My name is Frau Verl, and I was a maid for the ninety second king's first daughter, Lieder. I was her personal maid, meaning I had no voice to speak, no strength to retaliate, it was better to say that I was a doll to her.

When the king was killed by what people seemed to be a spirit called Messias had visited, the king fought against him, dying in the end. He was working with a number of demons, something that they called Black Dome.

Lieder was testing out her fire on me at the time, scorching my already black skin around my body, but I didn’t feel anything, as she had done it so many times, that I couldn’t feel it anymore. I looked out the window to the castle, and saw a bright light strike it at amazing speed, causing the surrounding earth to fly into the air, the rocks so large that they could be labelled as mountains.

I told my mistress to stop and look outside, but she refused. In a matter of moments, both of us were apprehended by a demon with wings on her back. We were taken to a prison, where the rest of the royal family, the one with the king's blood still in their veins, were imprisoned.

The truth was, I was a bastard to the king, being two years older than Lieder, the first princess, at fourteen, and I at sixteen. The only difference between her and me, is how we grew up. We were both girls with light blonde hair and green eyes, both belonging to royal blood, but one was breastfed whatever she wanted, whilst I only ate hard stones.

In the prison, which the royal family was using, they were all constantly yelling at each other, about what was happening. Day by day, one of us disappeared, only making the yelling even louder. By the third execution, they started throwing orbs full of different sources, at each other.

The guards didn’t care, it was all just a ruse, we were a part of the royal family, and we governed for too long, becoming too corrupt. By the end of the second week, only Lieder and I were left. And since we were no cells apart, only being separated by infused iron bars.

She screamed and yelled at me, throwing fireballs with barely missed, blinded by her rage. At one point she asked why I wasn’t listening and threw enough concentrated fire that it would kill me. I was curled up in a ball across the wall farthest from the bars, and I uncurled one right finger and negated the attack.

“How dare you do that!” She screamed, her fire lit up all the hay that matted her cell. “Don’t you know who i am!!”

“I do know who you are my grace, but you have no power at the moment,”

“Wha-what do you mean!!”

“What I mean, is that we haven’t been released one by one, we are being convicted, one by one,”

“But that’s impossible! Surely daddy would’ve stopped them by now!!”

I shook my head. “Father has perished, and we are all guilt for the blood running through his veins,” I clenched my hands.

“Y-you’re lying!!”

“No I am not, just look outside your prison cell, to the windows and see the hair of the ones down below,”

She did so, and her eyes began to shake. “N-no,”

“Yes,”

“N-n-no!”

“Yes,”

She began to yell no like a child having a temper tantrum. I walked up to the cell and placed my hand over to the other side, causing a wave of flames to tumble over her, stopping her tantrum.

“For once in your lifetime, you are powerless, most likely you will be condemned tomorrow, and me the next day, begging to prepare for the next life sister, if there is one.” I turned around and looked outside myself, and was filled with joy and sadness.

The rest of the royal family, shown by their light blonde hair, were hung right outside the prison, being able to still see the bright blonde hair, and who they killed at what time. That night, Lieder was silent, with a dead look in her eyes, and when morning came and they took her, all was quiet.

Once for two weeks, all was quiet in my head, and by looking out the window, I saw that her lifeless body dangled in the air. I was happy at that sight, but I knew about what was happening next. By the time of the next sunrise, I would’ve been taken from my cell, be labelled as guilty and die, all because I had the blood of a royal.

Night came and I was still in my cell, growing lifeless eyes like Lieder. Even though I was free of family, I knew my own fate. Night came, and the last thing I hoped for was my last meal, some bread that was weeks old and some water that came from the sewers.

I heard footsteps and I saw a man come close to my door, and I saw him. He wore the guards uniform, but he almost looked as young as me. He had brown hair and eyes, looking at me for a moment his mouth slightly opened, before leaving with my last meal.

With the last of my strength, I stood up and began to shake the bars, hoping that someone would notice and bring me my food. I shook for I don’t know how long, until I ran out of strength, and I walked back to where I sat, curled up in a ball.

I heard footsteps, and I saw the guard again, this time he was different. Panting from running, with sweat coming from his forehead, some bandages attached to his waist. He took a large gulp and asked me a question.

“You’re innocent aren’t you?”

My eyes opened a little, as he opened the door and I just stood there, lowering my guard. He sat next to me, and placed my food tray on his lap, seeing what it actually was. The water cup was larger, and there was no bread, but there was instead some porridge, steam still coming off it.

“My dinner for today, I think you needed it more than me,” He filled a spoon with porridge and fed it to me.

I gulped it down, and like a child, uncurled my legs so that I was sitting normally, wanting the rest of the food. He saw this and giggled, giving me the tray, which I then began to enjoy the food more, I then noticed a second cup filled with wine symmetrical to where the other one was towards the porridge.

I looked down, and I asked the guard a question.

“Why?”

“I wanted to be nice, and i want to help,”

“No, really, why?”

He sighed. “My soul ability is to read minds in the present, and I heard what you were thinking during your lonely time, yes you might be royalty, but your a human first and foremost, you should be judged firstly by humanity, not by who your father was,”

“Don’t try and flatter me, you’re going to ask me to suck you and your friend Wilhelm off,” I took a sip of my water.

“Now why would I give you better food and ask if you would like you burn wounds to be patched. You see, i’m the person who I guess is the represented warden around here, until they found a new one,”

“Why did they get rid of Gefan?”

“It’s as simple as you say, you know his name, and surprisingly so did the rest of your family, he would’ve taken their side and bailed them when no one was looking,”

“But not me,” I sighed. “And I haven’t thought about my wounds in days, have you been spying on me that long?”

“I’ve been outside of your view for two weeks, all you brother’s, sisters, aunts and uncles all think about the throne, revenge, breaking out, which is why we drugged their water to remain docile at night, you probably also got some of that in you, sorry,”

“Don’t mention it, they would be more likely to, you know, break out at night, not to mention it was the only time I can feel at peace… So tell me uhhh, what is your name again,”

“Oh sorry I forgot to introduce myself,” The guard got up and faced me bowing. “My name is Lance, no last name, you could say I, knew the person who started all this, which is why i’m here in this very room, because of him,”

“Well then Lance, can you read dreams?”

He shook his head sitting back down in front of me. “No, they’re too complicated, and I usually fall asleep when trying to do so,”

I ate some more of my porridge, drinking the rest of the water, and then the wine. He smiled at me for a bit, and then stopped, taking the bandages off his belt, and asking if he could coat my wounds. I said no, and that I could do it myself.

He agreed with me and handed me the bandages, as he walked to the brick pillar outside of the cell, still able to talk but not able to look. I took off a simple cloth that draped my body, and as quickly as I could, I bandaged myself.

Most of the wound was a part of my chest, most of it on my back. After I covered it all twice over, I used the rest of the bandages to drape any other burns, being around my arms and legs, my final farewell to Lebian and her torturous ways. I asked Lance to come in, this time he brought me a blanket, and we talked for a little longer.

He was standing up, leaning beside the bars to the right of me, and I was happy he was there. For a few hours we talked, laughing, and I even forgot about the door being open, where I could escape. He was truly a nice person at heart with a soft side, which I found out with the final question.

“You said you knew the person who started all this, but before I was caged, I heard the guards talk about a spirit named Messius as they brought me and my now dead family up here,”

“Messias is a cover up, the truth is, is that the person who killed your father was a demon named Dyestral Blutrot,”

“A member of a vampire house, and i guessed he was about your age,”

“I’ve known him my whole life, before this year he was known as Dyne, we both lived in the… semi small town known as Daishin,”

“There was an explosion there, did he cause that,”

“No he didn’t,” Lance got off the bars and sat back down next to me. “His mother did though, a human, was killed by a demon for an unknown cause,”

“Your his friend, why don’t you ask him,”

“Because I can’t!!” Lance yelled so loud that even the wind grew silent. “As soon as he revealed himself to be Dyne, he left, right after he killed your father,”

“A demon and a human at the same time, anything else,”

“A spirit resides in him as well, I could feel it, and he left as well, I'm not sure when he’ll be back ,” Lance began to cry. “Dyne, my best friend, and he won’t even go down in history!”

It was my best chance to run away now, when he is emotionally weakened, but I wrapped my arms around him instead. Lance cried so long that moonlight pierced my windows, and then he stopped soon after that.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t get handsy with a convict, I might become the old warden” Lance began to get up.

In that moment, a feeling welled up in me, something even worse than sadness, regret. I grabbed Lance's hand, and he looked at me, and in that moment, something awakened inside of me, my soul ability. I opened my mouth, and asked him to do me a favour.

“Please, just stay with me,”

The outline of Lance’s eyes became a bright rose gold, as he nodded and went back to my side. The next thing I remembered was the trampling of footsteps and being woken up by swords being pointed at me. Lance was already up, and pointed my blade at me, it was fun while it lasted, but now was the time of my execution.

I was blindfolded and taken to what seemed to be a small courtroom, almost all destroyed thanks to Dyestral. Three judges, all with ragged robes stood on the podiums, looking down at me.

“For anyone who will defend the royal, Frau Verl, please come forward,”

Time stood still for me, my body just wanting to stay alive. It was then until I heard a creak from behind me, and footsteps were when I turned around. Lance in more civil clothing was walking towards me, placing his right arm across his chest.

“I! Lance of Daishin, will defend the accused Frau Verl with every inch of my being!”

My eyes began to water, as I looked at the man who forgot all about me casting a spell on him, standing in front of me. It was then that hope welled up inside of me, and once in my lifetime, I thought I could win.