The soft gusty winds of the early morning were a little cold, but refreshing. The chirping of the birds and the soft rustling of leaves were a bit annoying and quite frankly, a bit distracting, but Lazarus had to focus.

If it wasn’t indoors in his room, then the palace garden was where he would always stay as it had the most memories of his mother and it was her favorite place to play with him. And so,

“The spirits of old, I call upon thee and uhmm….” Lazarus peeked with one eye at the open book laying in the grass, before closing his eyes once more, “Let the whispers of the wind become the voice of my drumming heart, Whirlwind!”

He shot his eyes open and…

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing happened.

Lazarus plopped down on the grass and heaved a sigh before lying on his back.

Magic was a bit harder to cast than he initially thought. Wasn’t it good enough to imagine the spell and recite the verses that the heroes in the story spoke?

He knew that he had a low mana pool compared to everyone else and that Clovis and Anastasia had a large mana pool, but even so, his mother only had average mana pool and was able to become the Queen of the Twilight Kingdom.

In a way, she was Lazarus’ idol. His mother was a testament that mana pool didn’t determine the strength of a person and even if he had a low mana pool, he too could do it. He just needed to cast a spell at his age so everyone can recognize he has talent.

Lazarus clenched his fist, “Alright, this time I’ll try a different magic.”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lara was walking around the castle corridors and happened to notice Lazarus from the transparent windows that gave a wide view of the palace gardens. He was doing strange things, probably practicing to cast magic again in his lonesome self.

Heaving a sigh, Lara walked towards the stairs to get to Lazarus. Seeing the prince so pumped up even though he barely had any mana made Lara want to cheer him on. At the very least, she wanted to keep him company while she was free.

“Heeyy!”

“Hm?” Lara turned to see another maid waving at her and approaching. She asked, “Is something the matter?”

“No, but you’re heading to see the prince right?”

“Indeed, why?”

“I’m just curious, why?”

Lara furrowed her brows, what why? It was a maids duty to be there for their master wasn’t it? And plus they were being paid a lot so slacking off wasn’t even on the table. And it could be seen as a slight against the royal family and that wouldn’t be good for anyone’s reputation.

Her bewilderment must’ve been apparent on her face as the other maid explained,

“You do realize that young prince Lazarus isn’t going to inherit the crown, at best he’d probably be married off to some young noble. If you want, I could give a good word to Anastasia and she’d take you in as her maid. When she gains influence, we’d be in a very good position. What do you think?”

So that’s what this was.

Lara shook her head,

“I appreciate your offer. But I would like to stick to the young prince’ side.”

“Why?” The other maid asked incredulously.

Lara did understand her perplexion. The other maid probably knew that Lara was employed just three months ago, and was looking out for her, seeing as Lazarus wouldn’t obviously gain any sort of influence. And though she appreciated the concern, it wasn’t why Lara was here.

Seeing as the other maid had good intention, Lara answered with a smile,

“He reminds me so much of my younger brother,”

“Your brother has below average mana pool?”

Lara shook her head, “We don’t know that yet. You see-”

“Ah right. There’s no way to test your younger brother’s mana since only nobles and royalty have access to the angel’s previdere.”

“It is as you say. The reason why the young prince reminds me of my brother is because he tries hard at something. Not because he wants to get stronger, but because he wants to be acknowledged. You see, I graduated from Royal Jenis Magic academy.”

The other maid’s eyes shot wide open. “Royal Jenis Magic academy?! That’s a top tier school and only very few commoners can attend that school!”

Lara nodded. “So my brother is always compared to me. But even when he couldn’t meet our parent’s expectations, he tried hard. When nobody's watching, he cleans the table, and his room. He even gets water from the well far up so I could bathe without having to trouble myself.”

The other maid was taken aback, the way Lara’s expression softened and the way she looked into the distance and smiled while talking about her brother made her heart twist.

“Did you know? Prince Lazarus’ tidies his room by himself. He practices magic every morning and the only thing I have trouble with is getting him off his magic books in time for breakfast. Fufufuu”

Lara couldn’t help but chuckle at Lazarus’ cute antics. She was so surprised the very first time she met him that he never ordered her to do everything for him. He did everything by himself and that made her duties lighter.

But she could never get over how his eyes lit-up when he talks about Emilia and magic. It really reminded Lara of her younger brother.

-’Hmm?’-

Lara hummed to herself as she noticed the other maid fidgeting with her fingers and looking uncomfortable. She wondered why.

“Is something the matter?”

“N-no-..But-...” The maid made an ‘Ah’ face as if she just thought of what to say,”If you graduated from royal jenis academy, why did you become a maid?”

“Oh, that’s because starting off as an adventurer or a court magician apprentice doesn’t pay well. Maybe when your reputation gets better and when you’d have enough experience it would. However, I need the money earlier than that so-..”

“What for?”

Lara thought the other maid was quite nosy, but it was fine since it was something she’d dealt with before.

Servants loved to gossip and Lara was fine with revealing this much. She answered,

“I’m sending the money to support my family. And mostly, to pay for my younger brother’s tuition. Unlike me, he isn’t a scholar so we have to pay the tuition at Royal Jenis academy in full.”

“O-oh… I see. I’m also sending my money to my parents!” The other maid smiled cheerfully. Maybe she was happy that they had something in common.

Actually, it was the norm for servants to be sending their money elsewhere. And a few saved up for themselves. Other servants merely wanted to be close with someone who had potential to be great one day and ride their coattails in their blaze to glory.

Lara smiled,

“If that is all, I will be on my way.”

“Hmm? O-ohh yeah, it was nice speaking with you!”

Lara walked off, the only thing she felt was strange was how the maid was a bit jumpy near the end. But she paid it no heed and continued on her way.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another day, and this time Lazarus was reading a different book in his room. Of course, they were still hand-drawn picture books. But having made different poses and incantations, he was a bit tired and wanted to go walk around and think about what he was doing wrong.

After walking around the castle, sometimes muttering to himself, he eventually ended up passing the dining room. The door was open and he wanted to look around to see if anyone was there.

No one.

Lazarus casually strolled inside and inspected the plates displayed on the cabinet. He couldn’t reach them but he could see them through the glass cabinet door.

“Those patterns…”

The way the engravings swerved and formed some sort of abstract shape and everything on it seemed like it was telling him something.

-’Perhaps I can use them as a basis for magic?’-

Perhaps no one knew this but himself.

The plate’s engraving may contain some magical secrets that no one has found out about but him.

A sense of excitement surged in Lazarus' chest, he wanted to get one to inspect it carefully and he climbed on top of a chair. As he was halfway through getting one, he noticed a familiar sound of boots clacking heavily against the stone floor.

Lazarus felt a numbness envelop his body, adrenaline shot through his veins as he hurriedly went down and put the chair back. The clacking became louder and to his horror, it stopped just in front of the door.

He looked left, then right. And-..!

“Hmm…” Veyron arrived inside the dining room with an entourage of maids in tow. He looked around, no one was there. A maid had already pulled a chair for him and he simply sat down.

The rest began their work and a couple of maids with wooden trolleys came rolling in.

Lazarus watched from inside one of the wooden cabinets but had a sort of ventilation to see what was happening. The drum like beating from his heart, and his silent but hurried breath made for an uncomfortable experience.

But it was better than being seen by the King. He was afraid he’d scream or smack him away. It felt like a prey hiding from his predator.

Then he noticed one of the maids not paying attention and opened the cabinet where the plates had been. She was looking towards the King and before she knew it-..

*Clink-Clang!*

Lazarus held his breath. Covering his mouth.

The maids all looked at one another, their widened eyes slowly turning to Veyron.

“Leave… And never come back.” The King ordered sternly, without even batting an eye or turning to see the accident.

The maid who caused the incident had her eyes become teary, she opened her mouth and closed repeatedly like a fish. She looked like she wanted to say something but couldn’t.

“Have you not heard me?” Said Veyron in a calm, but commanding tone.

“U-understood your highness.” Replied the maid reluctantly. She bowed, and then left with tears streaming down her cheeks.

The other maids seemed to look at her with pity, some with sympathy and the others avoided looking at the incident all together.

And like clockwork, the other maids began cleaning while the rest prepared the King’s meal.

An overwhelming guilt came in Lazarus. He wanted to say something, that it was his fault but-... he couldn’t. If he went out now, who knew if he would get out alive.

So he simply stayed and cowered. Shivering and hugging himself.

It took a while for the King to finish his meal and leave.

The remaining maids began talking,

“Haa-.... If only Suren had paid attention to what she was doing…”

Another chimed in with a slumped shoulder, “But she was deprived of sleep from accompanying his majesty from his recent trip. It couldn’t be helped…”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now. She’s already fired, and we can only hope we do better.”

“But-... didn’t she have a family of six to feed.”

“She’ll have to find another job.”

The maids continued their conversation about how sorry they were for Suren, the maid who was just fired.

Lazarus wasn’t sure what ‘fired’ meant but he felt now wasn’t the time to go out and ask. Not like they’d answer him.

Surely Lara would know. He could ask her then.

Lazarus waited for a good hour before the maids left and he went out himself.

—------

That night, Lara noticed that Lazarus was on his bed just staring at her.

Weird.

The young prince was usually reading some books while she cleaned his room. But it wasn’t the case this time. Lara wondered what was up.

“Uhmm… Lara?”

“Yes young prince?”

“What does it mean to get fired?”

“It means to lose a job.”

“What’s a job?”

Lara began explaining to him how people earned money in a way that was understood by kids. It was then she began to mention how being a maid was also her job and she was getting money for her troubles.

That’s when Lazarus asked,

“Would you get fired if you broke a plate?”

“Perhaps. That might depend on the price of the plate and the reason for the blunder. However in most cases, I will get fired seeing as I’m serving the royal family of the Valhearts, and it is quite known how the King can be very strict. Why do you ask?”

“Uhmm-... that is because..”

When Lazarus told her what happened, Lara listened carefully.

“So I think it’s my fault…” Lazarus lamented.

Lara was taken aback.

Not because of what the young prince had done but because of how remorseful he looked being hunched down and twiddling his fingers.

“Why is it that you feel responsible?” Lara couldn’t help but ask, to which Lazarus replied. “The plates wouldn’t have fallen down had I not pulled it out where it was from…”

Lara smiled, then hunched herself to be in Lazarus’ eye level and asked softly,

“Forgive me for my impudence but may I have a seat with you?”

Lazarus nodded meekly.

Lara sat beside him and relaxed herself. She took a deep breath before turning to look at Lazarus,

“It wasn’t your fault. As a maid, it was Suren’s duty to always pay attention to the task at hand. The cabinet doors are transparent so she could have looked at the plates before taking them, should she not?”

“But I-...”

“It wasn’t your fault, young prince.”

“I have to tell the other maids… I have to tell them the truth…”

“N-no.. please don’t!” Lara had suddenly yelled out. To which Lazarus looked at her with widened eyes.

The other maids didn’t have a favorable look on Lazarus and if he explained what happened, no doubt they would put the blame on him even though it wasn’t his fault. Even if some could see the reason, most would use him as a scapegoat and perhaps turn their ire on him which is why it was a bad idea. Lara knew this, especially from her experience being a commoner at the Royal Jenis Academy and she had been subjected to the scrutiny of envious nobles.

No good would come of him telling them so, to answer Lazarus' acquiring look she pleaded, “It is best that you don’t. Alright?”

With brows furrowed down, it was quite clear Lazarus wasn’t convinced.

Lara patted his head, gave him a pleading look and asked, “You’ll promise me, won’t you? Promise that you won’t tell them what happened?”

“O-okay…” Said Lazarus with a meek nod.

Lara smiled ruefully. Truly, this child was too kind and honest, just like her brother.

But just for good measure, Lara held up her pinky “Pinky promise that you won’t tell?”

Lazarus, seeing the look Lara was giving him, felt a sudden determination. He took her pink with him and nodded.

“Promise…”

Satisfied, Lara stood up, patted herself and continued cleaning.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------