Chapter 1
It was a beautiful day in shin Makoku. The sun was out and everyone was going about their usual daily business in a cheerful way. There were no clouds to be seen and the sun was unbelievably hot. I happily noted that Greta was enjoying herself helping the maids with their chores. The bright smile on my daughters face made me happy. At that very moment everything was perfect with the world. I had finally formed an alliance with big Shimaron, even if relations were still rocky, and I had finally accepted that I was in love with Wolfram. Though I still needed to find a way to tell him that, I couldn't just scream it out to the world like he could, some of Earths prejudices on that matter were still within me even if I couldn't deny my feelings anymore, not that I wanted too. I had spent way too long trying to figure out the logic of love but now I realised that love was completely illogical, there was no science whatsoever behind it, it was a matter of the heart not the head. I suddenly realised how long I had been standing there staring happily at my surroundings. I was going to be late. There was going to be a meeting with the ten nobles today to discuss how to improve relations with the humans. Wolfram, Conrad, Lady Anissina and Lady Cheri would be there as well. I needed to hurry. A bad omen bird flew past me as I turned to leave, its high pitched squawking was nothing unusual, however, I noticed that they did seem a little bit restless today. I figured it was just because of the heat. I turned away and started walking towards the meeting room again. It suddenly felt colder and I had a bad feeling. I must be thinking too much though, right? That was when I was grabbed from behind. There was a hand over my mouth and my arms were pinned behind my back. I was helpless. My air was being cut off and I could barely breathe. My hands were aching from the pressure on them. What was going to happen to me? Who was this person? I was spun around to face whoever it was. I saw his face and strait away it registered in my mind. It was King Belal. A man who hated me for losing him his throne, a man who wanted nothing more than to break the alliances. He wanted revenge. At that moment he plunged a silver dagger into my stomach. I gasped and bent in towards the dagger. Bad idea, that made it slip in deeper. Belal laughed then roughly pulled it out of my stomach, enlarging the hole it had made. Blood gushed out and I collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. My eyes blurred as he knelt down beside me. I heard him whisper into my ear, "Maoh, you will die a slow, painful death due to this wound if you do not get it treated strait away. Oh but wait, if that happens the alliances will break for sure. The world will go into chaos and all this peace you built up will be shattered with the blink of an eye. What will you do? Willingly die or start a war once again? It's your choice and a win win situation for me!" he cackled menacingly as he walked away and I could do nothing to stop him.
I was starting to get impatient as was everyone else. Yuuri was running late. I couldn't believe it, this was a really important meeting and he knew it, even if he was a wimp. I reckoned he was talking to some pretty maid somewhere and cheating on me. That boy just didn't get it. Over the past few years I really, truly had fallen in love with him. As much as it pained me to admit it though, I knew Yuuri could never fall in love with me. It was an accidental engagement after all. I sat there staring out the window, my impatience growing by the second. That was when I noticed it, a huge flock of Bad Omen Birds, the size of which I had never seen before, flying towards the castle. They were screeching at the top of their voices "Bad Omen!" This amount of them together was not normal. But there warnings were always a load of crap, right? That's what I hoped anyway.