Cassis had tears in his eyes, reminiscing that moment in his childhood when he found out.
There was little to no light in the room.
Curtains covered most of the sunlight from the enormous broken windows leaving only little gaps.
The wailing of a little child echoed.
Little Diana was shaking, curling herself on the cold floor, trembling.
Her pink dress was torn, Cassis couldn't see if it was pulled from the front as she was covering and hiding her face in her legs and arms, but her back was naked as she was whimpering quietly.
"D-don't worry," stuttered Cassis, only two years older than her, "I-I w-will tel-l d-aaad..." He seemed to be stammering a lot when he was young.
Little Diana shook her head in her arms.
Cassis was doing his best to comfort her, but he himself had red bruises all over his face and eye.
"T-then, y-ou wa-aant me, to f-f-f-fight him aa-gain?"
She shook her head again only for her cries to grow louder.
He didn't know what to do and only grew more anxious.
He placed his hand on her bare shoulder.
SLAP!
"NO NO!" Screamed Diana with a maddened look in her eyes, slapping him and punching Cassis who tried to defend himself by covering his face. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" She crawled away, her back against him, throwing whatever she found on the way while still trying to hold the pieces of shattered clothes to hide her body. "NO! NO! AAH! AAHH!" She outcried as she curled herself in a corner far from Cassis who watched her crying, not knowing what to do.
He remained there crying alongside her who was growling and snuffling.
No one came to them.
No one could hear their cries, even when it was happening.
They remained there for a few hours until night fell down.
The both of them were silent, Cassis staring from the window, and Diana at the wall she faced.
Suddenly Cassis' eyes fell on his maid that was screaming, followed by two knights, looking around the garden.
The room they were in was an abandoned castle a distance away from the palace, a place where they usually come to play.
He was overjoyed, that they could finally leave this closed room.
He started screaming, "ARIAA! ARIAA!" Trying to catch the maid's attention.
When he finally did, the three of them started running into the castle.
Cassis turned overjoyed to look at his sister who was spaced out.
"Di-diana! They a--rrre here t-t-to save u-s!"
"Nothing happened..." murmured the little girl.
Cassis approached her a bit because he didn't hear what she said, "Ha?"
"Nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened..." she kept repeating.
"W-wha-at do you-" He wanted to ask.
Suddenly he was met with Diana's cold dead eyes. "Nothing happened, nothing happened, nothing happened..." she spoke louder and louder.
"B-but but-"
Diana suddenly raised her hand.
Cassis' eyes widened as his eyes fell on what she was holding.
"Nothing happened, nothing happened..." She slowly held the bright piece of shattered glass to her neck, raising her head to look at the ceiling.
"NO!" Screamed Cassis as he jumped to hold the sharp object, making him bleed from his hand. "AH!" He screamed but he was still holding it away from her skin.
She suddenly started looking at him.
Cassis was thrown in fear as he met those deadly eyes.
"Did something happen?" She asked him.
"No, no, nothing happened, nothing happened," he started repeating, tears falling from his eyes like waterfalls. His flow of speech seemed to have changed as he was too focused on the pain.
"Nothing happened, nothing happened..." she murmured, "I, miss mother. I miss mother," she lightly repeated with a sweet voice.
He heard deep voices coming from outside the door.
"I do too, I do too." He turned his head to face the door, wanting to scream for them to break into the room hurriedly but he was afraid to startle her.
The door suddenly opened as the knights broke the handle.
The maid's eyes widened at the sight in front of her.
"Help me!" Screamed Cassis quietly.
They hastily took the glass away and separated the two siblings
"What happened?" Asked the maid as she tore her apron, throwing it on the cold Diana.
"I miss mother, nothing happened, I miss mother," kept mumbling the shaking girl.
Cassis bit his teeth hard, he was truly unwilling, he looked at the ground, "She missed mother and had this panic attack, and I tried to stop her."
As a little kid, he was terrified of speaking of the matter again, seeing the huge reaction that his little sister had whenever he asked about the subject he could only lie.
The maid suddenly turned to him, "Your royal highness, your stuttering..." she said baffled.
Cassis' eyes widened by the surprise, but his mind remained on topic. "Please attend to her, and don't you dare speak of this accident." He looked at the sharp glass. "You saw what she is capable of doing. This is an order."
The three of them nodded to him understanding the situation.
Cassis, was really unwilling.
Back then, it had been two months since they saw their father, their only relative.
And after two other months Diana could finally eat properly, but still didn't want to leave her room.
Cassis had his mouth shut about this, only telling his father his lie, which made him attend to his daughter better and care for her more.
Seeing that his sister was doing better he brought up the subject to her once, while they were playing in the garden.
"Sister, about what happened three months ago..."
"What happened?" She asked with a smile while playing with a little butterfly flying around her.
"You know, in the old castle..."
Diana's body suddenly froze, which made Cassis turn pale as he saw her cold expression.
"What happened? Nothing happened. Nothing happened..." She was speaking as if a demon possessed her, repeating the same words again and again.
"N-nothing, nothing happened. Your big brother is just stupid. Don't mind me." He started chuckling, hiding his sweaty expression.
Diana's eyes suddenly regained life, "Stupid brother." She put her tongue out to make fun of him as if she didn't remember him asking her right now. She suddenly picked up a tree branch from the ground. "But don't worry, when sister grows up, she will protect her stupid brother." She was swinging it randomly.
Cassis chuckled while tearing up, "Yes. you will protect this stupid brother of yours." He clenched his teeth enraged, but not showing her this side. If Raist hadn't left as soon as the accident happened a lot of things would have happened differently. but he had disappeared from all sight ever since that day, which gave Cassis another reason to remain quiet about this matter with his father, who was also curious why Raist suddenly vanished.
For all this time he thought Diana was too traumatized to think about it, and that she reproached him that much she never wanted to talk about it and held it all in.
But for all this time, to think her mind unconsciously made her lock that memory far away. It made sense now, why she always looked like she was having a hard time whenever he tried to make her remember.
For all this time, she lived blocking off that memory as if it never happened.
If he knew it was like this he would have never let her meet Raist and he would kill him far away from her.
He thought she was holding it in, so he wanted to let them meet now that she can enjoy the revenge.
But, that wasn't the case.
He was truly stupid, this whole time.
And now he made his sister remember what happened, he made her meet the man that had her live through that hell.
Cassis right now was crying as he was looking at Diana remembering and listening to Raist, afraid, especially after he heard Cayn's words.
'It must have hurt her that much...'
Just as he bit his teeth, threw the glass of wine from his hand, and decided to jump in he was stopped by Cayn, who was watching Diana.
Just as Cassis had enough and was about to scream at him he suddenly heard her voice.
"FUCKER!"
He turned his face in a daze, finding Diana staring fiercely at Raist.
Cassis' eyes widened.