Mason, Jackson, and Damien arrived at the palace and the first thing that caught their attention was Kathy who was standing under the sun in front of the palace.
Jackson who was in front, barely paid Kathy any attention as his eyes caught a whiff of the princess who briefly looked out the window from her room to see the warriors.He hurried into the palace as the servants stood by the wide double doors, waiting for them to approach.Mason walked behind him, his attention was caught by the design of the palace. He smiled as he took in the beautiful surroundings but the smile on his face disappeared when he made eye contact with Kathy.Kathy quickly looked down, afraid that Mason was going to accuse her of being a witch or hurt her once again. He ignored her and followed behind Jackson as he approached the palace doors.Damian on the other hand gazed at Kathy with sympathy. He could see that she was sweating profusely and the look on her face convinced him that she was very uncomfortable, and how could she not be when the sun was shining directly on her face?He walked up to her and wiped the sweat off her forehead using his hand, "why are you standing under this scorching sun? Is it a part of your job or what?Athena smiled bitterly, "I didn't get the princess's flowers on time. She was already awake by the time I got back so she gave me the punishment of standing under the sun throughout the day."Damian stared at Kathy in shock, unable to believe what he had just heard. He looked at the princess who was at the door with the servants to welcome them and suddenly developed a hatred for her.His first thought about her wasn't wrong. He wouldn't deny that she was beautiful but she was quite mean and her heart was definitely full of evil.He stared back at Kathy without knowing what to say to her. He knew she was ugly but that didn't mean that she deserved to be treated like an animal. While Damian was still standing with Kathy, Meela who had heard about the arrival of the great warriors hurried to the palace. She was aware of the prophecy and was so eager to find out who her daughter Athena was going to take as her husband.She saw Kathy with Damian and from her observation, he seemed to be nice to her. "This couldn't be," she thought. "Everyone was supposed to hate her."The sight in front of her made her unhappy. Perhaps this warrior had no idea about how everyone found Kathy disgusting and hated her. She walked up to Kathy who at this point was staring at Damian and trying to assure him with a smile that she was okay.She did not see Meela coming since her attention was completely on Damian. Not until she received a hard slap across her face. The pain she felt was intense. Her hand quickly went up to that part of her face which had been repeatedly slapped since she woke up in the morning.Tears fell from her eyes without her knowing what to say while Meela roared, "you filthy slave. Who gave you the right to chat with such a noble warrior? Have you looked at your ugly self properly? Why would you disturb someone who came here to see the royal family?"Damian was livid and wanted to scream at Meela but paused when he heard Athena say, "no mum, I wasn't disturbing him."Damian stared at Meela in shock, unable to believe that she was Kathy's mother. Due to how loud Meela had been, the people at the front of the palace door turned to look at what was happening.Damian noticed that the queen was staring at them and waited to hear her reprimand Meela but she took her eyes away as quickly as possible and focused her attention back on the people in front of her.Meela walked away and left Kathy with Damian when she saw the anger on his face. Damian felt upset. Exactly what kind of life was Kathy living? If even her mother could treat her with so much contempt, then who would fight for her?He was disappointed in the royal family that Kathy was treated like an animal right in front of their eyes and they did nothing about it. If she were to be their daughter, would they still be so unbothered?He stared at Kathy who had stopped crying and wiped the tears from her eyes. There were handprints on both sides of her face and Damian was sure that it was due to her being thoroughly slapped. He couldn't keep quiet and do nothing. He decided that he was going to put a stop to Kathy's suffering, all he needed to do was think of a way to achieve this.When they had been formally welcomed according to the tradition, Jackson called out to Damian, "come on, let's go in."Damian smiled warmly at Kathy, "I'm going in now and I will see you later. Do not worry, everything will be fine. I promise."Kathy nodded her head, "thank you very much."Damian joined Mason and Jackson and together they all went into the house.The moment Mason set his eyes on Athena, he became lovestruck. He had never fallen for a woman before. Kathy was the first girl he lost control in front of and he believed that it was because she had bewitched him.It was different with Athena though, he could feel butterflies in his stomach and his heart was thumping loudly. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off of hers and nothing else mattered at this point.Jackson also found himself completely besotted with the princess however, he could see that she had eyes only for Mason since she was shamelessly gawking at him in front of everyone.Jackson felt his heart break when he saw the way Mason stared at the princess. They were not even ashamed that everyone was staring at them. He had insisted that they came to the palace because he was dying to behold the princess's beauty but in the end, he had only done the job of a matchmaker.He suddenly lost interest in being in the palace. He wanted to be everywhere else but there, however, he knew that he couldn't just up and leave. Although all three of them were friends, Mason was their leader and called the shots.He taught them everything they knew about surviving on the battlefield since he was a naturally gifted warrior who was swift with weapons and unbeatable in a brawl from when he was a boy.What surprised Jackson the most was the reaction of the king and queen. They seemed to be pleased with what was going on between Mason and the princess. He became more surprised when the king said, "Athena, why don't you take Mason to your bedroom so you both can talk since he seem
As Athena stared at Mason from her room, she recalled the conversation she had shared with Meela when she clocked eighteen.Meela had told her the truth about her birth. In her exact words, "you are my true daughter, the one who sprang from me while Kathy is the queen's daughter. I swapped you both at birth after making a powerful witch place a curse on Kathy. The reason is that I want you to live the best life and I will do it all over again if given the chance."Athena had been quite shocked at the revelation. She had wanted to doubt Meela but couldn't do so because Meela had always shown her so much love and hated Kathy.There were times when she had wondered why Meela treated her own daughter so badly but after Meela told her everything, it made sense to her. She came to understand why Kathy was so ugly and why everyone hated her so much.Her hatred for Kathy also doubled because if Meela had not done what she did, Kathy would have been living the life of a princess and she would
Kathy stared at Damian in surprise. She had never thought of leaving the kingdom before but it was also true that she was fed up with the life she was living. She hoped for a better life and had always thought that someday someone will make her life better. Perhaps this was the time. Perhaps Damian was the answer to her prayers. She smiled happily at him, "I am willing to leave with you anywhere as long as it is better than living here. If I have to work hard on a farm or even as your maid, I am willing to do it. I just want to live as a human being. I want to live without being hated by everyone. "You will surely get the life that you want" Damian assured her. "I promise you, Kathy.What will happen is that I will leave alone first thing tomorrow. Since Mason and the princess have agreed to get married, we will be here for a while so, I'll go back home and get everything ready for you, and then I'll be back in two days. Once I'm back, I will secretly take you out of here without l
When Kathy went back home, she decided to get all her things ready for when Damian would arrive to take her. She didn't have much so it was very easy for her. In less than thirty minutes, she had arranged her bag and kept it where she could easily reach for it.She had just finished arranging her bag when a maid from the palace came to inform her that the princess needed her attention.Kathy suddenly had a bad feeling. She knew that the princess had so many maids who could work for her so if she had sent for her, it meant she wanted to torture her.She didn't dare to give any excuses so she quickly headed for the palace. The princess was with the king and queen and they were all laughing and celebrating.Kathy went in before the princess and stood by the side, waiting to get her order. When the princess saw her, she smiled. She seemed to be in a very good mood and Kathy felt relieved when she saw that.The princess threw the keys to her room at Kathy and said, "I want my room thorough
From the ground where she lay weakly, Kathy heard a familiar voice. At first, she thought it was Damian but a different face came to her mind. She realized it was the voice of someone she now hated, the same voice that terrified her.What could be going on? Did Damian ask him to help her? Was that why he was going against everyone for her sake? But he was in love with princess Athena and since she was about to be executed for stealing Athena's jewels, he naturally should be on Athena's side.Why was he going against the woman he loved and the king as well when he knew that it would block his chances of ever making her his bride? Kathy could not understand what was going on.She wanted to open her eyes and see for herself but she felt so weak and sleepy that opening her eyes seemed like the hardest thing to do at the moment. She didn't know how everything would turn out in the end.She didn't know if Mason would succeed in what he was doing but more than that she didn't trust him. For
King Richard and Queen Aurora looked up at the sky when it began to rain. The guards quickly shielded them from the rain as they led them back to the palace while the other guards helped the men whom Mason had injured and left on the square.As they made their way back to the palace, the king and queen suddenly felt that something was not right. They each recalled Athena and instantly knew that she was Meela's daughter but why did she become the princess and what happened to their daughter?King Richard recalled how Meela and Athena had hurried towards the palace and said to his wife, "let's hurry, we need to find out what is going on."Not only the King and queen, everyone who had gathered at the square, including the guards suddenly realized that Athena wasn't the princess and was not so beautiful. They were horrified that a young girl was almost hung to death and they had all been in support of it.Most of them decided to go to the palace under the rain because they also wanted to
After the queen was revived, she was taken into the bedroom she shared with the king to rest while the king came out and asked Meela to go on.Meela began to explain how she wanted her daughter to get married to the prince but after she learned that queen Aurora would be having a daughter, she went to the witch and took her help in order to exchange the girls after they were born.When she was done speaking, the king said, "I will ask you just one question, why did you not treat my daughter with love? After exchanging both girls, your daughter got to live as a princess and enjoyed the best life. The least you could have done was treat Kathy like a human, why did you hate her so much?""I don't know," she cried. "I really don't know why. I think it was what the witch did but each time I saw her, I would get angry. Please forgive me, my king. I made a very big mistake."The king laughed bitterly, "you ruined the life of my only child and almost made me kill her and you ask me for forgiv
Kathy stared at Mason. She was surprised that he was begging to be her friend. This was the same person who had said she was too ugly in the past. She could not understand what made him change his mind. But now that he was begging her, how could she bring herself to say no? She nodded and replied, "Alright, fine, I'll be friends with you." Mason smiled, "Really? Thank you so much, thank you." After that, he got up and walked away. Kathy looked at his back and wondered, "What has happened to Damian?" She was worried about him. Although Mason and Jackson had assured her that Damian could take care of himself, she could not stop worrying about him. He was someone who had done so much for her. He had been there for her when everyone else turned their backs against her. It was not easy for her to have the same confidence as the rest. She would only feel at ease when he returned hale and hearty.After a while, Mason came back. He sat on the other side of the fire staring at her, wonderi