Silence followed, stretching out longer than I expected, heavy enough that it almost felt like it had weight.

He still looked at me with clear distrust, his eyes sharp and unyielding, and honestly, that wasn’t surprising in the slightest. It made perfect sense. People like them did not just change their minds because of a few words, no matter how sincere those words were meant to be. Words were cheap, especially in a place like this. Anyone could say something nice when it suited them.

They had spent far too long dealing with my father. A man who used them when it was convenient, threw them away the moment they stopped being useful, and never once bothered to look back at what he left behind. To him, they were tools at best, and garbage at worst.

That kind of damage stayed.

It lingered in the way they stood, in the way they looked at me, in the way their silence carried more meaning than anything they could have said out loud.

Standing there, right in front of all of it, I could feel just how far I still had to go. Every word I said felt small compared to the weight of what they had gone through. Getting them to even listen was already a step. Getting them to believe me was something else entirely.

"If you really think you can, then I am willing to watch over you. And then take your head myself if we deem you unfit. But... are you really going to give us a second chance? For all you know, we might come back for revenge. And even then, we might just kill you right here, in this very place," he said.

His tone was steady, but there was an edge to it. A warning, not just a question. He wasn’t trying to scare me. He was just being honest.

"Well, that’s on you, I suppose," I replied, keeping my voice calm. "If that’s what you want to do, then go ahead. But if you follow through with that, then someone else is going to take over here, and it might turn into an even worse nightmare. Do you really want that?"

The words hung there between us.

He didn’t respond right away. His expression shifted slightly, not softer, but more thoughtful. The kind of look someone gave when they were forced to consider something they did not want to admit made sense.

After a short pause, he spoke again.

"Well... I guess you’re right. It’s better for you to stay instead of letting another monster take control."

There was no enthusiasm in his voice, just reluctant acceptance.

"Well, that’s good to hear," I said. "So, are you going to agree to this? Is that okay with all of you... everyone?"

My voice carried a little further that time.

This was never just about him.

There were dozens of them here, maybe more. Different faces, different stories, but all tied together by the same kind of past. If I only convinced one person, it would not mean anything. This needed to reach all of them, or it would fall apart the moment I turned my back.

Otherwise, it would just be me talking to hear myself speak.

And that would be useless.

They looked at each other, exchanging glances that said more than words ever could. Some frowned, some looked unsure, and a few just stared at the ground like they were already tired of thinking about it. It did not take long before their attention shifted back to the man who had been speaking to me.

He let out a quiet breath before stepping forward slightly.

"Well, Princess, it seems we’ve reached an understanding," he said. "Although I still doubt you can fix the cancer of this country, I don’t think it’s wrong for us to judge you if you haven’t proven yourself yet. That’s why I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. Actually, we are giving you that chance. Truth be told, I don’t trust you. I don’t think you’ll perform well. You might even fail. But you want us to watch over you... so we will."

Blunt. Straight to the point. Without sugarcoating.

In a weird way, that made it easier to accept.

They were not pretending to trust me. They were choosing to give me a chance despite not trusting me. That meant more than empty agreement.

So they were willing.

That alone felt like progress.

I let out a quiet breath I did not realize I had been holding, then moved toward the cells. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Metal scraped softly as I started unlocking them one by one.

"You really are trusting," one of them said, watching closely. "Do you trust us so much that you’re willing to risk your life opening our cells like this yourself?"

There was a hint of disbelief in his voice, like he was waiting for me to hesitate.

"If I want all of you to trust me, then the only thing I can do is trust all of you first," I answered without stopping.

It sounded simple when said out loud.

It wasn’t.

Trusting people who had every reason to hate me was not exactly the smartest move. Still, if I could not even take that step, then expecting anything from them would just be hypocrisy.

As I worked on one of the locks, a sudden noise cut through the quiet.

Footsteps. Fast.

Too fast.

My body reacted before my thoughts fully caught up. I turned slightly, just enough to catch a glimpse of movement rushing toward me. Someone had broken away from the group, charging straight in my direction.

There was something in his hand.

A sharp object.

Guess the guards missed that one. Not exactly a surprise. They never looked that carefully to begin with.

He raised it, aiming straight for me.

Before he could close the distance, another figure stepped in and stopped him.

It was the same man I had been speaking with earlier.

"What the hell are you doing?" the person who was about to stab me snapped. "Haven’t you had enough of the royalty? Like the others before her, she’ll just be the same! Don’t fall for the bullshit she’s saying!"

The words came out harsh, but there was something else behind them. Frustration. Maybe even fear.

He looked furious.

Angry in a way that did not fade easily.

The only thing I could show him in return was sadness.

The man who stopped him held his gaze, before tightening his grip. The sharp object cracked under the pressure, snapping cleanly into two pieces in his hand.

"If we refuse to give someone even a single chance," he said, his voice lower now but no less firm, "then we’re no different from the people we’re trying to bring down. Right now, what you’re doing... it’s no different from what the King did to us."

The words landed hard.

"You’re getting swayed by the sweet words she’s throwing around," the other man shot back, struggling against him. "She’s the spawn of a demon. Do you really think that just because she isn’t him, she won’t become him? She’s the daughter of that monster!"

His voice echoed through the space.

That kind of hatred did not come from nowhere.

It came from experience.

From being hurt enough times that you stopped believing things could be different.

The tension in the room tightened again, thicker than before.

It felt like everything I had just managed to build was balancing on something fragile, ready to crack at any moment.

Talking them out of this was not going to be easy.

A part of me already knew that.

Still, actually standing here and facing it made it a lot clearer.

This was going to take more than words.