The deep, dark night seemed like a sea seething with undercurrents and unknown dangers. It’s a good thing that I can see the moonlight from the window instead of being stuck in an underground cell with my hands tied behind me.

I feel a burning sensation in my chest as sit on the cell’s ground. My mouth is full of words wanting to express the anguish I’ve been feeling for a while now, but it’s pointless to scream and tell them to let me go. These guards may be a bunch of fools, but they wouldn't reach the point of doing something that reckless.

Or, will they?

I sense a triumphant grin on my face, opposite to what I’m feeling emotionally. Be patient and resilient for now, Thyra. All of these would be done by tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see Hervouet’s reaction once I turn the tables down.

However, it is strangely ironic that, despite the internal turmoil I am experiencing, I can put on a confident smile as if assured of my victory in this battle. I must be losing my sanity in the face of these challenging circumstances.

──•~❉᯽❉~•──

"Look at you lightning girl, locked and tied up. That's the fate of those who dare to betray me, and this is just the beginning," Hervouet mocked, his voice waking me up from my slumber.

I yawned as I opened my eyes, and I noticed the cloudy weather from the small window of the prison. Hervouet is acting like a child who had a fight with a playmate – throwing all the insults and mockery he can think of to make me regret that I betrayed him.

Expressing pain from his words would make him feel good, and I don’t plan to amuse him. Since he won’t stop babbling, I’m the one who will.

"Enough with your theatrics, you 're nothing but an annoyance. Your voice is noxious to my ears. In case you didn't know, I don't care about what you think," I retorted sharply. His response was to grasp the bars of the cell that confined me, nearly shaking them in his evident frustration.

“You’re supposed to be begging for your life!” He roared in outrage at my audacity. His outrage only pushed me further into my fit of laughter, deriving amusement from his unexpected reaction. Observing this, Hervouet tightened his lips, nostrils flaring in a clear manifestation of his growing frustration.

“You’re losing it, you don’t even know your place. Nobody will come here to rescue you,” He concluded as he stepped away, leaving my cell.

"Remember, I've deceived you once before, and that doesn't mean I can't do it again," I warned him, a mischievous smirk playing on my lips. He paused for a moment, looking at me with a mix of annoyance and exasperation, before rolling his eyes and walking away.

An hour after Hervouet left, a scream escaped my lips, causing the guards to rush into my cell. As they entered, I felt a warm sensation emanating from my wrist, prompting me to clench my hands into tight fists behind my back.

“What’s wrong?”

I looked at the guards in the eye – from one person to another, and the moment their eyes were engrossed in me, I spoke.

“My wrists hurt a lot. Will you remove my chains and let me go? I’m not supposed to be in a filthy place like this,” I pointed out, and their eyebrows furrowed.

“Are you nuts? Who do you think you are? You're a prisoner here, not the princess you once were!"

I threw them a daggered glance. "I said, set me free. Remove my chains and open the cell. That is an order." I put weight on my words, and their faces grew devoid of emotion, their eyes remained open without blinking.

It’s working.

“Of course, we’re going to set you free, Your Highness. We apologize for the inconvenience we've caused," the guard took the key hung on his belt, unlocked the cell, and removed my chains gently as if they were avoiding hurting me further.

Rising to my feet, I straightened my dress and brushed off any traces of dust with purposeful taps. The guards, who remained motionless like statues, awaited my instructions with unwavering patience and obedience.

“I’m going to leave this place. Follow me, and once we’re outside, I want you all to kill each other.” I held myself back from laughing, but I couldn’t hide my triumphant grin.

“Yes, Your Highness!” they said in chorus.

They gave me space for me and I rushed to the exit, with the guards running after me. On the surface, it will look like they're chasing me, but whoever sees it will be dead wrong. The moment I ran far enough to see them in a distance, they drew their swords and turned on each other, resulting in a cascade of fatal blows.

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So, this is what it's like to have Azriel's power to control people's minds. It must be amusing, seeing the ones who tortured me kill each other because they're not in their right minds.

As I turned to run even further, I unexpectedly collided with Hervouet's chest. The sight before us left him speechless, as he bore witness to his own people carrying out my commands. Stepping back from him, an overwhelming urge to laugh and mock him surged within me, mirroring the satisfaction he once took in mocking me.

“Y-You can’t possibly be the one who did that, didn’t you?” his reaction, when stunned is amusing, and this is the simplest way I can think of to show him that he’s messing with the wrong person he can never control. Just like how I first saw the situation from the very beginning – it is him who is in my hands.

“Why, are you impressed? You didn’t listen to my warning, and that was only less than an hour ago. That’s my gift to you. Let’s see if you can find people who’ll help you out in this isolated place,” saying those words was oddly satisfying, and if I could only speak it louder, I would.

Hervouet's eyebrows furrowed deeply as he drew his sword, raising it to point menacingly at me, hovering just inches from my nose. In a gesture intended to convey surrender, I raised my arms beside me, hoping to convince him of my compliance ... or at least, to create that illusion in his mind.

“How can you have that power? You can’t possibly use your charm to manipulate them all,”

He still didn’t get it, I see.

“His Highness, the crown prince gave me a hand chain only a Ruivenfiere can make. You don’t have to know when or why. So, I used that power to make them under my control and they followed my lead as if they were my marionettes."

Fueled by fury, Hervouet pressed the sword closer, his boiling blood driving him to the brink. Seizing the opportunity while he was momentarily distracted, I swiftly removed a hairpin from my hair and deflected his sword, resulting in a minor cut on my hand.

I lunged towards him, aiming for the vulnerable opening in his neck, and using the hairpin blade as a weapon, I struck with precision, causing Hervouet to collapse face down onto the ground.

His head was next to my foot, and I turned his body up for him to see me, including the sky. He gazed at me with rage, and if looks can only kill, he would’ve killed me by now. But he couldn’t.

“Don’t worry, that wound on your neck won’t kill you,” I pulled out my hairpin and show him its blade. “This little thing can’t kill even if it’s a weapon. The main purpose of this sheathed hairpin is for defense, but as you noticed, you can’t move your body, not even an inch of anything.”

I crouched to reach Hervouet's level. "Next time, know your allies well. What you see on the surface isn't everything, you have to know what's under their sleeve. You threatened me before, so it's natural for me to protect myself from you. You're lucky that I didn't have other weapons aside from this. The reason why you can't move is that this has poison in it. The poison's effect is paralysis. It will only take a few hours before you can move again, so give yourself some time to look at the sky and reflect on your actions. I’m not your ally, but I don’t want you to be my enemy either. After all, you were the reason why I’m still alive.”

What a pity. He can’t even reply to any of my words, because the poison spreading in his body would hinder him from talking as well. In this case, I should tell him everything he might ask depending on how much I know him.

“You don't have to know how I got involved with the Azriel and got the empress' favor, but it was because he gave me reasons why I should choose him. I indeed wanted to kill him, but circumstances changed and things won't always go as how I planned. From the desire to kill him, now my goal is to fight for him and nothing else. Well then, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave. I suppose we'll see each other on the battlefield."

I took the sword he was holding as I stood up. “Oh, and I’ll borrow this for now.” I gave him one last look before running away.

It's my first time to be in Xaerian – and I don't exactly know which direction I should go. The area is isolated from the town, similar to where my carriage was ambushed when I first traveled to Marrossi.

As I ran straight along with the trees and sea on my right side, I heard galloping horses, and I hid behind the tree to observe if they were possible enemies or people that I can approach.

“Please, let me go!” a voice pleaded, and a low, commanding voice ordered others to stop. When I peeked, the man on the horse was holding another man’s collar, and judging on how it looks like, the man whose collar was held was someone dragged while the horse was galloping.

"I advise you to speak truthfully while I'm being nice," the man on the horse grabbed a revolver under his cloak and pointed it at the man's temple, while still holding him by the collar. "…because I'm beginning to be in a foul mood right now." He warned.

I felt the weight in the person’s voice, and when I took a closer look, it was Raleigh all this time. They all came for me, it seems.

“I-I ran away when I saw the guards acting weird because I was –" the man's stuttering voice stopped when the revolver was pushed further.

“Cut the chatter. I don’t care about your story. Where is the princess?” Raleigh’s terrifying voice made me step out from my hiding spot to show myself to him. The Raleigh I saw now was another side of him – though he remained calm when in a foul mood, I sensed how serious he was to pull the trigger if the man kept his lips sealed.

“Your Grace!” I shouted as I walked closer. His expression calmed a bit at the sight of me, but he stared at me with disbelief. “You don’t have to kill that man, just leave him alone to help the second prince. I already took care of everyone. I’ll tell the rest later.”

“Took care of everyone? You mean …”

"I didn't kill them, but they killed each other because I ordered them to." the grand duke let go of the man's collar and he ran back in the direction where I came from.

“I manipulated them to set me free from the prison since I have the powers of a red diamond user, and I told them to kill each other after. None among Hervouet’s men are alive aside from the one you were interrogating earlier.”

“How about the second prince? You said you didn’t kill him?”

"My hairpin is a poisoned weapon. I stabbed his neck with it and pulled it out, but that was enough for the poison to affect his body. It's nothing fatal, but he'll be paralyzed and be mute for a couple of hours." The grand duke looked away and smiled in relief.

“Seems like I worried for nothing. He was right, after all,” He mumbled and offered me a hand. "We don't have an extra horse, so I'm afraid you have to ride with me, princess.”

I looked down to scan my dress, thinking how I can ride a horse in this outfit. The good thing here is it’s not a ball gown, which will make things doable.

“Ah, right,” He dismounted from his horse, but the moment he did, I got a striking feeling that we were being watched. I looked back into the trees where I hid and spotted the last person I wanted to see, watching us with a heated glare – Azriel.