Two days before the coronation…
Princess Agnes was granted rcy and was only to be banished from the empire and never step her foot back in here. After the trial, she had beco a figure of mockery and disdain. With what she had done to the east district, and the admittance of her vile plan to even implicate the west district, people weren't happy with the sentence she received.
They thought it was too light, but knowing the empire was about to welco an empress, no one appealed. So the princess and that kingdom she ca from were considered 'lucky.'
Still, the people wouldn't let her leave this empire and give her any lingering feeling of returning. They might've not planned to kill her due to many reasons, the people still gathered outside the imperial palace to throw whatever they could throw at the carriage she would be riding.
The people's cruel shouts pervaded the air and street, throwing pebbles into the enclosed carriage. So even brought buckets of feces and piss, showing zero respect to the once esteed princess.
"How scary," Aries crooned, watching the carriage in the street from the balcony of an establishnt situated in the heart of the capital.
The carriage couldn't move properly because people were surrounding it, yelling harsh criticism, calling the princess nas, and not carefully selected profanities. The number of angry folks who ca was unbelievable. So weren't even angry and just joined in throwing things. Surely, these people wouldn't miss the opportunity to mock soone who was born privileged.
"My father sent a letter telling if I step foot in his ho, he would behead on the spot for the sha I brought upon our land." Aries snapped her eyes away from the street below the balcony to the woman sitting across from her. "I have nowhere to go."
Princess Agnes slowly lifted her eyes at Aries. Her complexion was pale just one day after the trial because of the amount of stress. If not for Aries ordering her n to sneak her out and use decoys, she would be inside that carriage to experience a nightmare. She would be grateful, if not for the fact, that it was Aries's doing why her life was brought to sha.
"I… didn't an to harm you, Lady Daniella." Her voice shook, almost choking in her own breath. "Why would you go this far?"
"I told you, Princess. You wished to have freedom, and I'm granting you one."
"This… isn't the freedom I wished!" Princess Agnes raised her voice for the first ti to Aries, but she quickly cald down with her next remarks. "You shad ."
"Would you push the bla on again?" Aries cocked her head to the side, reaching for the teacup in front of her. "I vividly rember asking you to attend the trial, but I didn't tell you to admit it. Did you think I'd feel the slightest guilt if you do that?"
Princess Agnes's jaw tightened, clasping her skirt tightly. At this point, she was already aware Aries was definitely soone very cruel. Although the latter had a point, Aries felt no sha in twisting soone's words to her own advantage.
"I thought you were different," she muttered, keeping her exhausted eyes on Aries. "But you're just as cruel and vile just like everybody else. I don't think surviving your sickness made this world a better place."
"I know, right?" Aries chuckled with her shut lips, placing the teacup back on the saucer. When she straightened her back, her eyes fastened with amusent.
"Just like everybody else, you and I don't make this world a better place. However, just like everybody else, we all want to survive," she continued, folding her arms under her chest as she leaned back. "Can you bla ? Can you bla them? If you can't even bla yourself for trying to survive, how can you bla others when their actions are fueled by their eagerness to outlast?"
"I was not your enemy."
"You weren't."
"You… had secured the throne," Princess Agnes stressed firmly. "You didn't have to go this far."
"But you know her." The princess's breath hitched upon hearing Aries's quick yet emotionless response. "The woman you're looking for. You knew her and want to find her. I won't go this far if you approached with a different intention."
Princess Agnes opened and closed her mouth, but her tongue kept rolling back in her throat.
"I… didn't have a bad intention," she breathed out heavily when she recovered her voice. "All I want is to know whether she's safe now or whether she lost her life."
"She had lost her life every single day after the fall of Rikhill, Princess." Aries's tone grew icy. "Every day, she fought for her life, but died over and over and over — you cannot even imagine how torturous it was to open her eyes the next day, knowing she would die yet another cruel death."
"Whether she survived or lost her life… shouldn't be a matter you should be poking your nose in, Princess." She shook her head, her burning eyes locked with the princess. "No one talks about her anymore; everyone forgot about this enslaved fallen princess of Rikhill. Why would you, soone who knew nothing about her and had never done anything for her, would dare reopen the scars and bring back the trauma she painstakingly nded?"
Princess Agnes's breath hitched, staring at the growing fury in Aries's eyes. It was as though Aries was speaking about her own scars, angst, and experience.
"You…" she trailed off as realization struck her. The ti the lady of the House Vandran recovered was almost the sa ti Aries was still in the empire. Was it possible that Aries, the enslaved fallen princess, who just suddenly vanished in this empire was…
Aries blinked, and the fury in her eyes slowly vanished, reaching for the teacup to her lips. When she put it back and licked her lips, she faced Princess Agnes again.
"Davien was a good man, Princess. There were tis he was quite mischievous — foolish," Aries broke the montary silence building up between them. "He had always told he would marry his pen pal."
"You were that person, correct?" she cocked her head, and that second, the princess's face stiffened. "And also, the person who broke his heart after giving him false hope."
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