Prince Adira and his little sister princess Kyrana, two young children who never even experienced adulthood yet was forced to visit their father, the emperor at the true palace, the palace beneath the surface.

They entered one of the clock towers and the secret passage magically appeared, they walked down with the knight escorting both of them from behind creating two rows of male knights and it really attracted a lot of attention from all of the concubines of the emperor.

From age fourteen to age twenty fives, all of those concubines were specially selected just to fulfill their job serving one duty to share the passionate night with the emperor.

Kyrana and prince Adira didn't even know who was their mother among those two thousand concubines.

Those women upon seeing the fit and handsome knights was nervous hiding their desire could only glance from their little house which was the reward from the emperor.

And not different from all of those concubines, those knights were talking and admiring the beauty of those ladies.

Even though they did the same thing as staying inside their little house, but they all shared the same thing, none of them was loyal to the emperor.

If it wasn't for the tight security at the exit, they would already leave. Who would want to live underground like a rat without even seeing a gleam of sunlight for more than a decade?

"We greet the sun of our empire. Hail the Emperor, long live the emperor." they kneeled down in front of the door to the throne room on the floor chanting the greeting formality and as the door was opened for them, that emperor who was their father didn't even bother to put on a good father performance for their children even Kyrana who was only four to five years old at that time.

"Mmph...there, there~Wait in your room tonight, okay???" that emperor had the audacity to wink to his concubine as he gently told them to go.

His face was full of lipstick and one of his concubines, more like a servant had to crawl up to his feet without raising her head to pull the zip for him.

Sitting on the throne showing his abs full of sweat, even kneeling one meter away from him, Kyrana almost fainted because of that disgusting perfume.

"Emm, you are..."

"I'm the 42nd prince, Adira. And this is the 90th princess, Kyrana."

"Yeah, yeah...so, what do you want?? Money again?? You should just ask your nanny...don't you see I'm busy??" that emperor waved his hand while eating the grape those concubines picked for him. Kyrana at that time really wanted to be the one who was feeding him, if she was that person, she would poison him but she had to suppress her though forcing a smile.

"We didn't come for money, as you know...we're in charge of building relationships with the other empires."

"Ah, that?? Isn't that useless??? Who could even defeat us??"

'You damn old man, if it wasn't for your children, you will die long ago.' was prince Adira's thought, he clenched his fist again.

"Well, just sign this paper...we need your approval. I know you hate seeing me, so...just get it over with."

"You're really my favorite child...emm...Kira..."

"It's Kyrana."

"Yeah, Kyrana...I'll try to remember that. You know...I'm having a lot of children, so you won't be mad at me, right??"

Kyrana's eyes twitched in frustration seeing him playing with the feather like that, she was frustrated to see how he kept talking about this, about that wasting her time instead of signing the paper.

"I can't just sign like this, I want to know about its content." the prince almost snapped, the reason he kept silent the whole time was that he knew once he uttered a word, it will turn into a fight and blood will splatter all over the place.

And that blood won't be the emperor's blood. It will be his since, at their current state, there was absolutely no way for them to defeat the emperor.

"AHAHA, it's just about me holding a ball in my palace."

"Is that it??? Oh come on, you should have just sent someone." that emperor laughed it off and signed it just like that.

"See you next time, your majesty."

"We shall take our leave." the prince finally opened his lip saying farewell to his father with the letter of approval in his hand.

Using the illiterate weakness of the emperor to their advantage, they were able to get him to sign approval for prince Adira to be the one in charge of the empire for a day.

"Bringing you with me is really helping me a lot."

"If it's all, I'll also take my leave. I need to go to the tea party of the first princess." Kyrana bowed at her brother taking her then leave walking to the tea party as she said.

They greeted her with the dagger, the only person who was sane was the first prince. Other than him, all the children from five years old up were all psychos.

The dagger would stab right in Kyrana's chest if she reacted only a second late.

"I invite your brother, not you!!"

"Too bad he won't come again...for the twentieth time." Kyrana really enjoyed teasing her half-sister, she was the oldest princess of all but she was only fifteen years old. She was a brat in Kyrana's eyes.

Even without a warm welcome, Kyrana went to sit across her furious tsundere sister.

"Why didn't he come this time??"

"He is busy..."

"I'm tired of that excuse!!!"

"Well, unfortunately, I told you the truth this time. He's really busy." a dagger cut off some of Kyrana's hair dropping to the ground.historical

"You...you lied...to me..."

"Well...I have something to make up for it. Tomorrow will be...urgh..." Kyrana showed disgust in her face when seeing the silver spoon turned black as soon as she dipped it inside the cup of tea that the lady poured for her.

"Oh?? What's wrong?"

"Nothing...I just prefer coffee for today."

And the coffee was given to her, she drank it and then spat it out right after when her half-sister was distracted by the butterfly she fooled her.

"Look, a butterfly!!!"

"Anyway, tomorrow, there will be people from another empire visiting our empire. So please put on a good image." Kyrana squinted her eyes seeing how low that woman's standard was for her to wear such a shabby dress even when she was a princess.

"Don't tell me what to do...idiot."

"You might even get yourself a good prince to marry, so please...give it your best shot at giving the first impression. I heard there might be two or three princes coming."

"Why did they come here again? Are they out of their mind?"

"Something about peace, I can't believe them for thinking peace is even an option." Kyrana snickered as she told a joke to the lady sitting across from her but somehow she didn't get the reaction she thought she would get from that lady.

"Kyrana...you know...I think..."

"I don't want to hear that from you...we'll never find such a thing as peace. So keep your feeling in check, not everyone cares for you just because they give you a flower as my brother did."

"But that flower was the thing cheering me on..."

"For the hundred times, I know that story already. And that flower was a flower he picked from a cactus...actually, never mind." Kyrana stopped at mid-sentence seeing a bunch of cactus in the garden of the first princess.

The first princess was a fan of the cactus. And telling her that won't change her mind either since she saw the flower her brother gave to the first princess was put in a frame hung on the wall of the garden.

"Princess Lyria, just to be sure...what dress will you wear for tomorrow's ceremony??"

"I don't need you to worry about that. Are you looking down on my standard?"

"Ye...just show me." Kyrana followed the first princess to her wardrobe full of weird dresses in it, not a single one she wore made other people know she is the princess. She dressed like a commoner, no, even worse than a commoner.

"Where's your best dress?"

"Here it is..."

"Just for my sake, please change it."

"You hurt me, you know..."

"Yeah, please...I'll lend you my dress."

"How am I gonna fit in it?"

"I have many dresses I bought, so just use it."

"Alright..." even the first princess couldn't believe what she was holding in her hand which she called her best dress. In order to bury this embarrassing moment, she decided to go along with Kyrana and burn that dress the next day.

The day of the royalty from the southern empire arrived, was it fate that made Kyrana meet the youngest princess of the south that year??

"Greeting, princess Athena."

To be continued....!