I woke up gasping for air, clutching my already swollen throat all while coughing up something unsightly. Blood filled my mouth, but I quickly swallowed it back as I saw shadows looming over me.
"I thought I told you not to injure her." spoke a cold-voiced man, standing above all the rest. I turned my head and saw the familiar face of the mage who had attacked me and snarled.
"You'll regret this, dog." I coughed, covering my mouth, unable to look at the man towering above me. I felt so weak, and I could barely breathe properly because of my swollen throat.
If only I had a weapon, something that could help me escape from whatever human trafficking scheme this is-
"Celeste Freespeare."
I froze, then used up the remainder of my strength to look up. The man standing in front of me was tall and thin. His clothes were of exceptional quality, knowledge I had acquired by working in that dreaded cotton mill. I smirked.
"Right, this all makes sense now. You're a pig." I coughed, trying to sit up. The man's face didn't look impressed, and he turned towards the mage for answers.
"Seems like that is what you common folk call us nobles nowadays. How creative. Uttering such words in front of nobility directed towards a member would normally warrant the death penalty."
'Then kill me' is what I wanted to say, but talking was so painful right now, I could barely think straight. But I knew that he wasn't going to kill me. The only reason why I'm still alive is because he needs me for something.
"You haven't killed me," I declared, my voice coarse and rough. "So you need me for something. Get to the point."
The man looked down at me, his frost blue eyes somehow looking strangely familiar. He chuckled.
"Seems like you have the Richmond temperament." he declared, slowly lowering himself down until he was around my level, but made sure to be a little bit taller than my seated self just to show how superior he was to me.
It's funny how I can see through all of his intentions. Every little thing you do, I see it, you pig. My mother once thought that I could read minds, it was scary how I could tell whether someone was lying or not based on how many times they touched the fruit in their basket. People in my village found it creepy, so I stopped saying my thoughts out loud altogether.
I was so preoccupied trying to read his intentions that I overlooked the vital piece of information he had just given to me. The man sighed and straightened himself up again.
"And here I was hoping that you had inherited at least a bit of your mother's grace, but I was mistaken." he declared, my mind suddenly making the link. "Seems like you're more like the man you call pig after all."
Memories of gossipmongers in the village flooded back into my head. I remembered that they all said the same thing. My mother had gotten involved with a NOBLE and had a CHILD by him. No, there's no way... there is absolutely no way-
"If I take by your expression, you've understood what's going on." he declared, falling back into a chair behind him. His velvet cloak of his could feel two entire villages for months. Those rings around his finger could buy a whole factory, and the crest on one of them is the Richmond Duchy crest... the Duchy that we happen to live in.
This man... was my father.
I can't believe that I didn't see the resemblance. The black hair, the whitish-blue eyes, those reminded me of myself!
I looked right up at him, fiercer than before, and smirked.
"If you think that you're going to do some charity work and legitimise me, then you're dumber than I thought." I coughed.
The man didn't smile, nor did he frown. He just stood there, arms crossed. "No. That isn't my intention at all. I need you to marry someone."
I smirked, laughing weakly under my breath. "Marry someone? If you think that I'm willing to be a tool in a stupid power game-"
"It is to prevent a war. A war that I know you peasants will suffer more because of than us nobles."
A war... a war... us common folk still haven't fully recovered from the last one, and that was ten years ago. I remember how terrifying it was, as a child, being in a warzone. The taste of coppery magic on our tongues, how me and my mother nearly starved after hiding down in a secret bunker for seven months, watching my mother's skeletal figure become more and more apparent as the days went by-
"You remember the war. If I'm correct, you lived through one." he declared. "If another one were to start, children will suffer like you did. Young men will be forced to give up their lives for the cause. The loss would be incalculable-"
"Stop trying to manipulate me." I declared. "You and I both know all you get to see if a number on the page, and you say to yourself that it's acceptable. That land of all things is worth human lives. It's painful, isn't it? The nightmares?"
He stood up, and looked down at me, grabbing my chin and raising it up. "You will marry a prince."
"And you think that's what all common folk like me want. Money, status, power. Some find it to be like a poison, ripping away at any shred of dignity, self-respect, and compassion they have until there's nothing but dust. Is that how you feel?"
He looked at me, his eyes piercing cold, just like the plague of winter. "If this marriage doesn't go ahead, this means war."
"Don't you have a legitimate daughter? Why don't you send her instead?"
"She's already spoken for."
Married to a man who will never look at her and think more of her than a tool to birth children.
"So why me?" I asked courageously. "And don't say that you loved my mother and you left to protect her. I might be young but I'm not gullible and stupid."
He didn't chuckle, nor did he look at me any differently.
"She was a distraction." he declared. I concealed my clenched fists. "Without our union, you would have never seen the light of day-"
"And my mother would have fallen in love with someone else and been married. Listen up, no child asks to be born. It's their parents who decide to have them brought into the world, unconsciously or consciously."
"I always knew about your existence. Your mother wrote to me once, three years ago, asking me to take care of you."
I smirked, spitting out any blood still in my mouth. "I'm grateful that you didn't follow her demand."
He looked at me, our eyes meeting. "The bride must be of royal blood, and though distant, my great-grandfather was the King back then. All of the women that are 18 or above who have royal blood are already married, and that just leaves you. You may leave this room today, I won't keep you here, but remember that if you do, millions of lives will be lost because you were too stubborn and selfish to accept."
-End of Chapter 2-
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