Noelle Zel Lespinasse fiddled with the red gloves she was wearing as Loic led her through the school entrance, not by the leash thankfully. She knew that she had to cover the Priestess crest, but the fact that it was Loic who provided her with the gloves made them feel more uncomfortable than they really should have. She noticed some students looking at them and pointing. Noelle grimaced at imagining what the rumor mill will turn this all into by the end of the week.

"Noelle!" Her heart skipped a beat at the very familiar voice. She turned and saw Serge stomping towards them. Noelle was about to walk up to greet him when Loic suddenly wrapped his arm around her and pulled her against him. She saw Serge's furious expression. "Get your filthy hands off her, Loic!"

"That's no way to greet your peer, Serge." Tears pooled in Noelle's eyes as Loic started openly groping her chest in front of everyone. The action felt painful and disgusting. She shut her eyes when she heard people around them gasping, knowing that everyone could see them. Loic ignored her discomfort and Serge's body language, continuing to talk. "Especially one who you will be working under once the Barielle house takes over the chairmanship of the Great Houses."

"Loic, you sick fuck!" Noelle frantically shook her head when Serge looked like he was about to attack Loic. He gave her an anguished look that broke her heart. "Noelle."

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we have classes to get to." Loic confidently declared before physically pushing Noelle towards the school building. He paused and looked back at the still fuming Serge. "Talk to your dad later. He should have something important to talk to you about."

Noelle morosely walked into her classroom with a sigh, the collar around her neck feeling heavy. She was thankful that Loic was in a different class, but it was just a temporary reprieve from the hell she had been thrown into. She looked around and saw that both Marie and Jean were in her class and were talking to each other. They saw her approach and she nearly flinched when their eyes wandered down to the collar around her neck.

"Noelle!" Jean exclaimed as he walked up to her and held both her hands. He briefly looked down at the gloves she was wearing before shaking his head and leading her to the seat next to his and Marie's. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you or your sister at the apartment these past few days."

Lelia hadn't been home either? Why?

"Like I was telling you, Jean. Noelle and Lelia just have some family things that they need to deal with, right?" Marie smoothly gave her an out, looking at Noelle meaningfully. She bit her lip and gave Jean the best smile that she could.

"Yeah. Nothing big to worry yourself over, Jean. Things will be back to normal soon, I promise." Nolle played along, the words tasting like ash in her mouth as she lied to her best friend's face.

"Well, if you say so." The way Jean looked so relieved broke Noelle's heart.

When lunch time came along, Jean excused himself to eat with his girlfriend. Noelle gave him a smile and a wave, turning back to Marie and saw her flat expression. Loic had already told her what his family's plan was so she had an idea why Marie looked so displeased.

"An invitation letter arrived at the manor we're staying at yesterday evening. It was addressed to Julius and the others, something about an engagement party between you and Loic." Marie said, confirming her fears. Noelle swallowed the lump in her throat and gave Marie a hollow smile.

"The esteemed Barielle house would like to extend an invitation to Prince Julius and the other Noble Heirs of Holfort to celebrate my engagement to Sir Loic. You are also invited as the prince's guest." She woodenly repeated the spiel that Loic commanded her to give to Marie or the others if any of them ever brought the subject up. Marie's frown deepened at her words.

"So that's what their play is." Marie muttered, looking thoughtful. Noelle looked down at her lavish lunch that the Barielle cooking staff prepared for her but didn't feel hungry at all.

"I hate this, Marie." She muttered bitterly to her friend.

"Right there with you, Noelle." Marie answered with equal frustration.

Noelle excused herself after a while, wanting some fresh air. She was thankful that Marie let her go without complaint. What she didn't expect was running into her sister, especially since Jean mentioned that she hadn't been at their home. She suddenly felt hurt and conflicted upon seeing Lelia, but then realized that her sister hadn't even noticed her yet. Lelia was looking down on the floor distractedly and had bags under her eyes. What happened to her?

Before Noelle could speak out, Lelia finally looked up and saw her. She flinched at her sister's gaze but was surprised when Lelia just kept on just staring at her. Noelle took a deep breath and gathered the courage to walk up to her sister. Thousands of things ran through Noelle's head, so many things she had wanted to say to the person who betrayed her, but all she could manage was a weak smile and a wave.

"Hey, Lelia. Is something wrong?" Noelle asked, mentally berating herself for not saying what she truly wanted to.

Lelia suddenly smiled at Noelle, the kind of smile she had whenever she was about to make fun of her. Her sister raised her hands, Noelle finally noticing the white gloves she was wearing. Alarm bells suddenly rang out in her head and her entire body was screaming at her to get away from her sister.

Before she could do anything, Lelia partially pulled down off of her gloves to confirm Noelle's worst fear. It was an identical crest to the one she had. Her breath caught in her throat while her sister just chuckled at her.

"Even when everything is given to you on a silver platter, you still can't do anything right." Noelle was frozen by Lelia's words. Even when her sister walked away in a slouch, she still couldn't bring herself to move.

Lelia was also a Priestess?

There was only one conclusion she could come to. Her sister had somehow managed to become the Alzer Sacred Tree's Priestess, the very tree that wanted her sapling dead. She stiffly walked back to her classroom, ignoring Jean and Marie as her thoughts swam from the revelation.

She could only wonder why her sister hated her so much to even do such a thing.

Serge Sara Rault grumbled irritably as he and his family stood amongst the other guests that the Barielle house invited. It was mostly members of the other great houses, but there were also a few out of shape military officers and prominent business men present along with their own companions. He stiffened when he felt Louise give his hand a gentle squeeze. He looked at his sister and she gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Remember what we talked about, Serge." Serge rolled his eyes at his father's words. Albergue ignored his reaction and kept talking, much to his irritation. "Noelle's safety can very well be on the line depending on your behavior here. We cannot afford any outbursts from you."

"I know." He responded through gritted teeth.

"We'll get Noelle back, Serge. We just have to bide our time." Louise said at his side.

"I know." He responded to her in a calmer tone. Albergue stared at them for a while but didn't really comment.

"Louise, keep an eye on him. I'll talk to the other house heads and get a feel of where they're at." Albergue whispered to them instead before walking off to where one of the house heads, Fernand Tola Druille, was talking to some other people Serge didn't recognize.

"Of course." Louise stated. After a few moments, Serge was startled when Louise made a disgusted sound and once again reached for his hand. He looked in the direction where she was glaring at and saw Hugh Tola Druille walking up to them with a smile. He was a man their age with shoulder length blonde hair and green eyes.

"Hello Serge, Louise." He greeted them both, Serge protectively stepped between the blonde man and his sister. Hugh raised an eyebrow at the gesture but chose not to talk about it.

"Hugh, I'm surprised that you can even remember your fiancée's name with how nonexistent you've been in her life." He didn't bother keeping the displeasure in his voice from seeping out. Hugh just shrugged and continued to smile at them.

"Well, I did send out an invitation to Louise to spend the summer with me." He pointed out. Serge looked at Louise for confirmation but she just remained stone faced. "But she seemed to have decided to go elsewhere instead. Though, I am surprised that you two are getting along so well."

"You would be surprised how effective an honest conversation between two people can be." Someone else decided to speak on their behalf and Serge couldn't help but grin at Hugh's face when he saw who it was. "Crown Prince Julius Rapha Holfort. A pleasure to meet you."

"Hugh Tola Druille. Second son of the Druille house and Louise's betrothed." He quickly recovered and shook Julius' hand. He looked at the rest of the boys but quickly lost interest in them. Bastard.

"Now there's a face that says a thousand words." He heard Greg mutter and saw the others looking at the scowl on Louise's face. It looked like they quickly caught on to what his sister thought of the engagement.

"It is nice to meet you, Hugh, but we have a few things that we'd like to discuss with Serge and Louise." Julius politely stated in a way that somehow didn't really sound like a dismissal.

"Of course." Hugh played along and looked at his sister. "You can stop by anytime you want, Louise."

"That guy gives me a lot of bad vibes." Brad stated as we watched Hugh walk up to a group of women with open arms.

"I don't know. He kind of reminds me of the old you." Chris noted as we watched him start to openly flirt with the women, several of whom had wedding rings. Brad looked at his friend with disgust, but Serge had heard from the others that he was a playboy before Marie finally locked him down. This must have been the first time he saw things from the other side.

"I was unaware that Miss Louise is engaged to a member of another great house." Jilk spoke up, making the others nod and turn to Louise.

"It was an arrangement our fathers agreed upon to secure an alliance between our houses." She said irritably. Louise sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I've been making a case to convince my father to annul it."

A stray thought passed through Serge's mind on a pretty definitive way for Louise's engagement to crumble to pieces, but this wasn't the time or place to talk about that particular powder keg.

"Lelia has not been returning to their apartment for the past several days." Marie suddenly spoke up. Serge didn't even notice the short girl standing behind Chris until she revealed herself. "Jean confirmed it to me when we spoke between classes."

"So? Why should we care what that bitch is doing?" Serge asked with a growl. He honestly didn't know if she hated Lelia more than Loic. How could he have ever been attracted to that girl?!

"Because she might still be planning something." Louise answered, getting everyone's attention. Serge shook his head as Louise and Marie stared at each other, probably having one of those weird silent conversations that only women could do. Fine then, let those two scheme all they want. He had other things to worry about.

About half an hour later, the lights all went out and everyone's attention was diverted to the spotlights illuminating the elevated stage at the end of the large hall they were all in. There were three familiar people up on the stage, but Serge only had his eyes on one. Noelle was wearing a flowing red dress that made her look absolutely beautiful, if not for the collar around her neck and the empty look in her eyes.

Bellange Lata Barielle, Loic's father, proudly stepped before his son and Noelle to address his guests.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Bellange spoke into a microphone, his voice easily heard from the speakers throughout the hall. "Fellow members of the great houses of Alzer and other distinguished guests! Thank you all for taking the time from your busy schedules to attend this celebration!"

Celebration? What a load of bullshit!

"I stand before you a proud father and a humble man." Serge snorted at the sheer audacity of the guy to just fake his sincerity. From how Loic acted, he was sure that there wasn't a humble bone on the man's body. "For I have the privilege of announcing my son's engagement to a very special young woman. Loic, Noelle, please step forward."

Serge saw Loic take Noelle's hand and pull her along with him to the front of the stage. She squinted against the bright lights and didn't look happy at all. Seeing her like this was torture for him. He couldn't even imagine what she felt.

"This is Noelle Beltre." Bellange stated while placing a hand on Noelle's shoulder, making her flinch in fear. Serge could feel his teeth grind as Noelle was being shown off like prized livestock. "She and Loic met at the academy and quickly formed a bond of friendship that developed into love. When he passionately spoke to me about taking her as his wife, I could do nothing but agree."

Serge looked around and saw that none of his friends were buying the bullshit that Bellange was selling. There were those in the crowd who seemed taken by the narrative that he was spinning, but a bunch of people from the other great houses didn't look very happy at all. They must have thought that Noelle was just some nobody from a common household. Marrying non-members of the great houses was very frowned upon. Hypocritically, being adopted into them wasn't seen as taboo considering that was what happened with him.

"My son's engagement may seem unorthodox to most, but rest assured that there is a special reason why." He saw Noelle wince when Loic roughly raised her arm to show off the crest on the back of her hand. Several people in the front of the crowd pointed and gasped. "Behold! The crest of the Sacred Tree Priestess!"

The second he said that, the entire hall suddenly erupted in shock. Everyone was moving forward to take a closer look at Noelle and her hand. Serge was seeing red until he felt a firm grip on his elbow. He turned and saw that Greg had grabbed him to keep him from running up to the stage. His other friends were looking at him with grim expressions. He also noticed Louise and Marie whispering to each other at the side but they were too far for him to hear. Serge growled and looked back at the stage, knowing that he couldn't even go up to help Noelle.

"This young woman is none other than Noelle Zel Lespinasse, a survivor of the Lespinasse line we all once thought extinguished." Serge narrowed his eyes at Bellange's words. Why wasn't he mentioning Lelia? Was that part of her deal with Loic for selling out her sister? "She has become the priestess of the Sacred Tree after her love for my son bloomed and he became her guardian."

It was also rich that Loic didn't bother to show that he had the Sacred Tree Guardian crest, because he obviously didn't have it. It pissed him off that no one called them out on that, probably because everyone was too focused on Noelle and her crest.

"Can we go up there and show everyone our crest fragments?" Chris whispered to them.

"No!" Both Louise and Marie hissed at him, to all their surprise.

"There will be a time and place, but not here or now." Louise continued, her face serious.

"We are in the Barielle's seat of power. It would be suicidal to do that." Marie pointed out with a similarly serious expression.

"Accursed politics." Julius spat out in anger.

"With this, I would like to ask for your support and well wishes for their union!" Bellange happily continued his theatrics. Both he and Louise suddenly stiffened at his next words. "As well as support for house Barielle's future endeavors."

Serge wasn't as keen on politics as his sister, but even he recognized the veiled threat in that statement. So he was gunning for house Rault's position at the top of the great houses, huh? Serge was sure that his father wouldn't let that happen without a fight. Not after everything he had sacrificed for his position. The thought of people like Loic and his dad being in charge of the Republic was sickening in a lot of ways on its own anyway.

"We will announce the date of their wedding and the Sacred Tree Priestess ceremony within the next few days!" They all looked at each other in alarm at that announcement. He could only imagine the shitshow that would occur if Noelle was forced to try to control the Alzer Sacred Tree only for nothing to happen because it was the wrong damn tree.

"Is this bad? This sounds bad." Greg voiced what everyone was thinking. They all started talking to each other, but Serge kept his eyes on the stage.

He caught Noelle's gaze and the two of them could somehow tell what the other was thinking.

I'll save you.

I know.