Miri’s POV

“Don’t worry, love. Everything will be alright, and no matter what you do, I and your family will always love you. So don’t beat yourself up about anything, we will help you solve everything.”

These parting words that Ryden told me before he left back to the Dragonian Empire keep ringing in my head as we head over to a part of the Shadow Empire I have never been before, to meet family I didn’t even know I had.

Aeren must have noticed how nervous we were, as he tries to reassure me and Alira.

“Grandfather has a stern face and a sharp mouth, but he’s actually really lovely at heart. So he’s going to love you. But don’t take anything he says to heart, alright?!”

We both nod in assurance.

We stop in front of a massive castle. The castle was big, but black, and blended perfectly with the night. If not for being so close, I might have actually missed it. But despite the dark exterior, the inside was glamorously decorated with an ancient, rustic vibe, and portraits of old men lined the corridors with their names and their rules and history written just underneath.

“This is the ancestral Shadow Castle. Once a new king’s reign starts, the old king is to come and live here in retirement. Once your rule is over, your portrait and details of how you ruled are lined here for the younger generations. And one day, when your brother takes the throne, even my portrait shall hang here,” my father explains to us all, beaming with pride as we walk along the long corridors.

This journey has been the quietest experience I have had with my brothers, as they don’t speak unless it’s to explain something to me. And I hate that. But I can’t do anything because just earlier today, I had caused such a huge mess, and the guilt is still eating at me.

But it eases a bit when I look at Alira’s face, covered in the bandages Malric had used while treating her wounds. Just as I was about to touch one of her wounds just above her eyebrow, I found myself face-first into Rian’s back.

“Hey, why did you just stop walking like that?” I ask him, but he simply makes a shush gesture, telling me to keep quiet.

Before I could retaliate, a loud, authoritative voice bellowed in the quiet hallway where I stood.

“Isn’t this my good son, who is about to lose his throne because he failed to discipline a brat?”

I peek to see the words coming out of the open door, with my dad standing at the doorway, not making any attempt to move beyond that mark.

“Enter.”

And then we all move again. I follow closely behind Aeren this time, with Alira behind me.

We enter the large throne room as the door clicks shut behind Alira.

“Let me see the child that you risked war for, but still might cause your downfall,” he bellows once more.

Aeren nudges me as I slowly walk forward to the center of the large room and stop.

“Raise your head,” he commands once more, and I obey.

As he looks at me, his eyes widen before returning to an indifferent expression.

“A child who looks so much like my sweet daughter-in-law can actually cause so much damage. Why am I not surprised? After all, you took her looks. It is only right if you had her temper to match, right?!”

He looks toward me expectantly, like I’m supposed to understand what he means.

Since I came back, no one speaks about my mother. How am I supposed to know her temper or if I have it? So that’s what I say.

“I know nothing about my birth mother, and no one really speaks about her, so I don’t know.”

At my words, his eyes visibly darken, and the room suddenly becomes colder than I remember.

“You find your child after nineteen years, and you tell her nothing about her mother? It is one thing to grieve, and it is another to erase. No matter how hard you try, you can’t erase the past. You can’t erase the fact that the woman and mother of your children is dead. But just because you can’t accept it doesn’t give you the right to keep it from them. They have a right to know her, to love her, to miss her as much as you do.”

He yells at my father as he stands and gets a portrait and passes it to me while standing beside me.

I look at the portrait, and I can’t help the words that come out of my mouth.

“Beautiful.”

She is so pretty. I graze my hands across the portrait. Her silver hair, her red eyes, are so captivating, and she looks like an older version of me. She was so pretty. And for some unexplainable reason, I feel tears sliding across my cheeks slowly, and I can’t stop them no matter how much I wipe at them.

I look up at my grandfather, this man who has downgraded me and spoken as if I was a pest since I stepped in the door.

“She’s so really pretty, Grandfather,” I say once more.

And for the first time, his face softens as he takes the portrait from my hands, gently holds it, and looks lovingly at it.

“Your mother, Miri, was a beautiful woman from the Demon Empire. She was powerful, from a branch family of the royals, but an outcast nonetheless. She came to the Shadow Empire, and she and your father fell in love with one another. Even I couldn’t find any fault in her to object, because she was that perfect,like the daughter I never had. Much better than these useless sons the heavens gave me,” he says the last part with a laugh.

“Even though she had demon blood, none of your brothers inherited it. I’m guessing only you did. Her greatest wish was for you to be safe, but we lost her before she could even meet you.”

He looks at me now and puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Even if you killed an empire, I couldn’t hate you, dear child, because you look too much like her. So when I say this, it comes from a place of love. But if you are to survive as a being born of shadow and demon power, you need your father to still be in power. So no matter what, he can’t lose the throne. That means you have to make the necessary sacrifices for that. Are you okay with that?”

He looks straight into my eyes, and I feel as if he’s staring into my soul. But I still find my strength to agree with him.

“I will do anything to keep them safe. What solution do you have, Grandfather?”

“You will be engaged to the prince of the Demon Empire. And if no issues arise, you shall get married after your graduation. The Dragonian Empire will never agree to stand with us, so we need to place our bets on the Demon Empire. Are you willing?”

“I am. If it will ensure their safety, I don’t mind doing anything.”

“Wait, Miri, you can’t! What about Ryden?” Alira yells, just as Aeren slams his hand over her mouth.

I have to admit my feelings for Ryden, but no matter what, I have to put my family first. So I have to wrong him. We all can’t be happy, I guess.

“Is this the human charity case my son took in?” I hear my grandfather say, pulling me out of my thoughts.

When I hear those words “charity case”I retort, all fear and nervousness long gone.

“Her name is ALIRA. She is my sister, not a charity case. If you can’t accept her as your grandchild, the best you can do is not insult her. Such actions will never be tolerated by me. Am I clear?”

Silence. The whole hall falls so silent that the sound of breathing becomes the loudest noise there, before my grandfather’s loud laughter bellows across the hall.

“You really are Seraphine’s daughter. She also couldn’t tolerate whenever someone spoke badly about the people she cared about,” he says as he takes me into his arms for a hug.

“Once she slammed me to the ground to get me to listen, and I was still king then,” he tells me with a hint of longing and fondness in his voice.

My mother was truly loved.

“Well, you did have it coming. You kept provoking her because her angry squeal sounded funny. So she wanted to see if you’d still find it funny from the ground,” my dad chips in, with a smile on his face and a reminiscing gaze.

“About the engagement to Draven, we shall speak of it later. But for now, let’s get something to eat, alright?” he says, as he casually pushes me away and clears his throat.

“My two granddaughters should walk beside me to the dining hall.”

Me and Alira look at each other before she breaks into a huge grin and runs to his side, holding his hand to walk beside him, and I take his other arm.

“Slow down with the pulling! Bones are getting older, little brats,” he yells harshly, trying to hide his blush. I’m guessing Aeren was right about what he said, this man really is a softie.

We all take our seats, with my grandfather at the head of the table and me and Alira beside him. As we eat, he piles up food on our plates and tells us to eat more.

“Now that Grandfather has granddaughters, he has forgotten the grandsons that came before,” Aeren taunts.

“This must be how Dad felt when his father abandoned him to love his daughter-in-law more,” Lior says, before a fork comes flying at his face. It was thrown by my father.

Now these are the men I’m used to.

“Enough! Stop showing my granddaughters this unsightly behavior. Is this how you all usually act? If so, then I might just keep the girls so you all can be as rough as you want to be. Such delicate girls shouldn’t be exposed to such.”

“DELICATE?!!!” all my brothers yell in unison.

“Grandfather, you can’t possibly be talking about Miri and Alira, right? Or did you adopt granddaughters out of loneliness?” Fenn asks.

“You are aware that the main reason we are here is because your delicate granddaughter just made a new record in academy history, right?” Aeren asks.

“Are you all trying to bully my granddaughter?!”

“Grandfather, it’s alright. I don’t blame Father and my brothers. It’s my fault for being too weak and delicate. But still, I did my best to defend Alira,” I add, deliberately dropping a tear across my cheek for additional effect.

And just like clockwork, my father and brothers are raised up by Grandfather’s energia.

“Are you all bullying my granddaughters in front of me?!”

But before anything more can be done, someone barges into the dining hall and draws everyone’s attention, which makes Grandfather drop them all down and look at the newcomer, his eyes darkening in true anger.

Then I hear my father speak.

“Thane Velmorne, what are you doing here?”

Thane Velmorne? Who is that… Velmorne?? He has the royal surname. Is he family??

“Hello, brother. It’s nice to see you too. I was just curious to see my good niece who decided to give me the royal throne.”

My questions are immediately answered as he locks eyes with me.

“Wow, you look so much like my sister-in-law. No wonder you’re giving me the throne. I was always Seraphine’s favorite,” he says, and then proceeds to take long strides toward me and pinch my cheeks.

“You are so much like her. If I had pinched her cheeks, Seraphine or Korrin would have killed me. So I feel satisfied doing it with her lookalike.”

And with that, he’s lifted into the air by energia.

“I advise you to not do that again, or else I would help you learn manners.”

A loud laugh echoes through the room.

“Brother, you really are such a killjoy. Don’t worry. When I take the throne, I will still let you keep an official position.”

“That would not be necessary. My father shall stay king, because I have already agreed to marry the Demon Prince and sort out the issues. Thank you for your concern, Uncle, but it is misplaced.”

And in that instant, even the sound of a blowing breeze becomes too loud.

“What did you say?” Aeren is the first to break it.

“Riri, we don’t joke with such things. Marriage is such an important event. How can you… How can you just decide… You don’t even know the guy!!” Alira screams.

But instead of saying anything, I simply bow to Grandfather, take Alira and Aeren, and head outside.

“Miri, are you serious about this? Are you really willing to marry the Demon Prince? You don’t know him well. You won’t be happy,” Aeren leads the conversation.

“More than that, how about Ryden? Didn’t you guys go on a date? Doesn’t he consider you his forever love? Don’t you have feelings for him? What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. But I can’t let Dad lose his position because of me. I would never be able to live with myself if that happened…”

“We will find a way. Me, Alira, and all the rest of our brothers—we’ll find a way. You don’t have to.”

“We are not risking things in any way. Rather than that, let’s cross this problem and leave it as an engagement, and then find a way to cancel the engagement. That is safer.”

“What you’re doing is playing with people and emotions. What will you tell Ryden? How do you expect him to understand it? You’re going to hurt him, Riri.”

“Please, you two. Please just support me. It’s hard for me as well. So please just support my decision.”

“Alright, Riri. But wait, Ryden… he is also a prince. Why not use him for the engagement, then?”

“Ryden is not the crown prince or a favored prince. He has no power to overrule the king’s decision and therefore would be of no use in this situation. That was why Grandfather chose Draven.”

“I have already told you guys to let it rest and just respect my decision.”

“We will. Let’s go inside for now. We’ll solve each problem as they come,” Aeren says while leading me back to the dining room.

As we step back in, the only thing awaiting us is an empty dining hall, with the only person left being Grandfather.

“Good, you kids are back. You all shall stay here until the council meets. I have already arranged your engagement with Draven, and the Demon Empire is very much pleased with it. Your brothers have already gone over to their rooms first. The housekeeper will show you to yours.”

The housekeeper, Rosalie, has a gentle smile as she shows us around the castle, stopping every so often to tell us which rooms Father and the rest of our brothers were in, and which hallways led where without getting lost.

She stops in front of an empty room and directs Aeren into it, another for Alira, and then we walk in silence until we reach mine.

“Sweetheart, your grandfather might seem like a mean person, but everything he does is out of love for you, your brothers, and your father. I was the nanny who raised him and have lived for several centuries serving the royal family. He only believes that with true power can anyone afford to have happiness. That is why he rushed the engagement. But he will never do anything to harm you. I hope you know that.”

“I do, Grandma Rosalie. I won’t misunderstand him or hold any resentment.”

“That’s good. And if you want any embarrassing stories of when your father, brothers, or even grandfather were children, then I have you covered.”

“I will keep you to that promise. Have a good night.”

“Good night, sweetheart. Your mother would be proud if she saw you now.”

As the door closes, I find myself sitting on the floor and finally allowing the tears to fall freely.

“Mum, if you are really watching me… am I doing things right, or am I going to wreck everything you worked hard to protect, all while looking like you?” I ask myself in between sobs.