“Aahh!!!”

Bern screamed at the sudden pain in his wrist. Sezh continued to bite and cling onto his arm like a dog refusing to let go of its hunt.

I know this might not be the best option, but this is the only way I can help Raytan since I can’t fight, and my body is smaller than other kids’ around my age.

“What the fuck are you doing, you crazy bitch?!”

Bern grabbed a fistful of Sezh’s hair and tried to yank her off to no avail.

Crash!

Sezh was barely cognizant of a dull, cracking sound overhead as Bern began striking her. Stars suddenly started appearing in her vision, yet she still refused to let him go. Bern furiously continued landing blow after blow on her head until Lilian and the others intervened and forcefully pried her off of him.

“Get away, you fucking bitch!” Bern roared, seething with rage as he violently shoved her away.

Ack!

Sezh stumbled forward, unsure of where she was going, before bumping her head on a nearby chair. Disoriented, she struggled to regain her balance, only to fall backwards with a loud thud.

Instead of meeting the cold, hard floor, Sezh collided with something warm yet firm. At that moment, she realized that she had landed on top of Raytan. To put it more precisely, she had collapsed on top of Raytan’s body, which was sprawled out on the floor.

Or, if one wanted to get even more specific, she had actually fallen onto his stomach, right on top of the spot where Bern had just kicked him before.

“Ugh…”

Raytan groaned as he tried to move her away from the soreness in his abdomen.

Surprised to find herself on top of him, Sezh scarcely had the time to process what was happening, much less react to any pain she was feeling. She quickly scrambled away from him.

Then she paused for a moment and shouted at Bern while pointing a finger at Raytan.

“Big brother Raytan is right! He is red!”

“Wha-what?” Bern sputtered.

“Which part of me makes him look like me?! The blue ones are colourblind!”

In all honesty, she was still reeling from the humiliation of falling on top of Raytan’s body, and because of that, she wasn’t even sure what she was talking about now.

Bern and Lili’s group started whispering confusedly amongst themselves.

“Whose side is this lil’ bitch daring to stand up for?” one of them growled.

“Look, you’re also colourblind!” another shouted back at her. “You don’t even know how things work around here! You’re blue too, and yet you’re siding with Raytan in front of big brother Bern! You’re the one on the wrong side!”

Sezh’s embarrassment had just caused her to do something that she would have never even attempted to do in her previous life.

Back then, not once did she ever confront her half-siblings. And now, for the first time ever, it happened. Just like Raytan, who had also never reacted to his half-siblings’ bullying before, she was standing up for herself.

“Sezh… You little bitch. ‘Colourblind’ doesn’t mean someone is actually blind.”

Lilian snapped at her with incredulity written all over her face, as if she were explaining something that wasn’t supposed to need explaining.

Are these technical definitions really important right now? As long as my eyes are working, then that means my neck is fine. At this moment, that’s all that matters to me.

Sezh grimaced.

“I know very well how Lady Yerena, who was so impatient to give birth to a successor, treats her own child. She was right. There’s no use in treating this small bitch with any decency. Nothing good will come from it.”

Lilian’s words made Sezh bite her lips in anger.

I know my mother doesn’t pay attention to me! She doesn’t even treat me like a human being, let alone treat me like her own child, but that’s not the reason why I’m short!

No matter how much she was painfully aware of her status as the runt of the pack, it was always unpleasant for her to hear such ridicule from another person’s mouth. She also hated how Lilian insinuated that her condition was solely due to Yerena’s mistreatment as if she and Bern had nothing to do with it.

Besides, I can’t believe she just immediately decided to directly attack the thing I feel most sensitive about. This is unfair. This bitch…

Sezh glared at Lilian.

“Look at how these two foolish things are sticking together,” Bern’s tone was laced with mockery. “It’s ridiculous.”

… Foolish things? Sezh frowned furiously.

Of course, I know Bern and Lili’s thoughts about me and big brother Raytan. I got hurt a lot by them when I was a kid. But now, I’m angry rather than upset at those words. Why are we the only ones who always have to suffer? We didn’t do anything to warrant this in the first place.

“So, is that why you are having fun now…?” Sezh growled.

“What?”

“Are you having fun every time you decide to treat big brother Raytan and I like this?”

“Where is this bitch planning to go with this?”

“So childish.”

Sezh clenched her fists at their dismissive attitudes.

It is indeed really childish. I mean, what did big brother Raytan and I ever do to them? We did nothing.

I was just reading books, stuck in this library with him because we had the misfortune of being cold rice1 and spoiled rice2. And it’s not like big brother Raytan really wanted the two of us to stick together, either. That wasn’t at all what he wanted. But do they have to always laugh at us like this?

And are we supposed to be… bullied because of it?

“It’s childish to ignore someone just because they have a different hair colour or different eyes! Also, it’s childish to bully someone because they aren’t treated well in the Imperial Palace to begin with. We did nothing wrong, here!”

“What do you mean by nothing wrong?” Lili, who had been standing next to Bern, walked forward with a glare.

She crossed her arms and looked down at Sezh, whose expression was full of sadness. She poked Sezh’s forehead.

“You know, it is also wrong that a thing that bothers our eyes dares to stand in front of us, just like this.”

“…”