Chapter 6

Ch. 6: Fate

My stomach churned, even though I haven’t eaten anything since the apple Dr. Strobum gave me and that little piece of pineapple. I was a fool. A complete, and utter fool.

Wolfgang’s commanding voice reverberated through the thin walls of my home, making me burrow under a pile of dresses to hide further. This man was called the Mad Dog for a reason. I was an idiot to believe that just because he didn’t acknowledge my presence at the clinic, he hadn’t noticed me.

There were many boots hitting the floor and I just knew that this commotion wasn’t going unnoticed. Royal guards in the slums at this hour. Every rat and crook hiding in this area would run for cover or come investigate.

“Oy, what’s goin’ on? We ain’t doin’ nothin’ illegal ’round here!” an irritable voice squawked. It was Bianca’s landlord and the man who owned her prostitution papers, Mr. Darwin.

“Sir, this is official royal business we will have to ask you to step out,” a guard ordered the man. Any other sane person would have skedaddled by now, but Darwin was a unique individual.

“Eh, you raid the house of my best girl and expect me to leave? Some of us got coins to earn, unlike you nobles who have your job ‘anded to ya.” I winced inside the cupboard. Darwin only got this mouthy when he had a lot to drink and wanted to let off some steam. It wouldn’t end well for the man.

My prediction came true two seconds later as Mr. Darwin yelled while getting tossed out of the house. Bianca had been smart enough to hide the door to my backroom behind a flag of the Empire. It was considered a punishable crime to tarnish the flag in any way, so it was a clever way to keep clients away from me.

My existence hasn’t necessarily been secret, as I did cry a lot as a baby when it was difficult for me to speak. Our neighbors and people who passed by our house frequently knew that Bianca had a child somewhere in there and a few had seen my little head popping out my window. But in the slums, there was a bit of a don’t ask don’t tell policy. People tended to look the other way at other’s activities, both legal and illegal.

.....

“Sir, I’ve found something!” a youthful voice cried. A fist banged firmly on the door of my room and I started shaking underneath the warm winter dresses I’d buried myself under. They found it so quickly without any help, I would have been impressed under any other circumstances.

The door slammed open with a bang, obliterated with a well-placed kick. My precious water bucket was also ruthlessly kicked aside and my tiny crib was shoved to the side. My room was a humble place, but it was mine. And now these oafs were destroying it!

“Sir, didn’t you say she was a young girl? Why is there a crib?” the same voice that had discovered my room inquired. Ugh, not my crib! Those guards were going to mess up the straw mattress I’d spent years perfectly matting down so it wouldn’t poke me anymore. Wolfgang ignored the kid guard. Someone shattered glass, probably Bianca’s bottles of wine that she had been keeping. She would be angry about that the next time she got a day off. The room I had lived in for the past five years was getting ransacked and now I knew it was only a matter of time before they dig through the dress cabinet and find me.

I shouldn’t have heeded Bianca’s words to hide in the dress cabinet. The window is just at the edge of my fingertips and whenever I stand on my bucket I can see out of it. If I had escaped from there, I wouldn’t be caught. But what could I do out there on my own?

Bianca had no friends and no family who bothered to visit this shack of a house. Every day was the same monotony of dealing with clients all after the same thing. It was then I understood, as the guards drew closer and closer to my lousy hiding spot that Bianca had always meant for me to be found. Because life stuck in the palace would be safer for a young girl in the long run rather than one on the streets like her.

Goodbye to my relatively peaceful existence. You were a bit cruel, but it was comforting knowing I wasn’t going to get murdered even for a few years. It was nice while you lasted.

The cabinet door was flung open, sending light flooding in. They must have been holding torches as they searched my dingy, little room. I lay as still as possible underneath the dresses, my little fingers crossed as I hoped by some fluke they wouldn’t bother to move the heavy winter dresses and discover me. My hand covered my mouth as I tried to silence my breathing completely.

“Sir, this cabinet is all clear!” a voice cried. The door banged shut, bathing me in darkness once again. I clutched Doll even tighter to my chest and the strands of hair I’d cut out of a black dress tickled my nose. The sensation began to build and to my utter horror a sneeze shuddered out.

“Achoo!” I squeaked out, before clapping both hands over my mouth. Just when I got out of the clear, I’m thrown back into hot water. I sat with my knees huddled in my chest, hoping and praying that the thick dresses and the cabinet door had obscured the sound.

But it was wishful thinking. Light flooded the tight cabinet space once more and I could feel someone digging out the dresses. The final gown, a velvet blue that Bianca wore for noble clientele who occasionally frequented our house, was tugged off my head without resistance and I looked into the smirking face of the Mad Dog.

“Gotcha,” he said, a clever smirk on his face that was level with the high cabinet. It was a terrifying moment as we looked at each other the same way we had through the window of the clinic and I only responded with one word.

“Peppermint.” I squeaked out in shock. That goddamn author! But Wolfgang didn’t pay attention to what I had said. But it truly seemed that in this world peppermint candies were a harbinger to all my troubles.

He looked me up and down, his eyes intently scrutinizing my face and settling on my eyes for a long time. The guards huddled behind him did the same, staring at me with a wide-eyed wonder that made me want to hide under a dress and never come out.

“We’ve got the real deal, boys,” Wolfgang finally concluded. He crossed his arms, seeming pleased with himself before he reverted back to his commander self.

“You two,” he barked. “Send an urgent missive to the emperor. If they ask, tell them it’s about the royal lineage. As for you, you will ensure that the princess is safely brought to the palace. Otherwise, it’s your head.”

Princess. That is the first time I’ve been called that in this world. And I already hate the title. A cute guard who was clearly still in his teenage years stepped forward at Wolfgang’s designation, his arms outstretched towards me.

“Please come with me to a safe place, your highness,” the blondie asked, a friendly smile on his face. This was the same astute guard who had found my little room. Instinctively, I shrank away, burying myself further in the cabinet. This was all too sudden, too unknown. And there was the matter of Bianca as well. Since the guards had entered, I hadn’t heard my aunt speak once.

A weak cough filled the air and I looked down from the cabinet in shock. Bianca had been tied up and gagged like a trussed-up pig, but with dexterous tongue had managed to free her mouth from the gag.

“Leave my daughter alone, you fiends,” she snarled from the floor. She lay in a helpless position, but her eyes were burning with hate. The few guards who were still casing my room looked at her in bewilderment, but Wolfgang stepped forward with practiced ease.

“Miss, we have reason to believe that your daughter is a royal offspring. By law, we must take her to the palace to examine the truth for ourselves. If she proves to be of common blood, then she will be back in your arms before the sun goes down tomorrow.”

He sounded perfectly even and reasonable as if he were speaking of the weather.

“No! Y-You can’t take her. Her eyes are that color because of a childhood illness, not the royal lineage.” Bianca argued, coughs interrupting her words. She almost sounded like she truly cared about me, but as I recall in the webnovel, she was only fighting because she had promised my mother that she would keep me away from the imperial family.

Wolfgang could see through Bianca as well.

“If that is so, then how would a commoner like you know that her eyes were proof of royal blood?” he mused. Bianca’s eyes widened at her slip of the tongue.

“Uh, I just assumed that-”

“Enough,” Wolfgang said in a tone that brokered no argument. Bianca shut up instantly her eyes downcast. But a thought quickly struck her as she looked up at me resolutely from where she was tied up.

“Winter, go with them.”

I looked at her bug-eyed. This was new. It was like all the fight had bled out of her and she was giving in to fate. My fingers tightened on the edge of the cabinet I was holding on to. I did not have the luxury of going wherever my fate took me. I had to fight mine bitterly, with tooth and nail. Otherwise, I would die. I shook my head at my aunt and Bianca glared at me even more vehemently.

“Just leave!” she burst out. “Gosh, can’t you see how much of a burden you are? I’m sick and tired of taking care of you. You cost a lot more than you’re worth. I wish I’d never laid eyes on you!”

Ouch. A weird pain filled my chest, somewhat akin to when I’d walked in on Jonathan and Halle in my past life. Heartbreak? I didn’t even like Bianca that much, so why were her words hurting so much? My bottom lip began to wobble and when Bianca saw that, she pressed further.

“You are a mistake! You already ruined one person’s life do you want to ruin another? Just go and let me get on with my life. With you around, I will never be a free woman!” Her voice sounded rough with unshed tears, but I could hardly notice as a few began to stream down my face and drip onto Doll.

I already knew that in this new world I had found myself in, no one truly cared for me. It was a sense of duty and loyalty to her deceased sister that kept Bianca from tossing me into an orphanage. But being presented with this knowledge in an upfront way really did hurt my heart. I think back to the last eyes that had tenderly looked at me with love and kindness, my mother when I was just Maria. I’ve always tried not to think of her, but I missed her so, so much.

I was just a single, lonely ship adrift in the great, big ocean that is the Erudian Empire. Was it too much to ask to have one person care about me? It was all too much for me to handle on my own. In my past life, I had been let down by those closest to me, and history was doomed to repeat itself as Bianca stared at me with utter disgust from the floor. Was there something the matter with me that everyone but me was able to see?

“And don’t forget to pay me for her when you take her,” Bianca spat, her last words directed to the guards watching the soap opera unfold.

“She’s the child of a slave so that automatically makes her one as well. It’ll cost 10 gold coins.”

My existence is worth 10 gold coins. My head felt heavy, so heavy as if a boulder were resting atop my shoulders. If only I could lay down, just for a bit. Then maybe like a dream, my sudden illness, the guards, all this will go away like it never happened. My little 5-year old body toppled to the side onto the dresses and the last thing I heard was a yelp of surprise by the blonde guard in front of me as I fainted.