Larissa

"LARISSA!"

Almost dropping the dagger that she was polishing, the sixth princess of Idradale immediately made her way to the bed. She quickly leans back and fixed her posture upon hearing her mother's voice, simply because she was not in the mood to be reprimanded by her mother once again for such a minor detail that she thought would affect her daughter's "perfect" state.

The dagger that she recently got from the guard was immediately hidden on the side of her gown that had enough layers to cover its existence. Might come in handy later, she thinks.

"Where have you been?!" The voice of her mother, the third concubine Nympha, filled the room of the sixth princess almost immediately after shutting the door loudly behind her. "Where were you when everyone was summoned?"

Closing her eyes temporarily before sporting the best doe eyes that she had honed through the years, Larissa lifted her sight to look at her mother whose anger the older woman can never conceal despite the many years that she had spent in court.

Definitely the reason why nobody thinks of her highly, Larissa thought.

"I was preparing a cake for his Majesty," Larissa replies with an innocent smile on her lips. "I wanted him to have something sweet after his trip to Ennoria where delicacies such as cakes are not enjoyed by the majority,"

Of course, Larissa did not bake a cake. Didn't even plan on baking one, either. But her mother doesn't have to know about that.

It would completely shatter her perception of how her daughter is nothing but a naive and docile child.

Nympha sighs before sitting next to her daughter in the bed, burying her nose in her daughter's long, blonde hair that she would spend entire evenings brushing. "Ennoria wants you,"

Larissa stopped herself from launching a thousand questions at her mother and instead turned to the older woman with a faux confused expression. "Wants me? But I'm no one compared to my older siblings, mother,"

"And who told you that nonsense?!" Nympha stood up from her previous position in obvious anger. "Who told my daughter that she is no one compared to her older siblings?!"

She fights back the thought of rolling her eyes. Who else but your other children, Mother?

"It's okay, mother," Larissa was quick to soothe her mother's anger with just one of her kind smiles. "But what of Ennoria? What happened?"

Nympha tells her daughter immediately what happened in the courtroom. Her father made an honest mistake towards the new king of Ennoria, angered him immensely to the point of getting his right arm sliced, and now Ennoria wants Larissa to be the bride of the new king for their alliance to continue.

To cut it short, the only thing that could fix the alliance that her father ruined because of his incompetence was Larissa.

Larissa bit her tongue as hard as she could to stop herself from punching the wall or shouting all the obscenities that she learned from the guards that would often accompany her wherever she went.

"Of course, they want you because they know you are your father's favorite and the pride of our Idradale," Gone was the remorse on her mother's face and was instead replaced by a hint of excitement and obvious greed. Larissa was not slow to realize that her mother would offer any of her children to gain more power within the court. "I heard the new king is near your age, which perhaps could be a factor as well..."

Larissa was not listening anymore. The idea of being thrown like a piece of meat to Ennoria, a land known to be Idradale's complete opposite, nauseated the young princess.

Favorite? Hah! If she was her father's favorite and the pride of their kingdom then why would her father even think of giving her to Ennoria? Why allow the enemy to even utter his favorite child's name? For the sake of their continued alliance?

Hah. As if.

Nympha, who was already planning out her daughter's wedding to the enemy kingdom, was blind to see how her daughter's doll-like face had completely morphed into something different.

A look of pure disgust and anger.

What awaits Larissa if she would be married to the new king? A life of confinement? A life treated as a breeder and a slave to what the king wants? True that Larissa was not blind to how the world outside her chambers was not as kind as her mother would tell her but Larissa had never stepped outside of their castle.

Not once. Not even fucking once.

And now they were telling her in her eighteen years of existence the first time that she would be able to step outside their castle walls would be when she is whisked away to live with someone she doesn't know, much more someone with a face that she has never seen before?

"... and I was thinking that maybe your wedding could be held on the border between our kingdoms? To show off to the citizens of both Idradale and Ennoria how your marriage will further strengthen--"

"My lady?" A knock on the door temporarily stopped Nympha from continuing her supposed internal monologue. "Her Majesty is calling for you,"

Nympha lets out a huff. She never liked how she was merely referred to as a lady while Queen Miriam was referred to as your majesty. "I will be there,"

However, she can never disrespect the queen for too long. She tried once, Larissa remembered. It was when Larissa was merely six.

Nympha turned a blind eye to how some servants made fun of the fourth prince Darius and even goaded them into doing it further while they were taking a walk in the royal gardens. Smart Darius endured the humiliation he experienced at that time, but quickly turned the tables on Nympha when he told her mother what happened.

Needless to say, the servants that made fun of him were beheaded the next day and Nympha was punished with solitary confinement for two weeks with the blandest food that anyone can ever imagine.

She never crossed the queen after that.

Planting a quick kiss on her daughter's forehead, Nympha excused herself and made a beeline towards the door after deeming herself presentable to face the queen.

Almost as if she didn't just plan her daughter's entire wedding a few minutes ago, not even coming up with the possibility that her daughter does not want a wedding in the first place.

Larissa stands up from her bed after the door shuts behind her mother and made her way to the mirror. Placing the dagger that she hid between the many layers of her gown on the floor, the sixth princess stripped herself of the heavy gown and settled for just her lingerie.

Long, blonde hair that reached her hips. Grey eyes that resembled the element that she desperately wanted to control. A face that the other princesses wanted to have. A body frame that proved her lack of affinity for anything that involved fighting.

She was really nothing but a piece of meat to be fed to the beast of Ennoria.

The sixth princess was too distracted between punching the mirror that showed both her vulnerability that she was unable to realize that one of her older siblings, the third prince Ciel, had entered her room and was now sitting at her bed while he stared at her almost-nakedness.

However, she was quick to catch on to his existence, knowing him far too well that he would immediately show up when something bad has occurred to her.

"Have you come to ridicule me, Ciel?" She asks him with a tone that none of their other siblings can ever hear escape her lips. "Here to laugh at how hopeless my case is?"

As if he was the wind itself, Ciel was quick to be behind his youngest sister, placing both his hands on her thin shoulders. He bents down and whispers lowly to her ear. "Do you want me to help you?"

Larissa's grey eyes met Ciel's red ones in the mirror in front of them. She pulls away from his loose hold on her and turns to him with a frown. "I never liked your ideas of help,"

The sixth princess remembered how once upon a time when she was fourteen, she asked for her older brother's help in dealing with one of the maids assigned to her. The said maid would often steal the jewelry gifted to her by her father and sell them for a high price outside the castle walls.

Not that Larissa liked the jewelry but those were still hers.

And she never liked it if someone took what was hers.

In an attempt to solve the problem, the sixth princess confronted her maid about it. To not ruin her image, she asked the woman in a gentle manner, even proposing the idea to give her money rather than continuing to turn a blind eye to what the maid was doing.

Unfortunately, things did not go as the sixth princess had planned. Instead of a remorseful look and an apology, the maid attempted to choke her to death with an angry, desperate look on her face. She was shouting obscenities at Larissa, words of frustration and lividness.

Larissa did not want to die by then. Especially in the hands of someone she could immediately get rid of if she didn't have to hide behind a mask of docileness.

"Do you want my help?"

Both women on the floor turned to the voice that belonged to Ciel, the third prince of the kingdom and was known for his lack of empathy towards those he considered beneath him. Larissa had never talked to the boy all her life, just a few greetings to acknowledge him and fleeting looks on the dining table.

That's probably why instead of immediately helping his younger sister whose life is about to end at the hands of the woman above her, he decides to ask her a question with an obvious answer.

"Help..." Larissa croaked out as loudly as her voice would allow her, as her hands pushing the maid's face slowly lost their strength. "me..."

It was the first time that Larissa saw his older brother smile. He always had a bored expression on his face, even during his sword practices and magic exercises, but now he's smiling.

At what, her dying state?!

"Close your eyes, princess,"

Larissa didn't. And perhaps, that would be one of the biggest mistakes she had committed in her life.

Ciel engulfed the maid's entire body with scorching flames. The screams that came out of the maid's mouth were horrifying, and Larissa could only watch in a state of shock how the skin of the woman above her started to tear and allowed her to see the internal organs of the maid.

Gasping in horror, Larissa looks away in disgust. When she finally had the courage to look again, the maid's bones contorted into a pugilistic state.

Before Larissa could push what was left of the maid to the side, Ciel once again called upon his element and burned the maid's bones until only dust remained.

"Your welcome, princess,"

Larissa threw up almost immediately after that.