Shadow Princess

Before adoption, "Mei"s original name was "Nuwa". She was a street beggar back then. Her life was so miserable that most of the time, she slept on the streets and whenever she got some food, she"d considered herself lucky. People always bullied her and children would throw rocks by calling her dirty or disgusting!

Even a stray dog"s situation was better than her!

And then, like the fairy G.o.dmother, Princess Liena came to her life!

Princess forced King Lin to adopt her! Well, she regarded herself as she was good at convincing people!

Liena was a pampered princess so all King and Queen Lin could do were to grant her demands.

At first, Nuwa couldn"t talk properly when they first took her in the palace. She was undernourished. Her behavior was violent as wild animals. After years of abuse and mistreats, there was no more trust left in Nuwa" heart for people. Especially for children, since they were the one who bullied and hara.s.sed her most!

But Liena treated Nuwa very kindly. In the beginning, it was difficult for Nuwa to trust Liena. She didn"t understand why a pampered princess would help and dote on her when the world was full of selfish people!

No one ever treated her nicely since she was born without their selfish motives. Nor even her biological parents...

So she was very aggressive and violent towards Liena. But Liena patiently tolerated her behaviors. Observing Liena"s selflessness, Nuwa was finally tamed by her and believed grow in her heart as well as respects and loyalty.

Later Liena taught her many things including how to become a proper lady. She did everything which only a doting sister could do.

Despite King and Queen Lin adopted Nuwa, thanks to Liena for constant making one after another fusses, they treated Nuwa nicely. Both were always good and kind to her and almost treated her as they do to Princess. Sometimes Nuwa felt very jealous of Liena"s good fortune for having such a perfect family!

One day, King Lin proposed an idea to Nuwa to become Princess Liena"s body-double.

Most of the people in the Kingdom knew that since she was a child, Princess Liena had a very weak body const.i.tution. To stop negative rumors, Liena worked hard day and night, to build a good reputation as well as change onlookers views towards her. But because of handling too much stress, she could not get enough time to rest and day by day she was becoming frailer.

And the main reason why she was ill was unfortunate.

Princess Liena was abducted when she was eight years old with her younger brother. Although Nuwa didn"t know the details, all she knew that the kidnappers killed her brother in front of her and gravely injured her. Since then Princess"s body became weak. Most of the time she was bedridden. When Nuwa learned about Liena"s past, she was heartbroken. From that day onwards, she vowed to herself that no matter what she"ll protect Princess. She even started learning martial arts to become strong.

So when King Lin came up with that idea, she became happy.

Besides surprisingly, Nuwa"s face had some similarities with Princess except for eyes.

Princess Liena"s eye color was light-brown color. Most of the people in Lin Kingdom"s eye color were black or brown. Most rare, it was hazel.

In contrast, Nuwa"s eyes were not only exceptional, but it was also impossible to find someone like her in the whole continent. Her eyes were complete heterochromi one was deep blue when the other one was green.

Nuwa liked the idea despite Lienas"a continuous refusal. Liena told her it was risky. Furthermore, there were always people who were lurking around, continuously rebelling against the king and tried to kill the princess. As a result, she didn"t want Nuwa"s life in danger because of her.

But no matter what, Nuwa wanted to help Princess to give her enough time to recover her body. She wanted to protect Liena so much that it was utterly impossible for her to convince Nuwa any more. And finally, she gave up.

From that day onwards, Nuwa became Princess Liena"s shadow. Whenever someone tried to kill or ambush the princess, she"d be there. She accepted this shadow life not only to show her grat.i.tude but because she regarded Liena as her sister.

But now!

Princess was injured. Her face was pale. There was no trace of blood.

Nuwa was crying like a child. Her situation came to a point where she was blowing her nose and sobbing.

Princess stared at Nuwa with hurtful expression and said,

"...Nuwa..."

Nuwa looked at Princess with teary eyes. Only Princess called her real name. In order to avoid suspicion, her foster mother Queen Lin used one of her deceased relative"s ident.i.ty after the adoption. So when she didn"t play Princess role, everyone even the King and Queen would call her Mei.

But Princess was the only person in the entire world who called her "Nuwa". And now that person is dying in front of her!

How can she accept this???

Princess looked at Nuwa and reached her hand to touch Nuwa"s face. She said very painfully...

"...Nuwa... please.... stop...crying...."

Nuwa never disregarded Princess" request. So she tried her best to stop sobbing.

"...Nuwa...can...you...fulfill...my...selfish...wish...?"

Nuwa was worried that if she made a noise, she wouldn"t be able to hear Princess"s voice again. She looked at the princess and nodded at her.

Nuwa didn"t care whatever Princess"s was going to ask, as long as she wanted something, she would achieve it. Even if it was unreasonable- she wanted Nuwa"s life, she would give her life. No matter what, she wanted to fulfill it.

Because for the first time Princess was going to request something from her.

Princess looked at Nuwa with a guilty expression. And said slowly,

"....please... save... this... kingdom..."

"Marry... Emperor..... Qiu... Feng... Mian...."

Nuwa"s body jolted as she jumped up from bed when she heard those words. She was utterly surprised by disbelieve that she felt her body was struck by a bolt of lightning.

Did she hear something wrong?

Emperor Qiu Feng Mian!!!

Qiu Feng Mian was the infamous emperor throughout the continent. Who didn"t know about this blood-thirsty tyrannical Emperor? In the battlefield, he killed people like he was killing ants.

To get the throne, he killed all the probable emperor candidates along with his parents. He even declared that whoever rebels against him, he would erase that person as well as his eighteen generation that the world would wonder if they even existed!

Suddenly, Nuwa was in a daze as if she was solving a puzzle.

Last month, Princess told Nuwa that she was going to marry a king from a distant kingdom. So she asked Nuwa about her future plans. Nuwa replied at that time that she wanted to follow Princess all her life. But Princess refused to listen to her and insisted to tell her the truth. As a result, Nuwa then shyly confessed that she wanted to travel the whole world. She wanted to learn different things, people and cultures.

After listening, the princess"s face became bright like the sun. She inspired Nuwa happily that she should follow her heart and fulfill her dreams.

She promised Nuwa that she"ll let her go after Liena left the palace for her wedding.

But Nuwa never knew... The King Liena was supposed to marry was no-one but that G.o.d of the ma.s.sacre!!!

She was accepting that tyranny for this Kingdom"s sake!

Nuwa didn"t try to think more about it feared of having any second thoughts... She looked at Liena and determinedly replied...

"I Promise."

[Note: Unedited chapter.]