Chapter 8

“I was showing mercy to you by just taking your head.”

Upon hearing these alarming words, Alicia was seized with fear. As she crazily shook her head in denial, Alexandro gazed at the knights surrounding them. All the eyes were fixated on the two in the middle, not daring to let out a single breath and miss the fun. Princess Alicia immediately understood her fate.

“No! No way!”

Alicia let out a desperate cry, making Alexandro turn towards her again. She broke away from the knights holding onto her arms and knelt before his feet.

“Please, please…….”

Bowing her head as she begged him for mercy, she eventually hugged herself as tears began to stream down her face, too afraid to die. 

‘Oh my God.’

Chloe, who was watching everything, couldn’t believe the state they’d been reduced to. She never thought she’d see the haughty and prideful first Princess Alicia collapse into a mess like this.

“Looks like something interesting has popped up after a long while.”

A loud, excited voice exclaimed from within the crowd of knights.

“Let us have a taste of the princess as well!”

The sudden, flippant voice belonged to Knight Leo. A chill ran down Chloe’s spine due to his sudden appearance.

Alicia was alarmed by his words as well because after Leo’s exclamation, the other knights began to rumble in agreement as well.

Alexandro gazed at the wet, young eyes of the princess and pulled her up her arm. Her legs shook with fear but Alexandro still managed to make her stand up, as if her body was hung from his grip at her arm. Alicia made the mistake of looking up and her eyes met with the countless number of lecherous gazes roaming all over her body, causing her to put her hands together and beg for mercy in an incoherent mumble.

“Just kill…Please save me, please. Please have mercy…”

Even Alicia couldn’t recognize what she was saying anymore.

“It’s our turn with the princess, no?”

As Leo grabbed onto her arm and tugged at her, she began to scream.

“Aaaah!”

Alexandro released his hold and she fell right into Leo’s arms. Soon enough, her body was tossed back and forth between the hands of different knights, causing her to let out a blood-curdling scream.

It was a horrific sight to look at but not a single person felt sorry for her. The knights continued  to treat the soon-to-be-dead princess of the defeated nation as a mere trophy.

“Aaaah!”

As Alicia was toyed with, she was suddenly pulled back with a great force. Having their toy snatched away from, the knights donned a face of disappointment.

“Ugh!”

In a split second, Alexandro ran his sword through her body. Leo smacked his lips in disappointment as he watched the life fade away from her eyes.

“Hang her on the gate.”

Alexandro took his gaze off of her dead body and walked away without any regrets. Realizing that this sort of thing may happen to her as well made Chloe wish to just pass out then and there. However, suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Ah!”

Startled, she turned around and found it to be Lucy, who attempted to hug Chloe as she shivered with fear. But this sudden movement alerted the others.

Chloe felt like her heart was ready to jump out of her throat as she slowly craned her neck to look behind her.

She felt a cold wave of dread wash over her as she accidentally met eyes with Alexandro in the distance. It was only for a moment, but she didn’t dare breath.

Fortunately, he turned away with an indifferent face. He probably didn’t realize that their eyes met.

What a relief!

A mere gaze of his in her direction was enough to frighten her. She snapped out of her thoughts when one of the other maids called out to her.

In the end, Chloe and the other maids were tied up, one by one and made to follow the knights to the empire’s capital, where the imperial palace was.

Will I ever get to be happy again?

In her past life, she was killed after getting run over by a drunken driver when she was just 35 years old. She wasn’t married and was exhausted from living after failing the college entrance exam and the civil service exam. She had barely managed to become an oriental pharmacist but ended up losing her life due to the carelessness of some stranger. 

That’s why she decided to be as happy as possible after being reborn..

There’s nothing I can do.. I still want to live.

The trip to the capital was rough as they were slung over the horses with hands tied behind their backs and somehow, they realized that their future lives as slaves would be even worse.

* * *

The journey lasted for over a week.

It’s tough…

Chloe usually has an extremely positive and bright outlook but the journey drained all of it away. On top of that, she was on a constant lookout for Leo and Alexandro, never knowing when they’d come to play around with her life. She still couldn’t forget Princess Alicia’s miserable death. After all, it haunted her in dreams every night.

Have we arrived at the capital now?

The empire’s capital was enormous and much more advanced than she’d expected, El Pasa was nothing in front of it. Chloe had never been to another country, so the foreign sights of the empire unsettled her nerves even more.

After arriving at the capital, they were smoothly taken through the procedure to turn them into slaves. Since the empire was in the habit of conquering multiple nations, the laws to deal with war slaves were well-established. They stripped the women of their possessions and titles. Chloe was treated as ‘slave’ as well, no one spoke of her previous status as a ‘princess’.

I guess I’m no longer  a princess.

However, Chloe preferred it that way. When she thought of Princess Alicia’s fate, she thanked lucky stars that she didn’t have to suffer the same fate. She could easily predict what would have happened to her if she was treated as a ‘special slave.’ The gross sight of the knight named Leo glancing and winking at her with lust all the time last week popped up in her mind.

I’ll take good care of you, princess. Just wait.

I wish I don’t have to see them ever again, both that crazy knight and their captain.