Theta stared at the injured lark before her. Its broken wings and melancholic chirps resonated inside the shabby courtyard. After the death of her mother, the guilt-ridden General Ronin gifted Theta the small courtyard for her to stay in. To say it was a shabby one was an understatement.

It was only a courtyard in name.

Clad in a thin black dress that covered Theta from her nape to her wrists and legs, she held the wounded lark in her palm as she walked outside her one-room courtyard.

The sunshine escaped from the few dozen of holes on the roof of Theta's new home as the wooden floor creaked while she took one step at a time. No amount of dust and cobwebs could stop her as she trudged to the empty lawn of her courtyard.

Dried maple leaves welcomed Theta as the sun kissed her bare face. Her soles which were only covered with thin white socks felt the broken lawn ground filled with pebbles and grass.

With no tea table and chair on her lawn, Theta merely squatted on the ground right below a dead maple tree. No shade of the tree protected her from the sunlight sheen. Her silhouette reflected her loneliness and desolation – as if she had already detached herself from the world.

A knock pulled Theta from her trance followed by the familiar yet unfamiliar gentle tone of her supposed second elder brother, Rufiant Mariyah.

"Can I come in?"

On instinct, Theta hid the lark at her back as she wiped her dirtied hands onto her black dress. She nodded her head.

Another pang of bitterness went straight to Rufiant. His warm brown eyes dimmed as he maintained his day-to-day smile. He ached for his poor sister who lost her voice ever since her mother had died.

Squatting before the girl who did not seem to look sixteen years old at all due to malnourishment, Rufiant fixed Theta's hair. "This brother is so sorry to come late. If only I arrived earlier, I could have saved your mother."

Rufiant was a strategist.

To cultivate his techniques, his father made him stay within the borders of the Kingdom of Amina. After all, the experience was the best teacher since ancient times. Because of this, he was always late whenever something would happen to Theta and her mother. All he could do in the end was to express his sympathy. For Rufiant, he was far too lacking to impose on his father and mother.

Upon the mention of her mother, Rufiant earned a reaction from Theta. He watched as she looked up at him.

'Those eyes,' he thought.

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A pair of calm amethyst eyes welcomed Rufiant, stopping the words that he was about to say. It was as if he was watching a calm ocean in her eyes. It was so calm that it sent chills all over him. Like an ocean hiding a slumbering monster, Theta's chilling yet calm gaze almost made him step back.

"Brother," called Theta in a soft voice. Her gaze met his warm ones under the dead maple tree. She continued in a voice that was barely a whisper. "Don't die."

'Yet,' Theta continued at the back of her mind.

Theta did not give Rufiant a chance to ask why she said those words. She walked away from him. When she was already two meters away from the unmoving Rufiant, Theta suddenly stopped in her tracks. Without looking back, she spoke in a clear resolute tone. "This wretched slave does not need the second young master's pity. I am not a member of this household so free yourself from your guilt. It is suffocating me."

'Stop acting as if you cared because you never did. If you truly cared for me and my mother, you could have saved us long ago but you didn't. Because if you have saved us, then there will be no one who could highlight your gentleness. Without a victim, you could not become a hero. Rufiant Mariyah, you are truly the smartest and the toughest among the Mariyah siblings. So do not ever die, not when I am yet to kill you with my hands.'

Theta learned the laws of the world in the hardest way – the torture and death of her mother. To be invincible, one must become so strong that even the enemies would cower. And to be strong, one must be powerful enough to stand against the greed of the people's hearts.

Theta knew of her enemies. She hated the prestigious Mariyah Clan. She hated the Kingdom of Amina which secretly turned a blind eye against the official concubine who they treated as a slave because of her beauty that many noble ladies coveted. Theta remembered every one of them down to their late generations, their new generations, their servants, and their pets.

Theta embedded every single one of them in her heart. Their deaths were her life goals. Their dying screams would be her eternal lullaby and their blood would enrich the shrine of her late mother.

She needed to be stronger than ever.

Her current state was like an ant against a dragon. But a hundred of ants could cripple a dragon in a day and kill a dragon in a month. Theta needed an ally and she would raise an army that would shake the balance of this continent.

The so-called balance of the strong who lived in luxury while the weak had to pay the price, Theta was dying to destroy it herself.

'Why can't the weak covet the riches of this world? Why must the villains let the heroes take their heads just for the sake of some noble ideas? Why must the heroes protect only the innocents who live a pampered life and not the lost souls who are broken beyond repair? Why is the so-called balance of this wretched world so fuck up? Why?'

As the series of questions drowned Theta as she walked into the darkness of her shabby courtyard, Rufiant's voice stopped her once more.

"Theta," called Rufiant to the small silhouette that was walking toward the decrepit courtyard. "You are not alone, remember that."

Theta barely looked back before she answered him. "Worry not, you will be alone for so long. Your siblings will be with you sooner than later."

Rufiant frowned, totally not getting what Theta meant by her ambiguous words. With his sister gone in his sight, he looked down at the dead lark on his palm. Its feathers were plucked one by one as blood covered its small body.

He failed to accept that the once smiling little girl had done such torture to the small bird that she once loved to play with.