I was on my knees, defeated... destroyed... then Sangria approached me and her paw resting on my neck: "It's a good thing mom spared you... Right?"

She smiled, almost to the point of enjoyment. "Frankly, I really wanted to see you humiliated like that. You screwed up all by yourself .

But I still wanted to see the look on your face if you got the 100 lashes too. It's a pity you'll get off with a suspension..."

I jumped at Sangria's throat and squeezed her wings with my talons.

"YOU!!! BECAUSE OF YOU I...!"

Sangria got out of the way: "Why are you angry?...Actually, I didn't do anything to you but if you insist on making it worse, why don't you scratch me? Why don't you rip off some of my scales?"

A few hours later, I was locked in my room and I saw, like a provocation, Sangria walking around with her mom and my dad.

Our eyes met briefly. He in the garden and I at the window of my room.

This confinement was a torture of injustice for me!

The only way to get rid of this leech is to prove by my powers that I am a chosen one! And then everything will be back to normal.

I went back to my magic books and it was a race against time. Hurry! Hurry... not a minute to lose, not a second.

I got on my knees, on my stomach, lying down, standing up. As a human, as a dragon, as a half-dragon, and I begged...Our Lord and my Grandfather...But... Did I pray to the good Lord? Please! Spirits, let my powers

be revealed!

I tried everything! But nothing... nothing happened. I didn't have an ounce of magic! Even the servant dragons could use the simplest of cleaning spells!

I was fifteen years old and the ceremony was brought forward by a year... to punish me.

The knights were tense and there was war. Revolts in the north... martial law. The dragons rebelled, the slaves too and Aldebaran was...

Then I was awakened by my father, accompanied by his little sister Sangria.

"Get up! I hope you won't disappoint us... because this will be the last time!"

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I could hear Sangria's little giggles accompanying dad.

She was clinging to him and had a sibling complex with my dad.

She couldn't stand to be near my father, let alone my grandfather.

Then at the party, at the entrance of the ball, there was Aldebaran, his wife and concubines on an imperial throne and my father and my godmother on his right.

Marainne knew about me and she was crying. But I knew nothing. Nothing yet. You don't always know when it's your last day to live...

But Sangria had decided otherwise.

She opened the dance by herself and after dancing a few rounds to get noticed

"LOOK LORD ALDEBARAN!"

And while dancing, fire came out of her paws palms, flaming veins like her mother's appeared and lava flowed from her mouth.

"I finally made it! I have your powers O great Lord God Aldebaran. Your blessed blood now flows through me....!

I was frozen. Petrified and my eyes popped out of their sockets.

The ground disappeared from my feet and a blanket of darkness engulfed me at once. As if I had been swallowed. Like that.

Sangria eradicated of happiness by making me the most beautiful possible smile, as if she was only a rose ready to be offered.

Sangria: "How happy I am. My efforts have finally paid off..."

Everyone began to applaud Sangria. All the nobles, and even the household staff.

Aldebaran let out a dragon smile and then, keeping it just as frozen, his slit eye swiveled to meet mine and they squinted with joy...

The two wyvern lords applauded as well as the concubines, father and mother-in-law.

Only my maternal grandfather did not applaud. He was also my godfather and one of the only people in the world who could understand me. He knew that all this was just a masquerade to put Sangria on the throne in place of daddy by ousting me.

Everyone knew that Aldebaran's Niflheim wife was not a demon, but her rage and her temper were not to be envied. She was devouring them and she was the primordial dragon. The alpha! With a word, a thought or a simple claw snap, anything with dragon blood could be subjected to her every whim. She held the empire with an iron fist, or at least an iron paw, because despite her immense powers, she could not transform herself into a human, but only into half-human. Wyverne's body was too different. A long and strong neck and a tail ended with a poisonous stinger.

Me : "How... How did you know? How could you do it?" Sangria questioned.

Then there was a shout and a clamor from the nobles and the guests. A sudden and explosive clamor:

"We must imprison the impostor! Natalia is a fake princess! "

Another dragon blurted out, "She has been acting all these years.... She must pay for her crimes!"

Then another high human: "She fooled everyone! All these years!"

"She is a witch!"

"She's the one who called the demon lord!"

"The demons are going to break out!"

"Let her be locked up!"

"Let justice be done!"

I fell to my knees and begged for daddy's mercy...

But he looked away...

Godmother started to cough and left the room, unable to help me.

Godfather ran away...

My servants were dragged out and beaten.

Then Aldebaran calmed down the crowd and everyone fell silent.

"My dear son Althus, Your daughter certainly has her reasons and so do the spirits. But if it is a blood problem, I can fix it...If her powers were not passed on to her by blood, I can pass them on to her in other ways. As she is an Altus... I have no doubt that she will pass this test with flying colors.

At these words Niflheim purred and put her neck against her "love" Aldebaran, knowing what treatment it was.

Many dragons dreamed of such a treatment and I immediately understood that it was my end when I saw the monstrous smile of the wyvern Lord and his daughter.

Father walked out of the room and all the nobles moved away in a circle.

I was left to my own devices in front of this god...no.... this arch-demon!!!

His shadow grew over me and then everything was black. The impalement then the fire immediately after.

The pain was indescribable...then...the blackness...the death...