"Gilbert? Gilbert, can you tell me a story?"
The albino in question ruffles his hair and nods. "Sure thing, Ludwig. There's just one I've got in mind, in fact!"
"Really?" Ludwig tilts his head, blue eyes wide like a puppy's. "What's it about?"
"It's a pretty awesome story, if I do say so myself." Gilbert grins and leans back into his seat. "It's awesome because the people in the story were my friends, so I know everything that happened. I gotta warn you, though." He winks. "The story isn't really for little kids."
"I'm not a little kid. Can I listen to the story, please?"
"Well, since you asked so nicely, guess I will." Closing his crimson eyes briefly, Gilbert's grin fades into a wistful smile. "All the people call it the Story of Evil, and the main character the Daughter of Evil."
Many years ago in the land of sparkling stones,
Was a broken kingdom crushed beneath a golden throne.
Reigning over high and mighty in her gilded cage
Was a royal maiden who was fourteen years of age.
"See, Ludwig, the kingdom of Lucifenia was ruled by this really, really mean princess named Elise Zwingli. Everyone was secretly scared of her, and some people hated her. You know what the funny thing is? When she was made ruler of Lucifenia, she was only fourteen!"
Treasures would litter all around her rich abode
Tended by her servant whose likeness really showed.
Owning many horses, her favourite was Josephine,
She could buy 'most anything and not pay the price heed.
"And not only was she evil, Princess Elise was rich, too. She was so rich that she could buy the whole world if she wanted! And she had loads of servants, maybe a thousand of them. But Elise, she only trusted one of them. That servant looked a lot like her, but he was a boy. Weird, huh?"
If the vaults are short on gold then turn to all your men,
Pile up on the taxes and then rob them to no end.
If you dare object to buying everything I need,
You'll be sent off to the guillotine!
"Princess Elise wanted money for her treasures, but she didn't want to get it herself. So do you know what she did? She put taxes on everyone in Lucifenia and made them give a lot of their own money to them. The people didn't have enough money to eat, all their gold went to her! And if they didn't want to give Elise their money, she had their heads cut off."
Flowers so naive bloom so brutally
In a rainbow of calamity
And all of these such lowly weeds growing on the ground
Will only be serving me as mindless hounds.
"She cared about nothing and nobody but herself. That's why she did all those terrible things."
Seeking an alliance, the maiden loved a man,
Playing songs and dressed in blue, ruled a faraway land.
But he never spared a glance for our tyrant queen,
Falling for a village lady with eyes of green!
"Princess Elise wanted more money, of course. She decided to court the king of Marlon. Roderich Edelstein, remember?" Here, Gilbert's voice starts to waver. Fighting back tears, he focuses on the slowly-clouding lantern hanging from the ceiling and struggles to continue.
"But Roderich didn't love Elise. He loved a woman named Elizaveta." He rubs his eyes, determined not to cry in front of Ludwig. "Elizaveta… she lived in Elphegort, like us. In fact, she didn't live far from here. But that's not the point. The point is that King Roderich loved Elizaveta, not Elise."
Anger and jealousy turning this lady blind,
She went to her minister with one thing in mind
So very quietly, she said to her men,
"Hunt down those green villagers and burn down all their land."
"Well, Princess Elise was really angry when she found out she wouldn't be getting married to Roderich. She went to her army and told them to kill all the women in Elphegort, as punishment for Elizaveta taking Roderich."
In the dead of midnight all the houses set ablaze,
Everyone who lived inside them mercilessly razed
But the deaths and suffering of people in the streets
Didn't faze the princess in the least!
And this time, Gilbert can't hold it back. The tears flow like how womens' blood did on that night. "The Lucifenian army killed all the mothers, wives and sisters here. They killed Elizaveta last, they killed her when she did nothing wrong." He rubs his eyes with his sleeves, sniffling. "And the worst thing is Elise didn't care that so many people died just because she was jealous. She probably laughed, actually."
"Ah, time for tea."
Flowers so naive bloom so brutally
In a rainbow of insanity
And even though this flower is so pretty, you see,
It's got sharp thorns that'd make anybody flee.
"Nobody dared to take her down for a while, until King Roderich himself started taking action."
The people came together to defeat the girl of sin
Forming a resistance, stormed the kingdom from within,
Leading the residents, dressed in bloody red
Was a brave young man who was avenging the dead!
"Roderich found a man named Aleksander Ardelean, who once hated Elizaveta. When Aleksander found out that Elizaveta was dead, though, he decided to help fight against the people who killed her."
Charging to the capital, the people raised their swords
Fighting off the nobles and invading in hoards
Far too tired after many years of war,
All the soldiers were soon brought to the floor.
"The two of them rounded up a lot of brave people and they went right to Princess Elise's castle. They weren't very good at fighting, but the soldiers were tired after killing all the Elphegort women and didn't really want to fight anyways." Gilbert smiles shrewdly, nodding at a half-asleep Ludwig. "If I were there, I would've taken them all down myself."
Soon the castle's gates broke and people went inside
Every servant there escaped, scared out of their minds.
Such a young maiden who was meant to be the queen
Was captured as her servant ran free!
"All the rebels went inside the castle and headed straight for Elise. She was shouting for her servants to help her, but they all ran away. Even her most loyal servant, the one who looked like her, managed to escape right after Aleksander captured her. I guess not even he wanted to stay with Elise, huh? I don't see why."
"Such barbarians!"
Flowers so naive bloom so brutally
In a rainbow of melancholy
Such a lovely paradise that she built in her dreams,
Ah, now it'll be destroyed and ripped at the seams.
"A lot of people say Elise got what she deserved. Some of them say that they should've been nicer to her. But, well, they all kind of wanted revenge."
Many years ago in the land of sparkling stones,
Was a broken kingdom crushed beneath a golden throne.
Reigning over high and mighty in her gilded cage
Was a royal maiden who was fourteen years of age.
She was meant to end her life at three that very noon
When the deafening bells of the church would boom,
This lovely queen who used to be faring so well,
What's she thinking of alone in her cell?
"She was held prisoner for a while, as Roderich and Aleksander were figuring out what to do. Elise didn't talk to anyone, even minutes before she had to be executed. She just sat in her prison cell."
Finally the long-awaited time arrived
The bells above her sounded out their cries,
Not even caring for the people in the crowd,
She said as the blade whistled down,
"Elise didn't care for much, after all. As she was kneeling before the guillotine, she didn't look at all the people gathered to watch her die. I remember hearing that everyone in the crowd was yelling, jeering, throwing things at her, and she didn't even flinch. When Aleksander let the blade down, she just looked at the sky."
"Ah, time for tea."
"She heard the bells toll right before she died, and I guess that's when she normally has teatimes. When Elise's head came off, the entire crowd cheered. The entirety of Lucifenia celebrated the death of their tyrant ruler, because they were saved at last."
Flowers so naive wilt so brutally
In a rainbow of calamity
They all teach this story in schools nowadays,
About this daughter of evil and her horrid, wicked ways.
"And so, Princess Elise Zwingli was named the Daughter of Evil, and the entire ordeal called the Story of Evil." Gilbert exhales, feeling a little tired himself. "Now, Lucifenia, Elphegort and Marlon work to keep things like that from happening. And I was there to hear about it all. Isn't that pretty awesome, Ludwig?"
He's met with silence. Looking over at his brother, Gilbert catches Ludwig curled up on their bed, fast asleep. Smiling a little, Gilbert tucks him in and gets up from his chair. I'll miss you, Elizaveta. I've long since forgiven Elise for getting rid of you, but sometimes I wish you hadn't died.
I love you.
A/N: In this story, Gilbert plays the role of Clarith, the albino outcast who befriended and came to love the "green villager" Michaela, who, here, is Elizaveta. Roderich is Kyle, the "blue king" who woos and tries to marry the "green villager". After her death, the king seeks out the "red knight", who in the original tale was Germaine and is now Aleksander. Elise is, of course, the princess Riliane.