The Chosen Ones

CHAPTER ONE -A NEW PAGE-

Girls are supposed to have long, sleek black hair and to be pale. Their fingernails are usually long, clear, and dazzling, and their fingers should be long and thin. Girls should have slim, slightly lanky necks. Their bodies should be as slender as a tree twig. Oh, and their faces are what matters the most. It ought to have an oval shape. The eyes must be big and spaced equally. A smooth, rounded, and slender nose is required. The lips must be thin and pink. That is how people in my time define the beauty of a woman.

Unfortunately, I don't have the same perception of beauty as my mother has. Because the scars that cover my hands are large and harsh. I have a tanned complexion, which in my country is regarded as the colour of slaves. Because of the manly nature of my body, I am not as thin as the girls you see going down the street. My eyes are large, but the colour of my iris is an abhorrent scarlet red. What most perplexes people about me is my hair. It has a light turquoise hue. As you may think, dazzling white hair and a dark tan skin tone don't go well together on a female. I look very foreign for a princess of Tatsuya.

All because of the gossip about my appearance, my father's status has fallen. Particularly after the passing of my mother, he began to disregard me more. He spoiled Keton and Ayoto, my two older brothers, far more than me. My father began to treat me abusively more frequently after his second marriage. I started having scars because of him, but deep inside I know that he still loves me, he has just been brainwashed by my new stepmother who I despise utterly. I wish she was gone, I really do, but she seems so nice to my brothers that if I complain about her, I might seem selfish and I don't want to sound like that. So, I shut my mouth even though I know that keeping my mouth shut will only get me closer to death.

Shenlong is Tatsuya's greatest enemy, and mine too. I hated that kingdom more than anything. My mother was slaughtered by their ruler; I wonder if my life could have been different if she had remained with us. Although I am not very knowledgeable about Shenlong culture and traditions, I am certain that the royal family is nothing more than a bunch of pigs with a powerful army and abundant resources—things that we Tatsuya do not possess. Spirits are the only thing we have. Spirits are seen as magically capable beings. Even if we have little hope of defeating them, I still want Shenlong to fully burn to the ground. And see their people beg for mercy and scream from the top of their lungs. I want to see Shenlong suffer, I want that country to feel what it had felt for us to be treated as their slaves.

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I never really thought that one day there would be a war between Shenlong and Tatsuya. I remember I was sixteen at the time when I heard rumours of the war between the north and south. To my brother's surprise, I wasn't as shocked as they expected me to be, it's all because weapons, blood and war terrify me so much that sometimes I faint.

Keton crossed his arms and said, 'Are you not sad at least?'

'Why should I?' My eyes gazed directly at the wooden floor.

'Oh, come on sis?' Ayoto interrupted. 'Aren't you going to feel a little bit sad that we will be gone?'

'Why should I waste my tears on something that is useless? I am always ignored and have been treated like a slave my entire life. Why would anyone care about my pity and sorrow?' My voice was getting louder as I spoke. I was filled with anger, why were they talking to me as if they cared about me for all of those sixteen years? Why only now? Is it because now they have realized that they have hurt me so much that I had forgotten how to smile.

I started crying so much that everything was getting blurry. I left the room as fast as I could and that was the last time, I had a conversation with them. It was the last time that I got to see their handsome faces. Because after the war my father has done something to me that I never expected him to do. He broke a promise that he made with me a long time ago, but I was too foolish to notice it.