Sajedene listened to his words with great curiosity and couldn’t help but to notice something in him. Was it guilt? But for what? For destroying her kingdom? If so, then it only served to further prove the assumption she had made about him earlier, that he was no monster but a man just like any other. He was a good man, even if he was flawed in many ways, but they hardly mattered to her. Although he had cold-heartedly killed many and was even partly responsible for her current situation and the death of her former lover, she felt connected to him and refused to be angry. It was a feeling of wonder, mixed with slight fear and curiosity towards him, like he was something the most forbidden thing and yet at the same time the best thing that could have ever happened to her.<br/><br/>These strange feelings that she was about to voice, however, were silenced by an intervention neither of them had expected. The intimacy was gone in a moment and fear took over as she watched Daishoga fall to his knees all of a sudden. Sajedene, without any hesitation, fell next to him and reached out to him with her hands, unsure of what to do as she was forced to watch his suffering. “Y-your Highness..!” She stammered while her mind was running a thousand miles ahead, assessing the situation. What she was witnessing was unbelievable and painful, it was as if he was extremely feverish. Gando. Gando would know what to do in this situation. Yes! She had to get Gando..! And just as she got up and was about to hurry to the door, she froze when seeing none other than her own father and several guards.<br/><br/>“Father!” She shrieked in disbelief. “What are you doing here?!” That was a foolish question. It was obvious what he was doing here and it didn’t take long for a smart girl like Sajedene to connect Daishoga’s current state to the presence of her father. With horror and completely paralyzed from the turn of events, she watched as her father seemed to use an object to suck in the aura that was surrounding the Emperor. Daishoga collapsed and she realized that something had been removed from him, although she wasn’t quite sure what. She wanted to reach out for him, shake him, make sure he was still alive… The princess looked over to her father now who hadn’t yet noticed how shocked she was. And it wasn’t a good kind of shock.<br/><br/>“Stop!” The princess cried out and grabbed the arm of her father. “Please, father, whatever you are doing stop it now and hear me out! There’s been a terrible misunderstanding! I don’t need you to save me and you should have never come here!”<br/><br/>None of that probably made any sense to her father. He was most likely happy to see that she was alive and well, but she refused to stay silent and watch the situation unfold. Oh, she should have known something was wrong when Gando had announced the arrival of the Reltican envoy. This was truly not how she had wanted things to go, even if she loved her father and had missed him and worried about his health after being captured. “You don’t understand! Stop this insanity, please I’m begging you, father!” There were tears in her eyes as she watched rather helplessly how the Emperor was shackled. Nothing could be done, at least not by her. Now, more than ever, she felt like a helpless princess meant to obey her father’s words. However, she was in for another shock when Gando suddenly ran inside and spoke to her father like they were closest of friends. Sajedene gazed at him with utter disbelief.<br/><br/>“How..?!” She gasped, her voice trembling as she sobbed in anger. “How could you do this, Gando? Are you not ashamed of yourself?! I thought you wanted the best of the Emperor!”<br/><br/>But no one would hear her out. Her father forcefully pulled her out and there was little she could do about it. She was crying hopelessly and occasionally dragged her feet or protested, only to get a few scolding words from her father or to have him be assisted by two of his guards. And so they dragged her out against her will, something she had never imagined would happen yesterday when she had arrived to the Emperor’s castle. The place had made her nervous, but now she absolutely refused to leave. “You are insane!” She cried out to her father. “You and your obsession with this goddamned war! To hell with you! To hell with your politics and diplomacy!” This seemed to be the last straw, as her father ordered the guards to tie up her mouth with a cloth and effectively shut her up.