(POV: Otos Exemplar )
Otos: Age 16 | Vanitas: Age 7 | Aretia & Justitia: Age 10
In the luxurious sitting room, I stood before my mother, Superia, with a straight back.
"Mama... you must stop what you are doing to Vanitas."
She stopped flipping through her book and looked at me in surprise. "What am I doing to him?"
"You are suffocating him," I said it clearly. "You don't leave him any room to breathe. You make the maids follow him like his shadow in every corner. This affects him deeply, makes him isolate himself even more."
Superia fell silent. She looked at the studded gold watch circling her wrist, then sighed slowly.
"You are right..." she whispered with a slightly shaken voice. "Perhaps... perhaps I have suffocated him. I will try to lessen the guard on him."
I smiled. "Thank you, Mama."
"You are welcome, my son."
"Brother... brother!"
Justitia tugged at the edge of my shirt in fear, pointing with her trembling hand. "Mama is crying... over there."
I sighed and hurried toward the hallway.
My mother, Superia, was sitting on the luxurious sofa, burying her face in her hands and crying hysterically, while the maids stood around her in bewilderment.
"What is it, Mama?" I sat beside her and placed my hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong? Calm down."
She lifted her flushed face. "Vanitas... Vanitas has run away from the Academy! I don't know where he is, he hasn't come back for hours. The Academy administration says they thought he got in the family carriage!" She gasped and struck her chest. "This is why I told you someone must watch him always! But you kept saying let him rely on himself!"
"Alright, calm down," I said in a firm voice, trying to control her crying. "Surely he hasn't gone far. Wait here."
I stood up and went to the family's antique brass communication device. I dialed the rotary, and called the home of Vanitas's only friend.
"Hello... apologies for the intrusion." I maintained my calm, aristocratic tone. "Have you seen Vanitas?"
The reply came from the child's mother confirming his presence.
"Yes? He is at your home? Great... we will come to pick him up immediately. Thank you. Goodbye."
I hung up, and turned to my mother who was waiting fearfully.
"He is at his friend's house. It seems he told their family that we agreed to him going there." I said as I put on my coat: "I will go get him."
"Thank you for your hospitality. Well then, goodbye."
I bowed politely to the child's mother, then grabbed Vanitas's hand tightly, and dragged him with me into the carriage.
As soon as the door closed and the horses moved, I looked at him sharply. He was staring at the floor of the carriage, silent.
"Why didn't you tell anyone you were going to your friend's house?" I asked him with a brotherly scolding tone. "Do you know how scared Mama was?"
His eyes began to fill with tears, then he burst out crying. "But... Mama would have said no! And if she said yes, she would have come with me!"
He wiped his tears fiercely with the sleeve of his luxurious shirt. "Why don't you leave me alone? No one goes to their friends' with their mother!"
I exhaled in annoyance and rubbed my temples. "Sigh... you are in big trouble, Vanitas."
"What do you know, brother?!" he screamed in my face, crying. "No one asks you where you are going!"
"You are still a child, and I am an adult," I replied coldly.
"When you were my age, did you go to your friends' with Mama?!"
He continued crying and sobbing, trying to hide in his corner. I did not answer. I looked out the window at the city streets, and felt an invisible weight pressing on my chest.
We arrived at the palace.
As soon as I opened the carriage door, my mother ran toward Vanitas, fell to her knees, and hugged him tightly.
"Vanitas! Are you okay, my darling?"
Vanitas didn't reply. He remained silent in her suffocating embrace.
I stood watching the scene, when my eyes met my father's. Motus was standing on the steps of the marble staircase, looking at Superia with a gaze full of contempt.
"You should punish him, not hug him," my father said in a voice dry as stone.
My mother turned to him like a wounded lioness. "Don't tell me how to raise my son!"
My father straightened his posture, and began descending the stairs slowly and threateningly, while my mother stood defensively. The tension in the air was enough to ignite a fire.
I felt a slight tug on my trousers. I turned to see Justitia hiding behind me, looking in fear.
"Otos..." Justitia whispered. "Is Vanitas okay? Did something happen to him?"
I drew a warm, fake smile on my face, and bent down to her level. "No, nothing happened to him. He is completely fine."
Weeks passed.
I was in the back garden. The air was cutting my lungs. My wooden sword struck left and right with force. I trained fiercely, trying to empty the pressure residing in my head. I dodged an imaginary opponent, and tightened my grip on the hilt.
"Why do you always train in the garden alone, and not in the training grounds with the knights?"
I stopped. My father was watching me.
"Here... I feel more comfortable, Father," I answered, panting.
He nodded condescendingly. "As you say. But... you still have the habit of gripping the sword too tightly. Your grip is tense. You must solve this problem as soon as possible, you are in the most important period of your life. Tension will kill you in a real battle. Loosen it."
"Yes, sir." I loosened my trembling grip slightly.
Suddenly, the training was cut short by the voice of a maid running toward us, panic on her face.
"Young Master! Sir!"
"What is it?" I turned to her.
"Vanitas... he has run away from home again!"
My father took a step forward, his face boiling with anger. "He repeated his escape?! Which time is this this week? How does he even escape from a constantly guarded and highly monitored palace?!"
The maid trembled and bowed until she almost touched the ground. "I apologize, sir... it is our fault. The knights have gone to search for him now... they will find him as soon as possible."
At the main gate, two hours later.
The knights entered, and Vanitas walked among them. His face was dirtied with soil, and his eyes were looking at the ground.
The whole family was standing in the hall: my mother, my father, and I. Justitia was hiding behind my coat as usual, and Aretia was looking from afar.
"We apologize, sir," the captain of the knights said, bowing his head. "This is our fault."
My father waved his hand angrily to silence the knight. He advanced with heavy steps toward Vanitas.
My father did not say a single word. He raised his hand.
SMACK!
A very powerful slap, echoing through the entire palace. Vanitas's head flew to the side, and he fell to the floor.
Everyone froze. My father looked into the eyes of the child thrown on the ground. Vanitas began to cry with a muffled sound, placing his hand on his reddened cheek.
Then... my mother exploded.
"How could you slap your son?!" Superia screamed and rushed toward my father.
"He had all our knights searching for him all afternoon like idiots!" my father screamed in her face. "Don't you know how to teach your son right from wrong?!"
"Don't start this conversation with me!" my mother screamed hysterically. "Stay stuck with your whores you talk to all night! You know nothing about your children!"
"You have returned to your hallucinations and this madness of yours!"
"Father! Mother! Enough!" I raised my voice for the first time, trying to stop them. "Justitia and Aretia are watching!"
But the words were like firewood on a flame. The screaming and insults between them only intensified.
I gestured to the servants and knights with my hand: "Leave, all of you! Immediately!"
Everyone withdrew quickly to escape the scandal. My father turned and walked away with angry steps, while my mother screamed after him: "Yes! Go! Go to your whores!"
"Mama... please calm down," I tried to intervene.
My mother ignored me completely, and ran toward Vanitas, who was thrown on the floor. She hugged him tightly. "Are you okay, my darling?" She placed her trembling hand on his forehead. "You have a bit of a fever... look at the red slap mark... that bastard!"
My mother carried Vanitas, who was still crying, and screamed at the servants who had just fled: "Bring the medicine! He has a fever!"
I stood in the middle. Lost. I looked down. Justitia was still hiding behind me, trembling from the screaming.
I turned to her, and smiled with extreme difficulty. I patted her head gently. "It's nothing. The storm has passed... don't be afraid, okay?"
The following evening.
A sharp scream tore through the quiet of the west corridor. I ran quickly toward the source of the sound.
I found Justitia and Vanitas fighting. Vanitas was pulling her hair, and she was hitting him with her small hands.
"Stop, you two!" I intervened forcefully, and pushed them apart with difficulty. "What is going on?!"
Vanitas screamed in Justitia's face, his breaths rapid: "Stupid! You are stupid!"
And swiftly, he turned and ran away down the corridor.
"Vanitas! Come back here now!" I yelled after him, but he kept running until he disappeared.
I looked at Justitia. She was crying hard, wiping her face.
"Brother..."
I sighed weakly, and lowered myself to her level. "Alright... don't cry." I wiped her tears with my thumb. "Tell me, what happened?"
She gasped as she tried to speak: "I... I just told him to stop running away. Because Mama and Papa are always fighting because of this... then... then he looked at me and said: What is it to you? And he started calling me stupid and ugly! I was just trying..."
"Never mind." I took her in a warm embrace. "Never mind, you are not stupid. He is just angry."
Midnight.
I was alone in the dark training ground.
Up. Down. Right. Left.
I swung my sword with manic force, my grip squeezing the hilt until my knuckles turned white.
(You still have the habit of gripping the sword...) My father's voice echoed in my head.
"Damn it!"
I violently threw the wooden sword to crash against the stone wall. "Damn..."
I sat on the ground, panting. My body was burning from exhaustion, and my mind boiling. I need to sleep.
I stood up slowly, and took a step toward the palace.
(I must move as smoothly as water. I must be relaxed as breathing. I must be perfect).
I reached the dark corridors of the palace. My steps were heavy, dragging frustration.
Suddenly, I heard a light sound from behind. The sound of Vanitas's small feet following me.
I continued on my way, ignoring the sound.
Step... I walked, and the sound walked behind me. Vanitas. He was still following me.
I closed my eyes in annoyance. I didn't have a single atom of energy left to give him. Not tonight.
"Brother..." His faint voice came from behind me. "I..."
I turned to him with a swift movement, anger and exhaustion blinding my sight. I looked at his small, hesitant face in the dark, and words came out of my mouth—words that were nothing like me:
"Stop following me like a dog!"
Vanitas froze instantly, and didn't utter a letter.
And I continued on my way to my room, believing that I was just being tough on him so he could learn to rely on himself.