"What are you standing there for?"

It was the first time Kira saw her stoic maid be this restless. She already noticed something off when the woman spaced out while holding a book in her hand.

"Ah, I would like to request some time off, young miss." Mirin sheepishly told her as the girl noticed both of her hands were twitching under her apron. "There was... an emergency back home, so I have to rush back."

A blatant lie, and here she thought that Mirin would be the better liar between the two maids. Seemed like she underestimated Alicia because of the light banters they would usually have.

"You should go back right away." The brunette maid interjected as she passed an unopened letter to the six-year-old girl.

The latter stared at her unimpressed, seeming to gather some courage after being teased by the other, and honestly replied to the little girl. "I have plans to go back, though depending on how I solve the emergency, I might go back later than I should be."

Kira listened to her as she curiously looked at the logo of the seal on the letter and found it odd when she saw it was from their duchy. She then signaled Alicia to get her letter opener before shifting her eyes to the blue-haired woman. "You know I would always allow you, Mirin... as long as you come back, of course. I am a little petty, so I hold grudges much longer than I should." She shrugged, peering to see if the brunette had found the opener yet.

The maid nodded as she muttered under her breath, something about how she should never try to abandon her job and so on. She did a quick bow as a sign of thanks before leaving the room to pack her luggage. The girl intentionally lets her off easy, planning to tease her when she gets back.

Now that she thought about it, the letter might be from her father. The man traveled to their territory to take care of some cases of child abduction. He could have transferred the work to the nobles under them, but it was those nobles in question that had lost their children. Needless to say, the situation got worse pretty quickly, so he needed to be physically present to take care of the problem.

Alicia finally came back to the room. It seemed she fetched the letter opener at the opposite side of the mansion, so it took her a while. Opening the inconspicuous envelope, she read the contents with a raised eyebrow. Her father would need to stay a few more days; additional problems had sprouted, so he needed to wrap those up first before he could conclude his investigation. The man also asked her if she wanted something nice so he could buy it on the way home. Nothing particular came to mind, so she decided to set it aside and write a reply later.

"Would you like me to call Mirin back before she boarded her carriage?" The brunette must have noticed she was fiddling with her calloused hands. So Alicia handed her a cup of warm milk while she was in a trance. She must have felt way too edgy that she didn't notice the woman already went out to get a drink.

Kira waved her hand in dismissal and dropped them on her lap. "That wasn't what I was thinking."

"Is it because of the duke?"

Alicia got it half right; the other half was because she didn't want to stay holed up in her room. They went out a couple of times now, the destination almost always the Capital and its bustling market. If not for her tiny body, she would have sneaked out to go there alone; it gave her a sense of security being all by herself again. It must have been some kind of closure to her previous life experience. Now she could not just go out, not when the recent kidnappings were increasing and the victims now leaning more on people with mana rather than without.

Alicia stared, sneakily grabbing the brush on her vanity table. "You know, I was talking with the kitchen staff yesterday. The cost of food started to get higher. Some kind of plague had affected the outskirts of our Empire, so our produce was relatively low this year."

"What kind of plague?" The topic piqued her interest as she let the brunette brush her hair carefully. "What else did they say?"

"Some priests from the Church of Light were dispatched, along with some local doctors. They said if there were no abduction cases, maybe the nobles could have focused on the plague. Everyone was too scared to go out, much less check the problem. How could it be resolved?" She could hear Alicia's sigh from behind. "I bet those priests won't be much help. They rarely even do charity work unless needed."

It was somewhat disconcerting to think the chain of events that happened started after the Prince's capture. Regardless of whether he was safely rescued or not, something in the political climate shifted; it went downhill from there. If she, a six-year-old, could see it, other people would be able to see it too.

Whispers of the First Prince being a curse started to emerge, and she knew if the Royal family didn't handle this well, the repercussions would be severe.

If she thought of it, it would not be the first time something would happen to the Royal family. Their family had survived the turbulence of sitting at the throne for centuries; it was not a problem a child like her should be contemplating. She was just worried that her brother would be dragged into their mess. Seeing he was pretty close with that Augustus boy.

Kira mentally cursed.

At the end of the day, it was not her problem. She should stop stepping on these muddy waters; it was better to stay on the sidelines for now. The girl also trusted her father; he wouldn't do anything to harm both of his children.

"...young miss?"

Kira snapped back to reality. She could feel Alicia's hand stopped brushing her hair when she jerked in surprise.

"I'm sorry, Alicia. Could you leave me be for a moment?"

"Ah, Irvin. You gotta love that shithead."

"That's certainly sarcasm."

The blonde woman scoffed bitingly, looking sideways at the slouched middle-aged man behind the table. "And how do you know I'm not saying that out of affection? You never knew me enough."

"If only that was true, Galinda. I regret that I know you too well." Albert complained as he unceremoniously joined her to look out of the window. "What's happening now?"

"What do you mean what's happening now?" Galinda had the urge to applaud the blank-faced duke as she checked outside if Irvin Archduchy's carriage was parked on the porch. "You know you should be greeting him once he gets out of that carriage, right? The Archduke himself visited you."

The Grand Duke only glanced at the blinking woman gloomily. "More like investigated," he emphasized. "And what's the hurry? He never welcomed me either when I visited his place; he could go up himself. What's the use of his two feet?"

"Yours would surely be unusable after I break those legs," a voice interjected from behind, followed by the sound of a closing door.

One silver-haired man and one blonde turned with a jerk. They saw a middle-aged man wearing a black suit appear in the doorway. He impatiently sat on the sofa at the center of the room as he tugged a hand through his unruly blue hair. He then crossed his legs and gave the both of them a cursory glance. "Cat got your tongue? You should avoid talking about someone behind their back."

"We always talk about you behind your back," Albert admitted shamelessly as he felt Galinda vibrate beside him. He sighed, a little solemn when he imagined his peace of mind disappearing before his eyes. He sat on the opposite sofa, thinking if he should lie down or if that would be too rude.

Galinda, after suppressing her laughter, seemed to struggle whether she should sit beside one of them but settled on positioning herself behind the table rather than get in between them. "Louis, you should have brought your daughter so I would be entertained during my stay here."

Louis, who was about to drink the cold tea on the table, stopped mid-way and gave her a glare at her complaint. "Is she a toy? Why didn't Albert bring his? That one's younger."

"Oh, I would love to, but that child did not agree, so I opted to send you a letter instead after I remembered you also had a girl," she informed him, feeling regretful she did not annoy the man enough to give in. "Anyway, my child is too old, and he's a boy, so… I can't dress him up."

"You still have that weird hobby of yours even after graduating from the Academy?" Albert stared at her incredulously as he stood up from his seat to call a servant to serve fresh tea.

Galinda rolled her eyes, grabbing the nearest ashtray and throwing it at the man. "It's a hobby, not a phase, you dimwit." She then disappointedly huffed when she saw him catch it effortlessly.

"Stop being rowdy." The blue-haired man ordered, only for them to return an irritable look.

All of them graduated the same year in the Academy. Although Albert was in the swordsmanship department, as opposed to the two who were magicians, it did not stop them from meeting sporadically. Louis and Galinda were classmates and became the top students when they graduated. Their relationship back then was complicated; they mostly treated each other as competitors rather than friends. That was until both of them got into an accident during a field trip where the feeble silver-haired boy coincidentally saved them from dying.

Back then, Albert was never an excellent student; he also had yet to have a backbone. That night he was casually passing by after trying to avoid the bulk of students gushing non-stop about their lives. That's when he saw the two trapped in a bait intended for a high-level magical beast. Deciding to save the two as an act of charity, he would never expect them to be society's influential figures after graduating.

Galinda Clemens, the former first princess, and the marquis' wife, surprisingly 'married in' instead of preserving her royal name. As a child was an extroverted 'loud mouth' – coming from Louis when asked to describe her once – and was never the type to lower herself to compromise. The blue-haired man was the same; he was as stubborn as her, seemed to hate the world more than a typical teenager in puberty would, and could have a stick up his ass.

He succeeded the Archduke after attending the Academy.

It was not an instant friendship but a state of mutualism, some kind of 'I-tolerate-you-and-you-tolerate-me' kind of situation. The three would sneak in the forbidden places inside the Academy – Louis mostly dragged during their adventure since he was almost always unwilling to join. Nevertheless, whenever they successfully get out alive, his face would brighten a little. Now they found themselves into a new predicament: a dark organization was capturing children to use them as an experimental subject, and each one of them was tasked to find out who they were.

"Why are you here in my territory anyway?" Albert asked after he filled his cup with new tea. He was supposed to go to his territory alone to quell the worry of the nobles he was leading. From what was reported to him, two children from two different houses were already kidnapped.

A bold move considering most houses would usually employ protective magic circles.

Then it must be one of the two things: one, either the organization was highly brazen it short-circuited their brain, or two, they have the power to back their brashness up.

Galinda curiously browsed through the papers on the duke's table. "Just because –" she pulled a folder from a stack and opened it, "– and the Emperor said I could do what I want, so I will do what I want," she added willfully.

"I have already placed safety measures in my territory, and in case something happens, no child would disappear from there," Louis remarked as he gave the two of them a flat look. Although his land was pretty large, it was unlike the Grand Duchy's, where roads were paved better and, as a result, increased the influx of people. The enemy would surely use the opportunity to cause a mass hysteria to abduct a child or two.

The blonde princess nodded, glancing back at them with interest as she lifted her feet to put them on the table. "Furthermore, from my investigation on the recent abduction of the Prince, all abducted have a certain denominator. First, they should have already done their mana aptitude test. Second, their parents must be at the blue level or above, guaranteeing they inherited good genes, and third, they need to be young, at least below 13 years old."

"Those are pretty strict requirements." Albert wondered out loud as he thought of the possible candidates on the abductee list. "How many children with those requirements have they gotten so far?"

"Nine, two of which are from your territory."

Louis stayed silent, appearing to be lost in thought. "So, do we have a list of the possible people they could target?"

"Not until tonight. We are still confirming things," Galinda answered gravely while she leaned on her chair.

Albert slowly stood up, patted the dust off his lap then gestured at the two. "Then it would be better if we rest first. We can continue later if we have Galinda's information."

The two nodded as they reached a concession.

Augustus stared amusedly at his friend. The silver-haired boy, who 'coincidentally' crossed paths with him, stiffly joined him on the way to their magical theory class. He didn't know what brought his willingness to see him first today, but it appears to be nothing major based on the boy's facial expression. He decided to spare the boy from the embarrassment as he decided to ask him later when they were alone.

They entered the lecture hall, and there were not many people in sight. Students from different departments would take the same electives here and attend their major classes at a large training hall located at the rear of the Academy. The lecture rooms have pitched floors; people who wanted to sit behind would stand on a higher platform than the ones at the front.

He usually goes to class early in an attempt to avoid some rabid fangirls that proved to be a royal pain in the ass every class time. Which, surprisingly, does not stop the other boy from barging to their class late. Esternon was not a late sleeper; on the contrary, he would wake up early to do some quick training but would always fail to estimate the time. In truth, the first time they would interact each day would be by late afternoon where they were paired up during fighting sessions.

Augustus was aware it was only the young duke heir who could tolerate him during mock fights.

Tolerating was putting it nicely; it was more of a one-sided beat-up. Frankly, even Esternon started to get jaded at their consistent status quo in fights. It was not that he didn't want to give the boy a chance to win, he had already thought about it once, and it ended up badly when the boy walked out during class, seemingly offended that he pitied him. Since then, he had been a bit more careful in considering his feelings.

The boy had a pretty weird way of living, and to be honest, Augustus quite liked it. Their family was also an odd sort. They had a clear bottom line, they wouldn't be nosy until you tell them to, and when there were problems, it would always be cleanly resolved between the parties involved. He belatedly realized some Roelf family traits started to rub off him after her younger sister called him out on his last vacation.

It was unlike him, she said. And he believed that too.

Nonetheless, Augustus welcomed that change. Even he started to laugh way louder than a prince should have – only behind closed doors with his closest people – it was a breath of fresh air. He wasn't gonna lie, but something about wantonly doing the things he could not do before made his life a little bit easier to navigate.

Lately, he had even complained to the boy about how he started to hate the looks girls their year would give him whenever he was walking by.

"Maybe I should start going to class early too. I hate seeing those crowds of girls waiting at the entrance of the lecture hall." Esternon wondered aloud as if talking to himself as he dropped his magical theory book on his table.

Augustus squinted at the heir's worn-out textbook, then proceeded to compare it to his – the former appearing like it was thrashed around while the latter looked like it came straight from the publishing company. "You and me both." It was not something they could complain about publicly, so they had to find other ways to go around the problem.

"Then that would mean I would need to wake up earlier than what I was already doing," he winced at the sudden realization then cracked his neck before sitting down beside Augustus. "Ah, speaking of, I met with you earlier than usual just to ask if you've heard of the rumors about you."

Ah, it was those rumors. Albert thought the silver-haired boy had a love problem.

"They would disappear on their own, don't worry about it too much," he flatly replied, opening his textbook to read their lecture before they started.

Esternon stared at him, reviewing his expression. "If you say so," he replied, temporarily giving up the topic.

There were rumors about him being the curse of the Royal family. It said it snowballed from the day he was kidnapped until today, where various disasters – whether caused by nature or by people – started to appear one after the other. It was some kind of hush conversation among the academy students, mainly talked about by the people in their year. Augustus doesn't need to wonder; it had spread at such a large scale inside the closed-off Academy. What more outside then?

In any case, he had not lied to his friend. It would disappear after some time.

After all, they were the ones to spread it.

It was a trick they usually do as damage control; his royal father had predicted the abduction would not stop any time soon, for they failed to cut the problem off its root. Moreover, they made a big deal out of it, so it would make sense he would be turned into some kind of catastrophic turning point other people could use to fuel their agendas. The best move should be to take the initiative to handle how long, wide, and effective it would spread.

It would also keep some potential enemies off their backs. Some people don't like it when other people have it good, so if their life was too smooth sailing, their enemies would start giving them problems. That was why they needed to create their own 'ups' and 'downs' from time to time.

Everything was straight out of a play, even more so now that his father was afraid of stepping on an unexpected landmine called the 'crown prince.'

The Emperor had no plans to take on concubines, but he could not express that outright, not to the nobles who wanted to wed their daughters to him. And not when there was an impending war with a neighboring country rumored to have an Arch Magus. The Emperor still needed the power of the nobles to protect their land.

His father admitted to him their battle might be a prolonged fight, and neither would be killed – which was good news. The bad news, people who were at the power level black, could disseminate hundreds of kilometers of land in one strike – no one was sure if an Empire would remain after that.

Augustus understood he was already privileged enough the Emperor loved his family, enough to shield and protect them while they were young.

"Hey, the instructor said we could go back to the dorms." Esternon nudged him, too ecstatic to get back to his quarters early that he overlooked his absentmindedness.

He hummed in acknowledgment as he stood up, gathering his books in one hand. "Isn't it a little bit too early?"

"He said we will be notified if there are any announcements." The boy replied cheerfully as he followed him out of the room.

"I hope it's good news."

Alicia spat out blood as the man kicked her in the gut.

She was thrown a few meters away; the brunette waved her metal staff and braced herself from the impact. Her back landed hard on the carpeted hallway. She sprung back up after ignoring the stinging pain that suddenly appeared on her arm.

It must have broken during the sudden bout; she could heal herself later, she thought. The swordmaster she was currently fighting proved to be a hassle.

It started when she heard a commotion from the ground floor of the mansion, it was nighttime, and she was recently dismissed by her young mistress, saying she wanted some time alone. She was never the type to say no to her whenever she wanted to be isolated, so she agreed. Alicia felt something was wrong, so she quickly grabbed the shortened magical staff she always brought with her then ran straight to the young girl's room, planning to protect her if there happened to be intruders. She was not that worried. Unless those people could destroy the magic shield on the first floor set up by the duke himself, then everything should be fine.

It did not take her a while to realize she thought wrong. She'd seen signs of struggle as she got closer to the six-year-old's room; that was when she hastened her steps. A few meters away from her destination, she met a swordsman who uses fire magic. Alicia did not hesitate to initiate the fight as her adrenaline-fueled body jumped and slammed to the man's body rendering him unprepared. The sword attached to his waist fell from its scabbard and slid a few meters away.

Which was good; she was a ranged fighter with little to no experience in hand-to-hand combat. It would be disadvantageous for her if the intruder kept his weapon. From here on, it would be a contest of who could cast their spells faster.

Thankfully, after she got kicked, she landed where the sword was. As she swiftly grabbed it with shaking hands, she chanted magic that would cause blinding light.

"Oh, Goddess of Light, hear my p-prayer!" Alicia shouted as she closed her eyes tightly, ensuring she would not be affected by her own magic.

Bright light seeped in between the lids of her eyes as she cast a chantless wide-area search. Alicia could see the silhouette of the man still frozen in the same spot she had last seen him. The brunette then used that opportunity and dauntlessly charged forward to stab the man on his stomach.

"Euk!" The man groaned as his breath got caught in his throat.

The light dissipated gradually, allowing her to open her eyes. What greeted her was the sight of the intruder in a bloodied mess. He lay on the floor unmoving while breathing heavily. Alicia slowly fell to her knees; she was tinged with guilt as she touched the hilt of a sword, forcefully pulling it from the man's torso to check the weapon. Shakily observing that the paralyzing magic she applied earlier was still there, she grabbed her staff from the floor as support.

"F-fucker." Alicia cursed under her breath, filled with regret thinking she would be in a better condition if only that certain Priestess of Darkness did not go back to her church.

Alicia dragged the sword using her right hand while she used her staff as a crutch. The man eyed her as he struggled to breathe; she tried to ignore his stare as she lifted the weapon and struck his heart.

The brunette felt her knees weakened, realizing this was her first time taking someone's life.

The woman prevented herself from dwelling with it for too long as she continued her way to her young miss' room. Fortunately, she did not encounter other swordsmen or magi. They must be at the different parts of the mansion since she could still hear the sounds of fighting. Many bodies were scattered in the dimly lit hallway, which made it hard for her to go across.

Perhaps, people the swordsman killed, she guessed.

It took her a moment before she arrived in front of the room. Alicia didn't hesitate and twisted the knob; unlike before, the action seemed way more burdensome. She felt the fear continuously grow in her heart. She even prayed to her Goddess to keep the girl safe.

But then, Alicia's greatest fear was proven to be right when Kira was nowhere to be seen.