The Duke's Daughter

Chapter 1

"You can't escape now Selena" Luke pointed his gun at her. Selena looked at the man in front of her. She still can't believe that she trusted him. She's really a fool.

"Why are you doing this Luke?" Selena asked, her voice devoid of emotions. She no longer knows him. He is not the same Luke, her best friend, her childhood friend. 

"Because you tried to turn your back on the organization" 

Selena shook her head and smiled sadly. 

"You knew I wanted a simple life, a normal life where I don't need to kill innocent people. I am tired of living with blood in my hands!"

"You also knew that the moment you entered the organization, there's no turning back Selena. The organization will not let you off the hook. A normal life? That's complete bullshit! You will never have a normal life. Your hands will be forever stained by blood. So choose, go back to the organization or you'll end up dying here." 

Selena looked around. She was surrounded by Luke's men on the deck. 

Supposedly, she was about to escape the organization and live far away when Luke cornered her. At that moment, Selena already knew that Luke betrayed her.

"I planted bombs on this ship Selena, one wrong move and all of us will be dead" His lips curled up into a menacing smile. "Do you want to harm those innocent people inside this cruise ship?" 

Selena looked down while clenching her fist. She doesn't want to go back to the organization anymore. She doesn't want to go back to that kind of life. 

"Tell me Luke, did you truly care for me?" Selena asked, almost whispering.

"Care? That's only for the weak," Luke's words are full of mockery. 

Selena curled up her lips and asked, "Do you really want to kill me?" 

"If you won't go back with me, then I have no choice but to kill you with my own hands."

"Then I won't let you be satisfied with my death." She stepped backward and quickly let herself fall in the sea, not giving Luke a chance to react. 

She smiled sadly. The only person whom she trusted betrayed her. What is her purpose of living? So she might as well end her life. 

“Selena!” The last thing she saw was Luke’s pale and shocked face as she let herself fall into the sea.

'Why are you wearing that expression Luke? Ah, you are really a two-faced bastard' 

Splash! 

Selena felt the cold water surrounding her. She's losing her breath. Selena raised her hands trying to reach the light coming from the sun, as if she was able to touch it. 

'Hah. Life is really unfair huh? Did I do many bad things in my past life to deserve this?'

She only wanted to experience a normal life. Is it really hard to achieve? Why is her life so complicated?

Selena was an orphan. She was left in front of the orphanage when she was a baby. She grew up with nuns taking care of her. But the orphanage doesn't get a lot of financial support, making it hard to survive. With the constant increase of children being left in the orphanage, it's lucky enough if they were able to eat twice a day.

At the age of 7, Selena was adopted. She thought this would be the turning point in her life. But life is cruel. The couple who adopted her died in a car crash one week after she was transferred into their household. 

Their relatives blamed it on her, saying she was a cursed child. Selena was abused physically for a year and later on, she decided to escape. For several days, she stayed on the street. Begging for money, begging for food. 

Then she met a man named Uno. He helped her once when she was being harassed by some street addicts. 

The first words he told her were "Life is unfair, isn't it? Do you want to change your life?"

Selena was a naive girl back then. With all the things that happened to her, all she wanted was to escape her cruel fate. 

Not knowing the true meaning behind those words, she extended her hand and accepted Uno's offer. 

Then she entered the organization and was trained as an assassin. There she met Luke, her partner, the only person she trusted aside from Uno. 

At first, Selena was happy. Because she found a home. She killed people, but she has no regrets because all of them were bad people --- drug dealers, people involved in illegal activities and bad politicians. Why would she feel guilty? She's only removing the stains in society.

Not until she accepted a mission. A mission to kill an innocent family. She realized that this organization, whether the person is innocent or not, as long as it is an order to kill, you have no choice but to take their lives.

She endured the guilt of killing innocent lives several times. But she reached her limit. She thought to herself, is this really the life she wants? 

Selena decided to quit, but Uno won't let her so she escaped instead. Her mistake is that she trusted Luke so much, telling him all her plans.

Selena closed her eyes. This is the end of her life. She didn't even get a chance to find her real family. She was not able to make up for all the mistakes she'd made. Maybe in her next lifetime, she will be able to experience the warmth of a family, a happy and normal life, that feeling of being romantically in love. Maybe…

Then a bright light suddenly came out from her ring. Selena opened her eyes. What’s happening? 

She felt something was pulling her soul. 

Is this what it feels like when you are dying? Ahhhh, it’s painful. Selena thought to herself.

“Young lady!” Selena felt someone tapped her cheeks multiple times.

“Young lady, please wake up!” Young lady? Why is she hearing something? Is this the afterlife?

She felt cold as the wind brushed her skin. Wind?

She coughed and felt something come out from her mouth. She weakly opened her eyes. 

Selena saw an unfamiliar face of a girl dressed like those maids in anime. 

Huh? What’s this? She thought to herself.  

“Young lady! Thank goodness you’re alive!”