Oliver Davis.
The Queen hired her services to assassinate the young man called Oliver Davis, a Baron who was quite famous for his published books. Mai too was a fan of his works, but money was money. It was the young man's fault in the first place, harboring affections for a royalty.
After all, who in their right mind would fall in love with a lady who was already meant to be for some other man. She snorted as she sat in the corner of the study, where she was far enough that she couldn't hear the young lovers, but close enough to keep an eye on them.
She slumped in the seat, totally forgetting that she should act proper as nobody except the lovers were in the room. She leaned her head on her elbows, thinking how she would be able to kill the young Baron.
When she finished with him, she would be rich. She no longer had to scrape money from killing people and she would be able to leave the black market. Not that she ever intended to be in there the first place, she had just been running away from the orphanage where she had no fond memories of.
As a kid, she had always been bullied. Maybe it's because she was a foreigner in the land, because she was Japanese and not English. It was stupid, she only ever know two Japanese words; Taniyama Mai, and she doesn't even know what it means.
Returning to the current problem, it was almost close to sunrise and she had to take the princess back in the palace before the guards notice she's gone. Glancing at the lovers, she hesitated. Maybe a couple more minutes.
She got up from her seat and searched for a book to distract herself, she had found one when she noticed a faint light from a distance and curiosity got the better of her. It better not be another assassin who was trying to take her prey.
Stepping in closer to the person sitting behind a desk, with his back to her, she reached out a hand on the slim blade disguised as a pin in her hair. In a swift movement, she had the blade on his throat and his head was leaning on her abdomen to further expose his neck.
She blinked and furrowed her brows at the young man she had been meaning to attack. His hair was a rich black, dark enough to be associated to blue and his eyes were a dark purple. His pale skin and lean figure was much like… "The baron?"
He had been watching her and she frowned at his expression, not one bit of surprise or panic. "I don't understand, but then who is the one...?"
"Are you done now?" He asked and she noticed how pleasant his voice was, wishing he spoke louder rather than a whisper.
Gathering her senses, she focused on who the man was and what he was doing in the library of the Baron's mansion. "Who are you?"
"Ah, wouldn't you like to know." She tightened her grip on the blade and he sighed. "You can call me Eugene Davis."
She frowned at the name, she had heard of it. The young son of the Duke Martin Davis and the Duchess Luella. What's a man of such rank doing in the house of a Baron late at night, unless?
"We are what people call twins." He said in a tone she did not like.
"I'm not stupid, I noticed that!" She meant to ask why was half of the twin titled a Baron when his father is a Duke? She distinctly remembered something about holding a land from the king, if so, how was he- Mai did not know, she wasn't even sure what to call him, is it Lord or Sir?
"And yet you still threaten me with a pin coated in poison."
"Maybe because you speak like you know everything."
"Maybe that's because I do." He looked at her straight in the eye, "And maybe because I know. Heaven knows too, why I am here at such an early hour to prevent my older brother's death."
Mai narrowed her eyes at him and he pushed away her hand, returning to his previous position and fixing his collar. "Normally, ladies would be embarrassed to touch a man they do not know."
She turned red at that. "Normally, ladies wouldn't be paid to kill someone. I'm not normal."
"No, you are not."
She did not like this Eugene guy. How could such a bubbly handsome man be related to the straight-faced smug man in front of her, she did not understand that either. Also perhaps because the man in front of her looked a lot more handsome to her eyes than Oliver does.
"Yes, I hear that a lot."
"What?"
"That I am a lot more handsome than my brother." He smirked, "Though we are twins, we are nothing alike at all."
"Because he's the charming one who snagged the princess of England and you're the gloomy one who has to rely on his parents to get him a wife." Mai retorted, returning her weapon to her hair. Eugene was not the one she was supposed to kill. She would, if he keeps being smug.
"I do not need my parents to get me a woman."
Entirely unconvinced, she gathered up her skirt and moved to return to the lovers. "Sure, you do not."
"I say I have charmed you already."
Mai looked completely aghast as she turned to the young man. She stepped towards him and poked a finger to his chest repeatedly. "You, sir, are very narcissistic. Perhaps you may be handsome but you do not charm me the least bit."
"You do think I'm handsome."
Mai threw her hands up in the air and didn't bother to reply. The sun was rising and she had to take the princess back to the palace.
- Line Break -
"I am going to get killed before I kill the baron," she complained as she made tea for the lovers in the sitting room. The door was completely wide open so she could see that they aren't doing anything inappropriate. Taking twin tea cups, elegantly ornate, she lifted the matching teapot and placed them in a tray.
"I might mourn for you." She almost jumped up in surprise at the tall man leaning on the door. "But that would be after I celebrate the fact that my brother is still breathing."
She frowned as he took the tray from her and poured himself some of the tea. "I haven't placed anything in there, in case you haven't noticed, the princess will be drinking from the same pot."
He said nothing except look at the cup on his hand appreciatively right after he took a sip. He was silent as he finished the cup and poured himself another.
"Although if you're planning on finishing the entire pot and make me do another one, I'm not going to think twice about putting poison in your brother's cup."
He did not say anything once again and shrugged as he left with a cup on his hand.
Several hours had passed and she had been reading a book when he stood behind her and demanded another cup of tea.
"No. I'm not a maid, you have plenty of people to ask to make you tea in this mansion and I'm sure they make better tea than I do."
"They do not know I'm here."
"I'm an assassin, I do not make tea for people less they are related to my case or my friends."
"We talk to each other in daily basis, is that not enough to call us friends?"
She gave him a pointed look, trying to see if he was serious. And then she remembered she wouldn't know because his face was always straight and void of any emotion beside smugness.
"We've only spoke for four days, no that does not make us friends."
"Shame, you'll make me tea or my brother will know you are after his life."
She groaned, would it be that bad to kill Eugene before Oliver? She set her book aside and she did not bother to look him in the face, she knew there would be a smirk playing in his lips.
"I utterly despise you, Eugene Davis."
"You and I both." He said with a fresh cup of tea in his hands and the teapot on the other.
- Line Break -
The Queen had threatened her to get her job done and she will. She had spent an entire week trying to decide what to do and how to do it.
"Do hurry up, you're delaying my rendezvous." The smiling princess said. Mai followed after her and she knew that if anyone else had seen a Japanese doll, they would have thought that the princess was not English descent at all.
She knew Masako isn't. The king had been, in a word 'barren'. He was unable to produce a child and so the queen had taken a concubine, a half-Japanese lord who she had met more than once before. The princess was not a bastard as the king himself had many mistress and harbors only love towards his only daughter, but never in the history of royalty had a queen taken a lover, so it was better if her origins were kept hidden.
"Princess," she whispered as they were led to the sitting room by a butler of the Baron's Mansion. "I do not know why you keep on meeting the baron. I heard from your mother, the queen, that you are to be with someone else."
Masako paused and looked at her with angry eyes, in an equally angry whisper that sounded more like a hiss. "Say what you want, because it's not me who has never experienced love."
"You're the princess of England, you could-" A pain in her cheek stopped her from her sentence. It took all she had to hold herself back from pouncing to the princess and pulling her hair out.
"I do not wish to speak of that ever again, and so should you." The princess sharply said and continued on. Mai rubbed her cold palm to her sore cheek and glanced at a mirror they had passed by.
The red of her cheek stood out from her slightly peachy skin and she almost pouted at how ugly it looked. Her round brown eyes had their pupil dilated from the anger she had to hold back and her short brown hair had poked out of the braid.
She looked around, the young couple had taken a seat by the large window and had their back to her but other than both, she was completely alone. She slid off the oriental hair pins from her hair with care and untangled her hair from its braids.
She focused on her pins and played with them a bit, getting lost in her thought when something cold touched the back of her neck. She stiffened and spun around quickly, the pinnacle of her needle hovering a few centimeters from pale skin. She narrowed her eyes at the tall man hovering over her and let her hand fall limp to her side as the other pushed his hand away from her hair.
"Eugene Davis, what the heck is wrong with you?"
"I never thought you hair was so short." He said and she noticed how his eyes watched her wavy hair curiously. "And I didn't know they were curly."
She sighed, hurrying to put her hair back to its braids. "My hair isn't this short and it isn't curly, its because of the braid."
"Curious."
"Yes," she agreed. "Considering the fact that you call yourself quite a lady charmer, you should have known that."
"Most ladies don't let their hair loose in public."
"I thought we had sorted out the fact that I am not like most ladies?" Mai said as she reached for her last pin, "I am not a- do not touch that if you don't want to die- I'm not a lady."
"Hmm," he said as he reached for the pin anyway, lifting it by the head. "These pins do not look beautiful at all."
"No, because I'm not part of the Chinese dynasty." She took it from him and returned it to her hair. She sidestepped away from him and he blocked her way again.
"Tea."
"No."
"Tea."
The lovers had moved towards the other corner of the room and she pushed the noble away to reach the room. "Oh-ho?"
She looked at the hand wrapped around her wrist and back at the straight-faced man. "I want tea."
"And I need money." Mai said, slipping his hand away from her.
"You need ice for your cheek."
"You need to mind your own business."
He paused, "Fair enough."
"Look here, sir, young man, - Eugene. I was hired by someone to kill Oliver Davis, the lover of the Princess, and he happens to be your older brother. You are purposely distracting me from doing my task and I am not going to die just because I couldn't do my assignment."
"Who hired you?"
"Nice try."
"Is the person who hired you, going to kill you if you don't do your task?"
"No."
"Then who would kill you?"
She sighed, "Why would you want to know?"
He shrugged and turned around, leaving her with a headache.
- Line Break -
"You had a month and now you have until tonight, if you cannot do it, I will ask someone else to do your job and then you will take the reward. Afterwards, I will take care of you." A sinister laugh erupted in the dark room. "It won't be painful at all."
Yeah right, that's what they always say. She stabbed the wood in front of her as she waited for the princess to get ready.
For the first time in her entire life, she had been dressed into a fine gown with soft fabric. She had cleaned herself more than usual as it would be a shame if the gown did not suit her at all. It was nice of the princess to provide her a dress.
The cloth was of light brown and creme, together in the box was a ribbon of rich blue velvet that she had tied upon her neck as her hair was too short for it.
Her employee had given her a needle filled with a poison she had never been allowed to hold, but she was aware of the instant death it would cause.
The princess left her room with a big smile. "Mai, you look beautiful."
"Thank you, princess." She curtsied, detaching herself from her new friend. "You have outdone yourself tonight, all eyes will be on you."
"And mine will only be on one." Masako sighed dreamily. "Come now, do not be a stranger."
She felt bad. She will only feel worse after she kills the baron. The princess would be a wreck and so will Eugene and his family. But Mai had never had that problem before, she had only always been assigned people who were already dying or rich people who had no family. She finished her job fast and that has always been an excuse for her to free herself from guilt.
She entered the ballroom from below as the princess descended the stairs and she searched for Oliver. The thing that distinguished him from Eugene was his long hair tied in a low ponytail and that he was a little bit built bigger than his lean younger brother.
Mai found him watching the princess with love struck eyes and she made her way to him.
"Mai."
Groaning from the impact of her nose bumping onto a chest and several buttons, she rubbed her throbbing nose in displeasure.
"Do not do anything."
She looked up at the warning eyes of Eugene Davis. "You again."
"Me again." He repeated and leaned down to her, causing her to lean away as much as she could with his arm around her waist. "Wait a while and you will see, all your efforts will go to waste."
"What?" She asked.
"Tonight, the queen is going to announce who your princess is engaged to."
"You know who?"
"To Eugene Davis."
Mai's mouth fell open in surprise, "to you?"
"To Eugene Davis," he repeated. Mai pushed him away from her in disbelief.
"The princess is engaged to you and yet you gave your brother false hope?"
"Mai-"
"Why would you do that? I thought you cared for your brother! You made me hesitate and doubt myself if I should really kill him and yet you-"
"My name is Oliver Davis."
"No, you said you were Eugene."
"I said you could call me Eugene. I never said it was my name." He pointed out. "I'm the youngest son of the Duke, Oliver Davis and Eugene Davis is my older twin."
Mai frowned, she was getting confused. He was right, he had told her to call him Eugene and when she said she despised Eugene, he had agreed with her. So now that she was convinced that the one in front of her was the Baron Oliver Davis, did that mean it was him she had to kill and present to the queen?
"No, you do not have to kill me." He said, "The reason why the queen wanted to kill my brother was because her highness thought that he would get in the way of who the princess was engaged to. And now that she knows that the princess had been seeing the Duke's son, her intended, she no longer needs you to kill anyone."
"No." Mai whispered in horror, "But what about the money?"
"You won't get any from-"
"You don't understand," Mai said, looking around the crowd. Everything was spinning, her plans were ruined and now she had no choice but to run away. Run away, now.
Oliver tightened his grip on her elbows, "Where are you going?"
She struggled to push him away but it was futile. She gave up and leaned her forehead on his chest in defeat. "Oliver, if I don't turn over any money by midnight, he will come after me. He will bound me to him or he will kill me, I don't know. I can run away, but I can never get away from him."
"You need the money to buy your freedom?"
"He finally gave me a chance to."
"How much was the queen planning to pay you?"
Mai glanced up at him, his eyes so serious she couldn't refuse to answer.
- Line Break -
"Mai, tea."
Taniyama Mai moved away from the large windows and turned to face her new employer. She didn't know how he did it but he had managed to convince the Queen (with the help of his twin and the princess) to somehow pay Mai for her services.
And it was more than enough to pay her previous employer. She was free and yet she had nowhere to go, so Oliver Davis took her in. She didn't know why yet, but perhaps it was because they were friends and the young lovers had helped her in convincing Oliver. All she had been asked to do was make him tea, besides that, he had asked for nothing more.
Masako gave her clothes, nothing like the dark gowns she used to own and she swore to herself she will never again wear dark clothes again. Save for the beatiful dark ribbon she wore on her neck.
She poured the baron a cup of tea and sat in front of him as he worked with some papers. "Why did you switch positions anyway?"
He placed his pen down and took the tea. "No one was to know that the princess and her intended were seeing each other as the agreement between our parents and the Queen forbade them to. They had met once, and had fallen in love with each other."
"That's all?" Mai asked, "You can't fall in love with someone after meeting them once."
"Can't they?"
"No," she disagreed. "It's simply illogical."
"Is it?" He asked and she frowned at his short responses. "I'm glad you're wearing the ribbon around your neck, I knew it would suit you."
Mai snapped her head up at the smirking baron and turned red. "You- You tricked me!"
"I never said it wasn't from me."
"Eugene saw me wearing it, so did the princess! As have your parents!" She was completely flustered. "They could be thinking anything!"
"Aren't you glad you're living with someone handsome for the rest of your life?"
"Rest of my life…?" She trailed. If possible she had turned into an even darker shade of red. "You narcissistic- NARU!"
Note: What did I just… Okay, wow. Weird, right? Reviews would be lovely!