-Prologue-
"Mathias! Mathias, get back here this instant! You can't just abandon everything like this!"
The young man with wild hair glanced back for only a moment, shouting his refusal before scooping up his youngest brother and dashing off into the woods with another by his side. The best efforts of his pursuers were fruitless; despite their initial pleading and then their dogged chasing, the three rogue princes had managed to escape the castle and run out of sight. It was with great trepidation that the group of knights dispatched to chase them down returned back to the castle, internally bracing themselves for the king's certain rage.
The fellow unfortunate enough to have been chosen to inform their sovereign of what happened nearly had his head sliced off there in the throne room and had quickly absconded soon after. The king's head adviser was called in to try and diffuse his temper.
"-Such blatant disrespect, disregard for the kingdom, disregard for the man that raised them! They are no longer any sons of mine, I assure you!' he roared, slashing a family portrait with his gleaming sword. The adviser approached carefully, the calm little smile on his face wavering only once when the painting clattered to the ground.
"Sire, I am understanding your anger. But please, we have more pressing issue at hand right now," he began. The king laughed coldly.
"A more pressing matter than my three sons abandoning the kingdom. Please, Braginski, do tell what could be a greater concern than that," he asked mockingly.
Ivan Braginski pressed on, seemingly unfazed by his superior's tone. "Well, yes. There is a problem of the heir to your throne... Our earlier plan, obviously, cannot be going through as is now."
"Obviously."
"Not without adjustments, at least. It may still work, just with someone else..."
The king raised an eyebrow- he sheathed his sword, much to his adviser's relief- and crosses his arms. "There is no one else. Lukas was the only option."
Ivan gestured at the slight-looking figure standing in the doorway. "You have another child, sire."
"What?! That's ridiculous. If not in appearance than in character, it would never work-"
"There are no other options right now. Unless you are having yet another child whom you told no one about?" Ivan asked, blinking innocently and staring. The king's face reddened.
"Keep that up and I'll have your head on a platter," he muttered. "But I see your point. I don't like it... Though I suppose I don't have much of a choice. How soon can you have things ready?"
Ivan's face brightened. "Give me a month and the kingdom will have princess," he replies cheerfully.
The king nodded curtly before disappearing to his chambers.
From the doorway, a child never meant to be a princess watched in silence.
AN: So here I am attempting a full-length story. Dear lord have mercy. The title started out as just a tentative thing to refer to this story as but I couldn't think of anything better so here you go. (I think it sounds like the name of a Vocaloid song.) I make no promises about update speed, but with any luck I'll have another chapter posted before my birthday in June. I do have a rough idea of the general plot written up, so maybe that'll help? We'll see. I've never done this before. Also trying to write Ivan's accent out is going to be the death of me I'm terrified that I'm horribly fucking it up aaaaaaaaaaaah.