When Beauty Destroys The BL World

Chapter 95~The Tale Of The Past IV~

Days bled into one another like blurred brushstrokes on a forgotten painting. Dacia had become accustomed to the silence of her existence-unseen, untouched, unnoticed. She had faded so thoroughly into the walls of the palace that she believed she would be left alone forever.

Until, one evening, her chamber doors burst open with a deafening crash.

"W-What-?!" Dacia gasped, stumbling back as armored knights stormed in.

"Your Highness!" Libby cried out, scrambling to shield her, but two guards shoved her aside and seized Dacia roughly by the arms.

"Wait! What's going on?! Let me go!" Dacia screamed, eyes wild with confusion.

Neither her tears nor her pleas stopped the cold iron shackles that clamped around her wrists.

She was dragged through the palace, her gown torn and feet bare against the icy marble. Her heart pounded in her ears, her breath ragged with panic.

What had she done? What sin was she paying for now?

She was thrown to the ground before the crown prince Nickolai and beside him stood Lady Alma, poised and seething.

Dacia's heart clenched at the sight of them.

Nickolai's voice thundered above her, cruel and resolute. "You dared to poison the Holy Priest?"

Her mouth parted in disbelief. "What...? No...no! I....I would never!"

"Spare us your lies!" Lady Alma snapped, stepping forward, eyes ablaze. "We've captured the man you hired. He confessed everything....how you bribed him to poison the holy priest!"

Dacia's hands trembled violently. "I have no money... I can barely feed myself! Why would I...why would I ever hurt anyone? I swear to you....I didn't do it!"

Nickolai's gaze was cold as stone. "Your words mean nothing."

"I....I didn't!" Dacia fell to her knees, crawling toward Nickolai, tears blurring her vision. "Please, Your Highness, you must believe me!"

She reached out, just to hold the hem of his robe.

But he stepped back sharply, as though her fingers carried plague.
He looked at her as if she were filth beneath his boot.
"Don't touch me."

The words struck harder than a blow. Dacia gasped.

"Guards," he said coldly. "Take her to the prison."

"No, no, please! I'm innocent! I swear it!" she sobbed, crawling closer again. "Nickolai, please, I never...."

Before she could utter another plea, the soldiers yanked her upright and dragged her away.

The cell door slammed shut behind her with a clang that echoed like a final judgment. Her screams faded into the damp silence of the dungeon. No one came for her. Not even to hear her side. Libby's cries echoed from a distant cell, but they were quickly silenced.

In the days that followed, Dacia was stripped of everything. Her dignity. Her voice. Her hope.

She was whipped until her back bled. Starved until she forgot the taste of bread. Shackled until her ankles bruised. And worse, so much worse, was what they did when no one else watched. When the light left and the monsters came.

Dacia awoken from her sleep to see some guards came inside her prison cell.

"Wha....what are you doing?" Frightened, Dacia backed away from them.

The guards eyes roamed over her, shameless and hungry. The way they looked at her was no longer as a prisoner, no longer even as a human being. Only prey.