Royalty are members of a ruling social class. They are people who are respected. People yearn to be of royal blood. Being someone associated with royalty means a luxurious life. It means being filthy rich. It means fame. It is anything anyone could dream for. Yet a young girl at the age of sixteen overlooked all these - and despised royalty. To her, everything royalty was claimed to be is all just a disguise , a mask to cover up what it really was. To her, royalty is torture. It meant no freedom. Rules. An unhappy life. She was Choi SooYoung. Her stepsister, Nicole, was utterly disgusted at her opinion. Nicole believed that royalty was a priviledge, something that lets her rule others. Something that lets her do whatever she wanted, however she wanted and whenever she wanted. That was why SooYoung detested her. "SooYoung." Her father's stern voice interrupted her thoughts. She turned around to face him, trying her best to stay emotionless. Her father nodded curtly, to which she nodded back, set into a grim line and her eyes remained alert. "Today afternoon, at exactly 12, at the dining table. The Queen has something to announce." He told her. "Yes, Father." she replied. As soon as he was gone, SooYoung collapsed into a chair, wondering why she had to meet her parents- and Nicole that day. She hardly ever saw her parents except during meals. "Soo." a tiny voice called out. SooYoung's face lit up instantly. In the whole castle, she could only relate to one person - Sunny, who was one of her maids. She was the shortest of all maids, and it was queer seeing the two together. One was tall, and one was short. "Sunny!" SooYoung called back. "Sunny, do you know why Father and Mother wants to see me today?" she asked. "Yup. But they forbid me to tell you a word about it, sorry, Soo." Sunny replied, a hint of worry in her voice. "Oh, it's alright. I'm just wondering." SooYoung comforted her. "Soo, it's time for The Execution. Forty villagers are waiting." Sunny told her, her voice trembling slightly as memories of past Executions during her time flashed in her mind. "What? Today? How I wish they will stop Executions. It's so inhumane and cruel." SooYoung groaned. The Execution happens once every month, where forty chosen villagers will go to the palace. They will have to answer a set of questions. If SooYoung or Nicole was displeased with them, the villagers will have to be beheaded. SooYoung would only execute people who broke the law and did evil. However, Nicole would execute those prettier or smarter than her. Therefore, just to be safe, villagers will rub mud on their daughter's face and make them ugly temporarily before the Execution. Sooyoung has tried desperately to stop Nicole from doing it but it was futile. SooYoung sighed helplessly as she went to the main hall of the palace - where villagers will be weeping uncontrollably, praying fervently that they will be spared as they begged SooYoung to test them instead of Nicole. Of course, this caused Nicole to stare at SooYoung in jealousy. Why do so many people prefer SooYoung over her? She was too blind to know that there was more than meets the eye. SooYoung and Nicole both took their places at the opposite side of the hall, glaring at each other distastefully as the weeping reverberated against the Walls of the palace. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note from xxSaranghae-Roxyxx Dear readers, Yes! First chapter done! ^^. BTW, all these stuff, like The Execution, is all made up by me... Sorry, I know this doesn't happen in real life, but I'm totally clueless.. Let's just say it was done long long long time ago, and no one knows, lol... Better yet, it was just a piece of my imagination. Okay, bye! I'll update as soon as possible!!!