Chapter 54

I really should have thought better of following Adriel out of the hall. It really had been obvious at the time that something would go wrong. Then again, can you blame me? After all, I really had to go to the bathroom. And no one else was willing to take me.

"Uh, why did you stop?" I delicately asked the girl in front of me.

We were heading back to the banquet from the private bathroom, which had been quite a walk. I had expected her to do something on the way there, but all the girl had done was lead me without even saying a word. But now…

"I think it’s about time we had a little talk." Adriel replied, turning around to confront me.

The girl herself looked harmless, she was as short as me and might be even thinner under her clothes. Her pink-hair and cat-features made her look quite cute really, if you ignored the cold eyes that could freeze fire.

I shivered under her attention, slowly backing away. “R-right now? Maybe we could wait until we get back to the banquet…”

"No, we will have our talk immediately. It would be best to speak with you away from prying eyes." The princess’ spoke calmly, her tone even and emotionless.

Seeing no response from me, she turned around again and said, "Follow me."

Seeing no real choice, I decided to follow her. After all the princess was much stronger than me, since she had already reached s-rank. And it was unlikely that she would kill me, right?

The princess led me to an empty room, devoid of any furniture. The blinds were closed, leaving the room surrounded in darkness. It gave off an eerie feel, and I almost ran away right then.

"What would you like to discuss, sister?" I asked formally in a failed attempt to hide my nervousness.

Adriel didn’t deign to respond. Instead, she just turned her body and faced me. Although the princess had always been scary, the sheer amount of hatred behind her expression made me stumble backwards.

I never even saw her arm move until her fist was buried into my stomach. I gasped as the air left my lungs. But it wasn’t a hard punch. I doubt she had even used a fraction of her strength.

And yet I could do nothing. Grasping my stomach, the most I could do was barely keep standing, as my knees buckled under her punch. Although she had not hit me hard, my body was hardly durable to pain. I also felt a tingle of pleasure, likely from my [Masochist] trait, but I quickly ignored it.

“I think you misunderstood when I said we would have a talk. When I said talk, I meant I would be doing the talking. You will only speak to answer my questions.” The girl asked forcefully as she pushed me against the bedroom wall.

I was too busy trying to recover my lost breath to say anything. When the princess grabbed my pink-hair with one hand to force me to look up at her, I could do nothing to resist. My strength was pitifully low, and hers was likely at least a hundred if not even higher.

"I will talk and you will listen, understood?" While it was phrased like a question, I knew I had no choice but to obey the girl.

What the hell? She was acting completely different from her normally cold personality. Before she at least seemed sane…now she just looked crazy.

I quickly nodded my head to show my acceptance to her words though, since I didn’t want to provoke the clearly insane princess.

"That's a good girl. Now, you might be wondering just what I want to talk about," she began, as her free hand pulled out a knife and pushed it against my throat, her other hand still keeping my chin raised by pulling my hair.

"P-please…”

"For some reason, my mother has decided to take a liking to you, despite the obvious fact that you are not her daughter. Even though she holds an incredible amount of power, she can be quite innocent when it comes to her family,” Adriel said, her voice full of loathing. "Fortunately for you, my mother is one of two very important people to me. And that is the one and only reason I haven’t gutted you like a fish.”

“I understand,” I said, my voice meek, still very much aware of the blade at my neck.

"No, I don’t think you understand,” the princess stated, pulling my hair a little bit to make me yelp. "Let me put this in the simplest of ways so you can understand, Kitty."

For the first time since I met, the girl smiled. But instead of feeling relief, it only heightened my sense of fear. It was a good thing I had already gone to the bathroom, as I likely would have pissed myself from her cruel, twisted expression.

"If you dare to break my mother’s heart, if you dare to hurt her in anyway, I will make your life under the Demon Lord of Lust feel like paradise in comparison to what I will do to you. By the time I would be done with you, you would be begging me with tears in your eyes to return you to your master in the north," she said, closing the distance between our faces to the point that the only thing I could see were her inhumanly sinister eyes. "Do you understand?"

I whimpered as she moved the knife up, right next to my left eye. This girl had completely lost her mind. She might be crazier than the demon lords I had met.

With no choice, I responded, “I un-understand…”

“Good kitten,” she said that as she removed the knife from my throat, giving me a squeeze on the cheek. I slumped in relief at the absence of the blade, until I saw the smirk on the girl’s face.

No, she was hardly a girl. She was more like a devil.

Slowly, her hand fell to my stomach, where she began to rub away the pain from her earlier punch. "Wh-what are you-"

"Hmm… so fragile, just like a little girl,” she began. “So easy to… break.”

I couldn’t help but shiver. She was a complete lunatic. Unfortunately, she was currently holding my hair tightly, preventing me from doing anything.

“Remember, I will ruin you the second you hurt my mother.” Her tone was dissonantly cheerful, as she said it with a twisted grin on her face.

Finally, she removed her hold on my hair as she allowed me to fall into a heap on the ground. I didn’t even think about being angry, too terrified and shocked by the change in the princess as I laid against the wall.

“C-can we go back now?” I eventually blurted out, completely beyond coherent thought at this point as I tried to get out of this ludicrous situation.

"Go back? Did I say we could go back? You really are a fool. I do wonder what my mother sees in you,” the girl pondered. "Well, you are somewhat cute I suppose. And I do find it quite amusing to play with you.” The girl knelt down and stroked my hair.

What was going on? I found that I did not understand this wicked so-called sister of mine at all. Her personality changed by the minute, from frigid cold to ruthlessly sadistic. And now she was comforting me in her own twisted way.

“We still haven’t talked about my second special person, the other one to occupy even more of my heart than my mother. My twin brother, who you have decided to impersonate.” She spat out the last few words.

“”U-umm…b-but I really am your broth—”

“My brother?” The girl scoffed. “You might be able to fool my mother, but I knew Adrian better than anyone. When no one else was there for me, he was. He was my light. The two of us were closer than family, despite him being quite dense when it came to certain…things. Even though I tried my best to act like the woman he wanted, carefree and mischievous, while still being strong and hard-working. And yet he still never acknowledged me. Instead he tried to compete against me, only to get himself killed…” Her voice quivered at the end.

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.

She smirked. “Don’t pity me, you stupid girl. The one you should feel sorry for is yourself. Frankly, I couldn’t care less as to why you’ve decided to pretend to be my brother. But know this, you will never be his replacement. And once I rescue Adrian, you will be out of the palace for good.”

“B-but…” I bit my tongue before saying the rest. Unfortunately, she still knew what I wanted to say.

“But Adrian is dead? Is that what you wanted to say?” She cocked her head, daring me to answer.

“No…umm…he’s probably waiting for you to save him.”

“Yes, he is. And I will save him.” She patted me on the cheek. “I’m glad we could have this talk, sister. Now, I hope that you are a smart girl and will think things through now that I've laid everything on the table. Of course, my mother will be happy if you're happy. And since I am happy when mother is happy, I have a vested interest in your own happiness. I wouldn't dream of harming you as long as you hold the interest of my mother, and it really hurts me to have to corner you like this. But I needed to stress the consequences of acting against my family. As long as you can please my mother until my brother is saved, you will be able to live a happy life."

I let out a soft groan as the princess returned to her cold demeanour as she turned to leave. I couldn’t help but punch the ground in frustration, letting out the anger and fear I had felt. A futile effort, as it only made my hand throb from pain.

It had happened again. Once again, I'd been reduced to a weak, little girl being intimidated and bullied like a helpless child. Once again, I had been reduced to a shaking, frightened mess by someone stronger than me.

I had mistakenly believed that I grown some, but Adriel had just shown that I was just as much of a coward as ever. If it wasn’t for Elaina, I would never have been brave enough to escape in the first place. And now I still didn’t have the courage to fight back against the princess.

But there hadn’t been anything I could have done. I had no combat skills yet, and my magic hadn’t progressed far enough to even scratch the girl.

As I hurried to follow Adriel, my sleeve went up to wipe away the tears of frustration that threatened to fall. I had thought I had escaped, but nothing had changed at all. I was still the same pathetic slave that I had always been.

I quickly shook my head. That was wrong. I did have one thing now that I did not have before. The aspect of love.

My thoughts drifted back to what Elaina had said. Perhaps there was an easy way to gain strength.

All I had to do was seduce another hero or two.

WritingSimulato