Lewis grip on his sword faltered for a second. But he didn't back out.
"Aefia sit down!" The Empress shouted with a wavering voice. Her eyes widening, the concern in her voice increasing. "That sword will take your life if you personally apply more pressure—!"
Aefia leaned forward regardless. Her lips curving into a smirk that followed a glare—as if she was forcing him into a challenge.
"They say the third time is the lucky charm Lewis. If you choose to... You can take your revenge on me whether it is for hurting your feelings or that I simply left the family without a word. However... I don't think I have ever wronged you."
He grit his teeth, trying to drive the blade deep enough to keep her grounded and fear death. But not enough to fatally injure her. His fingers shook with the memory he had accumulated from the day she took her life at the bridge.
"You are still a fraud. And as the Crown prince—I will have to punish you."
"A fraud because I tried to save your life twice? Regardless how you tried to kill me twice back then?" She repeated while letting out a laugh. "I don't even seem to understand your motives with this—"
But her eyes followed something else.
"Stop!!"
He pressed the dagger near the Empress's throat.
"So you want to kill your birth mother now?!" The woman shouted while grabbing the sharp blade. Elanor wanted to step forward to stop an unprecedented regicide from happening.
And if Aefia was enraged enough... It would be a double regicide.
"Are you going to say that you didn't wrong me too?! You can't deny that because of you the entire family went down!" Lewis shouted at the empress while pulling the dagger back to point it at the Countess. "You too! You must have something to do with brainwashing Aefia during the day of the former Count's execution."
Elanor smiled a wicked one while looking at Aefia's direction. "Well I can't deny that everyone of us has something to hide from everyone else in this room. However, isn't it all connected to one person?"
She stepped forward while pulling out a sharp hair pin from the back of her head. "It is true that I had used her and she used me. But do you think the court was the only place I met her?" She pointed her blade at Lewis' throat. The Empress too pulled out her own to point it at Elanor.
It was true that everyone was trying to stop the other from spilling some blood. Lewis wanted Aefia's head for revenge (possibly). Elanor wanted Lewis' head to stop him from any more blood draw at his place. While the Empress wanted Elanor's head for threathening her child. Only Aefia was the one who didn't have a blade pointed at the other.
And she wished not to.
Whatever it is he wanted to settle, she would settle it along with them to get out of this place faster. If she got tangled into this and someone did die—she will be taken as witness and she doesn't want that. It would bind her to the capital longer than she intended to stay.
"Tell them Aefia. Don't lie about when exactly I first met you." Elanor spoke while grinning at her.
She let out a deep sigh without moving the blade away from her throat. "I met her first time during Stephany's funeral. She came to me with an offer that I didn't want to reject so easily. So we had a temporary alliance."
"What did it consist of?" Lewis glared at her while pulling the sword back slightly.
"That she will tell me about what else the Empress wanted to do with me. In return, I would kill the late Countess and give her the Count's territory to run." She honestly spoke without a flinch of her voice.
"Did you benefit from it?"
"Yes. She told me that a fired maid from the palace told her attendant about my position on this family and sold me out entirely. That lead to Stephany finding out about me. Also, she investigated more into my background to find out that the Imperial family was using me into their own benefits. Not only that, you all were going to take away something valuable from me—into mentally breaking me. Which also led me to finding out about my execution quote in the contract. Of course like anyone else... I was terrified after seeing the execution of the Count the very next day.
"I would simply say that if I hadn't met the the Countess—I won't have met the truth behind this family."
A moment of silence was enough to deafen the entire room. The Empress stared with widened eyes at Aefia, then Elanor. Stumbling backwards in horror. Her eyes then drifted towards Lewis.
His face was darkened as he bit his bottom lips and looked down.
So that night when I found out her drugs—it must be from then that she started thinking it was a better thing to die far from home...
"...So You just decided to sell your family off like that?!" He shouted without a clear mind.
"What did I sell off? Rather, I said nothing about this family to Countess Elanor. She was the one who took all those information and sold it to me." She answered back while staring him directly into his eyes.
"Whatever you did! You trusted the wrong side!"
"Why does it matter? Afterall... You didn't trust me when I first came into this family." She spoke without a hint of regret. "Just because the Imperial family did it... Doesn't mean I did. I was merely a tool to be used and discarded later on—?"
He dropped his sword to the ground and lifted his head high above his hand.
Slap!
"You really are thick-skinned Aefia." He said while hitting her cheek with a sound that echoed inside the room. "What is this contract that you keep bringing up in front of me, huh?! Was I the one who binded you to it?"
"Maybe not... But the empress—who is your mother—did." She smiled back while carressing the side of her face that was blooming red. No one really hit her face like that before, unless we say her parents and the Empress.
To think a brother she trusted quite well, would end up doing it. Her eyes narrowed down as she looked back at his eyes. "That contract is when my life started to go down. And this conversation started with my 'mourning'. Isn't it?"
He lifted his hand up again, gritting his teeth. "You insolent—"
"That is enough Lewis!" Emily grabbed his wrist. "Leave her alone. I order you."
"She just said it! You were the reason her life was going down!" He shouted while yanking his hand away.
Hahaha! Ah! I am enjoying this! A mother and son conflict... So who was it that wanted to execute me again? And who was it that just slapped me? They really have no ends to this...
But... My throat is hurting. Really, really hurting.
She placed a finger at her wound, flinching as the coldness tapped against the injury.
"If this is my fault, I should be the one to be talking to her!"
"No you don't! Remember the last time you did?! She tried to poison you and use that execution to kill herself! She is ten steps ahead from everyone!"
"I know that! However, you are the one who just slapped her! Are you even in your right mind?!"
"She used my feelings against me! She framed someone else to push me away! You think I am?!"
"Those are not good reasons!"
"Well at least now I know that Countess Elanor truly is behind it! There must be a proper reason she framed her that day! I want to solve this case once and for all!"
"Then do it without violence!"
"I can not! She broke a boundary and she is breaking more right in front of everyone without a single ounce of shame! She needs to be thought a proper lesson about this..."
"No you won't—?! Aefia!"
It was all the blink of an eye.
He yanked his hand off her grip, held it into a fist—
Smack!
—and punch her in the stomach.
Aefia gasped violently, my lungs convulsing as she fell on her knees onto the floor. Her forehead rested on her forearm as she gripped the side of her stomach she had gotten hit.
Drip...
A stray drop of blood fell off the corner of her mouth.
"Fuck—!" She muttered under her breathe while staring at the floors.
Thats two in a row! This only happens to me right?! One who just wants to stay out of it but still is the main reason of everything!
"Stop acting like that.You are resistant to even injuries like a stab wound." He spoke casually despite being pushed back by two woman with blades. He glanced down with observent eyes as she started to sweat.
Few more drops of dark crimson fell onto the floor right where she was. The pain was taxing.
Her hand clenched tighter as Emily shouted at Lewis' face. Saying he was completely insane and he needed to be sent to a mental hospital for doing that.
But Aefia couldn't blame herself more since she was the start of all this chaos.
She was trembling heavily. Her breathing strained and she felt like screaming out in pain. Her body convulsed as she tried to straighten up. The realization itself was making her mind disintegrate, his voice became toxic to her ears. She could feel herself wanting to stick his own blade into his own throat.
Not only was she back in the same room of the Imperial palace. But also, a member of the Imperial family was harming her body—yet again.
Like they weren't quenched enough after making her drain her blood on the same floor they are currently standing on.
"You know... Lewis? Just... because I have... a habit of... making myself... seem like... I am alright... I am never... really... okay." She whispered while gripping the sofa to stand up. Her steps faltering slightly.
"Stop moving Aefia!" Emily gasped while watching the blood ooze out her throat and mouth. The scene was almost terrifyingly similar to how she remembered it the last time at the library. Only that time, she could do something to save her.
In a room full of people, the situation was still escalating.
Aefia somehow managed to stand back up, although she needed a sort of support. Using the back of her hand, she wiped her lips.
"I struggled... a lot... mentally. Even... the asylum... wasn't enough. Because... I never...told them... about... anything." She went on while hanging her head low. "I have... bipolar disorder... major trauma... to the palace... and this room. I am... also a drug-addict. I won't lie. However... The drugs... were my... sanctuary... after an entire day... of handling... pain... and my... problems. I only... look strong... on the... outside. Inside... I loved... harming... myself."
She slowly let out a deep breath, waiting for the pain to cool down. She sat down on the sofa.
"It hurt... when I used makeup to cover up my bruises early the next morning. When... I had to put on a smile on my face and act like nothing bad ever happened. But truly, I hated that I was suffering because of my own choices. What if I had chosen to ignore the Empress that day at the bazaar?
"I don't think things would have been this bad. But also... What if I had ignored today's invitation? I won't have to suffer the pain of punch... Would I?"
"I gave you the invitation so you must have come whether you liked it or not!" Lewis shouted on response while baring his teeth at her.
She only smiled in return as she wobbled. "Fine. Let's forget that... But this was also the way things were when I first came to see the Empress." She pointed her index finger at the woman trying to keep her own son away from Aefia.
"It got me wondering... As of today... What kind of a mother you are... That your own son doesn't hesitate to point a blade at your throat," the added with a tilt of her head.
"How dare you—"
"I am just stating the truth. What kind of a son did she raise you as that you hit a girl on the face who was formally your adoptive sister. However... I am dead right now. Not only that... I am a devil contractor."
"You are a human acting as a devil!"
"Not really. If a person dies and they go to hell. What do you call them?"
"The follower of the devil."
"But what about when their own life is hell? What do you consider that? Besides that... I killed many. So I am already a huge sinner." She asked while shifting her gaze back at him. The moment she turned silent, he lifted his hand again and slapped her other cheek. Making her stumble heavily.
"Shut up. I heard enough," he whispered with shadowed eyes while immediately retracting his hand. "Do you have anything else to say before I conclude this meeting?"
Her garnet gaze flashed at his icy blue ones. A hint of confidence lingered in them. They looked like she was ready to dominate the room any second—and if she wished—she could behead almost anyone she wanted.
At the same time, she realized Elanor was giving her a guilty look and staying impeccably silent. She ignored her completely, standing straighter and facing his wrath fully.
"Lower your gaze..." He remarked with a glare.
Instead, she shifted her eyes towards the ceiling. She would settle her gaze away from his face, but never lower it.
"I have something to say."
"Go on," he clenched his fist tightly at his side while observing her movements. "If you don't want me to hate you. Then make it quick."
Really? 'Want me to hate you'?
She took a step back. Her knees brushing against the sofa as she moved across from it to reach for a floorboard she remembered. From inside, she pulled out a box that contained the things she used to live by—that were the most powerful ones too. She lifted it up enough for him to observe carefully.
"I would only say this because I truly mean it..."