The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Fiore's castle, dungeons]

"This whole place is way too creepy... and quiet." Emily thought to herself as she looked around suspiciously at the cells that she walked past. As she walked, she could hear chuckling and whispering echoed throughout the premises, following closely behind her.

She swallowed and reminded herself to calm down. "Calm down, just ignored them. Calm down, just ignored them. Calm down, just ignored them. Calm down, just ignored them. Calm down, just ignored them..." After all, she was the one was said that she wanted to come here in the first place, it will be embarrassing for her to chicken out now.

Just as her thoughts began to overwhelm herself, Jai's voice penetrated them, bringing her back to reality. "Here, it is."

Emily looked up and saw a cell with a black-haired guy huddling up at a corner. His rather long hair was draped over his face, showing not a single bit of his features. He seemed to be shivering, which was not surprising to Emily because the dungeon was chilly.

Jai went over to one of the guards outside the cell and said a couple of things that Emily could not hear. In response to them, he nodded and bowed to him, before opening the cell gates.

He walked in first while Emily followed behind. Ben decided to stay outside the cell and instead observed him from there.

Once she entered the confined room, her eyes widened.

He was so badly injured that Emily could not stand to look at him. Looking at him, just made her nauseous.

"This is... Erik?" She asked as she turned her head away.

"Yes, this is Erik," Jai replied as he looked at her sympathetically.

Upon hearing his name, Erik moved a little, raising his head. He turned and looked over to Emily. He gave her a smirk, "What are you doing here, princess? Are you here to get revenge for Damian? Because if that's true, you can come at me now. However, there's no guarantee that I will not attack back. Who knows what I can do even with these shackles on?"

Even though his voice sounds irritatingly arrogant for someone stuck in a cell, her heart told her that he was just faking it. She noticed a hint of sadness in his smirk and voice. It was as if he was saying all of that to keep them away from him...

Without saying anything, Emily began to walk quietly towards the injured guy. She kneeled next to him and looked at the bruises and gashes he had all over his body.

"Are you deaf? I knew the princess was a little retarded but I didn't know that you were deaf too, heh. If that's the case, don't blame me if--" Without letting Erik finished his sentence, Emily interrupted him, "...Why?"

Emily did not know where she got all the courage from, but one thing she knew was that all her fears that she initially felt had all melted away.

"Why did you lie?" Emily asked for the second time.

This time, Erik's eyes showed some sort of bewilderment, the question obviously caught him off guard.

However, he immediately returned to his cold dead eyes, "What do you mean?"

"You know, what I meant. The killing of the two other surviving members and you being not involved in the Jackson Clan." Emily replied as she pushed him further, "So, why did you lie?"

"That wasn't a lie, it was the truth." Erik shot back as he looked away for a moment.

"That's not the truth. I want to save you, so just tell me the reason for lying." She argued back, her voice sounded slightly desperate.

"Ha, save me?" He spat back with a grin, "It's hard to believe that you want to 'save me' when you have those two behind." As he said it, he jerked his chin towards Jai and Ben.

"Fine." Emily said as she stood up, "Jai, Ben, could you two go out for a sec. I want to talk to him privately."

"I'm sorry, Emily. I can't let y--"

"Please." She said with slight desperation.

Suddenly, Ben broke a laugh, "You're amusing. Come on, Jai. Since that's what the princess wants, let's just obey." He then turned to Emily, "If anything happens, just scream. We'll come running over."

"Ben, we can't just..." Jai protested, but Ben went in the cell and basically pulled him out, "Remember Emily is our leader, so we got to listen to her. If something happens we will just save her once more and that isn't new, right?" That last few words made Emily felt a little embarrassed.

Before she knew it, the two of them were left alone in the cold and empty cell.

"So, do you believe me now?" Emily asked as she turned to look at Erik, "I really want to save you as a favour for Zack."

Erik did not say anything at first, he was not looking at her as well. However, after a good few seconds had passed, he muttered under his breath, "...You're ridiculous."

"I know, it's not the first time I heard this." She laughed as if she was proud of that.

"Let me ask you this first, aren't you afraid that I might do something or that the other phantom members might suddenly break in to save me?" Erik asked her as he was still averting his eyes.

"No." She answered as she stared blankly at him.

"Wow, that's a quick response." He thought as he was finally beginning to look at her in the eye, "What? You're really confident about your ability, huh."

"No, I'm not. I just believe that no matter what happens, they will come and find and save me. So, there isn't anything to be scared of." She explained as she flashed him a smile.

Erik scorned, "How naive. Even though you keep believing like that, it doesn't mean that they will save you every single time. They are bound to screw up one day."

"So what? If they screw up that just means that they did, in fact, tried to save me and I think that itself is good enough for me. I wouldn't blame them if something like that happened." She debated.

Erik was stunned, he did not expect something like that from her. He never thought the fourteenth princess was someone this innocent, someone completely different from her parents. Somehow, her personality reminded him of his best friend and, at some point in time, loved

Lilian.