Chapter 1
When I was small, my mother would always tell me about how our kingdom formed. It started nearly a thousand years ago, when there used to be one kingdom. It was ruled by a person only known as Akuma. The names change every couple of years and so. They never saw them, but many wars were fought every time. Until, one day, half of us had enough and left, led by my great, great, great goodness knows how many great grampa who then became king of our side. Well, our little area. Well' it's not little just about the size of a small country.
Now, I am fifteen and forth in line to the throne. I am the second eldest out of six children and first girl. There's my older sister, Aneko who is twenty, she is very shouty half the time anyway, she used to be kind, no idea what the hell is in her brain nowadays. Then It's my twin brother, 24 minutes younger, Kazuhiko, always into war, I can't believe I'm saying this but I really want Kazuhiko to die before Dad does. It could happen. Then It's Kayo who's 12, nobody can really see her nowadays and it's not because she's ill. It's because she has something in the head wrong with her, she rarely spoke when I saw her. She only speaks to her dolls. Jiro is the next boy at only six years old, he hates the idea of war and said when he'll be king, he'll try and stop war. Cute. A child's dream. The youngest is Sachi who's only two, my favorite sibling. Mainly because she's not annoying yet but there's still time. Anyway, I'm Rini.
It was a cold morning when it happened. There was no warning. There was this guy who was begging to come in. The guards dragged him in. Screaming. Like a little baby. I was secretly watching them, I had nothing else better to do. I saw him getting dragged to the throne room, where Dad and Mom were, King Souta and Queen Emica were. The doors were slammed shut, I listened in. Doors cannot stop me from listening.
"What do you want?" I heard Dad speak, his voice loud and wise.
"P-please your majesty, Kana w-wants to speak to you." I heard the man stammer. Pathetic.
"Who?" shouted Mom, her voice, usually understanding descended into a fearsome rage.
"Y-you know the one wh-" then his voice went quiet.
"Guards," ordered Dad "Take him to the hole. Make sure nobody sees him."
I then heard footsteps coming towards me. I had to hide or I'll be so dead. But my feet stayed still. Frozen. Like a statue. I heard the doors open. My body was still frozen. I saw my parents, on their thrones, staring at me with shock. I looked down and saw the man who was screaming like a baby five minutes ago. He was held by the guards and looked limp. Very limp. It took me a minute or two to realise that he was dead. I then raised my eyes as Mom and Dad and asked "What happened to him?"
"Oh, Rini, he was from that other kingdom, he said that the ruler wanted to come and speak to us but then he had a heart attack in the middle of his sentence and died on the spot. Sad, really." Dad explained. His voice all high and wobbly. Mom nodded in agreement and then smiled at me.
The guards then pushed past me with the dead body and walked out the room. Leaving only me and my parents. Alone. "So," I asked "Are to going to speak to them?"
They then laughed. Like it was the funniest thing in the world. Really, that was very immature of them. And they have six kids. Six!
But then the laughter stopped as Mom said "No, they want to kill us. For leaving. We're not going to fall into that deathtrap."
I then sighed "Okay." And then I left the room. Not saying a word.
"Rini, where is Suki?" Sachi asked, looking around in the nursery for the young royals under seven. Guess who was in charge of babysitting her and Jiro? Me, that's who. Thank you very much Ai, for having the morning off just because your mama is sick.
Is this just a punishment for asking questions? Most definitely yes. The younger ones aren't so bad, most of the time.
"I don't know where your doll is, Jiro, do you know?" I asked him. He turned around, showing his deep brown eyes. He then shook his head
"No Rini, but I saw a weird girl take it."
Screams came from Sachi. "My doll has been stolen, get the guards, get anyone, my doll has been sto-" I had to shut her up by covering her mouth for a moment.
"Look, I'll try and get it, stay in here and keep quiet." They both then nodded as I walked off. I then went to the door, two doors away from the nursery and knocked on the door.
"Yuko, can I speak to you for a second." I called, a middle-aged woman with a face soft as butter popped her head out the door. She then noticed me and then said "What do you want Princess Rini?"
"Kayo may have taken Sachi's doll, was there a new doll in her doll collection?"
"I did see a new doll, pink hair in braids, pink dress and dark eyes. I remember Princess Sachi getting it for her first birthday, I'll try and reason with Kayo."
The door then went shut. Shouting was heard. Screaming. From Kayo. I forgot how loud she screamed.
"Kayo, it's not your doll, give it to me, your younger sister wants her back."
"Mine."
"No, not yours. Give it here."
I heard more screaming as Yuko's head the popped out the door as she threw the doll to me. "Give it back to Princess Sachi. I've just got to deal with this little monster."
The door then slammed shut and I rushed back to the nursery and gave it to Sachi.
"Thank you very much Rini." She said as she hugged the doll like she would never let go of it.
Then, I heard shouting from downstairs. Mom, Dad and a few others. "Look you two, I'm trusting you now. Imma go and see what they are shouting about."
They then nodded as I rushed out the door. I went downstairs and saw that the throne room door had been shut. Not guarded. Just shut. I went nearer to the door and heard shouting.
"This is the eighteenth person that Kana sent to talk to us. This is getting ridiculous. Even the kids are suspecting something is wrong." I heard Dad say.
"Your majesty," I heard from who I know to be Hideo, the advisor of the royal family "We may need to get someone, to speak to them about why they need to talk to them."
"But who Hideo," who I recognized the voice to be none other than our chief warrior Atsushi "I cannot because I have to train the new warriors. Useless things."
I didn't know what came to me at that moment. It was like I was born to do this. I then opened both doors and then announced, at the top of my voice "I'll do it!"
