ᴍʏ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʟᴇꜱꜱ ᴘʀɪɴᴄᴇ | ᴢᴇʟᴅʀɪꜱ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ | ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ᴇᴅɪᴛɪɴɢ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱᴇᴠᴇɴᴛᴇᴇɴ

"No more will I bow down to that worthless scoundrel," she snarls as Lenora's cobalt blue eyes flash with hatred. Not Oriana's eyes, but Lenora's.

I raise my chin. "Is that so?"

Old man, how the hell did we take so long to figure this out? I ask my father in my head.

Her looks, her attitude, everything about her completely changed, he responds. Lenora wasn't anything like Oriana. But at the same time, she was.

Perhaps Lenora was a younger version of Oriana, I point out. Maybe this was how Oriana was before she was sold off to the Demon King, before marrying him and having his children. And because of that, there was no way we could have guessed who she really was.

That sounds plausible, my father agrees solemnly.

"If everyone knew that I had survived Mael's attack then I would have had to have come back home," Oriana begins to explain. "There was no way the Demon King would have allowed that. He would have kept coming after me and made sure that I was dead."

"I don't care," I say coldly despite my heart screaming at her to stay. "I already asked you my question. Now, I want you to leave."

"Two minutes," Oriana says. "Just give me two minutes to explain everything, (Y/n)."

I suck in my lips as I think about this offer.

Go on, bright star, my father urges. Let her.

I sigh deeply and then lazily throw my head back to let out a loud groan.

"Two minutes," I say as I bring back my head up to face her.

Oriana wrings her hands together. "I can create powerful forcefields."

My eyebrows furrow as I question, "Like a Perfect Cube?"

Oriana slowly shakes her head as she answers, "Mine are much stronger in comparison. My parents were...hurting me one day, and I instinctively used it to stop them. When they saw this, they could immediately sense that my power was much stronger than they expected. They sold me to the Demon King once he saw my magical powers and was interested in me."

"Hurting you," I repeat. "They abused you even though you were so young?"

Oriana nods before pointing out, "I was not the only Demon facing such abuse."

"What happened after that?" I question.

"The Demon King made sure that I was trained thoroughly and in the end, I became a warrior," Oriana continues and her blue eyes gleam with pride. "I was one of the first initiates for the Ten Commandments."

I gasp. "You what?"

"I was the Commandment of Piety, (Y/n)," Oriana says with a hint of a smirk. "Once my powers appeared to be at their best, the Demon King and I found a way to create a forcefield that would protect the entire Demon realm."

My mouth drops open. "You were the one that put the Great Barrier?"

"Yes, I was the one who did this," she confirms.

The Great Barrier; a powerful forcefield I would see every morning I had training with the three Demon Princes at the palace and any Demon could see this massive forcefield from any place in the Demon realm. It shimmered every few seconds so that you knew it was there and this was the very thing that stopped many enemies from entering the main lands of the Demon realm.

"Incredible," I breathe.

The Demon Queen blushes slightly before saying, "But once this forcefield was put up and I proved myself to be a diligent soldier, the Demon King took away my Commandment."