"Its because when it seemed like my left lung had puntured that day, it had actually cut through my heart and I was practically dead. Then, being someone not from this planet, I was able to resurrect myself by taking my past self and renovating my mind before waking up again." She explained while placing a bent finger at her chin.
"You died?!" Lewis asked back with a wash of guilt as he recalled the day gunshots had been echoing back and forth for a straight minute around the palace. "...of course you did." He muttered to himself, as if accepting defeat. And I was the one you were trying to keep away from the brink of death...a shameless brother who tried to kill you twice before.
"..." While letting out a deep breathe, she stared at his face with a questioned gaze. "The dinamic in which I can resurrect... allows me to die a lot of times, as long as I have something to sacrifice. And as long as I am not in my home planet that is." She explained while standing up and and picking the pile of papers, then setting it on the table.
"So for me, I had to give up a part of my memory and a part of my younger self." While stepping back to the coffee table, she brought the remaining of the items towards her larger desk, clearing the sofa area completely. "The last time I had to do it, I gave up my three year-old soul and this time, I gave up my five year-old soul."
"Then how do you know you are not sacrificing a larger memory? A more important one?" He asked while watching her step over and sit back down on her side of the sofa. "Do you even get to choose what specific memories you want to give away?"
"Well of course I don't." Her answer was short and precise, while also contemplating enough to be nerve-wracking, along with her fragile smile. "I definitely can't choose which memory I want to give away...but I do get a lot of heachaches following the mental erasing. Which is the thing I am worried about the most."
"I understand..." He spoke in deep thoughts as he diverted his eyes towards the pile of schoolwork still left and then jolting his eyes back at her with a cold stare. "Don't you want to know what is up and around at school? You haven't gone in about a week...which is a lot of news enough for you." This changing in topic helped him drag his attention out of her breaking mind and trying to change her back to how she was before the assassination. I guess I am still lucky...she hadn't let go of me from her mind...but I can't tell...if she was willing to.
"Just so you know..." As if reading his kind spot on, she spoke with a more expressionless face, to try and not seem stranger to him anymore. "I am not willing to give up on anyone of those memories I have shared around this palace. Specifically the time I had while trying to fit in as a sister, and as the member of the Imperial family."
A ripple of shock went through his mind as he stared at her face with total disbelief. It wasn't because it felt a little fake and painful from her side, or because it felt a little pleasing to hear it even after she had faced death once because of him...it is because...the words left her mouth...that I feel a little forgiven.
To hear something like this falling out from the mouth of someone who said she wanted to flee the palace after her work as a pawn was over, it felt like facing a more familiar side of her this time. "Do you...mean it?" He asked with ghost-like complexion. Of course she doesn't...not after the way I had treated her the first few days around the palace. She is definitely making things up to make me fell better and to make me understand I am alright with the way she is acting strangely.
"Alright! Fine!" She breathed out while straightening at her sofa and holding out a hand in front of him. "You can return that brooch, stay away from the cats and definitely not get inside my room. Plus, I will put you out as a person I trust...and I will just get to know everything about you from my loyal butler instead." With a stern tone, she got up and waited for an answer.
"No wait! I didn't mean it like that!" Lewis laughed, after finally getting the riddle of what she was just saying. "I just testing to see if you were speaking the truth. But even if you take back all those things...you have to allow me around the cats."
"That's not a deal." She smiled while settling down again. "But anyways...aren't you going to speak up about whatever is happening around the school? I am definitely expecting Stephany and her pink gang to pop up." Her voice turned more softened as she spoke about it. "Especially after her father went out of his way to assassinate the imperial family. I want to know about her pride right now."
"Well, given that she seemed a little happy that you didn't come to school...I can say she already knows about your identity. And the principal once called her in to speak about her mannerless behaviors around other students and spoke about equality in ranks...which was definitely not something anyone had expected from her that day." He added while seeming to enjoy the topic along with her. Honestly...even if I want her old self back...I really want to experience this time as a sibling while it lasts. Because I don't know when I will get to go through this again.
It has become a pattern for her now. Everytime I try to be a brother to her, she suffers something...something close to death and suffering for a very long time. And this time, it was the assassination. Maybe I am just a curse for her life at this point...Despite his stoic, laughing expression, a dark shadow loomed over his face as he smiled with the guilt of once trying to take his now, younger sister's, life back then. Thinking back...I wish I was the one to take on my life instead.
His fingers immediately wrapped around his brooch, the one he had never even thought of taking off for a second, and clenched it tightly. "Stop acting weird! I can't tell whether you are listening anymore!" She spoke while throwing another piece of paper at his face. As soon as it striked his face, he jolted back to the real world with a shock and a jumpscare as he watched her fold her arms with anger surfacing on her face. "Nevermind it anymore...you are not fun to talk to." She added while looking sideways to the like of paper works on the table.
"Our school just announced the summer break." Lewis added while glancing that way too. "It will last about a month long, then we are sitting our exams. You might want to catch up on your studies and start revising." He folded his arms while leaning backwards in the sofa. "And I know you might still be recovering from your injuries...but you will have to focus into education from now on, more seriously. You missed on so much just by not going to school for an entire week, twice in the last two months...so practically-"
Aefia held out a hand and slammed it down on the table very hard, causing a loud thud that almost woke up Henry from his nap. "I don't care about studies right now. I will feed the exams to a dungeon...and I am not entering that darn exam hall and sitting them. Let them mark a gigantic F on my papers. Because I don't even know what they had been explaining in school! And I have to solve all this homework despite being unconscious with lethal injuries! What has the institute found me?! One of their toy students with no freedom?!" She infuriated with widened eyes.
Well that was harsh and unexplainable. Almost shoken, Lewis staggered backwards with her enraged eyes and finally decided to ask the main question stuck to his mind for a long time now. Added to it, he already knew she did this before doing the most unexpected things. "Aefia...what is it that is causing you to stay back?" With a calm face, the words left his mouth as his fingers grasped the brooch at his collar. "You did this once back...to get me this gift...and you were fatally injured. Are you going to play the shield again?" His voice shoke with unwillingness.
Retracting her hand from the table, she leaned against her seat, with a shadow falling over his face. "Yes...I want to take a deeper step into the trenches." A sinister smile flashed onto her face, something new in this absolutely peaceful environment. "And what is it? The Guardian of Silence?" Lewis asked while letting go of the sapphire.
"No...Count Lucius." She stepped up while walking over to her desk and pulling a drawer. "Then...the contract. Following that...Guardian of Silence." She spoke while handing the scribbled pieces of information to her brother while sitting beside him this time. Her fingers pointed to the few dotted pieces of sentences. "I have already gotten a small idea of what they might do next."
Immediately following the first assassination attempt, they would directly proceed to plan the next target. Which is the duchess or George, but likely the duchess first. "And thus...you know who I am trying to keep away for now." She spoke while snapping her fingers and then talking about the remaining of the plan, up until the verdict and the courthouse. How she was going to gather evidences, she had already planned it too.
Well sister...glass isn't dangerous...until it breaks. Lewis silently thought to himself as she explained how she had deduced that he was going to be the first target and continued blabbering. "So most probably...Henry would have be out of show for the rest of the time." Finally, her throat dried up and she coughed.
Setting down the piece of paper, he wrapped a hand against the back of her head and brought his mouth against her forehead, then letting go and standing up. "I will get you something to eat, so make sure not to overwork youself in that short time." He added while leaving the room with an expressionless face and walking down the hallway. Somehow...I need to guard her around this time. In case she tries to stop to assassination her life again.
***
"There is a guest who wants to visit a member of the family." A guard asked while knocking at George's door. "They say they study at the same school as the younger members." He added after a short while. "Then let them in. I shouldn't mind as long as my siblings can explain why they are." Standing up, the eldest brother walked out of the room.
Walking towards the front gate, he watched an orange-haired girl enter with a few books at her hand. "I am here to meet the princess of I am not wrong?" She asked while carressing her books properly at her grip. "She would know me as Merrisa, from her school. Even the Prince would know me if you ask him. He was the one who invited me over." Her voice was soft, almost unidentifiable as to why either one of the violent siblings would be friends with someone this naive and fragile.
"Then I guess you can meet them." George nodded while glancing upwards and facing the staircase. "Come out you two! I know you are hiding!" He shouted while glancing behind the red, silk curtains. Then, a head popped out, with completely white hair. "I am not hiding...he is." Then, a more feminine voice was heard, while walking down the second stair of the pair. "Oh...Merissa came over? Lewis didn't tell me before." She added while practically galloping down the steps, two at once.
Then, she appeared in front the orange-haired girl as Merissa dropped the books at her hand and immediately rushed over to hug her, as her fingers got entangled against the silver parts of her hair. While whispering softly at her ears, she spoke a few words of concern. "I honestly didn't know you were going to be able to live after what I had heard about you." She spoke, which was accidentally overheard by their eldest brother as he glanced at the middle-brkther still in hiding behind the curtains.
Finally, he ascended the stairs as he grabbed onto Lewis's ears and dragged him inside the study. Before leaving, he muttered a few words towards Aefia and left. "You should have her over to your room. She clearly seems to have come over to help you catch up." With a smile, he turned around and walked away. As Merissa picked up her books and followed her towards her room in the third floor, she walked with her eyes sparkling with the details of the palace.
"I still can't believe you are an Imperial family member." She muttered softly while looking at her side to the girl with a plaster stuck to her forehead. "The injuries were bad, I heard." As soon as she remembered, she thought it would be the best to ask.
"Well...yes...I did punture my heart." Aefia answered while she stopped short of the study. Without hesitating any longer, Merissa spoke with a very apologatic tone. "I am so sorry...although with my authority, I couldn't have done anything to stop the assassination."
As the words fell into her words, her head turned to the orange-haired girl. "A-assassination?!" While stuttering, her mind echoed with multiple thoughts. "Yes...and Lewis has even been treating Stephany with a rough eye because of it. He really is weak towards you as a younger sister." She added as her gaze scanned the intricate designs if the palace.
With shadowed eyes, Aefia pointed towards her room and spoke a few more words. "That is my room, you may go and rest there. I have a few things left to do at the study. I will head over shortly."