X ※ Death Glimpsed, Hearts Shattered: The Sordid Drama of the Dysfunctional and the Doomed

Daisuke's Point of View

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It was strange, almost unnerving in a way I couldn't quite place. I couldn't shake the feeling that something had shifted, something dark and disconcerting. The last time I saw that girl so shaken, so broken, was when my sister died. That was the moment I truly saw the girl for what she was—fragile, lost, far too much like a doll strung together by something much more sinister. But now, witnessing the aftermath of whatever had just unfolded, I found myself speechless.

When I heard what Rai said about her seeing her own death, a hollow sense of discomfort twisted in my gut. Shouldn't I be happy? Shouldn't I feel some satisfaction knowing she was disturbed by such an experience? After all, it was her death. Her future demise staring back at her like some cruel premonition. But no matter how hard I tried to shake it off, I couldn't ignore the uncomfortable pit in my stomach. Why did I feel this way?

It was one thing to tell others about their death. To predict their end. To speak it aloud with a detached sort of coldness. But it was entirely different to witness your own death happening with your own eyes, to be forced to see it unfold right before you. It was an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone, and yet I found myself questioning why she'd chosen to witness such a thing. Shouldn't she have known better?

Of course, it was no surprise that she seemed to have lost her mind, the way her eyes glazed over and her hands trembled. That was probably what had gone through all of our minds. All of us knew that she had to be shattered by this. Even if we hated her, deep down, I think all of us understood that she wasn't responsible for the countless deaths she had been blamed for. Not really.

She was a scapegoat. A pawn in a much larger game. It was why we all froze when her brothers spoke those words. The ones that made it clear we were all wrong about her.

She was so oblivious to her surroundings, so lost in her thoughts, that she didn't even notice when her brothers—my sisters—and Princess Elodie entered the room. Her gaze was distant, her expression hollow, like someone who had been stripped of their last vestige of self-preservation. And when she finally regained some semblance of awareness, the look in her eyes was… frightening. It didn't seem like her at all. There was a darkness there, a void where light once resided, and I couldn't help but feel a chill run down my spine as I looked at her.

My attention turned to her brothers. And for the first time since I'd met them, I saw something I never thought I would—genuine concern. They were shaken. Of course, I had always known that there was something about those two that didn't add up, but seeing them like this, reacting in a way that wasn't drenched in anger or hatred… It was so off-putting. It was almost comical in a way, seeing them caught in the web of their own emotions.

I mean, were they worried about her? How awkward. How utterly bizarre. I swear, they hated her as much as I did. Especially Rai. So seeing him act this way… it threw me off. I never expected it. Never.

"My sister…" Aeneas began, his voice cracking slightly, and I froze at the sound of the words. He had never called her that before. "I don't think she has that much time left, Your Majesty!"

The words lingered in the room, thick with an urgency that I couldn't deny.

"I don't know what happened," Rai exclaimed, looking down at his hands as if trying to find some sort of answer there. "She never had any curiosity to see her own death. Princess Avyanna once told me that she was scared of learning about it. That's why she began using the blindfold—so she wouldn't see herself in the mirror by accident."

The mention of my sister made my hands ball into tight fists, my nails digging into the palms of my hands as a sharp sting shot through me. The mention of my sister's name, the memory of what had happened, always ignited that burning hatred.

But Rai continued, his voice shaking with frustration. "What made her do this all of a sudden? How could she bear to watch her own death? Hearing someone else tell you about it is one thing because you aren't seeing it happen, but actually watching it…"

His words trailed off, unable to find their final form. I wasn't surprised we were all thinking the same thing.

"I think that might be my fault," I said, the words slipping out before I could even stop them. They had a bitterness to them, a weight that lingered in the room. It drew their eyes to me, all of them staring as if I were the answer to some riddle they hadn't solved. "Your sister must have done that because I ordered her to join the Crown Princess Trials, to spend a year here. She knows how much I hate her, so maybe she decided to do this to see if I would kill her while she's here."

I watched as their faces shifted, all of them considering the implications of what I had just said. They didn't argue. They didn't challenge me. They just accepted it as some twisted truth.

"But, brother," my younger sister, Ismene Zara Maximillian—the princess who always knew everything—spoke up, her voice as sharp as ever. "Why would she ask to not be a noble anymore and become a commoner? That doesn't make sense to me."

Her words made me pause. They were valid questions, ones I hadn't considered in the chaos of everything.

"Maybe she's using that as a way to avoid joining the Trials?" Princess Elodie suggested, her voice steady and thoughtful as she tried to piece together the puzzle.

I nodded along to her theory, but my father, ever the pragmatist, joined the conversation with his own observation. "By the way she spoke with us earlier, I don't think she's doing all of this just to avoid the Trials. To me, it seemed more like she doesn't want to spend the year here at all. She seemed desperate to be free of her duties as a noble."

His words hit a nerve, one that had been lying dormant until now. It made sense. It made so much sense. She didn't want to be trapped in this role, suffocated by expectations. She didn't want to endure the suffocating weight of being born into this cursed family.