One by one, all the nobles, royalties, and aristocrats left the now-ruined ball. And who could blame them? The 2nd princess had just taken her own life in the middle of the ball. Many fainted, some got sick to their stomach, while those who were close to the now-dead princess would not stop crying. 

All the staff members were running back and forth helping out the ones that got sick or passed out with the palace head housekeeper, a demon lady named Lilith, barking orders everywhere all the while attending to Irene, who unfortunately lost her cookies earlier. 

“Here, this cup of tea will help calm yourself and your stomach,” the head housekeeper said, putting the cup in Irene’s hands. 

“Thank you,” the young duchess smiled gratefully at Lilith. “I’m surprised you got all this together.”

“My father always taught me to be prepared for anything,” Lilith responded. 

“He taught you well,” Irene smiled, it reminded her of her birth father in a way as he would give solid advice to her.

“Thank you, Lady Irene Ironblood,” the demon curtsied, grateful for the compliment. 

“How did you know my name?” Irene asked, surprised. 

“As the head housekeeper in the palace, it is my job to know anyone that comes to the palace so I can be prepared for anything that happens.” 

“I’m impressed, '' Irene admitted after looking around, seeing that everyone was cared for by the servants, whether they were scullery maids or footmen every servant helped. 

“You should go and help the others out. They might need you,” Irene insisted. 

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Lilith asked. 

“Don’t worry… I’ve seen worse,” Irene reassured her. 

“The servants will be around if you need anything,” Lilith informed her before leaving to help out the other guests. Irene sighed, feeling depressed. Seeing Princess Aoife’s dead body triggered a bad memory of the day her parents died. She remembered it like it was yesterday…

…

It was evening and eight-year-old her was pooped out from spending all day at the amusement park, so her father carried her to the car.

“You had a good time, sweetie?” her dad asked. 

“Yeah,” the tired girl smiled, while her princess crown is slowly slipping off her head. Luckily, her mother grabbed it and held it for her daughter. 

“I’ll hold on to this for you,” her mom offered. 

“Thanks, Mommy,” Irene smiled, grateful for that. “I know you two were working hard at your jobs and had to leave me alone with a babysitter, but I am happy we get to spend time together. So… thank you, Mommy and Daddy,” she wasn’t sure why she said it, but she had a feeling, that she needed to say it.

Both her parents could not help but give her a big bear hug. Irene felt warm and safe in the arms of her parents. And that's when it happened, the bright lights from a fast approaching car, her parents shielding her and…

CRASH!!!!!!!!!! 

Irene was out for a few seconds before waking up on the ground, feeling sore and sitting up only to see her parents lying on the ground all covered in blood and motionless. The sight will remain in her head for the rest of her life. 

…

“Irene, there you are!” Magnolia said, relieved, as she hugged her daughter. 

“Mother, I’m sorry for worrying you. Are you alright?” Irene asked her mother. 

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. But I’m more worried about you. I mean, this happened right in front of you” her mother said, wanting to make sure her daughter was alright. 

“I’ve seen worse,” Irene said. 

Magnolia remained quiet, understanding what she meant. She remembered the nights Irene would run into her and Charles’ room, crying from nightmares about her birth parents’ death when she was a little girl. She would climb into bed and sleep in between the two. Sometimes, either she or one of the maids would come into her room and sing her to sleep, or have her drink some warm milk to help her fall back asleep. A part of Magnolia missed those times she could hold her beautiful blonde daughter and reassure her that all was well, but Irene has grown up and learned how to deal with her inner monsters. 

Still, what kind of condition makes you relive a horrible event in your mind over and over again? 

“Where are the others?” Irene asked her mother. 

“By the entrance, poor Violet is so distraught that she might not want to go to any more balls after this.”

“I wouldn’t blame her,” Irene admitted. She wouldn’t be surprised if no one wanted to return to the palace after this tragedy. 

But why would Princess Aoife do this? Did something happen that made her think the only way out was death? Unfortunately, they will never know. Irene then looked outside and there stood, King Hubert, Queen Lorelei, Anabelle, Dimitri, and the first prince Alexander Romenovy (Aoife’s twin brother) before the body.

But Irene’s attention was on Anabelle, crying in Zetian’s arms. Seeing one of her best friends like this broke Irene’s heart, she hated seeing her friends like this. Without thinking, Irene got up and walked up to the crying princess. 

“Is Anabelle going to be alright?” Irene asked Zetian. The foreign princess glared at the duchess, her eyes saying You seriously asking that question? Irene regretted what she said. Instead, Irene sat down next to the two princesses and hugged Anabelle from behind. All she could think to do was to rub Anabelle’s back and hum a melody. She remembered her new mother and, sometimes, one of the maids doing this for her when she was a child and woke up from that never-ending nightmare of her parent's death. 

“What's that you're humming?” Anabelle asked in between tears. 

“It’s called Lavender Blue. My birth mother used to sing it to me whenever I had a nightmare. I even taught it to my maids and new mother whenever I wake up from… that nightmare,” Irene explained. 

Anabelle understood what Irene meant by that nightmare as she remembered one birthday she and her friends had a sleepover and young Irene woke everyone up screaming and crying, some of the girls surrounded Irene and hugged and sang lullabies to her until she calmed down and fell back asleep. The princess still remembered the maids talking about how adorable that was when they came in to check on them. This was just like that sleepover, only now it was Irene’s turn to comfort her in her hour of need. 

“How does that song go?” Annabelle asked.

 “Like this” Irene smiled before singing softly.

Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly,

Lavender’s green

When you are king, dilly dilly,

I shall be queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,

Who told you so?

‘Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,

That told me so

Call up your friends, dilly, dilly

Set them to work

Some to the plow, dilly dilly,

Some to the fork

Some to the hay, dilly dilly,

Some to thresh corn

Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,

Keep ourselves warm

Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly,

Lavender’s green

When you are king, dilly dilly,

I shall be queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,

Who told you so?

‘Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,

That told me so.

Once done Irene noticed Anabelle was now leaning her head on her shoulder, crying a little. 

“That’s a nice song. Mind if I sing it when I’m feeling down?” the princess asked. 

“Go right ahead, I’ll even get you a music sheet if you like,” Irene offered. 

“Thank you, I am blessed with a wonderful friend,” Anabelle blubbered. Irene could not help but smile a little, helping others that I've been through the same thing helps you in the long run. Hopefully, she can help her friend out. 

In the corner of her eye, Irene saw Alexander lying on the patio floor. He was a dashing fellow in that white and teal formal military uniform with that scarlet red scarf tie and a pin of the family’s crest pined onto the scarf, and black boots to complete the outfit. The brown-haired, green-eyed prince was sitting right next to a maid, but not just any maid. She was the late princess’s maid, Loply Fluffington. She is a cute rabbit girl with short brown hair, rabbit ears, a fluffy tail, and ruby-red eyes.

Alexander was sitting right next to the rabbit maid, comforting her. She was there when the princess jumped to her death and she looked devastated. Irene thought it was sweet that the second prince was comforting her but they looked too cozy for her taste. Her thoughts were interrupted by Dimitri who came back from comforting his parents. 

“Is my sister alright?” he asked. 

“She’s going to need her family for the next few days,” Irene suggested. Annabelle then hugged her big brother. 

“Why would Aoife do this?” she cried. 

“I don’t know, but I will get to the bottom of all this,” he promised his sister. He then turned to Irene and Zetian. “Thank you for watching over her,” he thanked the two ladies. 

“We’re always there for our friend,” Zetian bowed to Dimitri. 

“And Irene, I’m sorry for not comforting you earlier” he then apologized. 

“I’m the one that told you to go to your family, there's no need to apologize,” Irene reminded Dimitri. “Besides, that new head housekeeper of yours took good care of me.”

“That woman is incredible, I’ll need to remember to reward her and all the staff that helped out later,” Dimitri said, grateful for Lilith. 

“I highly recommend it,” Irene agreed. 

“Sweetie,” Magnolia called out, interrupting the four. “It’s sweet that you want to help out your friends but your sisters want to leave as soon as possible,” Irene’s mother reminded her, mainly because she doesn't want to be anywhere near the dead body. 

“Sorry, Mother, I’ll be right over,” Irene apologized. “Sorry about this, guys.” 

“Don’t be, your family needs you as well” Dimitri smiled, reminding Irene what she said to him earlier. 

“Thanks,” Irene smiled at the prince. She then turned to her two friends and said, “Call me on the Orb if you two need help with anything.” The Orb is this world's version of a phone. If one wants to talk to someone quickly or if they are far away all they have to do is tell the round crystal ball who they want to talk to and it will show the user the image of the person on their Orb on the opposite side. It’s similar to a cell phone from Irene’s world, only it has no games or a texting function, but Irene’s okay with that. Anything is possible in this world, so who knows? Maybe in the future, those things will be possible. 

“We will, thank you,” Zetian bowed. 

“Thanks,” Anabelle smiled, sniffling her nose. It got stuffy from all that crying. 

The young noble was about to leave with her mother when she spotted the Queen arguing with Lucas about moving the body. The poor queen refused to believe her daughter was dead and Lucas, plus the king and a few of his men had to manhandle her so the other guards could do their jobs. 

“Poor Lorelei, no parent shouldn’t have to watch their child die like that,” Magnolia said, a little upset. 

“I don’t think anyone should lose anyone like that period,” Irene added. The whole thing reminded her too much of what happened to her parents, only no car or drunk driver. Just a depressed princess who thought death was her way out. 

While looking at the dead body, something caught her attention, which made her instinctively get up and walk over to it.

“Irene, what are you doing?” Magnolia asked, surprised. Irene got closer to the body, grabbing the guard's attention. 

“My Lady, what are you doing?” one of the guards asked. 

“I just noticed something. Do you see that mark on her neck?” Irene asked, pointing towards the dead princess’s neck.

The three guards preparing to move the body looked at Irene, confused. 

“Look at the marks on her neck,” Irene said, pointing at two marks on the princess. One was under the neck running up to the ears on each end while the second mark was straight around the neck.

“Well, what of it?” the second guard asked in confusion, with a hint of annoyance.

“The one under her chin was from the rope that hung the princess, but where did the second one come from?” she asked them. 

“Who cares? We need to move it!” the third guard said, incredibly annoyed. 

“Brody, don’t talk to my sister like that!” Lucas yelled at his subordinate. The poor guard stiffened up half out of habit and fear. 

“Sorry, sir, I had no idea,” Brody apologized, then added. “But we do need to move the body.”

“And I know my sister, she tends to notice things others are blind to,” Lucas said walking right up to Irene. 

“Irene, what are you doing? Your sisters are eager to get far away from here!” Magnolia scolded her daughter. 

“In a minute, I need to check something,” Irene said, ignoring her mother's plea. 

“Mother, please, let her do her thing,” Lucas reassured Magnolia, who was none too happy about it. He then turned to his sister and asked. "So, what's going on in that mind of yours" 

“Well, don't you think it's weird that the princess has two marks on the princess’s neck?" Irene asked her brother. Lucas looked at the neck, seeing that his little sister was right. 

"Yeah, that is weird. I know that one is from the rope that hung her,'' he said pointing to the one under the dead princess’s chin. "But what exactly is the second mark just below it?" He asked his sister. 

"It's oddly straight, so I doubt it came from the same rope," Irene guessed. "Unless…" her mind began pondering before turning to her brother and asking. "Can I see that rope Lucas?” she asked her brother. 

“What for?” Lucas asked. 

“I like to test something out,” Irene simply said. Understanding what she meant, he ordered his men to hand him the rope. “Thanks, now can you have one of your men choke me for a few minutes?” Irene asked.

To say that everyone present was shocked would be an understatement.