A Rogue and A Royal

The Cheater

[Editors Note; Trigger Warning for gore and suicide attempts, and that's basically it. You can skip this chapter if you get triggered by these topics or are not in the right headspace, go to the table of contents and skip to the next chapter you do not have to read this chapter if you don't want to you'll be perfectly fine skipping it except you won't know all of the details. Knowing that, proceed with caution]

Goth ran into the woods with a knife. She sat next to a tree and looks at the sharp blade on the knife. She took a deep breath, then she proceeds to cut her neck. The cut was large and bleeding quicker than it normally should. She smiles, enjoying the pain, and cuts her wrists and up her arms too. Goth sits down and smiles as the scent of blood filled the air. Infinite smelled the blood and runs to Goth, then he tries to take the knife, failing his attempt and Goth gripped the knife tighter and tries to cut her neck again, failing each attempt since Infinite stops her swiftly, he pins her to the ground trying not to touch her wounds or the blood oozing off of her. 

"Goth what is wrong with you? Is it about the guitar? I can buy you a new one, o-or try to repair the broken one?! A guitar isn't worth taking your life for?! Calm down?!" Infinite voiced. 

"NO?! GET OFF ME?! THIS PROBLEM IS BEYOND YOU FOOL?! GET OFF ME?! THAT'S AN ORDER?!" Goth screamed. Infinite didn't move, he didn't even flinch. He stays on top of Goth, stopping her attempts at cutting herself for 10 minutes until she stopped and eventually calmed down a little, enough to talk and have a conversation.

Zero runs in and seen Goth, he was holding the note, a slip of paper, and his medicine bag, he goes to wrap Goth's wounds with gauze but Goth kicks him away. She saw the note and goes pale.

"Oh, so you recognize this note?" Zero asked.

"PUT THAT BACK AND GET THIS FOOL OFF OF ME?!" Goth screams again. 

"I'm not letting you go through with this pact," Zero said harshly. 

"Pact?" Infinite asked. 

"Yes, a pact. On this note are details of a pact. According to my research, this pact is based on the beliefs of a clan in the Eastern Region, where they value instruments over the living. According to this pact if the instrument is destroyed they have to obey whatever the bandleader says. If the band leader dies then the person whose instrument was destroyed will die too, which is usually what happens with these pacts since the bandleaders normally commit suicide, which is also the case here too. If none of the instruments were destroyed by the time they turn 20 they all die in their sleep. However, if one of the instruments gets destroyed and the owner survives they are blessed with the ability to save the others. If no one survives there souls are stuck on earth and are forced to obey the bandleader or the bandleader's ghost. But if the instruments are destroyed and no one dies the pact is not broken and someone will hunt them down for a total of five and a half years, and if the hunter successfully kills one of them they all die and are still forced to obey the bandleader. Basically, the only way to have the best chance of a win is for at least one person to die and the others to survive. This is exactly what already happened, but there is only one survivor. So you thought you could get away with not letting your instrument be destroyed since there's already a survivor and the rules say nothing about a single survivor and an unbroken instrument. So you thought you were fine. Then Infinite broke it on accident and you were afraid of what would happen, so you went to kill yourself not wanting to discover what was going to cause your death or what was going to happen to you." Zero explained. 

"G-Goth... is this true?" Infinite asked, giving a worried gaze at Goth's bloody, slashed open neck.

"Y-Y-yeah..." Goth replied as she gazed at the ground ashamed. "The bandleader did come from a clan called the Pikoshi clan, where they value instruments over everything. If your instrument got destroyed, you were arrested and charged with murder and executed instantly. However, cannibalism was not frowned upon, instead, it was encouraged. Murder and sacrificing Mormans that weren't Pikoshi or spoke out against them was respected and even became a part of their rituals. If you join a band in that clan you automatically sign up for the pact. We didn't know this at the time, we didn't even know she was Pikoshi, but if we did things would have turned out different. And you translated it wrong. The events only happen after the bandleader dies, one of the bandleader's closest friends do all of the planning and dirty work."