Blood gushed out of Princess Odetta’s mouth, splattering all over her breakfast and the large oak table she and her brothers shared as she clawed desperately at her chest.

Sunlight streamed in through the large windows of the dining hall, bathing the few members of the royal family left alive in warmth.

There was a beat of silence as everyone, including the servants unlucky enough to have their shifts take place at this time, comprehended the situation.

The silence was broken only when Rhylis, the youngest prince of Andalia, shot up and ran around the table to clutch onto Odetta.

“Odette, Odette! Get a doctor!” When he yelled his sister’s name, it set the servants into motion, scrambling to find a palace doctor to treat their one and only princess. As if they always cared for her.

Meanwhile, Odetta’s vision got more and more blurry with each second. Pain erupted throughout her whole body and she could hardly breathe.

“Poi...son…” She slumped into Rhylis’ arms. The world spun round and round, neverending in reminding her of the hell she lived in. She attempted to look up into her brother’s face, noticing only his sky-blue eyes and her reflection in them. Extremely pale and covered in blood, she could only imagine how ghastly she looked to everyone else.

“Odette, it’ll be okay, just hang in there. If it’s really poison, we’ll find an antidote.” Rhylis was nothing but concerned. He had always been the most attentive and caring out of her brothers. Odetta’s heart squeezed at the sight of him, her feelings of confliction ever the more present.

‘Aren’t you… happy that I might die?’

Indeed, although he showed concern for her, Rhylis did not seem to make a huge effort in getting help for her. But then again, what could he do except wait for the palace’s doctor to come and inspect her? Only Odetta, to her knowledge, was aware of Rhylis’ secret hobby, and it’s not like he could just show it to everyone here. The palace, where all the servants and court nobles resided in, was where gossip spread like wildfire.

“Tsk, now I’ve lost my appetite.” Danell, who had sat beside Odetta on the dining table, set down his silverware and took out a handkerchief to wipe away the tiny drop of blood from his hand. He was the first prince of Andalia who had ceded his rights to the throne long ago, pledging his loyalty solely towards their eldest brother and king. Besides that, he never cared about anything else except burying his head in his studies. It was rare for him to ever join them for breakfast, so Odetta felt sorry to have ruined it for him.

How laughable. Danell never spared Odetta even a glance, but here she was, worried about making him uncomfortable.

However, no matter how scholarly Danell seemed, he was still a long-time Valdnrosa prince unlike Odetta.

And a prince like him was more than used to the sight of blood and violence.

“You never know when to shut up, do you?” Rhylis snarled at Danell.

There was a glint in Danell’s eyes as he regarded Rhylis and Odetta with otherwise utter disinterest. “Only a spoiled brat like you knows how to speak so crudely. Perhaps it’s a good thing His Majesty isn’t here today.”

Ah… they’re bickering even like this. Odetta should have expected her brothers to act like this. It seems she was the only one who truly thought of them as family, but of course, the Valdnrosas were no ordinary family.

When Rhylis opened his mouth to retort against Danell, he felt Odetta slowly tear herself away from his arms.

Her eyes were blue, such is a common trait of the royal family, and they were a shade of blue as deep as a lake. Paired with her ivory skin and her raven black hair so rare in this country, it was no wonder how she was nicknamed ‘Sired From the Foam of Ocean Waves.’ The few servants who had stayed behind in the dining room during the whole fiasco were stunned by how Princess Odetta remained beautiful even when she was ghostly pale and skinny to the point of her bones being in danger from jutting out of her skin. A red stream continued dripping down her chin and beyond, ruining the front of her white dress.

‘That beauty is wasted on her…’

That’s what the palace’s servants and the nobles that bothered to look at Princess Odetta mostly thought. They would never support a princess confirmed to have a slave as a mother.

“Rhylis, Danell,” she addressed the two of them so serenely that she managed to capture their sole attention. With the little strength she had left within her, she grinned, revealing her teeth stained in red.

Their grimaces were so similar it wasn’t hard at all to see them as brothers.

“If I die, just know that I love both of you and Casrian sooooo much!”

She then closed her eyes and promptly fell forward back into Rhylis’ embrace, completely limp. It was then that the palace doctor arrived. After doing a quick inspection on the princess, he advised the servants to carry the princess back to her bedroom after getting the go-ahead from Rhylis. She was practically dragged out.

After Odetta was gone, Rhylis and Danell were the only two left in the dining room. Neither of them bothered to eat their food again, not when one of the plates was covered in blood.

Danell sighed, placing his hands on the table and pushing off his seat, careful not to touch where the blood was on the table’s surface.

“She’s as simple as always. If she managed to hold out that long after consuming poison, she’ll be fine,” Danell said, tucking his handkerchief back into his pocket and moving to leave the dining room. Most likely he would go back to his study and bury his face in books and work, never to come out for a couple of days at least.

Rhylis side-eyed him. “This is the most I’ve heard you speak in a long time. I didn’t know you cared about our sister that much.”

“Ha.” Was that supposed to be a jab at Danell? It was true though, he didn’t really care about his two younger siblings. He wouldn’t even say that he loved his older brother, Casrian. They all simply were offered different levels of respect from him. He only put up with them because he had to, in the end.

Just as Danell was about to leave, the doors to the dining room burst open. In came a small parade of palace guards and servants, and in the center of them…

Rhylis narrowed his eyes, stiffening visibly.