King Casrian Valdnrosa, a man known for his extravagance among the common folk and debauchery among the nobles. Indeed, his brown hair was a mess as if he hadn’t bothered to comb it that morning and he was still in his loose silk robes, one sleeve barely hanging off his shoulder, revealing part of his gold-kissed skin down to his navel. Rhylis and Danell wondered if the guards and servants that surrounded Casrian were also the same people that accompanied him in bed last night. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they were.

Casrian’s sandals clacked against the marble floor as he walked towards his dear younger brothers who were already bowing towards him. Rhylis’ eyes couldn’t help but wander towards the sword that hung lazily on his waist. It was a sword passed down through generations of rulers, yet here the current king was, wearing it like an ornament.

Of course, everyone knew of his prowess with the sword. There was a reason he managed to slaughter all their other siblings and the previous king, after all.

“Your Majesty, I was just about to leave.” Danell was already back to being expressionless. What a nuisance. First, Odetta insisted on sitting beside him for breakfast today, and now this.

“You’ll have to eat breakfast alone. I’m already full.” Rhylis didn’t bother addressing Casrian the proper way. His distaste for his older brother was well-known throughout the palace and maybe even the rest of the country.

Casrian, luckily, did not care how anyone, much less his own siblings, addressed him.

“That’s too bad, I just saw Galene being carried out of here,” Casrian responded, calling Odetta by her honorific name. Only the royal family members of Andalia were given honorific names, and only the royal family members were allowed to call each other by those names. But even then, they were rarely used. It was Casrian alone who was stubborn in calling all of them by their honorific names, and they let him be since he was their king.

If anyone else dared to call Princess Odetta as ‘Galene,’ it would be punishable by death, even if no one held respect for her as one should normally towards a princess.

“She was poisoned,” Rhylis told Casrian.

Casrian then scanned the table behind Rhylis and Danell, noticing the bloodstains. He grinned, the spark in his eyes the only hint of the crazed state Rhylis knew he was capable of. “Poor Galene. If only I had come earlier to witness the spectacle.”

Rhylis rolled his eyes. Of course Casrian thought that would have been entertaining.

Danell sighed beside him. “Well then, I’ll take my leave, Your Majesty. I apologize for not having breakfast with you today.” He fixed his glasses, promptly leaving the dining room for good after Casrian languidly waved him away.

As Casrian turned back to face Rhylis, the servants frantically rushed in to clean the table and set out new dishes for the king.

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“I’m guessing you’ll be leaving, too?”

“Yes. Someone has to check on Odetta.”

“Will you now, Adonis?” Casrian kept on smiling. It should also be worth mentioning that he, like the rest of the currently alive royal family members, had blue eyes. They were as dark as Odetta’s, which was more of a coincidence than anything else. Nevertheless, Casrian was undoubtedly their older brother, which irked Rhylis, as he wanted nothing but to disown himself from him.

Casrian watched as his youngest brother left the room, presumably to visit their one and only sister. Well, the only sister he chose not to kill. He placed his finger on his chin, lost in thought.

‘Galene… perhaps I’ll visit you later myself.’

***

Odetta vaguely remembered seeing Rhylis, him speaking with the palace doctor, and some words about how she needed to rest and wait it out since the poison didn’t seem like it was meant to kill her.

‘Of course…’

‘I was the one who drank the poison before going to breakfast.’

After that, she went back to being unconscious.

By the time she woke up again, her bedroom was empty of people except for her. The servants had long since abandoned her after knowing she would stay alive. When she looked at the window of her room with its curtains still drawn back, she realized that it was already night time. She did not know if she simply slept through a whole day or several.

“Whatever. It’s not like anyone would care.” Odetta sighed to herself.

She then thought back to the events that transpired and clenched her fists on her blanket.

When she was first recognized as a princess and taken against her will to the palace, Odetta was already aware of the darkness that swarmed behind the Valdnrosas, but not the details.

Casrian was kind to her when she first arrived. So much so that she let her guard down. He told her to survive, but Odetta figured that since he had taken the throne at a young age, the fight for the position of heir wouldn’t be until decades later. This put her at peace since she was too close to that position for her liking, with Casrian not having any children of his own yet.

She should have never let her guard down.

‘Make sure you do anything to survive here.’

Odetta could still feel the nausea that settled in her stomach and head. The poison she drank wasn’t enough to kill her, but she must have overdosed on it. It was a mistake to have trusted the servants with preparing it, but on the other hand, she didn’t have a choice.

She sighed again, this time as a tear fell down her cheek. At least her maids bothered to change her into a nightgown. She could just continue to sleep, and she would do just that.

Curling up into a ball beneath her blanket, Odetta hugged her knees to her chest in an attempt to ride out the pain. She realized only then that she had a fever, cold sweat making her hair stick uncomfortably to her skin. She knew better than to cry for help.

‘Make sure you do anything to survive here.’

Princess Odetta Valdnrosa never imagined that acting crazy and consuming poison in an attempt to be immune to them would be part of surviving here in the palace.