Henry’s POV

When I opened my eyes, I was in my chamber and all the hall members were in my chamber only. They must have been worried about me. Even their frowning faces haven’t relaxed.

I checked my surroundings, and found that daddy was not here with me, that’s when I remembered some glimpses of my daddy’s dead body lying on the floor. Which made my eyes teary, I can’t just cry now, I have to be strong for them. So, I just weakly smiled at them, to assure them that I am fine.

They have always treated me as their baby, and I am their weakness too. And after assuring them that I am fine, I saw relief in their eyes. I know they just lost daddy, and now I too fainted from shock. They must have thought that they were going to lose me too.

Soon everyone left my chamber, one by one. But 3 sisters were still present with me. They are those sisters who are close to daddy and know the most about daddy than any of us.

So I asked them, “Elder sisters, do you have something to inform me…?” I found that my voice was trembling and even the words I spoke were barely audible.

I myself was shocked, I thought that I was just sick after seeing my closed ones on the deathbed. So I let it slide, after all, right now my daddy’s death was in my mind which was painful for my soul and heart.

“Elder left something with us, for you to solve…!” said June with a heavy voice. She is the elder now after daddy’s death. But what’s the reason for this mystery…?

I don’t know why, but my gut feeling is telling me to just go to daddy’s chamber, after all he never lets anyone come in his room, not even elder sisters…! And now these talks increased my heart beat and indicated to me to go to his chamber.

But I can’t go right now. I don’t know why, but I am feeling heavy and pain all over my body.

I was 6 years old when my mother passed away, leaving me and my dad behind. She actually was the winner of her life, after all, she got free from this shitty life.

You can understand all this, if you are born as a commoner. Because riches never gave benefits to anyone, but under the pressure of the Monarch they will reluctantly help the poor.

Those Monarchs help the poor too, even if it is only for show off or for winning their trust over. And in this, what they forget is us, the middle class, which neither comes in riches nor in poor.

This is the real struggle of life, just because we don’t come in any category, we are forgotten in this society.

My life was good till I was 15. As my father was with me as a family. And I forgot to tell you the most hurtful truth of being middle class (commoner), that is, even your blood relatives will not give a helping hand in your messy life. So, I was lucky enough to have someone to call my safe place, my home.

But on my 16^th birthday, I lost my home too, my father died and why…!!!!? Just because he refused to give the lands under us to the landlords. Those superiors are always looking for trouble for villagers, like us.

And their hunger for money didn’t satisfy with this only, that they even sold me to the brothel. In this dynasty, males are considered as the best gift (prostitute) for their kings. After all, this is the safest pleasure for them, as they don’t have the burden of having an illegitimate heir from some unknown origin or from humble background, which is harmful for their reputation and prestige.

After being sold to brothel I was not treated badly, and I sometimes used to call that sir – daddy.

After my dad’s death, I was alone and sad. But in brothel, I again found my happiness in the form of Sir, my daddy. He was always happy whatever the situation was.

And because of him, everyone in brothel felt safe and protected, as we were never forced to sell our body.

Even though I am a man, I was not given any kind of hard work, I sometimes felt that those elder sisters and brothers are more powerful than me.

No one even forced me to do heavy work or forced to behave more manly, like my father did, here I was treated as a fragile flower. This is the reason I was happy in this ‘cursed’ place where I was allowed to live freely.

But my daddy’s death has made me strong enough to kill those bastards and avenge him.

It was the next morning, and my daddy’s funeral. I was stopping myself from crying, after all, this is the best I can do for my elders. Because if I cry my eyes out, others will only console me, and then they will cry alone in some corner of the hall and no one will console them.

 And they must cry now to relieve themselves because after this they are not allowed to cry, and I will take care of it.

In the evening, I was all alone as others were not letting me do any help. So I used this chance to search daddy’s chamber and study. His things may tell me what to do next.

As everyone now is like a wounded beast, who may attack anyone who dare come in their territory. And it is necessary to provide them directions to not lead them astray.

Then, I silently went to daddy’s chamber, after all no one let me out of the bed, and even in the morning only they told me to take rest. I know that they are worried about me, but this much is unnecessary and even if my health was bad, I must go to my daddy’s funeral to pay him a last visit.

And soon I was in my daddy’s chamber and started checking every corner of this chamber as per what my daddy had always described back then.

Now only I understand why he used to explain all this in person. He must have predicted this…! That’s when I saw the journals he used to talk about. But that was written for anonymous. Looks like he thought that someone else may come to his chamber before me…!

[Date – XX of XXX year

Today, I am writing this letter, in case something happens to me and someone comes to my chamber, so please take care of this hall by sacrificing yourself. And I am not forcing you, if you can’t handle this, then tell about this to someone who is willing to be the only male prostitute along with your sister June. Ask her, and she will tell you the chosen one. Don’t let my efforts go wasted. I want my this family to always smile even at the cost of only one’s pain.

With love!

Christina Rose.]

So all this time, daddy was protecting us at the cost of his freedom…!? With this thought only I had tears in my eyes, and my daddy lived his life in tears only….! But I needed to confirm this 1^st, so I went to Sister June’s chamber. And then saw her with 2 other elders, Sister Alice and Sister Ella. They have been together like this only when the situation is unfavorable, and after that letter I suspect that this meeting is for that reason only.

My legs were again like something was stopping me to go there and confront them. Even if I console myself that this can be a false journal, I can’t deny the fact that we all are safe for some unknown reason. 

Ella Rose’s POV

I was born in a farming family, where having 2^nd child is called the ‘riches’, so I was the only child of my parents.

But as the war broke, I only had my mother as my family. But soon my mother too re-married and that’s how I got an elder step-brother. My step-brother was good at starting, but as the time passed, he started touching me in the wrong way. And as conservatives my mother was, she told me to bear with this saying that ‘he just touched you and that to be unintentionally’.

But my step-brother’s intentions were something else. He was lustful and had destroyed many innocent girls’ life. I was just 21 at that time when I was forced by my step-brother and my mother just told me to shut myself up. Soon I lost everything, my innocence, dignity, above all I lost my mother too, and then I ran away from that hell after 2 years and met Christina.

After meeting him and other hall members, I never look back at my so-called mother and her (the mother’s) new family, which was so important to her (the mother), more than her (the mother) daughter’s happiness and wellbeing.

He was there serving authorities alone, and taking care of all hall members. I was disgusted by myself and my body, but after living in the hall for 3 years, I decided to let my already trampled body be used to save others. And I also started helping Christina with it.

But there are some secrets which are not disclosed to other hall members, just like how they are safe and protected…! And, like how we were able to serve many at one time…!

Soon we met others too, then we together formed a team to save innocents. This hall was like a family for all of us, even me too.

And then we met someone like a master, an intersex. Master said that everything is possible in this world, which was proven right after knowing Henry. He was silent in the starting months, but as the time passed he became the naughtiest one.

Time was passing too easily, that’s when we got the news about another attack. Master has always protected us all, so I knew that he must have planned something. But I didn’t know that it would be this tragic, where he would lose his life too. Then we 3 elders had the responsibility of choosing the next master of this hall. After all they can’t take that position because it must be allotted to a male.

We can rule this well, but to show others we need a male master, in name only. At 1^st we thought that we will appoint Henry for this, after all he is an intersex like master.

But after seeing his pale face, yesterday, and his weak body, we thought to let someone else be appointed as master who was willing to sacrifice himself for others.

We were discussing all this when we saw Henry, whose eyes and nose were red, like he just cried. His health was also not good, so his state was quite bad, as if he was chased by someone.

^[1]Leave the colored pic on my discord — R.S.