The Tyrant’s Filial Daughter

There was a King that ruled over his country with absolute authority. He killed whoever he wished without a second thought. He spent lavishly and fooled around as he wished.

He was a tyrant, in every sense of the word.

He did little maintenance in the upkeep of the country and assigned troublesome work to his subordinates.

He would do the basic formalities to upkeep his image. He was urged by his vassals to hold audiences. During those audiences, it was a common sight to see heads roll on the ground. Sometimes the servants would need to deeply scrub the floor to remove bloodstains from a horribly damaged and dismantled body.

He ignored petitions from his citizens. Those petitions regarded food shortages and issues of safety.

But his desperate citizens' words fell on deaf ears.

The tyrant had no interest in people he considered dead weight to the Kingdom.

He averted his gaze to luxuries and enjoyment rather than look at the pathetic state of his kingdom. He was the King. This position of power was his birthright. Why should he have to sacrifice his time and money for the betterment of some peasants?

One day his indulgence resulted in a child.

After giving birth, the mother was never seen in the palace again.

The servants speculated back and forth on what had happened to the child's mother.

None of them doubted that the King could have killed his lover, but the mystery remained that a body had never been found.

The woman had given birth and disappeared in the same day, leaving the child behind without a trace.

'Did his majesty dispose of the body himself?'

'Did his majesty feed the body to the dogs?'

Many rumors circulated for a few months, but one day the king heard one of the rumors and cut down the gossiper on the spot.

After that day, the rumors disappeared.

The Princess was treated cordially, but not with love.

The young princess had expensive toys, furniture as well as many maids and servants.

However that spending was just part of the King's lavishness. Besides, it was nothing compared to how much money he already squandered on himself.

The King didn't come to see the princess at all at first. However, after a few months, he would order all the servants out at speak to his daughter briefly before leaving again.

When she was 4 months old, he gave her a name, Audrea.

Perhaps the King was uncomfortable with children, so he made small talk to fill the silence.

However, small talk for the King, the tyrant was,

"I cut off that dirty bastard's xxxxing neck today"

"xxxx. They'll all regret it. They'll all bend to lick my shoes and beg for death."

"I'll rip those ungrateful lowlives limb from limb as I throw the meat to the guard dogs."

It was by no means, baby-talk.

The innocent Princess however, would just babble back at him as he spoke, without showing him any fear.

This routine continued for several months before the Princess landed on an important milestone.

"Die~ Dir-dy~ Faak~"

They were her royal highness' first words.

The first words Audrea spoke were neither father or mother, but instead the words that her father spoke to her every day he visited.

The servants all stiffened as they heard the princess speak, but when the tyrant received the news of his daughter's first words, he laughed with joy.

He had the same dangerous look in his eyes as when his sword was tasting blood.

After that day, he gave Audrea children's books on magic and gifted her more presents than ever. Those presents would sometimes include dangerous things such as daggers that the servants would desperately try to hide from the princess.

It seemed the tyrant was happy to see his daughter starting to take after him.

As Aurora got older, she began to wander the castle with her own legs. She was only 3 years old so as she adventured the palace, she would have no less than 10 servants accompany her.

One day, she stumbled upon the audience hall.

Audrea peeked into the room.

The servants watched in fear as she pushed the door open to the audience hall.

"Dad!"

The tyrant looked at his small daughter who walked in without any fear. However, he turned his head back without responding.

In front of him, there were 3 men kneeling on the ground.

"Accept your punishment."

He had a crazed look in his ocean blue eyes as he brought his sword down on the first of the 3 men.

*plop*

The man's head rolled several feet across the ground.

The maids rushed trying to cover the princess' eyes but the tyrant barked,

"No."

The maids flinched and backed back quickly.

Audrea stared at the man's headless body in blank puzzlement.

The tyrant continued to chop the men's heads off efficiently, one after the other.

"Clean it up"

He ordered the servants that were standing behind him.

Later, the princess was drawing pictures with high quality paints in her room, she paused for a moment then called a maid.

"What is it, Princess?"

"What iz thish?"

She spoke sloppily as she held up her painting.

The maid's eyes rounded into perfect circles.

The picture was messy but it looked to be a recreation of the scene from earlier. There was red paint saturating nearly the entire paper.

The maid choked on her words, she didn't know how to answer the young princess.

"...those men, broke the law... they made the King angry.... so they're not here any more."

"But? They just fell on da ground. They didn't leave, mizz maid!"

"Ah? ...yeah, when people lose a lot of blood, they have to go far away."

"Blood!"

The princess reacted to a familiar word.

The maid flinched when she felt the princess' strong reaction to the word 'blood'.

"Yes...blood, princess."

The maid pointed at the pool of red paint on the drawing.

"That red stuff...that's blood. People need it to be in their body."

"Why?"

"....So they don't die...no, so they don't go far away."

"Dad shent people fa-r a-way?"

"Yes...that's right, princess."

In the subsequent years, the maids tried to educate the young princess while keeping her away from their King's dangerous activities.

However, the girl seemed to feel a strong attraction and desire to be near her father. She would often watch him as he 'worked'.

The princess seemed surprised by the blood and screams at first, but after a few years, she began to get accustomed to it.

Audrea was now 7 years old.

She began to show potential in magic from an extremely young age. Now 7 years old, she was already able to use magic that sorcerers in their 20s were unable to use.

She wandered into the audience hall to see her father again.

Her father often ran off to do various things so the time he spend holding audiences, was one of the only times she could see him.

He didn't only execute people here, he also received petitions, spoke to ambassadors and conducted other formalities in this room.

However, today was not one of those days.

He was slowly cutting off a man's fingers. The man had a gag in his mouth, but his muffled screams could be heard every few seconds.

The look in the King's blue eyes looked even more crazed than normal. His black hair was disheveled as he laughed at the man's screams.

After he cut off the 10th finger, he dug his sword into the man's thigh.

But he barely looked at the man.

"Audrea, come."

His raised his heated eyes and looked to his daughter in the far side of the room.

Her legs trembled a little.

Was it because she was scared of the man's screams?

Was she scared of her father?

Or maybe, she was just nervous because he father was speaking to her for the first time that she could remember.

She finally reached her father after what felt like an eternity of walking.

"...Dad?"

The man she called out to wordlessly handed her a dagger.

"Finish him"

Her maids gasped but she could no longer hear them.

'I won't, no I can't disappoint Dad.'

Her hand slightly trembled as she reached out and grabbed the dagger. She looked up into her father's eyes, she could feel his expectation piecing her.

She turned away from her father as she held the dagger. As she looked into the fingerless man's eyes, she saw a whirlwind of emotions. Her young mind still couldn't process all of the complicated emotions he had built up inside of him, but she could sense his rage and pain, nonetheless. His intense gaze made her tremble.

'What am I supposed to do?'

Just as she began to wonder that, from behind, she felt a man's large hand grasp her tiny hand sustaining the dagger. She felt another large hand holding her opposite shoulder.

'!!'

He gripped the small hand right so that it firmly held the dagger.

'It's the first time Dad has touched me!'

Audrea's thoughts wandered and she felt a warm emotion stir up inside of her.

As she had those thoughts, her right hand was lifted up in front of the man who was bleeding profusely.

Her attention was drawn back to that man as her father whispered in her ear.

"If you push this dagger through his eye, even a weak kid like you can take his life."

Audrea's eyes trembled as the dagger was brought directly in front of the kneeling man's right eye. The man began to struggle to get away.

"Hold him"

A few servants came from behind the King. 2 held his arms in place, while another held the man's head still.

Even with the disturbing scene unfolding in front of her, her attention was more focused on the man behind her.

'Dad is so close to me!'

Audrea had been watching her father from afar as long as she could remember. She had always hoped her Dad would approach her.

"Audrea, focus"

'!!'

'He said my name!'

"Dad..."

"Jab the dagger in this xxxxer's eye, Audrea."

He spoke vulgar words just a twinge of excitement.

'Ah, this man...Dad wants me to send him away...I have to kill him."

In the last 4 years Audrea had seen many deaths, she no longer questions what it meant to kill someone.

'This is what Dad wants me to do...'

She began to slightly move the dagger forward as she trembled.

'Will Dad be proud of me if I can do this?'

'Will Dad come and see me after this?"

'Will Dad hug me and call me his daughter if I kill him?'

The King began to speak as she continued asking herself questions.

"...too weak. Put more arm strength into it."

His hand that still held hers inside of it, propelled her hand along with the danger through the man's eye, into his brain.

He cried out and died shortly after.

Audrea began to tremble.

'I did it...I killed him'

Her father let go off her hand and the dagger.

"Good job."

She turned around to see her father smiling at her for the first time.

She felt nauseous but at the same time she felt joy welling up in her chest.

"Pull the dagger out."

He commanded her again.

She turned around, holding tears in her eyes.

Audrea put her hand on the dagger's hilt, squealed her eyes shut and yanked it out in one motion.

"Keep it, it's a present for making your father proud."

She felt her insides swimming around. She couldn't differentiate between the feelings of nausea and excitement.

She had felt sick at first but there seemed to be other feelings mixed in now as well.

She smiled through her teary eyes.

"Yeah, thanks, Dad."