The young knight remained frozen on the spot, completely shocked at the words the princess had just spoken. He continued to stare at her with wide eyes and slightly parted lips.

"Answer me, Your Highness," she incited.

Lucas remained silent as the girl walked slowly towards him before stopping right in front of his chest while raising her head to stare at him defiantly. Their size difference was blatant since she barely reached his neck.

"So ?" she asked in a mocking tone.

"I... Luana, listen to me-" he hesitated.

"It's Your Highness, Sir Koraxos. Not Luana," she retorted in a very dry tone.

The young captain felt an excruciating pain pierce his heart as if the latter had been broken into thousands of small pieces.

"Y-Your Highness... I... It's really, very hard to explain..." he whispered.

"What's so hard to explain, huh? The fact that you betrayed me? The fact that you betrayed all of us?" she exclaimed angrily.

"I didn't betray you... I never did... Believe me..." he muttered dejectedly, looking at the ground.

"So what do you call what you've been doing all these years?! You've been hiding your identity from us all! You've been sneaking in between us while lying to us! Are you one of the Grand Master's agents?" she asked coldly.

"What?! Of course no!" he exclaimed in complete shock.

"Then why did you hide the truth from us?! Father welcomed you among us and appointed you captain of the Imperial Army! God, he even gave you the position of his only daughter's bodyguard! All of this because he blindly trusts you! And that's how you reward him?! By stabbing him in the back?!" she scolded.

"Lu- Your Highness... His Majesty was aware of my identity all along..." he stated.

The girl's eyes widened in surprise as she froze in place. She felt her little heart stop beating for a short moment.

"What are you saying ?" she asked in a choked voice.

The young captain sighed heavily before speaking again.

"His Majesty, Duke Lobelia and Captain Arminel all knew about it from the start."

"So... I was the only one in ignorance?"

"Yeah..." he whispered.

The you g girl moved closer to him with an even more defiant gaze.

"I trusted you. I told you everything about me. My biggest secrets, my biggest fears and above all my biggest regrets. I didn't hide anything from you. Nothing at all. I considered you like a friend. Like someone I could tell anything to. Someone I could confide in. You had a special place in my heart, Lucas. But now... All of that is gone... You're nothing to me now..." she stated in a hateful tone.

"Your Highness, I..."

With these words, Luana put her hand in her pocket and took out the necklace that the young captain had given her before his departure. She took his hand and placed it on it, looking him straight in the eye.

"From now on, we are no more friends. I am Luana the princess, and you are Lucas the captain of the Imperial Army. No more, no less," she declared dryly.

"Your Highness, please-" he begged.

"Leave me alone now... I want to stay alone," she ordered, looking at him coldly.

The young man took a moment before nodding slowly with a dejected expression on his face. He turned around and walked slowly towards the door before turning to look at the girl one last time before walking out of the room.

Once the door closed behind him, the princess collapsed to her knees on the floor in tears, while Lucas stood outside with his back to the door, a look of pure sadness and agony on his face. He no longer felt his legs which were struggling to carry his weight from how much he was shaking.

A few seconds later, he gathered his strength and slowly walked down the long hallway towards his bedroom.

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At midnight, the girl awoke from her sleep with excruciating pain in her neck and horrible headaches. The black mark appeared once again on her neck with a stronger brilliance than the previous times.

'I'm in too much pain... It hurts so much... Help me...' she begged, clutching her head with her hands tightly.

She got up with difficulty from her bed before walking in the room to drink some fresh water.

"Come to me..." a voice whispered in her ear.

"What?! Who's there?!" she exclaimed in fear, turning around in all the directions.

"Come to me... Come on... You will obey to everything I tell you... Come to me... Now..."

With these words, the irises of the girl's eyes turned purple in color. Without realizing it, she walked slowly towards the door of her bedroom to leave.

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The young girl walked slowly towards the the palace's gates. She was dressed in her usual nightgown and slippers. The guards there were surprised to see her.

"Your Highness? Where are you going at this hour?" one of them asked, completely confused.

She didn't answer them and continued to walk towards the exit which worried the two guards. One of them decided to stop her from going further.

"Your Highness, come, I'll take you back inside-"

With these words, the young princess grabbed him tightly by the neck and propelled him very far, making him fall to the ground, completely unconscious. The second guard remained frozen on the spot, very shocked by what he had just see.

"Y-Your Highness! What's happening to you?!" he asked, shaking with fear.

She stared at him with a' emotionless look on her face without saying a single word before leaving the palace and taking the way to the forest that was a few kilometers away.

"O-Oh my god... I have to tell His Majesty what happened! The princess is in great danger!" he muttered to himself as he ran inside the palace.

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Arthur was in his office, writing some confidential documents while yawning with fatigue. Suddenly he heard a soft knock on the door.

"Come in," he ordered.

It was the young captain who entered the room which surprised the emperor. He was dressed in a casual outfit consisting of a simple black shirt, pants and boots of the same color.

"Lucas? What are you doing here? Can't sleep?" he asked worriedly.

The young man stood there, a look of sadness and agony on his face.

"Your Majesty, I-"

The office doors swung open letting in the palace gate's guard who was completely out of breath, surprising the two men.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! The princess! She attacked us and then left to the forest on her own! I don't know what is happening to her!" he declared.

"What ?!" exclaimed the emperor in shock.

Listening to these words, Lucas left the room in a hurry without looking behind him, followed by Arthur who ran fast to get to the exit of the palace.

Arriving at the courtyard, Lucas called his wolf who came in a few seconds running towards him before the young man climbed on his back and led him in the direction of the forest.

As for Arthur, he was held back by Angus and Edgar and the other knights who had just woken up when they heard the ruckus. They tried by all means to calm him down, but to no avail.

"Luana! Luana!" he shouted.

"Arthur, my friend! Please don't do this to yourself!" begged Angus, holding him back with difficulty.

"Sir Koraxos will bring her back, Arthur! Nothing will happen to her! You must calm down! Courage !" reassured Edgar.

"No! No! No! Luana! Luana! Let me save my daughter! Let me go! She's all I have left! I don't want to lose her too! Let me save her!" he screamed, sobbing painfully.

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The young girl continued to walk in the woods without knowing where to go exactly. Her feet guided her where they wanted.

After a few minutes, she found herself in front of a gigantic tree. A woman with purple hair and eyes of the same color sat there waiting for her. She was dressed in a purple outfit.

"Finally, we meet each other face to face, Your Highness," she greeted with a smirk.

The young princess did not answer her and continued to stare into space while the young woman advanced slowly towards her before taking her face between her fingers and approaching her even more, looking at her insistently.

"It's really a shame that a girl as pretty as you will die here and in such circumstances," she whispered, displaying a sadistic smile.

She raised her left hand which carried a dagger and prepared herself to finish off the young princess.

Suddenly, a huge wolf attacked her and propelled her far away from where Luana was. Roxy quickly stood up and turned to look at him with contempt and disgust.

"Cursed creature!" she growled angrily.

"Don't yell at my pet," retorted a cold, masculine voice.

The young captain appeared from between the trees, advancing slowly towards the purple-haired woman with a dark aura around him.

"Oho... So you're the person who killed my pet in Lemgan," she said with a smirk.

"And it was you who shot Luana with a poisoned needle," he replied with a glare.

"Yes, that was me. That needle didn't just contain poison but also hypnosis fluid. I'm surprised she only succumbed to it now, by the way."

"Succumbed?"

"As you can see, your girlfriend is hypnotized now. She will do anything I ask her to do. I originally intended to kill her. But now, a much more interesting idea has just crossed my mind."

"You really are sick."

"I know that... You know what? I'm going to order her to fight you and kill you with her own hands. And don't even think about delivering yourself to her. I know you can't hurt her and like the idiot you are, you're going to let her kill you so you won't hurt her, right? Well no! Once she's done with you, she'll kill herself on the spot!" she explained with a sadistic smile.

The woman raised her hand to the sky and whispered a magical incantation that emitted a black light that was absorbed by the mark on Luana's neck. Her eyes had never been so blank or cold as they were right now.

"Unless you kill her first, Mister Knight," she said mockingly.

With these words, the young princess got into position before rushing at Lucas at full speed while Leo tried to stop her from attacking him.

"No! Leo! Don't touch her! Take care of the other witch, instead!" Lucas ordered angrily.

"Oh... It really broke my heart to hear such an insult," Roxy pouted, pretending to be sad.

Leo changed direction and ran into the purple-haired woman to attack her but she kicked him with her leg and slammed him into the tree trunk. The animal hit its head on it and fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Leo! No!" shouted the captain, dodging a blow from the princess.

"One less vermin. Now I can enjoy the show," Roxy said as she jumped up and sat down on one of the branches of the gigantic tree.

Luana ran towards Lucas with a dagger in her hand that Roxy had thrown to her. She spun it around while trying to hurt him with it, to no avail.

"Luana! Please, come to your senses!" he called out, dodging her blows with agility.

The young princess took him by surprise and sent him a punch which he blocked with his hand by taking hers. But, he didn't see that she was preparing another blow. She made a quick movement with her dagger and seriously injured him in the abdomen.

"Argh!" he growled in pain.

The young captain pulled back a little bit and put his hand on his wound to put pressure on it to prevent the blood from flowing out any further.

"That's very interesting. Come on, kill him," Roxy ordered with a maniacal smile.

"Don't listen to her, Luana! Please!" Lucas begged.

"Do you really think she's going to hear you? You're going to end up getting yourself killed if you don't kill her first. The reason I managed to hypnotize her was because she received several emotional shocks. Nothing can break this hypnosis now," Roxy explained.

The young princess continued to attack Lucas without giving him time to take a breath. He was starting to get tired with each passing second.

"Give it up. You can't do anything for her," she added, giggling madly.

Reluctantly, he swung his forearm at her, pushing her away from him and knocking her to the ground. She stood up quickly and stared at him with her blank stare.

'I don't really have a choice anymore... Forgive me, Luana...' he thought.

He stood up straight and looked at her coldly before taking a deep breath.

"Aren't you ashamed?" he said with disgust.

Those words took the girl by surprise for a moment. She froze in place looking at him without showing any emotion.

"You killed your own mother and now it's my turn? And after that who? Your father? You want to destroy what he has built for years? You really are unworthy of being a princess," he insulted her.

"S-Stop..." she whispered, shaking slightly.

"Why? Why should I stop? The truth hurts you so much? Would you prefer me to lie to you?" he asked in a mocking tone.

"I told you to shut up, you bastard!" she cried out, rushing at him.