“You. Are. Engaged. To. Jehanne.” Simone took her foot and shoved Llywellyn off the bed.

“But Simone! We used to sleep together when we were kids!” Llywellyn was pouting up at her.

“We’re not kids!” She took her pillows and beat him with them repeatedly. “OUT!”

“Ahh!” Llywellyn ran out of the room and Simone used the secret passages in the Celestina castle to get around. “Evieeeeeee,” Simone turned on the waterworks as she came into the first princess’s bedroom. “Llywellyn was perving on me again!” She looked around and couldn’t see her. “…She’s just as bad as her brother is. All well… He’ll never find me in here.” She climbed in the bed and covered herself up. “I’ll just let Evie know when she comes home.”

She fell into a fast sleep after a small bit. At some point in the night, she found herself being grabbed and fought hard against them. She headbutted one of the masked men and bit the other before they knocked her out and covered her with a large cloak.

“We retrieved the package but she did quite a number to her. I’m afraid she’s pretty bruised now. They put the girl down in a chair to tie her up and Simone whipped her leg up between the nearest assassin’s crotch.

“That’s for pulling my hair!” She yelled as soon as she could and bit the one who came to wrestle her. “What the hell do you want me for this time? Who paid you? Was it Jerome again? Fuck that guy!” She spit at one of them. “Tell him to rot in hell because I’m not paying or giving up any more of my land to him!”

“…Who the fuck is Jerome?”

She blinked a bit and looked at the men around her, “Who hired you? Is it about the gold mines because I’m not selling them!”

It was meant to be a simple task. Kidnap the daughter of Sulwal, and ransome her to her brother for a certain act that would shape the history of the world. It was always like this in the shadows. Pull a string here, assassinate a leader there, and kidnap a princess for extortion. Anything and everything to guide the world in the direction it needed to go.

“That’s the wrong girl, you idiot,” Lewis stated with his arms crossed. His cold eyes stared at the first assassin, who quickly realized that he had messed up.

Lewis was wearing simple clothes, black pants and a tunic, but his stance commanded authority, as though he were ready to lead an army into battle. His battlefield, though, wasn’t the same as the other rulers of the land, but that didn’t much matter to those who stood before him.

His eyes looked over the woman in front of him. She was rather plain, but it held a unique charm. Most princesses and nobles tried to do anything and everything to make themselves stand out. If anything, it was the lack of jewels and makeup that made this woman pop in his eyes.

His eyes had frozen, though, on one particular attribute: her hair.

“Does she look blonde to you? A fair elf of the Sulwal Kingdom?” Lewis glared at the now quivering assassin. “Tell me, girl…what is your name?”

“Oh wow…” Simone said with astonishment. “You are both blind and dumb…” The assassin gave her a glare and she stuck her tongue out. Simone’s eyes moved over to Lewis as she looked him up and down. He was the one in charge here. It wasn’t just how he was speaking to them but the way he held himself.

“So you were after Evie?” She tilted her head at Lewis not answering his question.

“Answer his question!” Simone kicked the assassin’s shin and glared at him.

“I was getting to that. My name is Simone Auclair. Heiress to the Auclair Duchy.” The Auclairs were wealthy and quiet people. Their family was small consisting of a father and daughter. A few years prior a shameful event led the Auclairs out of the limelight. Many thought the heiress was deceased since she no longer participated in social gatherings.

She was a long way from home in Sulwal. “On vacation actually and it’s pretty boring. Elvish literature kinda bores me.” She stared at Lewis. “Just what did you want with Evie? Ransom? A deal with someone?”

“What does it matter to you?!” The assassin snapped at her and Simone closed her eyes in thought before opening one and staring at him.

“Because I might be even better than Evie depending on whose attention you wanted. I am pretty bored… I might be convinced to cooperate.”

“…Can we just kill her and throw her outside?”

“I’m way too cute to be wasted away like that…” Simone sighed. “Listen, if it's Llywellyn you want just tell him you have me. He’ll give you whatever you want because he’s that dumb when it comes to me.”

Lewis watched how the woman handled the assassins. For someone who was, for all purposes, a hostage, she seemed to hold herself fairly well. She was either an idiot, or had been in similar situations before. Either way, she had demonstrated that she wasn’t scared. She knew her worth as a bargaining chip.

That made things easier.

“You left the note, right?” Lewis asked the first assassin.

“Of course. Right on his bedside table, like you asked,” the man replied.

“Then there’s no need to contact him. He’ll be arriving by morning.” The King of Assassins walked over to Simone, eying her. “If you’re as important as you seem to think you are, it won’t take much to twist his arm.” He turned around. “Take her to the right wing suite. And get her a tailor. Can’t have her in a nightgown once her knight in shining armor arrives.” He snapped his fingers, and at once a maid walked in. “Sylva, do take care of her. She’s to be treated like a guest. Of course…she’ll need the restraining collar, but do be gentle.”

“As you wish, White Raven,” the maid said with a quick curtsey. She walked over to Simone and smiled. “Lady Auclair? Right this way, please…”

“More like the dumbest prince in the entire world,” Simone huffed it under her breath. “He’ll come storming in with his personal army once he realizes Evie is there and I’m here. If it was his sister he might have left her here for a week or two as punishment for whatever stupid argument they had.” She sighed a bit.

Simone followed the maid out quietly enough but not before nailing the assassin who gave her trouble one last time in the shin.

“WHITE RAVEN PLEASE!” He yelled and Simone gave a smirk and finally left the room.

Sure enough, come first light there was a rush of thirty knights and a panicked Llywellyn. “THIS IS ALL EVIE’S FAULT,” he yelled as he got off the horse and was greeted by Lewis’s men. “Where is she?” He was out of breath and the horses looked worse for the wear.

“I’m right here you big jackass,” Simone had a window open and she was leaning onto the window sill giving Llywellyn a dirty look.

“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“I wanna know something…” Simone said with a dull tone. “If it were Evie up here and not me… How long would you have taken to get here your royal highness…”

Llywellyn froze up and looked away, “Probably three weeks since she decided to sneak out of her room last night to go see that stable boy we hired.”

“Ah, I was off a week,” she slammed the window shut.

“SIMONE. SIMONE,” Llywellyn yelled up at the window and sighed. “She is… horrible to deal with sometimes…” He finally saw Lewis and his demeanor shifted to that of royalty as he finally got rid of the dumbfounded look on his face. “The future Duchess of Auclair. I’m willing to do just about anything for her release… We should be able to come to an agreement of some sort. Her father would never forgive me if anything happened to her while she was in Sulwal…”

Once they were inside sitting down for breakfast Simone came in and sat down across from Llywellyn. She was pretty much ignoring his precious as she banged things around.

“You’re angry.”

“And the sky is blue,” Simone said as she poured some juice.

“…Anything I have to apologize for?”

“Being an idiot,” Simone took some jam and spread it on some bread.

“Simone… You are being a brat.”

“And you’re a delusional dumbass still in love with his best friend and if you don’t give them exactly what they want I’m going to tell Jehanne.”

The color drained from Llywellyn’s face, “Now Simone… Don’t do anything rash. Jehanne would literally skin me alone.”

“My problem how?”

“You wouldn’t get to leave here…”

“I find this place charming.” She popped the food in her mouth. She was good at shutting Llywellyn down.

“…What does your organization want from the Celestina family?”

Lewis had seen quite the few royal arrangements in his life. Friends, lovers, arranged spouses…what was happening in front of him was not to different from a quarrel with siblings. Though, since they were far from it, it made things a little tense for the prince of the elvish kingdom.

Lewis took his time cutting the ham in front of him, taking delicate bites as he waited for Llywellyn to remember the reason he had arrived. The terms and conditions to Simone’s release.

“Now that I have your attention,” Lewis stated as he snapped his fingers. A large, well dressed orc walked in and handed Llywellyn a whole folder of papers and documents. “In that file are a variety of demands for when you decide to overthrow your father.” He spoke so casually about it, as though it were happening next week. “I am aware that you tend to be on the progressive side of things, so most of these demands won’t seem outlandish. However, there are a few that…might seem odd. Do not worry, they are merely formalities for when the next war happens.” He smirked. “Which should be about ten years from now. The demon clan is getting very rowdy these days, and they seem to think they want more space.”

He sat back in his chair and took a sip from his cup. “Please eat to your heart’s content, Lady Auclair. I would hate to be called a horrible host…”

Llywellyn looked at the documents and sighed before looking at Simone. “Give me three days. I can do it in three days.”

“Boy if only you were motivated to do other stuff around Sulwal,” Simone glared at him before eating more. “And your hospitality has been fine,” her tone shifted to a pleasant one for Lewis.

“I still need you for the trade deal in a week and a half,” Llywellyn said it almost lazily.

“I know,” she seemed proud of herself. “I don’t know what you did to offend the Mioloni’s but you offended them enough they only want to deal with me. Moron prince.”

“…Go easy on me now Simone… You know you were always the best in politics when it came to the academy.”

“I know,” Simone was pretty proud of herself. “Make sure you kiss Jehanne’s ass really good when you get back home.”

“…I will…”

“And be a good future husband.”

“…I’ll try… I don’t think Jehanne likes me.”

“Because you’re lazy, inconsiderate, and an oblivious jackass.”

“So you’ve told me plenty of times…” Llywellyn looked beat down by the small woman at the table. The small woman in question was tapping her foot at Llywellyn. “You sound like my mother.”

“Your mother made me promise to shape you into a good prince. Not my fault you don’t listen.” Simone pushed her plate away once she had enough and smiled up at the help. “Thank you for the meal.”

“If we’re done… I have a kingdom to overthrow… In three days,” Llywellyn looked beat down but he trudged through the door.

“Can he really do it in three days?” One of the assassins asked.

“He could do it in two if he wasn’t mucking about. Llywellyn was second in our year only because his ambition was beaten down. When he’s motivated he can be quite scary. After all, when my engagement fell through he sunk the currency my ex-fiance was using into the ground. This will be good for him,” Simone nodded to herself.

Lewis was content at the way things were handled. Llywellyn seemed like a useless elf at first, but the reports had him marked as one of the more dangerous individuals in Sulwal. He had surprisingly high marks in almost every category. Of course, these high ratings only ever came when he was motivated, which was what Princess Evie was for. However, it seemed they had lucked into a far better bargaining chip.

“Of course he can overthrow the Kingdom,” Lewis stated. “The people are ready, all they need is the last push. His father is rather unpopular, and his most recent policy is very unpopular. His subjects are ready for a revolt, and Llywellyn is the man to lead them.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up rather abruptly. “Please do eat to your heart’s content. Lunch will be served at the twelfth bell, and dinner at the fourth. You are free to roam the castle. Any room that isn’t locked is free to explore. The gardens are quite nice this time of year as well…just do not stray to far from the house. The collar will let you know the limits…”

It seemed as though he were bored of rattling off this information. “As you may very well know…the collar will shock you if you try to escape…” It was as if he expected her to try. It wasn’t all that uncommon. Though, Simone was far more….calm about the whole situation.

“We will have you home in less than a week, if things go well,” the king said finally as he smirked. “Ah, and one other thing. Sylva will be at your beck and call…please do mind that she has other duties to attend, so please don’t abuse her hospitality…”

Simone stared up at him, “Why would I run when this is entertaining? I’ve been through worse kidnappings.” She stood up and bowed slightly before she left the room. She had a maid now but rarely did she ever actually call on her in the small amount of time she was there.

It was late on the second day when Silva alerted everyone, “Lady Auclair is missing! She was in her room and I only left her for a second to retrieve some towels for her bath!” She was panicking. “I can’t find her anywhere.”

Simone had found her way into Lewis’s office. Castles came standard with a few sets of emergency hallways and it just took Simone a little mapping to figure out where the most convenient would be. She explored around until she found the office before flopping onto a sofa. Her eyes had met a name on a folder and she was intrigued.

Rummaging through some of the snacks that were hidden away for the lord of the castle she laid on the sofa and lazily ate. The contents of the folder were actually pretty interesting to her. She raspberried her lips, “Like he has that much money. He’s fucking broke.” The statement came out in an uninterested tone.

It had been an eventful day for Lewis. He had planned the fall of a kingdom and its eventual rise as a new power in the land while also figuring out how to maintain the current demon population. It wasn’t an easy task…the demon clan was an obnoxious bunch. Their leader was an absolute idiot, though his mate was useful in keeping him in line. At least she knew how to see sense on occasion.

When he arrived back at the castle, the staff was in a panic looking for Simone Lewis looked around for a moment, seemingly undisturbed at the prospect of the missing woman, and sighed. She hadn’t left the castle. That much was for sure. So it was only a matter of time before she got hungry and came for food.

But, Lewis already had an idea of where she might be. He made his way to the second floor, and walked into the office space that he used. It had been locked. But of course, Simone was sitting on the sofa reading documents. “Doesn’t really seem like the reading material you would enjoy.” He sauntered past her and sat down at his desk.

“Found anything to your liking?” The Orion family isn’t exactly one to hold my attention for very long. They do have their uses, as minimal as they may seem.”