Future Empress

Secret of the Devil

Kingdom Of Lockwood

The Palace, Inner Quarters

Princess Izumi's Chamber

The water in the bath remained tranquil. The princess's body was immersed in the cold water but it felt warm and comforting to her skin. Her mind was blank like a piece of paper readied to be used by the hands of a miracle. Her heart determined her results. She could only want to save her kingdom by exposing the rot of Lockwood to the Sovereign of the Continent- Toshinori Yagi. But that was a process for later. Currently she needs to know how to pull herself out of this mess. 

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Izumi was starting to get impatient but pulled through her emotions before breaking her tranquility.

She could see only darkness. She waited patiently for a hand to emerge from the darkness and help her before she decides to drown herself in misery. And then maybe the miracle heard her aching heart through the unnoticeable ripples in the water. Many colors flashed in front of her and at the end of it a green mist came forth and it said...

---brother Zen is drowned in contempt...bring him to justice...bring us to justice...bring yourself to justice ---

Izumi gasped and became fully conscious, her sudden movement made the bath overflow. She got out of the water and quickly changed into her clothes. She looked out from the balcony to see the sun rising. It had been a whole night and she got one statement she had to investigate.

But how?

She rummaged through the desk and drawers to find a piece of paper and some ink to jot down what she came to know. 

Suddenly she heard a lot of commotion outside. She went up to her door and rested her ear to listen in. She could many people chattering indistinctively and their scattered footsteps. She backed away from the door and slipped on the rug placed there.

"Ugh! What was that-", She paused as she saw a satchel under the bed. She swiftly grabbed it and opened it to find a few notebooks, some loose sheets of paper and carriable pen. Suddenly she wasn't so upset about slipping anymore. She took the material out of the desk and jot down everything she could remember and then carefully tucked the paper away in her dress corset and began to dress herself up for the day which lies in front of her.

Just as she finished dressing up, her chamber's doors flung open and there stood Kosuke with a scowl on his face. Izumi rolled her eyes at him. "What is it?", Izumi said- refraining from any profanity. Kosuke, although displeased by her tone was used to it, interrogated, "Tenko Shimura has escaped the cells last night...where is he?" 

Izumi's eyes widened- narrowing as her face scrunched slightly. Kosuke understood that look- she didn't know Tenko was and is probably thinking that he had left for good. Kosuke understood from the bloody scene of the dungeon that the intention was not simply escaping. It was good for Kosuke to let Izumi believe that she had been abandoned so he spared her the details.

"I do not know where he is. I can barely escape let alone help someone escape from behind these closed doors!", Izumi replied firmly.