"Twelve years ago… The middle castle just got a new private maid in the house.
Father picked her himself, because he trusted her. My mother was against the idea of having private maids in the castle, because she can still do the house work by herself. But since mother's condition is pretty bad, father had no choice but to give her an extra hand.
He can't help out in daily chores because of the king's work, so he decided to get us a few private maids.
One of the maids, lady Narula, was very kind and close to me. She was funny, she was extraordinary, she was my only friend at the house aside from my parents.
But then something happened to her, and she changed."
Lescia told me the story, starting from the beginning. I listened while closing my eyes.
"She turned, didn't she?"
"Yes… She turned, and betrayed us."
Lescia was actually trying so hard to forget the event, but since I wanted to hear it, she had no choice but to relieve the experience again.
"One night, right after my mother put me to bed. That was when it happened.
Assassins broke into the middle castle. All the guards were slaughtered, and Father had to fight off a lot of them all by himself.
My mother was also attacked, but she still managed to come to save me. She pulled my hand and we ran for the secret exit in the middle castle. But before we could make it there, we were stopped on the main hallway.
Narula was standing in front of the assassins, and she was smiling at us."
Lescia quickly relieved what happened that night, when the two of them met Narula and the assassins.
The tension… the unbelievable feeling of getting betrayed.
All was felt by both the queen and the princess.
It was a dim night. The two sides were standing on guard ten meters away from one another, right beside the center park of the middle castle. The only light source is from the moon that is shining from the hole that is above the park.
No lights, torches, or even fresh air to breathe. It was just a cold, tense and hateful environment emitting in the air.
"Narula!? You were the mole, all along!?"
The queen shouted angrily, but the maid could only grin sharply.
From her eyes, it is clear that she is showing her true self right now. A cunning assassin in disguise, who has been getting information from the inside for many months.
"I'm very sorry, 'My Lady'... But this had to be done."
Narula said with a grin on her face, and the assassins behind her began walking forward.
That pure sense of hatred was emitted from the eyes of the queen, but poor little Lescia had no idea what was happening. The queen then realized that she was not alone, and she turned to face the scared Lescia who was hugging her skirt.
The strong-willed but ill queen then turned her angry expression into a smile, and she spoke to little Lescia.
"It's okay, honey. Your father will be here soon."
Lescia looked slightly calmer from hearing her mother speak calmly to her, but then the queen returned her hateful eyes to the assassins.
She quickly took out a knight's sword from her magic ring and enhanced it with her magic energy, a technique she learned from her husband. It was powerful, which caught the assassins off guard by how strong the pressure was.
The assassins noticed that she was going to fight, and they began to grow more on guard. Before long, she dashed forward.
Seeing this, the assassins quickly rushed forward as well.
The queen has practiced with a sword before, in the past. She practiced with the best swordsmen in the kingdom, even with her own husband. Her sword skills were by no means weak.
But, she has not held a sword in years.
Her sword skills had gone rusty, and her battle sense couldn't be activated at all.
Her sword was thrown away after not that long of a fight, and the assassins held their knife towards her.
"No!!"
Lescia screamed to stop the assassins from killing her mother, but it doesn't seem like the assassins even had any intention of killing her.
Seeing that the queen has been defeated, Narula chuckled calmly.
"That sword enchant did scare me, but that's all you are good for, huh? That blood of yours is surely a waste, wasn't it, 'My Lady'?"
Narula said as she calmly walked forward. Seeing Narula move, the queen began panicking even more.
Because Narula was not approaching her. She was approaching little Lescia.
"Then, I'll make sure this 'blood' will not go to waste."
Narula said right after she arrived not too far from little Lescia.
Narula is by no means muscular or tall. But simply her being an adult is already three times the size of Lescia's seven years old body. Narula's shadow looms over Lescia, covering the moonlight from her scared and teary pale golden eyes.
"No! Les--"
"Oh, princess… You are very cute. But sadly, my masters wanted you restrained, so I am very sorry for doing this!"
Narula took out a giant needle with the length of twenty centimeters from her space ring. Lescia might be imagining things, but the needle looked like it was shining purple.
Narula moved like a fast devil, and she grabbed Lescia's hand. Her tiny body was immediately pulled, and slammed down to the ground. Narula's other arm blocked Lescia's body from moving, while the other arm held the needle high.
No matter how hard the little girl tried to fight, the one holding her chest is an adult. To make it even more impossible, Narula was one of the most dangerous assassins who appeared tonight.
Lescia is not gaining anything from all these struggles.
And slowly, Narula began lowering the needle.
"No!! Lesciaaa!!!!!"
The queen can only scream as the traitorous maid, Narula, slowly stabbed the purple needle at Lescia's chest. The moment the needle arrived in her heart, Lescia's eyes grew much smaller as the purple glow from the needle began to disappear, and Narula pulled the needle out.
"Phew. That didn't take too long."
Narula said, as the whole area turned silent.
Everybody was holding their breaths, waiting for anything to happen. The tearful queen was still being held by the assassins, who were also silent and waiting for something to happen.
A small amount of blood spurted slightly from the stab wound on Lescia's chest, but the blood immediately stopped.
Seeing this, Narula grinned.
"Haaakkk--!!!!"
Lescia let out a small sound, which appeared to be a held back scream. But then, it grew louder.
"HAAAAAAKKKKK--!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The curse had been planted, and Narula looked quite pleased with her work.
The queen can only watch silently as the little princess screams in agony as she writhes while holding her chest. It looked like the princess was having a really bad heart attack, to the point that she was writhing like a dying person on the floor.
What… did they do…?
Narula grinned and turned back to the queen. She was about to speak, but then things suddenly turned rowdier.
Quick footsteps can be heard running on the hall behind the group. In an instant, all the assassins holding the queen immediately lost their heads.
SREEESHHH!!!
Narula can only watch as the heads of her comrades fell to the ground. Standing right by the queen, is the great king of Mazino himself, holding both swords on his hands while his body is cladded in red aura.
Red… a raging aura.
"Stay away… from my family…"
The king said as he caught his breath before dashing forward, and Narula was too slow to react.
BRESSSHHHH!!!!!!!
She got sliced in half instantly on the stomach, and her two pieces fell disgustingly to the floor.
The king threw away his swords with anger and immediately ran towards young Lescia, who was still screaming on the ground with the clothes on her chest being slightly covered by blood. Seeing this, the king knew something had happened to his daughter.
"Lescia! Lescia!!!"
The queen also approached, but the wound had already closed itself.
The curse… has already been activated on her heart.
.
"The curse devours my heart for every certain time at a certain frequency, and every time it does, I always feel a heavy surge of pain in both my heart and my mind. The pain in my heart was caused by the curse, but the pain in my mind was caused by me gradually losing my sanity."
She explained her curse, but I can tell being constantly in pain like that will definitely make you lose your sanity.
But the worst part of the curse was that it doesn't truly kill.
The curse eats her heart very slowly, causing a massive amount of pain in her chest. But instead of killing her, the curse will then heal the heart so that the organ will regenerate. Only, to be eaten again after a certain time unit.
It feeds on her magic energy, and activates by itself. Its only task is to harm her heart, and then heal it after, then harm it again in a cycle.
"They tried looking for a cure… for a very long time, they tried. But, they have found no way to cure this curse.
Until an offer came from Veldonia, eight years ago… With the condition that I have to marry their second prince, they will give me a cure to this sickness.
At first, my parents didn't believe it, and it was a terrible idea to let me marry a Veldonian prince. Because by doing that, it's like giving the kingdom away to another kingdom. But, they decided to ignore what the politicians in Mazino were saying and betrothed me with the second prince.
After the betrothal, the Veldonians gave me a method to lengthen the frequency of the pain as proof that they can indeed cure it. And it truly worked, because the frequency of the pain did become longer than before. I can still live with that longer frequency. But, it doesn't mean it's completely gone.
They… had no choice... They know what betrothing me with the second prince means, but to save me, they had to do it.
They had to give up the entire kingdom and made the second prince the next king… just to save me.
They had no choice… And, neither do I."
She finished her story with tears flowing down her eyes. I closed my eyes again and asked.
"Do you ever… feel like suiciding?"
"I do! All the time! I really want to just die, so that my parents can live… happily… I even tried to do it…"
"Then… what kept you going?"
She wiped the tears from her eyes, then she steeled her heart and grinned as she looked upwards. Her eyes were swollen from crying, which made her look incredibly cool.
From her smiling mouth, a single word was uttered.
"Hope."