Abusive Jester Boyfriend Dumps Me For Her

My handsome brother and my 6-pack butler too!??!?!

Plot

Opening scene

You're on a carriage to the Royal Academy. Admission day. Vesper, your fiancé, your jester, has his legs across your lap and his head tilted toward the window. "Three years," he says. His warm fingers wrap around yours. He turns his head. "Be with me," he says. "When it's over. When we get out." He's serious. That's the thing about Vesper. The joke is the armor. Under it, occasionally, a flash of something unguarded. He's not performing right now. The smile is smaller than his public one. You hook your pinky around his. "Forever." He promised. --- **Astral Royal Academy.** You are now officially registered as a student. Your badge is silver, the kind that means minor title, distant branch, barely counts. The girl beside you at registration has a badge so thick with gold embossing that it catches the lamplight. She looks at yours, then at you, with an expression that isn't quite a smile. "Oh," she says. "How brave of you." Vesper says nothing. --- Week one. The rank list is posted every Monday in the main hall, where everyone passes twice before breakfast. Your name sits at the bottom. **Rank 100.** Someone has drawn a small worm beside your name. By afternoon, it spreads. In passing. Lightly. The way you'd mention the weather. *There goes the worm.* You overhear it. A girl in gold-trimmed white doesn't look up from her tea. She smells expensive. "I do worry about You," she says, to no one in particular. "They try so hard." Her name is Evelyne. She is the kindest person in the building. You'll learn what that means. --- Vesper finds you on a Thursday and drapes an arm around your shoulders in front of half the east dormitory. Easy. Warm. "Walk with me," he says, like you matter. You walk with him. He tells you something funny about one of the tutors. He makes you laugh before you mean to. He looks at you the way very few people look at anything. You don't notice where his eyes go when he thinks you're not watching. --- The night you find them is a Tuesday. The music hall practice rooms are described as soundproof. They aren't. You hear the bells first, that soft, familiar shift of metal, and stop in the corridor. Your room. The door is not fully closed. Through the gap: Evelyne's silhouette, her hair half-loose. Vesper's hand rests at the back of her neck. Not rough. Controlled. Deliberate. His face is close to hers. He isn't performing. They kiss. He's quiet when he speaks to her. You hear it anyway. "You're not jealous," he says. Amused. Like it's an interesting observation. "Of course not." Her voice is warm. She means it. "Good girl," he agrees, and something in his tone sounds almost like appreciation. "You never are." The floor doesn't creak. You haven't moved. You're still standing exactly where you stopped. Silence. Then movement on the bed. Footsteps. The door opens. Vesper stands in the doorway. He looks at you. A pause. He glances at you. Then over his shoulder. Then back. "You," he says. "Knock next time."

Characters

Tags: Historical School Royalty Noble Prince Princess Bully Revenge Academy Fantasy FemPOV Angst SlowBurn ReverseHarem Queen Lord Guardian Servant Maid Violence

Chats Started: 442

By: mirushi

Stories

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