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chapter 7

❝ they'll force you to sell your soul ❞

SEVEN

QUESTIONABLE ALLIANCES

✶

BEFORE THEY BURNED

Elianna always hated public executions. She thought that there was no need for such depictions of cruelty, but her leaders had a different opinion. It was true that the majority of criminals got punished on real battlegrounds, but public executions were also much-needed performances, to show the beasts that they were the ones in power.

On most days, the main square of Sirahae was one of her favorite places in the city. She liked the loudness and wildness of it all, with it's screaming vendors, street performers and children who were running around and playing their games. Things changed when the king's people announced another public execution. Everyone prepared to watch someone burn at the stake and the vendors that sometimes sold her fresh mangos, then turned to offering rotten food that the public could throw at the criminal.

'' To think that I even washed my hair this morning. Now it's going to smell like a rotting corpse for the rest of the week, '' the fourteen-year-old murmured and scrunched up her nose in annoyance. Her and her friend Sunmi were standing at the back of the crowd and watching everything unfold. A troop of soldiers already arrived from the palace, to make sure that things wouldn't get out of control. The looks on their faces were starting to give Elianna a bad feeling. Earlier, Sunmi tried to ask one of them about the identity of the criminal that was going to burn that day, but no one wanted to give her an answer.

Sunmi carelessly shrugged and her orange wings started twitching. They were always doing that when she was in a bad mood and itching to go out to fly for a while. '' Am I supposed to feel bad for you? They always smell like a rotting corpse. ''

Elianna ignored her comment and took out her sword. Her friend rolled her eyes when she saw her trying to balance it on the tip of her fingers. It frustrated her to no end whenever Elianna wasn't taking her soldier training seriously. '' Do we even have to be here? I don't think that the king wants Jungkook watching public executions. We shouldn't have let him convince us to take him out of the palace... This is worse than back when we just began training and Cyrille was forcing us to improve our speed and agility by catching chickens. ''

'' Stop calling the prince by his first name! You're going to get us in trouble! ''

'' By the way... Where even is Jungkook? ''

'' I told you to not call him by his first name- '' Sunmi looked like she was ready to stab Elianna with her dagger, when her eyes suddenly grew wide in realisation. '' Shit, you're right! We lost him! ''

'' Again! '' Elianna added and looked around with wide eyes. She quickly picked up the sword that she accidentally dropped on the ground and followed Sunmi down the crowded street. Their boots were stomping on the ground, littered with ash, sand, hay and rotten fruit, as they tried to move as fast as possible. Somehow, this always ended up happening to them. The crown prince Jungkook was a bit of a brat, who always knew how to get his way. The king didn't like seeing his fourteen-year-old son leave the palace, but the boy was intrigued by the world outside it's walls. He was too curious for his own good.

Him and Elianna had a strange relationship going on, but they had a mutual interest for things that they should stay away from. The girl and her friend Sunmi, were often tasked to guard him. It was a part of their training and they were supposed to take the job very seriously, but Elianna tended to not always see it that way, because of Jungkook himself, who always seemed to be up to something strange. That day, he forced them to take him out of the palace and bring him to the market because he wanted to buy a kazoo, some kind of instrument that he heard a merchant brought from the other world.