Precarious Position

Felicia's eyes snapped wide open when she heard the female voice, instantly recognizing it. Lately, Felicia only heard that voice before it was behind a white mask, not that the identity of the young woman behind the mask was ever kept a secret from Felicia.

"P-princes Samira!?" the guards above recognized the princess that came all the way down to the Pits, which meant she was not behind a mask now. Felicia confirmed this when she saw Samira's face first the first time, appear above her, on the other side of the metal bars that separated them.

The top hat was the first to pop into Felicia's field of view when Samira bent a little to look down on the captives. A strange, cylindrical black hat that was made to order for the princess. It had a big black feather with jewelry attached on the top left side. Then Felicia saw the rest of Samira.

Of the Seven Sisters, Samira was the only one with differently colored iris. The left was black and the right one was blood red, the same color as a few strands on the right side of her completely straight, otherwise pitch-black hair that reached a little past her hips. Her straight bangs just barely covered her thin eyebrows, but not even a single hair obstructed her sight.

Samira wore a black gothic sleeveless dress. The dress left her shoulders collarbone area naked were naked as well as her right arm while her left arm had a black cloth armband. The wide lower part of the dress reached just below the knees from behind and to the middle of thighs from the front, revealing the lace fishnet stockings and knee-high boots.

Surprisingly, even from such a downward angle a panty shot was out of sight for anyone in the pit that Samira stood over.

"Princess, what are you doing here?" one of the guards asked.

"This is no place for a lady," another added.

"I don't need to explain myself, and I don't care," Samira answered to both guards. "But, Felicia, do please continue. You say that you have proof about the criminal responsible for the massacre? Who might that be?"

You must be joking, Felicia thought as she stood up on her platform that Michael and Zack supported beneath her. What the hell is this theatre? Fine!

"Like I keep telling these dead men walking, my loyal subjects were put under a strong seduction spell by one of the participants of the tournament," Felicia said. "It finally wore off on the two of them, but that vile cockroach had apparently spent considerable time alone with my underling, Bob, and her influence over him remains as strong as ever. Even now he's completely delusional and has hallucinations about her whenever he wakes up!"

"How horrible!" Samira responded with no sincerity about the horribleness of the situation. "Was that the same participant that had her way with my sister for the viewing pleasure of thousands of commoners?"

"Y-yes," Felicia started to sweat a little. "I tried to stop it immediately, but by then she already had control of the eunuchs."

"I'm sure you did," Samira said. "And does that all-powerful participant have a name?"

"Beatrice, apparently," Felicia said. "Which I told to both captains that locked me up and their idiot guards. And yet they still refuse to release me!"

"I see, I see," Samira nodded. "So, as I understand from your words, you let one random participant run amok, steal the loyalty of eighteen powerful magicians right under your nose, steal my sister's virginity, and single-handedly destroy a carefully planned and managed event that took the support and cooperation of the S.E.C.R.E.T. Guild, Belmot's Purple Capes, and the Crown itself to create? Why are you still alive?"

"E-eh?" Felicia suddenly felt a chill run down her fragile, easily breakable spine.

"C-captain Flavna instructed—"

"Open your mouth again and you'll join my collection," Samira interrupted the guard with such killing intent in her eyes that the guard recoiled, stumbled, and fell on his ass.

You can't be serious! Felicia thought, drenched in cold sweat. The Queen herself entrusted me with—Ah! The more Felicia's mind raced, the more she realized what precarious position she was in. As if watching herself from the outside, she felt small and strangely light, completely alone under the heavy shadow of one of the most powerful among the Seven Sisters.

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