For as long as you can remember, there has been injustice. Between advisors and servants, guards and civilians. Between you and your sister.
Being you isn't easy.
Despite how much you naturally stood out, you lived a private life. Though not by choice. You only remember being different, a stain on your father's clean slate. While you were shunned, your sister was adored.
She lived having everything you could have ever wanted. The love of the king and queen, a prodigious reputation for being joyful and gorgeous, expensive tutors, and spotless genetics.
Your very existence was a sin.
The king was your father, but the queen wasn't your mother.
At age 6 you could see over the heads of boys years older than you. Parents would disappear into their homes, clutching their children. Leaving you to stand alone. By the time you were 8, the pain had dulled, but the ache never left. It's all you ever had and would have ever known if your father hadn't made the pivotal decision to erase you from the family tree.
When you turned 10, your world shifted forever. You were kicked out of the heated quarters and into the storage. The king was no longer your father. You were erased from your family's clean lineage. Quietly declared dead.
The change was hard for you to understand, being so young. Nevertheless, the king didn't give you time to miss your old life. You weren't exiled or executed. You were remade. You lost your name, but not your usefulness.
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What you just read is the first bit of Prelude, the first chapter.
Divided Loyalties is set 25 years before the Whole Cake Island Arc. During Big Mom's expansion from Whole Cake to her other 34 islands. Now, the expansion isn't canon, but I imagine she didn't start with all the islands and instead worked her way to owning them through war and arranged marriages. When I get the time, I'll find somewhere to list the character's ages.
I own no art, and I definitely don't own one piece.
Enjoy! ❦