As soon as my eyes adjusted to the light, I could see several large chandeliers hanging from the roof of the building that seemed devoid of candles, yet little lights glowed on top of them. My eyes moved a bit and landed on the grand pillars that twisted and moved towards the roof, in the shape of trees, to support the structure of the palace.

The branches of these, tree-like, pillars also had little orbs of lights that lit the entire palace magnificently. The view was beautiful enough for me to just stand there and devour it with my eyes. Even Sirius was looking at the decor with his mouth open.

I could understand though. After all, the only decor that our palace had was swords and paintings of old men. Not very appealing, if I do say so myself.

The hush of noises broke me out of the reverie and I looked around to find several people looking at us intently. Some showed surprise, some joy, some bewilderment, and some… fear.

"We're here."

Lady Maria's words fell like a hammer on everyone because as soon as the words left her mouth, the entire venue became silent.

Lady Maria held Lord Erwin's hand and walked through the crowd to the host family. We followed behind them quietly just before we heard a loud roar of a beast that reverberated throughout the venue.

Sirius and I held old man Blake's hand tightly as I tugged at his sleeve.

"What was that roar, Sir Blake?"

"Hahaha. Do not worry, Mehr. That's the roar of a dragon."

Huh. What? What the fuck?

"Wait- weren't they all dead?"

"Of course it's not a real dragon, Mehr. It's a function of these Gates that are opened on these occasions. It is set up to notify everyone which family has arrived. So, when people hear the dragon roar, it means the Fryes have descended. That's how they all knew we were here even before we noticed them."

"And this recent roar?"

"That means the servants have arrived with the gifts."

Ooooh. Letting everyone know you've arrived. Damn, this is actually pretty amazing, huh. I wonder what kind of effect I would have when I would go to the occasions on my own. It's not like I'll stay with the Frye family forever.

"That's…. Maria Frye!"

"Lady Maria?"

"Holy… She's here in person!"

As we kept moving through the crowd, we could hear murmurs from the crowd. Everyone's eyes seemed fixated on Lady Maria as she walked with her husband.

While the attention was not unusual, the amount of attention she was getting seemed quite strange. And the weirdest part, to me, was that no one seemed to acknowledge Lord Erwin at all.

It wasn't even that they had been mesmerized by her beauty or anything. The most prominent feeling everyone gave off was… fear. While people looked at Lady Maria and talked among themselves about her, everyone seemed to avoid taking the name of Lord Erwin.

And I'm sure, within a few people's eyes, I even saw disgust.

While I battled with my thoughts to try to string them together, we had reached the middle area of the hall. I noticed a woman with long black hair standing with people. And to her side, a little girl with similar features to the woman, was smiling to everyone who came to greet her. She was wearing a white frock with frills on the bottom and looked the same age as Sirius and I.

"Oh, Erwin and Maria. I'm really glad you decided to come. I wasn't sure that you'd show up."

The woman spoke in a gentle tone and nodded her head towards us. She gestured to her daughter to come and greet us.

"Nora, go and greet the Fryes."

The little girl, Nora, looked a bit hesitant before seemingly making up her mind and coming forward. She bowed towards Lord Erwin and Lady Maria and proceeded to thank us.

"Thank you for coming to my birthday, Sir, M-m-m-ma'am."

Giggle.

Lady Maria kneeled and touched Nora's cheeks lightly. Nora blushed and looked down immediately and held both of her hands together tightly.

"Hmm? Are you afraid of me?" Lady Maria asked with a tinge of softness in her voice.

"No-no-no! I'm n-n-not afraid!"

Nora's mother patted Nora's head and sighed softly.

"She's just starstruck. She has heard your stories and says she wants to be like you when she grows up."

Nora blushed again and kept her head down as she fidgeted her fingers.

"Haha, really? Well, that makes me happy. I hope, when you grow up, you become someone greater than me. And to that, here is your gift."

Lady Maria swished her hand and brought out the white lily. She gently placed that flower on the lapel on Nora’s frock.

“It will protect you, so always keep it close.”

Nora’s face brightened as she touched the flower that her role model had given. She turned around to look at her mother with a sparkle in her eyes as she showed her mother the flower. Nora’s mother smiled back just before looking at Sirius and I, and came forward to meet us.

“Are they your sons, Maria? They look quite different though.”

“No, Anna.” Lady Maria pointed towards Sirius with her eyes before saying, “He is my son, Sirius. While Mehr is my relative’s child, he lives here with us though.”

A relative’s child, huh. Whatever you say, Lady.

“Oh, he really takes after Erwin, doesn’t he? Both father and son have the same eyes.” A male voice came from the side and we all turned to look in the direction. A man with a sleek beard and hair, parted in the middle, was walking towards us. He wore clothes that screamed high nobility and every jewel that he owned was probably on his body today. He looked like a walking treasure chest.

“Goodstay.” Lord Erwin spoke the name of the man in his same booming voice, without even turning to look at the man. I notice that the man, Goodstay, was peculiarly vexed by Lord Erwin.

“Frye. I do hope that your son has only taken your eyes. It would be funny though, to see the pair of father and son, both being cripples.”

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, a shadow blurred past from my side and moved towards Goodstay at an incredible speed. So incredible in fact, the air screamed as it moved apart from the force created by the approach. The loud noise and sudden windburst attracted everyone’s attention. Just then Lord Erwin’s voice rang throughout the hall.

“Blake!”

The shadow, or rather old man Blake, stopped in his tracks. While Goodstay tumbled backwards as if he had seen a ghost. I could see an expression of relief mixed with absolute terror on his face.

“You too, Maria.” Lord Erwin spoke again and that was when I noticed the innumerable amount of little fireflies flying in every direction that were slowly and sneakily approaching Goodstay. While I had failed to notice the little fireflies at the beginning, my heart sank as soon as I tried to gauge the power of a single one. Even one of the little fireflies was more than enough to kill me. And there were an uncountable number of them flying and buzzing around right now.

Lady Maria held her hand down and the fireflies disappeared as quietly as they came. The expression on the face of Goodstay surely was something. It seemed like he had met death and even played a round of joust with it. And yet, even with the disheveled appearance and terror stricken face, he managed to squeak out some hateful words from his heart.

“For someone who can’t even use mana, you sure do have everything, Erwin Frye.”