He Did Exactly What They Said

The royal physicians fussed around me for the entire night before the wound on my throat finally stopped bleeding.

Seeing the king's and queen's ashen faces, Cedric Ainsley could no longer keep pretending to be sick.

"Your Majesties, this has nothing to do with me. I don't know why Elias suddenly hurt himself..."

He hurried to distance himself, so anxious he nearly dropped to his knees.

When my elder sister, Helena Ainsley, saw that, she grabbed him and pulled him firmly behind her.

"Father, Mother, don't let Elias fool you! This is obviously a sympathy ploy!

"He deliberately used a rusty blade on his own neck because he knew he could still be saved, didn't he?"

Seeing my parents' expressions loosen, she decisively dragged me straight out of bed and threw a sharp dagger in front of me.

"Elias, you might be able to trick Father and Mother with this attention-seeking act, but you can't trick me!

"Don't you love threatening to die? Fine. I'll give you the chance right now!

"Use this dagger and drive it straight through your throat. That would be a real certain death. Not even God could save you then..."

She had thrown me so hard my vision went black. By the time I recovered, those were the words I heard.

I looked up at the transparent panel floating in the air.

It was already at 99. Only one more time remained.

Thinking that, I clenched the dagger in my hand. "All right, Helena. I'll do exactly what you say."

Then I pressed the tip of the dagger to my throat and stabbed down hard.

The entire family looked over at the sound, and their souls nearly left their bodies.

Father and Mother screamed and lunged forward, coaxing and pleading for a long time before they finally pried the dagger from my hand.

Helena still wanted to say something, but the moment she opened her mouth, Father cut her off with a sharp slap.

"Enough! What kind of person would use a method like this just to get attention? Look at what you have driven Elias into!"

Cedric's eyes widened in disbelief.

Helena's expression grew even darker. She stepped forward and grabbed my collar again.

"Elias, if you dare upset Cedric today, you'd better think carefully about how you're going to apologize to him. Otherwise, I won't let you off."

She would not let me off.

Those words slammed into me so hard my whole body shuddered and my face drained white.

Deep in my memory, bitter laughter and the agony of breaking bones surged up like a tide.

I fought to suppress my trembling and forced myself to reach out.

"Cedric, I'm sorry..."

Before I finished speaking, two streams of blood slid without warning from the corners of my mouth.

Cedric backed away as if he had seen a ghost, but I crawled after him and clung tightly to him.

I swallowed the taste of blood in my throat and spoke in broken gasps.

"I'm sorry, Cedric. This is all my fault. I'll apologize to you right now."

They had not yet realized what I meant to do.

I had already dragged myself to the window, pushed it open, and hurled myself out under everyone's horrified stares.

For one instant, the world went silent.

Then a shrill scream tore through the air.

"Elias!"

Wind roared past my ears, and the cries behind me grew farther and farther away.

I fixed my eyes on the transparent panel in the air until the numbers on it blurred.

This time, I could finally go home.