Just hours after their meeting concluded, the princess and her brothers held an assembly on their balcony. Through there they declared their abdication, and moments later, as the uproar had upturned the streets, they were nowhere to be seen. Having escaped the castle with full knowledge of the unrest that they'd just spread, the princess and the princes vanished into thin air, and not even their closest servants or advisors knew why and how things came to this point.

Beaten to the inch of their life by the enraged public and the mob sent by the nobles who'd supported the royals throughout the years, the servants were forced to flee as well, leaving just a handful of others who'd either locked themselves in inaccessible room or were hiding until things calmed for the next queen had already been named by the princess before she ran away with her family.

The nobles could try to defy that judgment when it came time to crown her; however, with support from the sages, no one else could take that seat. Holding such to be the truth, the survivors hoped to regain their jobs as royal servants or perhaps be granted greater honors to replace those they'd lost to the mob that day.

And a day it was, a monumental one. The tower itself was locked, with all the students locked within. Many noble families favored by the royals were assaulted in their homes, one of which just so happened to be Roxanne's family. Learning about the news through a speechman relaying the passing of countless noble houses, she was amongst the many within the halls of the tower lamenting their fate. Just yesterday, she was planning to visit them, and now they were gone.

Standing by her were her adoptive family, and although Freya's hug helped, her mind remained distracted. Hollow in the eyes, she stared at nothing. Her heart was sinking bit by bit, and yet the floor never hit. But sorrow wasn't what she felt, but a lack of sensation that seemed to draw from her senses.

Unlike her, however, many students were both saddened and excited by the news. Why? Because they were now the only heir of their family name. Hers, however, was not a similar fate. For her name had been cast aside long ago, and whatever her family owned would now belong to the next queen of their kingdom.

"Let's get back to our room," guiding Roxanne away from the hall, Freya gestured for everyone to follow her.

While she took everyone away from the main hall, a clone of Aura remained standing and listened to the rest of the names being spouted by the speechman. Many familiar names came up, all of whom she herself had roused the public against through mass hysteria. Controlling those poor souls, she'd drawn them to murder, only to withdraw from their minds as the blood pooled at their hands.

Coming to their senses with a bloodied dagger in hand, no sane person could remain the same, and that's exactly what had happened over and over again and throughout the kingdom.

As for the murder of Roxanne's family…

"No closure for you, little girl." Turning her head around, Aura smiled at the retreating frame of the healer. "You wanted to see them, huh? Well, too bad, I can't afford for you to close the doors on your trauma. How else will my master manipulate you? Don't make it hard on yourself, just go ahead and cry before I make it worse."

The mass murders and hysteria, all for the sake of breaking one girl's mental barriers. Some would've considered it insane, foul, or inhuman, but Aura was much more than that. And her torture? It had only just begun. A gift would soon arrive from someone and from somewhere, noted to Roxanne, and with something quite personal. For now, however, she wanted her to calm down just enough that what happens next would drag her through the mud into a sudden state of shock once more.

'I need to kill more people…' Turning her head to the front again, she started picking her next victims from the students. Someone gentle, someone warm, someone naive, and most certainly a pair to drag the dagger deep. 'There–'

A cold touch on her shoulder snapped her out of her head. Quickly turning around, she found Zephyr standing behind her with a dropped expression. Having ridden the high of being a monster for a while, the lows were crashing in on him and making him numb to anything and everything.

"Enough playing," lifting a soggy bag in his hand, he narrowed his eyes at his wife. "Her mother's head, why? She won't just break, she will shatter into a million pieces."

"I–" Warping the bag away into nothingness, Zephyr hushed her with a finger pressed onto her lips.

"Forget it, you've done enough damage for a day. Time to return to the rest and figure out our next step as a group." Though her eyes quivered from having disappointed her husband, Aura heaved a sigh of relief and nodded in agreement. Things could've been worse, after all, being in Zephyr's harem did not mean that you couldn't be kicked out for making stupid decisions. "I will go talk to the sage; that girl, Cill, and Glyea all need to come to an agreement."

"A-as you say…" Rushing off with fear of being reprimanded, Aura didn't waste a second in standing idle, for she knew what happened the last time someone from their group tested their patience.

Fire, blaze, rot, and the worst of nightmares, it was a spell of pure torment, one that rattled even her, for back then, she saw for herself something more evil than herself. Breaking that thought, however, came Zephyr's voice creeping into her head.

'I almost forgot. The princess made a deal with me. I will grant her every pleasure she desires, but obviously she didn't read the fine print.' Pausing for a moment, Zephyr took a deep breath and crawled out of the worst part of himself. Then, with his eyes wide open, he relayed some final words beyond heading for his meeting with the sage, the soon-to-be-queen. 'We have three bicorns now and two dogs like you wanted. Nyscella's the new one's name, treat her kindly and give her all that an ass like her wants and deserves…'

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