When The Villain Can't Communicate

act i - ch6: something strange, something new

I'M ALIVE HI HI!! :DD

Yes I didn't update since July last year but easy reason, of course, was due to schoolwork and my mental health and irl issues <3

I'm doing a lot better after lotsa distractions, so I can write again!! YIPEEE!!!! But not as much tho, because I still have a lot of stuff to do :'D

No clear update schedule, but I have a feeling it might be,,, twice a month? It really depends on motivation (and hopefully not get writer's block) but for now, my goal will be to at least try to post twice this month :3

Uhhh...I think that's all I can say. Idk man my mind's blanking. I can draw better?? hhh

Happy reading!! :D

•••

Denise paused on writing her report, honey eyes staring down at the rest of the empty blank space. She pursed her lips into a thin line, flicking the feather attached on the quill against the edge of the clipboard. She sighed, dropping it on her desk and massaged her temples as if soothing the headache that wasn't there but on the verge of developing.

It's been a day since she had last visited Kazaru—or Choyoung, now, to respect both him and the deceased prince's of their identities instead of replacing them with who was who, and she had to admit, she had grown quite fond of him in the few hours or less observing and conversing with him.

As someone who had lived for so long, Choyoung was terrible at hiding what he felt. He wore his heart not only in his sleeve, but his eyes. Too honest no matter how hard he tried to mask it, to hide the fear and wonder in those familiar and unfamiliar rosette orbs. That alone told her what kind of life he lived. She didn't even have to use her magic to see whether he was lying or not.

(That's a lie, she did use her magic beforehand, just in case. It was not a crime to be cautious now, was it?)

She sighed through her nose, massaging the bridge of her nose. It wasn't exactly gut instinct that Kazaru was no longer the same boy—it was merely from the fact that he shouldn't be alive after five minutes of his heart not beating. With no other attempt at keeping his heart alive, he was dead before she arrived.

Denise almost told them. That he had died, died drowning in the cold water alone as his attendants watched frozen in place. She may not have been close to the little prince but that was a child they neglected. A child who didn't ask for the life they were given. Denise was old; she was considered old in human standards, and children were irreplaceable. They were the next generation and despite what her fellow immortals thought otherwise, she would've gathered every children in the world to keep them happy, fed, and sheltered instead of being thrown around and tossed in battles that had nothing to do with them except petty disagreements from the adults who were supposed to take care of them.

But she refrained. She felt petty herself and waited to deliver the truth after—see the looks on their faces that they failed to protect the one person, the one child, they vowed to follow to the ends of the world because of their insecurities. Denise was going to spite them, how an assassin, a mercenary, and one knight, all three sharing history of having people turn their backs on them for being different, would dare to do the same to the boy who needed their comfort and reassurance the most.

They angered her, but she was also angry at herself for not being able to do more other than being the only doctor who would tend to the prince without judgment (she did have a reason, being the doctor of all of Euclair with multiple hospitals she led and personally saw to train new personnel—but still). She heard the gossip, of how Kazaru was being...difficult. She had a good guess that his worth was being questioned by himself, of hearing how his peers didn't appreciate him in school to the point where he had to beg his aides to tell the king that he would rather study in his room. He slowly stopped visiting the Glace palace, stopped making trouble for the staff who worked there because they didn't like his mere existence. He would usually cause mischief because he was just a small, naïve child who wanted attention, not understanding why adults tasked to look after him wouldn't smile at him, not realizing that doing so only caused those people to despise him more.