Chapter Nine

Special mass release of Easter Day!

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"WHAT? DID THEY STARVED YOU FOR A WHOLE MONTH? How dare they do this to my daughter?" Dad yelled, shocked, and got up.

Fuck. Look at what I have done. I need to control my mouth or I'm going to get in trouble.

"No, dad. Don't worry. No one dared to starve me. None of them have such an obvious death wish," he sat down again, still confused. "I was just thinking out loud. I didn't starve, I just felt like that because I woke up so hungry." He sighed.

Val stared at me as if he didn't believe a word I said and knew I was lying. "For Mikla's sake, Tasha, don't scare me like that! I can't even imagine what I would do if anyone dared to harm or starve any of my children," I sided-looked at my mother, and she gazed back at me arrogantly, but I could see how she gulped at my father's words.

And again, Val noticed that too. Although he didn't say a word about it. "What kind of dream did you have that made you wake up so hungry, Tasha?" Ha, you don't want to know that.

"I starved for about a month," I spoke calmly and then I laughed at the end, finding this situation I'm in surprisingly funny. "And tortured for just as long," I waited until Dalilah and Octavian had put some food on their mouths, and then I continued. "Oh, I was also dismembered," and just as expected, both of the gasped.

"Natasha Mary-Anne Ludwick Nicholai!" My mom yelled. "How dare you say such disgusting words in front of your younger siblings while they are eating?!" Excuse me?

"No offense, mom, but Octavian is two years older than me. Moreover, as the offspring's of the Captain of the Imperial Knights and as members of the Royal House responsible for the Knights and war matters in the Caspien Empire, we should all be used to subjects like this, because at some point in our life we will all have to kill someone, so we need to have a strong stomach to deal with all of that. Furthermore, I was just answering with all honesty a question dad made to me. So, I don't see how my words might have been disgusting. Perhaps it's your judgment and you are the one who doesn't like to hear what I am saying? If that's the case, then I apologize to you, mother!" Then I added an innocent smile that fooled my dad, but only him.

Val burst into laughter and both mother, Dalilah, and the octopus stared at Val wishing that they could kill him right now. "Sorry…" if I didn't knew him the way I do, I might have believed that.

"There's no reason to scold our daughter, Cleo," as if she considered me her daughter. You are too naïve, dad, little do you know that she's is the one who harms me the most at this point in time. "Just as she said, I am the one who asked what she had dreamed about," his attention focused on me and he seemed a little bit worried. "By what you've said, I believe it was a nightmare."

"Indeed," I looked away, gazing back to my food and then I got back to eating. "I need to thank Yoostaf for this food. It's amazing," I said more to myself than to any of them.

"What else happened in your nightmare, Natasha?" I swallowed my food hard, suddenly disgusted by the octopus's voice. "I'm curious!"

After finishing what I had in my mouth and taking a deep breath, I let the smirk take over my lips and turned my gaze at him. "I don't think you really want to know that, octopus… I mean, Octavian," Val gasped and our brother's face got red with anger.

"Tell us," mom insisted, with her poison almost dripping from her mouth.

"Yes. Tell me!" Octavian insisted with an arrogance impossible to go unnoticed. "What happened?"

"You got murdered, dear brother, and let me tell you, it was very brutally," both mom and dad yelled this time.

"Natasha!"

"What?" I asked feinging innocence. "I told you he wouldn't like what I was going to say, didn't I?" I turned to mother, "You insisted that I spoke about it. I did as you asked. Why are you scolding me?"

Mom's white skin got redder than the eyes of the executioner, and thanks to her straight waist-length blonde hair, even the core of her head could be seen red. And her navy-blue eyes were full of anger, but dad held her hand, "You are right again, Tasha. Sorry for scolding you, it's just that it was unexpected and very unpleasant to imagine your brother being killed as you said." I don't want to imagine how would dad react if he knew that I was his dear son's murderer.

Or that I was his killer either.

"Let's change the subject?" Val suggested and our father agreed, tho both mother, Dalilah and Octavian were still staring at me.

"Who killed me in your dream?" Octavian asked angry and while dad scolded him for insisting in talking about it, I stared at him with a pretentious smile and moved my lips to form the soundless words 'I did!', and delighted myself seeing he turn pale.

Just like I am a female version of our dad, he is the male version of our mom, while Dalilah and Val are a fusion of both. So it was like seeing mom turn pale, which made it even more satisfying.

"It was you?" He yelled, ignoring dad's scolding and I got into the role of innocent and pure sister.

"How can you ever suggest something like that, brother? You may hate me for being born without magic, but I don't hate you back. I would never do anything like that to you! It hurts in my heart that you think I would ever dare to kill you," thank Goddess I got used to acting up, so it was easy to make my eues watery.

Dad slapped his hand on the table, catching everybody's attention and he seemed even more angry, "Octavian! How dare you ever suggest such nonsense? Natasha is your younger sister, she would never harm you," not only harm, as I would murder him right now if I could. "I don't want to hear a word about Tasha's nightmare in this manor anymore!" All my family but me, stared at my dad startled, while I focused my attention back on my food.

I need to go to that place to invest all the money I have in the secret box in my chambers, and buy the jewel for my protection and Val's. Plus my allies and future ones. Then I'll also have to find a way to go to the Mage's Tower, to create a investor bank account in the International Bank managed by Caihong K'hir, the vice-leader of the territory.