Page 172 of The White King's Favorite

“My p-parents told me about it,” Cessilia continued as if she was talking to herself. “About what happened b-before I was born, when my older b-brother was just a b-baby. My father had a b-brother that k-killed a lot of p-people. He t-tried to kill my g-grandfather and become the Emperor. He was a t-truly twisted man, and he d-died back then.”

Naptunie, a bit confused, glanced at Jisel. That woman was now staring at Cessilia with an expression full of hatred. She definitely knew something about what Cessilia was talking about. Naptunie looked again at Cessilia in front of her. She was still not looking at Jisel, and incredibly calm.

“ ...Are you the d-daughter of my uncle Vrehan?” she finally asked.

“No,” retorted Jisel. “Hadn’t you already heard that from the Hashat? My father was from the Rain Tribe.”

“B-but you have a d-dragon.”

“I never lied,” retorted Jisel. “Not to Hephael, and not even to Ashen… My mother was a princess of the Dragon Empire, my father a man of the Rain Tribe.”

“P-princesses never–”

“Passed on dragons to their sons?” scoffed Jisel. “Well, that’s because they never tried coupling them with someone from the Rain Tribe, did they? Do you really think all those legends about our mermaid ancestors and a mythical water dragon were only folktales?”

This time, Cessilia raised her eyes to look at Jisel, confused. Jisel smirked, and glanced around, until her eyes found Tessandra.

“...Your cousin. She’s an only child?”

“She has a l-little sister.”

“But no male siblings… If she did, he probably would have a water dragon too.”

Cessilia was shocked. Her hands stopped moving over Ashen, and she also glanced back at her cousin. If she hadn’t met Jisel, she would have never thought there was more to their genes than the fact that her mother was a bit special.

“...That bastard was my uncle too,” Jisel suddenly blurted out, her eyes going back to the fire. “As you guessed, we were indeed related. My mother was only unlucky to have been born as one of that piece of shit’s sisters. I don’t have memories of living in that place, but she told me a bit. She was living like she was invisible, only obeying her brother’s orders to survive. Not making any waves, getting the little bits of happiness where she could. When he suddenly showed her an ounce of kindness by gifting her a male slave, she was all happy about it, like an idiot.”

“...Your father was a slave?”

“Weren’t all Rain people?” scoffed Jisel. “He was caught as a boy, and sold to entertain the whims of a princess a few years older than him. In all ways, of course. He couldn’t say anything back to her, so he tried to use her to survive. He obeyed her every whim and made her attached. While she fell in love with her toy, he loathed her more and more each day. Their relationship was violent even when she was still his master, yet he showed her just the right amount of attention and kindness for her to never complain, and always forgive him. The typical romance tragedy for a love-deprived woman. I was born of their love-hate relationship first.”

“...You used t-to live in the Imperial P-Palace?”

“Like a rat, yes. I hid all the time. I knew pissing the wrong person off could get me killed, so I did all I could to hide my very existence, and so did my mother. Everything was completely ruined by the war, though. You probably know better than I do what happened... When... your father killed him, my mother and that slave of hers she was in love with, fled from the palace to here. She got pregnant with my younger brother somewhere along the way. Life as refugees turned out to be... even worse than the one we had at the palace. My father took over as the monster.”

She had a bitter smirk on as she stared at the fire, her eyes lost in her memories.

“Once free of his status as a slave, he became more violent than ever toward my mother. The difficulties were easier to blame on that woman than on himself. Although he never hurt us, my brother and I hated him alike. One day, he killed our mother, almost by accident. The wrong hit and that was it. What happened then traumatized my younger brother... and that’s when we met Jinn.”

“His d-dragon?”

“Jinn arrived out of nowhere, but my brother knew it was his dragon. I knew where my parents came from, I put the pieces together. My father, as well, of course. He did not like that his son was suddenly stronger than him, nor the reminder of whose blood we carried. Junian was too young for us to leave our father, so just like our mother did, we had to endure. Until we were both old enough to leave, to find a place of our own.”

“...What happened to your b-brother?”

Jisel sighed. She was incredibly calm and seemingly detached from the story she was telling. Almost as if it wasn’t her own, or she had absolutely no feelings about it.

“A dragon isn’t like a human. It can’t be told to shut up and behave. So, each time my brother got upset, Jinn would retaliate against my father. He had the same fear-anger relationship as we had toward our father, even when he grew much bigger. My stupid father thought getting more violent toward my brother would make Jinn behave. Of course, he was wrong. One day, Jinn injured him. Badly. I remember leaving him there and going to bed hoping that man would be dead the next day. As it turns out, neither of them woke up.”

A chill went down Naptunie’s spine. She didn’t like that woman one bit, but listening to her story was still terribly painful. She could sort of understand what had happened, and it was frightening to put the pieces together. It was such a horrible story. Yet, Jisel was completely placid, and distant.

“I found myself alone with a dragon. Jinn was attached to me, of course, but I knew he’d draw attention. So I sent him away for a while, and tried to find my way into the Eastern Kingdom... I knew my skin color would draw attention, and I was young, alone, and worse, a woman. I survived, however I could. Whatever I had to do to survive, I did. I learned not to trust anyone. Especially men... They all betray you in the end.”

She suddenly turned her head to glare at Ashen. Cessilia sighed but did not say anything. Although she had played a large part in this, she still knew this issue was between Jisel and Ashen; what had happened between them was not something she could intrude on.

“...Not all men,” Naptunie interjected, very invested in the story. “Your little brother didn’t betray you.”

“Yeah, but he never grew to be a man.”

---