The mood of the royal palace was eerie and heavy. A young lady with bronze-tanned skin which highlighted her unusual golden eyes that matched her black obviously long silky hair which was styled in an updo. She wore a luxurious black gown adorned with pearls and studded with gold, blending nicely with her complexion. Her voice echoed across the large, gold-studded hall as she shouted,
"How could you have done that, Nicholas?!"
A young man with light blonde hair and shimmering blue eyes, dressed in a silver-lined golden royal outfit decorated with honor medallions indicating his high status, was taken aback by her outburst.
"What choice did we have, Daphne?" Nicholas said, feeling annoyed.
"You could have just left them in peace. Why did you have to be so cruel?" Daphne shot back.
"We had to do it, and you know that," Nicholas replied.
"How could you do this? How could you ruin their lives to this extent? You almost killed him!" Daphne exclaimed.
"No, darling sister, he was just fine when I left him. Maybe a bit bruised, but fine nonetheless,"
Nicholas said with a crazy look in his eyes and a calm smile spreading across his face as he squeezed his sister's arms.
"Ouch, let go! You're hurting me!" Daphne shouted in pain.
"Oh dear me, I am sorry. Did I hurt you?" Nicholas quickly responded with a worried tone, pulling his hands away but still having a hint of craziness in his eyes.
"Nicholas, you are sick. You seriously need help. You've not been the same since Martha passed away," Daphne said.
"I am fine! I couldn't care less about the daughter of a peasant," Nicholas shouted angrily, looking away.
"You say so, but you can't even look me in the eyes," Daphne insisted.
"Enough of this, Daphne!" Nicholas burst out.
"Ok then, brother. Let's say you didn't care about Martha. Then why in Hamilton's name are you torturing Dominic in such a way? You beat him up and even accused him of treason," Daphne continued.
"You of all people should know that I had to buy us time. With the incident about the death of Martha, there's no way we won't be suspects because even though we didn't kill her, Martha had left the ball because of us, which would have made us prime suspects. And don't forget that anything I'm guilty of, you are as much an accomplice as anyone else. Plus, he did commit treason. He lied to the king about his birthright," Nicholas replied and laughed sarcastically .
"No, I am not involved in any of this. I wasn't even aware of it. All I wanted was for Martha to leave the royal court, and that was just because of childish, girlish desires. But I had nothing against her. I just felt bewildered suddenly having a sister appear out of nowhere. Even if she was illegitimate, she was still a princess. I admit it made me a bit jealous of her, but all I did was spilling a few drinks on her dress a few times and probably laugh at her two or three times. But I didn't know spilling a drink on someone was enough to end up taking a person's life, torturing our brother, and almost putting him on death's door just because you used him as a shield for our childish and dumb behaviors. How could you use our brother to save time and even expose him in such a way? And as if that was not enough, you even went ahead and accused him of treason. The worst part is that the best thing we could think of to save him from execution was a stupid sentence of lifetime imprisonment. You are the crown prince, aren't you? And I'm the so-called imperial princess, so why couldn't we even save an illegitimate prince from imprisonment? And he isn't even an adult yet. He's still seventeen, for the love of God. When I was seventeen, the only things I thought of were princes to get married to when I grew up, balls to attend, and stupid fairytales. But now he's serving a lifetime imprisonment just because of us. Within just twenty-two years of my life, I've made a mistake that can never be fixed because a person's life was taken away just because of this." Daphne said as she threw the luxurious and obviously expensive china vase, which was previously on the center table, across the room, and a thud was heard once it reached the wall. Daphne fell to the ground and started shedding tears.
Nicholas, feeling worried about his little sister, bent down beside her and tried to comfort her.
"Daphne, it's going to be okay. Your brother's here for you, and I will fix all our mistakes somehow, I promise."
Daphne then replied, feeling confused, "How? The emperor is going to make his decision in seven days. How are we going to save our brother?" she said with a quiet tone, cracked voice, and swollen eyes.
Nicholas assured his sister in a hushed tone, "Don't worry. I will find a solution."
Daphne asked, showing obvious excitement and a glimmer of hope shined in her eyes as she asked, "Really?"
Nicholas paused for a few seconds and finally replied, "Of course. Don't you trust your one and only elder brother?" He then flashed a bright smile at his sister.
Overflowing with happiness, Daphne hugged her brother, feeling glad and thinking to herself, "Thank God I have a brother like him."
---
The prison guard yells, "Hey, Jelly Belly, wake up! It's time for your trial."
I woke up, feeling immense pain radiating through my back. I felt annoyed by the grumbles my stomach made out of hunger and worst of all, I once again woke up to the yells of a prison guard, the smell of sweat from other prisoners, and the smell of greasy food from the unhealthy and disgusting food they dropped for me. Lastly, the strange realization of me entering this strange body and this world I am in. I was once called Lucian, but now I'm called Jelly Belly. I was once fit and known to be handsome by everyone I knew, but now I'm obese and can barely move my body. Yesterday, I woke up in a beaten and bruised body, and I don't even know how I look now apart from the obvious difference in height. I was once asked to join the basketball team of my high school. But now I'm so short that I can't even see the shoulder of the prison guard clearly, and I now have a pot belly at my age! The worst part is that it's so big that if I had it in my real body it could even lift me up, but in this body, it's completely even with everything else
The prison guard gives off an intimidating impression as he says, "What are you thinking about, you useless waste of space?" The guard pushes me and I fall onto the slimy, smelly and disgusting charred ground
"Ouch! Guess I know where the whipping marks came from and probably the bruises too. Gross, don't you know what hygiene is? This hellhole doesn't look like prisons from movies. Yeah, they were terrible, but at least they had janitors."
The prison guard looks at me with confusion and disgust. "Son, it seems like you've finally gone to the deep end. Well, at least filth like you don't need your brain. Stand up, little shithole. Let's go to your trial. The emperor is the one who would judge you. You're doomed, child."
I asked, "What trial?"
The prison guard sighs before saying, "Finally went nuts, did he? Well, good for him."
"Hey, where are you taking me?! Hey! Someone help me!"
The guard sighs before saying, "I don't get paid enough for this. Shut your stupid hole up!"
---
*One hour later*
The guards bring me into the luxurious royal throne room decorated with rubies, silver, gold, and diamonds. The owner of this truly magnificent background is the Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Avarian, who is sitting on his gigantic throne. By his right side is his daughter, Daphne, who is the Imperial Princess and the current stand-in for the Empress, and by his left side is the Crown Prince, Nicholas, his heir.
The Imperial advisor shouts, "What took you so long? How dare you keep the emperor waiting?! Don't you want your heads anymore?"
The prison guards bow down. A Prison guard keeps his head low as he says, "We're sorry, sir, there was a bit of a problem when we were transferring the prisoner from jail."
The Imperial advisor angrily retorts, "What problem could have been so grave that would cause such impudent behavior?"
The Emperor replies to his Royal Advisor, "Stop making a ruckus in the royal court."
The Imperial advisor's immediate silence was shortly followed by a statement from His Majesty, saying, "You are all dismissed. The palace guards will take care of the prisoner."
The prison guards give an autonomous answer, "Yes, Your Majesty," before immediately leaving the Emperor's presence.
Daphne whispers to herself in a low tone, "Jelly Bean, I hope you're alright."
Originally, Daphne had given her little brother the nickname Jelly Bean because of his cuteness according to her reasoning, but the bullies in the royal palace started referring to him as Jelly Belly to mock him and even mocked the princess' eyesight.
The emperor speaks with a cold tone, "You may go ahead now."
Nicholas speaks in a calm tone, "The accused is the second prince of this empire. The crime charged against him is treason because he shows his hatred and disloyalty towards the people he calls his family, the royal family, by lying about being the son of the emperor even though he was the love child of the 2nd empress with a man of unknown origins most likely in an attempt to rebel by himself and claim the throne from the Emperor or to support the Reynolds family in an attempt to rebel—
Imperial advisor hurriedly interrupted saying
"Or to even seize the title of Crown Prince from his brother"
Emperor coldly replies his royal advisor
"Take care to not interfere in the royal family's affairs or you won't live to tell the tale"
Nicholas clears his throat and continues
"What do you have to say to defend your case Prince Dominic?"
"Cute name but who is Dominic?" was what was going through Jelly Belly's mind at that moment
Emperor says
"You need not refer to him as prince anymore" in a cold tone referring to what Nicholas had titled Dominic as"
Nicholas accepts what his father told him by answering him saying
"Yes your majesty"
***
"You may rise Dominic"
The emperor says as he points to jelly Belly"
"Am I Dominic? Jelly belly asks as unfamiliar memories start flooding his head. Whose memories are these and who are these people, Dominic asks himself in his inner thoughts but is soon interrupted by a sudden headache Aah, Dominic screams internally because he couldn't dare to scream out loud due to his fear of the emperor.
"You didn't reply what Nicholas had asked you earlier, I assume that's why you didn't respond."
The emperor says calmly
"Why is everyone suddenly looking familiar to me is that my sister Daphne? No I only have one sister, I am Lucian! Jelly Belly says as he tries to convince himself, Yeesh, the Royal advisor must have it out for me he's still giving me a funny look" Dominic says as he sees the Royal advisor hiss at him
Dominic thinks to himself
"Well someone woke up a the wrong side of the bed today, how did I even end up here?"Dominic begins to contemplate in his head as he tries to remember everything
"I have to remember everything, that's the only way for me to know how to answer the emperor"
Dominic thinks to himself but is soon interrupted by his own scream
"Aaah!!!
A scream loud enough to cover the large throne room was heard in the court making even the cold Crown Prince flinch
"Why did the headache suddenly become so much worse?"
Unable to hold in his expression due to the pain, he had screamed in the presence of the emperor totally disregarding all etiquette
Daphne who was worried about her little brother left her position with the emperor and ran to his aid
"Hey Jelly Bean, what's wrong?! Are you okay?" She asks while still looking anxious. Dominic finally answers her with a question that sends chills to her bones
"Who are you and why do I have strange memories of you? He asked feeling confused
"What?! Whats wrong with you?!"
Daphne who was feeling confused by his question shouts completely ignoring the palace rules of not yelling in front of the emperor so as not to disrupt his engagement especially not a trial he's personally giving the verdict of
"What's wrong Dominic?"Daphne asked again
the Royal advisor mockingly says to the Princess
"Your Highness leave him, he's probably feigning it. That's how all criminals act when they're guilty"
Nicholas suddenly sends an intimidating look toward the Royal advisor telling him not to disrespect his sister
The Royal advisor shivers and immediately falls silent
Daphne then yells at the Royal advisor
"Do not call my brother a criminal!"
Meanwhile in Dominic's mind
"Despite the confusion, fear and sudden headache I couldn't stand the feeling of not remembering anything and tried to recollect all that I'd forgotten
I took a deep breath and began to prepare myself feeling determined to uncover the truth, even if it meant confronting my deepest fears, I tried to piece fragments of my memories together but realized that it was a futile fight and I now remember nothing about the life "Lucian" nor do I remember anything about "Dominic".Even the unknown memories I saw were suddenly gone and I didn't know what to do anymore as the room began to spin and darkness claimed me as I lost consciousness."