Miri's POV

I toss and turn as the light from the open curtains keep getting into my eyes. I tap around me with my eyes still closed, looking to hit Alira so that she can wake up and close the blinds. But instead of the hard mattress or Alira's body, I feel soft silk beneath my fingertips, which makes me jump up and look around in confusion.

"Where am I?" I find myself saying before the events of yesterday suddenly click.

Then I hear someone groan from beside me.

"Riri, I had a weird dream where you were the princess of the Shadow Empire and had a handsome daddy and the world's most attractive set of brothers and we are going to live the high life now."

"Ali, get up now. I don't think it was a dream."

At my words, Ali jumps up and looks around.

"Wow girl, it is real. So my best friend is the princess. I'm friends with the princess! Who said dreams don't come true?"

I laugh at her words.

"Really? So what exactly was your dream that came true?" I ask teasingly.

"To be a professional plus one. Now I don't have to work a day in my life and I'll be rich and don't even have to worry about a husband. I have six to pick from with your father and your first brother being off the list."

That earns a loud laugh from me.

"How delusional does one have to be for their dream to be a professional plus one? Aren't you worried that I will abandon you for other people now that I can live the high life?"

"No, I am not. Riri, I have told you this before. You are my reason for still living. So if you do that, I will just kill you in your sleep and die as well. It really isn't that hard."

I still laugh even though I know she is being dead serious.

"Princess, my lady, breakfast is ready and has been served at the main dining area. The lords are already waiting for you. Please get ready and come down," a servant announces from the door.

Me and Alira rush and get ready and head downstairs to the dining area, as directed by one of the Shadows on standby. We reach there, and me and Alira bow, getting ready to greet when my father speaks up.

"Please, no need for such formalities. Just come and sit down."

And we both take the empty seats next to one another as he speaks again.

"We don't know what you will like, so we got a lot. Please enjoy, and after breakfast we shall head to the family throne room for another discussion."

We both nod in acknowledgment as we dig into our food. There is so much food here, most of which I have never seen or heard of, but the way Alira loves clothes is how I love food, so I take a bit of all and everything put in front of me until I am too full to take another bite.

Alira looks at me and whispers,

"Damn girl, so that is how much you can eat when you don't have any restrictions. Impressive."

I simply give her a thumbs up because I am too full to even speak right now.

My father speaks up.

"Alright, let's head to the private throne room now."

As we all stand and head over, I catch up to Aeren as I have a question to ask him.

"Hey Aeren, why are we going to discuss in a private throne room and not the living room?"

Aeren smiles at me before responding.

"Well, the private throne room is soundproof, with no sound being able to escape its walls. So private conversations within the royal family mostly take place there," he explains to me gently.

I nod once more to show that I do understand what he meant, and then again my father speaks.

"We have arrived. Everyone, come in."

As every one of us enter, everyone takes their seat and me and Alira sit next to one another. As soon as everyone is seated, this time Tarin speaks up.

"We do intend to answer every question you have, but we have our questions and concerns. Please bear with us," he says, sounding hesitant as if he is scared to get to the actual point.

So Rian speaks up next.

"What they are trying to say is that they don't trust your female companion here and would like to know her origins and at least know about the girl we are letting by the side of the princess."

And as soon as those words leave his mouth, I see red and I stand up.

"How dare you?"

Ali squeezes my hand and makes me sit back down in a gesture to tell me that it is okay. She takes a deep breath as she begins to speak

"Like I said yesterday, my name is Alira Greystone, and I am a human born to a family who didn't want girls. I had four older brothers who were raised to believe that they could rule the world simply because they were boys, that they could do no wrong because they were male.

And then came me, the mistake of the family. I was raised to be a slave, the family punching bag, to believe that I was worthless, as I was merely a weak girl who is meant to say thank you no matter what I endured, like a worthless puppet.

My parents treated me that way in front of my brothers, which made them grow up with that mentality as well. So, over time, they would corner me in the alley and beat me. Each wound, each bruise chipped away at me, and I started looking like a lifeless person who did nothing but smile, even when I was bleeding.

Until one day, something in me snapped, and I fought back against my brothers' friends when they tried to force themselves on me. I picked up a brick and swatted at them. Each time I fought back, I got beaten extra, but I got better each time.

First, I could land one hit, then other times two, and then until I found myself being able to hold my foot against three grown men without much scratches. And that was what made my brothers' friends leave me alone.

But my parents' torment continued, and then the incident five years ago which killed them, killed every single one of them. It was the happiest day of my life. As I watched people cry and wish for their parents to open their eyes, I smiled genuinely for the first time.

But I still felt empty. Because in that house, I fought to survive. That was my will to live. But with them gone, I felt happy but also empty. That was when I was sent to the group home.

I did as I always did. I smiled and put on my perfect mask. But I noticed a girl who was there with me. She cried every day. She threw away food that was given to her, and I couldn't help but hate her.

I could tell she was from a loving home, and that made me jealous and made me despise her. And she saw me smile. She saw me act like the perfect little girl, which made her resent me.

That girl was Miri.

We despised each other so much that we simply avoided one another until one day Miri cornered me in an alleyway and she asked me why. She asked me why I pretend to be happy, to be the perfect little princess, when I am just like them, just like her, an abandoned orphan who no one wants.

Those were her exact words to me.

And for the first time, that look that she could see right through me like she could read everything about me pissed me off. And I wanted to kill her. So I picked the nearest thing beside me, which was a broken bottle, and attacked her.

Each time I struck, she dodged and gave me a punch to either the face or the rib. As we continued, I managed to slice several parts of her body while I was a bloody mess.

We both collapsed on the ground, looking up at the sky and breathing heavily. Then I told her my story, told her how I felt, and how I was happy they were dead, and how I was jealous that her life was perfect, with a loving family she could actually miss.

While me I just wanted to die.

And she looked me dead in the eye and said, teach me street fighting, and I will teach you martial arts. Until you can defeat me, you are not allowed to die. Let that be your reason to live. Allow me to be your reason to live.

She also told me that I no longer had to wear a mask in front of her, because she likes the crazy, broken, and bloodied part of me more than the one that smiles.

Since that day, we trained in secret, being inseparable. And later, I learned her life wasn't as amazing as I thought it was.

She became my reason to live, and we became each other's rock.

So I know you all have your doubts, but I would no sooner die than harm Miri, and I would sacrifice my life to kill whoever hurts her even if they are the royalty of an empire.

So you are free to distrust me and be on guard against me as long as it is all for her safety, I do not mind."

I look at my girl with pride, and I see that my family just fell in love with her just like I did, because she is amazing.

Surprisingly, Renn speaks up next.

"Thank you for sharing that. It must have been hard. We are grateful. Miri, could you also share about how you lived in the human realm all these years?"

"Well sure, I have no problem with that," I reply positively and clear my throat to start.

"Well, I grew up relatively in love. My parents lost their biological daughter two days after her birth due to the intensity of the Myrridan check on her weak health and then found me on the day of her death at the outpost border of the human realm and took me in.

But then they discovered that I had Myrridan. But they had grown attached and they loved me. So instead, I grew up in isolation, with my elder brother being my only friend and comfort for the first ten years of my life.

My parents used the weak health of their biological daughter to keep people away and used the identity of their daughter and her reaction to the Myrridan device to keep the shadow officers away.

They built a secret underground bunker where I was taught how to control my powers and how to fight even without them. I was also taught how to act weak and read people by their expressions and their mannerisms.

My parents worked hard researching every and any technique I could use to keep my power undetectable. They got me lenses to use to cover my eyes and made them look brown.

I was loved greatly by them, but I lived like a secret for the first ten years of my life. After that, I could control myself well and could hold myself against most opponents, but the training never stopped. They trained me every day.

And every year, a day after my birthday, which I celebrated on the same day as their late daughter's, they would tell me the stories of the empires, the history, the founding, and even the story of the lost princess of the empire.

But at that time, I was oblivious to all of this.

It was after my 14th birthday that they told me everything and assured me that even if I wasn't theirs biologically, they loved me just as much. But it was that same night that the incident happened, and they left me all alone in this world.

I was finding it hard to cope with everything, and I was haunted with nightmares of seeing their dead and bloodied bodies lying there lifeless. So I was always acting out, and people just thought I was a spoiled child grieving and left me alone.

That was when I met Alira in the group home, and I hated her because I could see she was faking her smile. I thought she was hiding her pain much better than I could, and that made me feel resentful towards her.

And when I confronted her and she attacked me, and I got the chance to fight back with someone who could hold their ground it made me feel alive for the first time since their deaths.

So when I heard her story, at the end of it all, I offered her to be my new sparring partner so we could teach each other. And the rest is history."

Tarin speaks up next.

"You girls have had your fair share of hardships. We are so sorry."

"Why are you sorry for us? You call it hardship, we call it character build up," Alira replies with a laugh, and I follow her in that laughter.

Rian speaks up next.

"Don't you have any questions to ask?"

"Of course I do," I reply immediately.

"Firstly, what exactly happened? How did I get lost? And I know there are physical features that differentiate between the empires, but I heard there is a more significant difference that humans are not told of. Can I just generally know about the empires, the power dynamics, and everything?

Cause if I am doing this princess thing, I want to do it well," I say with full confidence, which earns me a laugh from all of my family.

"Alright, my princess, we will tell you everything. And then after that, you can go shopping with Alira. You have a banquet to attend tomorrow evening," Lior responds in a sing-song tone.

"Alright, I will tell you the story of how you got lost, but I have a meeting afterward, so your brothers will answer the rest of your questions," my father tells me as he starts.

"I'm guessing what you already know is that you were stolen at birth by three Dragonian criminals who did it for personal reasons, right?"

I nod in affirmation.

"Well, on the day you were born, you were born four minutes after Aeren. And because of that, Aeren was first taken for cleaning up. There were complications while your mother was trying to give birth to you, and that made everyone distracted.

The criminals took Aeren and were already on the run. When they realized it was the prince they took, they came back and returned Aeren.

By then, you were born, and we were focusing on saving your mother. So they dropped Aeren and took you. It was Aeren’s loud cries that brought our attention and made us realize that you had been taken.

The criminals, now flustered, entered the wrong portal and ended up at the outpost border of the human realm. They dumped you there, thinking as you were a newborn, you would die if left alone for some time, and fled back to the Dragonian Empire.

Their personal reasons were that a princess, only born once in a century, would make our already advancing empire even stronger. And it would be worse as you also had demon royal blood, since your mother was from the indirect royal line of the royal family and only you inherited her trait.

That is why your eyes are black with streaks of red."

"My eyes?" I ask, confused.

"Yes. The trait in which we use to know someone's lineage. Humans have brown eyes, which comes from their lack of a power source; it used to be blue when Myrridan still existed.

The shadows have black eyes, which represent our magic's inner core. It is red for the demons, and then yellow for the Dragonians. The darker the shade, the more powerful the being is.

That is why you were taken. Your eyes were dark and had red in them. They were scared and thought they were doing good by their empire."

If what my father said is true, then Ryden's eyes… they were a very shiny and dark shade of yellow… does that mean he is very powerful? But if that is so, why would his father allow him to be the royal hostage and not one of his other sons?

But I refuse to voice out my questions.

"Sorry, my darling girl, I have to go. Your brothers will answer whatever questions you have left, and one of them will go with you for your dress choosing," my father says as he walks up to me and plants a kiss on my forehead and walks away.

I just stayed there seated, holding my head where he just kissed, feeling stunned by the action.

"Do you have any other questions?" Tarin asks me.

"For now, I don’t. How about we head out to get the clothes? If I have anything to ask, I will ask on the way."

"Alright then, but me and your brothers have something to handle. How about you go with Ryden? He can answer whatever questions you have and keep you safe," Tarin tells me, and I simply nod in agreement as they all walk away, with me, Alira, and Ryden being the last to leave.

I turn to Alira to see how excited she is, and I already feel a headache coming along.

"Ali, don’t go overboard."

She laughs at me.

"You say that as if it's actually possible."

Yep. A headache is really coming along.