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Janice truly wasn’t one to listen to others’ warnings. But as always, experience proved itself to be the best teacher.

It would be heartwarming to think that Janice got everything she deserved. Forced to work in a slum brothel for the remainder of her youth, it is a fate that would cow even the brightest and most ruthless of spirits. The head madam of the brothel had a taste for blood, and in addition to working girls to the bone, flogged them if they weren’t energetic enough. She had a special set of whips, each assigned to a day of the week. Janice only worked Fridays. And even then, the whip on Friday was the least caked in blood.

You see, Janice had grown into her potential and embraced the dark thing that had been placed within her. When the head madam looked at her, she could see something just as bloodthirsty as herself within the beautiful girl’s eyes, and it sent a shiver down her spine. She saw how clients came stumbling from Janice’s newly created personal room, delirious and pale, but raving about how wonderful their experience was. She also saw how one of the steadiest girls she owned, Sarah, had withered away and died shortly after sharing rooms with Janice for a few months.

The slums breed good survival instincts in those who survive it.

The head madam had never touched Janice since, allowing the former maid to set her own hours and even acquire her own room. Meanwhile, the darkness in Janice grew more palpable, like a shadow that covered the entire brothel. It brought clients in like flies to dung, driving up the business and money. But it didn’t necessarily make everyone happy. All the workers could feel it too, even if they couldn’t quite place their finger on where it came from. But those who knew gave Janice a large berth. Not that Janice minded it, or even noticed.

Her clothing was good- at least, as good as it got for a brothel worker in the slums. Despite the wear and tear that tugged wrinkles onto the faces of dreary girls and made their skin rough like sandpaper, Janice miraculously managed to maintain her appearance so that it was as if she had been tossed in the previous week instead of two years ago.

Her eyes were darkened with makeup, making them appear more seductive and she lounged half within the shadows of her personal boudoir, complete with sheer curtains hung near the entrance to add to the ambiance. A knock sounded on her door and a mousy girl stepped in hesitantly.

.....

Her knees wobbling, the girl dropped into the curtsey that Janice insisted on from everyone she forced to work for her. It brought a smile onto Janice’s face, as she casually waved and allowed the girl to start speaking. If any outsiders were to happen upon the scene, however, it would look like a tired parody of a popular Red House courtesan or a noble lady.

The room, despite being nicer than any other private room at the rundown brothel, was still threadbare. The hung fabrics were tired prints from several seasons past. The ‘servant girl’ had a thick accent common to the poorer areas of Radovalsk. But for Janice,

“Erm, m’lady, that lad has come by again with news,” the girl said in a quavering voice. Her sweaty hands tugged at her rough skirts as Janice adopted a contemplative expression.

“The one from the palace?” Janice asked carefully, anticipation obvious in her eyes.

“Yes, m’lady. S-Shall I escort him in from the back entrance?”

Janice cast a fierce glare at the girl, her short patience already worn thin. “Well, where else would you escort him in, Sarah?”

She twirled her fingers around the strand of pearls a customer had spent his life savings to purchase for her, hating how small the beads were.

And, yes. Janice had kindly decided to bestow Sarah’s name upon her new ‘servant girl’. Former known as Emily, the fellow worker at the brothel who had received special dispensation from the head madam to become Janice’s personal dog.

New Sarah scurried out of the room, too afraid to bear the disfavor of Janice, who ordinary should not have been any more important than her. Slipping down to the first floor unnoticed, she crept to the back rooms where the cheap alcohol served to clients was being secretly mixed with water. Handing over a few dull silver coins to the old, half-blind servant who constantly worked to dilute the ale, Sarah opened up the back door a crack to witness that the figure in a dark cloak still stood waiting.

“She, I mean, m’lady said you can come in,” Sarah half-whispered half-said. The man pushed past her into the building, already knowing his way around the dingy, perfume filled brothel.

It was early in the summer morning, just after that last of the late-night customers had stumbled off hungover, yet Sarah felt a gust of cold air accompany the cloaked man inside. She shivered slightly, her religious self feeling an odd omen. Sarah reminded herself to beg Janice for an opportunity to attend the Blessing Rites for the Midsummer Festival at the Grand Temple later that day. Sarah had heard that this particular year would be special as the royal family would personally attend, the thought of the handsome princes leaving her feeling rather excited as she slowly meandered upstairs to ask Janice.

As for the cloaked man, he pulled back his ratty hood to reveal an infatuated look towards Janice.

“Felix,” she crooned softly, having long perfected the art of wooing men. Prince Julian’s loyal aide stood still like an obedient puppy as she ran her fingers over his jaw. The two years had done the pimply teenager some good, and although he wasn’t as attractive as the noble men in Radovalsk, he no longer served as a sharp contrast against Prince Julian’s youthful charms.

“Janice,” he answered, his eyes full of stars.

Janice’s eyes traced longingly down his neck and she felt a brief flash of hunger but she buried it. It hadn’t been long since she’d last fed from a client and although she was no longer as sloppy as she was her first time, she didn’t want to overindulge and leave her loyal subordinate in a coma.

Felix mistook Janice’s gaze for affection and the look in his eyes deepened. Although he was a few years younger than Janice, he still dreamt of being a dashing knight in her eyes who swept her out of her humble circumstances at the brothel. The young aide felt immense hatred for the empress who had condemned his true love to a brothel, however, one would not know as he still loyally reported to Prince Julian’s mother of her son’s not so furtive actions.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled Janice in for a kiss, a kiss that was quickly cut off by Janice. She did not mind occasionally exchanging favors with Felix, but she truly had no interest in the young sprout.

“Now, now,” she said shyly, subtly breaking out of his grasp. “What news do you bring, Felix?”

Regarding the shy expression on her face, Felix didn’t register the distance between them, an exuberant expression on his face as he reported the news.

“I highly suspect that the prince and Princess Winter are having dealings with one another,” Felix answered furtively.

Janice’s eyes snapped to the closed door before she tugged both of them onto the bed.

“Are you certain? You know I don’t like speculations, I want evidence,” she said decisively.

Felix nodded seriously. “I’ve accompanied his highness for several years. Once a month, he always acts strange on his assignments and leaves me behind before he leaves. I followed him this last time this week and he was very taken with his carriage, casting many secret glances at it as if there were something precious on board. He instructed the stable hands to be extra cautious when leading the carriage out. And when he returned, he looked particularly upset and there was a faint fragrance of roses. The only area in the entire palace that grows roses is the Rose Palace.”

He said it all in one breath without stopped, simply regurgitating information. He made a good spy as his attention to detail was impeccable.

Janice leaned back, the thin smile on her face not disguising the naked hatred in her seductive eyes. Her fate was because of that royal bastard, and although Felix assured her that the brat was not living too well in the palace, she longed to tear the girl’s throat out with her own teeth. The taste of iron filled her mouth as an elongated fang accidentally cut the inside of her lip before the wound healed just as quickly. Janice smiled pridefully to herself. With the advantages from Akira, both visible and hidden, the world would be hers sooner or later. And from there, she would kill everyone who had ever put in her dire straits.

“Janice... Janice?” Felix was shaking her arm when Janice escaped from her thoughts.

Without a thought, she snatched back her arm and rudely replied, “What?”

Then realizing it was Felix, she quickly adjusted her attitude when she saw his hurt face. “Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts. How are my chances of being employed in the palace again?”

She asked this question every time she saw Felix.

The young man shook his head again. “Not very good. Your face is too recognizable but I have bribed a few people who are willing to look the other way if you enter again with a disguise.”

Janice sharply recoiled. “A disguise?” she scoffed, her brows almost reaching her hairline. Her newfound beauty was meant to be flaunted, not concealed.

“Then there is absolutely no way,” Felix said firmly. Janice let out a loud, exasperated sigh and flopped onto the bed.

“Fine. Then we must move to the second plan. Since you can’t help me with the first, you must certainly help me with the second, alright?” Janice sweetly begged, hitting Felix’s chest gently with her fists as if she were a delicate young noblewoman.

Felix looked down at her dotingly. “Of course. I’ve already instructed the hired men to attack in the middle of the night and destroy the head madam’s office with all her documents. They will make it look like a job gone wrong and burn this place down to a crisp in the middle of the night. You will be free-”

“-free to go work at a prominent Red House with a new identity!” Janice sang gleefully, cutting Felix off. “Oh Felix, you’re such a dear!”

She planted a generous kiss on Felix’s lips, allowing him to push his disgusting tongue into her mouth as a reward. She peppered him with questions while laying in his arms. The early morning sun filtering in through the window onto them as if they were a young couple in love.

“What will my new name be? You chose a good one, didn’t you?”

“Janice Prescott,” Felix answered dutifully.

“Hmmm, not bad. Prescott... that sounds noble doesn’t it?”

“That is why I chose it, Janice.”

Janice planted another kiss on his cheek, placing her generously displayed decolletage in his line of vision.

“Lovely! When is it going to happen?”

“Next Thursday, when business is slowest and there aren’t many clients inside the building.”

“Good,” Janice said casually, “And when those ‘thieves’ come in to destroy the office and my paperwork, tell them to be sure to wipe out all the vermin in this place.”

Felix was a bit slow in understanding. “...Vermin. There are pests here? I thought you told them to clean your room properly?” The trusting, open face of the young aide adopted a ferocious, out of place expression.

“No, no, no. Not that kind of vermin. They set traps, although I still see rat dropping all over the room. I mean the people,” Janice hissed. “All the faces here, these filthy whores that I have to look at every day, I want them dead.”

In Janice’s heart, since they had witnessed her humiliation, none of them could survive. As for Felix, he was no stranger to the uglier things in life, having worked in the bloodstained imperial palace since he was brought in as a boy.

“Yes, of course.” Then Felix paused slightly. “Even your personal maid?”

Janice rolled her eyes, “Oh, you mean Sarah? Heavens, they can kill her first!”

A squeak sounded behind the door Janice had thought she had shut. She had been blessed with sharper senses and while Felix still sat with his typical, dull expression, a sinister grin pulled across the face of the vixen beside him.

“Speaking of vermin,” Janice said loudly all of a sudden, “I feel as if there are one too many pests nearby right now.”

Behind the door, Sarah’s blood froze in her veins. She scurried away, burying the question she had intended to ask Janice as she rushed towards the head madam’s office. Janice heard the girl run, but said nothing.

“Why do you look so happy all of a sudden?” Felix asked, spying the sudden cheer on Janice’s face.

Beyond the thin walls of the brothel, the sounds of singing and excitement for the Blessing Rites commencing the Midsummer Festival were already underway. Even in the dead slums, Janice could make out a child’s joyous laugh and the common Helionic carols being sung by the washerwoman who worked nearby.

“Something tells me today will be a very exciting day for all of us,” Janice answered cryptically as Felix placed a kiss on her palm. She had been a little hungry after all.