The castle has been restless since yesterday.

As I walked through the castle corridor, I noticed a few discreet glances my way. Those glances came from the castle servant; at first, I assumed they were just curious gazes from those who were curious about who could be that handsome young boy, but I knew that it wasn’t the case when I noticed that even those who had seen me many times were acting in a similar manner.

And then I remembered what day we were.

Today was my birthday.

I have completely forgotten about what day it was today since my birthday has always been celebrated in the Rosetta Manor and when it’s approaching it hardly goes unnoticed.

“You’ve noticed it haven’t you?” said Mael

“What might it be?” I said while pretending not to know what he was talking about.

He didn’t reply to my question and just stared as if to make sure if I was telling the truth or not.

“Okay, I admit I noticed, after all, it's my birthday, how could I forget, I’m not that dumb,”

“Rufus was convinced that you had forgotten.”

Tsk...

“Aaaah~ Rufus this man is a mystery even for me,...but I didn't expect you all to throw a party for me.”

“Was it that obvious ?” He inquired, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling.

“Maybe I wouldn't have noticed if everyone in the castle except you, Rufus, and Lord Emilien wasn't looking at me with a seeking yet avoiding gaze.”

“So it was that obvious,” Mael said with a sigh. “In any event, I was tasked to take you to the room where we held your birthday party. I at least hope that this information has not leaked”

“Worry not, I only know that a party was held for me but have no idea where it would be held.”

“I hope it’s true. So let us go then.”

“Where to?’

“To your party obviously.”

“I thought you were here as a decoy while they were adjusting the final preparation.”

“Everything has been ready since yesterday; my role here was only to provide you with the illusion of a normal day, but since you already know, there's no need for us to tarry here any longer.”

“I hope I didn't mess up your entire schedule.”

“What are you talking about if something went wrong, it definitely wasn’t your fault but rather ours… Here come.`` While saying that, he stood up, grabbed my hand, and dragged me out of the library.

Upon opening the library’s door we were welcomed by Mael’s attendant.

As soon as he saw us, one attendant stationed on the other side of the hallway ran as if his life depended on it to the inner part of the castle.

Mael ignored his attendants and dragged me along with him to where the attendant from earlier was going, we were immediately followed by the attendants.

We soon arrive at a massive door that leads to a room I've never seen before. The door gradually opened from the inside, revealing what was on the other side.

Nothing.

To be more specific, I couldn't see anything inside the room, because there wasn't even a sliver of light inside.

Mael came up behind me and pushed me into the room.

The room suddenly illuminated once we reached a certain distance in it. The way the room brightened reminded me vaguely of how the chandelier in the library lit up as soon as its door was closed.

Before my eyes could adjust themselves to the sudden brightness, a loud round of applause could be heard from every direction of the room.

“RONANDT, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Many people across the room shouted in unison, and among those voices, I recognized Syrus’s voice.

Once I could clearly see what the room interior looked like, I noticed that there were two rows of outrageously long tables arranged parallel to one another on one side of the room, and a smaller table arranged perpendicularly to the two long tables on the opposite side of the room.

The small table had three seats, and Lord Emilien was standing behind one of them, while the two other tables were filled with visibly delicious and varied dishes, and the servants and attendants stood heads bowed, lined up behind the two rows of tables.

Lord Emilien began to approach me and stood around two meters away from me.

He was immediately joined by Mael.

“May the grace of Kiady the Eternal grant you a long and fruitful life.” Lord Emilien and Mael both said as they put one hand behind their backs, raised their forearm around their chest level, fist firmly clenched, and slightly but dignifiedly bowing while keeping their blue eyes fixed on me.

To their gesture, I immediately responded in kind.

I took a similar pose as the one they performed but instead of having the fist firmly clenched, I let my palm wide open with my two last fingers half retracted.

We stood there for about three or four seconds before reverting to our normal stance.

That was the proper way for a nobility to wish each other a happy birthday.

It was my first time seeing a noble performing it.

A certain someone has taught me about it since I was three. and never had the opportunity to perform it, I was even wondering when I would have the opportunity to use it.

Thank you, Maa; if it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have known how to respond to this.

“Only one year to go before this little boy turns into a full-fledged noble.”Lord Emilien said as patted me on the head.

“Lord Emilien, thank you very much for the party. It was a delightful surprise.” I said as I threw a glance to Mael who was looking at me with a smile.

“It is nothing. And you can call me Grandpa Emilien or Grandfather Emilien from now on.” Lord Emilien said in a very jovial tone.

Lord Emilien had already told me to call him grandpa while we were on the road, but when I met Mael, I decided to refrain myself.

I assumed he understood and agreed with me because he never said anything about me still calling him Lord Emilien.

He now gave me the opportunity to refer to him that way once again.

“Yes, grandfather Emilien.”

“All right, let us take a seat then;” he said as he pushed Mael and me lightly in the back toward the smaller table where he stood earlier.

As we moved closer to the smaller table, Grandfather Emilien took his hand from our back and made two short claps.

As he did, everyone else in the room finally raised their heads.

***

Since it was my birthday I was given the seat in the middle, since it was a little bit too early for beginning to eat. They had decided to present me with their gifts first.

Grandfather was the first to present me with his gift.

A black straight sword.

The scabbard was decorated with grim patterns.

When I unsheathed the sword I could see snakelike patterns engraved in its guard to the hilt.

I didn’t have to swing the sword around to tell that this thing could cut through a fangwolf like butter.

In the secret room, there were swords as sharp as this one, but most of them were unsuitable with my small body, but this one was so perfect that it felt custom-made for me.

“So, how's it, Boy? Is it to your liking?” Asked Grandfather.

“Yes, I've never held a sword before, but the grip feels very natural, and I adore it.”

“That’s good then,” he said with a laugh.

Mael stood up from his chair and stood there apparently preparing himself to present me his gift.

“My present is a little bit special, I hope you will like it.” As he said that, one of his attendants appeared from the other side of the room holding a purple pillow and once he reached me he kneeled just enough to present what was on the pillow

It was a thick black book and accompanied by a small knife.

The book cover was encrusted with three transparent sphères the size of an eyeball.

“It’s a little bit strange to ask that but can you... drip a little bit of your blood in the three spheres? a drop on each sphere will suffice'' Mael said, visibly embarrassed by his demand.

I guess that was the knife for.

I took the knife and cut the tip of my finger with it and dropped several droplets on each red sphere.

As soon as I did, the three spheres showed some reaction.

For around two seconds, the transparent color began to morph, dark smoke appeared inside the 3 spheres, wiping every trace of its former appearance.

The dark smoke acted like water in effervescence. The spherical appearance of the 3 small spheres coupled with the intense movement going on inside gave me the feeling that they could explode at any moment.

I looked at Grandfather to see what his thoughts were on these spheres' reaction, he had his hand before his mouth like someone trying to come up with a solution to a problem.

I shifted my gaze to Mael, and I saw him nodding, clearly pleased with the outcome.

When I looked over the book once again, I immediately noticed that the spheres had stopped behaving as they did earlier.

They now took a dark grey color.

“This book is called “Reality Figer” It allows you to do this “ Mael said while retrieving something from his pocket and tossing it into the air.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a book emerged.

As if it wasn’t impressive enough, it also stood afloat midair.

The book he summoned was similar to the one I dropped my blood on, the only difference between the two was their three small spheres colors. The one I dropped my blood on had dark grey spheres while the one Mael had summoned out of nowhere had crimson blood-red spheres.

The book still in midair opened on its own, revealing blank pages, but only for a brief moment, because shortly after silhouettes began to take shape on the book's blank pages, a perfect reproduction of the background could be seen on the formerly blank page of the book after a few seconds.

Mael picked up the book hanging in midair casually, as though it was the most natural thing in the world, and then said to me.

“This book allows you to capture whatever is before your eyes in one of its sheets,'' Mael said with a voice full of confidence. “So how is it? Do you like it?”

“Of course, this is awesome. Can you show me how to do what you did earlier?”

“What? Capturing the image in one of the books sheet or ?”

“Yes also that, but I was referring to how you summoned it out of your pocket.”

“Aaa~ that! all you have to do is to-” Mael's voice was interrupted by a noise coming from the door, a young boy panting as he had run a marathon appeared from the small gap from the door and ran to where we were to murmur something to Grandfather's ears.

When the man finished saying what he came to say, Grandfather let out a small sigh.

“Did something happen ?” Inquired Mael visibly concerned by why this sudden interruption.

“She’s here,” said Grandfather with a resigned sigh.

Mael's face that showed concern earlier had immediately morphed into a dejected one.

“Why? “Today, out of all days,” he muttered, weary. “Sorry, Ronandt; I'll show you how to do it later.” He then pressed two diametrically opposed corners of the book he was holding, and the book shrank as magically as it appeared until it could fit between Mael's palms. ”For the time being, I must prevent a certain someone from reaching this room.” While saying that he showed me what the book had turned into, it had now the appearance of one of the small red spheres encrusted in his book cover.

He put it back in one of his pockets and was about to leave when another noise came from the doors.

The noise the door made earlier was very short, for the man was in hurry to report what he had to say. But the noise currently coming from the door was sluggish and even suspenseful.

A small figure emerged from the door before it had even fully opened.

Before presuming if that small figure belonged to a boy or a girl, I gave him or her a thorough examination.

The small figure approached the table we were seated at, without throwing a single glance to the servants and attendants lined along the 2 rows of a large table, and once it reached a distance of one meter away from us, I could finally safely tell that the small figure this time belonged to a girl.

A girl I could clearly tell had the same age as me or Mael.

She was wearing a rather boyish jacket.

Her stride could only be described as masculine and confident.

She was holding a red scabbarded straight sword in her left hand. The sword guard was shaped like a rose.

But the most eye-strike detail about her could be found on her face.

Her brown hair flashed a faint red color at times, which was accentuated by her crimson eyes.

Those eyes were the same color as mine and my father, the only difference being that hers exuded a certain fierceness.

I immediately remembered what Grandfather told me about my father, about the fact that he was married and had a daughter.

“ Good morning Grandfather. Good morning Mael and ...” She looked or rather glared at me.

I got up and approached her.

“This one is Ronandt, May the mighty blessing of Djeem the accursed be upon us.”

“This one Ramia, first daughter of Luke Aubrecht, May the dazzling blessing of Kine the flamboyant be upon us.”

That confirmed my doubt, this girl is my sister.

My half-big sister, big-half sister or whatever it is called.

When we had finished our greeting, she just stood there staring at me in the eyes, and it would have continued for a long time if it weren’t for Grandfather.

“Ronandt, This little girl over here is the Granddaughter of Charles Aubrecht, the current Duke of the Beaumont Duchy.” He said while putting his hand on Ramia's head. He then looked at me with a gaze clearly saying `` This is your big sister boy.”.

“Ramia, this is Ronandt, He is the son of a friend, he’s here especially to see your great-grandfather. And as you can see we were celebrating his birthday so it’s the best occasion for you two to get acquainted.”

She showed no reaction to Grandfather’s words and just glared at me.

“Get a seat for her,” Grandfather said in one of the attendant's attention.

The attendant immediately installed a seat for her next to Mael.

He then pressed us to take a seat.

Ramia took the seat next to Mael, putting him between me and her.

“Say, Mael, why didn’t you visit me these two last weeks? I waited for you so that you’d know.” She said as she put her head on Mael’s shoulder.

“I've been quite busy recently. And I knew you'd find a way to come here, even if you were grounded.” Mael said.

“As expected of Mael, you know me well.” She said while rubbing her head the same way a cat would, against Mael's shoulder.

Only after seeing these two interacting that I remembered that Mael had once mentioned a cousin.

I didn't expect it to be her; in fact, I didn’t even know that that not-so-famous cousin was a girl.

Suddenly the door reverberated once again.

Revealing this time a woman whose outfit and hairstyle vaguely reminded me of Maa, and a group of three female attendants behind her.

“Please accept our apologies, Lord Emilien; we were unable to stop The Young Lady interrupting this festivity.” the leading woman said while bowing heads, the bow was immediately followed by the female attendant behind her.

“It’s nothing. How’s Luke doing?” Grandfather asked nonchalantly as he flailed his hand around to urge them to raise their hand.

The woman was about to answer Grandfather's question when a voice cut her.

“Papa was at the castle when I left,” answered Ramia.

“I see.” Grandfather with a nod and slightly glancing at me.

It seems the fated meeting won’t be for today.

I was suddenly approached by Syrus, bent down, and murmured to my ears.

“I think I should leave the room. That person knows me and I fear that it won’t take her long to see through my disguise.”

I didn’t know exactly who he was talking about but then I saw the woman that gave a certain “Maa” vibes glancing suspiciously at us.

I’m quite sure she glanced at us because she had her doubts about Syrus' identity but rather because there’s a strange masked man in the middle of a seemingly normal party.

But well it’s a good opportunity for me to take a fresh breath.

“I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to leave you all for a time since a certain location requires my presence,” I said to the attention of everyone at the table attention.

I stood up and left the room, I was obviously followed by Syrus.

“The Young Lord didn't have to go to such lengths to accompany me outside, but I appreciate it nonetheless,” said Syrus surely with a smile under his mask.

The real reason I wanted to leave the room was Ramia, she was glaring at me all the time.

No wonder Shania cried the first time she saw me, those red eyes of hers were quite intimidating.

“That was nothing, I also wanted to take a breath. So Syrus who was that woman? An old crush of yours?” I said as we walked along the hallway.

“ Of course not. She was seconding Mathilda's when I was serving Lord Luke, and as such, she was well familiar with me. I had not expected her to become Lady Ramia's Lady's Maid.”

What a pity, and here I am expecting some juicy details about one of his previous conquests.

“I see. What do you know about Ramia?”

“Little to nothing. After all, she was still a newborn when I left the castle. In any case, good luck to befriend her, this might be as Lord Emilien said” with that, he put his hand on my shoulder and made me turn around in direction of where we came from. ``The best opportunity for you two to get along.”

“Any tips?” I asked.

“As long as you don’t share that strange story of yours it all should be fine.”

With that said Syrus and I parted ways.

I only noticed it on my way back, but Syrus and I made it a long way.

I was taking my time strolling back to the room when I heard a loud bang on the other side of the hallway, followed by hasty footsteps.

In no time the owner of the footsteps came into view. It was Ramia,

She let out a Humph the moment she saw me.

This time her face showed flagrant hostility to me.

Maybe I should talk it out.

Yes, let’s do this after all “communication is key” was it?

When she passed by me I told her.

“Listen we just me- Blerg”

My words were interrupted by a sudden and acute pain in the stomach, before I realized what happened to me I realized that my feet had slightly left the ground and a punch was flying onto my face.

Communication is the key as long as your opponent doesn't choose violence as a means of communication.

And I, Ronandt, have failed to realize that.