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“No… no… no… no…” Eric fell to his knees, grabbing onto the head of Selena. “Why… why did you do this?”
“Huh… it looks like I love you more than I realized…” Selena sounds like she was talking to herself.
“No! Please… gods… no!” Eric starts weeping as the light goes out of her eyes.
“Tsk…” The King makes an annoyed sound. “To think I went to all that trouble to a find a woman worthy of replacing me and making me go mad with jealousy, and you rejected her all these years for petty reasons.”
Had anyone been paying attention at that moment, they’d realize the words being spoken aren’t the King’s, but the person controlling the King. Eric looks up at the King, his eyes turning hateful.
“You bastard!”
“Hehe! Don’t look at me? It was that princess who did it…” The King tries to recover his malice and cruelty after that brief interrruption.
“On your order!” Eric shouts.
“It doesn’t matter… oh… and to answer your earlier question before you tried to mount a rebellion, the reason the Outlands cannot be acknowledged as a country is because the Outlands have no King. That’s right! Do you hear that, gladiators? The king of your country was found dead in his chambers. Possibly by one of your own not-so-loyal demi-human followers. The wounds were clearly not done by the hands of a human! You have nothing but yourselves to blame. I-“
“Pftt….” Snow White suddenly snorts.
“Hahahaah!” Mushu lets out a bellowing laugh.
Even Merida has tears in her eyes as she fights back the giggles.
“What? What is it? Do you have no respect for your king?”
“No, King Gaston,” It is Rapunzel who responds with a bow. “It is not that we don’t respect him. Quite the opposite, we are certain he is not dead, because you aren’t even remotely worthy!”
“You… you dare mock the Great Empire! Guards! Arrest these bastards!”
“No…” a word suddenly came from everywhere at once, and then a person steps out, only a short distance away from the King and Queen, “It is you who have mocked me. Mocked my Riun. Underestimated us time and time again!”
You speak loud enough for the crowd to hear, appearing suddenly on the podium like a ghost.
“You… you can’t be… you can’t be… I killed you!”
The voice that rang out wasn’t the King’s, but the Queen’s. In fact, as soon as you came out, the King fell down as if his cord is suddenly cut. Those last words shot through the stadium with an echo in her rich, clear voice.
There are several gasps as people look up at the King’s podium that only contains you, the Queen, and the dead puppet King.
“Did you really?” Your voice rings out, giving the Queen a condescending sneer of your own before turning to your harem. “Sorry, I missed your fight. I wanted to make a grand entrance after all. Did I miss anything good?”
“Nothing much.” Mushu shrugs.
“It is only right that warrior shines more than the rest of us.”
“Anything for daddy!”
The five women all look up at you doe-eyed, love clearly painted on their faces. All the men in the audience grab their hearts, knowing that these women all belong to you. Even if they wanted one of them, given the destroyed remains of what used to be the human realm’s mightiest knights scattered at their feet, how would anyone even try to do so?
“I woke up in a pile of your blood with a-“
“You really have no awareness of your other self, do you? Fake corpse, fake blood, fake me. Of course, you’d know a lot about faking it, wouldn’t you?”
“I…” Esmerelda is at a loss on how to respond.
“What is this? What is going on? Why is brother gone flaccid?” Eric demands
“Hah! Good wording!” You snap, pointing at Eric. “Because the King has been nothing but a puppet all this time!”
Muttering starts to take place amongst the audience as confused people try to get a grasp on the situation.
“Is… this true? Esmerelda?” Eric asks, starting to shake angrily.
“I… was cursed… I had no choice…” Esmerelda responds flatly, looking lost. “I… turned the king into my puppet. I’m sorry, I just wanted to protect you!
The crowd bursts into angry words, a few people calling out to burn her or hang her. Prince Eric looks up at her with his mouth open in shock.
“Of course, the real culprit behind this is Esmerelda at all!” You declare, breaking into the moment like a bull in a china shop.
“Damn it man, speak clearly!” Eric curses, still shaking his head in confusion.
“Well, perhaps we should be address the elephant in the room. Or should I call it a demon? What do you think, Ariel?”
Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap.
“So… you figured it out. You figured out who I am. I’m impressed.” Fake Ariel smirks. “I admit it. I created the curse that affected Esmerelda with vampirism all those years ago. I’m hear to sew discord and disrest among the human population. I’m the one who turned her into what she is today.”
“It was you!” Esmerelda’s face contorts with rage.
Eric’s face darkens too, looking at the woman who has murdered his own wife. It seems like she is the culprit for all of his woes. He felt anger and rage over the hateful woman.
“So… King of Riun, or whoever the hell you are, how did you figure it out? Hmm? I’m very curious how you-“
“What?” You look at the fake Ariel in surprise while cleaning your ear out. “I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to her.”
“Bitch say what?” A voice comes from behind Fake Ariel.
“Huh?” Fake Ariel turns her head to look behind her.
“Exactly!” Before Fake Ariel can finish turning the rest of the way, a blade stabs her in the back in the same way she had just stabbed Selena, except that a second later she is savagely kicked to the ground.
Standing in her place is… Ariel, the one and only.