The Birth of The Prince and The Raven

Part 3

Rue Kuroha didn't normally consider herself unlucky.

She was the sort of person who strove to overcome odds rather than consider where or how those odds had come to be. It was how she had excelled against the great many challenges that life, the twisted sadistic bastard it was, threw at her.

Her father was an unpleasant and distant man who never hesitated to use the carrot of parental love to entice her to obey his every command. And of course, any failure was met with the stick of punishment.

It was a cruel and cyclical relationship that Rue accepted for the majority of her life. She attended her ballet lessons, excelled in school, and always presented herself as an elegant young lady for the public's eye.

She was in all ways the perfect daughter.

She didn't know how desperately she wanted freedom until the opportunity presented itself.

University was the opportunity she needed. She could leave Japan and study abroad in Germany, continuing to pursue her career in dance while studying language and politics. It was a dream come true.

A dream that made her realize how desperately she wanted to escape the cloying grip of her controlling father.

She strove harder than she ever had before. Persuading her father, studying to the point beyond exhaustion, and working her body until the very brink of destruction.

And all of it, every bit of it, had accumulated into her long sought after success.

No one would hit her. No one would beat her. No one would demand anything of her. She was free. She was finally free.

And on the plane ride on her way to the freedom that she had achieved after so much strife–Rue finally had the opportunity to consider herself unlucky.

Ah, of all things. How is it this?

She watched bitterly as the planes malfunctions caused her fellow passengers to panic. Perhaps it was because of the overabundance of times she had feared for her life below her fathers fist, but somehow she couldn't summon any fear.

She only felt bitter acceptance.

Rue silently closed her eyes and leaned back against her uncomfortable plane seat without regard for the chaos around her.

...I really am unlucky...

And once she'd opened her eyes, the world had become so much worse.

Or, more accurately, it had become more of the same.

Something snapped inside of her then. The moment she opened her eyes in the body of Princess Kraehe, the heir to Raven Tribe and 'beloved' daughter to the current tyrannical ruler of the tribe.

The same shit as before.

Rue really wasn't the sort of girl to resort to swearing. She was raised to have the utmost etiquette and elegance at all times. Maintaining her composure even in the face of potential death.

And yet, with her new father being nothing but a reflection of her old father. With the complicated relationship with the monarchy of the Nawsekal Kingdom, and her own patience for freedom finally snapping, Rue introduced some crude words into her vocabulary.

And she ran away. As fast and as thoughtlessly as possible, not stopping to find food or shelter, not caring if she rested or tore her body to shreds. Rue had only lasted three days in the body of Princess Kraehe before she made her escape.

Of course nothing had gotten easier from there and a great many people had taken it upon themselves to impress upon her the true depravity of humanity but Rue had never, even under the tyranny of her fathers wrath, been the sort of person to lose her grit for survival.

She'd survive. She'd live.

She was also just really, really hungry.

She couldn't say how many days, weeks, it had been since she'd started running but the exhaustion had finally clouded her senses enough that she openly stole from a bread store in a city that she had snuck inside of.

Without any identification or relations, there was only one place for her to go after committing such a crime.

None of this helped her to understand the jerky sitting between her and her cellmate.

It was the first 'lucky' thing to happen to her in a very long time and it was natural for her to distrust it.

The stranger showed absolutely no reaction to her after leaving it there. She wondered if that was his way of kindness, allowing her the peace of privacy as she struggled with indecision.

What worse thing could happen to her if she ate it...?

Well, she knew. She'd met plenty of awful people in both her lives who did cruel things to food.

Then again, he had no way of knowing he'd meet her and it appeared to just have been the only food he had on him.

She bit the inside of her cheek in thought, narrowing her eyes at the stranger... was he smiling? It looked like a gentle and sweet smile of an innocent man but what could he possibly have to smile about in these cells?

She frowned. He was suspicious. Super suspicious.

Rue made her decision. She cautiously reached for the jerky and snatched it, retreating back to her corner and holding it close to herself.

She wouldn't eat it until he was gone but she'd need something to sustain her eventually. She didn't know when the last time she'd eaten was.

Rue glared at him, hugging the jerky as though she was scared he'd ask for it back.

"Why... why are you here?" She felt awkward asking but she ensured she put power into her voice. She needed to maintain her composure, it was the only card she had left in this miserable life.

He shrugged, not looking at her. "I hit the territory lord's dipshit of a son." He looked a bit pleased at the memory.

She raised her eyebrow, curious despite herself. Wasn't he the one who had just told her that the territory lord was a fair man who would listen to her plights? "...why?"

Again he shrugged, the motion seemed to have a 'why not' hidden inside of it. "He ruined my lunch."

Rue clutched the jerky a bit fearfully, if he was a man who became violent over food then she wouldn't have much to defend herself with.

Whatever further inquiry might have occurred was interrupted by the sound of someone entering the prison area. Rue swallowed thickly, no one had come since they dropped off this man and she was hopeful that they would at least feed her. She hadn't been in the cells much longer than her cellmate and she was unsure if they fed their prisoners here.

She was expecting a guard or maybe a maid, she wasn't expecting a handsome man in flashy clothes with striking red hair to approach the cell.

She noted a few bruises and peeked cautiously at her cellmate.

He had a stoic expression but there was amusement in his gaze. "Feeling sober now, young master?"

Ah, she really didn't want to be involved in whatever this was. She really did have terrible luck.