a/n: 4 chapters left until all chapters are rewritten 😰😰😰 ofc the book wont be finished but,,,, i probably will take a break after rewriting everything, and then continue on in writing new chapters
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Partially Edited By YiyuRu
please point out mistakes
The past.
The light clank of a porcelain bowl was heard, settled in front of the to-be-empress Bai Ren. She opened her closed eyes, glaring at the servant who had just set down the bowl.
The servant was really nothing special. An average face, an average personality, and an average talent. Princess Bai Ren was not picky when choosing servants- they just needed to be loyal to her. That was what a servant was for, right?
Bai Ren narrowed her eyes, before taking the bowl and lightly smelling the slight fragrance it gave off.
Bai Ren was a stark contrast to the servant beside her. Her face was delicate, yet had a sense of youthful mischievousness. Her long hair was pure white, tied up into twin tails with a red ribbon, which made her matching bright, ruby eyes stand out more. Bai Ren wore clothing made of expensive white silk, accented with red.
At the time, Bai Ren was merely 17 years old.
In her hands was the rice porridge that the imperial kitchen had made, yet it smelled a bit stranger than usual. Slowly, she turned her to gaze to the servant beside her.
The servant girl's hands were twitching. With anxiety? Perhaps excitement? Bai Ren didn't need an answer, since she already knew. The side of her lips raised up into a mocking smile.
"I apologize," Bai Ren said, holding the bowl with one hand, "but poison isn't edible." she titled the porcelain bowl to the side, and the hot porridge spilled onto the ground, ending up dangerously close to the servant's feet.
The servant girl gasped. "...Princess Bai Ren! I..."
Bai Ren angrily laughed, "I suppose that the once exalted status of the dragon princess has fallen to a new low, for a servant to think that they could assassinate me so easily."
Bai Ren held one of the highest positions in the entire empire of Yevaria, her status right before the emperor and empress. Because of this, she had many competitors. Who didn't want the title of dragon princess or prince in their hands?
When she was younger, multiple times a day would she have people pushing to kill her. It was only until the emperor passed a decree, stating that no one was allowed to murder her, did she finally have the time to relax a little. The only way to take her position was through political means.
The moment the servant girl tried to poison her, Bai Ren knew. If not, how could she have survived until the age of 17?
Bai Ren stood up from her chair, whispering something to the servant girl as she passed by.
Immediately, the servant girl collapsed onto her knees, pressing her forehead to the ground, "...Princess Bai Ren, please spare me!"
Do you know why her title was called "The Dragon Princess"?
It was because the original founders of Yevaria were dragons that attained a human form. As the generations passed by, the purest bloodline of dragons were forced into royalty. Bai Ren was a living example of this.
She came back on her thought just a few minutes ago, My requirement for servants is not just limited to them being loyal.
It is also decided on how pure their bloodline is.
The purer the bloodline of a descendant, the fiercer, nobler, and more selfish their personality was. Their strength, too, relied on their blood purity. The servant girl had one of the lowest amounts of dragon blood in her veins. Because people with low amounts of dragon blood were less selfish, Bai Ren had expected it to be hard for her to be swayed by someone and betray her.
It turned out, she was wrong.
Bai Ren left with only two words.
"Execute her."
...
She silently entered a room, closing the door behind her.
"Older sister, you're back?" A young, cute boy with golden hair and equally as golden eyes asked. A gold crown lay atop his head.
Bai Ren hid her curled up fists in her sleeves, "It's Princess Bai Ren to you, Meng Shaoxing."
The golden haired boy laughed, and narrowed his eyes. "You can't deny the fact that, although I am adopted, my bloodline is purer than yours. If so, shouldn't I be the one to inherit the throne?"
Bai Ren coldly said, "It's set in stone that I will be the heir... Unless you can defeat me through political means, which you have no talent in."
Meng Shaoxing glanced at a tea cup lying on a table inside the room, slowly saying, "There are other ways."
A day passed. The sun rose at its highest point in the sky, while Princess Bai Ren read an ancient scroll in her palace's library. She held a cup of cold black tea in her hand, occasionally taking a few sips.
It was until she was suddenly interrupted by a loud, tumbling sound of something falling. Raising an eyebrow, Bai Ren guessed that, perhaps a book had fallen? It happened often, and truly was not much of a surprise.
It turned out that she was right- a book had fallen off its shelf. After putting the book back in its place, she returned to where she had left her book, before she felt a strange intuition rise.
Her hands grasped the cup of tea that she had drank from, pulled one singular silver chopstick from her sleeve, and dipped it into the teacup.
(Why a silver chopstick? In ancient china, people believed silver could detect/react to poison. It would turn black when in touch with poison. Nowadays, it's confirmed that silver doesn't react to certain types. It reacts to only(?) Arsenic Sulfide.
OFC BAI REN DOESNT KNOW ABT THIS BUT,,,, LMAO IDK IF THAT INFORMATION IS ACCURATE, LETS JUST PRETEND IT IS...)
She lifted the silver, lightly examining it. It didn't turn black, so perhaps her intuition was warning her about something else?
Bai Ren narrowed her eyes and drank the black tea, before opening the ancient scroll again.
When suddenly, her vision became blurred. Her body swayed as dizziness took over her, and she had to grasp onto the chair she had been sitting on for support.
Wrong... I was wrong again.
When she woke up again, she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
"Don't talk, older sister! That poison harmed your vocal cords, you're practically a mute for the rest of your life!" Meng Shaoxing laughed, playfully poking at the girl's cheek. Included into that poison was a drug that made Bai Ren immobilized, but she didn't need to know. At least, not now.
Bai Ren glared at the golden haired boy.
"You should've guessed the culprit by now... I was the one who poisoned you." Meng Shaoxing pinched the girl's cheek, before releasing it.
His eyes slowly darkened, "Now, older sister, since you can't take care of yourself anymore, won't you let this kind younger brother of yours help you?"
"And so, we'll need to hide your identity." With a snap of his fingers, the dragon princess's appearance completely changed. Her white hair shifted to black, and her red eyes shifted to white.
"Don't worry, older sister. No one will know of your illness. I'll keep it hidden from the world."
The present.
Yamato shook his head.
That memory... it's not mine. I know, because I am not Bai Ren.
Yes, it had given him a lot of information, but how, and why? Yamato suspected that it might've been Kenata that had shown him that memory, maybe to convince him to have them work together.
That memory was not from recent years. Kenata must've went through... unimaginable things to get ahold of it.
But what Yamato was concerned about was how Kenata was able to transport that memory into his mind in the first place, and what terrifying things the boy could do if they, one day, stood against each other.
Was this a threat masked by a plan to help him?
Yamato had to think it through. He knew that only horror would come if he picked the wrong decision.
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