"For real though, is it fun?" Aefia asked while keeping her smile as she spoke. "Seeing someone suffer with their weakness while you very well know what is your own. And once someone is stronger then you, the world changes into a different view. Why is that so? Isn't it just better to keep the same face throughout?"
After the words, dense silence fell into the hallway and no one moved and only silent snores coming from the sleeping Henry echoed throughout the room. Her smile had wiped off the second she was done saying what she wanted to say, and glanced out the tall windows at the side of long corridor. The view outside was a very quiet breeze as multiple dead leaves silently fell to the ground.
"There isn't a point trying to prove to humans that you are stronger than them, because even if you do, they still have something called ego. You can act friendly to them one day all of a sudden thinking you shouldn't have judged them before hand, but even if you explained to them later on, they will still show a side of themselves that is highly disgusted towards you." Her head turned away form the window and stared at Lewis who stood shocked.
Then, his face loosened and a smile settled. "Is that what everyone thinks I am doing?" Slowly, he started speaking. "Is that also what you were trying to prove when you said 'I feel disgusted to call you a family'?...Then I completely understand." He fiddled with his sleeves as his silver hair fell over his eyes, shielding them.
"I may have said some harsh things, but it is human nature to try and teach people lessons. If I really hated you like that, then I won't have approached you and seen you as a brother when I had a difficulty navigating." She laid her steps while passing his standing position as he lifted his head with a surprised face and raced behind.
"Than can I say you have forgiven me?" He spoke while catching up to the pace she was walking. Aefia fell into silence as if thinking, but it wasn't an answer he was expecting. "Well, I haven't quite recovered from my injury that you caused, just yet. But I will think about it once it has fully healed. Honestly, it's still hurting the way Henry had jumped onto me that time."
Lewis was immediately sent into the feeling of guilt as he watched her continue walking, which was almost impossible to tell there was any sort of pain on her body. If it weren't for the slightly glowing red eyes, it was almost invisible to anyone's eyes, unless they could tell she was acting. "Then if you are still hurt, why are you volunteering to carry him around?" He finally spoke after a long moment of thinking.
"Because you were previously complaining about your hands hurting due to the punches he had planted on you? Anyway, it's not like I can't manage." Aefia dusted off the question while turning expressionless and continuing her walk. Suddenly, he snatched the kid from her arms in an instant that her eyes couldn't catch the movement, and her head moved itself to look to her right.
"I am not taking blame if you are going to die again. My hands are not a problem." He said as if it were really possible by him, but due to no sorts of hardwork in his experience of life, his hands tremendously shook as the kid slipped from his grip. Luckily, she was still there and was immediately able to respond as she knealed down to one knee, used a hand to hold her injury and the other to catch the kid.
"You can't handle that, then why did you force it?" She quietly spoke out a smile with the pain still visible from her face and her breathe coming out short. "Though I should be honest that kids are deep sleepers too." Leveling herself off the ground, she tightly squeezed the area while walking slower then before. Rapid movement causes some major pain to erupt.
Due to the suffering, beads of sweat fell off her forehead while she recalled that she had forgotten to take her painkillers just before leaving. Then I will make a trip to my room before returning back to the hall. "I don't think you should go back after this." Lewis added after observing closely.
"And what? I thought you were the one who stabbed me like that, don't be symphathetic to my situation." Aefia lifted her head at a low angle and spoke with a laugh. Not managing to copy her, he finally spoke. "Does it hurt much?"
"Honestly, even if it does, I am used to it. I suffered more when I received the injury. My throat was burning with the amount of coughing, so it's not a big deal now as long as I can handle it." She answered while realizing the subject has changed far from how it was flowing. "What I am curious about is how you haven't answered any of my two questions yet."
"Two questions?" Lewis asked while his face showcased a slight change in expression within a small amount of time. "I only heard one, isn't it about why I was chasing human vulnerabilities? Honestly...I think my reason would be because I want to see a person's downfall before their real face."
She stayed silent, while falling slightly behind and trailing him as her ears stayed straight. With the slight pause, he continued. "I think it's a fear of mine where I don't want to feel low in front of someone upon first glance and take immediate action of attacking their weaknesses. Then, when they try to attack me or tease me, I use that previous encounter to stop them. It's something I had caught as a habit unknowingly from a young age, and I don't know when." His face looked to the direction of where she was walking.
"Although, I didn't think you would notice, but I am usually a hostile person. But one thing I had noticed about you is, you force yourself to be hostile regardless of how much you hate that person. It's as if you are trying to keep yourself from killing them, and letting them get a second chance. Then isn't your moral more like 'let them be until they cross my last nerves'? I mean, based on observations until now."
"Do you mean observations by how I didn't hesitate to hit the man who is supposedly your biological uncle?" She asked with an annoyed face, at the same time, Henry yawned at her shoulder. "I found it interesting that you care for him, and also enjoyed watching him get hit. I thought you were going to stop, I may have actually torn his internal organs." She shrugged with her right shoulder while keeping a hand on the sleeping kid.
"That's because I thought you were going to change the course of action. You are the real-life explanation of 'don't let them know your next move'. Like when you swung your sword around, and immediately teleported me elsewhere at the garden, maybe you were going to shove him aside and run away. How was I supposed to know you meant what you said!" Lewis protested as he stopped mid-way and threw his hands up like surrendering.
"Either ways...you didn't stop me." Aefia in return, stuck her tongue out with her bored face. "And you don't seem to be done explaining why you attack people weakness." She too came to a stop while glancing towards the end of the hallway as if asking to continue walking at the same time.
"Alright. The only thing else I can say is about what my father at once said, before leaving." He spun around with a shadow falling over his face. "That humans are just a structure with a mind which they don't use properly. It's better to take preventions before cure, so it's better to know about the person before befriending them."
"That is wise...but confusing. Why would anyone befriend a stranger?" Her eyes narrowed at the words as her brain rummaged through 'near-by files' that could prove it was true. But regardless, it always ended with a 'no search results found' message. "It's like saying, 'hooray! Now someone hire a hitman to kill me! Because I was dumb even when they told me!'"
"Of course that's how it sounds to introverts like you!" He stopped again with a annoyed face and almost with a mind up in flames. "You don't seem to understand this, but I don't seem to understand what you said just now! How many people have you met in your life that you know what they are going to be like?!" He didn't seem angry about it, but rather, found it tilting towards a funny side.
"Honestly...I have met many types. Enough to allow me the knowledge where I can identify a person with they the way they speak or the way they react." She settled for mocking sort of smile. "Correct me if I am wrong...but you are envious towards how your brothers George and Henry are treated by the duchess." Although he was standing still, her footsteps didn't stop.
"Your are wrong with one part." He finally responded after a short while where he had a shocking realization stuck in his mind. Eventually catching up, he spoke the truth. "I was envious noticing you were being noticed by mother while I was invisible inside the palace walls and only seen for my position in the family. But then, I came to realize that day, that you were also just a caged pawn she was using for some sort of reasons."
"I already knew that." She responded while recalling the words 'caged pawn' in her mind. I am, in fact, caged. But it's also a cage I had set up for myself. Regardless, I walked in myself, and threw the keys away, by myself. And now that I am allowed a chance to escape, I can't, because I have greed over trying to find out the truth.
"The duchess, she seems...like a person powerful on the otherside. Then why does she need to have me beside her and change the entire family role, just so she could do...what?" Her mind fell into deep question, as her pain at the stomach fell quiet and her head started throbbing. "But she also doesn't care about me in a way where if I were to die right now, no orders to bury me in my grave would be given. But nevermind that, I am already in my grave." A smile appeared at her face. Not painfully, but as a 'fun' idea.
"You know...a week from your arrival, someone came to mother saying the entire empire was going to go down." Lewis suddenly remembered and started speaking. "They told her that her army would go down in fight with someone who was going to tear down the three states. Now that I think about it, I guess they might be the reason why mother brought you in, but didn't give a heed to your living. That person, he was a hooded person with a mice at his shoulder."
"A hooded person?" Aefia's vision of the gaze that caught her from miles away, scurried back to her eyes that changed that past into the current present. "There was a satchel at his waist. His clothing was torn looking and he had a mice who had glowing eyes, of multiple colours. Was it that?" She gritted her teeth to keep her mind from aching. It seemed that this was now something she really needed to remove. "He looked weak from the far distance and dissapeared into air that made things more foggy to think about."
"I don't know if it was them that you had seen, but the person said something about you." Lewis spoke while staying silent for a short while to let her speak. The fact he was devastated about, was someone watched over her even at the palace which was highly guarded, and this was something she didn't know herself. "They said, if mother could pinpoint your location at the right time, she would find it prove for someone who could save her estate. I didn't think she would take such a false thing into her mind and actually drag you here."
"How do you know they weren't hunting me?" Her mind suddenly recalled the Guardian of Silence at the background where Mr. Elephant has been anxiously staring at. "I know someone, or more precisely something, that wants to rip me apart." Her fist tightened as she smiled inwardly. The rest of the way, she didn't speak, nor did she answer anymore questions.
"How did you learn about people mentalities? It's as if you were born with powers that told you about the human mind." He had tried multiple times, sometimes annoying her, expecting a harsh reply back, but it all backfired as he noticed the straight face she had kept and the expressionless complexion.
Finally, after tucking Henry in bed, just before leaving, when Lewis noticed she was walking the opposite direction. "The hall isn't that way." He chased behind her now fast pace. Wasn't she suffering pain just a few seconds ago? Now is her anger fueling her to forget the entire environment?
"I know, I am just heading to my room for one thing." She sternly replied while pushing open the door to her room, with someone standing in the middle at the sofa area. "What did they say?" She spoke with the butler who seemed slightly older than both of them.
"Why is the new butler in your room? Is he your personal servant now?" Lewis asked not knowing whether to be angry or shocked. "I think there is a link to what you said and what I know. But I just can't prove it, so I need outside sources in this matter too." Aefia answered as if in a hurry while flinging off the lid of a medicine bottle and carrying many into a packet and tucked it inside her pocket.
"I don't know yet, but they have a wish to kill you and someone else it seems." Cedric answered softly. "They were drunk, so don't fully believe them. They don't have the authority or power to fight you, and they know that."
"Good then, if they really want me dead. Because I was going to put them to great use anyway. Maybe one where they won't return alive." Her eyes widened as she stared at him from behind her table, and a sinister smile surfaced on her face.