I could feel the familiar hums and vibrations of the village through the bottoms of my feet grow stronger as we neared the village. Suddenly, I felt two Very familiar vibrations shoot away from the village and the blood drained from my face. I turned to Adrian, who was walking in front of me, pretending to lead the whole group while I carried A LOT of luggage on my back, or more accurately, my wings. the bags were mine, Adrian’s, and the three royals, who were walking next to Adrian. I grabbed his shoulder and leaned forward so I could whisper in his ear.

“My parents are coming, you need to get everyone to pick up the pace while I throw them I distraction.”

I slipped away from him and darted through the crowd of students, where was he……..Ah! there he is! As soon as I got close, Aaron started running away from me, but it was too late, I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him to the front of the line. Hiding behind the front of now running students, I waited until my parents were much closer then heaved Aaron up with one arm and threw him as far as I could away from the road.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!”

Ignoring Aaron’s screams, I turned my attention to my parents……..Yes! They had changed course! Our running group passed by my crazy parents and soon passed through the village to the big sturdy doors of the Redsword Mansion. We flowed through the doors and they shut firmly behind us. I gave a relieved sigh.

Lord Redsword’s point of view:

A servant rushed into the study where my wife and I were discussing the possible marriage aspects of our disappointing heir.

“As one of the higher nobles, we are in the running for a match with the first princess, but I fear Adrian is too lacking in the aspects of a noble to make the match, despite the fact he got both of our fine looks…..what do you want!?”

The servant panted for breath.

“The…..young….master….is here…..”

I raised an eyebrow.

“He should not be home from school so soon, did the little weakling get kicked out.”

It still burned at me that his blind older brother had ranked highest in the Testing group, but the boy did have Redsword blood and a year longer than most other noble children to reach that level naturally. Beating Adrian had cooled my anger. The blind creature probably wouldn’t rise any farther than what level his blood could take him to… The servant rubbed his hands nervously.

“N-no sir, he’s here with his entire school.”

I barely managed to hide my surprised expression. The boy had brought his school here? What in the world was going on!? If I remember correctly, there were three royals currently attending I stood up from my chair and my wife followed my example.

“Then we should naturally greet them.”

We hurried out of the study. Our very large entrance hall was packed with people. My son stood at the front of the crowd, along with who I recognized as three members of the royals families. The blind abomination, I noticed, was standing just behind the group, and I was pleased to see he was burdened by a large number of bags. It seems the failure has become a gopher, how fitting….but something seemed very different about him…..were those cat ears?I walked down the wide staircase and smiled cooly at my son.

“Adrian, we did not expect you to be home so soon….and with so many guests as well.”

I turned my head to the three young royals and nodded graciously at them, my wife gave a small curtsy and smiled smoothly at them as she spoke with the perfection of an excellent hostess.

“Ah, your highnesses, it is a pleasure to have you grace our lovely home. I hope you enjoy your stay here for however you stay here.”

Aaron bowed slightly at me in greeting and the royals nodded their head slightly in acknowledgment.

“Father, I am sure you are puzzled as to why our whole school is here without warning, but we are all tired from the long travel and I suggest we find a place for our guests to rest before we explain.”

Amazing, his conduct is perfect….

“Of course son, though it may take awhile for the servants to clean out all of our spare rooms, they haven’t been used in quite some time...”

The Redsword manor actually had an amazing number of bedrooms. It had actually first been built in order to house the many troops gathered in past attempts to conquer Mistwood forest. but it had been a while since the last attempt, so all of the rooms had been closed and left alone, gathering dust and grime. Adrian waved his hand at the blind abomination dismissively...what was all of those gold feathers on the things back...a magical beast body?

“Creature can take care of it. While he’s useless at most things, he Is excellent at menial tasks...Go on Creature”

Adrian sneered at the hunched figure and the bag ladened boy scurried away…..was that a tail? Adrian smirked at his receding figure..

“I punished him quite thoroughly at school for being so rude to you at the testing, Father, he knows his proper place now~”

Oho, my son had suddenly become an excellent noble…..and that disgrace of a son had actually turned out to be useful like Seph suggested at his birth, the child seemed to have the excellent making of a lowly servant for my son...I smiled proudly at my son.

“It seems you have done very well in school, Adrian, well, I suppose the servants can at least find a place for everyone to rest while your Creature cleans, Adrian, and…..whoever the representative of Dagda is, please come to my study so we can discuss your unexpected appearance.”

A beautiful blue-haired woman stepped forward and nodded. I turned and moved back up the stairs, servants gathering around the crowd of people to lead them to places to sit. Striding to my study, I held the door open for my wife, Adrian, and the beautiful woman. With all of them inside, I firmly shut the door and walked to my desk, settling down in the big chair sent behind it. I stared at the woman.

“Well, can you explain why you’ve come here without any prior notice?”

A happy smile flitted onto her face.

“We’ve decided to do a special training session in Mistwood forest to prepare the students for the school ranking tournament!”

Her face was radiant, and really should have been invoking a feeling of admiration, but…….for some reason all I felt was a cold shiver of fear. I narrowed my eyes at the woman.

“Is that really all you’re doing?”

The woman tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“What else could we ever possibly want to do?”

…….Another shiver, but I didn’t sense any lie in her words, and as a noble, my lie detecting skills were polished to a level of complete mastery as a matter of course. (Author: or maybe not buddy~) I sighed and leaned back in my seat.

“Even if that’s all your doing, training children in Mistwood forest is dangerous on it’s own, and there are several important figures included in your group. I want there to be an understanding that no matter what happens in the forest, the Redsword house will not be held responsible.”

The woman snorted.

“We teachers can handle any difficult problems in our way, and we won’t be going too deep into the forest, just where the high level middle rank beasts and low level high rank beasts tend to appear.”

I choked on thin air, and I felt my eyes bugged out. I leaned forward and hissed at the woman.

“Are you insane!!! You would be putting members of the royal families, heirs of high nobles and my only heir in danger!!!”

The woman leaned forward until she was mere inches from my red face and stared coolly into my eyes.

“Training is worth any danger, anyhow, Redsword house will not be implicated in anyway, so I don’t see how you have any right to stop my lovely training session!”

…...I only understood a small part of that argument……

“I want it written on paper as an oath, I don’t there to be any chances for trouble of misunderstandings…”

Raina pulled a scroll from out of her travel bag.

“The oath has already been prepared and signed by myself.”

I took the scroll and opened it, reading through the oath.

I, Raina Obsessie Sunder, on the behalf of the Dagda middle rank school, swear an oath to hold the line of Redsword nobles free of responsibility of any harm or incident that may befall my students in their time of training in Mistwood forest.

…...For some reason the handwriting looks familiar…...it makes me feel irritated for some reason…….but the oath seemed fine, no loop-holes anywhere, and there was no sign of mana except for the signature used to verify the document…….I rolled the scroll back up and tucked it into a drawer of my desk for safe-keeping.

“Well then, Adrian, long do you think it’ll take your Creature to clean all of the rooms.”

My son gave an elegant shrug.

“Knowing him, he’ll probably be done by now.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“That would require inhuman cleaning talents.”

My son smiled.

“I did say he was practically born to it.”

……..

Felix’s Point of View:

I sneezed, causing a chunk of not yet cleaned up dust to billow up into the air. I rubbed my nose as I monitored the cleaning spell that was sweeping through the rooms at a rapid speed, it should only take a few more minutes to clean everything up.

“......when did he come up with the nickname Creature?.......It was a good touch, I’m disappointed I didn’t think of it…….well, at least I know the acting lessons paid off, Adrian was brilliant!”

Misty squeezed my arm with her metal bands.

-What I want to know is when I”LL be able to do something interesting!!!-

I gently ran a hand over her liquid metal form.

“Hmmmmm, we haven’t really encountered any suitable situations yet…...but knowing myself, I’m sure it won’t be long!”

I felt the cleaning spelll suddenly vanish from my preception.

“Eh? Where did my spell go…...”

I moved through the various halls and rooms to where I had last felt the spell, in a corner of on of the larger rooms. A tapestry hung on the wall where I felt the final traces of my spell. I stood there for a long moment….amd sighed.

“It’s so cliche…...”

Confused, Arvid spoke up at my muttered complaint.

“.....but Boss, you had me make hidden passages at the school?”

I slapped a palm against the heavy woven tapestry.

“Yes, but I didn’t have you hide any of the entrances behind a a stupid tapestry!!!”

There was a long moment of silence.

“Boss……….you’re seriously upset about that?”

“Of course I am! Hidden passages shouldn’t be so easily found, wall tapestries practically scream ‘Something's hidden behind me, come check it out!’”

I stomped a foot on the floor and heard a click. A stone door swung open, pushing the tapestry away, and my cleaning spell shot out of it, and then contiued it’s crusade against cobwebs and dust bunnies.

“Tch, they have a floor lever installed to open the door as well, those things are terrible at sensing pressure, the stone I stomped isn’t even the one that was supposed to be pressed! So terrible…...At least they used some kind of material that blocks magic…..”

Misty used a metal strand to poke my head.

-Who cares how terrible it is, there still might be something interesting in there, let’s go check it out!-

Grumbling, I stepped into the passageway and the door swung shut behind me, once again blocking my connection with the cleaning spell. The passage was very narrow and only led in one direction. My echoing steps on the stone floor made it easy to feel out the passage. It led to an opening in the floor which I promptly stepped through. Wind whipped my hair up as I fell dozens of meters downwards. I braced for impact, my legs bent and grinned, now This was fun. I landed in an unexpected fluffy pile of of high quality silk and cotton, which served to soften my fall greatly. I dug myself out of the pile of what I realised wasn’t just cloth, but frilly dresses, and let my senses explore the area around me. A smile began to break across my face as I took in the rows and rows of frilly dresses of all different sizes and styles.

“I smell blackmail material! Everyone, help me find a diary, there has got to be one in there!”

I began to dart through the rows of dresses, searching every nook and cranny.

-.....Arvid! ignore him, get all of the dresses into a special ring, this is great material to use to dress Master up in!-

I froze mid-search at Misty’s words.

“Arvid, don’t listen to her!”

Misty swirled up to my throat, forming a sharp blade that pressed into my throat.

-This is my revenge for your crazy training! Arvid, do it!-

I felt the mass of dresses vanish from the room.

“Sorry Boss……..but I want to get revenge as well…….but hey, I found the diary you were looking for!”

……..I held my hand out with reluctance, knowing I was being bribed to forget the incident…….and a small, well-worn journal dropped into my waiting hand. The pages crackled with age as I opened it, and began to run the tips of my fingers across the first page.

Oh journal, as a Redsword Lord, I know it is improper from me to have such a habit, but I just can’t seem to stay away from dresses, makeup, jewelry, and all things feminine. Thus, I have created this hidden room, my wonderful paradise where I can indulge my crossdressing habit without worry of ridicule…..You, dear journal, are now the only one who knows my disreputable secret, but I know you won’t be able to tell any tales as I have made sure to hide you very well.

An evil smile broke across my face, I personally didn’t really care what kind of hobbies a person had, in fact, I was of the opinion the weirder the better, but I have found that most nobles in any world are not so…….understanding.

“Hehehe, perfect material to shame the Redsword house even further…..Too bad this guy didn’t put his name anywhere…….I wonder who it belongs to?”

In a distant corner of the Redsword house only ever visited by servants, a sixty year-old looking man who was actually MUCH older, suddenly sneezed, and looked up from the trending fashion paper he was reading. His eyes peered around the room, surprisingly sharp and on closer inspection, his somewhat frail appearing body radiated with strength.

“Hrmph, why did I suddenly get a bad feeling?”

He looked around for another long moment, and then shrugged.

“Eh, it isn’t my problem, I retired just so I could avoid such things and focus on what really mattered.”

He turned his attention back to the fashion paper.