prologue

"Mama! mama! did you make the sherbet I wanted?" 

The brown haired mother, Betty Baudelaire, lowered herself to her daughter's height and ruffled her brilliant scarlet locks. A soft smile graced her face as she questioned back, "Where have you been all this while? Were you with His Highness?" 

The little girl nodded pleasantly, "Niklaus and I were helping the berry farmers downhill, look," she opened up the brown satchel in her hands and showed it to her mother, "He even gave us berries for free!" 

Betty flipped the overfilled satchel's cover and flicked her daughter's forehead, "How many times do I have to tell you that girls aren't supposed to be doing all that manual labour?! You're the Crown Prince's bride, Vivian, your body is prestigious for our family!" 

Vivian pouted, jutting out her lowerlip, as she replied, "B-but, the grandpa has back problems and the berries would go bad if we didn't pick them today...." 

Betty narrowed her eyes on the stained lacey fabric of Vivian's dress. "Look at how you've created a mess for others. So what if you helped the old man? You created inconveniences for your own maids! Now they would have to run you an extra bath, wash an extra pair of clothes, iron a new dress, do your hair again— so much work, Vivian!" 

Vivian thought over it over a minute then hung her head in disappointment as she muttered, "I'm sorry mommy... please don't be mad. I will, I will do better. I'll stay in my room the next time..." 

"Yes, that's the spirit. You should stay home and let the Crown Prince play with your brother instead," Betty said as she patted Vivian's small head, "Girls are meant to facilitate connections between men." 

Vivian nodded and passed the satchel to her mother before walking all the way upstairs to her room. She entered the brightly coloured pastel walls and sat herself on a bed surrounded by dolls and plushies. She stared down at the dirt embedded in her nails and nail beds. A maid would have to clean it for her. She thought she was helping someone...but she was only causing inconveniences. 

The next time Crown Prince Nikalus Valarez's arrival was announced at the Vermilion Estate, Vivian's maids donned her in a frilly pink dress and took out a pair of running shoes for her to wear.

"I'll wear the normal ones, thank you," Vivian smiled as she looked at her maid through the mirror, "We'll be staying inside." 

"Are you sure, M'lady? You love playing outside...are you feeling sick? Do you want something to eat?" The maid questioned back, worried for the small child putting up a brave face in front of the mirror. She stepped forward and placed a hand over Vivian's forehead in order to check for fever.

"I'm good, don't worry," Vivian smiled at her maid's concern and slipped her feet in the pink ballet flats instead. 

The maids whispered over Vivian's changed behaviour all the while she stayed with her playmate-cum-fiancé in the Drawing Room of the Vermilion Estate. 

"Are you sick? Why are we playing with your brother today?" Prince Nikalus asked as he narrowed his eyes over Harold Vermilion's curly brown head. The boy was busy colouring on a paper, least intrested in the Crown Prince of the Empire sitting in front of him.

"Mother said that I should stay home," Vivian replied, shrugging her shoulders, "Do you think my sky looks pretty?" She held up her drawing in Niklaus' face.

The Crown Prince snorted, "The sky is red, Vivy, is hell about to break loose?" He grinned. His sharp canines peeked out as his teeth bit his lowerlip with excitement.

"I dunno about that but Red's my favourite colour," Vivian smiled and dusted the excess wax off her hellish sky. 

"Mhm, it's mine too," Niklaus mumbled as he rested his back against the sofa and eyed the back of her dazzling, bobbing, head.

After a few months of spending one too many playdates indoor, Niklaus Valarez barged through the doors of Heath Vermilion's office and declared, "You need to stop locking Vivy inside. As a Crown Princess, she is supposed to be part of the outdoors, experiencing the Empire with the people who make it!" 

The red-headed tall hunk of a father raised an eyebrow at the little boy's demanding tone. Surely, he had the blood of the Emperor running through his veins and commanded utmost respect — even though his small raven head and jewel-like silver eyes facilitated an urge of cuteness. 

"My apologies, Your Highness," Heath curtsied as Niklaus took a seat in front of his desk, "I remain unaware of household matters. They're my wife's forté, a mistake on my behalf. Should I summon her and further investigate this?" 

Niklaus pulled his lips in a straight line and rolled his eyes. "No, Lord Vermilion, just let me take her out of your suffocating walls," he grimaced.

"Oh," Heath uttered, taken aback, "I apologise, I did not know the Vermilion Estate was suffocating for you." 

"You're the second richest man in the Empire and yet you insist on living in this tiny villa up on a hill, for heaven's sake," Niklaus grumbled.

"All my gold is for the Emperor and all my riches are for my daughter, you know it," Heath smiled at the frowning little boy. "You seem unconvinced," Heath pointed out.

"Don't disrespect me with your lies, Heath Vermilion. I may be young but I keep my eyes and ears open," Niklaus said as he jumped off the high chair and turned his back to the Lord of the Land, "Any grievances faced by my finacée would be a direct attack to the crown."

After storming out of Lord Vermilion's office, Niklaus asked one of the maids for Vivian's whereabouts. He had been coming to the Vermilion Estate ever since he was four, so, it did not take him a long while to find her. Vivian had a fascination for balancing over the raised brick perimeter of the Estate's library. Her mother wouldn't let her enter so she stayed outside, in attempts to gain height to peek on her brother's lectures. 

To make her endeavours unobvious to an observing eye, Vivian would make a game out of balancing over alternative bricks with one foot. Resultantly, Niklaus developed a habit of silently following her, amused by the way her red pigtails would bounce with each step she took. Eventually, when she would turn, she'd brighten up and run towards him.

That, Niklaus's heart thought to be, waw the most beautiful feeling of his week. When the morning sun caressed her blazing red head and sparkled off her bright ruby eyes, haloing her entire being as she ran towards him— Niklaus gulped. He had big big feelings for his finacée. 

"You're here! I thought you wouldn't come!" Vivian exclaimed as she stood in front of him, looking him in the eye, so innocently, as if her mere presence didn't have him in a chokehold.

"I was a bit late, met your father, we can go out from now on," Niklaus stated, clearing his rather gruff throat and awkwardly evading eye-contact as if it would betray his thundering heart.

"Really?! Goodness, that's the best news I have heard in months!" 

Niklaus hadn't expected for her to jump him, wrap her arms around his neck and claim his first embrace. He was the Crown Prince of the greatest empire on Earth, for heaven's sake, such whimpy behaviour did not suit him! Yet, even though his mind was in frenzy, his fingertips twitching and his body stiffened upon contact, Niklaus did not move an inch so as to immortalize the moment forever in his head.

Later that night, Vivian chanced upon an argument between her parents as passed by her father's office.

"You let her go out?! That is so unsafe for a little girl!" Betty bellowed.

"You're acting unreasonably, Betty, she had the Crown Prince's men with her. That's more safe than being at the Estate and you know it," Heath replied firmly.

"You don't understand women or girls, Heath, remember the reason you married me? I and only I can keep Vivian safe and you know it! Don't you remember what happened after Klarissa died?" 

"Stop— I'm, I'm sorry, stop it. The Crown Prince ordered me to let her go. You do not expect me to go against a royal command, now do you?" Heath countered in a shaky voice. 

"You're such a coward, Heath, you're going to kill your daughter just like you killed your w—"

Butler Allistor pressed his hands over Vivian's ears, eyes blown out in alarm as he kneeled in front of the little girl and whispered, "M'lady, what are you doing here so late at night?" 

Vivian blinked at him, "I was going to the kitchen," she whispered back, "I wanted some milk." 

"Come with me, M'lady, I'll bring it to you," Allistor smiled kindly and led her back to her room. "Did you read the books I brought you?" He asked as he rang for Vivian's personal maid.

"Yes! They were very fun! I finished them all! When can I get more?" She asked, eyes brightened up. Even though her mother did not let her read or enter the library, Allistor was kind enough to bring her all sorts of good books to keep her updated with the curriculum. 

"Your Royal training will start next month so I'll bring you a new batch tomorrow. Remember to finish it up before that, okay?"

Vivian nodded, bright eyed, "Will Niklaus be there for the lessons?" 

"That's solely up to the Crown Prince to decide," Allistor replied and answered the knock on Vivian's door. A maid curtsied him and handed him a glass of milk, which he walked forward and delivered to Vivian, "Have a good night, M'lady."

"Thank you Allistor, you're the best!" 

On the day Vivian was about to leave for official Royal Lessons, her father summoned her in his office. Quite excitedly, Vivian skipped all the way to the destination. Her father seldom had time for her, if not for the ocassional dinners he was a part of. He was always too busy with his work or like today, writing in his journals.

"Good morning, my beloved, I thought I'd see you before you leave," Heath greeted as he closed the diary he was working on and sat up straighter.

"Good morning father, I'm glad you remember me," Vivian smiled, "I'll make you proud out there!"

"Of course you will," Heath smiled, "Don't work too hard though. Take it easy, you know I'd love you anyways." 

Vivian smiled, her bright, toothy, gap-teethed smile which made Heath turn his head away. 

"You may leave now," Heath declared as he reopened his journal and clicked his pen as if to indicate the end of the conversation.

Her father seldom looked her in the eye. Vivian could count on her fingers the number of conversations they had had the entire eight years of her life. Nonetheless, because she had no other parallels to compare, Vivian belived it to be normal. Considering, Betty always told her that, "Women are never to question men or any figure of authority. They are best at submitting and going with the flow." 

As a woman, Vivian went with the flow as long as the flow floated her through calm waters. Then, one day, her father got sick and a Royal Decree announced that her engagement with the Crown Prince was severed.

Suddenly, all Vivian saw were the walls of the room and the locked doors and windows restraining her from the outer world. It remained the same until the day Heath Vermilion was declared dead.