Royal Secret: I'm A Princess!

IT WAS a distant memory– a dark one, at that.

Nero scoffed while watching his ancestor, a stupid and cruel emperor, feast on the dead bodies of the male Rosehearts that he hunted down with some of his trusted high-ranking nobles. It was funny how those filthy bastards acted fancy while devouring human flesh with their elegant table etiquette.

[How pretentious.]

There wasn't an ounce of elegance in the way the stupid emperor and the nobles laughed while eating human flesh.

[Why would they even eat the flesh of male Rosehearts?]

Of course, he also got to watch how the stupid emperor and his cohorts hunted down their victims before that.

He didn't really feel anything aside from curiosity.

But it was pretty surreal to see the difference between his two ancestors.

The de Moonasterion emperor as the predator, and the male Rosehearts as the prey.

[Both of their blood are running through my veins.]

"P-Please help me…"

Hmm?

Nero was quite surprised when he saw a male Roseheart, probably around 15-16 years old, hiding under the table while looking up at him.

[Can he see me?]

"I d-don't want to die… not that way, at least… I want to die as decently as possible!"

Nero tilted his head to one side. "Unfortunately for you, I'm just a spectator here. I can't change the past, since this is just a distant memory of someone else."

The young boy, whose pink hair and blue eyes reminded Nero of his mother, cried helplessly.

That was when Nero realized that there was really something wrong with his brain.

[I guess Neoma and the others weren't kidding when they said I was crazy, cold-hearted bastard.]

He couldn't feel anything while watching the young Roseheart cry.

Not even when he was watching his ancestors get hunted down, or when the stupid emperor and the nobles began feasting on the male Rosehearts' flesh.

But he wasn't like he wasn't capable of loving and feeling loved.

"The problem is I have a small heart," Nero said, squatting down in front of the young Roseheart who was crying helplessly in front of him. "Neoma occupied more than half of my heart already. To be fair, I only recently made space for my mother and father. For Hanna, too."

Dahlia had always been in the corner of his heart, but he didn't dare say it out loud.

"It's not like I'm not capable of loving others," Nero continued. "I just have low empathy, so don't expect me to sympathize with strangers I just met– even though they're supposed to be my ancestors. I'm the kind of person who only cares about my loved ones, and there are only a few of them."

The young Roseheart, who could obviously hear him, trembled while giving him a look that said he was crazy.

"Don't get me wrong. Even though I'm not capable of loving people right away, I'm still a responsible person," Nero said. "I'm capable of caring about the citizens living in the empire. Hence, I will do my best to protect them and give them a comfortable life once I become the emperor. After all, Neoma loves people."

The young Roseheart seemed like to question him who in the world Neoma was.

"Ah, Neoma is my twin sister. She's the loveliest person in my world," Nero said, happy to talk about Neoma. He didn't like talking to strangers. But he didn't mind doing it if the topic was his precious twin sister. "You see, I want to be the person that Neoma allows to stay beside her. She knows I have a few loose screws in my head, but she still loves me. Hence, I try to pretend as normal as I can be in front of her."

This time, the young Roseheart was looking at him as if he had gone crazy for talking about someone who wasn't even there.

"If Neoma was here, she would have probably lost her mind already," Nero said, turning serious this time. "I can't feel anything right now, but I can guess how Neoma would feel if she was here. And I'll base my actions on how I think Neoma would react."

And if his twin sister was here, Nero was sure that she would cry for justice and revenge.

"Neoma holds grudges, so I'm sure she'd yell strings of profanities while swearing to avenge your poor souls if she was in my place. I don't know why my twin sister would waste emotions on people she doesn't even personally know, but who am I to question her feelings? Her ridiculous amount of empathy for strangers is one of the things I love about her anyway."

He opened his hand, silently summoning Zeru– his ice phoenix.

"I rarely get mad– but I always get even with the people who wronged me and Neoma," Nero said, grabbing the ice dagger that materialized out of thin air. "Hence, in the name of my kindhearted twin sister, I will avenge the male Rosehearts."

And then he stabbed the young Roseheart in the eye with his ice dagger.

As expected, the boy didn't scream.

After all, this young Roseheart was just a toy meant to invoke Nero's feelings of sympathy in a futile attempt to make him lose his mind.

He may have an unstable mind, but his heart wasn't weak.

"If you wanted to make me lose my mind, you should have used Neoma to rile me up," Nero said, laughing while pulling out the ice dagger. Blood sprayed on him, but he didn't mind because he knew everything was just an illusion anyway. "I will gladly lose my mind and unleash hell on the human world for my twin sister."

***

"AS LONG as it's not Neoma, I don't care who dies and how they die."

Dahlia felt a chill down her spine, a curse leaking out of her mind even though she wasn't used to swearing.

[Prince Nero… is a cold-hearted bastard…]

She thought it was the end of the Crown Prince's cruelty. Hence, she was surprised when hundreds– no, thousands of ice daggers suddenly appeared out of thin air.

Zeru, the ice phoenix, was suspended in the air right above them.

Dahlia got even more nervous when she saw Prince Nero holding a long ice dagger in each of his hands. "Prince Nero, what are you trying to do?"

It was rare to see the Crown Prince use a weapon in a fight.

[The de Moonasterios often fight with either their fists or their Soul Beasts.]

"I don't really enjoy fighting with weapons, but Father taught me that the most enjoyable way to obliterate your enemies is to stab them in the heart," Prince Nero said casually, without even blinking his now glowing red eyes. "You may want to use a barrier to protect yourself from the blood splatter that's happening in three seconds."

"What…?"

Before Dahlia could even finish her question, it really started to rain blood.

It was followed by the cries of the beasts surrounding them.

Although Prince Nero warned her that she might get bloodstains on her, it didn't happen because the Crown Prince created a barrier made of thin ice for her.

Even so, the barrier was transparent.

Hence, she saw how Prince Nero's ice daggers mercilessly killed the beasts around them.

"P-Prince Nero, we're here to save them!" Dahlia yelled when she snapped out of her trance, then she slammed her hands on the ice barrier separating him from Prince Nero. "Why are you killing the Soul Beasts we were suppose to free?!"

"That's exactly what I'm doing."

Dahlia didn't understand what the Crown Prince just said, and she didn't get the chance to demand an explanation from him.

After all, Prince Nero already charged at the fake Nero Roseheart.

And then she gasped at what she saw next.

Prince Nero ruthlessly stabbed the fake Nero Roseheart again and again.

Of course, the fake tried to dodge and defend himself from the Crown Prince's merciless attacks, but to no avail because His Imperial Highness was stronger and quicker.

And Prince Nero was laughing as blood sprayed all over him.

Dahlia trembled at the blatant display of Prince Nero's cruelty.

[Is Prince Nero and his madness the real Third Calamity that we must stop…?]

***

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