Chapter 4:
Sisia was always a curious and quiet girl, but that curiosity often got her in trouble.
Like now, for instance.
A strange man who seemed to be in a hurry, wearing all white and carrying a pocket watch appeared at the edge of her garden when she was enjoying her afternoon tea as always. He looked a quite a bit lost, so she had called out to him. To her dismay, he fled back into the trees, saying “AW SHIT I’M LATE!!!” and nearly fell over a tree root on his way back into the shadows. The dangerous curiosity took hold inside her and she decided to follow the man.
When she realized where she was, it was too late. She had been so busy following the blonde teen that she hadn’t noticed the landscape around her changing from her beloved Swiss forest to a flower-filled, ivy entrenched woodland, not at all resembling her home’s.
To be honest, she didn’t even figure out that anything changed until she stumbled across a large, maze-like garden with towering rosebushes reaching the cloudless sky and a grand red and black castle in the distance.
She didn’t have any roses. And she lived in a cottage, not a castle.
“Oh my…” She brushed off her pink striped dress and fixed her purple ribbon. “I wonder where I am…” Her sense were telling her to turn around and try and find her way back, but unusual voices from the garden’s center begged her to find out more.
She rounded the corners, following the loud laughing and faint speech that drifted on the slight breeze. Said slight breeze caught her hair on a stray rose, tearing out her ribbon.
Not that she really noticed; she kept walking.
When she finally got to the center, she saw the pair. A man with a black crown on his head, royal red and black clothes and a pristine head of brown hair (with only one curl standing up straight) was chatting with a boisterous albino man, his patchwork uniform showing that he might have worked at the castle at some point, and his black and red top hat crazily sewn in random places. A little yellow chick spun around his head and landed on his hat, somehow not tipping it over from its already extreme lopsided angle.
“Excuse me, sirs.” Sisia called out in a timid voice. “Can you help me?”
~*~
King Roderich stumbled into the garden, holding on the tea table set out in the middle for dear life. He couldn’t process anything in his current state. His Vash? Dead? No, it couldn’t be! It had to be a mistake!
His heart felt like it just sank into the ground and disappeared forever. His mind was completely numb and the world around him was spinning. He felt like he would pass out then and there.
Perhaps for the better, he was soon accompanied by a certain someone.
“Oy! Young Master!” Oh, joy. The very last person he wanted to see arrived: The Crazy head steward, Gilbert “Mad Hatter” Bellischmidt. “You sulking? Maaaaaan that’s laaaaaame.”
“Go away, Gilbert.” Roderich growled, his fist unconsciously clenching. How in the hell had that idiot gotten here?! This was their spot, no intruders at all! Only Roderich and Vash new the trail through the garden. Unless…. “Did you follow me here?”
“I did.” The albino man smirked, his little bird flying in circles around him and peeping incessantly. “And to be honest, I was kinda worried ‘bout you.”
“I’m fine.” He covered up pathetically. Of course he wasn’t okay. The love of his life was murdered brutally in the forest! How was he supposed to be fine with that on his mind?! As much as he wanted to just scream his grief out, he couldn’t. He was the king and had to keep a calm composure. And even if he wanted to at least tell someone, the only person who would pester him enough to open up was standing in front of him and was 1/3 of the castle-famous trio of friends: the “Bad Touch Trio” and everyone knew that if you told them something, it’d be around the castle faster than you could say “No!”.
Fate shown upon the grieving king, for the Mad Hatter left it at that. “Whatever you say, Roderich.” Gilbert shoved his hands in his pockets and laughed a bit. “Tea’s waiting for you back at the castle, y’know.”
“I’m going to stay here for a while-”
“Excuse me, sirs.”
~*~
The strange royal whipped around to face her, his glasses nearly flying off in the process. The man beside him with the red eyes and insane top hat smiled at his reaction.
“And you are?” The royal asked, fixing his now lopsided crown.
Where were the manners that her brother taught her? Sisia quickly curtsied and bowed her head.
“My name is Sisia, sir. Sisia Vogel.”
“Sisia…” King Roderich looked her up and down, noticing just how similar she looked to Vash. Same blonde hair in the same style, same green eyes that seemed to look right through him, same air about her… the only difference being she was a young girl in a pink striped dress. “Well, Sisia. I am King Roderich of the Red Kingdom.” He maintained his composure and crossed his arms, pretending that just seeing a mirror image if his Vash in front of him wasn’t killing him slowly from the inside out.
“Forgive me for wandering about, Your Highness.” She curtsied slightly again and continued. “But I am not from around her and am very lost.”
Gilbert’s tell-tale laugh erupted and he came a little too close to her. “Kesesesesesese! Well, Sisia, you’ve come to the right place. Sure, our king is as cheap as fuck, but hey, we’re a kick-ass, awesome nation.”
“Where are you from?” Said cheap king tapped his foot impatiently. This was getting too weird for his tastes. Plus, he didn’t exactly want a stranger, be they possibly related to the duke or not, wandering in their garden.
“Does it really matter?” Gilbert looped his arm around her shoulders. “She’s here now and doesn’t look like she’s from the other kingdom.”
Roderich’s eyes glanced back and forth between the pair. How on earth did the butler manage to convince him to do this?! “Follow me.” When he turned around, he made sure that his royal cloak-thing he was forced to wear didn’t catch on the rosebushes. Even though he wasn’t quite sure where this girl came from, he had a reputation to uphold.
~*~
Elizaveta crushed the purple ribbon in her perfectly manicured hands. Her Roddy was already with another girl?! Didn’t the death of his beloved Vash teach him a lesson?
Fine. No matter. She’ll just kill this girl and Roddy will be all hers again.
