Chapter 110


    #110 The Sassy Prince


    Missandra stayed quiet for a while, looking more and more livid. After a while, she nced down at the


    concubine that was still in the room with them and took a deep breath.


    “I knew the situation was dire, but I didn’t think it would be that bad that our best hope would rely on the


    Emperor’s freaking Dragon! Hinue, we are talking about an actual dragon and not a cat-sized one like


    Kian! I know the third Prince’s ck Dragon is basically your pet, but this is another Dragon we’re


    talking about, the Emperor’s! I’m pretty sure the most dangerous creature in the Empire hasn’t been


    trained to do paw tricks!”


    “Dragons only mimic their owners’ feelings. Krai is like that because of Kairen’s feelings for me. The


    Emperor liked me too, you’ve seen it. He’s been nothing but nice and…”


    “He is an Emperor! Who knows what that old man was thinking! Gifting you a tiara and some stupid


    nickname . doesn’t mean you’re his favorite daughter-inw! I trust you, but I don’t trust a pervert that


    has taken dozens of concubines, got kids left and right while his favorite woman has to live in a


    different castle to ensure her kid’s survival!” Cassandra sighed.


    “I know this is the same refraining back again and again,” added Missandra. “But I stand by my


    words, I don’t trust the old man’s dragon! We can’t just walk in there and hope he’s going to be


    our bodyguard! That’s a rather big bet and I’m pretty sure we’re running out of extra lives just by


    standing here!”


    “Do you have a better idea, perhaps? We were going to see if the Emperor can be saved anyway,


    Missandra. Perhaps had won’t move a… w to help us. At least it’s better than anything, right?”


    “This is us reducing our chances of getting killed by a dragon’s hair! And I know they don’t have any!”


    Next to them, the young concubine stood back up again, shaking her head. She grabbed Cassandra’s


    hand, as she was trembling herself, looking at her right in her eyes.


    “I heard the Imperial Dragon’s name, are you going to see the Emperor? Please, Lady Cassandra, you


    have to save him!


    Both sisters were flustered to see the young woman suddenly begging, but neither of them could react


    to her new bust of tears, as she held on desperately to Cassandra, her lower lips trembling. She didn’t


    look anything like the elegant young woman Cassandra had met only a few days ago. This was just a


    desperate girl, a mother begging her to save her and her child.


    “Please, you’re the Imperial Physician. You have to save his Highness! If the Emperor dies, I know he


    will kill us! The second Prince will have us all exterminated, our children too!”


    Against her leg, the young girl started crying too, echoing her poor mother’s distress. Cassandra’s


    heart broke. This little girl was so young, and she had just lost her father. How many of those children


    would have to grow without their father now? They were already all so terrorized already, but they were


    now living in the fear of their uncle finishing the job… Cassandra turned to her sister again, a


    determined expression in her eyes. Missandra couldn’t say anything anymore, not when they were so


    frantically begged like so. The younger sister kept shaking her head in disbelief, but she didn’t voice


    her opinion anymore.


    “I… I’ll go see the Emperor, Lady Chiara. Stay here with your daughter, it will be safer. Do not tell


    anyone you’ve seen us, please?”


    “Of course, Lady Cassandra. Please, be careful… Some of my Prince’s concubines are desperate. We


    are not stupid, none of us think Lady Berissa would have ever tried to harm our Prince…! Even some of


    the Princesses are afraid!”


    “What about the other Princes, by the way?” Asked Missandra.


    “We don’t know…


    Cassandra frowned. This was one thing she wished she could have resolved now. Not only they were


    in such a den of wolves, but they couldn’t even be sure who was their enemy or not… She nodded, and


    gently retrieving her hand, she turned to Missandra.


    “We should go, now.”


    After checking their appearance, making sure nothing had been undone, the sisters left Lady Chiara,


    the heart a bit heavier than before. Cassandra couldn’t get that little girl’s face off her mind and realized


    that, somehow, she vaguely looked like her own son. Maybe it was because they were young, but


    those two children still had the same grandfather. That child was Kairen’s niece. So many innocent


    young lives were trapped here! The concubines were more or less circled in the Second Prince’s


    residence. None of them had the means to leave, and they had no dragon to defend them either! With


    Sire locked in the cells underground, those women were nothing but prey for Vrehan to y with!


    “We need to stop this,” muttered Cassandra, as they walked alone in a corridor.


    “Let’s stay focus, we cannot make a mistake now,” whispered Missandra. “We’re lucky no one has


    recognized you yet, and that psycho isn’t here… Now, where is the old man?


    “The Emperor’s quarters were behind the room used for the banquets.”


    “Why is this ce so damn big!”


    As they were about to turn left on a corridor, the sisters heard a ruckus, and stopped their steps at the


    exact same time, both frowning. They listened for a few seconds, but the situation was rather heated.


    “You damn little bitches! I’m so fed up with that crap! You sluts! Get the fuck out of my way, go back to


    my pervert brother before I ruin my nails on your ugly faces! Uglies!”.


    Cassandra and Missandra absolutely froze. Though they had their doubts, this masculine voice and the


    mention of a pervert brother were enough clues to guess which character they had almost run into.


    They waited to see if he wasing this way, but it didn’t seem so, the sound of the man’s steps and


    whoever was following him were


    getting further away. Cassandra let out a silent sigh, while Missandra raised an eyebrow.


    “Well, that exins why that one doesn’t have kids…” she muttered.


    “Why?” Asked Cassandra, confused.


    Missandra rolled her eyes.


    “That guy is definitely not into women… Trust me, I’ve seen a lot of guys like that in the Red District.


    This one is definitely a man-yer. Plus, the only person I’ve heard being sassier than that guy is Lady


    Shareen, and that alone says a lot.”


    “Oh…”


    That did solve one mystery about theck of descendants on the fourth Prince’s end… However, that


    didn’t give any insight into his position towards his brothers, though. Was he affected by Sephir’s


    death? On Vrehan’s side, or uninterested? What of Prince Lephys? After what they had just heard,


    Cassandra crossed out any thought she ever had of asking help from one of the other Princes. The


    rtionships between all the siblings were tooplicated, she had no idea who could be trusted or


    not at this point. Neither of the fourth or fifth Princes had seemed close to Kairen or even Sephir from


    her experience… Nothing said they would agree with Vrehan bing the Emperor either, though.


    Waiting a bit for the path to clear, the sisters kept walking, until they finally arrived in the Banquet Hall.


    It was desert at that time, and, most importantly, that area waspletely unused at the moment. It


    would have been suspect for two servants to walk in with food trays, so the two sisters had to act


    quickly and not linger around.


    Cassandra had already noticed that, when one of the Banquets was over, the Emperor left through a


    door behind


    his golden throne. The Emperor’s seat was sorge and impressive that it seemed like a wall behind


    him, but Cassandra clearly remembered seeing had curled up in that space, between the actual


    wall and his owner’s seat. No one wanted to go anywhere near the Imperial Dragon’s favorite spot, but


    she knew the doors to the Emperor’s apartments had to be behind that throne.


    However, as soon as the sisters pretended to walk through the Banquet room, both noticed the men


    guarding that door. They pretended to chat and leave the room, but as soon as the door was closed


    behind them, Missandra shook her head.


    “So, no big dragon, but two guards. I wouldn’t have been surprised if that psycho had put more men


    than that. How are we supposed to get to the Old Man now!”


    However, Cassandra wasn’t listening to her. She was already staring away, at one of the windows more


    precisely. She walked to the opening, and stuck her head out, looking down. Missandra frowned,


    confused.


    “Hinue, what are you doing…?”


    “When my Prince had… Well, when he injured Princess Phetra, he threw her out of one of the banquet


    room’s windows. Lady Kareen had mentioned there were only three or so floors below, and she’s right,


    there’s actually a roof. I can see it from here, and the building below goes all the way down the actual


    Emperor’s apartments…”


    Her sister shook her head in disbelief. That was it. Her older sister had officially gone crazy! 1)


    “I’m not breaking my ankles today to go save a dying old man,” said Missandra,ing next to her at


    the window to check what was below.


    Cassandra chuckled and pointed fingers.


    “We don’t have to fall if we can climb… Just like I thought, the stones in the walls are very uneven.


    Which means we could possibly climbterally until we reach it. We would use the outside instead of


    walking inside and past the guards.”


    Missandra was astonished. This idea was easily taking the first ce as the most dangerous idea her


    sister had that day, and that was saying a lot! Moreover, they were good swimmers, but not good


    climbers! Missandra was about to protest heavily, but for once, she didn’t. Instead, she scrutinized the


    wall Cassandra was thinking of climbing, with a frown.


    Those were typical rock constructions of the Dragon Empire indeed: it was mostly uneven and, even


    more interesting, the years and years of dragons trying to climb on the buildings had left some deep


    marks on the wall, where the big ws had easily scratched off some of the stones, giving both sisters


    even more spots to put their hands and feet on. Technically speaking, it wasn’t impossible, and both


    girls were in good shape, physically speaking… Missandra hesitated a second, sending a nce


    towards the room. The guards didn’t look the nice kind at all. That damn second prince had probably


    chosen very carefully the dogs that would keep his father’s room. She really trieding with another


    idea to get rid of them, but Missandra was somewhat afraid someone would recognize her, she just


    resembled Cassandra too much.


    That climb inparison, strangely didn’t look as dangerous and crazy to try. They had the physical


    condition for it, a stable and hidden path, and they even had the luxury of a rooftop below them to fall


    on in case of failure. Of course, they’d probably suffer major injuries like Phetra if they did fall, but at


    least, the chances of survival were decent, given the situation.


    Missandra did try to convince her sister to let her distract the guards while she’d make the trip from the


    outside, but Cassandra’s refusal was firm. No matter what, they had to stick together.


    Checking the corridor was empty, Cassandra climbed out of the window to get outside, carefully


    hanging on to the window’s rail, and now she moved to the first target, arger hole in the walls; She


    had never liked the Imperial Pce, but that ce was old enough to have many, many Dragons’


    ws leaving their imprints on the walls. The indents in the stones gave her some easy spots to move


    around, and sure enough, Cassandra made her way until she got more or less in the external walls of


    the previous corridor. Biting her lower lip, Missandra watched her


    sister’s progress, but indeed, every ce she rested her foot or hand on seemed stable. Not even a


    spark of dust moved. Checking her surroundings, Missandra climbed out of the window too to follow


    her.


    Quickly and silently, the sisters moved around the external walls, keeping their heads below the


    windows. The main danger would be that someone spotted them from another window. However, from


    what they had seen so far, not many people were hanging around the premises. Hence, they kept


    moving, climbing the wall sideways until their position was past the guards they had seen insight. There


    were two problems, though. Cassandra had no idea how many rooms there were inside, their


    configuration, or who would be inside. They would have to take a guess on which window to climb back


    into, but they had to decide quickly. Climbing was a difficult exercise, and neither of them was very


    experimented at it. Their arms were starting to get painful, their muscles aching. A pearl of sweat was


    growing on Missandra’s forehead, threatening to take away some of the fake tan covering her. When


    she finally found a position right under one of the windows she could stay in without too much strain,


    Cassandra stopped, trying to listen to what was going on inside. Seemingly, nothing. The other side


    seemed strangely quiet, though she couldn’t tell if this was a good sign or not. She exchanged looks


    with Missandra, who nodded. In any case, the longer they stayed there, the more risks they were taking


    to be found by someone. They had to climb back inside.


    Carefully, Cassandra climbed up, ncing inside. It looked like she had actually picked a bathroom


    window! Luckily, that room was small, and with the door facing the window, she could immediately tell


    that ce was empty. With a sigh of relief, both sisters climbed inside, and finally, took a rest from their


    aching muscles.


    Missandra stretched with a grimace and even went to the little basin of water to drink. Their arms were


    sore, but at least, they had made it inside the Emperor’s apartments. Cassandra, walking as quietly as


    she could, went to put her ear against the door. It wasplete silence on the other side… Very


    carefully, the sisters came out of the bathroom. This was truly a strange atmosphere, almost like the


    inside of a church. The aisle was beautiful, all made of marble and white stones, but it was as silent


    and intimidating as a mausoleum. In such an environment, each step or breath the sisters took seemed


    too noisy.


    “Alright, now to find the Old Man…” whispered Missandra.


    Cassandra nodded, and they started walking down the corridor. They had no idea which door to push


    and were terrified to run into someone that would give away their position. However, after a while, it


    looked like this ce was truly abandoned… They pushed many doors, each time to find an empty


    room.


    “Are you sure this is the Emperor’s apartments?” Asked Missandra, frowning. “There’s nothing going on


    there!”


    “I don’t understand,” muttered Cassandra. “If he’s sick, the Emperor should definitely be kept in his


    apartments!”


    “That’s the rule of the Imperial Pce? Well someone needs to learn them again, because the old man


    isn’t here! Cassandra, this ce ispletely empty! There’s not even a single servant, those two


    idiots outside are guarding nothing but air!”


    Cassandra shook her head in disbelief. Where was the Old Emperor, then? If he was sick, the Emperor


    should be resting here in his quarters! Finally, the sisters turned to each other, Missandra shaking her


    head.


    “That damn second Prince expected someone woulde and he probably hid the old man


    elsewhere!”


    Copyright N?v/el/Dra/ma.Org.


    “But where? It’s the Emperor, he can’t simply vanish this way!”


    “We…”


    A sudden movement was felt from somewhere behind Missandra. Both sisters froze. Something was


    moving outside of the room they were in. They slowly turned around, and it was there, at the window.


    One reptilian blue eye, surrounded by white scales. Staring right at them.