The pitiful victim mask the second Princess wore disappeared from her face into an angry one. “How dare you?! They are right! You can’t possibly be my sister. You are just an ugly witch!”
This certain sister of mine couldn’t handle her emotions, especially anger. It made me wonder that if she were the witch instead of me, we all might have been dead by now.
However, the moment she cursed me, the flowers in the bouquet in her hand withered.
Everyone looked at the flowers. One woman pointed at it as if she couldn’t wait to add fuel to the fire. “See, this is the witch’s doing! She can’t even spare those poor flowers.”
“It’s not me but her foul mouth,” I retorted.
She called me ugly, so how could those flowers that I personally grew take it? Somehow, I understood why they took flowers from my garden. They had planned for this scenario to happen.
“We won’t let you harm the Second Princess!” one man declared, looking so brave as if he was ready to sacrifice himself against me.
I looked at the man. “If I wanted to harm her, I would have burned clothes she is wearing and not that pretty curtain.”
Second, Princess Meira looked angrier as if that was even possible, and I know why. I referred to the curtain as pretty, but then that meant her expensive dress had no value in comparison.
Whatever I did, I was sure they couldn’t harm me, and they could only grit their teeth.
Because they could no longer fight me with words, the women turned at Queen Niobe for help. “Did you see, my Queen? She wants to burn the Second Princess!”
The Queen came down the throne to approach us, who were standing on the front row. She went to her poor ‘victimized’ daughter first and held her hand to console her. The women from the groom’s side did the same.
After their pitiful performance, Queen Niobe looked at me with reproach. “How can you do this to your own sister? I didn’t expect it from you, Seren.”
Gasps could be heard in the hall.
The Queen’s words held value. Because of what she said, she had confirmed that I was the one who committed arson to ruin this occasion.
Others looked at King Armen. “Your Majesty should do something about this crime.”
I looked at the King too. “Your Majesty, I expect the Royal Investigation Bureau to search for the traces of flammable oil at the place of the incident.”
The King nodded slightly in my direction, which meant that he accepted my request.
“How outrageous! Aside from you, who would do something like this? It makes no sense,” yelled one man after seeing how the King agreed to it. Guilt was written all over his face. It was clear their plan was about to fail.
“She is just making up things to protect herself!” said another woman.
However, my father paid them no heed.
“Take the Third Princess back to her place,” the King ordered, once again looking at Martha.
“My Lady,” said Martha as she bowed and led my way to leave this riot.
On the way out, I could hear the crowd growing restless.
“How can we let her go so easily?”
“Shouldn’t we punish her?”
“Ever since she came to this kingdom, she only brought us misfortunes.”
“You are right. We should throw her out of the kingdom.”
Thud!
The loud sound came from King Armen slamming his hands on his armrest. When he stood up, the entire hall turned silent.
“Don’t forget she is a princess,” said the thoroughly angered king, glaring at everyone who had been gossiping about me.
Although King Armen never loved me, the whole kingdom knew he never let others get to me. To be honest, it was highly likely not because he thought of me as his daughter, but because regardless of my reputation, I was an official princess of the Kingdom of Abetha, and he would let no one disrespect a person from the royal family.
Just as Martha and I reached the door, we heard a man’s voice break the heavy silence.
“Looks like someone used expensive flammable oil imported from the east only to burn a curtain. As I heard, it seems like the Kingdom of Abetha and its people are really rich.”
I turned to look at the source of the masculine voice. The others did the same.
I realized that the masculine voice came from the direction of the incident, which was the large window farthest from the throne, where the burnt curtain, or at least, what’s left of it, remained hanging.
I wanted to see who the person was, but there were so many people standing in the way, looking at the place of the incident. I turned to go there, but King’s guard came to us.
He bowed to me and then looked at Martha. “King has asked the third Princess to go back to the tower.”
Martha nodded to him lightly and turned to me. “We should leave, my lady.”
Just as I stepped out the door of the hall, the strong gust of wind passed by me, and I felt something familiar was pulling me back inside the hall. I turned to look inside and felt the force of unknown energy.
“What happened?” Martha asked.
Feeling puzzled, I replied, “I don’t know, but something is there…”
Martha looked at me and towards where my sight was fixed at and instructed, “We need to leave.”
The guard came forward and stood between me and where I was looking. He blocked my sight. I glared at him, but that robust built, tall guard didn’t budge.
‘No respect for a princess,’ I groaned inside.
Martha held my hand and dragged me away with her.
I tried to pull my hand, but I couldn’t get it out of her grip.
‘This old woman is incredibly strong.’
I had no other choice but to follow her.
———
Kindly read the author’s note below.
