In an elegant Palace, there lived a Princess who was invisibly shackled by manners, etiquette, and law. For every mistake she made, she received more than a hit that she would bleed and bruise and would be covered by make-up the next day.
Heramia Diamond Cassarin Quarin Marlowe is a daughter of a Count and became Maximillian’s fiancé out of her will before she was even born.
Her parents thought and always said to her, “You are the most valuable woman in the current society. That Zachrono b*tch should be nothing! So you should be able to surpass her. Be the flower of society because that is your only job!” they whispered words of torture in a cover of support while standing behind her back in front of the mirror.
Heramia was beautiful, elegant and graceful because that’s how her parents grew her. They nurtured her for their own gain.
Greed in power and wealth, they did not care about their child anymore and saw her as a piece of good meat that could tame mighty lions and make them obey.
Heramia felt loneliness and she resembled many things in a way.
An empty bottle.
A marionette.
A bird trapped in a cage with wings broken.
A broken tune.
And a crumbling glazier.
She grew distant to her family, young noblewomen became her hands and feet because it was necessary for her. They used her and she used them more.
She trampled on the weak with her eyes closed and learned to say words of praise full of lies for the strong people.
Since her childhood, she had a title in the upper class given by old noblewomen.
‘The Ethereal Flower’
Ethereal flower is a flower that grows under the edge of the cliff that shines brightly when full moon and believed that Frite created it in memorial of her beauty.
Rare, hard to find and difficult to reach that you would need to risk your life without guarantee of having it even in your death.
But the only one who tried to rival her in everything was Maxineirah Shinoe Alde Levyne Zachrono. The woman known by everyone as the ‘Villainess of the Century’.
But Heramia’s fame was just a fake. Everyone wears a mask and behind those, they criticized her.
It was fake that she had limbs but really were sharp knives pointing at her, ready to stab her any moment.
Her happiness in front of everyone was fake.
Her beauty was fake and no one knows the scars she hides so carefully.
Her light under the full moon was fake because she was being darker and darker.
She was just a total fake.
Everything about her was fake.
They pointed their fingers at her and said, “You are nothing!”
“Pitiful child.”
“You were just born for us to be controlled.”
“Try crying, I might like you.”
“Shame on you!”
No one, not a thing knew the difficulties she was in. None of them knew her suffering. None of them knew her pain and none of them understood her.
But after seeing her rival, Maxineirah, and looking at each other eye to eye, she immediately recognized the emptiness mirrored her eyes.
That Maxineirah was not so different from her, that she was just like her.
Maxineirah might not have been tortured but Heramia knew that she also felt the same pain, the same suffering and had the same scar as her. Maybe, she was not alone in this painful world of hers.
She saw it all through her eyes.
How truly cruel the world is more than what everyone perceives it to be.
Heramia tried to reach her hand to Maxineirah and she also reached out!
But no one knows their little friendly secret that only the two of them have. They shared their story of pain and suffering.
They cried shoulder to shoulder.
They had been fighting in social status as a facade but behind the scenes, behind those black and red curtains, they only had each other who could understand each other’s sufferings.
Heramia thought she was lucky to have Maxineirah. She does not need anybody but her friend. Not even Maximillian, her own fiancé, as long as Maxineirah was by her side but…
***
In Year 676 of Asthal Empire
“The only one left in the Zachrono legacy is Maxineirah Shinoe Alde Levyne Zachrono, the youngest and only daughter of the family but she was also sentenced to prison for many reasons. I am sure she….. That f*cking bitch…..” her father said inside their room and the rest were cursing Maxineirah and how she ended up.
Heramia could not believe what she heard from the outside of the door. How could they frame her friend?
She knew Maxineirah so much that she believed her friend would not have done those absurd things.
She covered her mouth and left right away to visit her friend in the dungeon guarded by the Imperial Knights under the Palace but she was denied entry.
She visited more than once but she was always denied.
She could not do anything so she stayed home and planned how to visit her friend.
***
Year 677 of Asthal Empire
‘He’ came home and barged into Heramia’s Estate that shocked everyone.
“Why could I not find anyone in the Zachrono?!” ‘He’ asked enraged.
Heramia was the one who told him about everything.
***
Year 678 of Asthal Empire
She sneaked out and went to the execution site.
She walked into the dark alleys without a care with anything her parents taught her but what greeted her in the place after she got out was the blade of guillotine beheading her friend, Maxineirah.
She was stunned and her leg trembled before she fell on the ground.
Heramia’s face painted with shock and her eyes got bigger, glued at that horrible scene. She could not believe that her only friend, the only light who brightened her pitch-black world was now gone.
Tears started to well up in her eyes.
As the people cheered for her friend’s death, tears came like streams.
She cried in that dark, shabby and nasty alleyway.
She wept like a lost child in the crowd and her wails resonated with everyone’s exhilaration.
While everyone was in great joy, she was in grave grief and sorrow.
That day marked her greatest sorrow.
Heramia’s one and only true friend, sister and family died before her eyes. She wanted to grieve more but a seed of revenge was implanted to her chest that grew at an incredibly fast pace.
She gritted her teeth as she swore a promise at her friend.
***
Year 679 of Asthal Empire
Caleidon had gone berserk for some unknown reason and finally showed his true colors and it was the year the Revolutionary War started.
‘He’ came again to Heramia at the end of the month of that year together with some young spectacular and prominent personalities who were adorned and had always been the topic of the upper society, to convince Heramia to join the so called ‘Shadow Numbers’ who will be leading the opposing side of the current Emperor.
Heramia gave them a deal before she joined their group and that is…
To discard her own family -who used to hit her, used her as a tool and tried to brainwash her in the past- in the case that she would never need and have to see them again in the rest of her life.
She did not know what they did to them but all she knew was they were in someplace and not dead.
She stoned herself and grew cold-blooded.
She then officially joined the said group, offered all their House’s Knights. She was ready to fight without regard for her life and became one of the executives called 005.
***
Year 680 of Asthal Empire
The Shadow Numbers was recognized by both sides -the heroes of the civilians and a thorn for the foe.
Heramia only did small but very important things when both sides were colliding.
She did not care about anybody but only the ones who were fighting.
She has seen a noblewoman who died miserably in front of her when she was hiding while carrying out her mission but instead of being frightened, she felt good.
Everyone treated her and her friend cruelly and she thought that they deserved it, it was their own karma dying like that.
***
Year 681 of Asthal Empire
Princess Charminia Aspatria Vanessa Strangford Asthal, the war prisoner, whom the current Emperor, Caleidon, married, suddenly showed up in their field camp one day, crying her eyes out while holding her son’s cold body.
Anger surged to Heramia’s chest after seeing Charminia’s innocent and crying face.
Heramia lost her sane at the sight of the woman who drove her only friend to death.
“How dare you show your face here, you b*tch?!” Heramia was about to attack the newcomer when 004 -Louise Jack, the next successor of the Flouna Tribe and at the same time, Maxineirah’s cousin on her mother’s side- who was sitting next to her was able to stop her immediately.
“Hey! Calm down Hera!” Jack said as he held her hands that were trying to grab the Princess ferociously.
003 -Grenchant, the Archmage, and first friend of the deceased villainess- went in between them to hide Charminia’s figure from Heramia’s sight but there was no sign of Heramia’s rage stopping.
“It was because of you! Because of you, my only friend died!” Heramia started weeping while blaming the Princess who was hugging and also crying over his sapling’s death.
“You are not the only one who lost a friend, Hera! Everyone present here also lost someone they treasure so calm your rage!” 002 -Drenschville, the current Cardinal of the church and friend of the deceased Maxillary- shouted in a baritone voice. His voice was like an earthquake that snapped everyone’s ears.
“You do not know anything! You-!” Heramia said almost everything to anyone that stopped her.
“Your dead son is your karma!” Heramia pointed her index furiously at the Princess on the floor while hugging the icy cold body and tears rolling silently. Charminia knew she had a fault, everyone knew so no one, not even Charminia herself tried to defend.
After saying that, Heramia walked out of the tent camp, shoving 004’s hand away.
That was the day Charminia became a Shadow number, an executive as 006 to avenge her son that Caleidon had killed because of insanity.
***
Year 682 of Asthal Empire
Grenchant, the Archmage found a way to solve everything and started to create the magic circle needed but everything that was currently not known was hard to reach.
Year 685 of Asthal Empire
Asthal’s foundation crumbled. It was a pilgrim time, the darkest time of Asthal since the founding age.
Many had died, there were no more buildings in good shape.
Smoke from the fire -burning everything- making its way up to the clouds, making the whole continent shady.
Ashes were falling from the sky non-stop like rain.
Burning flesh would make anyone who inhales it vomit.
And monsters are starting to come down from the mountains.
001, 002, 003, 004 and 005 were the only ones left on their side. No more Knights and even Charminia sacrificed herself in order to kill the mad Emperor.
But amidst everything, Caleidon was still alive and laughing in the middle of everything and the Princess’ sacrifice was in vain.
The Shadows gathered secretly at the tent filled with magic from Grenchant, the Archmage.
The magic circle was completed at last and based on the bet, it was 001 who should go but they all suddenly felt dizzy.
005 was the first who fell down before others followed suit and they all woke up simultaneously but 002 was gone, together with the light and circle.
But what startled them was 001’s body nearly disappearing like a dust in the night wind, they only saw his head and his body was already gone. It did not take too long when he finally disappeared completely.