Vergil's OneShots (DMC Fanfiction)

A Whole New (Demonic) World (Part One)

 A/N: I think it is quite easy to guess where the title came from if there is a trend to be picked up from some of the previous parts. This has less basis of the original story, so I don't want to call this a crossover.

[A Whole New (Demonic) World (Part One)]    

Felice sat in the room full of princesses all dressed to the nines and excited. She understood their feelings; even of those who did not show their emotions on their faces. The atmosphere was practically one of nervous tension as some ladies smiled at each other in attempts of coming off as friendly, but others simply issued warning glares to their competitors.

The hostility, too, was understood very well by Felice. Of the near fifty women waiting in the sitting room, only one would be chosen as the wife to the Crown Prince of the Sparda Throne. Only one survivor in this room would emerge as the future-queen of the world's greatest kingdom.

And Felice –like every other princess in the room –had every intention to be that woman. For her, though, it was less by choice and more by need.

Felice was not a princess –at least not in the most common sense. While she was the daughter of a king, she had never been regarded as anything more than a dirty being. Her father was the king of a tiny, poor country and her mother, a poor maidservant. Felice had been conceived after a midnight rape case, but royal blood and ties kept her and her mother from being murdered. Both mother and daughter had been grudgingly allowed to stay in the castle, but they had been labelled as dirty and bullied by everyone they knew for as long as Felice had been aware of her surroundings.

Being a victim of her circumstance made her desire to break free stronger. Besides, playing the maiden-in-need was never her image. It helped that she picked up things quickly, had a quick mind and a smart mouth and (probably) an even smarter brain. Growing up made her protective of her mother; the only person who ever loved her and saw her more than a dirty scum.

Her life was tough, but smooth as she learnt how to stay away from anyone's attention, talked to everyone in the palace with her head bowed and voice small so that she wouldn't be recognised as the illegitimate daughter of the king.

That changed when the king –her father –locked her mother up all of a sudden. Enraged and no longer caring to keep away from trouble, she had demanded to meet the man who was her father, and received a threat in reply.

The King of Limbo was looking for a suitable candidate as a wife to his Crown Prince, and had extended the invitation to all kingdoms big and small nearby. It was the perfect chance for Felice's father to create a connection to the strongest kingdom in the world. It normally wouldn't have bothered Felice a single bit of her father's power-hungry ways. But this time things were different: her half-sisters –the legitimate daughters of her father –had all been married off to other kingdoms as political connections. Felice was the only unmarried daughter with royal blood in her veins, and regardless of the fact that she was only a lovechild, she had been threatened to not only join the running for the title of future-queen of Limbo, but was also forced to win. The 'if not' was a simple unspoken implication that her father left: Her mother would suffer terribly before being executed.

Felice found herself a seat near the window, sighing. She did not belong in this waiting room. She was no princess; she didn't know how to please Crown Princes. She just wanted to be free with her mother.

"A sigh means your life's happiness has escaped." A small voice that spoke out of nowhere startled her. The whisper meant that the speaker did not want to be spotted, and thus Felice made her action of leaning against the windowsill look natural, looking down at the man hanging off the side with a strong arm and apparently no fear of injuries.