Oh, To Trust a Liar

Mizuki watches him with a side-eyed gaze, recalling the earlier incidents. Something about the description of the prince fit right for her, everything about the garden and the prince's attitude. Even if they look nothing alike, their eyes are strikingly similar - the cold, regal emerald green.

One good thing about joining this mysterious world is that she can't be aimless anymore. Another good thing is that she'll be of use to her father's new research projects, if she has the face to show up to her family after embarrassing herself. Mizuki wonders how she had so little things to think about back in the real world.

Maybe she knew too much too quickly, something that comes with being a young genius.

I wonder what he's hiding from me. Mizuki's mind lingers as she fidgets with her tair, tucking a couple of strands behind her ear. She doesn't let herself think about it for too long because she knows, even if it's not consciously, she'll get hurt if she finds out she's been lied to.

Mizuki walks with her hands lightly knocking against Hinata, over-conscious about it. Hinata seems unfazed, eyes staring straight forward into blank space. She scoots away, hiding her arms behind her back, averting her gaze. The walk back home is pleasant, touches of greenery here and there wherever Mizuki looks. Citizens sit around at the benches, interacting with each other animatedly, even those that look like strangers. For the conflicts that the kingdom face, its people look much less dejected than she would expect.

As Hinata is about to continue walking past his house in his daze, Mizuki grapples onto his arm, stopping him from going any further. "Are you not going home?"

"I was planning something," Hinata clarifies briefly, his cheeks turning a faint shade of red. He holds the door open for Mizuki. "You should get some rest," Hinata advises once he closes the door behind him. Mizuki turns to him and he's taking his coat off, shrugging it off his shoulders and slowly peeling it off his arms.

"Why? I was going to go back into town. I think there are a few quests I could try to unlock if I explore a bit more. Ah, and I have training goals to reach at the Adventurer's Union," Mizuki lists, adjusting her corset around her waist.

"No, there might be something important for us tonight so you should rest," Hinata reinstates his point. Mizuki is reluctant to listen. She folds her arms skeptically.

"What's in it for me?"

"A lot of things."

"Such as?"

"You don't need to know," Hinata turns away, hanging his coat up. Mizuki clicks her tongue in annoyance, put off by the idea of him undermining her importance once again. She storms up to him, tapping him on the shoulder to force his attention onto her.

With a stern frown, she instructs, "You need to start telling me things. Not even because everything you do depends on me but because I still have no idea how the important things of this world work. Couldn't you be more helpful?"

Hinata watches her over his shoulder, eyes widened at being called out. This expression of shock soons morphs into one of distaste. "Don't you think I know what I'm doing? Some things just aren't for you to know."

"Then why do you involve me?"

"If you can find someone else to solve your problems for you then go to that person," Hinata dodges past her coldly, meandering out of the house insouciantly.

"YOU TALK LIKE MEETING YOU WAS A CHOICE FOR ME!" Mizuki raises her voice, stamping her heel roughly into the ground. Hinata slams the back door. The wood beneath her feet cracks beneath the crushing force of her foot, creating a dent in the floor. Clenching her fist, she storms upstairs, slumping against the bed.

Mizuki buries her reddening face into her hands. Her chest rises and falls but in a manner that she's starting to lose control of. It's getting harder and harder to focus on the single thought of Hinata with the way her mind's starting to scatter, linking one problem to another and another. Mizuki's head throbs, her heart drumming loud in her ears.

I always lose control over what I say. I didn't want to ruin things again.  Even with her hands pressed tightly against her face, she can't suppress her tears.

I promised I would be stronger. Mizuki chokes up, palms stained with tears. She digs her fingernails into cheeks, lurching forward with her forehead on her thighs. Mizuki, soon too tired to be disappointed in herself, drops her hands at her sides.

"Haha," she laughs lifelessly under her breath as she falls onto her side.

"What a life," Mizuki gives up, closing her eyes.

[Hirashi Mizuki has tucked into bed]

Mizuki squirms in her bed. She sits up. Something isn't quite right.

Mizuki looks around her and she's in a princess bed, one that's way too familiar for it to be a foregin place. Then, it clicks. It's her childhood bedroom from her old home. She slides off the bed, bare feet touching the cold ground. Mizuki lifts them before she fully rests them on the floor, consciously hugging her arms. The curtains are drawn and it'd be pitch dark if not for the little sunlight that penetrated into the room.

CRASH! Mizuki flinches, snapping her neck towards the direction of the sound. Mizuki cautiously approaches the door, hand pausing on the knob for a couple of seconds before she musters the courage to twist it. Another deafening crash hits her ears.

Meekly, she peers out of the bedroom door.

"What about my sisters, Father? You don't expect as much from them as you do from me!" another version of Mizuki yells at an older man. She's barely visible in the dim-lit corridor, painful red wounds on her arms. She's gripping onto her father's belt, raising her finger to his face boldly. "I'm younger than them and you expect me to be the face of your company?!"

On the floor is a broken porcelain vase, white lilies scattered on the ground. Mizuki's father watches her with a venomous gaze, yanking the belt away from her and throwing her onto the ground roughly. A shattered piece of the vase drives into the younger Mizuki's thighs, earning a loud grimace from the pitiful girl.

"You're the example of the family, aren't you?! Why are you following your sisters when you're going to inherit the company? Why? Am I making a mistake?!"

Mizuki lifts her shaky arm to hide her face, only to have her father lash at her again with the belt, leaving a fresh mark on her arms. "YOU TALK LIKE YOU GAVE ME A CHOICE," Mizuki bellows in her father's face, voice breaking in an agonising manner. She falls silent with another strike of the belt landing on her body. Her sisters watch from their bedroom doors in the distance.

"Oi oi, get up already," Hinata's voice breaks Mizuki out of her nightmare.

Mizuki jolts up, eyes wide open in sheer terror.