I did a lot of thinking in my free time. Connecting the dots together, I finally knew my existence. My witch mother fell in love with the man whom she should have avoided, a member of the Witch Hunters Associ- ation. My mother ended up pregnant and my father convinced her to elope with him, knowing she was a witch all along. He wanted to fight for their relationship but my mother was too stubborn to birth me into this world being hated by humans. She tried to erase my father’s memory as the hunters came for her. Aunt Della then rescued her and she stayed in a place far away from anyone. She gave birth there and my mother died. My aunt ended up giving me to my father and staying as my guardian. My aunt had a werewolf as her mate that was killed by the rogues, so she went insane all throughout my childhood. No one was set to rule except me. In a strange way, that idea seemed to be slowly making its way into me. Truth and fantasy seemed to be closer than you some- times thought. The only barrier was your imagination. And if someone were to say that my mother was a witch, the queen, at most, then I would have laughed it off thinking how insane that person was. It was funny how time flew that it seemed to be just yesterday when I was sold off to Ace. Everything was spiraling into each other, being helpless and being saved countless times, and entering strange realms that I once considered a fairy tale was so overwhelming. But it had become normal to me now compared to my last reaction. I had accepted this idea more smoothly now. I think that was because of my growth from all the experiences I had. I slept for a few hours, well, I did not know exactly since the concept of time was different here. Then the door opened and Lana’s cheerful face appeared. “What are you thinking?” She seemed to notice how deep my thoughts were as she asked that. I shrugged. “Just things.” “If you feel uncomfortable or sad, just call me, I can be your friend,” she said. She then laid the food on the table and waited for me until I finished eating. The food here was tastier and more deli- cious compared to the werewolf realm. I think it was because werewolves liked their meat fresh and with as little seasoning as possible while here, I could taste that their food was at least marinated well enough. Also, the fact that they had a bit of similarity with us humans and had similar tastebuds. She then glanced at my belly and I tried to hide it. My bulging belly was evident now, but I felt comfortable carrying the child now with no pain. “What is it?” I asked Lara, seeing her frowning. She shook her head. “Your belly is too small for someone expecting. When is your due date?” Right, I kept on blacking out and forgot to keep track of time. Last time I remembered I was a month away from birthing. “What date it is?” I couldn’t help but ask her. Lana looked at me with a weird expression, as if being asked about the time was new to her. “I am sorry, but I do not know. We don't have a concept of time here as the queen controls it.” “What?” I gaped, so this means that the time here was different compared to the werewolf realm. This was bad. Damn. This felt so long that I felt like I was overdue. Four months might have been over and I should be laboring now. “Do you even have a calendar here?” I instantly regretted asking that question as Lana looked even more confused. “I am so sorry, what is that thing?” The obvious confusion on her face was apparent. I was done. If this was how it was, I guess I didn’t have a choice but to keep track mentally. “How do you even keep track of your pregnant witches here?” I suddenly asked. “We don't. When someone gives birth, we only look at the moon. There should be twelve full moons.” Oh, they were much like Werewolves in that aspect. I gulped. If I happened to give birth here, they should have at least someone who could assist me. “Do you have a birther? Someone, to assist me during the process?” She smiled at that. “Anyone can assist you here, Princess Kira, even Samira.” “How about Gods? Do you have one?” I knew I kept on firing questions but I need to be answered now. “We don’t believe in one.” So they were atheists then. Not that I held a grudge against anyone for that. In the werewolf realm, they had a Moon Goddess. Good- ness, I kept on wanting to compare the realms. “So what about your lives? Who do you ask for blessings?” “The queen. We leave all our worries and trust the queen in our lives.” It was scary how the queen knew and controlled every- thing here, so much that she might even have some cameras placed or spells to hear our conversation. I had to keep track of my words, just in case. And the witches here seemed to have been hidden with a lot of things. More like... blinded by truth. If there was any that needs to be uncovered, the queen made sure her subordi- nates praised her like a God. I cleared my throat, deciding to drop that off and ask the queen about it next time. The queen must have been keeping a lot of things here for them which was sketchy and a bit weird for them. This even made me want to dig deep and uncover the truth. I looked at my hands, filled with bandages, and decided to remove them. I clenched and unclenched my palms, massaging them and stretching. Since I was fully healed, I knew I could move it more now. It felt like my energy was always used these days and my energy force seemed to fade a bit. Lana instantly stood up and offered me a glass of water. “Here, drink this water, it contains a healing potion for you to regain your mana.” Healing potion? Never did I think that I would ever personally hear that. I drank the water and instantly felt better. “How do people learn magic here?” I asked, asking my billion-dollar question. This had been bugging me for a while now and I was itching to train myself. “When we are still a child, we are all taught by our elders here to cast spells.” “Oh, I notice that you have a different language when you cast spells. And some are holding a piece of wood.” “Oh, we speak Latin in our spells,” Lana answered rather enthusiastically, and pulled out a piece of wood from her back. “You mean this? It’s called a wand.” Latin was a dead language for humans but I guess it was still used widely in this realm. I gulped, feeling like I should learn more about this realm. I had to buy time and also keep myself from boredom before I could give birth and earn enough energy to fight and commence my escape plan. However, I seemed to be forgetting about my escape plan the more I stayed here. It felt like I was at home, far more than at my father and stepmom’s house. Even at Ace’s pack, which was quite alarming. This place was good at enchanting and enticing me to stay, I had to say. Perhaps Queen Haelyn cast a spell on me yesterday to change my mind. It wouldn’t take long before I would eventually love this place and abolish my plans... no, I couldn’t let that happen. And that wand, this was my first time to see it up close like this. I thought this only happened in the movies. “Can I touch it?” She shook her head. “I would like to let you, but every wand would electrify anyone who touches it except its owner.” Ah, I see. That was pretty understandable must be because of my Harry Potter dreams and the fantasy movies I watched last time in the human world. So technically, wands were like a human who had feelings and whenever their destined owner touched them, they would be fine, but if not, then they would kill anyone who dared. I gulped. “So it chooses you?” “Yes, this also prevents anyone from stealing a wand. Stealing it is considered a crime and punishable by death,” she said. “I see you are curious about it.” I nodded. “When can I get one?” Even though I was half witch, it must still be in my blood, right? So I should have my own. “Oh, whenever a witch reaches the puberty age of twelve, the teachers guide us to the eternal tree where the branches spring off a wand specifically made for you.” I nodded. “Where is that tree?” “Oh, it’s at our sacred house. No one is allowed to enter there without permission, except for the queen and some authorized teachers.” I nodded. I wanted to sneak in there. “What about the others? I saw them not using their wands when they said the spell.” “Oh, they are powerful and have more mana. Is it the teachers you saw? There is only one teacher I know who does not need to have a wand to cast a spell, but I believe she is not present in this kingdom at the moment. She’s out on a mission,” she mumbled. “Who did you see?” I couldn’t say it was the queen. I was not dumb enough to risk my life, now that I knew how strict the queen was. Plus the reason why she hid her face. I should keep my mouth shut if I wanted to stay alive. I glanced around, suddenly noticing that we were missing one person—Samira, the adorable scaredy cat girl. “Where is Samira?” “She’s preparing for the city of lights,” Lana replied. City of lights? I trusted that was also one of their tradi- tions here. “Oh, forgive me for not explaining it, dear princess. Every year we celebrate the city of lights in honor of the day when the queen freed and liberated us from the entrapment of the werewolves. This is a very special day that we should not miss!” By the tone of Lana’s voice, I could see the spark of delight in her eyes. “Kinda like an Independence Day?” “Independence Day? What is that?” I chuckled at her confusion. “Well, it’s like when a country is colonized and we are freed by heroes. The humans also celebrate a celebration like that.” I tried to explain as briefly as I could so she could under- stand. She nodded. “I am curious about what humans are like, I have never seen one except you.” I gasped. “Really? You’ve never seen one?” So they must be clueless about us humans! I didn’t feel any disdain from Lana for my kind. More like she was curious to learn more about humans. How many years had they been trapped here? “We are just like you. We have similarities except that we don’t have a wand around to cast spells.” Lana nodded. “Oh, fascinating.” Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound outside the room. The whole room shook and Lana stood up on alert. “What is that?” I asked her. She gasped. “Oh, that’s one of the fireworks. You must prepare for the city of lights where we show our gratitude to the queen. Our neighboring witches are going to visit too! And I heard that the queen has a wonderful gift for you later, Princess Kira!” A gift? That seemed suspicious, but then I had to play along and blend in with the whole realm. I chose to hide the feelings of contempt inside me. “Oh? The queen is that generous then.” I was made to wear a lilac-colored dress filled with large diamond embroidery that hung from my waist to my legs. Except I could see my bulged out stomach in my reflection. I sighed. “Hang in there, my little one,” I mumbled. If this was a different realm, this might have cost a whole million dollars. I would die to sell this dress if I was the same teenage girl who was hopeful for the world. “Are you ready, Princess Kira?” asked Lana, who was also wearing a beautiful pink dress. I nodded.