No Heros

The smell of decomposing bodies was so pungent that Astria felt sick. Suddenly, Astria could hear a large slam as someone opened the door. A plump man with a white coat threw a boy into the room, slamming the boy into the wall. A sickening crack rang throughout the room.

"Useless rejects... Why am I forced to take care of all of you when you've proven yourselves worthless in every testing aspect? The most I can use from these piles of meat is for further testing and extra parts in case the prime ones lose organs..."

"Other than that, all of you are worthless scum!" shouted the man, kicking a nearby kid's head in anger.

To no one's surprise, the child he kicked had been dead, probably for the past few days. Astria felt her head spin as she saw the kid's head rolling towards Duncan's feet. Why... Why wasn't Duncan reacting to any of this?! Was he a monster as well?! Astria begged the memory to stop.

Just then, a kid by Duncan's side started to cry, and the vision turned to see a small girl with bruises all over and short reddish-brown hair. The little girl was bawling her eyes out as she was shocked by the man's actions and the rolling head. But Duncan did nothing and stared blankly ahead.

The man with the white coat yelled for the crying to stop, only to have the poor girl cry even louder. She must've been only a toddler, scared out of her mind to witness such an atrocity. Astria felt her heart jump into her throat as the scary man appeared in front of Duncan.

But as the man leaned forward to grab Duncan, he instead switched to capture the small crying girl, snatching the toddler by the neck.

"I've warned everyone before... No crying over here, so I'm going to let you off with a warning, trash girl," warned the man as he held the sniffling child.

"Leave my baby sister alone!" yelled another boy adjacent to Duncan.

The kid looked older but was so malnourished that his arms were all skeletal. The child tried his best to stand up, but it was hard to do with only one foot. In the end, using the walls as support, the brave little boy limped to defend his baby sister.

"Oh... So the two of you are siblings? How noble of the older brother to protect his sister. But, if you plan to be brave, make sure to suffer in place of your baby sister!" yelled the man, throwing the toddler away.

Luckily, the toddler merely fell onto the ground without any significant injury. Regrettably, the man switched his target to the brother, grabbing him by the poor child's jaw. The kid's screams reverberated through the area as the man pulled out his lower jaw.

"Let's teach you all a lesson about being the hero around here... Know that I do not care for such redundant things, and I could not care less if you are breathing. You are expendable, so don't try to be a hero you aren't meant to be. You are lower than trash," said the man.

He then finished the poor child off by throwing him onto the floor and stepping onto the kid's skull, making Astria go insane, banging and pleading for the memory to end. Finally, the Crystal Princess was reduced to tears as she begged for the Ankou to release her from the misery.

"You were the one who wanted to look into his memories in the first place... So why are you backing out now? Did you think Duncan's memories are that simple, being an orphan with a harsh upbringing? If so, he wouldn't have met Lady Roydon, would he?" asked the Ankou.

The memory was still playing as it showed the man taking the toddler and pressing his thumbs into her eyes as she screamed.

"ENOUGH! Please... No more of this! I'm sorry for looking into your memories... But, please... I'll do whatever it takes to get out of here! I'll tell you everything about Fabian and his plans! Just let me out of HERE!" screeched Astria, pulling her hair out while crying.

"Then you know what to do. Give your life up to repent for what you've done," was the final words of the Ankou as the Crystal Princess returned to the real world.

The Crystal Princess ended her life right before Duncan's eyes, which were still devoid of emotion as she collapsed.

"We learned that trying to stand up for ourselves or others would end up killing us prematurely. That's why... I became the child who lacked emotions. I was born with emotions, crying when I came into the world. But something snapped within me, and I lost touch of feeling any emotion."