Isabella's heart raced as she pushed open the ornate door to the princess's bedroom, her steps hesitant as she crossed the threshold. The room was a spectacle of opulence, adorned with delicate lace draperies and gilded furnishings that whispered of royal elegance.
But what caught Isabella's attention was not the grandeur of the room, but rather the scene unfolding before her. There, in the centre of the room in a huge bed, stood a half-naked figure that sent shivers down her spine. A man, short and feminine, was dressed in attire that was unmistakably her brother's, which was too big for a normal man. The embroidered crest on the vest, the intricate patterns on the cuffs – they were all too familiar to be mistaken.
"Princess Raven, what is going on here?" Isabella questioned, as she took a closer look at the man. She quickly identified it was none other than Aaron Graveheart who was being tied up to the bed.
Isabella was well aware that treating a noble in such a manner would be considered taboo, even for a princess. However, as she gazed upon Aaron's countenance, it became evident that he was far from being in control of his body. A subtle flush adorned his face, an unmistakable sign of his drunkness and by looking at his erection, which kept dripping some kind of a wet liquid, Isabella knew Aaron was drugged.
"Ohhh~ Isabella, come in, I was playing with Oliver, look! look at his face," Raven had a crazed smile on her face, as she squeezed Aaron's cheeks. "This is the same cheeky boy that tried to kill me, despite being my fiancee, he didn't even let me touch his body, so I had to punish him,"
Isabella showed no concern for Aaron or his well-being. Her focus shifted to wondering how Raven had acquired Oliver's clothes. After all, Isabella had previously incinerated all of Oliver's belongings, unable to bear the sight of anything associated with him.
'Erection drugs, she had given an extra dose of them which caused this man to hallucinate, if Graveheart family knew about this, I'm sure even the empress wouldn't be able to save her
"Princess Raven, may I ask where you got my brother's clothes from? I was confident that I got rid of everything that belonged to him, and also do you mind covering yourself," Hearing Isabella's question, Raven looked at her with an annoyed smile while removing her face from the clothes that belonged to her brother.
She got up from the dirty bed that was wet with alcohol and sat on a couch, taking a cigar from the ornate box on the coffee table nearby without bothering to cover her vagina or chest. As the soft light filtered through the room, she gazed at the man on her bed and Isabella simultaneously, lost in thought, the tendrils of smoke from the cigar dancing around her like wisps of her pride.
"He is my fiancee, of course, I have his clothes," Raven stopped and made a sound with her tongue. She looked at Aaron and suddenly understood that he wasn't Oliver. She felt confused because she had been drinking alcohol and it was making her thoughts unclear. So, she sat down to relax and feel better.
Raven's eyes widened as the haze of alcohol began to lift, and a surge of panic shot through her. The cigar she held trembled slightly in her grasp as the realization hit her like a lightning bolt. Aaron wasn't Oliver – the man on her bed was not the one she loved.
She jolted upright, the silky robe she had draped over her shoulders sliding off, forgotten in her distress. "Wait a minute," she exclaimed, her voice quivering with anxiety. "Where's Oliver? He was supposed to be with me?"
The room seemed to close in around her, the opulent surroundings now a stark reminder of her own vulnerability. She looked around frantically, her chest heaving with each rapid breath. "Isabella!" she cried out, her voice tinged with desperation. "Why hasn't Oliver been brought back from the prison? What's going on? Didn't you promise that you will bring him back and hide him here,"
Raven's mind raced, thoughts colliding in a tumultuous whirlwind. The reality of the situation was crashing down on her, and her heart pounded as a mix of fear and anger surged through her veins.
Isabella assured Raven that she would surrender Oliver to her once he had been shattered and left utterly devoid of hope due to the trials he had endured, but right now Raven knew something had gone south looking at Isabella's face.
"It is because of the first princess's disappearance, I can't send my people to carry out the duty," Raven clicked her tongue hearing Isabella's words.
"That bitch! She had to go and disappear right now, We can't let those women in Havoc Bay lay their hands on Oliver, I agreed with this whole thing because you said Oliver and the throne will be mine after this, Isabella, you are disappointing me,"
Isabella just kept looking at Raven, as she said those words in anger. "Don't worry princess, the throne of Behemothia Empire will be yours and I will make sure to kidnap Oliver from that god-awful place, please try to calm down empress, she is searching for a second princess like a mad woman,"
"Yes, I will do that, and this is the best time to weaken her and make her realize that I'm the most suitable person for the throne," Raven nodded at Isabella's words and drank some water to rehydrate herself.
After rising from the couch, she walked over to the bed where Aaron lay. In a sudden motion, she swiftly removed all the clothes from his body. Then, with an almost manic disregard for the man gasping on her bed, she began to sniff the garments fervently.
"You know, he was always a tough nut to crack, which is exactly the reason I was attracted to him, the more he rejected me, the more I wanted him," Raven started muttering completely irrelevant things all of a sudden, but Isabella was still listening to her without disturbing her.
"I thought as long as I can show that I'm better, he will start seeing me as his lover, but instead he kept beating me in everything during our academy time be it sports, swordswomanship, markswomanship or even the politics. I want to keep him tied to me, I don't want him to be talented, I want him to be a normal man,"
Isabella was laughing inside hearing how her brother managed to even beat these princesses that are the future of the empire, but she took it seriously as her plans were completely different to what Raven had.
"Oliver is a king cobra that we should be worried about, he looks and acts majestic but he is more poisonous than anyone we can make an enemy out of, I'm pretty sure right now he is making plans to kill both of us, so we should be careful, I will send the orders to act until then please keep a low profile and don't make any big scene," Isabella decided to leave since she had nothing more to do. She came here to check whether Raven was acting stupid, and Isabella wasn't disappointed.
Upon hearing Isabella's words, Raven responded with a disapproving click of her tongue. She then made her way to the bed, clutching her whiskey bottle. Without a second thought to the absurdity of her actions, she downed its contents in a single determined gulp, only to unexpectedly lash out and strike Aaron.
"Act like Oliver, Until Oliver come here, you're my lover, wear this and act like him," Raven said while covering Aaron's face with Oliver's clothes and sniffing them. She then proceeded to touch Aaron's penis with a blush on her face and kiss the nape.
"Ahhhhhh~ Oliver, you smell so good, I knew you would become obedient," She kept murmuring different things, while Isabella reached for the doorknob and left the room without even bothering to disturb her, but neither maid nor Raven managed to see how hard her hand was bleeding.
"Damn princess! I will kill you as soon as I wring you out dry," Isabella hissed through gritted teeth, her voice laced with an underlying fury. Her once calm demeanour shattered like glass, replaced by a seething rage that simmered just beneath the surface. Her short, perfectly manicured nails dug mercilessly into the soft flesh of her palm, leaving crescent imprints that stung with a mixture of pain and frustration.
"Oliver clothes and acting like that with someone calling his name, I won't forgive you, he will be mine, no matter how many people drool over him or use him, in the end, he will be mine," Isabella's gaze was fixed straight ahead, her eyes burning with an intensity that could scorch the very air around her.
"I will let others pet my lovely dog for a moment, but in the end he will come back to me, wagging his tail because only his real master can satisfy him, and that won't be long,"
As Isabella continued down the hallway, her grip on her emotions remained intense, but she was even more motivated to achieve her dreams and see the day when her brother stood by her side, when this useless royal family handed over their throne to her.