Chapter 161 Volume IV - Chapter 6: The Brother Who Talks to Himself
Sitting in my comfortable chair with dozens of holographic images in front of me in a room surrounded by state-of-the-art technology a few meters below the ground, where the sunlight does not reach, I clasped my hands together, leaned my forehead on them, bowed my head, and bit my lips.
How had it come to this...?
"Lucas Cevilian. As crown prince, you realize how serious this is, don't you?"
I didn't answer, I couldn't.
What could I say? How can I react to something like this?
What am I supposed to do?
"A seer was murdered, Prince Lucas! A seer in the service of our kingdom, and who knows how long it will be before we find out!"
I quickly separated one of my joined hands and slammed it down hard on my desk. The sound echoed throughout the room, the people in front of the hologram heard it too, and all of them fell silent in an instant.
An intense silence enveloped the room, making my nervousness even more tense than it should have been, and I sighed deeply.
"I realize... Of course, I realize, Duke Laehera. I am already thinking about what we should do. And if the others here have any other ideas, I am happy to listen."
This death must be kept secret. It must not leak out in public under any circumstances, but the person or group or whatever that killed her has that information.
The fact that a seer is dead, one of only three seers in the world, especially one of the greatest in the service of our kingdom... Something like this is too big a deal to go public. The fact that one of our biggest trump cards is gone will bring down our kingdom even more than it already has.
"Haaaa..."
It's exhausting... It's too exhausting and frustrating.
Why did she want to live on her own and not come under the protection of the kingdom in the first place? The kingdom tolerated her because she was a seer, but... But now, when we tried to reach her because we couldn't communicate, she was found cut in half in what she described as a safer place than even with you!
Nonsense.
Bullshit!
"If we don't publicize this, those who killed him will use it against us, and if we do, it will blow back on us."
What should we do? What's the most logical option?
Saying we can't reach the seer would be the same as saying she's dead. So... should we say she's on leave? Although... the seer was already old, so we could say she died because of old age.
Actually... isn't that the most logical choice? If the people who killed her say that 'we killed her', and that the kingdom is lying, we can deny it. The seer's age is already known to everyone.
After thinking for a while longer, I sighed deeply and looked at the nobles in front of me, who were discussing the matter independently of me.
"We will say nothing about the seer. If someone comes out and says that 'we killed her', we will say that she died of natural causes and that we are keeping quiet because we don't want to panic the people and we don't want that information to get out of the kingdom. Even if they have proof, we can deny it. We have no choice either way. The reputation of the kingdom has already suffered a lot because of what has been happening lately, everything is piling up."
I paused for a moment and looked at the nobles, one by one, a few nodding in agreement, a few thinking.
"If anyone disagrees, or has a different idea, or thinks we need to think a little more, please vote."
With that, a window opened in front of everyone. In the window were the three options I had just listed, and next to them were bars with percentages.
Just ten seconds after I put forward my idea, everyone had voted and the results came out.
There were thirteen people, including me, and eleven people who thought we should do what I had suggested.
When I saw the numbers, I let out a deep sigh.
"Then it is decided. We will wait until the appropriate time to make the seer's case public. If someone spreads rumors that the seer is actually dead in the meantime, we will deal with it."
I forced a smile on my face and put my hand over the option to end the meeting.
"Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting. Now that we have settled this matter... unless anyone has anything else to say, I would like to say goodbye."
No one attempted to say anything. I widened my smile and ended the meeting.
In an instant, the images in front of me closed in a fast and fluid animation and a deep silence fell over the room.
The smile on my face disappeared as quickly as it had come and I buried my face in my arms on the table in front of me.
Really... did this much happen to the kingdom all the time or was it just me? I don't understand...
I was bored, I wanted to relax, even though I had so much to do, and I started thinking about what I could do.
I thought for a while, what could I do to cheer myself up a bit?
I paused for a moment as an idea came to me.
I've had enough of dealing with old nobles... Should I see what the new generation is doing? I could also look at the promising young people. Isn't it good to understand what kind of life they lead, to get to know the people of my future kingdom?
As I thought about the idea, a more genuine and sincere smile appeared on my face than before.
Yes, this could be fun.
*******
In the middle of the paradise-like space, I just stared at the girl next to me with her eyes closed, so much so that I stopped even thinking. My hand went to her hair, stroked it. Finally... I let out a deep sigh.
"When? How much longer?"
With those words, my hands left her hair and my body slowly returned to the clouds above.
Then, I suddenly realized that something was wrong.
I am in a dream, that is not hard to understand. I'm a child, that's not hard to understand, but why... Why doesn't my voice sound like a child's? Not joyful, excited, childlike, but soulless, emotionless, as if... bored to death?
"Eight years..."
The boy's eyes narrowed.
"I only have to wait eight years, is that it?"
The boy continued to stare at the clouds, and after a while, he spoke to himself again.
"Will you keep your promise?"
The boy waited a moment, then closed his eyes, sighing again. But this time... he seemed to relax a little.
"Good."
There was no change in his voice, his expression was the same, but I could feel it. He was definitely relieved, but not for long. Soon the boy suddenly paused. The comfort he had just felt was completely gone. He seemed frustrated. I could feel that too.
The boy... he was so emotionless, so expressionless that it would have been impossible for anyone else to understand it.
"A blessing? You call this a blessing? I'm lucky, you think?"
He curled his lips up slightly as if he had encountered something funny, and I couldn't help feeling strange. The smile of this soulless, emotionless boy was strange, even if I couldn't see it. It was lonely, melancholy, even painful.
"It is not a blessing, only a curse. It will always be so, no matter who gets it."
The boy sat up, then he looked at his sister.
"You don't understand, and you never will. So, stop complaining."
The boy's eyes left his sister and looked a little away from where they were, where there was a car. There were two people there, they looked like the children's mother and father. They were talking about something between them.
The boy narrowed his eyes.
"I have to do it tomorrow."
Then he paused again, looking confident.
"No, it won't affect anything."
He made a face as if he had added more soullessness to his soullessness, callousness to his callousness.
"Do you think I can't do it?"
He was about to say something again, but then he paused, turned his gaze back to his side, and met his sister's beautiful eyes.
The little girl with the gray eyes smiled. She looked in perfect harmony with the flowers behind her and looked as if she was enjoying herself.
"Brother! You're talking to yourself again."
The soullessness, the emotionlessness, the expressionlessness of a moment ago disappeared instantly. The boy smiled tenderly and ran his hand through his sister's hair again. The girl recoiled the moment he did so.
"Brother! Don't do that!"
"Sorry, I'll fix it now."
"Aiden! Clara! Come on, we're going to eat!"
When a woman's voice echoed in the distance, the little girl, Clara, smiled as if she had forgotten what had just happened and started running toward the car as if she didn't care about her hair.
Aiden just stood where he was. His gaze locked on the trio of mother, father, and daughter. He looked at Clara's smiling face, then saw her turn to him and call him.
From a distance, they were a happy family. The source of this happiness, the joy of this family, seemed to be the little girl there.
Aiden, however, did not respond to this happiness in the same way. His eyes narrowed, and the smiling expression on his face collapsed. He stood up slowly, walking toward his family as if the world seemed darker with every step he took.
His squinted eyes seemed to flicker for a moment. In the black darkness of his soullessness, behind his eyes, a tiny glimmer appeared for a moment. A flickering, frightened glimmer. In the meantime, he murmured so that no one could hear him.
"I'm sorry."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢