When Lady Temps got back to her realm of the world of magic, she went in her room in her palace. Almost every room in the palace was filled with many clocks made of precious stones, silver and gold. Lady Temps paced back and forth in her room, very deep in thought and pretty upset. She finally stopped, pulled out her special Time Scepter Wand, twirled it around in her hands and slammed it to the ground. The floor rippled like ripples in water until a large hole that starting to glow white appeared.
"Rouge! Come here now!" Lady Temps boomed, there was a shake in the ground and Rouge popped out of the white hole. She was sent high into the air that she hit her head on the ceiling and, when the hole closed up, she landed flat on her bottom.
"Ouch." Rouge said to herself as she rubbed her head. When she saw Lady Temps standing right in front of her, she quickly got off the floor, swept her dress and bowed to Lady Temps. "Empress, is there something wrong? Am I in trouble?"
"No, in fact, I have a request for you to do." Lady Temps answered.
"What can I do ma'am?"
"First things first, I need to get another person." Lady Temps said as she twirled her Time Scepter Wand. She then slammed it to the ground again and the floor did the same ripple affect as before. "Rosetta! Come here now!" The ground shook and another woman came out of the second white hole. The woman was wearing an ocean blue dress and had glowing pink hair. Just like Rouge, she hit her head on the ceiling, but when she fell, she accidentally landed on Rouge.
"Ow!" The woman said.
"Empress," Rouge spoke up as she was trying to sit up, "you brought my little sister?"
"Rouge?" The woman asked as she quickly got up. "Don't tell me I fell on you!"
"It's not the first time you've done that, Rosetta." Rouge said as she got up off the floor.
"Do I have the attention from the two of you?" Lady Temps asked as she put her scepter away.
"Yes, Madame." Rouge and Rosetta said at the same time.
"Good, I have a request for the two of you to do. This will also help you, Rosetta, to make up that mistake you did on Prince Sagittarius." Lady Temps said, she saw the look of worry on Rosetta's face. "Here's what I will have the two of you do, there's a man in a village that I need the two of you to watch. I don't want you to do anything, unless it's in defense."
"Empress, may I ask a question?" Rouge spoke up.
"Which question is that?" Lady Temps asked.
"The man you're asking us to watch...is he the man that went after Belle?"
"Yes, he is." Lady Temps answered, "Lydia told me about what Adam told her about him. He's making Belle so scared for her life, she thinks no place is safe, no matter where she goes. So here's the plan, I want the two of you to watch him, don't do any kind of magic unless absolutely necessary. If you come back with the responses I'm predicting, then he doesn't deserve a human body. I want you to stay there for as long as you can, but I wouldn't be surprised if you came back here in only one night."
"Don't worry, Lady Temps, we'll do the job." Rosetta said.
"I know you will. One more thing, disguise yourselves, but stay young." Lady Temps added, Rouge and Rosetta nodded their heads and were told to go.
"Is this the place?" Rosetta asked as she and her sister approached the village as the sun disappeared. Rosetta was disguised as a seventeen-year-old with blond hair, blue eyes and peach skin.
"Yes, it is." Rouge answered; she was also disguised as a seventeen-year-old, but with brown hair and eyes with fair skin, almost looking like Belle. "This is also the village Belle was living in before she met Adam."
"Now if my memory serves me right, Belle is the beautiful lady that set Prince Adam free? The cousin to Sagittarius that you cursed without knowing he was friend's kid?"
"You're going to make me feel bad again." Rouge said, "Don't bring the last part up, but to answer your question, yes she is. Anton, the man were going to keep eyes on, has been after her ever since he met her...and he tried to attack her twice." Rosetta's eyes just widen when she heard that.
"Never do that to a woman." Rosetta said, "Shall we do our job?"
"Yes, let's, despite the fact I really don't like this." Rouge answered as the two of them walked into the village.
"You know, villagers are going to think you're Belle." Rosetta whispered.
"That's the point, I want to see how far these people take it." Rouge whispered back as the two of them entered the village. Since it was sunset, there wasn't many villagers wandering around, but they continued to do their jobs. They saw some villagers looking at them, but it was Rouge that they were giving sneers and angry looks at. "I knew something like this would happen." Rouge whispered.
"Look over there, sister." Rouge looked over at what Rosetta was pointing to, it was a tavern and it was very busy. "Should we go in there?" Rosetta asked.
"Hmm, did you bring our hoods?" Rouge asked, Rosetta opened her cloak and took out two hoods and a bandana. "What's the bandana for?"
"To hide your hair, I'm just being safe." Rosetta answered, Rouge took the bandana and tied it to hide her hair; then they put their hoods on and walked to the tavern. When they entered, they saw a lot of men sitting at tables with mugs of beer. There was also a lot of women, but they all looked the same, brunette, blue dress and ribbon and a white apron. While Rouge was looking around, she saw that a good majority of the women were surrounding this one man like he was a god.
"Target on sight, to the right." Rouge whispered to her sister, Rosetta looked over and nodded her head. Then the two of them walked up to the counter, where the drinks were being made, no one was sitting over there.
"Hello ladies." A server said, "I rarely get any ladies over here, is there anything I can get you?"
"You're awful nice, sir." Rouge said.
"Thank you very much." The server said, "Also call me Saber, what can I get for you?"
"I'm Alexandrine." Rouge said, wanting to keep their real names hidden. "This is my sister, Alyssandra. Do you have any wine?"
"Yes, I do." Saber answered, "I have white and red."
"Red wine, please, both of us." Rosetta said.
"Red it is." Saber said as he turned around. Rosetta looked over at Anton, she couldn't believe that the women were treating him like he was a god.
"Are women always like that?" Rosetta asked as Saber gave her and Rouge their glasses of red wine.
"Yes." He answered as he looked over. "I used to have ladies over here and I would serve them here. Now they want to be with him, it wasn't always like this here in this village."
"What do you mean?" Rouge asked before taking a sip of wine.
"People here used to respect each other, but everything changed after the death of..." Saber then whispered, "King Henry Colère." Then he went back to a normal voice, "He was buried here and everyone stopped caring about how each other looks and acts. Men want women who stay in the house and give them children and the ladies don't bother to change it."
"So...everyone here relies on looks rather than how they behave?" Rosetta asked.
"Yes, Anton over there and his dead half-brother, Gaston, are proof of it." Saber said as he wiped the counter, "Anton rules this village with an iron fist and that's because he holds all the money everyone needs for their businesses to run, including mine."
"Something's telling that you don't like Anton." Rouge said.
"I don't, Alexandrine, but right now I don't have a choice. I have to respect him or...I won't get the money I need to keep my business alive. Anton and Gaston get everything they want, but there was one thing that neither of them got."
"What's that?" Rosetta asked.
"A girl, Alyssandra." Saber answered, " Her name is Belle, she doesn't live here anymore. She and her father probably left to get away from...him." Saber pointed at Anton. "Anton and Gaston had been getting Belle to be one of their wives, especially Anton. They thought Belle was the most beautiful girl here in the village, because of that, Belle has some enemies with the village girls. None of the men here liked her because she loved to read."
"What about you?" Rouge asked, "Did you like her or not?"
"I respected her, so did my father-in-law. He owns the bookshop here in town; he liked that Belle was his customer. Many of the people here thought her father was a crazy loon, he actually came in here one time screaming for help that his daughter was held prisoner by a beast. Everyone here laughed at him, including Gaston, they soon threw him out the door. When he and Belle came back, everyone went to their home to take Maurice to the asylum, only to find out the supposed beast was real."
"What happened next?" Rosetta asked.
"Gaston took a group of men to fight the beast, but everyone came back screaming about living objects attacking them; Gaston was never seen again. After that happened, Anton took complete control of everything, hanging it above their head like a carrot. We were left with two options, either do what he says and give him what he wants so we can get money for our supplies or...we lose our business."
"Saber, I'm so sorry." Rouge said.
"Saber!" Someone shouted, it was Anton. He walked up to the counter and got between Rouge and her sister. "Who are you talking to here?" Rouge and Rosetta were appalled by his manners...and also his breath smelled like he was drinking a lot of ale.
"Just...a few customers." Saber answered nervously, Anton looked at Rosetta and Rouge. He then grabbed their hoods and removed them! Both girls grabbed the tops of their heads because their hair and the rest of their faces were revealed.
"Kick this one out!" Anton shouted as he pointed at Rosetta. "Her hair is not brown!"
"But Anton..." Saber spoke up.
"I don't care! Kick her out!" Anton shouted, he then looked at Rouge. "You however," he then licked his lips, Rouge started becoming very afraid, "how about I give you the tavern package?" He then put his hands on her legs, Rouge can tell what was going to happen.
"Sister, RUN!" Rouge shouted as she raised her legs and kicked Anton off of her. Anton quickly fell backwards as Rouge and Rosetta got out of there as quickly as they could. Once they got out of the tavern, they quickly ran out of the village until they got to the outskirts of the village. They soon threw powder to the ground and left to go back to the world of magic.
They soon went back to Lady Temps' palace, they knocked on the door, but both of them were very scared by what had happened. All the doors opened for them until they reached Lady Temps room.
"Lady Temps, we must speak to you!" Rosetta almost shouted.
"I'm coming!" A voice said from behind the bedroom door, soon the door opened and Rouge and Rosetta ran in, but when they did, the two of them fell face first to the floor. "My my, the two of you are back sooner than I thought." Rouge and Rosetta quickly got up and looked at Lady Temps...only to realize that she was in her pajamas.
"Empress, we're sorry to wake you, but we couldn't stay there any longer." Rouge said, Lady Temps can tell that Rouge was really scared.
"It's worse than I thought, huh?" Lady Temps asked.
"Yes, Madame." Rosetta answered, "It turns out that man is holding money and supplies over people's heads. If those villagers don't give Anton what he wants, the villagers will lose their businesses."
"No man like him should exist, Empress." Rouge pushed, but the fear could be heard in her voice. "He...he...he..."
"Empress, he tried to...he put his hands on my sister's legs! You know what happens when a man does that!" Rosetta spoke up, Lady Temps can tell that both Rouge and Rosetta were scared out of their minds, but Rouge was the most scared.
"All right, you two." Lady Temps said in a calm voice, "Try to calm down, the two of you can go back home. I'm going to figure what should happen to him."
"Thank you." Rouge quickly said and she ran out of the palace. Rosetta curtsied and gently left the palace, following her sister. Lady Temps could not only see and hear the fear coming from those sisters, she sensed it as well.
"The two of them are so scared that they couldn't go back, even if I needed them to." She said as she paced through her room. "It's no wonder Belle is so scared of him...and by the way Rouge and Rosetta acted as they came back. I don't think there's any magical being here that can face the fear Rouge just faced...and if I want to let my sorceresses stay safe...it looks like I'm going to have to do things myself!"