Chapter 3. Dark Knight

“You ungrateful hag, I can’t believe my father ever fell in love with someone like you. He was a good man; he treated you with all the kindness in the world, yet you betrayed him like this. I hate you!” I snapped at Sylvania furiously, struggling to free myself from the tight grips of the knights that held me captive.

“What exactly are you busy rambling about? I’ve done nothing against your father,” Sylvania denied, folding her arms against her chest as the shocked expression on her face shifted into a confident one. She wanted to check if I’d really overheard her conversation with King Japhet or not.

“Don’t you play dumb with me. I heard everything you and this foolish man were discussing. You killed my father, and now you want to kill me so you can have the entirety of Andreia to yourselves. I will never allow it,” I replied, trying hard to suppress the fear I had for this hideous monster that stood before me. I had finally found a way to put an end to this wicked woman’s reign for good─I couldn’t let this chance slip out of my grasps.

“Oh? And what exactly do you think you could possibly do to stop me? Will you run out of here and tell everyone that I planned with King Japhet to kill your father in order to take his kingdom from him? Who do you think will believe a silly little child like you? I am the queen of Andreia, and whatever I say is law. Once I tell the people that you poisoned your father because he wouldn’t let you marry one of the guards, you’ll be locked away and eventually executed,” Sylvania smiled sinisterly as she walked back to her table.

I remained quiet, staring at her as I came to the realization that she was right. Although I had many friends in the kingdom, none of them had the power to help me at this time. Everyone I knew who would believe my story were like insects before the queen. Even if I had caught her red handed, I had no proof—no authority to make her pay for her crimes.

“You said you couldn’t believe why your father fell in love with someone like me,” Sylvania continued, raising the glass cup to her lips. After taking a sip, she set it down on the table and said, “The truth is that he knew the kind of person I was. A cheater, a liar, a woman who only knew how to survive by selling her body.

After your mother’s death, your father wanted to run away from his pain; he wanted to drown himself in alcohol and forget, for just a moment, what it was like to be with his one true love, so he came to the western city, the forgotten city of Andreia. A city where the goddess’s blue moon never shined. He met a lot of prostitutes there, but I was the only one who caught his eyes,” Sylvania explained. As she spoke, she placed kisses all around King Japhet’s face and slowly pulled off his clothes. Tears filled my eyes as the guards forced me to watch the two of them.

“I asked your father why he chose me, and he told me that among all the maidens that were present in that pleasure house, I was the most beautiful, smartest, and wildest. He said he could tell with just a glance,” Sylvania continued, pushing King Japhet onto her bed. She pulled off her sleeves, and her dress dropped to the ground. She then climbed onto him and continued to kiss him violently.

“Your father was foolish. He had no idea he was my target from the very minute he set foot in the western city. I never loved your father; I was only using him to get everything I wanted, and when I was done with him, I poisoned him with an elixir that slowly destroyed him from the inside,” she continued with a soft voice between each moan.

“Let me go!” I yelled, struggling to free myself, but the guards held my hands and held my head up so I couldn’t look away from the disgusting scene that played out before me. Sylvania turned around to look at me as she moved up and down Japhet's member slowly. She had a devilish look in her eyes and a sinister smile on her face. I clenched my teeth in rage and sadness as tears rushed down my cheeks. This woman had to pay for her crimes, and in the most painful way possible.

****

“I can’t believe we were actually allowed to watch that. Normally, the king would kill us if we walked into him having s*x.” One of the soldiers who held me jested, laughing ecstatically. He tightened his grip around my right hand and pulled me through the passage with the help of his colleague, who also seemed happy about what had just happened. Both disgusted me so much.

“Yeah, I bet the king lost all his manliness the moment that woman began touching him. If only they let us stay longer so we watch the whole thing.” The second guard added, and they both laughed.

We finally arrived at a room hidden somewhere beneath the mansion. My stepmother had ordered these men to keep me locked in here until the day of her wedding with King Japhet. This room was chosen specifically because she knew no one would ever find me here. It was a room hidden from the eyes of all the guards and maids in the mansion—a room only the king and queen knew of.

As one of the two soldiers opened the door with the key handed to him by my stepmother, the second soldier spoke.

“Hey, since our Lord is feeling so generous today, don’t you think he’ll let us have a little fun of our own?” His lips curled into a disgusting yet terrifying smile. The other soldier unlocked the door and turned to me with the same smile on his face—the same perverted look in his eyes.

The moment I saw the look on his face, I knew it was over for me. These men were about to use me here, and there was no one I could call for help. I had neither a weapon to fight them off nor the strength to defend myself.

The soldier that held me tightened his grip around my arm even more and pushed me toward the room, pushing his crotch against my posterior.

“Help!” I tried to scream as tears ran down my eyes again, but one of the soldiers quickly muzzled my mouth with his palm. I struggled all I could to escape, but I was too weak—too small to break free. They pulled me into the room and locked the door.

~°°°°~

I sat quietly in the dark room hours after the soldiers had used me. I had cried so much that my eyes were drained of tears, my inner thighs were stained with blood, and my legs felt weak and lifeless. My lips had become dry, and my hair was a mess from all the struggling. All my life, I never expected something so wicked to happen to someone like me; I was beyond traumatized, beyond sad, and beyond furious.

As I stared blankly at the ground, saliva mixed with blood dripping out of my mouth, the door to the room clicked open. I squinted my eyes as the light from outside the room fell on my face. I turned to the door and saw a shadowy figure standing there.

Strands from his short black hair flowed in the soft breeze that blew by, and his dark gray armor shimmered brightly under the light that shot into the room. He took a step into the room with his hands behind his back, and the sound of his metal boot sent chills down my spine. I quickly used my palms to push myself backwards, trying to get away from him.

His face became clearer as he walked closer and closer to me, and I realized that this was the same person that turned to me and the cleaning maid in the large hall before. But this didn’t matter to me at all; he was still a knight of Valtoria, and I definitely didn’t want to get hurt again.

I backed up against a dirty wall in the room and watched as he walked toward me. I breathed heavily and was about to start begging for my life when he suddenly stopped a short distance before me. He pulled out his left hand, and my eyes widened in shock as I saw a head in it; it was the head of one of the men who r*p*d me.

He threw the head to the ground, and it bounced a few times before stopping in front of me. I stared at it with fear in my eyes, then I turned back to him, and he spoke with the softest, most welcoming voice I had ever heard.

“That man hurt you, and I have avenged you. You have two choices now: remain here and die at the hands of your stepmother, or pledge your allegiance to me and give her a taste of her own medicine.”

After speaking, he turned around and walked toward the door again.

“The door is open, Celene. Make your choice.”

These were his last words before he vanished into the light. Who was this man? Why did he really help me?