I must admit, for a giant walrus looking blob of fat, Emperor Grant sure had a nice castle. It was a tall steel and glass contraption with a hundred rooms. The country of Ranford was like something out of a fairy tale: thick murky forests, secluded waterfalls, little wooden huts scattered about the wide country side.

Despite its beauty, there was something off about Ranford. There were hardly any people. Occasionally you'd see someone walk into a store or building, but asides from that nothing. The only regular people I saw where the ever present guards patrolling the streets.

I tried to ask where all the people where, but the only other person who would talk to me was the Emperor and I was staying as far away from him as possible.

Instead, I planned to stay in my room for the rest of the month until the wedding. I didn't have to see him until the then. I hadn't seen Jack or anyone else since I left, and I didn't plan to. No one was allowed in or out of the country until the wedding. For security purposes I was told.

The emperor tried to lighten my mood by sending me gifts and offering wonderful dinners, but every gift he sent was dashed against the wall. Every meal was eaten in my room. As we got closer to dooms day, I stopped eating completely, and just stayed buried under the covers.

"Another gift from his highness," a maid said and dropped a small white package by my head.

We had long done away with formalities. She had been attending to me since my first day there. She knew how I felt, and was full of pity.

"Just leave me alone, Colette! I don't want any stupid gifts," I moaned.

"Aw, are we getting cold feet?" she cooed and brought her eyes level to mine. "There's only a week before the wedding!"

"I envy the dead" I whispered

Tears streamed down my face and soaked the pillow. My stomach ached from days of disuse, and I was getting bedsores.

Colette was silent for a second before leaning real close to me. "Well how about I do you one better; what if he was dead?"

My ears perked up and I turned to her. "What do you mean?"

She looked at the door and took a deep breath. "Listen, and listen very carefully. How far would you go to be free?"

"As far as I could. I would do anything," I answered immediately.

She swallowed and closed her eyes. "Ok Duchess, I might have a way to get you out of this but you have to trust me. You have to swear that you'll keep this between us."

I raised an eyebrow and sat up. "What exactly are you saying? You would betray your own ruler?"

"Keep your voice down!" she snapped. "Emperor Grant is not exactly the best Emperor in the world. He's a tyrant. He's stripped us of our rights and our wealth. He taxes us up to our necks. We would've revolted years ago if it weren't for the hundreds of armed guards he keeps at every corner to squash every rebellion at the seed. Now for years, I've been part of a resistance group that's been trying to regain our rights, but Grant is just too strong. We've been slowly watching our country fade away under his iron thumb. But then you came and now you might be our only chance, because he'd never expect you to do something. You've only been here a three weeks. So I figure that if you help us, we could help you. Understand?"

She leaned away and exhaled.

The clock ticked as I contemplated her words. "How exactly could we help each other?"

"Once you got married you would own Ranford. The wedding was supposed to unite our two lands to make a stronger state. Except as soon as you both were married he'd take over your country and impose his totalitarian law over everything. "

"Why are you telling me this? Isn't this treasonous information that could result in everyone getting killed?" I asked. From what I've seen in movies, rebels aren't supposed to be advertising their plans like it's some kind of sale.

She looked away. "You're our last chance at freedom. Once you're married there would be no need for Grant. The country would immediately fall under the joint rule of you and King Benton."

I shook my head and tried to understand what she was saying. "H-how exactly would you get rid of Grant?" My voice got lower with the brevity of my words.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and she shot up. "Later. I'll come back later, but until then please try your best to get on Grant's good side, and for god's sake be discrete. Don't mention this to anyone!"

The knocking grew more persistent and she rushed to the door.

"Wait! What am I supposed to do?" I cried after her.

"To start, you could come down and eat dinner in the dining hall." She threw open the door and standing there were three maid's carrying several white boxes with cream bows.

"More gifts from his Illustriousness, Lady Cassandra," one maid said with her nose high in the air. "Shall we throw them in the fire or you would you like to open them before having them destroyed?"

Colette inclined her head towards me before walking out.

"I'd like to keep them, if that's ok with you," I said. "And if there's still time, I'd like to attend lunch today. Please inform m-my future husband that I'm in a much better humor today."

They stared at me, before one of them nodded and rushed out and the other two began opening the boxes.

A maid with dark red hair pulled out a striped summer dress and laid it on the bed while a tall one laid out a bunch of accessories.

Sunglasses, a bracelet, a necklace, shoes and a summer hat that all matched the dress.

The maid with the stuck up nose ran into the room, "His illustriousness would be delighted to have you and demands that you come down immediately." Her breaths came out in harsh gasps.

She snapped to the other two and bum rushed me, armed with the gifts. In a few minutes I was dressed and combed for the meal.

The heels were high, but I managed to hobble to the dining hall without breaking anything.

I hadn't been to any other part of the castle since I first arrived, but the dining hall was even more beautiful than I remembered. The ceiling was high and had a long glass chandelier shining on the gold and blue finish that painted the walls and furniture. It would have been perfect if it weren't for the fat tub 'o' lard stationed at the other end of the long mahogany table.

He smiled and the sweat glistened off his pale and dimpled hide.

"Why good morning. I had begun to think that you didn't like me," he slithered.

I kept my head down and suppressed a deep sigh. I wondered what Colette meant by getting rid of the Emperor.

"Tonight's weather is supposed to be lovely," he continued. "Mayhap you would like a guided tour of the capitol. You should at least see the country before you start ruling it."

I nodded absently and picked at my now cold food. His cold gaze stayed on me for a few more seconds. "Our wedding is in less than a week, and you look like death personified. Tell me, what would make you happy?"

"Nothing," I said automatically. The thought of taking anything from him disgusted me. A cruel smile spread across his face and I stared back down at my plate.

"Interesting," he said. "Is that all you want?"

I nodded slowly.

"Consider it your first wedding gift. Now how about a ride about town as my wedding gift?" He rang a tiny gold bell and a bevy of servants appeared.

"Lead Lady Cassandra to my convertible, I'll be there shortly," he said to them.

The top was already down on the cherry red Ferrari. At least we wouldn't have to breathe the same air.

As soon as I reached it, Colette appeared with tall red headed man.

"What did you do?" She whispered furiously.

I stared at her and then at the man. "What?"

"He's doubling the security for the wedding! Didn't I say to be discrete?" She glared at me. The man pursed his lips and shook his head.

"I d-don't know what I did…who're you?"

Colette turned to the man as if she just remembered he was there. "This is Jen; he's the one who came up with the plan that might be useless now."

"It's not useless. We still might have a chance. She's just going to have to do it herself now." Jen said.

"What?!" Colette exclaimed. "She can't do it! We're asking too much-"

"Nothing is too much when it comes to Ranford," he snapped. Jen turned to me with a grave look. "Lady Cassandra, the fate of our countries depends on you now. You're our last chance, but the choice is yours. I'm not going to waste any time coddling you. You're going to have to kill Grant yourself. Before the security hike we were going to plant an assassin, but now the only who can get close to him after the wedding is you."

"WHAT? I CAN'T DO THAT!" I screamed. They both shushed me.

"Don't worry, as queen no one will be able to touch you," Jen continued. "It's just a matter of if you'll be able to do it. The choice is yours."

I looked to Colette for help but she just licked her lips hastily and began walking away. "You need to find a way to regain his trust, so think of something quick. Don't worry, we'll discuss this tonight."

I jumped when the door opened and the Emperor climbed into the driver's side. "Who was that?" he asked.

"No one! Just servants," I said quickly.

"When you're queen, you won't be able to talk as freely to the peasants as you do now. Now, on with the tour." He revved the engine and sped down the driveway.

The town was devoid of any real life as per usual. Only guards could be seen milling around.

"Isn't it beautiful?" he said. "A whole city cleansed of the garbage and riffraff. A country that is governed by efficiency. You see how empty the streets are? That's because they're all working. We have the lowest crime rate of the whole continent."

"But when do people get to see each other?" I asked.

"We have holidays, of course, and every week we have free day where the citizens are allowed to take a day off from work and socialize. I've been thinking about making it every other week though. What do you think?"

A little girl in one of the houses stared after our car through a high window. I needed to find a way to gain his trust. "Actually, Emperor Grant, I've been thinking about the wedding."

"Oh?"

"Would it be so terrible if we moved it up a few days? There's no need to wait a whole week," I said.

He raised an eyebrow. "I must say, your latest mood is by far the best. Very well. We'll move-"

He was cut off by a loud shriek. Two guards were cornering a tall thin girl against a shop wall.

"Wait!" I yelled and jumped out of the car before he stopped. "Get off of her!"

Note 12: There is no off switch for an adventurer.

The guards turned their heads to me and sneered. "What are you doing outside? Bad mistake, lady. Get over…"

The guard trailed off as he realized who was sitting in the convertible behind me.

"Pardon me, milady. I didn't know who I was speaking to. It's just that no one is allowed after curfew. New law, m-milady," he stuttered.

"That doesn't excuse whatever you were doing to her," I snapped. The girl was still quivering against the wall and I held out an arm to her. She ran behind me and hid.

"It'll be ok," I whispered to her. "Emperor Grant, please go back without me. I'm going to make sure she gets home safely. Guard, walk ahead of us and make sure we don't run into anymore trouble."

I walked off before he could say anything and the girl ran after me.

"Thank you so much, Duchess Cassandra. I am eternally grateful," she said in a hushed voice.

"No problem."

"I can't believe I'm actually talking to you. The whole country is quivering about the upcoming wedding. The papers haven't been able to catch so much as a photograph of you."

"You have reporters?" I asked.

"No. We have government issued newspapers."

"I see."

We stopped in front of a plain gray building. "But, I know that you'll change things," she whispered.

"Really? How do you know?"

She opened the door and smiled broadly. "Everyone knows about you. You were a Sang Royale to the Hunters. They are wonderful rulers who understand their people. We've seen all the press conferences you've done with them and interviews. We know how you wanted to be an airplane pilot."

In the background a guard coughed in order to hurry her up.

"And we know that you won't let us down…Queen Cassandra."

She ducked inside and I was left staring at the door in awe. They were all depending on me and I didn't even know it. All I could concentrate on were my own selfish troubles while a whole country was being torn apart.

That night, Colette came as promised.

"Look, I don't want to put any pressure on you but here. Just in case the opportunity arises," she handed me a small glass vial filled with black liquid. "Put this in his drink. It'll take care of everything, but remember you must do it after you're married, otherwise everything will fall apart and we won't have a queen or a king."

"But-"

She clapped my back and ran out of the room like a football quarterback.

The vial wasn't heavy or ostentatious. This was capable of killing a man. Not even a man, my husband.

Was I really capable of taking someone's life even if it would save thousands of other people? Why was that my responsibility? This wasn't my choice. Did he deserve it? Who was I to make that decision?

Could I really kill him?

There was a knock at the door and I fumbled with the vial before slamming it into drawer.

"Yes?" I called.

"You have a visitor, milady," a high voice called out.

I rolled my eyes. Friggin' Emperor. "Come in."

The door creaked opened and I waited for the noxious smell of sweat and hate to seep into the room. I stared out the window to avoid having to look him in the eyes.

"I didn't think three weeks and eternity were the same thing." A voice breathed into my ear.

I stiffened before whipping around throwing my arms around him. "OH MY GOD! JACK!"