The Peace Offering

Kouen: Chapter 8

I feel weak, my vision is blurry and my legs are shaking. With a small groan I sat on my bed, I still hadn't fully recovered from having half of my soul taken. Slowly my limbs stopped shaking and my vision grew clearer. There was a knock on the door before it opened. My brother Kouha entered.

"Hey, brother. How you doing?" He asked as he sat down next to me on the bed.

"I'm doing fine, just a little dizzy."

"Why'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Why did you save her!? You could have died!" Kouha suddenly burst out in a fit of rage.

"Kouha-"

" She's not even that important! Even with this marriage Father will have a hard time keeping the peace treaty. He never even wanted peace, and now you have to get married to some random chick just because she dared to exist! Gaah! I don't want you to get married!" 

I grabbed Kouha's flailing arms to calm him down. He was on the verge of tears and I blurted out the first I thought of to calm him.

"Kouha, calm down. It's not like I love her. This marriage is just one of convenience, it doesn't mean anything."

Just as I finished speaking there was a loud clatter outside the door. Kouha went to go look as I stayed on the bed. When he came back and sat on the bed next to me his face had a weird look on it.

"What was it?" I asked him.

"N-Nothing, someone just dropped a bowl of soul. I'll go get someone to go clean it up."

Kouha left and I was sitting alone on my bed. Thinking of the soup that was spilled made my stomach growl. With a small groan I got up and walked over to the kitchen that wasn't far from my room. As I was about to open the door I heard crying coming in from inside. I opened the door a crack and peeked inside. Sitting on the counter was Sindri, beside her was Hakuryuu and he was wrapping her hand with gauze.

"Does it hurt really bad? It seems to only be a simple burn, no need to cry Miss Sindri." Hakuryuu said as he finished wrapping Sindri's hand. Sindri lifted her hand to inspect the wrapping.

"Thank you Hakuryuu for helping me. The burn itself doesn't hurt too much, but when-"

I opened the door all the way and stepped inside, interrupting Sindri. Sindri looked at me briefly before stiffing her sobs and looked down at her hand.

"What happened?" I asked as I tried to grab Sindri's hand, but she pulled away and wouldn't look at me. 

"Miss Sindri was carrying a bowl of hot soup and she spilled it, burning her hand." Hakuryuu answered for Sindri when she wouldn't respond. 

A spilled bowl of soup? My body tensed as I realized that Sindri must have been the one to drop the soup outside of my room. She must have heard everything that I said to Kouha. 

Suddenly Sindri hopped off of the counter and grabbed a piece of bread. She walked out of the door and stopped only to whisper that she wasn't going to attend dinner.

"Crap..." I sighed.

"What?" Hakuryuu asked as he looked at me in confusion.

"I might have just ruined everything."