It was not long before the King had an audience with his wife to discuss the matters of Hong's increased injuries. Shiro was quite shocked and surprised that their mother would dare to harm Hong when the King of Roses was still within Castle grounds.

"Mother! Please calm down!"

She tried to reassure her mother, instead the Queen grabbed her by the wrist and stomped away. Shiro turned to look at her injured sister and tried to apologize, but Hong simply placed her finger between her lips.

Shhhh...

The Queen and her ladies-in-waiting that were trying to catch up watched as Shiro was pulled away from her sister. Shiro was stupefied and couldn't believe what had happened. Were all of her injuries done by their mother? As soon as the queen believed it was a safe distance, she stopped and turned to face her daughter. The striking resemblance between the two made others think that they were both princesses, not mother and child.

"DON'T EVER GO NEAR HER!" The queen cried.

Shiro couldn't say anything at first and tried to reason with her, "But why, mother?! She is my sister!"

"That demon is not your sister! She is a tainted demon whom your father has adopted."

Shiro froze. What did she mean?

"Your father and that demon's servant had a child!"

The ladies-in-waiting flinched. This was obviously not true, but they could not refute against their queen or else they would embarrass her. Shiro still didn't understand and continued.

"Mother! Hong and Mary-Ann have different looks, what are you talking about?"

The queen continued to scream and started to thrash about, nearly lunging at her own beloved daughter. Eventually the guards that were patrolling called upon the king and the two of them fought. It was as if there were two tigers trying to harm each other with their words. Shiro tried to make sense of what was happening before her, but then the bells rang.

"Someone get Hong!" The king ordered as he turned to leave.

At such a horrible time, the Thorn soldiers had infiltrated one of the nearby villages. Hong dressed herself in armor and took a soldier's sword as she didn't have her own. This sword in particular was one she was comfortable with and darted to meet her father. The two went to meet with the Rose soldiers before dispersing and Mary-Ann was left alone.

Mary-Ann had heard about the queen, the king and the second princess arguing and summoned Ducere.

"Yes, master." Ducere appeared out of thin air, "How may I be of service today?"

"Ducere," she smiled weakly despite her injuries, "Please protect Princess Hong and Princess Shiro."

Ducere's eyes widened, "...so it's about time?"

Before she could answer, Ducere disappeared and the Queen had found her. The battle with the Thorn soldiers would take a while so the Queen decided to take out her anger on her. The ladies-in-waiting were nervous, not knowing what the queen may do now that her violence had increased in measure.

The queen used to just kick and pull at her hair, but Mary-Ann always made sure to compose herself and never dared to scream out. Later, the queen resorted to using her fan and other objects to throw at her. There was nothing they could do but watch from the sidelines. The rules stated against them were that they could not disobey nor report to anyone other than his majesty about the queen.

"You..." She said in a menacing voice, "Come with me."

Mary-Ann followed behind the her and the two ladies-in-waiting behind her. One of them had a shiver down her spine. As they left, rain started to drop from the sky as if to answer their insecurities.

Something is not right...

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Shiro was unsure of what she saw, but decided to wait for her sister and father to return from where they came. The way they left seemed of utter importance, but why was it that no one would tell her what happened outside of the castle. She hated the fact that she was left in the dark. The bells tolling always signaled for something that caused her sister and father to disappear to.

Mary-Ann was taken by mother and it looked like Mary-Ann was talking to someone, but he disappeared as soon as he showed up. Who was he?

She turned to see the man in question. He had peculiar ears and eyes that resembled more of a cat's. Shiro decided to approach him, but he disappeared again and then someone screamed. She turned to see one of the ladies-in-waiting covered in blood.

"Your highness!" She clutched onto Shiro's dress.

"What's happened? What's wrong?"

Her hands were shaking and Shiro tried to calm her down until she saw the other lady collapse in front of her. Shiro tried to get up and nurse the other woman, but the shaking lady wouldn't let her budge.

"Her majesty...she..." She started to confess.

"What about my mother?"

"She...killed Mary-Ann," she took a breath, "then killed herself."

Soldiers that returned from the outside happened to see the princess in the rain and the Queen's ladies-in-waiting in a state of shock.

"Princess!" One of the soldiers called, "What is wrong?"

Shiro's eyes seemed to have turned blank as she slowly rose her hand and pointed in the direction of where the lady had fallen. Another soldier ran towards the fallen lady and tried to awaken her. The soldier that called out noticed that the princess was pointing farther into the distance and a shiver went down his spine. As if the cold wind blew, a body was hanging by a nearby tree and below her was a dead servant that had a fan stuck in her body.

End of Chapter 9..........................................................................................................................