Over the next few months, Felix quickly got used to Giselle’s guests’ presence. It practically became routine for Felix to look up from his picture books to see Frida casually watching him from the entrance to his room or sporadically observing him as she took her daily walks through the floral arrangements in the garden.

Rachel would still frown whenever she saw Felix as if he had spat in her food, but the hatred in the knight’s eyes seemed to mellow into annoyance. The feeling was definitely mutual.

Giselle had gotten more natural at adopting her indifferent expression, but she was still having trouble completely masking the mix of guilt and anger in her eyes.

If they were going to simply observe him like some zoo animal and keep their interactions with him limited to awkward formal greetings, he would simply greet them back and go about his business.

Felix’s business including taking some big steps in his journey towards independence, and by independence, this included:

Felix being able to walk properly, bar some minor falls when his perpetually growing body would clumsily lose balance. Having enough body control to feed himself. Isabella was shocked when she saw him crying the first time he fed himself (anything was better than hospital gruel). Managing to clothe himself (with Isabella’s assistance naturally). Carrying his own books/toys.

He would also try to help Isabella with her chores like tidying up his room just to keep himself busy.

Initially, she seemed reluctant to let him help, as Felix could make more mess or somehow get himself hurt, but despite his clumsy childish limbs he managed to do a decent job (given his higher mental age).

Even though Isabella was unaware of his ‘true’ age, Felix felt she was doing a great job in ‘aiding’ his development. She would regularly question him about ‘new’ words that he had learned, read him stories, and spend quality time outdoors with him.

All these experiences were valuable to Felix despite his mental age as they represented a sort of metaphorical journey for Felix from his handicapped, illness-stricken life as Jared to a new, active, and engaging life as Felix.

If there was anything to complain about it would probably be the fact that he had to act as if he were dumber than he really was, and that Sebastian hadn’t grown out of his vindictive phase.

Sometimes Felix would accidentally let bits of his intelligence come through in his interactions with Isabella, but he assumed that she was aware he was more intelligent than the average toddler, but probably not overwhelmingly so.

Like this, Felix continued to grow and develop as time passed, until one day he was greeted with some shocking news. Late on one Autumn morning, Felix was awoken from his slumber by Isabella, explaining to him that it was his father’s 40th birthday and that he was expected to be in attendance.

Isabella seemed to be very nervous about the event as she helped Felix get ready for it. Even though she tried to speak to him in an excited manner about all the delicious food he would get to eat and how beautiful the Lady’s garden was, Felix could see her hands shaking slightly as she helped him dress up and could hear the weak tremor in her usually upbeat tone.

Felix somewhat understood the source of Isabella’s anxiety. When Felix was a swaddling baby, Isabella spoke about her memories of working in the Main House, and how neither the Lady nor her son was the most pleasant master to serve.

The Lord’s legal wife was in fact the younger sister of the current king, Lady Isadora Agrona, who was heavily doted upon by both the current and the former king, but rumours spread that her personality was far from lovable.

It was well known in the kingdom that in Felix’s father’s youth, the noble scions of the 3 great households were all enamoured by her older sister’s beauty, the daughter of a concubine.

Fearing a civil war, the king had her married off to a foreign ally’s prince under the guise of strengthening bonds between the two nations.

A few years before Felix was born, when his father took up the mantle of Duke Armstrong, he ended up marrying Lady Isadora as a means of fortifying the bond between two of the pillars of the kingdom, despite her being his supposed second choice.

That probably brought about her spoilt, vindictive personality, where she would mistreat the house help if she didn’t get her way, especially if they were among the prettier members of the help.

Isabella even told Felix that she was almost kicked out a few years ago because Isadora burnt her tongue on the tea Isabella poured.

Fortunately, Isabella’s husband was a valuable member of the House’s guards, and given that she had been working on the estate since the previous lord’s time, she could remain and be relocated to take care of some of the behind-the-scenes work so she wouldn’t catch Isadora’s eye.

Apparently, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Isabella never had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting the Young Master of the Armstrong Duchy due to her maternity leave, but according to her friends from the main house, to put it lightly Roland was a real piece of work.

From what she had heard, he was a spoilt troublemaker that never took no for an answer, except on the rare occasion he saw his mother, who was either out in the city shopping or watching the latest plays.

Apparently on one occasion one of the maids was trying to coax him to sleep with a cup of warm milk, but the young master wasn’t ready to stop playing with his toys, and he ended up throwing the cup in the lady’s face, giving her a nasty bruise.

Roland had made more than one person cry in his short 3 years of life, and Felix guessed that Isabella was scared he would be the next.

Considering his mental age, Felix felt that that scenario was quite unrealistic, as he hadn’t cried very often since the day he was born, but he could understand Isabella’s reservation for bringing him into a potentially hostile environment.

Knowing this, Felix reached for Isabella’s trembling hands and clumsily gripped one with his small mitts, bringing it to rest on his cheeks as he gave her a reassuring smile, to which she replied with a determined smile of her own.

It seemed to say that no matter what happened, she would protect him. Felix was looking forward to the day that he could do the protecting.