Chapter Six

Thya's point of view

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WHEN I ARRIVED AT THE D'ARCY MANOR THAT DAY, after losing my mind in the palace and losing track of the time I spend on their training grounds without their knowledge, I had a very bad argument with my father and my stepmother. Especially because Rai and Aeneas made everything difficult for me, telling them about what I asked the King and the Queen. They got mad at me saying I was an ungrateful daughter for wanting to have my title taken away from me when I'm a child of House D'Arcy and some shit like that.

But I got tired of it, feeling like all of my energy had been dried up, and let them keep talking until they let me off and got me on three-day-long probation. Probably because they were afraid that I could run away. Or because the King and the Queen advised them that I would certainly run away if they stopped paying attention to me for even a second. And so, they ordered a load of Knight to stay around me, as if I was a Gods-damn criminal.

It was horrible.

At least it was my home. My safe place in the Capital. And then the three-day-long probation came to an end, together with the little freedom I had, when the first day of the Crown Princess Trials arrived.

Everybody was anxious and the manor was a mess of people coming in and getting out. Preparing only-the-Gods-know-what, and also making my mind spin because of all that. And I'm even getting started on all the things they got ready for me to bring with me to the Palace. Tons of clothes I'll never going to use in my short life. While I was too busy arranging all of my training clothes, daggers, and books in two bags that I managed to bring with me without them knowing.

I'll also have to find a way to go to the blacksmith and ask him to design a thin sword for me. How am I supposed to protect myself without that? There's no fucking way I'm going to trust my life on the Knights because they pretty much hate me as well.

As you can see, hating me is kind of like a common-sense between them rather than a rare thing. Everybody seems to love blaming me for the deaths of their loved ones, even when I have never seen any of them in my life. None of them care about the truth, they only want a scapegoat to blame, even when there's no need to, they do it so that way they can vent their anger on me.

Quite frustrating. But time made me get used to it. And now that I acted the way I did, I can't even imagine the atrocities they are talking about when someone says my name. Although it's not like I care about that either. Their opinions mean shit to me.

My dad and my stepmother were both concentrated on handling my brothers' things and everything they are going to take with them to the Palace, once they will also staying there. So I used that moment to focus on my subconscious.

It's a fact that Daisuke will try to do anything to make my life a living hell, to try to get revenge on me. But I can't and won't accept his shit silently. If he expects that, he doesn't know me one bit. On the contrary, I need to find a way to unstable him on his own game.

Aeneas came closer, catching me off guard, "What do you want from me?"

"I don't need to tell you this, but I will either way. Because I may hate you, but you still carry the D'Arcy name on you and that means a lot," what is he talking about?

"Be straightforward, Aeneas!"

He rolled his eyes. "Okay. So, you should find a way to throw the Crown Prince off his feet. He's planning to torture your psychologically, and although I wouldn't mind that, if you get embarrassed it will taint our family's name," ha, now it makes sense. "So, I was thinking-"

"Oh, so you know how to do that, brother?" I mocked and he took a deep breath trying not to let my words get under his skin.

"They are all probably expecting you to purposely fail everything miserably," true. "So why not try your best and become that greatest candidate of them all? In the end, you can turn him down and get your revenge because of his humiliations."

His suggestions made sense. I hated it, but it made sense. Daisuke would be pissed out of his mind if I, out of all his candidates, was the best at everything. "I don't like you either, brother. But thank you for this. I'll think about your idea." I replied quietly to him.

Not long after that, we were in our carriage, heading to the Soleil Keeper. And suddenly I felt anxious and sick. Yeah, nothing good is going to come out of this shit.

To make it more annoying, Rai's best friend, Elodie Aoife Branwen {the wealthy and radiant white crow}, also came with us. Not to say that she's scared shitless of me, the only one at that. And that girl is always around, she's like the ghost member of our House, and she's also the daughter of one of the biggest Houses in the Kingdom.

She smelled like fear. Probably because she was sitting next to me. And I could also hear her annoying footstep anxiously hitting the ground of the carriage.

"Could you stop your damn foot, Branwen girl," she hissed startled when I turned my head in her direction. "If you don't, I'm going to take this shit out of my eyes and look at you," I could hear her loud breathing from where I was and it was annoying me more than anything.

"Stop scaring her, Nsomi!" Rai intervened.

"I'm not scaring her!" I turned to him.

"The girl is shivering, dumbass," Aeneas pointed. "If you don't call that being scared, I don't know what feeling that shit means."

"You don't know because you are stupid," I mocked. "Why would she be scared of me?" Purposely, I turned my head to where she was. "Are you scared of me, Branwen girl?"

"I... I... I..." Oh, she is.

I giggled and I felt it when one of my brothers pushed me to the wall of the carriage by my throat. But knowing when I'm going to die, made me not feel threatened at all.

By the sweet scent of cinnamon and honey, I could tell it was Rai. "Stop scaring her, Nsomi! This is your last warning!"

A smirk took over my lips. "It's not like I'm going to die now anyway. What's the worse you could do? Send me to enter the Crown Prince's competition? Oh... Yeah, that's already happening. I guess there isn't anything you could do that could hurt me at this point, dear brother!"

I felt his grip on my neck tightening, but I kept the smirk on my lips. And I was about to faint when he finally released me.

"Well, this little game of yours is going to leave a very annoying mark on my beautiful neck," I said and started to undone the knot on my blindfold.

"Are you insane?" Rai and Aeneas exclaimed together, while Elodie screamed and hid her head between her knees as a kid scared of a storm. Adorable.

"Insane?" I turned to meet their eyes, and they met mine, once I had already seen their deaths and they both know that they are going to live for a long time, enough to get married and have tons of children and even met their grandchildren.

The same cannot be said for me.

I chuckled like a psycho. "Why?" I started to tie it around the mark Rai left on my neck. "Did you expect me to go around showing the mark you left on my neck just for you to feel prideful? I'm sorry, brother, that's not going to happen. Although I'm sure everybody would congratulate you for hurting me, though."

Then I turned to Elodie.

"Do not worry, Branwen girl. I don't want to see your death either. Just don't look at me in the eye, I'm not the monster you think I am." I turned to my brothers. "I'm not a killer. I did not ask to have this curse. I was simply born with the power to see others' deaths. Not to cause it. Although everybody seems to be too dumb to understand that, and just choose the easy rote that is to bully me for something that is out of my control and that cannot be changed!"

To my luck, the carriage stopped the moment I was done talking. I felt like vomiting, but I hide the annoying feeling from everyone. Then I opened the door, without the patience to wait for someone to come and open it for me.

When my feet touched the ground, I turned to them. "See you around!" Then I headed to the entry of the Royal residence.

To my animosity, my entry wasn't as pleasant as I wanted it to be.