"Yaaaah" I loudly and unethically yawned.

"Ronandt?"

Mael, who was sitting across from me, was looking at me in a way that told me I'd done something wrong. Still confused, my gaze was drawn to Grandfather Emilien, who was sitting directly next to me.

It wasn't until later that I realized what I'd done.

Mael, Grandfather, and I were in a carriage on our way to the ducal castle when I yawned like a barbarian inside the carriage's dead silence.

"I’m terribly sorry. I-"

"It’s nothing, it was normal given how silent this ride was."

"No, it’s not actually that, it’s just that I had quite a hard time sleeping last night and-"

"If it was that, you should have told me sooner." Grandfather said, before reaching out to me and pressing two of his fingers against my forehead, and immediately a light began to shine from his two fingers.

After a while, he finally removed his hand.

"So how is it?"

"I think I feel better now."

To be honest, I wasn’t certain if I did feel much different, but saying it out loud wouldn’t help either, so I kept that to myself.

"We've reached the castle domain," Mael announced.

The carriage passed through a giant gate yet still rode for a moment.

As I once said, the nobility prefers to live at a higher altitude than the commoners as a symbol of power, but this logic also applies among nobles themselves.

Higher-ranking nobility prefer to live at a higher altitude than those below them.

Beaufort is shaped like a bowl, elevated on the border but lower in the center. The four great castles were conveniently placed to give them altitude advantages, but the ducal castle, which happened to be in the middle, was still Beaufort's highest elevated structure.

The castle was built on top of a small mountain, whose presence was so out of place in comparison to the rest of the city's landscape that one could easily assume that some sort of magic must’ve been involved in its formation. Though I did mention that the castle and its setting felt unnatural, it was not in a bad way; the small mountain that represented the castle domain was beautifully adorned with its green gardens and suspended terrasses.

Even though we had passed through the castle gate and were now in its domain, we still had a long way to go before we reached the castle's true entrance.

We finally arrived at the castle courtyard after a ten-minute ride. Along the way, we encountered many knights patrolling, but none of them appeared to be slightly worried about our carriage's sight. Instead, when they saw the carriage, they immediately assumed a respectful salute.

With Syrius opening the door for us, the three of us stepped out of the carriage, and were warmly welcomed by two butlers who were standing at the base of a massive exterior stairway leading up to the castle entrance.

"Welcome back, Lord Emilien, Lord Mael …" The two men simultaneously said.

Once they were about to greet me, they realized that they didn’t know who I was, so they just bowed their heads to salute me.

They were, I assume, about to inquire about my identity when they were cut off by Grandfather Emilien, who with a wave of the hand dismissed their yet unvoiced query.

"Is Luke here?"

"Yes, Lord Emilien, If I am not mistaken, he is currently in his desk room with his Grace, the Duke, and the members of the Bartholomeo family."

"They've already arrived?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"Are there any other noteworthy guests besides them and us?"

"No one in particular, with the exception of the Faucher's youngest heir, who arrived alone. Three envoys from the Duchy of Felicitée, Timbencourt, and Florence also arrived this morning; more are expected later. "

"Was that all?"

"Yes, those were the most prominent guests the castle has received so far."

" … Thinking back, there was someone else who came back, Math-" A strike from the second butler's elbow into the butler's ribs cut the butler's statements short. "... I'm sorry, I meant we had a late-night visit from the conglomerate Douglas's first daughter yesterday."

"I see."

When Grandfather had finished asking the butler what he needed to know, I looked in the direction of the castle entrance and saw a familiar figure staring down from the top of the stairs: it was Ramia.

"Welcome to our castle." She shouted proudly, her arms generously open, as she slowly stepped down the stairs.

"My lady! Please, wait! You can’t just skip your dance classes like this.." a female voice from behind her pleaded.

Oblivious to the pleading voice shouting behind her, Ramia casually approached us.

"Still skipping dance lessons, aren’t we?"

"Humph, I came here especially to greet you guys, and this is how you treat me? It's sad how ungrateful people are these days."

"Okay okay, sorry, I admit I was wrong, but more importantly, what with this outfit?"

"Ah~ this."

The woman pleading from behind her went down the stairs at her fastest speed and finally reached us.

It was Leonore; I hadn't seen her in a long time. The last time we saw her was about a week before Maa's arrival; she has never been seen in the Edouard castle again since then; it appears that Luke has prevented her from accompanying Ramia to Edouard's castle, perhaps indirectly; as a result, it has been two months since we last saw her.

"Good day, Lord Emilien, Lord Mael, and Lord Ronandt." When she arrived, she immediately greeted us and lightly scolded Ramia, saying, "My lady, you mustn't go outside like this. What would outsiders think if they saw you like this?"

"They are free to think what they want to think!"

She was dressed in a long tan shirt with a maroon and red capelet over it, a white shirt underneath both, and a black vest. That was for the upper half of her outfit, while the lower half consisted of white and beige shorts held up by a black belt and two long, sick, brown boots on her feet.

What was the issue, one might ask?

She was wearing a short and long, almost dress-like vest.

I've known Ramia for almost three months and I've never seen her wear anything other than a pair of trousers and a vest; there was essentially no difference between what she and Mael and I usually wear.

However, today...

"My lady, please."

"No."

I'd heard from Mael that Ramia despises skirts and long dresses, so my guess is that the true purpose of her outfit, especially that long tan shirt, was to instill in her the habit of wearing a long dress while preserving her pride as a tomboy.

"Cough cough," Grandfather coughed, calling our attention, "I think it would be better for you to enter the castle before this poor Leonore has a seizure."

We all nodded.

As we approached the castle, we came to an entrance hall whose position of the doors and staircases reminded me of the entrance hall of the ducal castle of Edouard Castle, but this time it was larger and more lively.

Servants were running around preparing for the banquet; as we entered the entrance hall, we noticed a large display of the Duchy of Beaumont's banner, which was hoisted alongside the banners of the Altaira Kingdom and, of course, the church's.

"I'm really looking forward to tomorrow," Ramia cheered, then added, "Once Great-Grandfather arrives, I'm going to challenge him to a duel."

"I don’t think that’s a good idea."

"Yes, Ronandt is right; however, if you really want to do that, wait at least until all of the banquet guests have left." Mael said, already admitting that this was most likely going to happen.

Of course, I’m not that stupid. Even, I, won't dare to do that tomorrow.

Oh~If you say so.

As we walked into the innermost hall of the entrance room, we all turned our heads to look in the direction of the sound of a series of high heels clicking down the stairs from the second floor.

In no time, the person in the high heel reached our floor. She was dressed in only two shades, red and black, and was accompanied by a young boy, whom she was motherly holding the hand of while the latter was shyly hiding behind her.

"Welcome back, my Uncle," she greeted as she went down the stairs. How long has it been since our last meeting? three years or two months ago? "

With a single glance, I instantly recognized the woman and, of course, the little child she was accompanied by.

Ramia inherited some of the woman's red palette from her red hair. The child accompanying her, on the other hand, didn’t; and instead had blonde hair and red eyes, which he had clearly inherited through and throughout from Luke.

The woman was most likely Ramia's mother , and the child was obviously Ramia's younger brother.

"Thank you, Renata, and please accept my apologies for not paying you all a visit recently; I have been quite busy as of late."

"It's nothing, Uncle; it is in fact us who should be the ones to apologize. Ramia basically lives in your castle, and I can only imagine how much trouble she has caused you. "

"It's nothing. She never caused any problems at all, and our castle is more lively and animated with the presence of someone like Ramia around, and I must say that it is quite refreshing."

"I see. In any case, my Uncle, please accept my gratitude for caring for her despite your busy schedule." She insisted.

She then turned her attention to Mael.

"Good evening, my Aunt."

"Good Evening, Mael. You too, it's been a while since we've seen you. You should come to see us more often; maybe that will keep that little lady over there in place." She said, throwing Ramia a very threatening glance.

"Yes, I will try."

Leaving Mael, her eyes fell on me. "And you must be Ronandt, right?"

"Yes," I took a step forward and went on with my noble greeting, "This humble one is Ronandt. May the blessing of Djeem the accursed be upon us."

After my presentation, she remained silent, scrutinizing every movement I made.

Did she notice something?

Already?

"Oh my, sorry, I was lost in thoughts. It’s just that it’s not every day that I happen to meet someone being baptized under the authority of Djeem the accursed… Sorry, it was very rude of me. "

Well, one must admit that Djeem the Accursed's authority was not particularly popular.

In fact, it was the second least popular authority after Salomon the Loner, and those baptized under it were baptized not because their parents chose to, but because they were somewhat forced to.

So, in a way, she did admit that she was trying to figure out what kind of deformity I might have.

While she did assume I felt offended by her words, I couldn't help but exhale an internal sigh of relief.

Though that wasn’t particularly pleasant to hear, it was far preferable to her immediately noticing that I was the result of her husband's entanglement.

"This one is Renata Aubrecht. May the bountiful blessing of Sora, daughter of Mountains, be upon us." She then looked at the child timidly clinging to her dress, saying, "Come on, it’s your turn now."

"This one is Elliel ... the first son of Luke Aubrech, may the da..ling blessing of Kine the flamboyant is upon us," he timidly said, introducing himself.

"Nice to meet you, Elliel," I said.

He didn't respond to what I said and instead went to hide behind his mother's dress.

"Sorry, he is a little bit shy," she said as she head-patted him. "Uncle, Father, and Luke are currently discussing with the member of the Bartholomeo family in the desk room if you want to see him."

"No, it'll be fine; I won't be staying long; in fact, I was about to take my leave when you arrived. I was only here to escort Mael and Ronandt."

"Already?"

"Yes, I have another important guest to fetch, but I will be back tonight."

"Mael, can you lead Ronandt to our Edouard guest quartier?"

"Yes, Grandfather."

With a tilt of the head, Mael asked me to follow him, which I did; which Ramia also did.

"Ramia?"

"Yes, Mama?"

"May I know where you are going like this?"

"I am accompanying them to their quartier."

"And may I know since when did you turn into an attendant?"

"…"

"Young Lady, you still have your dance lesson to do. So you-"

"But-"

"There is no but... Leonore!" Ramia’s mother called.

"Yes, my lady."

"Don't let her leave the dancing room until she's accomplished something good enough for tomorrow. I'll get changed and join you in a moment," she announced,

To Ramia, these words came across as a death sentence.

"Mamaaaaaaaaa~."

I moved in front of her, placed one hand on her shoulder, and raised my thumb up with the other.

"Give it your best. Remember, nothing is impossible with the help of the seven. You must have faith. " I commented.

If it weren’t for her mother's being around, she would’ve punched me, I’m sure.

Too bad for you, dear sister, I finally know what your greatest weakness is.