Chapter 10

***

"Ahhhh!"

Bern screamed in pain as Sez's teeth lodged deep into his wrist. Sez clung to Bern like a mad dog. While she knew she wouldn't look beautiful right now, it was the only thing the small, weak girl could do for Rayton.

"You crazy little shit! What the hell are you doing?"

Bern smacked Sez in the head with full force.

Bam!

Sparks flashed behind her eyes, but she didn't unlatch herself from Bern. She kept clenching her teeth as she was struck a few more times in the head, and she kept going until Lilien and the others pried her off of him.

"Get out of my way, you damn rascal!" Bern, still seething, pushed Sez away.

”Aaaagh!”

Sez stumbled backward and hit her head on a chair. She fell with a thud.

"Ugh..."

As if guided by the devil, she fell right on top of Rayton's chest, which Bern had been relentlessly kicking just moments ago.

"Ugh..."

Rayton groaned as he felt the weight of Sez on his chest. Sez, panicking, jumped up like a spring. The adrenaline rush suddenly numbed all the pain. After a short pause, she pointed at Rayton and yelled at Bern.

“He’s right! Can’t you see he’s red?!”

“What the…?!"

"How do we resemble each other? Blue-eyed people really are all color-blind!"

The words poured out of Sez’s lips as she panicked over the fact that she had just crushed Rayton.

"Who do you think you're siding with? You filthy little..."

"I knew it! You are not simply color-blind; you’re super-duper color-blind! Can't you see that I'm siding with Rayton even though I’m right in front of you?"

The embarrassment was making Sez do something she had never dared to do her entire life. She was talking back to her half-brothers and sisters. It was the first time she had done such a thing. Just like Rayton.

"…Sez, you idiot. Color blindness and blindness are two completely different things." Lilian, dumbfounded, murmured despite no one asking.

'Who cares if I'm an idiot? Like I give a damn about my brain anyway… All I need is for my eyes to be intact. And my neck.' Sez fumed.

"No wonder your mother never thought of you as her daughter. You know she's been longing for a child, an heir, right? Even she couldn't bear your idiocy, I see that now."

Sez bit her lips at her half-sister's spiteful words.

’I know my mom doesn’t like me! She doesn't even treat me like a person, let alone her own child… but it's not because I'm not good enough!’

No matter how much Sez knew it to be true, it was not pleasant to hear from someone else's mouth.

‘Besides, you really don’t need to be that mean, bitch.’

Sez looked at Lilien.

"I didn't expect these fools to stick together. It's ridiculous!” Berne said snarkily.

‘…These fools?’

Sez was frowning which was not like her.

Of course, she knew what Bern and Lilen thought of her and Rayton, which once hurt her a lot.

But that was when she was younger.

Now... she was more angry than she was hurt.

‘Why are we always the only ones who get treated like this? When we haven’t even done anything?’

"…So, is this fun for you?"

"What?"

"Is it fun for you to bully me and Rayton day and night?"

"Look at this, the little shit has some confidence now, aren't-"

"You're childish."

Sez clenched her fists. She thought it was more than childish of her siblings to treat them like they were sinners. They had done nothing. They were simply reading books in an old library... Yeah, Rayton didn't actually want to be here, but that wasn’t the point.

Was that such a big atrocity that they deserved such mocking? Did they deserve such... harassment?

"You're childish because you belittle us only because of the color of our eyes and hair. You're childish because you bully me just for being a nobody in the palace. What have we actually done wrong?!

"What have you done wrong? You seriously have no idea?”

Lilien crossed her arms, looking down at Sez with a fed-up expression.

Then, she poked at Sez's head with her long fingers.

"It’s your fault that you rats were in our sight and...”

"......"

"It's your fault that you pathetically cling to your place in the palace. You haven’t run away, nor gone into hiding. Why wouldn’t that be your fault?"

'Bitch!'

A fire began to glow in Sez's eyes.

'So what? You just want us to go out and die?'

"Then why don't you just piss off to whatever hellhole you can't see us from?"

"What did you just say?!"

"Piss off and leave us alone then! Who made you come here and harass us?!"

Her goal of winning Rayton over was long forgotten. Sez had too much baggage and a past, too. Now she even knew the feeling of decapitation, so what’s to be scared of?

She didn't think about it much before, but she didn't want to be bullied like this anymore. Moreover, this time, Bern and Lilien’s harassment had reached its peak. Sez had reasoned that it would be best to put the incident behind her and move on. Of course, she didn’t intend for it to turn out this way.

"Take this!"

Clap!

Sez saw a sudden spark before her eyes as Lilien slapped her. Her face was red with rage as she never thought Sez to fight back.

Soon Lilien's hand flew back toward Sez. Maybe today was the day. The day to get beaten like hell. Sez didn't want to be hit again. Sez clenched her fists and suddenly lunged at Lilien.

"Agghhh"!

Surprised by Sez's counterattack, Lilien let out a piercing scream. Sez dared to rush forward and barge Lilien's stomach with her head. She looked like an angry buffalo.

"Get her! Get the girl!"

Bern cried out, and soon the others seized Sez by her limbs. Sez struggled. She struggled as hard as she could but couldn't manage to shake them off.

What would happen next was not difficult to predict. They’d beat her again, mocking her, but she didn’t want to apologize and beg them to stop. Tears welled up in Sez's eyes, she couldn't overcome her anger.

"Leave us alone! I'm not asking you to treat me like a sister, just let me live and breathe peacefully! Am I really asking for too much?!"

‘Even if you don't bother me, I'll live in the shadows. I won't stand out in the slightest. I didn't even want to be treated well in the first place.’

Sez felt an untimely surge of sadness.

‘You guys have everything. You’re loved by the emperor, living comfortably… Why? Why can’t you just leave the abandoned kids be?’

“Leave us alone! I want to be treated as a princess or anything. Just let me breathe! Am I asking too much?!”

"Are you asking too much?"

Suddenly her feet were dangling in the air. It was because Bern had grabbed her by the collar. Sez, who was hanging in midair, squirmed and struggled against his grasp. There was something similar to disgust in his blue eyes as he stared at Sez. Sez scratched at Bern's shoulder with her nails, but he didn't budge.

"Damn right you are,” Berne said sarcastically. "The very fact that you live and breathe the same air as us makes us sick.”

"Ugh..."

"Dirty, filthy... You defile our name."

His grip was hard as steel. Sez was starting to choke. He'd strangle her to death if she stayed like this. She was facing death once again at twelve years old, never mind seventeen. In the reflection of Bern's blue eyes, Sez could see her bruised and battered face. It was all very familiar to her, so she didn't know why she felt so sad today.

‘What makes you better than us...? What's so different about us...? If we’re so unpleasant, you can go somewhere else...’ Sez's body began to sag. She was fading out of consciousness.

Right at that moment, Bern rolled backward with a thud. Sez coughed violently.

Though she was finally able to breathe again, she collapsed and choked in shock. She had no clue what had happened, so she shifted her gaze to the side as she clutched her chest.

To her surprise, there stood Rayton.

“I have the exact same feeling towards you,” Rayton spoke coolly. “Filthy bastards. You all make me sick.”

With that said, Rayton jumped at Bern. He was surrounded by everyone once again and didn’t seem to have much energy. Sez wasn't sure whether she still had any strength left, or if she'd simply just been smacked too hard.

“…...”

Rayton mounted Bern just as he did before and Lilien started screaming again.

“Stop him! Stop him!”

Sez jumped up from her seat and bit the hand that had grabbed Rayton's arm as hard as she could. Rayton and Bern were intertwined, Sez was biting into someone’s limbs, and Lilien was freaked out and flustered, trying to separate Sez from them. It was truly a dogfight.

"Aggghhh!”

"Hold on, hold on to Rayton! Stop biting, you damn bitch!"

"Ack! You bastard!"

The library had turned into a battlefield.

Rayton managed to shake off the gang only went for Bern, while Sez was struggling to help Rayton in her own way. Her gums were tingling and it felt like her front teeth were going to fall out. Well, it wouldn’t matter if she lost one or two of these. Her pride alone pumped her body full of adrenaline.

"Goodness... W-what is this mess?"

The battle of the egos halted upon the piercing scream.