Cursed

Prologue

The imperial arena was filled with people.

The whole Palecien assembled in the arena to witness a death punishment. The seven princes were already present at the tower of the corner of the Imperial Arena. They were also present to witness the death punishment announced by The Queen.

As the King and Queen entered the tower, the seven princes stood up from their positions and curtsied, including all the other people present there. The crowd cheered for the King and The Queen.

Soon, The King and the Queen occupied their positions, and King ordered to proceed with the process of the punishment.

With that order, an enormous gate, situated inside the Arena that was connected to Imperial Prison, opened with a loud noise.

6 Knights came out riding their horses and stood at both sides of the gate. The crowd narrowed their eyes inside the dark empty place from where the guilty were supposed to enter the arena.

The sound of heavy metallic chains hitting the ground and rubbing each other filled the arena. Dust whirled around the place by the sudden gust of wind. Everyone covered their eyes to protect them from the spiralling dust.

The sound of the metallic chain hitting the ground increased.

As the gust of wind disappeared, everyone removed their hands from their eyes and glanced at the middle of the field. There the guilty was.

A woman was standing in the middle of the arena. Shackle gripping her wrists and fetter grappling her feet. A metallic chain connecting both shackle and fetter.

Her face was hidden behind her long black hair. And her head was facing the ground. One of the knights pushed her to the gallows, and the other knight made her stand on the short supporting wooden stand.

The knights started unbinding her from the shackle and the fetter as the woman stared at the noose right before her.

One of the Knights forced the woman to wear that noose on her neck. The woman tried to free herself, but she wasn't that strong to fight back one of the royal knights. Hence, she soon was inside the noose, and the bind on it tightened to her neck.

The woman glanced up at the tower, and she glared at everyone sitting there. Especially at the Queen.

Even when she was dying, her stare wasn't less intimidating than earlier. The stare was enough to make the Queen shiver.

"Am I doing the right thing?" The Queen whispered, and the woman laughed. It seemed as if the woman could hear what Queen murmured from the middle of the Arena even when The King was clueless about Queen's whisper.

"You still have time to protect this royal family from getting disappeared. If I die, I will not let this royal family live further." The woman sneered from the gallows.

The 2nd Prince, William Evans, stood up from his position and walked close to the railing. He gripped the railing and gritted his teeth in anger.

"Hang her!" Prince William ordered.

The woman screamed, "You will regret this! I will come back and take my revenge!"

The knights let go of that woman and kicked the wooden, short stand under her. She started wincing and tried to free her neck from the noose, but it was impossible now to get free.

After a while, her wincing body stopped moving, and the heavy crowd cheered in joy. Though, the Queen could feel the uneasiness in the air.

"Something isn't right.." The Queen whispered as she kept staring at the dead body of the woman she punished to death.

Suddenly an informer ran towards the Royals as he started huffing.

"Henry? What is it?" The King asked.

"Your Highness…." Henry couldn't finish his sentence as he started panting again.

"Your Highness…The neighboring country has declared a war against our Kingdom. We need to get prepared as soon as possible."

The King stood up from his position.

He seemed shocked by the news.

It was out of the blue. The neighboring country didn't have any reason to attack Palecien anyway.

The Queen gulped as she stared back at that woman's dead body. It was only a few minutes the woman died, and a piece of stressful news welcomed Palecien.

The Queen couldn't understand if it was really that woman's curse in their country or just a coincidence.