead silent. The lively music seemed to cut out as hundreds of eyes turned toward them. Ruby was completely flabbergasted by the sudden, baseless accusation. She looked around the room in absolute panic, her gaze suddenly meeting the cold, calculating eyes of the Emperor across the hall.

Emperor Andrew smiled faintly, leaning in to whisper to Frank Eldric in a low, ruthless voice, “This is for the best. Pin the leak of military information on her... Have the guards arrest her immediately.”

Frank nodded coldly. Before Ruby could even process what was happening, heavy armored guards marched into the party, ruthlessly grabbing her by the arms and dragging her across the polished floor.

“Mother! Mother! Don’t take my mother away! She didn’t do anything wrong!” the young Jessica wailed, crying and screaming as she tried to pull her mother back.

Ruby was forcefully dragged away toward the heavy iron doors, her desperate screams echoing over the silent crowd. “Please! Somebody help me! I am innocent! I had nothing to do with it!”

Through it all, young Ravenna stood frozen in the center of the floor, staring blankly ahead as she kept muttering like a broken doll, “I didn’t do it... I didn’t do it... I didn’t do it... I don't know who Nicola was. I don’t know... Nicola...”

The sheer emotional overload finally snapped her consciousness, and she abruptly fainted, collapsing onto the cold marble floor in the middle of the crowded hall.

Adult Ravenna just watched everything quietly from the shadows, every single piece of her buried, agonizing past fully restored to her mind. She closed her eyes in the memory, the phantom sounds of screaming Jessica fading away, only to hear a much softer, deeply concerned voice cutting through the dark.

“Mother!”

Ravenna’s eyes snapped open. The oppressive stone ceilings of the ancient subterranean ruins were gone. Instead, she found herself lying in her own comfortable bed inside her private bedchamber at Kim Castle, the warm morning light filtering through the curtains. Sit next to her, clutching her hand with tears welling in her eyes, was Marie.