Early in the morning, when the sun had just rose above the horizon, Victoria snapped open her eyes. She turned her head left and right, huffing and puffing, rubbing her eyes and pausing upon contact with the bandages wrapped around her head.
"Oh, right." She muttered, sitting up on the bed. Victoria unwrapped the bandages, exposing her blue eyes to the air. She blinked and looked out the window, unable to see the beautiful view outside, there was only darkness. Victoria went silent, the reality of her future settling within. Head hanging low, she hugged her knees and leaned her head against them. Voice weak and trembling, she revealed the voice inside, "…I was prepared for this, but I didn't know it would be this tough."
*Sniff*, Victoria raised her head and wiped her tears. "No, I won't be defeated by this. I chose this path and I'll continue to walk on it. Even if it's a path to hell."
Victoria wrapped the bandages around her eyes once more. "CAIN!" She called out.
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in."
The door slid open and the guard that stood between Victoria's and Albert's rooms appeared. "Milady, Cain is not here at the moment, would you like me to call him?"
"Yes, please. Tell him to come ASAP."
"Understood." The guard closed the door and called Cain on the phone, telling him to come as soon as possible.
A little while later, Cain walked into the room, "You called for me, Milady?"
"Where did you go, Cain?" Victoria's voice was flat and cold. "You're supposed to be my bodyguard."
"Apologies, Milady." Cain quickly expressed. "I was eating breakfast."
"Breakfast? What kind of bodyguard just leaves their, uh, what do you call a person a bodyguard guards?" Victoria's anger fizzled out and with little shame, she asked.
"Pft-Ahahahaha, what's with that?! They're called…uh, what're they called again?"
"You don't even know!" Victoria threw her pillow at Cain's general direction.
Cain leaped forward to catch the pillow and smiled. "Anyways, what'd you call me for, milady?"
Arms crossed, Victoria answered him. "I want to brush my teeth, help me see."
Cain nodded and activated his ability. He escorted her off the bed and into the bathroom in her room. Victoria, with the help of the observing Cain, quickly freshened up. "Let's eat breakfast with Albert. I'm craving bread and soup today so tell the chefs."
"Understood." Cain nodded, slightly drooling despite having just eaten breakfast. He couldn't help it, the chefs that Victoria spoke of were first class chefs, their food was simply delightful. Without a moment's delay, he very quickly relayed the order to them, deliberately over ordering, telling them to make six servings so that he could eat the leftovers with Albert's bodyguard too.
"Okay, let's go." Arriving in front of Albert's hospital room, Victoria opened the door with so much force that it hit the wall, slid back, closed and bounced open again. She didn't seem to mind her act of brute force and had an excited smile on her face. Behind her, Cain simply sighed and shook his head.
In the next second, Victoria's smile turned stiff. Cain, too, froze. In his eyes, he saw a beautiful doctor dressed in a white gown, golden locks draped across her shoulders and a faint smile hanging on her lips. The doctor had her hand on Albert's bare chest, her healthy hands a stark contrast to his unhealthy pale skin.
"My, good morning." Cynthia removed her hand from Albert's chest and greeted the two that had very loudly made their presence known. "Are you two here to visit Albert?"
Victoria swiftly changed from that barbaric young miss to her alternate persona, angelic Victoria. "Yes. I'm here to invite him to eat in the garden. I thought that he'll feel stuffy staying indoors for so long. May I ask if you are a doctor?"
Cynthia glanced down at her badge and then back at Victoria and her bandages. "Yes. I'm a healer. I'm here to remove his scars and check to see if he had fully healed."
"Wow, a healer? You have such a splendid ability, it must be tough healing people everyday." Victoria praised. Just then, Victoria saw Cain's gaze shift from Cynthia to the Albert beside her. His somewhat expressionless face showed an obvious look of cringe.
"No, no, you give me too much praised. Truthfully, I just enjoy healing people, seeing them writhe, cough, seeing people get better makes me happy and makes it all the more worth it." Cynthia smiled, a black aura emitting from her.
Victoria just smiled. "Oh, I shouldn't bother you anymore. I leave my little brother in your hands."
"Oh, yes. Leave it to me!" Cynthia placed her cold hands back on Albert's chest. He slightly flinched but didn't have time to get used to it when the familiar warm light enveloped his various scars. The hateful itch returned, though not as bad as the first, it was still rather unbearable. Albert grit his teeth and clenched his fists, his face scrunched up as if he was constipated.
Victoria faintly chuckled, greatly enjoying the scene as if she was watching a movie.
"There, all done, you're good as new now." Cynthia pat Albert's hair and announced.
"Uh, there's a spot you missed." Cain pointed out. Indeed, Albert's skin wasn't spotless yet. There was a little red mark on the side of his ribs shaped vaguely like a rabbit.
"Oh, that? It looks like a branding but its actually just a birthmark. I can't get rid of it."
"Thanks for the hard work, doctor. You must be tired now." Victoria expressed.
Cynthia shook her head. "I'm fine. All I have to do is drink some coffee and my ability will have recovered."
"Then, we won't keep you from recovering. Thank you, doctor."
"No problem. Goodbye."
After Cynthia left, Victoria plopped down on Albert's bed. "Get ready, Albert. We're going out to eat."
Albert nodded, getting out from under his covers and quickly brushed his teeth. "I'm done."
"Great! Let's go." Victoria extended her hand and Cain received it, escorting her outside. "After we finish eating, we're going to go home, alright?" She informed without looking back and left.
Albert nodded despite knowing that she wasn't looking. He followed behind the two, constantly maintaining a distance of three feet between them like a duckling following a mother duck until they arrived at the garden.
At one of the picnic tables, a red and white checkered cloth was placed over the wood. Two people dressed in black and white busied themselves, placing a basket of freshly baked bread in the middle of the table.
Victoria sat down on the bench and a bowl of soup was placed in front of her. Cain stood behind her, gulping at the smell of delicious soup.
"Come on, sit here, Albert." Victoria pat beside her. Albert nodded and sat down next to her.
"Cain, stand there beside the others." Victoria commanded. "I can't see myself eat."
"Yes, Milady." Cain obliged, knowing that his gluttony had been exposed. He obediently went to stand beside the staff and their tray of covered food.
"Let's eat." Victoria smiled and grabbed her spoon after a few tries. She blew on the soup, eating it with relish. "Mmm~ good as always."
Albert observed and copied. He took a sip, surprised by how aromatic and deep the flavour was. Without even waiting for it to cool down, he directly picked up the bowl and one shotted it! The very next second, he regretted his actions. Now he had no more to soup to drink.
Hungry, Albert reached out for the bread. He bit into it, mouth filling up with the taste of fresh bread. Munching and demolishing the roll, tears welled up in Albert's eyes. How long had it been since he had fresh bread, he wondered. He didn't remember but it felt like forever since he last had good warm food.
"Eat slower." Victoria scolded. "You won't be able to taste it properly if you rush through it."
"Un." Albert answered through his tears.
"Here, sir, please have some soup." The catering staff refilled Albert's bowl and respectfully handed it over to him. Albert thanked them with a nod and blew on it, properly savouring it this time.
"If you eat it with bread, it'll taste better you know?" Cain advised, staring enviously at the food.
Albert did as advised and tore a piece of the bread, dipping it into the soup and throwing it into his mouth. The deep taste of the soup mixed together with the fragrance of the bread was an unbeatable combo! Albert was impressed, he continued to eat, eat and eat. Before he knew it, the basket of bread was already empty and the huge pot of soup was nearing its end too.
"*Sniff*, he, he has a big appetite..." Cain cried, seeing the last bowl of the soup of his dreams get served to the insatiable monster. Albert alone had eaten five servings! No matter how starved he was, how was it possible to ingest so much in one setting? Where did it all go?
Only after finishing his food did the shame catch up to Albert. "S-sorry, I ate it all."
"That's not a problem but how are you still so skinny after eating so much?" Victoria exclaimed with disbelief.
"My ability requires me to eat a lot so I presume I had been using my ability more than I have been eating prior to this, thus, I had been constantly hungry and without meaning to...ate all the food." Albert reported.
"What do you mean presume? You should know by now how much food your ability consumes and how much food you need to eat to make up for it. Especially when you're all skin and bones now." Victoria scolded with a humph.
"I have no recollection of the past, my most recent memory is of waking up in the hospital."
"...That's yesterday!" It took her awhile but Victoria retorted splendidly. "Why didn't you tell anyone you lost your memory?"
"...You didn't ask."
Taking in a deep breath, Victoria calmed herself down. She then faced Albert with a smile and spoke, "For concealing such important information from your elder sister, don't you think you deserve to be punished?"
'Punished?' Albert started to tremble.
"Ten push ups! Now!" Commander Victoria commanded.
Albert who had been bracing himself for an impact was stupefied.
"What are you sitting around for? Twenty push ups!"
Still dazed, Albert did as he was told, getting down on the grass and positioning himself to do the pushups. Only...he couldn't. Every attempt to slightly lower himself just resulted in him falling face first on the grass. After twenty tries, Albert got up. "I...huff...did...huff...twenty...huff...push...ups..."
"Hahahahaha! Those aren't pushups!" Cain burst into laughter. "Oh dear lord, are you trying to kill me with laughter?"
'Father, was I in the wrong for believing he could be a great villain?' Victoria sighed.