"Sigh."

Finally managing to slip out of the party, I found peace here on one of the balcony terraces of the castle.

The said balcony offered a splendid nighttime overview of the whole city of Beaumont. With every house having its lights on in the middle of the night, the scene looked like the sky on a starry night.

Since we got back from our final training with Mathew this morning, Mael and I have been dragged around and harassed non-stop by everyone from the party.

It was only now, since this morning, that I was able to exhale.

Or so I thought before a voice interrupted me.

"So here you were."

Still contemplating the magnificent sight from the balustrade, I heard a very familiar voice calling me from behind.

"Yes, Mama, here I was."

I didn’t even have to glance to see who the voice belonged to, I’ve heard that voice plenty of times already to know who it belonged to, after all, it belonged to my mother.

to know that it belonged to my mother.

"Are you here to take me back to the party?"

"No, not at all. In fact, I was here to felicitate you. It wasn’t perfect, but you behaved more appropriately than I would’ve ever expected you to."

"Oh,... is that so?"

"Yes."

I wasn’t particularly expecting to be congratulated today, at least not for this, so I didn’t know what exactly I could say beyond this point.

Mother And I don’t particularly share anything in common with her besides our physical appearance. Personality-wise, she was on the calmer and collected side of the coin, while I was... what I was.

So since we didn’t share anything particularly in common, it was mostly complicated for both of us to find a topic we could hold a long standing discussion on.

Younger, I could hold long discussions, but even then, most of our interactions consisted of me being scolded for doing the exact opposite of what I was expected to do.

As I grew older, I gradually reduced those behaviors, so I received fewer and fewer reprimands, reducing our already limited interactions to little to none unless absolutely necessary.

"It’s beautiful, isn’t it ?"

"Huh, what?"

She went beside me and observed the horizon alongside me.

"This sight, of course? It has been almost sixteen years since the first time I saw it. And it is almost as beautiful as it was that day."

"Hum… is that so?"

"Yes, it’s incredible how fast time flies. One day you were just a small rampant mini-tornado, and the next you are- I mean, look at yourself, almost-no, already such a gorgeous lady. "

"Thanks Mama."

To be honest, I was terrible at responding to compliments of this nature; am I supposed to say, "Thank you, you're absolutely correct?"or remaining humble by responding to her compliment with another.

In either case, whatever I chose, it wouldn’t feel like myself, but since I didn’t want the conversation to fall flat, I decided to follow on with a compliment.

"You too are very beautiful in your dress today, I mean tonight, … just like every day.

An awkward silence took place before an unexpected sound erupted from her.

"Pfft."

She was bursting into laughter in such a genuine way that she herself, under normal circumstances, would call it "disgracious" for a lady.

"What?! I tried to be nice here. "

"Was that supposed to compliment me? You sounded more like a man trying to hit on me. "

"Huh… Sorry for that. "

Still wiping tears off her face, she said, "It’s me who is sorry, Don’t take it that way. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was mocking you."

"It’s nothing."

"Really, sorry. After all, this is my fault. I should’ve personally dedicated more time to teaching you how to behave more ladylikely. "

"Actually, I’m really thankful you didn’t."

"I, on the other hand, regret, I didn’t. Maybe if I did, we would’ve many more moments of laughter like the one from earlier, but now it feels like too late."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, twenty years ago, I left my home for Aurora Academia. And almost never returned since then."

"Oh that, well if you think I’m going to take that same path you did, Mama, I’m afraid I might disappoint you."

" Oh, I know you won’t take the same path as I did. I was certain of that an age ago."

She sighed, out loud, then racked her voice as if to start a very long story.

"You know, I met your father for the first time twenty years ago. As you already know, I come from a humble, middle-ranking noble family from a small Earldom within the Empire. Our family never gave birth to any particularly powerful individuals, nor was it particularly wealthy. As a noble, I didn’t have much to offer, so you can imagine the difference there was between your father and I. We shared literally nothing in common. He was everything I was not and could never be. He was the heir of a Ducal Family and the grandson of the previous crusade's Hero, the Holy Paladin Armand Aubrecht, and was endowed with powerful magic and an enormous mana pool. To top it all off, on the Aurora Academia’s ground, as an heir of a leading family, he was the leader of the faction representing the Beaumont Duchy. That is to say, between your father and I, we had almost nothing in common, and in fact, a very wide disrepancy between us. In fact, the only reason I was able to interact with him was thanks to my best friend Luna, Mael’s mother, who back then was , though having met for only a short period, acting lovey-dovey with Mael’s father. But even then, there was nothing I could do, and it didn’t take me long to realize that he was nowhere close to being interested in me. Why? Though there could be many possible answers, there was one that was clearly obvious: he had someone he loved. "

"And yet, obstinate as I was, I kept clinging around. Then one day, I made a decision, and made my boldest move, and then, unexpectedly, he finally gave me the chance, I longed for. We tried to get to know each other, and soon, if not too fast, you happened. We came here, and we had you. "

"The day you were born was the happiest day of my life. You were our precious daughter to your father and I. Back then, I believed I couldn’t be more content in life, but then something changed, and though for a time I couldn’t tell precisely what exactly it was, it didn’t take me long to figure it out. I never went deep into it, but deep down I knew what it was. Instead, I decided to willingly ignore it, I even came up with my own way to cope with it. I wanted more than just a daughter, I wanted a son. That was how insecure I was. One thing leading to another, I couldn-no I didn’t gave you the attention you deserved, and that led us to where we are now. I was a bad mother to you and most likely to Elliel too. "

That was a very heavy topic to discuss of. It was easily the heaviest we've had in 15 years.

"What are you talking about? You weren’t a bad mother at all. "

"But I wasn’t a good one either, I was present, but wasn’t there for you. I really wish I had done better. "

Her voice sounded genuinely full of regret.

Seeing her speaking, I too decided to respond in kind.

I don't know what train of thought led me to believe that it would be a good idea, but I sent out a tap on her back, then said, "It’s not too late, you know, I mean, it’s not like I’m going on a war in which I would never get back, you know. We still have time. Though I admit, we as mother and daughter don’t have much in common, I’m sure that as long as we keep trying, we can compensate for the time together we wasted these past fifteen years.

I wasn’t sure about the tap, but I felt like I had just blurted something really deep a few moments earlier.

Before I could ascertain her reaction, she closed the distance between us and embraced me, burying my head in her chest.

"That sounded awfully wisely-worded coming from you."

She said those in a weirdly muffled voice.

"Was it bad?"

"Not bad, just weird, weird but very pleasant to hear."

Not knowing much about how to react or what to say, I sent my arms to respond to her embrace back.

We remained just like that. We remained in that posture for quite a while.

"Euh Mama, I think it is time you got those off of my face."

"Oh, what a surprise. I thought you would like them, like you used to." She said, while letting go of me.

"I’m way past that age."

"Eh, is that so?"

Her gaze descended from my face to my chest level area.

"What?"

"Humh... Nothing... Nothing, the party hasn’t reached its climax yet, I’m going back in. Do you want to get back in with me?"

To be honest, I had my dose of the party, I didn’t have any intention of getting back in.

"No, I think I’ll stay here for a little while first. Please, go ahead first, I will come later. "

"Maybe?"

"Yes, Mama, maybe."

"Then I will be, maybe, waiting for you inside." She said before going back to the party.

I sighed, once again, out loud.

I really didn’t expect such heavy discussion to occur here, but in the end, it was better this way.

Returning to the activity I left off before Mama’s arrival, I let my mind wander adrift, yet this time I didn’t fail to notice the approaching from behind me.

It approached, then came to a halt, maybe three meters away.

Though hesitant, I glanced at the owner of the footstep to indicate that I noticed his presence.

Behind me was a tall, blonde old man, standing at a height of somewhere between 6 and 7 feet, who, despite my earlier "old man" claim, seemed to be in peak physical condition with an athletic yet heavily muscular build. He, like most people at the party, was dressed rather formally, at least in comparison to his usual attire.

This person was, just like my mother, someone with whom I had a very hard time talking to, despite living in the same house. No, in fact, it would be unjustified to lump this man’s situation with my situation with my mother. The complicated mood between my mother and I was more of something unintentional, whereas with this person, not only was I not getting along with him, I never tried to, and that was clearly intentional, and I had my fair share of reasons to.

That person was Armand Aubrecht, my great-grandfather.

There was a time when I admired that man and his fellow Holy Paladins, a time where I was proud of having him as a great-grandfather, but now that former pride has been completely ruined by what I knew about him and his people.

He approached me and simply stood beside me without saying a single word. At that moment, never in my life have I ever so much understood Mael's obsession with not being bothered while reading.

I wasn’t sure what exactly he was trying to accomplish with this, but I had no intention of finding out because someone simply

"Cough, cough."

This was the only way I could think of to inform him that he was, in fact, bothering me.

Acting completely oblivious to my coughs, he simply gazed into the horizon.

"Congratulations, on your fifteenth birthday and your ascension." He said out of nowhere, even losing sight of whatever it was he was looking at on the horizon.

"Umu."

"Fifteen huh... It went so... " For some reason, he started blabbering some words before stopping, then saying out loud, " I give up, this isn’t for me," He pulled out an envelope from his pocket, then put it on the balustrade, before sliding it toward me.

It was a white envelope with only on the outside the emblem of a white rose.

"Inside this envelope there is a letter. It contains a recommendation letter to an establishment known as White Rose. In the Holy Capital, there is no better smith than them in the entire Human Continent, as long as you or Mael have a wish of upgrade for your equipments, they can make it."

"I-" I wasn’t even starting my sentence when I was already interrupted.

"If you do, ever use this recommendation, please, bring Mael with you, that place, besides its unique reputation of being a smithing workshop, isn’t a place, in which a lady should be seen wandering alone."

Without elaborating any further, he took his leave.

He said it so fastly that I had absolutely no idea of what exactly he wanted to do. Here, was it some sort of "take it or leave it, I don’t care".

At least that's what it looked like to me.

"Wait! "

That word came out of my mouth without a single thought put into it, so when he literally stopped, and turned to clearly face me, I was completely lost as to what to say.

Shouldn’t a person be proudly walking away after doing something like he did, or at least that’s how I would do it.

Sigh.

What have I done? I should’ve kept it shut.

Rackling all the brain cells I had still available, I came up with the only thing I knew would get me out of this messy situation, I threw myself in.

"Thanks, I will check this place."

The man seemed surprised, but didn’t say anything else. Instead, he simply nodded and left.

I was once again left in a complete but very pleasant silence.

"Oh, Lord, I’m beat." I mumbled between two sighs.

Just as these words came out, I, yet once again, heard another set of footsteps approaching me. But this time I felt relief upon hearing this very familiar footfall.

Turning to face the one approaching me, I saw Mael.

Striking a courting stance, he said in a gentle, but subtly mocking tone, "My Lady."

"Ah, please spare me. I had enough of that already."

"Hahahaha, sorry for that. Good job for today, especially for this evening. "

"Why does everyone feel the need to felicitate me for that? Once it’s enjoyable, but with the second one and the third one, it feels like I was expected to make a fiasco."

"Then sorry again for that. " He simply said.

"Sigh… It’s nothing, after all. It’s not like I didn’t deserve those praises. But most importantly, what are those? "

By "those" I was referring to what he had in his hand.

"These?"

His outfit aside, he was holding in both hands something that would make him look like a waiter, on one hand was a larger platter and on the other two glasses and a bottle of what I believe was a bottle of wine.

"Those are for us to spend the rest of this... Damn party. "

"Mael, you?"

"Yes, pretty much like you, I’m done with all of this."

He disposed of what he had in his hand on the balustrade.

"So I thought that I’d rather end this party in good company. That is, if my lady allows it, of course. "

"If it is asked so nicely, then I do not see myself refusing, Milord."

We both burst into laughter at how ridiculous all these mannerisms were at being yourself, then sat on the balustrade.

Then Mael casually poured wine into glasses. It was done so casually that I almost didn’t notice him until he poured it into what I believed were my glasses.

"Hey, what do you think you’re doing with this? And where did you get this in the first place? "

"This? I was on my way here, when Uncle Matthew gave me this. Since it was done in front of my father, your father, and even grandfather, I guess it was okay."

"Besides, I’ve always been curious, what does it taste like? Younger, I always thought that since it looked like blood, it would taste salty."

"It’s made from fruits, right? So, I always thought it was somehow sweet.

He handed me my glass, then we both looked at the thing.

"I guess we’ll have to find out for ourselves."

We both simultaneously brought our glasses to our mouths and took a gulp of the strange liquid.

Immediately after that gulp, Mael and I looked at each other. His face contorted weirdly, and so must have mine.

Not being able to hold it any longer, it escaped my mouth.

"Pfffft… "

"Pffft... That bastard! "

"Ahahahaha, I should’ve seen it coming."

"This must’ve been the gift he was talking about this morning."

What we drank was not wine. At least I was sure that there was no way wine would taste this sweet. The most disturbing part of the drink was the sour aftertaste if it was left behind.

"Need me to grab something else ?" He proposed.

"No, it’s fine. This thing is undreakable, but it’s not like I’m particularly thirsty. "

"I see."

Taking a snack from the plate, in an attempt to change the subject, I ventured, "So, how does it feel to be an adult?"

"I don’t know, at least not yet. It’s not like anything has changed much. "

"Really? Hehe, You really didn’t notice, didn’t you? "

"What?"

"Oh come on, every single "Lady" from tonight's party was like ‘I will be in your care, Lord Mael," and you seemed to be having fun with your "Leave it me Miladies."

"You’re exaggerating, I just said it would be likewise. In fact, it would be mostly up to you to take care of them, boys and girls alike, once we’ll be on the ground at Aurora Academia. "

"Eh!"

"I might not look like it, but I have the full intention of focusing on the medical field once I’m there."

"Eh, you mean you won’t help me with all of this?"

"No."

"Even a little?"

"Well, it’s not like I will completely vanish from your side, so as long as it doesn’t require me to sacrifice too much of the time I should dedicate to studying, I’ll be there."

Ehe got him.

"You just thought "got him," didn’t you?"

"Did I blurt it out loud?"

"It was written all over your face."

"Oh, my face, huh? In any case, I will be in your care then, Lord Mael. "

I said, reaching out my hand to him.

At the sight of my hand held out, he sighed but shook them nonetheless.

"Why do I feel like I just dug my grave with this handshake? "

"Because you did, Vice-Leader."

"Ugh."

As we laughed, once again, a footstep approached.

With our laughter immediately cut short and our glares immediately plastered on him, the intruder instantly froze in place.

Coming from the party, Elliel revealed himself, holding in both of his hands a bottle of wine and a bottle of what I believe was juice.

"Did I interrupt something?"

"No, absolutely nothing." Mael reassured.

"Euh… Aren’t you a little bit too young for that thing, young man? "

In his usual clumsy attitude, "This… I was ordered by Uncle Mattew to deliver these to both of you. He also said…"

"What did he say?"

"He said that poison is a thing, so next time, care to verify what you drink."

He put the two bottles in front of us and said, "He told me to deliver these as an apology gift." Though with hesitation, he added, "This one is real wine, so there is nothing frail about it. He told me to say."

"Sigh."

"That bastard!"

He departed as someone who had faithfully performed his duty.

"Where do you think, you’re going, young man?" I said, grabbing him by the shoulder.

"Eh, back to the party."

"You’re having fun? Well, not that it does matter. Young man, I ought to bestow upon you a little bit of knowledge, of wisdom. "

Mael puffed a smile but said nothing.

Putting my arm around his shoulder, I said, "Listen well, young man, you are a boy, aren't you?"

"Euh, yes."

"Then, behave like one."

" …"

"You see, you should’ve been saying something like, "Yes, Mam!", instead of being so silent,"

"Ramia." Mael sighed.

"What? Don’t you think he kind of lacks some, you know... the thing,... "

"Well, I can’t deny that Elliel does lack a little bit of confidence, but besides that, I think he doesn’t lack... you know."

"Did you hear that, Lil Bro? Even Mael said so. "

Once again, he said nothing

"Tomorrow we will be gone to the Holy Capital, You will be left alone, which is why you should toughen up a little bit. You won’t spend the rest of your life holing up and being sheltered, won’t you? "

Silent, he shook his head.

"So Little Brother, you have to toughen up a little bit. Just try to reach half of my toughness and you’ll be great. "

"What your sister wants to say is that you're great and doing fine. All you have to do is to assume it. You don’t run away from lessons, you display a good talent for magic, you're a fast learner, and in short, you have no-one to envy or be jealous of.

"I will tr-"

I gave him a small punch on his side, interrupting what he was about to say

"I will not try, you will."

"Aaaah... children grow up so fast. A glass of "juice" for this newly born gentleman."

"Ayo."

Just like that, we joked and laughed, spoke of all and nothing, completely unaware of what turmoil and chaos was awaiting us in the Holy Capital.