Marks of the New Era

Chapter 1.4

He felt as if he was trapped in a limbo, he could hear and think but he was unable of moving, what happened?, he started recollecting his memories but they were nothing but blurs in his mind, until he heard a conversation between the queen and one of the doctors of the castle.

"How is he?" He could hear the concern in her voice.

"His condition is quite alarming, he has a high fever and he's unconscious", Unconscious?, that's why he couldn't move?

"How long will it take him to heal?"

"I'm not sure your Majesty, the wound in his eye is healing faster than expected, however it got badly infected and will probably leave a scar on his face forever"

Forever?, that couldn't be!! Having a facial scar is very frowned upon in Genzo, even more if you are a royal, would the council forbid him from ruling because of it?, it had already happened with past royals.

"I see, very well, keep me informed if anything changes"

"As you wish your Majesty, may I ask though, what happened to the prince and the king?"

The queen stayed silent for a moment before replying, "I don't know, when the guards went to Cheve they found the bodies of their companions and king, it seemed to be a slaughter, Tai seems to be the only survivor but until he wakes up we can't jump into conclusions"

When he woke up days later, the queen questioned him about the event but he refused to talk, it was just too painful to remember, eventually though he couldn't hold it in anymore and between sobs he told her the whole story.

The queen was horrified, she knew Garon was a cruel ruler but she never thought he was able to get to this point but most importantly, no one could know about it, not if they wanted to maintain peace.

Tai, Takevu, Hiroshi and Haru were all sworn to secrecy, even if they knew the truth, they had to say that their father and his soldiers died because of a natural disaster and since almost no one saw their bodies, the people were easily convinced by it.

The months after his father's death were the worst in Tai's life, he started slowly isolating himself from others, at first it was for an hour or two but eventually it got to a point where he only went out of his room to eat and there was even a moment where he didn't even went out for food, he began sleeping less and less because every time he closed his eyes he saw the death of his father over and over again and the few times he was able to sleep a nightmare always woke him up.

Panic attacks became very common for him, he spent most of the time crying in his room, he felt so useless, so pathetic, so weak, he started thinking that the death of his father was his fault, that he should have stopped it, it got to such a bad point that he started punishing himself.

As you may have guessed, he started self-harming, not only as a way of punishment but as a way of dealing with the situation because the pain caused by the wounds on his arms was able to distract him from the pain in his heart, it was like, for a moment, he wasn't the broken prince that he knew he was, but it only lasted for a short period of time so he did it again and again.

Until one day everything changed, since he woke up from being unconscious, he believed that he should have died in the slaughter too, that he shouldn't have been spared, that it was best to die and see his family again than to live in despair, eventually, he came to a solution, while pressing the blade against his wrist he started thinking about what would happen next, he would reunite at last with his parents and sister and they could finally be happy together, but, what about the family he would leave behind?

His siblings, his step-mother, his people, he would leave them alone in this situation and they would be destroyed it they found out what he was about to do, he knew his mother would be the first one to find him since she came every day to his door to talk to him, although he never responded, she knew he was alive because of his sobs.

Was it really worth leaving, knowing the damage he would cause?

No, he couldn't do that to them, he swore to protect them no matter what and by doing this he would only bring them pain and his never-ending cycle of tragedies would pass onto them.

His thoughts were interrupted by his mother knocking on his door and he immediately knew what to do, he dropped the blade, opened the door and stepped outside his room for the first time in months.