Chapter 1
A child even more miserable than me came into the palace.
He wore a dog collar, ate dog food and got beaten constantly.
A maid pitied him and gave him some bread. The next day, she was hung up and beaten to death.
"I'm the only one who can feed my dog," Princess Brenda said coldly. "Anyone else who does it ends up like this."
Later, Brenda handed me a leather whip and ordered me to beat him too.
I hesitated.
Suddenly, strange lines of text flashed before my eyes.
[Go on. Hit him. When the male lead grows up, the Eldorian army will crush Drakonia.]
[When that happens, he'll kill all of you.]
My hand shook. The whip slipped from my fingers and fell to the ground.
I kicked it away as far as I could, afraid even to touch it again.
*****
My sister, Brenda Sutton narrowed her eyes, giving me a suspicious look. "Carla, don't tell me you're trying to play the hero like that pathetic maid?
"But I'm bored of this game anyway. Here's the deal: get down and crawl between my legs, and he's yours."
I stared at Brenda, who stood with her legs apart, my face going pale.
Just then, the text popped up again.
[Princess Carla had the worst death of all. Her skin was peeled off and she was hung at the palace gates for three days straight.]
[Yeah, when the villain first showed up in Drakonia, Carla gave him clothes. She was the only one who ever gave him a shred of warmth. That kind of betrayal? It stings the most.]
I didn't hesitate at all. I ducked down and crawled right through.
My quick compliance robbed Brenda of the satisfaction she usually got from humiliating me.
She instantly took it back. "Forget it. I've spent months putting in the work to train this Eldorian slave."
She picked up the whip and whipped him hard. "Look at him. He's the prince of Eldoria. How precious."
The kid tried to dodge, but the iron chain around his neck kept him trapped. He could only endure the lashes raining down on him.
His face stayed perfectly calm. He didn't even frown, let alone cry out in pain.
His eyes were empty, like he'd become numb to all the pain.
The final lash was especially brutal, and he coughed up blood, splattering it all over Brenda's dress.
Brenda let out a disgusted scream and kicked him away.
"A lowborn Eldorian slave and a mutt born of a nobody. You two really are birds of a feather," Brenda sneered.
I'd heard stuff like that so many times, I barely even noticed anymore.
I kept my eyes lowered and bowed, quietly seeing Brenda off as she walked away.
The kid's name was Dominic Mullins, and he was a whole ten years younger than me.
I was fourteen; he was just a four-year-old kid.
He'd been captured along with his mother during the war three years ago.
Word was, his mom was famous for her looks in Eldoria, and the Eldorian king was totally smitten with her.
My father, King Everett from Drakonia couldn't get enough of her beauty, so he made her his mistress.
Back then, life wasn't so bad for Dominic in the Drakonian palace.
But his mother couldn't bear the shame and humiliation any longer. A year ago, she threw herself into the lake and ended it all.
After she was gone, Dominic's life turned into a living hell.
King Everett, bitter that Dominic's mother refused to be grateful for his favor, let everyone in the palace torment and degrade Dominic as they pleased.
At first, Brenda saw how angelic and delicate Dominic looked, so she was relatively kind to him.
She figured she could score some points for being nice to a captive, and make herself look good.
But everyone in Drakonia absolutely despised the Eldorians.
So Brenda dropped the act and started beating and berating Dominic every chance she got.
I watched the kid, so thin he was skin and bones, sprawled on the ground, barely breathing.
I handed him my flask.
He paused, uncertain, but then took it and drank greedily, as if he hadn't tasted water in ages.
Brenda spotted us from a distance and started cackling. "Well, Carla, looks like you really know how to train your mutt!"
Text appeared again, this time burning with rage.
[That venomous princess. Just wait! When the Eldorian cavalry comes crashing in, she'll be the first to get what's coming to her.]
[Poor Dominic is so pitiful. He used to be the apple of the Eldorian king's eye.]
[Carla, you're his only hope. Save him! Only you can change his future.]
Thinking about the ending described in those texts, I made up my mind.
No matter what, I was going to save him.
It wasn't just about saving my own skin.
I saw my old self in him.
My mom died when I was five, and I was left to fend for myself in the palace, bullied and shamed day in, day out.
Maybe that was why I got this weird ability and could see those text in front of me. It was so I could finally save the person I used to be.
My rooms was tucked away in a remote, rundown part of the palace.
Because of that, I could sneak out pretty often and nobody ever noticed.
King Everett had probably long forgotten about me.
Without the king's favor, no one in the palace saw me as a princess anymore.
Being short on food, clothes, and everything else was just my everyday reality.
I could only make handkerchiefs and small embroideries to sell outside the palace, just to scrape by.
If Dominic didn't get any medicine for his wounds, he might not survive the night.
I pried up a red brick from the floor and pulled out some coins.
Back when she was just a servant, my mom saved up her monthly pay and left it all for me.