"I thought... When I reached this dimension and heard that I would have a mother, then later got adopted into the Imperial family... I thought I could finally get a loving mother who would give me the lost moments back..." Aefia spoke to herself while holding a blank paper into the light and slumping onto the sofa deeper. "I wanted to know... What it felt like when my classmates sometimes spoke about the times they spent with their moms... They spent good times with their mother..."
Her voice fell to a whisper as she shut her eyes and let her hand fall to her face and the paper flutter down. .
"Why do I not get the chance to be close... To someone... Who could give me the love and care of a mother which I missed... Through an abused childhood... To a random Guardian... And this delusional woman... Why am I pushed so far away from the reality... From the feel of being close to a mom who sees me as a real child... Someone... Who genuinely treats me like I am their biological... But, oh well!"
Finally, she sat up straighter. "It's not like I didn't take away many people from their mom and dad's arms. So I guess this is just karma for me."
A cold hand of Brittany's illusion was felt at the top of her head as the servant came to rest beside her in the sofa and trying to comb through her hair, which was just her air particles floating through her strands and that was all. "Come on silly girl, don't cry over some facts you happen to believe are true... You have some other people who care for you... Like your brothers... And your cats." The illusion smiled while placing an invisible kiss onto her forehead.
"I don't understand... Why does having all these powers and luxury that people dream of... Have to be too expensive at the same time?" She muttered with furrowed brows while covering her entire face with her palms. "I thought when I came to this dimension that I would be able to live a life, even if like a peasant's... A life that didn't make me go through this brutality of being cursed and injured at the same time."
"Maybe you were brought to this world to learn this as a lesson before you head back again." The maid replied while trying to calm her down, then gone rigid as a maniac sort of laugh escaped Aefia's mouth, as she straightened up. Her hands slammed at the leather bound sofa as she leaned forward and her tears falling into the carpet instead.
"Lessons?! Then I will kill the teacher..." She spoke while glancing at the servant with her head sent all the way back, and her eyes widened, added to her features was a grin."I will turn their life into a living hell... I promise that..."
"You can't do something like that..."
"I can... Because I am a psycho... And a tyrant... Don't they for some reasons call me the 'King' of Tyrants?"
"It was a long time ago."
"Then I will reawaken as it..."
"Stop! Stop leaning into your mom's personality!" The servant's illusion spoke as she straighted up and tried to shut the girl's mouth, as her hand went past the body. Aefia stared at the illusion with her eyes now narrowed down. "That woman is weak... Weaker than me... Mentally... Is she just as resilient as me?"
"She is still delusional... And powerful in ranking compared to you." She spoke while standing up. Aefia watched before standing up as well, then looking at her as if she were just a distraction she didn't want to see anymore.
"And you? ... You are basically the illusion of my unalive servant, so you are basically my creation... And you were in charge of taking care of me, making you lower ranking then me... Do you think you get to speak to me like that? While comparing me to my abusive mother?" She smiled while her eyes held a new sort of dangerous expression.
"I am trying to keep you sane..."
"Too late... I lost my full sanity when you neglected from fighting back... You bastard."
She tilted her head sideways, while calling the illusion a name she never used on the real person. "You thought you were protecting me? Here you go, you did it perfectly. Now enjoy the fruit of your making." She smiled while standing up, and a dagger appearing at her grasp.
"I never wanted you like that... When I wanted to protect you."
"But you just did." Aefia spoke while walking next to the illusion's ears. "You know what I am about to do next? I am going to go claim my crown... And sign my permanant place here... And ruin this empire down to the bottom... And then... Secure that throne... Under my name... Because I have a game planned with this title." She whispered while placing the knife inside the illusion's gut.
As the black blade came out glowing red at some gaps, it slowly absorbed back the amount of magic energy that she had poured into creating that illusion. "For now though... This is my revenge for your leaving me... I would have killed you myself if you didn't already die. Thank you... For giving me a new chance to kill you myself..."
"You are consuming me back?... Because you suddenly got greedy of the throne?" The illusion gasped as it fell weak to the knee. "I am your illusion and magic... And you are rolling my strength back into yourself..."
"Don't judge your creator... Stupid illusion... You were no help... Just a new breaking point... And a new realization point." Aefia leaned down while gazing into the servant's eyes for the last time. "And your strength will help me strive my health a little bit more. I will need that magic energy to fight that throne... I am already the heir... I just need to claim it..." She spoke while standing back up and watching the illusion dissintrigrate and then stretched her arms in the air.
"Well... This is... Must better..." She spoke while slumping her arms done at either sides, then stroding towards the dressing table. She took one glance, and threw everything to the ground with a single sweep.
"I require a change... Not an innovation to my look. I will start staining my face with blood... Like bloody Mary..." She spoke as she pulled out a sharp bobby pin from her fingertips.
Blood flowed down her fingers as she lifted her bleeding finger to the mirror in front of her, placing it where her face was. "But only here... I won't bath in my enemy's blood... I will use it as a scent on a daily basis... Using it to water the white edelweiss... Everything white will turn the shade of red I love the most." She spoke to herself as her smile turned wider, then sliding her finger diagonally across the place where her face was on the mirror.
"I heard... Some princesses are supposed to be saved by princes... But I don't understand one thing... Can't they save themselves if they tried?" She asked herself as she strodded through the room to come to the centre. "The villains can only take advantages of them if they stay naive... But what if they threw the villain out of the window by themselves before their problems even begun?"
"I hate kids stories... They don't make sense..." Her hands came to reach the bookshelve, as she yanked a few books out of the order, while ripping it before dropping it to the ground. "Like this book... This history book... This law book... Tell them to save their own selves before even the problem turned on them. Isn't that why murder was a pretty yet illegal solution?" She said while smacking her hand onto her forehead with the bleeding finger causing blood to roll down her forehead.
"Well I should have killed that woman the day she took me in. Cause why did she not take a measure to look into my background before taking me in?!" She laughed as she slowly emptied almost the entire bookshelve. "Stupid people! Isn't this why this land is filled with deceived populations?!" The wreckage grew over the passing seconds.
"Even the female ruler I know right now... Is this delusional woman who kills to run this Empire..." She spoke while sliding her bleeding finger against her face unknowingly. "But honestly... Killing is a good way to rule this kingdom! It just needs a little bit more... Colour red to it... Like painting a vivid pretty picture of the enemies... Then creating an after image of their real situation... With their own blood."
Just as she was done with her wreckage, the door creaked close, and her heels spun around with an abrupt motion to notice. "What a... Gruesome person we got for a princess honestly... You really are a destruction to this palace." A maid let her speech drop as she moved towards her place at the far corner of the room, the strangling still visible from fifteen days ago.
"..." Aefia breathed out with annoyance as her head lifted to face the servant with irritated eyes that showed hatred. "What are you doing here? Unless I hire you, you have no right to enter like this..." She let out her unspoken words while turning her head away from the maid's face.
"I am your new handmaid... Better grow used to it... You spoiled brat..." The servant greedily answered while picking up the ripped books from the ground. "You insolent child had the audacity to rip apart the books of this palace... How did you not fear to expect of being torn apart by the duchess when she stirked your neck?!"
"If I feared her, then I would have fled the palace long ago." Aefia soldily replied while keeping when eyes fixated to the mirror with when blood stain.
"Look at you! Acting all high and of having good authority! That even your new handmaid hates you." The servant replied while picking up a law book.
"Shut up... It's for your own good." Aefia answered back without turning, just heading towards the lamp at the side of her mahogany side table beside her sofa.
"Oh what are you going to do to me?! You filthy rat!" The servant shouted as she walked towards her place while turning her around, with a force enough of locking Aefia in place. She had gone fully rigid, with anger, and even yanking her away was going to take a huge force of movement.
"You know... Cedric isn't here to stop me from murdering anyone..." Aefia smiled while wrapping her fingers against the lamp pole and snapped it in half with her bare hands, before pushing the sharp edge into the servant's gut. "Just die."
She responded while pulling it out and swinging it into her head next. A loud crack sound echoed against the rooms walls as a smirk settled onto her face, seeing the blood flow onto her recently washed carpet. "You possibly don't know yet... But I have murdered more people than the how much people this palace can accommodate."
"Argh! Why do you not have a life?!" The servant shouted back as Aefia lifted the pole again, despite the sharp redening irises of the girl who had been crying since the morning... But completely changed by the time the sun set.
"Plead for your life... Grab my ankle and ask for forgiveness."
Finally concerned, the servant had no choice but to do as she said.
"I swear... I won't do it again! Just let me go! Please! I didn't mean to tease you!" She screamed, as if trying to inform the entire palace to come to her help.
"Do you take me for being dumb? You are acting like that in your dying body... Do you not fear death?"
Aefia didn't wait any longer, as the maid finally grasped the situation, her eyes widened and the pole came thumbling down at her head. Blood spilled from the pole, and much of the blood was just spilling with no ends. But in reality, while breaking the lamp, her hand had been injured, so her blood was the reason she couldn't find a source.
Finally finding the last ounce of her confidence, the servant snapped at her. "What was that butler?! And he had the ability to control you?! And now you are all haywire!" She shouted with a firm grin. Aefia bent down to cup the panting maid's face and using her thumb to stain her cheek with the spilled blood.
"Because he reminded me that the duchess would in return snap my head... And that was before she started to attempt her bond with me..." Aefia smirked as she slammed the maid's head onto the table a final time while piercing the pole onto her heart, leaving the maid to die while she stepped back. Her blood stained hand flew to her face as she tilted her head back.
"I loved that. It was fun." She smiled, rather maniacally.
With her last dying breathe, the maid spoke one last sentence.
"You are... More gruesome then the Duchess..."
***
"You killed a servant because she crossed the limit... You are scary now... For a fifteen-years old..." Lady Elanor spoke as her blonde hair flew in the air, she was trying to lunge at the Aefia's place with her metal sword.
"I wanted to have 'fun' with my ongoing depair." Aefia replied while she stepped back and ducked underneath the blade. They both had an almost same outfit, with their hairs up in ponytails, and the blue tailcoats, alongside white trousers. There were gold tassels wrapped at some parts.
"Well you are playing a huge game of manipulation... So cry your best the few days left." The woman replied while letting her guard down, and just then, the identical blade swung right inches away from her face, with a very strong wind blowing her hair back from her face.
"You are out... I win again..." Aefia remarked while shealding the sword at her waist, with a single hand.
"How do you know how to outsmart and outmaneuver your opponent so well?"
"I came here to vent my anger."
"Really? That is your answer?"
"Actuallu, it's called observation and strike... Almost same as manipulation." She answered while using her claw-like fingers to send her bangs back and holding it in place, a fews strands were stuck to her forehead due to sweat.
"But if it is something I am enjoying... I always win..." She smiled. "Another round?"