Chapter 1 Betrayal

At the Royal palace, the one that was loved and looked up to by everyone was down on her knees. She had lots of regrets about how she could have been so blind , to blindly follow someone without listening to t he warnings of people around her. She even disregarded her own father and people who cared the most about her. The mocking of nobles, maids and knights could be heard in the ballroom. Well, more like whispers.

"I can't believe she thought the 9th Prince was going to marry her"

"I know right, just because she helped him a little she thought he'll make her his Empress."

"His Empress?... oh, I forgot about the upcoming ceremony, his highness the Crown Prince is going to be crowned the Emperor ."

"It was pretty obvious that the 9th Prince and Lady Gracie were in love, why did she have to get between them."

"Don't any of you find any of this suspicious, from my point of view it seems like the 9th Prince just used Lady Vivian to get the crown."

"Shhhh, do you want to make the Royal family your enemy? "

"I was just stating facts , you all know that."

"Well the way I see it, it looks like they made sure that lady Vivian never found out about them."

"Corrent, she always mentioned that the 9th Prince and lady Gracie were her friends and they knew about her feelings, and that the 9th Prince said he loved her very much."

"Now they show her their true colors after almost achieving their goals using her?! That's just cruel."

" She deserves it, she always acted like she was all that, acting like she's above everyone. "

"She's just stupid, what's the point of being ....."

The whispering voices of nobles, knights and maids in the hall were like like a cutting knife right through her heart. As for the actions of the soon to be Emperor and Empress, 9th Prince Isaac Lawrence and Grace Williams, the people she thought as friends and trusted, being all lovey-dovey in front of everyone just made her fall to her lowest point that she herself never thought really existed. She start murmuring to herself, "Stop it.... stop, I don't like this dream, it's a bad dream... I never acted like I was on top of everyone. Why.... those... things everyone is saying, no, they said it before, dad....daddy, told me, I didn't listen, I'm sorry... Daddy help me, i was wrong,."

She murmured to herself her face covered with tears.

She looked up at the couple standing in front of her and asked, "Why?"

Prince Isaac looked at her and laughed as he answered her , " Why??, why you ask? Because you are simple minded and easy to manipulate. At first I didn't have a way out, but an idiot just had to appear in front of me, a powerful idiot that doesn't know how to use her own authority. Of course I had to use it, you were just beginning to be used my Lady."

He then walked to her, held her chin up and continued, "Since you are useless to me and there are only few days before I can finally sit at the throne, I have to get rid of you today. I don't want unexpected situations before the ceremony. So behave." ,he let go of her chinand wiped his hands as if wiping something disgusting. "Lady Vivian, I'm tired of living under your shadow, now is my turn to shine.." he said working towards Lady Gracie. "CUT HER NECK!" he ordered

"Um, Your Majesty...." Gracie said with a soft voice .

Prince Isaac looked at her and asked , " Is something bothering you my dear Grace?"

"Um, I don't know if I should say it but , um... " she continued while hesitating, " I... Grace doesn't like to see blood, how about sparing her for now, after all, your highness only punishes evil people fairly, right?"

She then lowered her voice for only Isaac and Vivian to hear, " if you kill her without showing the nobles what she did wrong they might start trusting you less and turn their backs on you. You shouldn't be careless just because you think you already won. Don't forget she's still a scheming bitch." she smiled while looking down on Vivian .

"My Gracie really is kind hearted, thinking of letting this wicked woman to have time to reflect on her evil doings before execution..." he said to Gracie looking at her lovingly then looked at Vivian disgusted and said, " Tomorrow evening, will be Vivian DeLunar Execution. Take her to the dungeon." He took Gracies hand and left the banquet hall with her.

Vivian started laughing and shouted as she's being dragged to the dungeon, "MY GRACIE?!!, IS THAT HOW YOU ALWAYS ACTED w....Wh..WHEN YOU WERE TOGETHER? I'M THE EVIL ONE NOW??!!! ARHGGGGGG!!!! ALL MAKE YOU REGRET NOT KILLING ME WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE!!!" She lowered her voice and murmured looking around the hall and chuckled after seeing some of the knights, "it's not like they were going to succeed anyway."

"Isaac Lawrence, you'll regret ever starting having the thought to betray me. As for you Gracie Williams, I'll make sure to cut off your limbs one at a time, I'll make sure you live a decent life in your next life " "Vixen Gracie, hahaha, what kindness? You know I'll just be receiving unbearable pain in those few hours, you just want to break me." She laughed out loud, "HAHAHAH!!!!" " I'll really get you for this."

She thought to herself as she was locked in the dungeon.

" Gracie, what are you thinking? Let her live for a while? Don't you know how dangerous she is by just breathing? Giving her time will ruin ev..." questioned the Prince.

"Isaac, that's the reason why, her just breathing is dangerous, her knights were in the hall, we could have been the one dying today. But now that she's in the dungeon we can kill her , maybe assassinate her, that way , even the Duke knights won't find fault with you, you can just blame someone else ." She said to him. She then thought to herself, ( why is he so stupid sometimes? )

"Isaac, I also want to see that bitch below me , miserable locked up in a dungeon. I want to laugh at her and ridicule her. I really hate everything about her ." she said with hatred written all over her face.

Isaac looked at her and thought , ("oh, so that's the reason why? I wonder why you hate her so much.") ("As for me, I have my own reasons, I hate the Duke family, all those who have the DeLunar blood must die.) He thought to himself with a murderous look on his face.

But as he was on that thought he was shaken a little after thinking about Vivian's face full of tears, feeling of betrayal, desperation and disappointment. He turned and a looked at himself through the mirror and paused for few seconds and started laughing. A sudden laugh startled Gracie and she asked him if he was okay and he answered her with an unreadable smile on his face, " I'm pathetic. "

" After the guests leave, let's go see her then make sure she dies, make it seem we were trying to protect her then kill her from the assassins who suddenly appeared. What I'm saying is let us put on a show for those nobles. After all , we a righteous people." Isaac said looking at Gracie with a cold look while thinking something else ("I don't want this...no I don't want her to die. My head hurts to bad . I hate this.")

He then told Gracie to get out as he wanted to take a nap for a while.

As Gracie left the room she too thought that, sometimes the Prince is weird and scary, but what's there to worry about because everything is going according to her plan. And as for Vivian, no matter how powerful her family is, with no one by her side and everything given to her and Isaac, Vivian is nothing but an empty gold mine.There was no way she could survive what's coming her way. Gracie was delighted by the thought of bringing Vivian down. As for I saac, he had mixed feels that he didn't understand which made him scared and anxious. Having a lot after thoughts about different things and believe what he's doing will free him. Sometimes having low EQ in some things might be a curse.

" Are you ready? We have to do this now before the party ends?" Asked No.0

"YES Captain. " Anwered a group of 4 people.

"I don't want to go through the plan again, like planned , we have to succeed. Let's move out."

This group of unknown people in the shadows to their planned destination.

A prison guard walked towards Vivian's prison cell , walked in and dragged her to the punishment area as he said, "Punishing Nobles before finding them guilty is new. Man I have a bad feeling about this ."

Vivian looked at the guard and smiled as she said to him, "Then spare me the pain."

To be continued...