2 Continuation of the Prologue

Hui Ying Au wanted to tell herself that everything was just a bad dream over the hours that went by. Still, the lies were not enough to keep her under the household. The truth will always reach when it is the right time for the talkative maids; though they were helping serve her based on what she noticed at them, it was her life being gambled, and they enjoyed predicting how she would die.

She had been so forgiving that everything turned out to be wrong. And the circulating rumors had the power to turn the situation around, which she had already figured out.

Stepping one foot at a time as she goes forward while the soldiers still attack her, Mister Au raises one arm and glares at her with no hint of guilt in his eyes. With confidence and determination to leave the place alive, it would not hurt her if she teased them using her slight yet fake weakness.

She let go of the sword and kneeled in the wet portion of the soil, "Let the arrows come at me; kill me now, father, because you will regret it if I am not dead later on." She informed him.

"Stop; I will handle my daughter's death with my own hands." He took the bait, and she was waiting for his following action.

"I do not want anyone to deal with another useless person, stupid little girl, you are so close to your mother in the heart but far away from each other in death. But, gladly, you did not dare ask your father if I needed a daughter like you. Because my answer would be no, this is not what I want, very heavens, I need a son, but the Gods handed me a regretful job: being your father."

She had to bite her tongue as she listened to her father's sarcastic yet honest words. He was forced to look happy and be a father that her mother wanted to see, she could accept how cruel her father could be, but she would not get how he treated her mother; she felt the world turning trifling as she gazed again in all sides an itch of killing people began to boil up.

Revenge.

Not just any revenge, but regaining respect. An eye-opener to every soldier in the area where she will end the danger that surrounds her. Including her father.

By now, she could feel the uneasiness brewing inside each of her father's soldiers, the scenario that no other daughter could ever make the life of the soldiers be decided by her sword too. She raised her head before closing her eyes.

'Heaven, forgive me, for I only see what is right.'

She screamed; her heart fought back by making it heavier with every action she made. Revenge for what had been done was not and will never be right. She had become like her father. Not another regret. Perhaps there was no father and daughter bond from the moment her mother gave birth to her. It was all fake. Even now that she had grown to be a fine woman, a beloved daughter as what others could see, there was no other vision of mending the broken trust that her father had created.

Everything she tried to protect, her mother, the trust, and a happy family, became ashes. Nothing would stay the same. The strength of her anger, the dictating mind that got her furious, was part of the fact that there would be no signs of happiness in looking forward to the next step of her rising age-- if she lived. There was no stopping her, no signs of being a weak daughter, and the mighty woman was her.

She could have been one of those soldiers if there had been no gender problem.

"I know you were a threat to me," Mister Au stands firm as he speaks up and grasps the middle area of the sword that stabbed him in the stomach.

Hui Ying Au's jaw opened slightly, not in shock but at the thought of talking back, yet, there was a stinging sensation on the side of her waist.

"You can't kill me like this. Foolish daughter."

She opened her eyes and turned to the left side. One of the emperor's soldiers was there, pretending to be part of father's loyal soldier by wearing the color-coded uniform, and the one that pushed the sword deeply into the side of her waist as she dared to speak. She despises the soldier but at the same time it was an understandable move, the soldier was giving her a sign to pull back of what had been done.

"I fairly did this to give you a warning, father." The last word of what she said made herself want to be muted and deaf. She could tell that panic was certain in the soldier's eyes as she smiled at him before facing her father and pushing the sword deeper and a slight groan left her lips with satisfaction.

She even sensed the shaky hands of those soldiers that were still ready and holding the bow and arrow. Her grip on the sword became tighter, more blood dripped down and a sigh that got everyone's attention shifted.

A soldier spoked, letting everyone know who arrived, "The emperor."

Her father's loyal soldiers bowed their heads, they had never been frightened before in their life as what she could tell from their actions. Sinners, she had that notion what real fear was until the emperor looked at her and then the soldier that stabbed her before he gave a look at her father.

"Why are you planning to kill her? All of the people in the land that I ruled knows that she is a Princess, my niece." The first question was clear, the emperor sounded calm but there was also anger in his tone as the ending of his sentence were emphasized.

Her father snapped his teeth as he pulled the sword out from his stomach when she lets go of her weapon.