I managed to. Pelias left, content, saying he’d send his servants to me to be healed.

“You should start getting ready for the dinner, it is only an hour away,” Silas said as we walked out of the office.

I couldn’t prevent the emotions tight in my chest anymore. It was embarrassing as tears started streaming down my face. I wanted to eat dinner with Lucius and Val, with Kairos in the room. I didn’t want to go attend a dinner where I’d have to listen to Aph scream about me and potentially harm me again.

Turning, I began walking to my room.

“I shall escort you to your quarters,” Silas mentioned, the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear.

I couldn’t speak, though, throat tight and tears spilling down my face. My shoulders were shaking, and I reached up, wiping at my eyes.

Trying to control my emotions, I took a deep breath, but it escaped me in a sob. Not only would the dinner be a reminder of what I’ll never have, but it would also be a reminder of my upcoming doom.

I’d have to sit and hear Aph scream at the king about me not belonging. I’d have to talk to Mercury and Pelias, knowing they’d both look at me with disgust and hatred once they found out. I’d have to sit there and remember Kai’s cooling corpse that I only barely managed to save, glowing red eyes haunting me as I tried choking down enough food to leave. I’d have to sit there feeling the blade of a guillotine come closer and closer.

“Why are you crying?” A familiar voice that only made me feel worse asked.

Shit. Why did Valentine have to be here?

I covered my face, sniffling as I wiped at my eyes again, “N-Nothing,” I mentioned, voice strained.

I could hardly speak past the tightness within my throat. It hurt.

Silas sighed, “Hello, Professor Lance. She’s crying because she doesn’t wish to have dinner with her family.”

The dismissive tone Silas used only made me feel worse. Yeah, great, I know I was stupid for crying. No need to remind me, asshole.

“What? She’s not going to,” Val insisted, ignoring Silas’s greeting, “She has dinner with Viscount Lucius Green, the royal librarian, and I.”

I continued walking, sniffling and unable to help it as I sobbed. I didn’t want hot soup to be thrown at me again. I didn’t want to be hurt or reminded that I didn’t belong.

Val stepped between Silas and I, an arm wrapping around my shoulder. It wasn’t very comforting, because it just reminded me of the nice dinner I was missing out on.

“As I have been invited to join them tonight, I will ensure that Princess Persephone goes.”

As if that was the reason.

I half-laughed, “I made a deal with Pelias. He’ll stop hurting his servants if I go.”

Val’s arm tightened around me, his hand on my opposite shoulder painfully tight, “Who cares about the servants? You are not going.”

“But—“

“You promised,” Val insisted, “You said you would not put yourself in danger.”

I took a shaky breath, hating that more tears were falling.

“… I never said that,” I disagreed.

I didn’t really remember the conversation, but that didn’t matter. I knew myself well enough to know I’d never promise something like that.

Especially since I was putting myself in danger’s way to try and prevent the apocalypse.

If I could even make it that far. We haven’t even gotten to the second book yet, and the series had planned to have ten physical books total. With the danger the Demon King posed, would I even make it to the end of the first book?

With Aph, too. She had the best assassin at her side. If she really hated me, there was no way I’d be able to escape death by Sora’s hands.

“I am not going to allow you to endanger yourself just to spare some servants a bit of pain,” Val refused, magic reaching out, “You are coming with me, and we are going to the library.”

I found myself floating, but before I could panic, I dropped. Silas’ magic snapped out, and the air suddenly felt very tense.

Looking up, I saw that Silas had a sword to Val’s throat, Val glowering.

“I miss Kai,” I muttered miserably.

“It is a good thing I am here, then,” Kai greeted as he walked up, looking like he’d just rolled out of bed. His suit was ruffled and his hair messy, one side flattened, “I heard you were looking for me?”

I felt relieved just seeing him alive. Reaching out, I wrapped my arms around him. Kai froze.

“Your highness, this is highly inappropriate,” Kai mentioned, not pushing me away.

“Silas and Lance are being assholes,” I muttered into his chest, “And I’m crying, and it won’t stop.”

My words twisted at the end, and I found myself sobbing again. Kai sighed, “Let us get you changed and ready for dinner.”

I whined, holding him tighter.

“She doesn’t need to get ready,” Val said, “She’s going with me to have dinner in the library.”

“She does need to get ready. She is going to be having dinner with her family.”

At the emphasis, my arms tightened, eyes closing.

“I made a deal with Pelias,” I muttered, “Silas doesn’t matter.”

“You’re trying to endanger yourself for the sake of mere servants!” Val said, voice raising incredulously, “You truly wish to go back to having dinner with those people? None of them even cared when your sister disfigured your face!”

“I had not taken you to be the individual to overreact. From what I have heard, her sister had merely spilled soup on her,” Silas refuted.

Kai’s hands reached out, gently pushing me away from him. I opened my eyes to him wiping my tears. I looked up at him, seeing his expression. It looked soft, and I stared into his eyes.

Honey-brown eyes hidden behind glasses greeted me. His eyes weren’t soft, though. He didn’t look very happy at all.

“I can see why you are crying,” Kairos murmured, “Come on, I shall draw up a bath for you.”

I followed Kairos, ignoring the fighting going on behind me. To my surprise, it was Val I worried about. I suppose Silas was still just a character in a book, to me.

In my office, a lot of servants were milling about. As Kai and various other servants started to get things ready for the dinner, I healed the servants.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” A servant with still bleeding whip marks asked, doe-like eyes full of concern, “I saw what happened. If the second princess acts as she did before, you might get hurt again.”

I ducked my head, “I’ll continue going. It’s only two months,” I muttered, more to comfort myself than to comfort him, “If I go back on my word at this point, some of you might not survive. How could I live with myself for leaving you guys to that fate? At least I have healing magic to heal myself with, should Aph decide to attack me again.”

“You can hardly call what she had done an attack,” Silas refused.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Every servant in the room suddenly looked angry. I glanced around, then looked at Silas. Concern filled me.

“Where’s V—Lance?”

“Unharmed. He stormed off,” Silas said, arms crossed as he watched me heal the servants, “After dinner, we will spar again.”

I shook my head, “After dinner Lance has me.”

“I had not realized he was instructing you.”

“He’s not, he’s trying to heal my soul,” I lied, “To try and get my memories back.”

“How often a week does he do that? I will have to adjust my instruction if you are going to be too tired to learn, tomorrow.”

I shook my head, “I’m fine when I wake up, he does it every night.”

“Soul magic is very draining,” Silas refused.

I sighed, looking back to the servant that walked up to me. Not many were left, the ones I’ve healed quietly leaving. This one lacked a hand.

“Yes, it is. However, not everyone reacts to magic the same way. It affects me greatly. I pass out. When I wake up, I’m well-rested and full of energy.”

I stared at the lack of a hand. How did infants grow limbs again? It was… not white cells. Blank cells? Of course, energy would need to be converted. Atoms need to come from somewhere, right?

Maybe…

Hm.

Five feet made me pass out for a week, but I didn’t plan to use magic for the rest of today, so maybe… Two feet? Twenty four inches?

I could clearly imagine what I wanted, the man’s fat stores being converted to the blank cells and then turned into the bone, sinew, muscle, tissue, and skin.

“Would he be hungry?” I wondered to myself as I slowly did the math for a twenty-four inch circle, making sure to do as much forethought as possible.

Several minutes passed, the healing circle hovering there. I ignored Silas’ warning and the servant’s complaints.

Finally, I got my answers, also recalling that the blank cells were called stem cells.

Circle. Radius is twelve inches, diameter is twenty-four, circumference is 75.36, area is 452.16.

I thought intently about the stem cells, and about all the things I wanted to heal.

The giant circle of healing slowly did its job, and I watched as a solid inch of hand reappeared before my circle flickered out due to interference.

“You are out of magic,” Silas commented, hand on my shoulder.

When had he gotten closer? I glanced up at him with a frown, “I wasn’t done.”

“You can continue healing him and the rest of the servants tomorrow,” Silas refuted.

I sighed, watching as the servant wrapped his hand, looking a bit gaunt.

“You need to eat a lot, tonight and tomorrow,” I mentioned, “I was converting your fat stores into usable material.”

“O-of course. Once I am able to, I will return,” The servant said, bowing deeply, “Th-thank you.”

“Yeah, of course,” I agreed, waving him off, “Sorry to the rest of you. I should have saved energy.”

“It is fine,” A woman with pink hair said, bowing, “We are all very grateful to you.”

I nodded, yawning. The servants all shuffled out, and I found myself taken to the bathroom. After I was thoroughly cleaned by some maids, my hair delicately washed, I found myself being dressed for the first time in a long while.

Make-up was put on, jewelry that I hadn’t deemed necessary to wear was attached to me, and I stared at the radiant beauty with freckles resembling sparkles of an explosion littered my skin.

I wonder if the freckles glittered like sparkles in the sunlight. It would make sense why Silas stopped fighting so soon after the sun rose. I doubted he’d have been able to last much longer with how distracting it would get.

Or maybe my dirty comments were a bit too detailed?

Soon, I found myself looking elegant and refined. I wandered to the dining room.

“What is she doing here?” Aph asked the moment I took a single step inside.

Fuck, man, at least wait until I sat down. I wandered to a relatively safe spot. I sat next to Mercury, ignoring the empty seat between Aph and Silas.

“I asked her to be,” Pelias answered.

“She’s not your sister!” Aph snapped, “Why would you want her here? That’s not Persephone!”

I sighed, agreeing partially as I put my head on my chin, “I go by Percy, actually. It’s shorter.”

Aph glowered at me, her beauty not making her look any less petulant. Her cool-toned sparkles didn’t glitter in the candlelight, so I presumed mine didn’t in the sunlight.

That answered my question, I suppose.

“How are your studies going, Percy?” The king asked as we were served food.

“Dunno,” I shrugged, “I have the memory of a goldfish, but Lucius said I covered everything there could possibly be on the written exams.”

“And your other two exams?”

“Well I just started today,” I explained, shrugging, “Silas is kind of an inconsiderate prick who thinks the worst of me, but he’s been a good teacher so far. Also prevented me from accidentally killing myself, like, three times in the past two days. So I have hope.”

The king sighed, “Yes, I was there. No need to remind us.”

“He should’ve let you die,” Aph said.

“Dude fuck off. If you want to ride a dick go find someone else’s,” I complained, turning to Aph, “Do you think I wanted this amnesia?”

“It’s not amnesia! You’re not Persephone!”

“So what if I’m not?” I asked, sighing, “How am I supposed to resolve whatever issue you have with me? Say, hypothetically, you’re absolutely right. I clearly have no idea what I’m doing, so me being some crazed Lich is out of the question. I also have proven that I have absolutely no intentions of being an evil bitch like I was—my mistake, like Persephone was before,” I mocked, “So just shut up and be miserable like I am! Okay? Neither of us win.”

Aph scowled, turning to the king, “Come on, father! Please? It’s so easy just to call another soulmancer here!”

“If you legalize necromancy you can call all of them here, too. Be told the same thing, father dearest. Very impressive, right?” I continued mocking, looking at the king.

The king looked exhausted and he hadn’t even taken a bite of his food—thankfully not soup.

“So if you aren’t Percy, who are you?” Pelias asked curiously, looking as done as I was.

“Hmm, you’re right, if I’m not Percy, I should choose a new name for myself. Let’s see, what should it be… Alex? Jasmine? Oh! What about Bob? That’s a nice and simple name.”

Pelias scoffed, “You don’t seem like a Bob to me.”

Aph looked furiously humiliated.

“Maybe Iris?” Mercury suggested coolly, focused on his food, “There is a saying that eyes are the windows to the soul, and it is pretty simple for someone who is obviously not Persephone.”

“Iris, huh?” I mused.

It wasn’t very close to my original name, but then again neither were my suggestions. Wasn’t it better this way? That way the Fae couldn’t just ask around and find my name.

“It sounds quite nice,” Pelias agreed, “Father, can we adopt Iris? She’s quite a wonderful sister. She works hard, and is a very caring individual. She even cares for the piss-poor animals that serve us.”

“Father! Don’t listen to them! That isn’t Persephone!”

“I believe you, Aphrodite,” The king said with a heavy sigh, focusing on his food much like Mercury was, “That’s Iris, your new sister. As of today, she is officially adopted by royal decree.”

“Wh—father!” Aph snapped, looking aghast, “You—why don’t you believe me? When have I ever lied to you before?”

“Iris is right, Aphrodite,” Mercury mentioned, “Even if the ritual that caused her—I mean, even if the ritual Persephone did went wrong in a different way, Iris clearly had not intended to be here. Even at the garden party she had called you the future queen, not herself. I do not see why you are so concerned over her.”

Aphrodite slumped into her chair, sullen. As she sulked, I got to eat a relatively peaceful meal.

Being glared at the whole time was a bit shitty, but I felt a lot better about my standing in the household. Maybe this joke would become ongoing, and once they do find out, they won’t be as hateful toward me.

If they do. I was hoping they wouldn’t, but after I successfully stopped the apocalypse it wouldn’t really matter anyway.

After the Academy, I would be fully prepared to become a battle mage. At that point I could just go off and be an adventurer, hiding away from the fury of the royal family.

…

Well, even if they didn’t figure it out, wouldn’t I be in a better position if I just became an adventurer?

Sure, I wouldn’t be able to be entangled in politics, but I didn’t really need to be. The garden party is what started it all, and the Academy only increased that aggravation.

So clearly all I had to stay for was the Academy years that were mostly skipped over, and then war wouldn’t break out, because I would have soothed relations between all the people that attended the Academy, right?

“Please tell me you aren’t planning something bad,” The king said, voice weary.

I blinked, shaking my head, “Nah, I’m not.”

Everyone looked dubious, Aph still glowering at me. I huffed.

“You guys are so prejudiced against me, I’m really not planning anything bad!”

“For who?” Pelias wondered.

“It’s not bad for you, nor for the kin… Well,” I thought. They wouldn’t like it… But that didn’t mean it was bad, “No, I’m right! It’s not bad! Not for you guys, not for the kingdom, and not for… Well, anyone else.” Maybe the servants.

“And who is it bad for?” Mercury led with, glancing at me from his meal. His emerald gaze found mine for a long moment.

I pouted, “No one believes me. I haven’t done anything wrong! I’m innocent of all crimes.”

“Except for blackmailing me,” Silas mentioned coolly.

“That was literally everyone except for me,” I deadpanned.

“Y-you asked,” Pelias refuted the moment Silas turned his gaze to Pelias.

“I had suggested it as an idea,” I corrected, poking at my dessert, full, “I had never said it was a good one, nor that I had any hopes of it working. Anyway, I’m full. May I be excused? I have a session with Lance.”

The king waved me off, and me and my small team of servants hurried out.