There was a time, once, long ago, when I had lived a happy, full life. My brother, Neijiro, my mother, Yatsuri Umemoto, and my father, Kazz, short for Kazuto, but, of course, everyone just called him Kazz. We lived in a small village known as Tetia. Most of our neighbors were older teenagers or adults, and there was only a small sprinkling of children our age and younger, which made it hard for us to make friends. School was relatively small as well, which made things nice for the teachers. Most families only had two children or fewer due to financial strains as a result of being exiled by a cruel man, a man that I later learned was known as a King, King Akiyo, a man who hates magic and those who wield it.

He'd take random villagers and either kill them on the spot or imprison and torture them for unknown reasons. Some even went missing from the cells as I'd soon learn from hearing chatterings from outside my dank room, and was scared to know what he had done to them. I prayed that I wasn't to be next.

As I lay flat on my bed, my skin dry and flaky due to being unable to bathe properly and take care of my body, my door quietly swung open.

Two pairs of eyes popped into the room, and they both began to giggle creepily.

"Madame Yura Umemoto...it's your time to shine!" They called at the same time.

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I felt chills go down my spine as I felt eyes watch over me as I slowly walked out of the room, my ankles numb and feet fuzzy from being unable to use them in quite some time. It felt odd...how could I forget what it felt like to walk on the ground?

"Is that the xxxx woman? The one King Akiyo wanted for himself?" A maid with bright red hair and sharp glasses whispered to a crowd of other women.

"I think King Akiyo mentioned something about xxx and xxx, because he wanted to use her magic to"

I shut them out. I didn't want to hear any more. As Zion and Aion led me to King Akiyos' room, I could feel myself clenching my jaw tightly and squeezing my fingers into the palms of my hands, almost drawing blood.

Abriel opened the door for me as did a peculiar-looking woman. I just got a glance at her, but could tell right away that she was neither a maid nor a cook or anything of the sort. She was rather different, odd, strange, but also very beautiful. Her lips were neon shiny green, skin a caramel brown, and hair a midnight blue with small sprinkles of white dots coating it like a decoration. Her nails were long and painted black, and her clothes were tight but fit her slim body fairly well.

I just wanted to gaze at her, but knew to keep my head forward. But as the door to the King's room began to slowly close, I could feel someone staring at me. I quickly shot a look over my shoulder, but the woman wasn't even looking at me. If anything, she seemed displeased with me. Ignoring me even or just not caring.

"Ah, Miss. Umemoto!" The King boomed.

I gulped and slowly turned to face him and felt my eyes widen as the people in the room, maids, butlers, knights, soldiers, everything in between, knelt almost in sync with each other at the sight of the large man, a man with furry caterpillar eyebrows, braided red hair, and thick thighs and elbows. He was round and kind of ugly. I furrowed my brows at him and wanted to say a thing or two to him, but before I could, someone had kicked my legs out from under me, causing me to fall onto my knees with a yelp. The same person then shoved my face hard into the ground, making me grovel in the velvet red rug.

"Bow down to the King, my lady!" The twins sang.

The King roared with laughter and smacked himself in the chest as he let out a gruff cough at the end.

"Is thou fair lady ready to appease my wishes and demands?" The King bellowed.

I tried to crane my neck up to speak to him, but it was as if they knew that I was going to do just that and proceeded to sock me in the spine.

I bit back a cry as tears welled up in my eyes. Thankfully, they were just small children. Highly doubt that they could do too much damage to me. I mean, it still hurt, but I doubt that they'd hurt me too badly in the presence of this Akiyo man.

A few seconds passed, and the twins let off of me, and I almost slumped to the side a bit out of relief of being let loose. I slowly got back up onto my feet, and with my eyes pointed at him, I sucked in a deep breath.

"King Akiyo. You've killed my parents and friends. Decimated my village, and yet, you take me alive. Answer me this: what do you plan to do to me? A slave? A pet? A mere toy? Oh what ever shall you do?" I sighed with an eyeroll.

The King roared with laughter again.

"I like this peasant! She's funny!"

He then bent over his seat and stared me in the face.

"Abriel, take her away. I just wanted to see what she was like. I may ask for her again, though." He grinned.

I felt something jump up my throat at the sound of this, and as Abriel reached over to grab me, I spun on my foot and slammed my left heel into the side of his face as hard as possible. He stumbled a bit but quickly regained balance. Grabbing for his sword, I gasped as he swung it at me.

Dodging it, I leapt to the side and yanked out a thread of my hair. Spitting onto it, I rolled it up in my hands, and it began to quickly glow gold and turned into a small dagger.

The soldiers ran towards me as I tried to fend off Abriel and let out a sharp cry of pain as one of them managed to just barely graze my side.

As I tried to regain my footing, Abriel reached over and grabbed my left arm fairly violently, and as he got ready to plunge his sword into my left eye, the door swung open with a burst of wind, and the woman from before stomped in.

Abriel shot a look over his shoulder and was soon met with a shot of black fire. Black fire? How could fire be...black?

Abriel shielded it with his sword and dug his feet into the ground. Though alas, the magic was too strong as it broke his sword and shot through his chest. He fell onto his back, and I watched as the soldiers quickly lowered their swords at the sight of the beautiful, fiery woman and got onto one knee.

I stared at Abriel as blood oozed as well as black smoke from his chest. Though, in the blink of an eye, it was gone. Gone. He still lay there, though, knocked out. How he was still alive and how his burn healed burned curiosity into my head.

"Yullete Yuleflame. You're to be guarding the room. Why did you enter?" The King roared as he gripped angrily onto his hair and ripping a few strands out in the process.

"Shut up, old man. I'm not your slave or some shit. If I want to do my own business and stop your men from monkeying around, I'll do as I please. I want some peace, and ever since this Princess "darling" entered the scene, it's been hog wild in this castle, and I'm tired of it. If I see any more squabbling or hear any more manly shouts of battle, I'm gonna turn this entire castle into my own personal fire pit." She spat.

The King just glared at her, not knowing how to respond to her.

"And you, Miss Pissbaby, he didn't kill your parents or your village. YOU did!" She said with a finger jabbed at me.