Chapter 23 - Declaration Of War [2]

"The amount of information we have on them is limited, a few years back they became a closed nation and they've not had any contact with tye outside world since then. Well, there's been some contact through trade and such but aside from that, there's been no contact. The country I'm referring to is 'The Kingdom Of Britannia.' From the looks of it, this war won't last long. We'll more than likely come out victorious."

Then, Cecillia took a deep breath before speaking.

"I'll leave Irene of the other two for just now, I've asked the head butler and head maid to let me know if anything major happens. So, don't go around causing trouble. Just go about your days like normal, make sure to study and to train properly. Apart from that I have nothing to really tell you guys, but I've got to go now. Although we're likely to win, there's no harm in us being on high alert. So that's why they're sending me over to the borders to take care of the situation there."

We all said our goodbyes to Cecillia, surprisingly enough the two kids weren't too fussed about their mother going off to war. They seemed to be concerned but not as much as you'd expect. Maybe the death of their father hardened them? Well, whatever, it's not like it's causing me any problems.

When Cecillia got in the car and went off on her way to wherever she was needed. All three of us got ready for breakfast. While I was enjoying some pancakes a thought crossed through my mind.

'I wonder how dire the situation really is for us to send in a person like Cecillia?'

Cecillia was most definitely lying to us about the conditions of our defences. My best guess was that utter chaos was ensuing at the borders, so the crown had likely decided that sending someone high ranked to take control of the situation would be the best situation. Cecillia was a person who was of high rank, so the soldiers would obey her every word without making much of a fuss.

When soldiers of different allegiances are made to work together, things don't work together very well. So Cecillia was sent in to make them work together, no one would be willing to defy the Archduchess. And she was also a powerful mage, not on the level of the general or anything crazy. But she would eclipse and ordinary mage.

But now that Cecillia was gone, I could train my body rather than constantly having to train my spell casting.

I looked at my fork and saw a reflection, the reflection smiled and waved at me. I had been seeing things like that rather often, I was used to it though. Occasionally my mind would break down but I'd recover by the next day. But whenever I see those weird reflections, my mind feels like it's going to collapse. I reached over to drink a glass of water, but that weird reflection was in the water as well. My breathing slowly hastened as a foreign feeling enraptured my body, whenever I felt like this, the reflections would become more... lifelike. Occasionally I would see reflections of myself, the me from the other world.

When he appeared I truly couldn't do anything, my body would go limp and I'd suffer some horrible headaches.

And the nightmares have been feeling more and more real, before I watched them all in a third person viewpoint. But now adays I'm watching through my own eyes and I feel the pain, but as the nightmares have gotten more intense. I've been feeling more whole, as the days have gone by I feel more and more like 'The Reaper.' But I also feel more unstable, as if my mind could collapse at any moment.

And occasionally I get images of this blonde haired lady, I have no clue who she is but every time I see her. My mind can't handle it and I blank out, and my memory is usually fuzzy and I'm disorientated for a while after I see her.

I looked at my fork, and my eyes widened as I saw an image of the me in the old world. My body stiffened up and my hands started shaking, my breathing quickened and sweat dripped down my face

"Valier, your hands are shaking. Are you okay?"

Irene looked at me with a face of concern, Iris had already left because she had home work but it seemed like Irene was waiting for me

"I- Sorry, I'm just really tired."

Irene got off her seat and brought herself next to me, she took my cutlery out of my hands, I couldn't resist due to how weak I was feeling right now. Irene cut up the pancakes for me and she stabbed my fork into the pancakes, she then brought a chunk of it up to my face.

"You look terrible, you must be coming down with a fever or something. So let your big sis take care of you, just for today, alright?"

I nodded my head at her words, I truly did feel horrible. For the past week, my body felt like it didn't want to listen to me. It was as if it denied every action I made.

Irene Pendragon POV:

I began feeding my younger brother, yesterday my mother had informed me that he was mistreated by the previous maids. Apparently they drove him to the point of self harm. I had heard that they used anything and everything to harm him. They seemed to enjoy using cutlery to give him non lethal yet painful wounds. So he probably developed a trauma to it.

When I first met him, I didn't care about him too much. Even now, my bond with him isn't anywhere near as close to my bond with Iris. I wanted to ignore him for a while, so although I acted close with him I never bothered to learn about him. I don't think I even know his birthday, or his favourite food. Or anything besides his name.

I think it's because of my perception of his mother that I disliked him. His mother planned on leaking key information to some of our enemies, she planned on doing so with her lover. Thankfully we were able to kill them, they were probably tortured but they deserved it. According to what I heard from a Knight who was there during their torture session, Valier was born from the corpse of his dead mother. When he came out, he was covered in the blood of his mother. Apparently he nearly died from drowning in her blood. Father took him in but one thing led to another and he ended up in a part of the mansion that shouldn't technically exist. That part of the mansion can only be accessed with a certain key, it seems like Valier was placed there and the maids who abused him used that to their advantage.

I dont know the details if I'm being honest, all I know is that he's had it rough. And when I saw him today, I made sure to really look at him. Before I had simply thought of him as the son of a traitor who was unfortunately related to me, but when I looked into those eyes. I saw that there wasn't anything there, he was an empty shell. I almost threw up when I saw that, I felt disgusted at myself.

How could I allow him to end up like that? It's not my fault that he's traumatised, or anything like that. But, how on earth was I able to live with him for this long and not even try to help? I'm a far cry from being a good sister, I can't even call myself a good person.

I looked at Valier, today I was going to make a promise to both him and myself.

"From today onwards, your big sis won't let anything bad happen to you."

I whispered it so quietly that he couldn't heat me, he glanced at me in confusion as he hadn't really understood what I said. I just shook my head and smiled at him.

"It's nothing, just eat up for now, okay?"

As I watched him eat, for some reason, I felt full.