***
Traitor's daughter?
I grip the remaining cloth in front of me. Confusion, bewilderment, fear. I do not understand anything about this at all.
Who's the traitor's daughter now?
Looking at those amber eyes, it seems he was devouring me. I feel too much pressure that a shiver starts to wreck my whole body. It's like my soul bowed down to his presence.
"W-What are you..saying...". I whispered. How dare this man confuses me with these ridiculous accusations! My father was an honest farmer while my mother was a simple housewife! Never in our entire lives have we been involved in these assholes called nobles! Also, my parents died 3 years ago! So how come...
I hate this man.
Getting the courage, I want to break the nose of this man. He ripped the only dress I have and then accused me of something I didn't know about!
But somehow, those amber-gold eyes were mesmerizing to see. So my brows furrowed, fighting the urge to bow to this man, I look him in the eye.
"What the hell are you saying--!"
GRRROOOOOOWWWWLLL
I stopped. Wide-eyed.
That was not my stomach, wasn't it?
Oh.
Hell.
No.
Shame rose from my chest up to my face. Still wide-eyed, I sat down quickly again in shame hiding my face between my knees, my face like a tomato.
God, I'm already at my limit. I'm hungry and getting angry at this man is exhausting all my strength.
Please, let the earth open up and eat me now!
I heard a cough and saw it was Sir Daniel faking a cough behind the Grand Duke. Was he chuckling?
Sir Daniel Hawk, commander of the great Golden Lion Mane's Knight, laughing?
Impossible.
But is everything real this time either? Two of the greatest figure of the kingdom, standing in this god-forsaken dungeon in god-knows-where? In front of me? What is the possibility of me meeting these two greatest men in the kingdom? Like a needle in an acre of hay.
I scowled at him. I want to cry. I want to pull their hair until nothing remains on their heads.
"Your Highness," Sir Daniel called out after deliberately faking a cough a few times.
"Commander, bring this woman to Mollie," the Grand Duke said. He eyed me one more time, his expression not changing, but the amber-gold eyes I saw a while ago had completely vanished. His eyes were the color of black like a night once again. I am now sure the color of his eyes did change! "Then send a message to that Tyrant and issue our demand,"
"Your Highness, are you sure she's the one we're looking for?"
"Indeed, that scar she has was the exact brand my father told me,".
Brand? This scar was a brand?
Realization hit me. The Grand Duke knew more about me than myself.
Honestly, I lost my memory when I was 7. I could not remember beyond that.
I was an adoptive daughter of the Barnett couple. They said they found me wandering like a lost sheep in the midst of the thick Dalgar forest. They tried to find people who might know me but to no avail. So, since they are childless, they took me in and care for me like I'm their real child. However, my mother died, and then a year after that, my father also died. That was 3 years ago.
Could it be, they knew me?
"W-Wait Your Highness--!" I choked.
He pull out his sword from its scabbard and swung it toward me and pointed at my neck. I flinched. Slowly with steady hands, he used the sword to lift up my chin so I can look up at him. I trembled in fear. Just one wrong move and that sword could plunge my throat.
I need to know!
I felt the prickly pain on my neck as the edge of the blade cut my skin, and blood slowly drip from the wound. For a while, the Grand Duke look at the blood running down my neck. The color of his eyes changed again. Like a predator with amber-gold colored eyes looking intently at his prey. I swallowed my dry saliva as my lips trembled.
"What do you want from me? Why do you know this scar?!" I pushed my courage and speak. I asked him, trying my best not to move much.
After looking intensely at me, he put down the sword turned around, and walked out towards the cell bars, he sheath his sword back. "Act all you want, Princess Dayana, but I have been looking for you for ten years. You won't get away this time,"
I flinched. Princess? How did he know my name?? My name is Dayana but absolutely I'm NO PRINCESS!!!
"W-Wait...you must have mistaken, I'm not a princess! H-how do you know--", my heart beat so fast. The Grand Duke knew me? How? I suddenly got a headache. Uhg.
"Commander," he called Daniel as he continued to walk away.
"Yes, Your Highness," Daniel bowed down as if he already knew what the Grand Duke wants. The Grande Duke walks past him and out of view. We heard the heavy doors of the dungeon opening.
"Wait, how do you know about my scar?! What did I do? Why did you bring us here?! How do you know my name!! Grand Duke!!" I screamed frantically, holding my head. My headache is getting worst.
"Princess,"
Tears started to wet my eyes, I looked at the man standing in front of me. "I am not a princess!"
As if he didn't hear anything I said, he continued, "As the Commander in Chief of the Knights under the Huntingtons, and representing his Highness the Grand Duke of Huntington, you are hereby sentenced as a Prisoner of War,"
Prisoner of War? Why? I am an ordinary citizen! I still shiver.. I don't know why, probably because of exhaustion, fear, and uncertainty. Will they execute me? Who is Mollie? Where are they going to take me?
Me, a prisoner of war? How did it all come to this?
Daughter of a traitor?
I couldn't help but let out a small whimper. I closed my eyes and prayed.
I prayed. God, I don't understand any of this anymore!
What will happen to me? What about the villagers who were with me until a while ago? My dress was torn by that tyrant of a Duke exposing my breast and upper torso. Did he know the scar on my chest? A brand, he said. Suddenly, I was hit again by a headache.
It was an ugly scar. I probably got it due to an accident I could not remember. I asked my parents about it but they won't tell me. Now I know it's a scar from branding. But when did it happen? I don't remember. I don't recall I was being branded. Who did it? Why?
I hate this scar. It was ugly. It was also the cause why I probably won't ever get married. Who wants to marry a woman who had an ugly scar carved on their chest right? But what is the significance of this ugly scar to all of this?
"Uhg...ahh," My head seems it was about to get split.
Then, I felt a heavy cloth draped over me. I was still crouching, clutching the ripped cloth in front of my chest with one hand, the other to my head. When I opened my eyes and looked up, Sir Daniel was standing in front of me. He draped his expensive bluish-silver cape on me. The cape he wore had the insignia of the commander of the knights, embroidered in real threads of gold.
I feel a bit appreciative of his gesture. So I grabbed the cape and cover myself with it. I could not read his expression, but he was still indifferent I guess. Taking the courage, I asked him.
"Sir, kind Sir...please tell me. What is happening? How did I come to this? What will happen to the villagers? Please let them go. Please..."
Daniel just looked at me, "A probability that His Highness will execute you today and you still think of the villagers?"
I flinched. So I will get executed for reasons I don't know.
Still...
"I just want to know what will happen to us, to me, how did...why did I become a prisoner..a daughter of a traitor..I...I don't understand at all...my father was an honest man, he was a farmer...my mother...my mother...--"
"You can ask His Highness, the Grand Duke but all I can say is what will happen to you," he said while walking towards the exit of this cell, never looking back.
"Since you are a prisoner of war, you will be His Highness's slave from now on," then he walked off, leaving the door of the cell open. He wants me to follow him.
I paled. Slave. I will be the Grand Duke's slave.
I heard terrifying stories about slavery. Basically, slaves were people who were stripped of their freedom, dreams, and future, of their humanity. They were treated like mere animals, not humans. No rights, no justice. The nobles will do unthinkable things to their slaves. Whipped them to their satisfaction, burn them alive, humiliate them, fight them off with each for their entertainment, or...
... fuck them senseless for pleasure. Sex-slaves.
My lips wobbled. With shaking knees, I followed Sir Daniel out of this dingy cell.
In shock, I shiver as I tried to stand up on my wobbled feet. I'm just a nobody. I never did anything wrong. Was the Grand Duke also engaged in this kind of activity with the nobles? I thought he was a kind and just man as rumored said? I guess everyone was wrong about the Grand Duke.
Did he capture me to pleasure him on his bed? Why? There are a lot more noble women who can probably please him on his bed. Those beautiful elites, gorgeous and finessed women in the society. I can't remember anything that might put on the ire with this man. Why can't he just leave me alone?
Or did any of this happen because of the ugly scar on my chest?
Gripping the cape tightly with my hands, I wiped the tears from my face as I walked slowly toward the opened heavy iron door where the silver-colored hair knight was waiting. My headache also subsided and was somehow manageable. I lifted my eyes around the dungeon and saw that this was a small area with a single cell (the one I was put in a while ago) and that there were many heavy iron doors leading to god-knows-where. Ava and her parents might be in one of those doors.
As I exited the heavy iron door, I saw the ugly baboon looking at me like he wants to eat me. We passed by him, with Sir Daniel in front of me. I saw the ugly baboon licking his lips while looking at me. I stopped walking and faced the ugly guard. He started to smirk at me while gesturing his hands up and down on his crotch. I looked towards Sir Daniel who was walking farther away now. Then I look at this ugly guard once again, who looked like he hadn't had a bath for a month. He smelled like a sewer.
With all my might, I glare at this fucker and kick him hard on the shin!
He yelped. "You fucking son of a bitch!!!" Bowing down to grip his leg I just kicked.
I ran as fast as I can towards Sir Daniel who already ascended the stone steps, out of this dark dungeon. I looked back at the baboon I just kicked and gave him the dirty finger.
Serves you right!
The ugly guard's face can't be described as he writhes in pain but he glared angrily at me. I hope we never crossed paths again.
The walk out of the dungeon was long before we reached a hallway carpeted in red. This place was huge. Paintings and statues lined up on the walls of this hallway. The place was bustling with maids who run here and there and took a glance towards me. I gripped the cape tightly and directed my eyes down. I know how I looked now; dirty and disheveled.
"Where is this place," I mumbled.
Daniel took a quick glance at me then continued to direct his eyes in front, "We are at the main castle of the Huntington Duchy.
I paused. So we were really brought into the castle. I wonder if I can see Anne and Lester and little Ava.
After taking a corner, we stopped in front of the door. I guess we were on the first floor of the castle as I saw in one corner the path going to a grand staircase. We were probably in the servants' area.
"Sir, may I know what will happen to the villagers who were with me," I softly said.
Sir Daniel Hawk did not answer. Instead, he opened the double doors and went inside.
Upon looking, I realized we were in a servants' quarter indeed. It's like the common room for the servants. There are maids, around 4 or 5 of them, and upon seeing who entered, everyone was so flustered, they stopped what they were doing and immediately lined up in front of the Commander of the Knights.
"W-What can we do for you, Sir Daniel," said a guy who dons a black vest over a long-sleeved shirt and black pants. A male servant, probably a supervisor of some sort. The others wore a typical servant's uniform.
"Get Mollie," said Sir Daniel.
"I'm here, I'm here!" said a plump woman who's probably in her fifty's coming in from the door on our left, "What do you need me-- Oh, heaven's!" she exclaimed as if she could not believe what she's seeing.
She's probably who they called Mollie. The shock was evident in her eyes as she saw me. I got perplexed. The woman's eyes are now in tears. As if realizing something, she straightened her back and scowl at the servants
"Everyone, out! Now!" she shouted to the servants who kept looking at me.
The servants immediately left the room. After all of them left, only the three of us are in the room.
"My goodness, Am I seeing the princess? Is that really her?" said Mollie who still can't believe she is seeing me. "Where have you been, child?"
"Mollie, she's His Highness's slave now,"
Mollie scowled, "Slave?! Slave???? The young Lord made her his slave???"
Daniel sighed, "You know the fact that when we find her, this is what's going to happen,"
"That doesn't change the fact that she's still the Princes of--"
"Mollie," Sir Daniel cut her off.
I know it was a warning. Mollie clamped her mouth shut. Then with sad eyes, she went in front of me then she grabbed both of my hands. She has those kind eyes like my mother.
"I am no princess, Ma'am," I said. I wanted to tell her that everyone must have mistaken me for someone else.
Mollie grasped my hands tightly and then look at me, "Non-sense, you don't have to pretend anymore, you don't need to worry anymore, child. No matter what these brats say or did to you, you will be safe here,"
My brows furrowed, confused. What is she saying?
You are still that same girl," she caressed my cheeks softly, "still those beautiful bright bluish-gray eyes, still full of vigor and curiosity..." then she touched my hair, "...that platinum blond hair that shone under the sun,"
She then caressed my cheeks once again, "You look like your mo--"
"Change her clothes Mollie, and feed her then bring her to His Highness," said Sir Daniel cutting her off once again. "And please, no unnecessary word coming from you. His Highness will not like it. Remember our Lord's words. She's a slave,"
Mollie sighed defeatedly. "Haaa, you brats. How long are you all going to be so stiff from all of this,"
"Mollie!"
"I'm just sad. I know my position here Sir. Go along now, I will send my lady here to that brats-ehem- to His Highness in a while,"
Daniel made a scowl on his face.
As if she didn't hear Sir Daniel, she walked towards me, awe still on her face upon seeing me. I just stood there.
It seems these people knew me. Maybe...just maybe they are connected to my long-lost past.
I don't recognize the woman. But somehow, I felt the warmth from her, a warmth of a family.
===
01/24/2023