Side Story 1

Chapter 210

Side Story 1

The Agrece Children

July 16th.

I’ve decided to start keeping a journal as of today.

My mom’s pretty much forcing me to because she thinks picture journals are good for kids my age, but I know it’s because of Achille.

Since I was born, Achille has been secretly studying books about childcare that he somehow managed to smuggle in from somewhere. I don’t think he knows that both Mother and I already know about it, despite his efforts to hide them.

Achille’s my brother and he’s already eleven years old.

My name is Roxana Agrece. I feel like I’ve been alive for an eternity, but I’m only seven.

Our mother’s name is Sierra Colonis, and she’s the most beautiful woman in the world. I haven’t seen much of our father at all, so I’ll skip him for now. To be honest, there’s a chance that either Mother or Achille will read this someday. They promised that they wouldn’t behind my back, but who knows... If anyone besides Mother or Achille is reading this, don’t think I don’t know. I am watching you.

July 20th.

I am suspicious of our chef.

I think I ate some food that went bad because I’ve had a tummy ache for the past few days. Maybe it’s food poisoning, or I ate too many snacks... But even the cake I had today seemed off.

If it happens again tomorrow, I’ll tell Mother about it.

July 21st.

Deon Agrece is such a dung beetle!

Yet again, he threw away the candy Achille gave him. This was the second time. I thought maybe he had dropped it by mistake the first time, but I was wrong.

When I went up to him and asked why he kept throwing away my brother’s candy, he had the nerve to tell me that no one needs a reason to throw out trash. Then he basically blew me off while I stood there in shock.

I know I’m not supposed to get mad at the other kids, but he makes me so angry! Now I’m just mad at myself for not telling him off when I had the chance. That punk really needs to get taught a lesson.

July 22nd.

Achille is such a sweet pushover.

When I woke up this morning, I found flowers and a big basket of candies wrapped in ribbons by my bed. At first, I wondered why Santa would come visit in the middle of the summer, but it turned out it was just Achille. He probably felt bad after I told him about what happened between me and Deon yesterday.

I yelled at him and said to bring all the candy he was planning to give to Deon to me instead, but I guess he thought I was just throwing a tantrum because I wanted some from him as well. I couldn’t believe he misunderstood me like that.

Still, I pretended to feel better as we ate some together.

July 25th.

I met Maria today.

Maria is one of the many wives in the mansion and is also Deon’s mother. She seems to really like my mother, but I don’t think Mother feels the same way. But I’m not surprised since Mother isn’t very outgoing.

Maria is nice to all the kids. She always pampers Achille and me whenever she sees us. It’s actually a bit too much sometimes. Maybe that’s why Deon acts so spoiled...

She asked if I wanted to play dolls with her, so I told her I’d think about it.

July 29th.

The Black mansion is so huge!

All the wives and children live in the east wing, but even this area has so many sections that we hardly see each other. Mother, Achille, and I live in sector 3. It’s hard to believe, but I still haven’t managed to see the entire mansion.

The main reason is that Mother never lets me wander off by myself. She says there are many dangers. So now my new hobby is sneaking around whenever I don’t have lessons. There are still so many places I haven’t even seen within the east wing. That’s why I thought of visiting Maria in sector 1. Her door was slightly open when I went there, so I could hear some voices making a fuss inside. I decided to take a closer look, but I never should have done that.

Seriously... I never should have peeked through that door!

* * *

This story takes place during Roxana’s childhood when she was still unaware of her rebirth inside of a novel.

* * *

“I don’t wanna eat this!”

I scowled at the snack on the table. The cake that was placed on a circular plate looked normal, but its flavor was not. At first, I thought the snacks had simply gone bad. But I soon learned that they had some sort of medicine inside them for us kids.

Why couldn’t they just give us the medicine separately so I could enjoy my cake?! Anyone who messes with yummy food should be punished!

“Can I please just not eat it today, Mother?”

“But you must, my sweet Xana.” My mother looked like she was in a bind when I rejected the snack.

Achille tried to convince me as well. “She’s right, Xana. If you don’t eat it today, it’ll taste even worse tomorrow.”

“Shall I put some honey or jam on top of it for you, dear?”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to eat it just because it didn’t taste good. The way they were trying so hard to make me eat it was just making me angrier. But I still had the mind of a rather intelligent adult, so there was no way I wanted to act like some spoiled brat who didn’t want to eat her vegetables.

“But my stomach gets bloated and hurts whenever I eat these snacks. I couldn’t sleep well last night because of it.”

It was a petty move, but I pretended to tear up. Years of experience had taught me that in these situations, it was better to make them feel pity rather than to throw a tantrum. And just like that, my sweet mother and Achille looked at me empathetically.

“Oh, dear... Does it hurt a lot?”

“Yes!” I nodded up and down at them. They were about to fall for it, but my mother surprisingly refused to tell me that I wouldn’t need to finish the snack until the very end.

“Then why don’t you and I share this one today?”

“But, Mother...” Achille flinched after she spoke.

I was about to get suspicious when she patted both of our heads reassuringly.

“One day should be fine. Here, let me take your half. Yours too, Achille.”

“N-No... I-I’m fine.”

“No, no. You’ve had a fever since this morning as well, so give it here.”

Mother took half of Achille’s cake along with half of mine. He seemed a bit nervous as he watched her do that. As she started to put a piece of the cake into her mouth, he reached for her plate as if he couldn’t stand to watch her eat it.

“No, really... I’m fine! I’ll just eat all of mine.”

“Achille.”

Before she could stop him, he had already taken back his half of the cake. And when Mother tried to take it back, he gobbled it up. He didn’t even notice that his lips were covered in cream.

“Me too! I wanna eat mine too, Mother.”

Even in my past life, I was quick to catch on. Thus, I followed my brother’s lead and shoveled a huge chunk of the cake into my mouth. He finally appeared relieved once our mother’s plate was empty again. She, however, appeared slightly taken aback by our behavior.

“But I said I wanted to eat them for you two...”

“Well, the way you and Achille were eating it made it look tasty.”

“Exactly! Besides, it’s our cake. We should eat it by ourselves.”

We made childish excuses and continued to devour the bloody cake that was left on our own plates.

* * *

“Xana, about our snacks. We can’t let Mother eat them,” Achille whispered in my ear while we were washing up after our snack. “The medicine inside is good for us kids, but not for the adults. If Mother tries to eat it for you like she did today, you absolutely can’t let her.”

My eyes narrowed as I stared at him.

“But... on days when you really don’t want to eat it, I’ll eat your share as well, okay? I can’t do it too much, but sometimes.”

“Then how often is ‘sometimes’?”

“Um... Maybe once or twice a month. But don’t tell anyone else. Not even Mother.”

There were times that I felt as if something was seriously wrong, but I couldn’t seem to pinpoint exactly what it was.

“Achille, do you know what sort of medicine they put in our snacks?”

He looked like he was struggling to find the right answer.

“Come on, just tell me.” I tried to nag him, but all he did was pat my head and give me some vague response.

“You’ll know when you’re older.”

Sheesh, he was always treating me like a kid! I clenched my fist and then punched him in the gut.

“Ow, ow, ouch! Easy, Xana! That hurts!” he said with a grunt.

I didn’t put that much force into my punch, but he was whining about a seven-year-old’s punch hurting. Still, the face he made as he grabbed his stomach made me stop for a moment.

Maybe I had punched him a little too hard... He had always been a weakling, so maybe it hurt him more than I realized. I asked hesitantly, “Are you... really hurt?”

“Uh-huh... I think I’ll only feel better if I get a little kiss from you, Xana.”

The way he lifted his head and giggled told me right away that he was joking. I decided to let him taste the fury of my punch once more.

“Ow, ow! Okay, that one actually hurt!”

“You want me to hit you again? I’m really going to put some force into this one.”

“Hehe! All right, let’s practice together today!”

Before I knew it, he had lifted me off my feet with a big smile and not an ounce of pain in his expression.

“Careful, children! Make sure you don’t trip!”

“Yes, Mother!”

I could hear her giggling behind us. Achille continued to laugh as he carried me all the way to my room.