1 The Replacement Bride

[Listen, Isla. This is my plan.]

PANT!

"Run, Milady! Follow me! Faster!"

A beautiful woman with beautiful long blonde hair ran through the forest on that fateful night.

[You will become my replacement. He shall never know the difference.]

She ran and ran. Her foot blistered and sore, yet she ran.

[Remember the times we played pretend as children? Now it's time to play our most important game. You can become me and fool him.]

Her eyes started to water.

"Sister... Forgive me...!"

She had to keep running. To trick that man... to make him never get what he wanted. She had to run.

She focused her mind so she wouldn't slip and fall. She focused on not wasting a single minute at all. She ran for her life.

[This is the only way.]

"Forgive me... that this is the only way, Sister! I'm sorry for leaving you behind...!"

She sobbed yet still tried to listen to every sound in this forest. It was a beautiful summer night. The stars blinked their blessing to the world. But not for her. Not for her Sister.

"Milady, jump!"

She heard Adam's voice warning her in front of her. There was a hidden ditch right in front of them, and so as not to fall inside it, they must jump.

But she was distracted by the sound of galloping horses behind them.

NEIGH!

HYA!

DRAP-DRAP-DRAP-DRAP!

THERE! THERE'S THE PRINCESS!

Her beautiful blue crystal-like eyes glimmered in tears as she turned to her back. To her horror, her nightmare was there, sitting on top of a black stallion.

"Ahhh!"

She fell into the ditch.

Adam immediately shielded her. However, before he could even raise his sword, two black daggers had pierced through his chest and stomach.

"GAH!"

"ADAM!" she screamed.

As Adam slumped in the young woman's embrace, she heard him whisper... "Long Live Princess Ava Cassia..."

The woman froze. As she felt his warm blood spilled at her body, her breath started to feel like thorns stabbing her lungs.

"AAAAAAAHH!"

She screamed, wailed, and cried. She pulled his long sword and shielded his body in that ditch.

The trembling sword's tip pointed forward toward that huge dark shadow between the trees. The man with cold, glowing silver eyes stared down at her figure.

"You despicable monster...!" she hollered. "Come and confront me like a true warrior! Or are you not capable, foul demon?"

It was when the wind caught his fur cloak armor that he decided to descend from his stride. The sound of the metal shoe hitting the damp ground sent chills down her spine.

When the moonlight finally grazed his person, she stopped breathing.

Standing at an imposing height, he loomed over his subordinates like a mighty oak among saplings. The man who marched from the North to the Warm South... The man who was called the War God, Sebastian Leodegrance.

In his chest armor was the Constellation of Leonis, decorating a sculpture of a threatening man among men. His face stern, his air overbearing.

Framed by short and dark hair was a chiseled, angular face carved by the most talented Angel. Or was it the Devil? Because crossing his left eye was three long scars, staining the beauty the Goddess gave him.

"Princess Ava Cassia."

Her eyes wavered as that deep, dark voice called at her.

"Let us not squander precious time. Should you wish, you may bring that sword along. I shall aid you in tending to your cherished knight," the man proposed.

Extending his sturdy hand towards her, his voice was slow and laced with a hint of menace as he continued, "Draw near and grasp my hand."

His people had finished surrounding them. She had no other choice but to comply.

"The time is running out. Your knight will die at this rate," he spoke once more, his hand still awaiting her.

Her breath became increasingly rugged. Her heart beat hard and rapidly, choking her neck and rushing her blood to her brain. The trembling tip of the sword was finally lowered.

***

<27th of August, 977th year of Orion>

A month after the Kingdom of Cassiopeia was raided by the Army of Leonis, the real Princess Ava Cassia was caught by the New Tyrant of the Orion Continent.

Sebastian Leodegrance brought his prized wife home to the former Cassian Castle with the promise of bringing her beloved knight, Adam Rocinante, back to health.

The giant hall door was opened wide with an echoing creaking noise. Then, in turn, two contrasting steps were heard, replacing the echo.

One was the sound of heavy armor shoes, and one was the light and dainty footsteps of a young beauty.

The enchantingly beautiful face of the Daughter of Cassiopeia was raised. Her blue eyes were so clear and dignified, casting a glance forward toward the center of the altar.

She saw a dark wood coffin filled with beautiful black roses.

Her steps halted, but his steps didn't. In front of that altar, he turned to her.

"I heard you cherished this child like your own younger sister. Now that I see you closer, you look just alike."

The woman's trembling legs ran toward the coffin on the floor. She put her whole body forward to push herself closer and kneeled to see the body inside the coffin.

"No...!"

Tears streamed down her flawless face.

In the coffin was her beautiful Sister. Long black hair framed her being, a blue diamond necklace adorned her neck. Her eyes closed, and her body placed thus comfortably like she was just asleep.

She whispered in grief, "Sister...! I thought you would stay alive... No matter what... you...!"

"You acted like you didn't leave her behind to replace you."

The woman turned to the source of that cold, cynical words. Her eyes were bloodshot in hatred and pain.

"You thought I wouldn't be able to see through your ruse? A mere spell to change her hair wouldn't fool me, although it was an impressive high-grade spell of Fairies."

"You took everything from me..." she growled, her iris shining wrathfully. "You could choose not to kill her!"

"And forgiving her after her exceptional way of tricking me? Admittedly, she was good at impersonating you," the man asked. "My dear Princess, if you were not Ava Cassia, I would definitely kill you too."

The man turned away.

"To honor you and her bravery in replacing you, I will hold a grand funeral for her tomorrow. That will be the last wedding present I will allow you to have."

STAB!

Sebastian Leodegrance looked down at his own stomach. A glowing blue <Aura> sword pierced through under his lowest rib gap. When he coldly turned, he saw a dark shadow of the blonde-haired woman, and her luminous eyes stared right at his.

The man sneered despite the sword latching onto his organ. "This is more like the Ava Cassia I heard."

A woman rightful for the title of his 'Lioness', Ava Cassia the Wise... and he might add, Ferocious.

He grasped that sword, ignoring the second wound he had created in his left palm himself.

CRACK!!

The blonde-haired woman's eyes widened. With his bare hand, this monster had crushed her <Aura> coated sword like crushing a sugar cone.

She pulled her sword in panic and jumped backward. His blood spilled onto her face, yet fear was evident in her eyes.

Her <Aura Sword> could pierce through his Iron Armor, but was nothing against his bare hand? Although, that was nothing compared to what happened next.

The gaping wound on his torso immediately healed up, and so was the wound in his palm. It was almost like it had never happened.

His calm and steady eyes stared into hers, trying to record her reaction in his mind. Seeing a prideful and strong Princess fall under the might of his power was delightful.

Nobles always acted like they owned this world. She was hailed as the Wise but look at her now. Nothing in the face of death himself.

"Now, Wise Princess. I implore you to calm your mind. I will leave, and if you may, no one will disturb you saying your last goodbye... to your beloved Younger Sister."

The chilling sound of armor shoes echoed in the hall, leaving the Princess alone there with the coffin, the black roses, and the corpse.

She fell to her knees once more, and the clanking of her broken sword hitting the floor was heard. Her empty and dull eyes looked down to her own thighs, her hand trembling in fear.

She cried.

It was a suppressed... and heartwrenching cry.

As she subtly heard the man's footsteps walking away after hearing her cries, she approached the black coffin.

Her tears fell to the black roses. Her hand reached to the woman's long black hair... and as she whispered a spell, her finger brushing those strands of hair changed the hair color once more.

It was a special spell they made. She said no one in this world could even scratch at the surface of the complicated spell, and it was true.

Now that the woman in the coffin's hair was back to its original blonde color, her own hair changed to black just for a moment.

"We made it, Ava," she whispered to the woman in the coffin. "We've tricked him."

But at what cost?

"Why must you die like this... Sister...?" she whispered. "Just for this wretched world... you sacrificed yourself...?"

That was the truth.

This woman in the coffin... was the real Ava Cassia.

And she was her cherished Lady in Waiting, famously having the same face and countenance as her, Isla.

[Listen to me, Isla.]

Isla sobbed as she remembered Ava's voice before she ordered her to run away and pose as her.

[Goddess gave us the exact same face. Maybe... it was solely for today.]

"Ava..." her tiny voice whispered the name she had taken over.

[Although I wished we could've just twin sisters.]

"I've become his replacement bride... just like we planned."

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