Dedicated to

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Eve's POV

I hugged Alex as tightly as I could. The tears had dried up but I still couldn't believe this was actually happening. I couldn't believe how a person's life can change so much in just a matter of seconds.

We were going to be slaves, we won't live long.

Was this all life had to offer?

"I'm so so sorry Eve. Please be strong," Alex said, as he rubbed soothing circles on my back.

"What are you saying Alex? You're not the cause of this. Don't be silly," I sniffed.

"Yeah but I'm supposed to be protecting you. I'm supposed to be your guardian. And I have never felt so helpless in all my life." He sounded so worn out.

"Hey, look at me," I pulled his face closer to mine. "We're going to be fine. Okay? We're going to survive for as long as we can. We're going to survive together. You and me. Like always."

"Only you can sound so determined in a situation like this Eve." I smiled at that.

We were surrounded by beings of all kind. Young and old. Even a couple of werewolves. We were able to recognize them due to their eye color. Most of them have golden eyes. These two werewolves looked like siblings from what I can see.

They appeared to be scared but the truth is, they'll just probably join the army. Not suffer the life of a slave which the rest of us were bound to.

It took us an hour to reach the palace. All the while I held onto Alex's hand. They then took us around to the back of the palace where I'm guessing the slave quarters were located.

They waited for four more wagons to arrive before allowing us to get down. All in all there were about sixty of us.

I literally felt like fresh food.

We all had to write down our names, age and gender before they gathered us in the slave hall.

A few minutes later, the leader who came to our house went to the front.

"Alright!! Listen up!! My name is General Octavius! I'm head of the castle guards and the Royal Army! That's all you need to know about me!"

He spoke fiercely and with full of confidence. One look at him and you'd know that he wasn't someone to be messed with.

"From this moment on, all of you here can forget about the life you have lived! Forget about the life you've always known. Your old life, a few hours ago? Gone!! Things are going to be very different here!

Well first of all it is such an honor for you people to simply be here. To be chosen as castle servants to serve the Royals."

They still had the nerve to call us servants instead of slaves.

"Don't you people feel honored?!" he asked.

How sick could he possibly get?!

No reply. Silence.

"I said don't you feel honored to be here?!!" He was then rewarded with murmurs of yesses and nods.

"Better! Welcome to the royal castle of His Majesty, King Caelestinus Isoldrian and his beloved, Queen Charlotte. As of today you will only have one purpose in life!!

To serve and please your masters all the days of your life. Never forget it! No matter what the cause is, you will still serve and please them. If it requires your life, then you will proudly lay it down for them.

Now the rules. Listen closely. If any one of these rules are broken, in one way or the other, the punishment is worse than death and only then you will actually be killed." My heart beat spiked up after hearing that.

They couldn't even give us a decent death sentence! How can they be so cruel?!

Aren't we suffering enough?

I continued holding Alex's hand throughout the Leader's speech.

"So think before you even consider breaking one of them. Number one! No escaping or running away. Ever!! Number two! Not a single ounce of resistance towards your masters! Number three! No disobedience! Those are the three main rules. Remember! Break any of these and you'll be coming right back to me and I swear I'll be your worst nightmare.

For the rest, I'll let the head of the maidservants, Ms. Odelle explain." He finally ended his deadly threats. Just then a short plum lady walked up. She looked so cute and friendly I couldn't stop staring. Not to mention it's been ages since I last saw a plump person.

"Okay everyone good afternoon to you." Even her voice was adorable. "I'm just going to list down some of the important rules. These ones won't get you tortured and killed if broken but you will be punished. And punishment from vampires are torturous enough so I would advise you to follow every single one of these small rules. There will be no begging, no crying. No tears at all no matter what. No complaining, always be punctual, and if you are a personal servant you shall not serve two masters, never do anything without getting permission, NEVER speak unless spoken to and lastly, there shall be no eye contact with the royals.

Remember. We are beneath them, always.

So that would be all the rules and now I will call you out individually and assign you to your specific duties." Another knight handed her two separate pieces of paper. One of it was probably the list of our names.

"Emilia Peterson?" A young lady raised her hands. She looked to be in her mid thirties. "Kitchen duties!" Ms. Odelle announced.

"Ethan McKenzie?" A boy in his teens raised his hands "Stable work." She said and continued calling name after name.

I learned that there were 5 main jobs. Kitchen duties, stable work, gardening, which I pray I'll get, cleaning inside the palace grounds and becoming a personal slave to any one of the royals.

I stopped listening to the names until they called Alex. My head shot up as he raised his hands.

"Kitchen duties!" She announced.

"Well that's nice Alex. Better than most right?" I tried to sound happy.

"Um...Eve I can't cook you know," he said worried.

"They'll teach you I'm su-"

"Eve Kheelan!" She called out.

Well, here goes.

I raised my hand shakily

Please be gardening please be gardening!

"Personal servant to His Royal Highness, Prince Phoenix Valentine!"

Just then everything stopped.

Everyone went silent.

So silent that I could hear my own heart beat. My head started pounding due to it's rhythm.

Seconds passed and I received looks of sympathy from some of the others.

This can't be. Maybe I heard wrong.

I looked to Alex but he just stared forward, not moving. His grip on my hand tightened to the point where it hurt. I found it difficult to suck in air. My breathing became uneven. I was already shaking slightly. My worst fear was turning into my reality.

I couldn't comprehend what Ms. Odelle had just announced. This can't get any worse. Then I realized that Ms. Odelle hasn't called out the next name.

I looked at her and she was squinting at the list and asking some questions to the knight next to her. Maybe even she thinks that there was some mistake.

After a while she looked in my direction and gave me a tight smile and continued calling out the rest of the names.

Then it slowly sank in.

I was assigned as a personal servant to the Dark Prince and there was nothing I could do to prevent it.