Runaway Princess

CHAPTER 3

"YOU...YOU...y-you're the man- hmph!" A muffled scream escaped from my mouth when he suddenly crashed his body into mine, placing a hand firmly on my mouth, pushing me inside my bedroom and slamming me against the door.

I felt like melting as I stared into his intense red eyes. They look scary to me.

"Shh," he said. "Shut up or I'll kill you." He threatened.

My eyes widened and I nodded frantically in fear. He seems ill-tempered judging by his voice.

He let go of me and stepped back.

"W-who are you?" I asked him. "Why are you here?"

"I'm here to get rid of your father," he said bluntly.

Father? What do they need from him?

I sighed in disbelief. "What do you need from us? First you killed my mother, and now you're after my father? What did they ever do to you?"

The man smirked malevolently. "They didn't treat us right. That's what they did."

I furrowed my eyebrows, my blood starting to boil in anger. "What are you saying?! They implemented projects for the good of everyone! They did their best to reach out to other countries so that they can get sponsors for extra jobs!"

"But that's not enough!" I was startled by the loudness of his voice that boomed like lightning. "Your mother was a poor woman that came from our region. But when your father found her, she forgot about where she came from and focused on the luxury of being a royalty. She forgot her promise to us that she will use her power as the queen to solve our problems back in our place. Because of her, the crossborder pollution got worse since we just live beside the factories that emit smoke in the air. Many of us got sick and even my grandparents who was working had to raise me died!"

What? My mother did that? But she was so caring and sweet! How could she forget-

"Then, since we were a poor province and only had farming and fishing as our jobs, big companies from the city bought our lands and slowly put up buildings and other structures in it to turn it to a resort that they said would showcase the beauty of our province but instead it caused a large deforestation. We lost the fertile soils to plant our crops. We did our best to pull some strings and ping the attention of the king to our issue, but he just made us move into a relocation center, gave us permanent shelter and then left us to live with ourselves. And now, because we came from a poor region, we are being discriminated and declined by job interviewers. Now tell me, how was that the best for us?" The veins of his neck were bulging and his face was turning red as he spoke, his voice trembling in fury.

I set my eyes down. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't know-"

He sarcastically laughed. "Ha! Of course you don't know anything! You are enjoying your life as a princess, relaxing and having fun and adoring your little petty tiaras and beautiful gowns and all that material shit, while we, are dying out of hunger!" I flinched when he cursed at me. I was shocked with this revelation, I didn't know the situation was already like this. I feel like I was betrayed by my parents, especially my mother. If what this stranger accused her of doing was true, then my mother was not the woman I thought she is all along. I was fooled.

And then there was father. I actually asked him about the rebels, why they were doing this and such. And he answered me, saying that the reason why they were doing this is because they are unhappy about how the government and royal family is ruling over them. And me, being the foolish kid I was, actually believed what father was rambling on about how he was trying his best to fix the problems but the rebels can't just be really contented.