Empress of Self-Ruin

Chapter 30: This Is How Villains Are Made

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter is dark. Reader discretion is highly advised. So if you feel uncomfortable please just skip this chapter and don't force yourself to read it. Again, this is merely fiction. I draw the line between reality and fiction. Please keep in mind that I, as the author, never condone anything that happened in this chapter nor encourage such behavior in any kind/any way, so please no hate!

I was panicking inside, but I had learned to control panic as a child. It had come at a cost but it also gave me an advantage in a dog-eat-dog world. Being a crown princess and later an empress, I wasn't unfamiliar with kidnapping attempts. Still, I couldn't stop my mind from running wild.

Fuck! Who are they? Constantine's men? Is he planning to get rid of me?

All kinds of crazy thoughts were rushing through my mind.

No, no, you should stay calm, Calypso. Stay calm!

I held my breath for as long as I could, trying hard not to inhale the drug too much and lose complete consciousness. My mind was a bit hazy but manageable, and I let my body go limp until the assailants thought that I had blacked out. One of them threw me on his shoulder and carried me like a sack of potatoes. My stupid hat fell off in the process, forgotten.

I was very tempted to just take out the dagger in my inner pocket and stab his sorry ass.

How dare he treat the empress of this empire in this way?!

I forced myself to hold it in for now—figuring it would be better to assess the situation a bit more.

"She's a noblewoman, right?" I faintly heard the man's voice.

I kept my eyes shut while they talked. Apparently they didn't know my real identity. It was a relief that they were at least not Constantine's men, but it didn't help me feel much better about this whole situation.

"I don't know... But I think we can sell her."

Shit.

I thought the capital city was supposed to be safe. How could I end up in this situation?

Shit! Shit! Shit!

"Just ask her when she wakes up. From her appearance, she doesn't look too high ranking, so there wouldn't be too much hassle over her," one of them said.

"Yes, yes, you're right. I'm sure she's just a stupid girl from lower nobility who likes to play around," the other one replied.

Not too high ranking?! Lower nobility? What the fuck are they talking about? Just because I don't have hair and eyes the color of the rainbow, how dare these bastards come up with that assumption? I'm the fucking empress, you moron!

There were a few more exchanges and laughter after that.

When the haziness in my mind finally eased a little I peeked to see where I was and found myself in a dark room in what looked to be a cabin or a hut. The only source of light was a burning fireplace in the middle of the room.

My hands and feet were tied together with ropes, but they didn't seem too tight. As I was just a slender woman against two grown-up men, they must have thought that I wasn't much of a threat.

What a fool.

But at least it was something that I could totally use to my advantage.

"I'll go back to the market to talk with the dealer and see if they're interested in buying her," said the younger one out of the two.

Good. At least it seemed like we were not too far from the market and with one of the guys leaving, it would leave me with only one opponent.

I waited a few more minutes and sure enough, the younger guy left the house shortly after. The older guy closed the door and I immediately shut my eyes again, pretending to be asleep.